Hikari moved around the arena patiently, dodging the flame elemental's attacks.
Frost barrier. She quickly learned that the frost barrier cancels out the elemental's searing aura better than a flame barrier.
The elemental gathers wyvern fire in one hand.
Hikari bends her knees to build up thrust.
The elemental drops the hammer, creating a blast of wyvern fire that would incinerate a church.
Hikari dodges just as the ball of wyvern flame leaves its hand, having only a split second to judge its trajectory.
Her frost barrier sizzles as the shock wave from the blast engulfs her shield.
She looks for an opening to counterattack.
The flame elemental's other fist was already halfway charged.
She has to prepare for the next wave.
The flame elemental releases the fireball.
Hikari dashed, making a quarter arc around the flame elemental within a second.
The elemental's other hand was halfway charged again.
A shard left Hikari's pouch.
She charged it and hurled it at the elemental to test its defense.
The shard exploded in midair.
Did she overcharge it?
She dodged the next attack and charged another, adjusting based on the last throw.
The shard flies. She observes.
It absorbed energy from the flame elemental's aura.
It broke again.
The fragile shards, ideal for small skirmishes, are too weak for that level of energy.
The flame elemental presses both fists together and concentrates its power.
Hikari gets ready to dodge.
The elemental releases a pulse of wyvern flame in all directions.
Hikari dashes to the edge of the arena, taking advantage of the fact that wyvern fire dissipates quickly with distance.
As the flame subsides and the flame elemental charges up for another attack, she studies it.
The grandmasters' lessons are fresh in her mind.
"Flame against flame."
The offensive option. Perhaps her only one for now.
The wyvern flame is a double-edged sword.
The caster has to be extremely proficient at controlling their flames, especially at high intensity.
Flame against flame is a battle of tolerance, with each side trying to overwhelm the other.
The side that can handle a higher temperature wins.
She had experience dueling the sword statue in its illusory space.
"Flame against frost."
The defensive option. The frost cancels the flame.
It's a battle of endurance. The side with the larger mana pool wins.
Against a flame elemental with the mana to incinerate a whole city, she could win neither in a head-on clash.
The elemental's other fist charges up.
Hikari observes it.
This time, its arm movement was different.
It slammed its burning fist down towards the ground.
A wave of flame expands outwards towards her.
Hikari jumps.
She feels the searing heat below her feet before she can redirect her frost barrier downward.
She lands. The elemental's other fist slams down towards the ground.
It was faster than she expected.
Her legs weren't ready to jump yet.
She stabs her sword into the ground.
The broad face of the wyvern sword faces the flame wave.
Hikari amps up her frost barrier and braces.
Her sword breaks the flame wave.
Fire licks the sides of her barrier.
Her barrier holds well.
The fire elemental slams the ground again and again in rapid succession.
But the lack of charging behind its attacks allows Hikari to block them easily.
It paused. Both its fists charge with wyvern fire.
Hikari picks up her sword and dashes toward the edge of the arena.
Back against a pillar.
Her sword on her back, Hikari gets ready to jump.
Her sword wouldn't block this one; only distance will.
The flame elemental smashed the ground with both fists.
Hikari feels the searing heat as soon as its fists touch the ground.
She leaped into the air.
The flame wave hits the pillar.
She feels her feet burning.
She tucks her leg in and kicks the pillar.
Propelling them high up towards the arena's ceiling.
The orchard of cannonball fruit was within reach, but now was not the time to pick them.
She felt the flame wave sizzling against her frost barrier from below.
It was only a small fraction of its power, yet it forced her to the edge of the arena to survive its full attack.
She looked down at the elemental.
It sat still, having exhausted all of its power.
Hikari feels the howling winds of the wyvern peak as the elemental retracts its aura.
It was her chance to strike.
She deactivates her frost barrier.
Her sword flares with wyvern flame as she barrels toward the resting flame elemental.
Crash! She drives the tip of her sword into the largest crystal embedded in the elemental's armor.
Woosh! An explosion of wyvern fire.
Hikari staggered backward.
A burning smell.
The blast of wyvern fire incinerated the salamander skin exposed between the loose pieces.
Hikari backed off as the elemental charged up again.
It released a short-range burst of fire just as Hikari stepped out of its range.
"No good."
Her salamander skin was not impervious to wyvern flame.
The price tag on the armor aside, if it gets burnt, she loses the physical boost it provides, limiting her mobility.
She has to readjust her armor while fighting the flame elemental.
As it restarts from its flameout, it fills the arena again with its aura.
Hikari raises her frost barrier to match.
The elemental slams the ground.
Hikari judges its power.
She jumps.
The flame elemental charges up its right fist.
Hikari has a window of respite.
She checks her armor.
A continuous block of wyvern skin down to her belly.
A skirt that covers her down to her thigh.
The strip of salamander skin covering her abdominal muscles was exposed.
She begins moving the exposed skin downwards, concentrating it at her joints where she needs them most.
Weaving runes on her wyvern skin pieces activates.
Her torso closes into the airtight suit, just as designed.
Fireball incoming.
She dashes around the flame elemental and blocks the shockwave with her frost barrier.
A break for her to adjust the exposed salamander skin on her legs as the flame elemental charges its left hand.
She could deal with burns on her arms and legs.
But the salamander skin relieving the burden on her joints was more important.
Shockwave.
Hikari jumps.
The flame elemental charges up its right hand.
Hikari watches for its next move.
As it charges up its fist, its armor plate suddenly short-circuits, staggering the elemental.
Hikari holds.
It wasn't a big enough window to attack.
The flame elemental sporadically releases the charged-up energy in its fist as it loses control.
Wyvern fire flies in random directions.
Hikari holds her frost barrier and observes.
The slot where Hikari smashed the embedded crystal sparked with wyvern fire, randomly releasing energy.
A leak. Smash the crystals to bleed the elemental dry.
The elemental's left fist charges up.
A different move, it faces Hikari and pulls its arm back.
It releases a wave of wyvern fire with a punch.
It tries to charge up its right fist, but the leakage staggers it again.
Now was her window to attack; Hikari lowered her frost barrier and charged towards the flame elemental.
She charged up her own wyvern fire; the elemental's own aura augmented her power.
She felt like she was being boiled alive in a cauldron.
The elemental raised a flame barrier as Hikari closed in.
Hikari bent both legs. Her telekinesis in her legs, her wyvern fire in her arms.
Her eyes fixed on the largest crystal on its right shoulder plate, where the elemental had trouble charging its mana.
She charged straight into the elemental's flame barrier.
Hikari felt her sword hit something hard.
A sharp shattering sound amid the whirling wyvern flame.
Hikari quickly dodged backward out of the elemental's range and switched back to her frost barrier as fast as she could.
A pulse explosion of wyvern fire.
Hikari raised her sword in a blocking stance and jumped, avoiding the heat wave scorching the arena floor below.
A flameout. Another opening to attack.
But Hikari herself needed time to recover.
Burns on her arms. The caterpillar arm guards she crafted for herself, along with the salamander skin underneath, had been incinerated by the blast.
The flame elemental resurges.
Raw mana leaks from its overloaded armor plate.
Most of the crystals had been shattered, leaving charred empty sockets behind.
A surge of power.
Hikari dashes to the side out of reflex.
The elemental squirts what looks like lava from its broken armor plate.
Small puddles of molten liquid line a section of the arena.
Hikari could sustain serious burns if she steps on them.
Random flames spurt out of the broken sockets.
Hikari blocks with her flame barrier.
The flame elemental raises its other fist into the air.
Hikari dodges back to the edge of the arena.
Pulse. A spherical wave of fire expands outwards from its fist, covering the entire arena.
Hikari blocks with her frost barrier.
Pulse. Her barrier holds. Pulse. Her barrier holds.
Sparks fly from the damaged armor plate.
Hikari holds as the elemental's mana is still too high for an attack.
Fire bolts shoot from the damaged sockets in all directions.
Blocking stance. She shuffles her position to avoid the densest parts of the volley.
The leylines on the armor plate reform.
The elemental regenerates its right fist and immediately begins charging up another attack.
There seemed to be no end to the elemental's mana.
As its armor plate gets damaged, its attack gets stronger and more chaotic.
Its aura grows stronger, and Hikari strengthens her frost barrier to match.
The elemental charges up for a massive attack.
Both fists compress mana together.
"Flame against flame."
Hikari realizes she can't keep defending forever and hope that the elemental runs out of mana.
She unbuckles her entire belt of shards and hurls them into the air.
The elemental's aura charges the shards.
She holds them in the air with her telekinesis and watches the elemental's charging reach its limits.
"Now."
All at once, her entire arsenal of charges flies toward the elemental, converging on the point where its fists meet.
The shards soaked up the elemental's aura, dragging it back towards its source.
The ball of energy suddenly began expanding.
Sparks flew from the elemental armor as it became overloaded.
Hikari stabbed her sword into the ground and pushed her frost barrier to its maximum.
A pillar to her back.
She does not want to be between two pillars where the flames would throttle through.
The elemental discharges its built-up mana.
Not in a controlled way.
Hikari felt like she was standing right at the mouth of an erupting volcano.
Splatters of fire that would incinerate a stone building spewed in all directions.
A wave of lava splashes right at her.
She pushes it away with a telekinesis blast.
Both the elemental's fists degenerate into streams of wyvern fire as it vents its excess energy.
Hikari jumps to avoid the wyvern fire.
She caught a glimpse of the pillar's surface melting into lava and was glad she didn't try to block it head-on.
She had reached the top of her ascent.
Sparks on the elemental's armor.
Several more of its crystals shattered from the overloading.
Even up in the air, she could feel the searing heat of its aura.
It was eating through her frost barrier.
"Flame on flame."
With the elemental off balance, now was the time for her to attack.
She lowered her frost barrier and channeled her wyvern flame.
The elemental's aura immediately flooded onto her body.
Her arms and legs burned. But as long as she could still move them, that's a worry for later.
She kicks the pillar behind her.
The stone cracks from her thrust.
Her sword cracks through the socket in the armor plate.
It was space underneath.
Raging wyvern fire floods through that space, and now her sword blocks it.
Her palms burn as the flame tries to escape through her sword.
She absorbs the surrounding aura and pushes it back into the elemental.
Sparks fly.
More crystals shatter.
Her own armor burns.