Alice flinched as the rocks shot from the ground- though they were clearly illusory, they’d caused her to hesitate for that crucial second, more than enough to destabilize her. She flailed, managing to catch herself before smearing herself all over the ground. 

“Fucking illusions…” she grumbled to herself, eyeing Lily venomously. As the pent up magical energy coursing through her system once more made its presence known, a grin came to her face.

Folding her wings and dropping to the ground she lunged into a slash with her sword while in the air, funneling raw power down the sword as an arc of flame shot out from the end towards Lily. She flared her wings out just before impact, catching her fall. She charged up another shot of the same flame as she did so, putting less raw power into it this time, it wouldn’t do for her to lose control.

The illusory spikes had the intended effect of stopping Alice in her tracks, and keep her from dive bombing Lily once again. But it didn’t stop her entirely, as evident by the fact that Lily found herself enveloped in her own tails, a barrier of fur between her and the blast sent her way. 

It had come too fast to dodge entirely, so better to try to block it. She was blown back, landing on her back with a grunt of pain, a dismayed look in her eyes as she looked at the damage wrought to her tails; charred and blackened fur on some of them, but most whole. 

“That’s it,” she snarled, standing up. Her slitted pupils staring death and destruction at the Valkyrie. “Gloves off.” Like a wolf or a lion would, a growl emanated from her throat even as the air started to hum with energy. Raw, destructive power might be something she lacked, but she was by no means weak. “One on one seems a little too balanced, don’t you think?” She asked, a venomous smile on her lips. “Let’s… make the odds a little uneven.” Each of her tails made a whipping motion behind her, and from each whip came an identical copy of herself, even with the blackened fur. 

“Good luck,” she mouthed, the real one retreating into the group of her clones. Then, as one, they ran towards Alice, splitting up once they were halfway, and started circling her, each running almost as fast as they could. 

Alice regarded the clones with a raised eyebrow, sword erupting in flames once more as she built up power for another arc of fire. She bunched her wings together, giving a strong flap as she expelled herself from the circle, traveling close to the ground. 

Before she had gone far -maybe three meters- she whipped around, sword whirling with the centrifugal force as the blade unleashed a tongue of flame in the direction of Lily and her clones, before Alice lept into the sky once more.

Lily—the real one— grinned, watching Alice spew fire at a couple of random clones. She let the fire pass through two of them, but had a third one appear to have been struck, adding a few burn marks and sending it tumbling backwards, groaning. It stood up somewhat shakily, teeth bared in an angry snarl. The rest of the clones had stopped, just watching Alice. 

An orb of blue energy materialized in each of the clone’s hands, both of which which she subsequently threw up at Alice, one after the other. But instead of just hitting her, the orbs flew up and above her before splitting into several smaller ones, all of them raining down like a carpet of death. 

Hoping, or rather assuming, that a carpet of death would distract her, the real Lily started gathering energy, taking only a little from the grass and other greenery surrounding them, making sure that none were outright killed but only lost a bit of its colour to further lower the chances of being discovered. A smile that was mirrored by every other clone spread across Lily’s lips. [i]Good luck, little bird.[/i]

“Fuck.” Alice swore in an even tone as the balls of blue light sailed into the sky and detonated, raining down smaller balls like a magical cluster bomb. Poised to either make a break for it, or trying and blast her way through, she caught sight of the grass, and the rather prominent lack of dead grass. 

Thoughts raced through her mind, primarily that the imminent danger above was an illusion. Which meant… which meant a real attack was coming.

She swore again, pumping her wings as hard as she could, oblivious to the small blue spheres as she sailed through them, nonetheless subconsciously trying to avoid them.

She conjured a small ball of fire, lobbing it halfheartedly in the general direction of the Lilies as she began to twist, turn, corkscrew, make sudden drops and do anything possible to make herself hard to hit.

Lily couldn’t help but grimace a little as Alice flew through the illusory orbs, getting hit by at least five of them but with no effect, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise since they weren’t real, after all. She sighed, not even bothering to move as the fire blast from Alice hit some of the clones a little way away from her. [i]Can’t she just be a good little Tank Buster and fall into my trap?[/i] 

She glanced around her. The grass was still slightly darkening, but it was starting to become noticeable. Reaching beyond what she currently was, she extended her reach and drew from vegetation farther away to avoid suspicion. [i]This is about all I can do,[/i] she used and used a little of the power she had gathered, cloaking herself in a field of invisibility, and erased the other clones from existence, except the one which had previously thrown the illusory orbs. With that, she stepped back, away from her precious location. She didn’t want to risk being blasted by sheer luck born of suspicion. 

[i]It’s a trap. How stupid does she think I am?[/i] Glaring at the surrounding terrain, Alice pursed her lips, pausing for a moment in her erratic movements. 

“So, guess there must have been some scary monsters when you were a little girl, what, did mommy and daddy starve you?!” she bellowed across the ground, “Or did you have to hide from the monsters because mommy didn’t tuck you into bed enough?” she hovered in the air, varying her location enough to make her a harder target but not as extreme as the aerial acrobatics just prior.

Lily grit her teeth, knowing it was a barb the second it was said. Still, it didn’t keep her from reacting. She dispelled the last clone but remained out of sight, standing still. When she spoke, there was a definitive edge to her voice, even as she cast it out to make its source be from all over the place. 

“Monsters? Starving? What do you know of any of that. Are your monsters perhaps a beating? Going to bed without dinner?” She was silent for a moment, then threw away the invisibility, coming into full view. She was standing on the ground, tails swishing behind her lazily. As she looked up at alice, she didn’t seem angry nor sad. There wasn’t a shred of malice. 

No. She was smiling. A Trickster’s smile. “So what’re you waiting for?” She asked, almost excitedly. 

Alice shrugged, “I don’t know. I suppose I’m waiting for you to get over your childhood trauma. I guess mommy didn’t tuck you into bed enough.” she smirked, “Or did you sleep on the ground too?”

[i]Ah, shit.[/i] She swore in her thoughts, [i]Of course I fucking give away information. Damn it.[/i] She bluffed it off, unsheathing her sword and setting it ablaze once more, “Here! I help compensate for those cold nights!”

“Seems like I hit the mark, then?” Lily shouted, grinning. “So which is it? Sent to bed without dinner? Daddy bringing out to belt to punish your naughty butt? Perhaps he went farther than that? ...Who knows. I bet you do.”

She was silent for a time, gauging Alice’s reaction. She’d seen a reaction before, a small one but noticeable. She just hoped that the barbs worked and she took the bait. Had her father beaten her? Hell if she knew, but it was either that or petty starvation which didn’t seem like something Alice had suffered from. Still, she wasn’t done yet. 

Her smile turned from mischievous to downright malicious. “Do you perhaps want to see all those things again? I can make it happen, you know. Just a,” she raised one hand and snapped her fingers, “snap, and you could experience it all again.” 

“While that sounds like a delightful offer, I think I’ll have to pass. If you can’t even hit the mark, I doubt you’d even be able quirk an eyebrow.” She called back at Lily, “Though it sounds to me like you’re haunted by your past, maybe you should take a break, see a therapist. I guess you must’ve been hungry, hmm? Stealing from dumpsters and pickpocketing people’s spare change?” She folded her arms, “Maybe you should give yourself an illusion, eh? Pretend you’d tasted a hot meal before you came here? Imagine the possibilities for yourself!”

[i]Keep. Calm.[/i] Lily breathed deeply, the same smirk staying plastered on her face. It wasn’t strained, not yet, Ikari had taught her that much, but any more bulls eyes and she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to keep her cool. [i]Anything? Anything I can use? What has she said so far, she… Rusted door. No reaction, no admission of the accusation either… possibly?[/i]

“Say…” Lily started, looking at Alice with an inquisitive eyebrow. “Remember when we started? You never did answer my question. You made it pretty clear that you weren’t gay, but you avoided the question when I asked if you were straight. Why’s that?” From an outsiders perspective it would look quite ridiculous; two enemies locked in battle, and suddenly one of them asks about the others sexuality as if asking how the weather was. [i]Scratch that. Wouldn’t just look ridiculous, it sounds ridiculous to even say it.[/i]

Alice’s eye twitched. That one had hit home, and painfully so. She scoffed, shouting back, “You seem rather focused on sex, don’t you?” she unfolded her arms, placing her hands where her hips would be if they weren’t covered in armor, cocking her waist to the side slightly, “What, your mom never give you a hug, so you went looking for other sources of warmth? Surely you must have, it gets cold in the winter just about anywhere!” she paused for a moment, “Hell, did you even have a mother? What with how you act I wouldn’t be surprised if she dropped you on a street corner the moment she could!” she pulled her hands off her hips, “Can’t say I blame her!”

It was only through a mountainous effort that she did not fly off that handle at that comment. You could say many things to Lily without her reacting at all, a grin being the most you got in return. Perhaps an insult thrown back. But this… 

The glare she shot Alice was one akin to a dragon’s baleful glare, the one only those who dared challenge it received. She bared her teeth, canines glimmering in the sun. “You know nothing,” she said, almost at a whisper, and yet it still carried to Alice.

And then she let loose.

Everywhere around them the grass blackened; a circle that continued to spread around them until the edges of it was out of sight. The energy gathered in Lily’s body was enough that it arced off of her, small blue sparks dancing between her fingers, tails, individual strands of hair. The air itself seemed to hum with the energy of a million dead flowers. 

“Fuck your rules.”