[h1][center][b]Tayla[/b] & [color=6ecff6]Karina Frost[/color][/center][/h1] [hr] Coward?! Tayla felt her face flush red with anger. How dare she! That bitch knew nothing about Tayla! Nothing at all! She could tell that this woman had been raised by parents with money and influence, pampered by her lowly servants. Living a life of blissful elitism, her power inherited, never earned. Tayla could tell by the way the slut held her sword. The way she spoke. They was she looked down upon those she deemed beneath her. Unfamiliar to terror of an angry father coming home in the dark of night. Breath reeking of alcohol. The pain, humiliation and eventual shame which awaited. NO! This woman knew nothing! Tayla would use every trick available to her in order to beat this woman down to a pulp. Fighting fair is a weakness. To win, a girl one must get her hands dirty. The white haired woman dashed towards Tayla, launching two icy blades in the process. Smit made to dodge to the left of the blade heading towards him. When the blade shattered, Smit was already in the process of dodging. He yelped and awkwardly dove to the ground instead, covering the back of his head protectively. Unfortunately for him, it shattered far too close for him to reach the ground in time. The move was still decently effective. None of his vital organs were hit. However, he did receive several cuts along his back. The second blade was sent straight towards Tayla but was speeding towards her feet. Tayla jumped back, widening the space between her legs. The blade hit the ground shattering. That bitch. What was she planning. Tayla didn't have time to figure it out as the woman was dashing right towards her at a lunge. The fool... Tayla threw the coins at the woman, increasing their momentum as she did for the last batch she threw. The coins hit her square in the chest, yet she didn't falter. Tayla cursed grabbing her sheathed blade with her left hand and shifting her feet in preparing to deal with the lunge. That was when Tayla felt her feet slip out from underneath her. That damn bitch! Tayla screamed the words in her head. Frantically, Tayla applied her magic to her blades, using the cotton tuft emitting the savory taste as the magic's conduit. Tayla's blades were specially made. The grip of her blade had tiny holes in it giving the user's had contact with the embedded blade underneath. This allowed Tayla to manipulate the blade, the hilt, or the entire sword should the occasion arise for such a maneuver. To add to this she had also had the tips for the blades sheaths removed should she ever need to manipulate the shape of a sheathed blade. As Tayla began to slip and fall to her left, she used her magic to warp the shape of her blades. Her right blade, the non-sheathed blade, stretched lengthwise. It shoot below the grip of the bitch's rapier, missing the blade entirely. That was alright though, as Tayla didn't expect that wild shot to make contact with the blade or the bitch. Rather the importance of this maneuver was to simply give Tayla the chance to knock the bitch's weapon aside and away from her vitals. The new length of the blade gave Tayla ample reach to do this even as she fell. As her body specifically began fall wayside, she raised her right blade rapidly in wildly in an attempt to parry the rapier aside. Meanwhile, Tayla was also working her magic on her left blade which was stilled sheathed. The blade's tip shot out through the hole in her sheath, curving around backwards and shooting towards the bitch's gut. Tayla hit the ground hard. [hr] The second Karina heard the voice of the magic deterrent used groaning in pain after being hit, she knew she had bought a few precious seconds without his interference. It was all she needed in order to finish that duel with the woman, she could fully concentrate herself on the cultist woman for a bit. Continuing her lunge, Karina saw the cultist woman throwing the coins, just as she had planned. Thanks to the ice layer on her chest, it shouldn't harm her that much. Luckily for her, her calculations were correct, albeit by a low margin. The second the coins hit Karina's chest, she felt the air getting out of her lungs. Even with the ice layer, the impact was really strong. It took a great deal of concentration to Karina to not stop her lunge and continue her attack. The cultist woman on the other hand, wasn't as lucky as Karina and fell right for Karina's trap. The second she changed her stance to deal with the lunge, she finally realized why Karina threw that ice blade to the ground before. As her body started falling, Karina's rapier was getting closer to her. The woman's destiny seemed to be sealed, that was until she used her magic to warp her blades, extending her left one in an attempt to strike Karina. Unfortunately though, she missed, as it had passed just underneath her rapier's grip. But that was when the woman used the elongated blade as a lever to try and get Karina's rapier out of the way. Karina herself wasn't expecting that movement and was caught by surprise. Even though she was her enemy, Karina couldn't help but to let out a smirk. Even though that woman lacked in formal training and technique, she had something many trained soldiers failed to grasp. An accute sense of combat and the capability to improvise and adapt to the situation in seconds. Her maneuver, even though a desperate one, was effective in deflecting Karina's rapier, saving the woman from a lethal blow as the rapier's blade pierced her left shoulder near the joint. Although that would make it moving her left arm really painful, it wasn't lethal. But the cultist woman's surprised didn't end there. By warping her right, sheathed blade's tip, she made it bend upwards, shooting straight towards Karina's stomach. Although that move also caught Karina by surprise, this time she was expecting something more. The same trick wouldn't work with her twice in a row. Quickly holding the last remaining ice blade, which she was using as a mirror to keep an eye on the magic deterrent user, she deflected the warped sword, to the opposite side, making it so it only grazed her ribs, causing a superficial cut. [color=6ecff6]"It's over. You fought well, you have something that trained soldiers took a lot to learn. Adaptability, improvisation and an exceptional combat sense. If you weren't a cultist, i wouldn't think twice in recruiting you."[/color] Karina said, with her rapier still piercing the cultist woman's shoulder, pinning her to the ground as her ice blade was in her remaining hand, deflecting the warped tip and only centimeters away from the woman's chest. Just as Karina was about to pierce the woman's heart though, she heard something whistling through the air. Turning her head as fast as she could, she finally realized what it was. It was a stone, thrown by the magic deterrent user. He had recovered himself earlier than what Karina thought he would have. With a gasp, Karina immediately jumped backwards trying to avoid the stone, but unfortunately, she couldn't completely avoid it. Although it didn't hit her straight in the head, where it was obviously being aimed, it grazed her forehead, cutting her eyebrow. Although she wasn't instantly knocked out cold by the stone, the blood coming out of her eyebrow was getting in her right eye, making it difficult to see. If that wasn't enough, the impact on her forehead made her vision blurred. Kneeling down she immediately put her free hand on her above the cut, wiping out the blood and trying to recover herself from the impact as soon as possible. Unfortunately though, deep down inside she knew that was more than enough time for the cultist woman to flee...