What's a future?

It's a question and answer in every motion. Gears whir and grind, crystal turbines silently howl and metal strains against its constraints. The fight is everything. Long term wear to the devil. She'll trade it all for a scrap of advantage in the here and now. Every moment is fire stolen from the gods and, oh, does she buy so many steps towards victory with the coin she spends. 

The ice ray fires at shattering overcharge airbursts, flash-freezing gears and making metal brittle. She's close, close, close - and then [i]gone[/i]. You take your eyes off her for a moment and she's ducked out of the line of vision and every sense that might smell the Kathresis tastes only air. It's not just ease with which she vanishes from your life, it's with craving. There's a hunger for that silence and solitude. You can feel burning eyes from every direction. It's more than absence; it's the feeling of your reactions being digested. Of your reflexes and instincts being absorbed and uploaded. Of every flicker of motion weighed for confidence, for speed, for power.

And in that bladed absence you have never felt more vulnerable. Somehow in the course of this exchange she's peeled your shell and has left you in the spotlight alone. You can hear the inaudible drumbeat of rising violence rising around you, rising in your heart, feeling breath on your neck no matter how you turn. She has your measure and will dispatch you in moments. There is no counter, no fairness. Toy robots, toy fights? You have never been in more danger, Isabelle. You can't survive this by fighting as you want. War like this has rules, cruel and absolute. If you want to express yourself you have to earn that opening. 

Do you think you can earn it on this day, Isabelle? While others were running a megacorporation were you studying the blade? Can you force an opening from Solarel, the Hunter of Huntresses, on the first pass? Have you prepared enough? Have you trained enough? Have you studied [i]her [/i]enough, the black specter who undid the champions of Hybrasil? Are you ready? Are you [i]worthy[/i]?

If you are, so be it. Your legend will be great indeed. If not then all you need do is sigh into the embrace of swords of gold and silver. She will let you down gently. She will await your vengeance, else you must await hers. Are you the mountain or the climber?