Of course Solarel knows what Final Destination No Items means. The ultimate challenge, a true test of skill astride the stormplains. No interference, a contest of pure skill. She has studied martial languages in all their forms.

This? This is not Final Destination No Items. Not even close.

Maglocks detach and the Kathresis floats a centimeter above the station. She draws her legs up into a meditative fold, hands folded in her lap. The Kathresis dreams. Even this place is not clean. It seethes with motion, with energy, with potential. So does the Makhaira, even in its stillness music bounds at its core. Want. Want, want for things that aren't her. How did this happen? When did Akaithon develop dreams grander than beating her? What... what would she even [i]do [/i]with the Ateline if not use it to defeat her? She feels cold irritation prickle the edges of her neck scales. Jealousy. How... how did all these people keep coming up with bigger dreams than [i]this[/i]? With things they wanted other than to be [i]here[/i], now, in this moment? 

Even Akaithon. She thought you, at least -!? What would you even [i]use [/i]the Ateline for if not fighting [i]her[/i]? 

[i]And I shall call you Tactics[/i], she thought in crystal ice, [i]because that is all you are good for.[/i]

"Typical high rider," said Solarel with calculated warmth. "You ask how to use the God. You don't ask what you can [i]offer [/i]the God."

The Zero-Entropy Weapon snapped out in a heartbeat, aimed at the perfect nexus of energy. It fires - but not at the Makhaira. It fires down at the station.

Even here. Even in space, in the void, life seethed. Energy seethed. Just below the surface. Nothing was clean, nothing was organized - not even this. Not until she made it so.

She hefted the lance - that precision weapon, the delicate microcircuitry gleaming in the sunlight. She paused - not tactically, but because this was too good a moment to not allow the inefficiency of a playful smirk. And then she slammed it sideways into the impact point of the Zero-Entropy Weapon.

And the space station shattered like a sheet of ice.

Metal fragments crashed out in all directions. An instant debris cloud. It wasn't chaotic - it was the only thing here that [i]wasn't[/i] chaotic. The spellbinding arcs and trajectories of the crumbling station are known and knowable more than those of living metal. It was a shield; charge at her too fast and the jagged metal fragments would crack the cockpit or lodge in joints. It was a cloak; take your eyes off her in the debris cloud and the Kathresis' radar signature would be impossible to re-acquire. It was a challenge; could your scholar's brain keep up with the consequences of her barbarian strength?

A solvable problem. A riddle in a million jagged shards. How dare you think that this was anything other than the end of your road, Akai? There is no space in Solarel's brain for tomorrow. How complex does she have to make this before she has your attention? 

"What do you bring to the table, high rider?" said Solarel. "Why should the Ateline even [i]notice [/i]you?"