Okay. Just concentrate, and everything will be alright. Danny stood far apart from Jane in a different location of the park, since the last area was damaged from battle. Taylor finally woke up and healed, which was their cue to prepare for battle. Now is the time to be on top of everything.
Danny knows who he is up against. This is a woman capable of almost anything. Jane didn't use her power shield against Taylor, but that's only because Jane found it to be an effective strategy given Taylor's unexpected speed. I can't run that fast, and Jane must know that, so her attempts to use power shield this round may actually come in full play. Still, there is another problem with this... "Jane Venn? I request that we change one small rule for our battle."
"And what would that be?" I swear, what is he trying now? Danny dug his own grave with that hilarious bet he made, and he is going to follow through with it.
"I request that the both of us be allowed to switch our primary weapons during the battle without any penalties."
He wants to enable weapon switching? Jane technically didn't have a problem with that. Danny relies on two weapons, the Dynamon Hammer, and the HT-T2 Mark 55 Seeker T-sword. The sword is his more favorite weapon, but he must be feeling on edge to request the ability to swap between the two. "Sure. I don't mind."
"Really?"
"I'm going to kick your butt anyway. Switching your primary weapons isn't going to do anything against me."
As usual, your overconfidence is going to be your downfall again. Jane can switch weapons too, but she only ever relies on her Rigel Runes daggers in order to fight. Still, that Dark Strike ability she can invoke with those small blades is scary enough. There must be a counter against it. "Very well. I think I'm ready to begin the match."
Taylor kept an impressive expression of curiosity on her the entire time, focusing directly on Danny Mason. He's improved his skills over time as well, but not as much as Taylor would have believed. Still, he really doesn't want to wear woman's clothing out in public. It can be seen on his determined expression from all the way over here. Will desiring to win harder really be enough to give him an edge against Jane Venn? "If I lost to her, then he doesn't stand a chance."
Danny held his HT-T2 Mark 55, (or Seeker T-Sword for short) firmly in his grip, holding both his hands to the handle relaxed in front of him. This sword can do a massive amount of damage, provided any of his attacks land. Danny realized already how much he will have to pull out in order to land hits on this wielder. "Okay. Let the match begin."
At that, a Siriean dome formed to trap Danny and Jane inside, with the same transparency as before. Because of this, all of the previous crowded spectators rushed in to watch, with a few turning away since they have other things to get back to. Despite the growing traffic, more people were hovering around to watch, curious in their heads as to what kind of battle would do the earth so much irreversible damage. Taylor will be watching too this time, so it will be extra important not to mess this up. Just stay relaxed, and think about everything.
Chapter Theme Shift:
"I'm going to pick out some of the most gorgeous dresses! I think I might even start a website to post those pictures on."
Danny chuckled quietly to himself. Jane is seriously trying to trip him up with that strategy? It might give him butterflies in his stomach, but during a real battle, there is no time to think about such dubious details.
Danny cut the nonsense by charging energy into his blade, and unleashed it with a hard slash towards Jane's direction. "Splice!" Sending just one solid white hot line of sharp energy from the blade, Jane was left surprised and unguarded just before the Splice line zoomed through the distance of the field and drilled through her skin like butter. The instant pain from the spell haggled Jane down, causing her to come close to losing her balance while she tangled with the deep cut on her chest's left side. Danny then wasted no time in utilizing the weapon switching skill, phasing his blade away back into the supply sphere and pulling out the Dynamon Hammer. The hammer is heavy even to this day, but Danny still had enough in him to throw it with full power. "Midnight Strike!"
Jane exhaled through her teeth, doing her best to ignore that nasty gash. Danny is pulling all his best moves to start the battle. Such a relentless skill as Splice feels like a dirty first move to make. "Ah! There's more?"
Danny charged the energy into the hammer, then threw the device as far as he could, doing his best to concentrate so that the aim assisting magic could do its job. As predicted, Jane held her daggers up in a feeble attempt to block, failing to remember exactly how this spell works. Three electrical glyphrings formed quickly surrounding Jane from randomized angles, and started electrocuting her helplessly for two seconds. By the time the stunning was over, the spinning hammer finally made contact, knocking the wind out of Jane and sending her flying as predicted. By the time it was over, Danny already began switching back from his hammer to the T-sword again. He then checked the energy scope response on Jane to determine how much damage that strategy did.
Considering how much MP it took for Danny to start that, and the fact that Jane would expect the same move once more, repeating this effective strategy would not be possible. Jane is smart after all; it's the reason she's gotten this far.
"Why you?!" Jane could feel her anger building quickly. Danny wants to win this battle the other way, by putting Jane through as much pain and misery as possible until she quits. Two can play at that game. "Shadow Wave!" Jane quickly got back to her feet, launching her signature Shadow Wave in Danny's direction.
But, Shadow Wave? Danny held his sword firm. If Jane is supposed to be smart, what is this? A simple Shadow Wave on its own cannot possibly get the better of him. This isn't even worth dodging.
Perfect. Danny's eyes and focus are on a useless Shadow Wave. "Aura build," she spoke softly. "Flashpoint Strike!" Jane launched herself forward, just before teleporting right behind Danny. She then transitioned her Flashpoint energy into a single uppercut with her fist, the magic force assisting her into launching Danny forward, right into the oncoming Shadow Wave. It might be nothing but a dirty trick, but that's payback!
Danny finally felt nervous enough to respond to these situations more quickly. Jane wants to get up close and personal. In fact, it's how she fights at her absolute best. But if Jane wants to win with speed, she'll need all the help she can get. "Rush Assault!" Throwing energy into his new white aura, Danny planned to use the speed boost from Rush Assault to pound on Jane, but he soon noticed something odd. At first it sounded like an echo in his voice when he chanted the spell, but now Jane has the same white aura about her...
He used Rush Assault at the same exact time. It doesn't mean he's faster! "Give it up!" Jane shot herself forward using the aura to assist her speed, when Danny did the same towards her. What started with a new strategy quickly transformed into a clash of physical hit combos. Danny would exchange sword hits with Jane's small dagger blades during the long combination sequence. But for the long tiring minute that followed, their farce was an epic stalemate. Danny would overpower Jane's daggers with the sheer force and size of his T-Sword. Jane was also just slightly faster than Danny, enough to dodge some of his hits so that she can side-step into a new attack window.
Taylor couldn't believe her eyes even knowing how today has been going. Seeing Jane Venn fight Danny Mason is a rare sight to see, but they're both so engaged right now. That must be part of why so many people have come to watch this fight so far. The crowd is twice the size it was when she and Jane battled together.
Danny continued to press into Jane using fast sword swinging tactics that prevented Jane from making any new openings. Jane reacted quickly using an unexpected magical spell. "Earth Glave!" The uplift of earth started so closely to Jane that she tripped backwards over herself. Danny on the other hand was shot up into the air, hit by the brute blunt force of the earth spell.
With another new idea in her head, Jane held her left hand out in front of her, coaxing Danny to prepare himself despite his current struggle to get back up. Her right hand aimed at the sky, and this is where the real magic began to drain from her. "I summon you! Massife!" Her reaction already created a massively large yellow glyphring to appear in the sky, right at the edge of the Siriean dome. Now, a new ally will join her battle!
"She's summoning!" Danny knew he had to remain calm, even in a situation such as this one. Jane isn't using her left hand, but that's because she's concentrating too hard on her summon. That hand is reserved for a power shield... No, more like a Farshield spell. How to interrupt? Will intimidation tactics work? No, Jane won't be so easy to intimidate while she's calling a Flare Drake. Better prepare for this then. "Crimson Blade." Danny calmly chanted his next spell, using his free hand to manually coat his own blade with a strong fiery aura. This will add fire elemental damage for every physical strike he inflicts. On top of that, this is one of the pre-requirements needed to activate the next spell. "Summon Hell!" Danny slashed his sword forward as if to send off Splice. As with this spell, the signature three bolts of enhanced crimson fire shot off like cannon balls. They will hit Jane soon! She'll have to take her focus off summoning!
"Farshield!" Jane did as Danny expected to. She generated a solid wall of energy in front of her, which easily absorbed the three bolts of fiery energy. Jane knew she would be capable of this by now. However...
"If you keep that Farshield up, summoning Flare Drake is just going to take twice as long!" Jane couldn't deny it. It is a truth in Leray magic that when you divide your focus like that, you also divide your invocation time, which is terrible when using a summon spell. "Have a Firesurge!" Danny sent off a bright Shadow Wave like attack, Firesurge. It's basically Crush Wave and Shadow Wave combined with a lot of fire elemental energy, keen on dealing tons of HP damage if it hits.
Jane was on top of this, using her left hand to telekinetically move her Farshield downwards so that it touches the floor. It took a lot more concentration to move her own Farshield. Still, Danny must not have thought his plan through if that's the best he could do. As expected, the Firesurge wave drilled small hexagons into the wall of energy, until the wave exploded, damaging the shield wall even more.
"It didn't work!" Jane can move her Farshields with such little effort. Danny never recalled seeing Jane capable of this before. She must have kept that secret to herself.
Jane dropped her Farshield before it could fail on its own. If that did happen, her concentration aura on Massife would collapse as well, but it should be good to launch him now. Jane unleashed the final energy burst from her spell, causing the yellow glyphring in the sky to solidify. The center of the glyphring turned to a solid blinding white light, and out came the Flare Drake that Danny was afraid of seeing. The drake roared with fire coming out of its hot breath, while an artificial energy scope auto-generated for him.
The Flare Drake can't be any threat if Danny ends this right now. Jane uses her shielding ability a lot, but there is one fatal flaw in that spell. "Crimson Flare!" Danny launched another ability, creating a massive fiery sphere of magic in front of him. The sphere traveled so slowly forward, but that was the idea. Luckily, Jane would need to focus on dealing with this before giving commands to the drake. If she can't focus on giving those commands, she cannot use the drake to attack.
"Oh yeah?" Jane immediately sent both her hands outward, generating a new power shield around her body. The shield is a good idea, since Danny is crafty enough to do something with that Crimson Flare, probably change the speed of it somehow.
"Excellent!" Noticing Jane's subtle surprise from within her own energy cocoon, Danny didn't bother explaining it to her. Instead, he kept walking forward with his flaming sword in one hand, keeping very close to the Crimson Sphere. The Crimson Flare sphere itself is also made out of pure energy. If Jane were to drop her shield and try attacking Danny, the large sphere he is walking behind will simply absorb the hostile energy. If Jane keeps her shield going, by the time the slow moving sphere begins to attack her own aura, she'll already be struggling to hold on and keep the power shield going. There are two weaknesses to that power shield. The first - is that it isn't invulnerable to damage. It blocks out 100% of all damage; but at a certain power level, or if damaged successively over time, the concentration aura is harder to maintain on the same aura. There is another couple of issues. The concentration aura also gets progressively harder to maintain over durational periods of time. If Jane drops her shield now, Danny will strike. If she doesn't, he simply has to wait for that shield to fail on its own, and that's not all. If her shield fails or is dropped intentionally, there is about a four-to-five second delay before she can begin to use it again. The power drain to her energy even with that symbol on her hand is incredible coming from that one spell. It is impressive, but not when you've figured out the flaws.
Danny is walking towards Jane, hiding right behind that incoming Crimson Flare! And it's already been five long seconds. This isn't good!
"Crispy," Danny mocked. The Crimson Flare sphere was now engulfing Jane's shield at this very moment, flooding her personal aura with small hexagons everywhere. As predicted, she cannot give commands to her Flare Drake right now, not with her focus needed on that shield. Any moment now, either from the damage from Crimson Flare, or from time, the shield will fail. Danny already had his energy charged and ready for it. And speaking of Flare Drake... "Summon Hell!" Using that remaining fiery energy from his saber, Danny shot three more fire spheres towards the Flare Drake flying slowly in the air. That large animal is a huge target. Though Flare Drakes are resistant to fire damage, Summon Hell does not deal purely fire-elemental damage.
The small dragon roared in agony, proof of his pain as Danny's spell was effective in cutting down his health. And now for Jane. She's already sweating inside of there. She must realize by now that it's too late.
Jane was eyeing Danny's free hand, glowing with a small yellow aura. He planned this. Jane should have known how crafty he can be when backed into a corner. There has to be some way... "Nagh!" Jane tried her best, but the aura around her was finally collapsing. At the moment, Danny unleashed his energy before she could do anything about it. With her shield failed, Danny's magic spell turned out to be a sudden Earth Glave. As expected by that, Jane took a modest amount of damage once she was shot up into the air, and more damage from the fall.
Danny could tell how effective his strategy was. Not only did that work well, but his secondary theory was proven to be correct. Regardless of what that MP counter reports, Jane struggles to maintain a proper link with her own aura if that shield fails on her. She's tiring out without having low MP already. Still, Earth Glave was a weak move. He should have stuck with Splice again.
Jane was quick to recover this time, back on her feet and her weapons drawn. "Don't forget to watch for attacks above and below!" After the useless hint Jane handed out, she glared at her summon and gave him commands. "Use Thunder!" Another secret Danny didn't know. Abilities from summons can be moderated just like they can with humans. Now that her Flare Drake knows a more powerful spell, this should end nicely.
Danny took notice of the Flare Drake above him, now rolling around to reposition itself to use a Thunder spell. Jane might attack him with his attention diverted, but there isn't time for that now! Quick! What elemental factor cancels out electrical energy in Leray battles? Earth and wind. Earth spells cannot reach the drake. At this point, wind would only cancel out the thunder by displacing the electrons in the spell if it's strong enough. "Okay then." Danny charged more energy than the usual requirement for this spell, careful not to overcharge it to the point of failure. "Aero Blast!" Without the use of a glyphring, Danny shot forward a nearly solid mass of fast moving air, aimed right at the drake's open mouth. The results were catastrophic!
Jane was about to attack Danny, when she saw something incredible. That small Aero Blast Danny shot upwards collided with the rolling arcs of the Thunder Strike spell, which both canceled each other out before going anywhere else. Thunder, a spell with a power level of 8 was made useless by Aero Blast, a spell with a power level of at most 2, and she soon remembered why. Fast flying air attacks, or rather wind elemental attacks absorb or diffract electrical bolt attacks. The electrons in the air from the electrical energy are displaced too quickly. That usually gets overridden when one uses elemental projectiles instead of arcs, but Danny is fighting with his wits while using the basic elements of knowledge to his advantage. Still, he has no defense against what comes next. "Dark Strike!"
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"Uh oh!" Danny knew it was coming eventually. Jane's Dark Strike seems to have no way of countering. He could only brace himself like a stone while Jane unleashed her fury against him.
Predictably, Danny froze up the moment before Jane's initial launch. It won't matter though, because the deep strikes of Dark Strike cannot be blocked. Jane went into her light speed aura once again, and slashed over and over until Danny's health suffered a significant loss. Even on her last strike from above, Danny was left too open to block or dodge it. The final strike drove her blades deep into his skin, and Danny was barely holding it together through the pain.
Luckily for him, Danny thought ahead and tried using a painkiller orb on himself without Jane or Taylor knowing about it, pretending like it was an MP orb ensuring his maximum stamina. Surprisingly, this works well, at least for the first few hits. Those Dark Strike hits are still a massive sting though, even with that effect lasting. At last, Jane is at the end of her ropes if this is the best use she can make of that spell. Danny began expending energy into a new kind of aura, one as dark and translucent as an aura could go.
"What now?!" Jane never saw this before. What spell is this?
"What I saw on television today was not the only source I had for learning new spells. I knew already that camera filters don't always capture aura effects. Shadow Copy!" With his eyes changing color to bright blue and glowing for a moment given the magical build up, Danny invoked Shadow Copy for the very second time in his life. It was very hard to use the first time, and almost as difficult in this moment, but it seemed to work already, when a dozen copies of himself appeared all over the floor. On top of that, Danny made sure to relocate himself as the original during the invocation, so now Jane won't be able to tell the real one apart.
Jane found it a bit shocking that Danny was advanced enough to use the Shadow Copy technique for real. It's supposed to consume a lot of energy to make that many projections of yourself, but the copies Danny left for Jane to find in front of her were acting strangely. Danny appeared to be holding an electric sword, but he was holding onto some weird object, struggling to stay on. Beneath him elevated on the ground by two feet was... some holographic pixilation error? Something about it didn't seem right.
Jane won't be able to understand why the Shadow Copies will show strange data. It only copies himself while he moves around the field, but not other objects larger than himself. This one is hard to hold onto though!
Another whooshing sound scathed his ears roughly. Danny did his best not to make any noise before Jane realizes that he's holding onto the bottom neck of the Flare Drake. A single command from her to Massife could throw him off this wild dragon. Just have to aim properly with the right strength... Danny had to concentrate heavily on slashing a final blow to this demon. Cutting the underbelly of a Flare Drake, or that of its neck on the bottom side is said to cause critical damage since the scale armor is weak in those two zones. With an element he isn't resistant to, this blade should be more than enough.
By the time Jane realized what was going on, it was already too late. She shot her glance upward to find Danny, falling down just as his blade left the other end of the drake's neck. The cut was so deep that the creature was oozing of green blood from its wound. With that lone hit, Danny dealt with getting to the ground safely while Jane watched in horror as her summon glyphring returned to suck the drake back in for losing too much health.
The drake wasn't sucked into the glyphring though, not initially. Instead, the large creature flew off course and into the hard ground just as Danny did, both of them clashing into each other. The impact blew dirt and dust everywhere, forcing Jane to cover her eyes. Only then did the drake burst into small light particles of energy before dispersing the summoning disk. "He's crazy," Jane concluded.
After the dust cleared, though he took minor falling damage, Danny was ready to bounce back and keep fighting. Jane will not win this battle. "You cannot win Jane. I simply have too much now to consider every counter-skill for your strategy."
"Oh really?" Does he think he can just be that bold and get away with it? "Let's change that then. Zero Zone!"
By the time those two words registered into his head, it was already too late. Jane created a Zero Zone aura, which quickly expanded infinitely to affect the entire universe and not just the surrounding area. When it did, everything became so much darker, and absolutely colorless. It takes a large chunk of her MP energy to do this, but Danny can't do anything if he's frozen in time. Once the aura took effect, Jane went to work immediately on maximizing her damage window.
"Shadow Wave!" Why start with one? Jane made sure to generate three separate Shadow Waves coming from multiple directions. She then followed that up with "Laser Storm!" The spell on its own would come down on Danny with heavy piercing damage as to enforce a stronger sense of pain on top of heavy damage. "Magical Blitz!" Jane only threw two spheres at Danny for this last part. She saw three Shadow Waves explode, hundreds of lasers barrage his frozen body, and now threw two energy spheres at him on top of that. It might not be enough to wipe him out, but with her MP energy now running on fumes, there isn't much more damage she could enforce. Taylor was more threatening than this. She has a bow that costs Jane 5% HP damage for any hit without the use of MP energy.
"Energy Cycle!" Jane knew she couldn't win on dry MP energy. This will allow her to charge it all back up. And at last, the battle is now over.
At first, Danny couldn't understand why he sunk to the ground, pains growing everywhere at once. Then he recalled hearing the words Zero Zone for a short moment. If Jane can use Zero Zone, she can win easily. But... Danny glanced up at his own energy scope, sure of his suspicions. If he can have these thoughts about Zero Zone, pain, and losing, he is obviously still conscious and going. Jane must not have had enough energy to finish the job.
After another examination, Danny was perfectly correct. He's seen that faint purple glow to Jane before. That's Energy Cycle. It's good to know the secret behind that spell. If Danny attacks her in any way, her aura will convert all of that damage into a massive amount of usable MP energy. Otherwise, if left alone, she will still regenerate MP at a faster rate than average.
But now that the training gloves are off, two can play at this game. Danny stood back up, shrugging off his heavy HP damage and numerous pains. He knew he needed to concentrate. Jane won't be willing attack him with that aura running. She needs him to try something first, but trying to calm his mind and thoughts to invoke this skill was as difficult the fifth time as it was the first. Pure mental clarity is required for this one. "Mitigation Aura!"
"Another new spell? What's Mitigation Aura?" Jane was speaking softly, intending the question only to herself and not her opponent. As soon as Danny got started, Jane noticed a strange thin aura of magic coat his entire body, a color mixing between blue and green.
Mitigation Aura, Danny remembered. It's a new ability he perfected very recently. This is an aura similar to Energy Cycle, but also much better by comparison. It's an aura that requires a calm mind and pure focus to continue running all the time. It can function for up to a full minute, and if left active that long, the user would only spend about 5% MP energy to regenerate 33% lost HP and 50% lost MP energy, the design boosting the healing effects of the veil using personal MP as a catalyst. It's a slower regeneration though with a constant requirement of focus, so it must not be interrupted. Danny knew this already, both about his skill and Jane's. Jane might be able to do a little bit more while using Energy Cycle, but if she uses any particular magic spell, her Energy Cycle aura will fail. With Danny's Mitigation Aura, it's even more restricting. If he makes any sudden movements, anything as quick as a jump or a dodge, or if he uses any magic for any spell, the aura will fail. It will only last as long as he commits to no action. Walking or side stepping slowly is okay, but it isn't easy to do while running the aura.
It took Jane another longer moment to realize, but the stats on Danny's energy scope were slowly going up, both ticking upwards from the MP and HP side, faster than passive regeneration should allow, plus passive regeneration doesn't work on HP during a battle. That aura is going to completely heal him! "Fancy aura," Jane complimented. "But you're forgetting that I can run two of them at once. Armor of Darkness!" Jane coated her body in a secondary aura, a dark red shape that acted as a different kind of power shield. However, Danny for whatever reason did not seem to be impressed or distracted.
Oh, I didn't forget Jane. She must not realize that we already know what happens to any and all of her auras if she tries to power shield for real. Jane cannot run two auras at once if even one of them takes the amount of concentration it takes to run that real shield, and she knows she's bluffing with that Armor of Darkness spell. It's no match for a full powered power shield. Time to make a show. "Charge - Attack." Danny kept his mind still, using the smallest amount of magic possible. His saber in hand grew an extra inch of light, while a new coat of magical light covered the entire blade.
Jane feared the worst, that Danny had a new trick up his sleeve that was going to destroy her if she doesn't change tactics in her favor. She released hold of her Energy Cycle, giving her just enough of a boost to keep going. "Moonglow!" She released the small amount of energy into the sky, set with a delayed weather changing effect. Used during the day, it will take longer than normal to work. This Armor of Darkness should protect her until then...
Why is Danny walking so slowly? Normally during a Charge Attack, he's chaining abilities like he would with Blitz, and rushing in on foot with speed. Danny is being extra careful for some reason, and that glowing blade looks like it could hurt anyone. Not only that, but his stats are still rising!
It's working. She's being too cautious of the unknown. "Your shields are useless!" Danny cried. He then prepared his saber cutting off the link to his aura and tossing the blade with all his might. His aura will fail, but his plan will work!
If that saber is as cocky as he is right now, there must be a lot of magic built up in that blade. "Power Shield!" Jane had no choice but to cut the power to her Armor of Darkness aura. It has a strong defensive effect, but Danny is convinced he can break that and her power shield. Hopefully he's mistaken.
"Heh!" As expected, Jane dropped her perfectly fine aura and replaced it with a worse one. Under Armor of Darkness, you can move around as you please. It's still weaker than an ordinary power shield from Jane, but Danny's glowing saber of light is only charged with luminescent energy, and nothing more. The sword bounced off the shield, leaving behind a very large hexagon for Jane to study while Danny picked up his blade again with matter transference. "Simple, aren't you? I knew you would try that again."
"You idiot! You used a fancy light show to trick me? What kind of special attack is that?!"
Danny nearly laughed at how funny this was. It was easy to tell Jane was upset, though her voice is too muffled for him to hear anything. That power shield is a little more than 70% sound proof. Now she'll have to hold that shield until it fails, or drop it on her own accord. MP energy is already charged for the next spell. "Get ready."
Jane growled under her teeth, making another tough decision by dropping her own energy shield. "Better to learn from my last mistake and accept my mistake!"
Danny made sure to give Jane no room to dodge, react, or brace herself for the gigantic sword crashing down from above. Ozcom's Razor is the spell he used just as Jane's shield failed, but this time, she dropped it on purpose. It wouldn't make all that much a difference in the end. It only means she can now react faster once she gets over that next painful spell.
The crushing pressure of that large blunt blade gave Jane more aches and pains, but this time, she was ready to invoke a counterattack, thanks to her decision to drop the shield early. "Flaming Volley!" Two can play at the pain game Danny! Here it goes!
Danny held his ground while noticing the Flaming Volley come his way. Those arrows might make it through, but it's worth another shot. Using projectiles to attack from any angle always has at least one weakness! "Whirlwind!" Aiming upward, Danny generated a powerful Whirlwind gust around himself with an expanded range, catching all of the flaming arrows, putting out their fires, and disrupting their flight paths, all with minimal MP energy. Jane was soon to notice, but now it would be too late. Danny already charged additional MP energy into the other hand with immense concentration. "Photon Burst!" The next spell he launched shot down from the sky, his voice absorbed by the whirlwind now calming down. As soon as Danny got visual sight of Jane again, she was being bombarded by the payload of Photon Burst. It was hard to learn how to pick that skill up from Jane either. She always thinks she is so tough and above everyone else. How does it taste Jane?
Jane struggled to get back up, and ignored the building pain. Her stats were getting lower and lower. Somehow, Danny was quickly coming up with ways to counter every little thing she does. Either that, or he really doesn't want to lose this bet! But at last, a saving moment entered her field of view. The skies above both of them darkened for miles with the blackest of clouds. From these clouds, an opening in the sky revealed absolute darkness, riddled with bright twinkling stars, and a nearly full moon. Moonglow has finally kicked in. It can work during the day time, just not for as long. Any amount of assistance is good enough for this fight.
Jane pushed herself back up, while Danny took notice of her sudden motivation to move at all, and the weather from above. I've seen Jane use a spell like this before. She uses this to go totally invisible for a few moments. Danny began charging MP energy without knowing what to do with it.
"Moonshadow!" Just like that, Jane entered a new invisible aura, which in turn made her entire body completely invisible. Danny won't be able to hit what he can't see.
"Spark Storm!" Danny held a small electrical bolt in his right hand after releasing the charged spell. This is one he learned a long time ago, though it never had any real application until now. This will be too close for comfort, but here goes something. Danny threw the electrical bolt towards the ground, close to where Jane was last seen. Once the bolt impacted the ground, electrical arcs suddenly shot out everywhere. It's an omnidirectional electric attack designed mostly to deal damage to a higher number of targets. Used this way, Jane can be anywhere nearby and still be affected.
As soon as the Spark Storm happened, Jane was electrocuted in place, revealing her position to Danny just from the way the electrical displacement happened, but the shock to her system also shut down her invisibility aura completely, making her entire Moonglow spell useless. However, Danny also played with fire this time, because the electrical arcs were also zapping him at the same time Jane was hit. The spell has a high radius of effect, which means you can't use it at close range without also being hit by your own spell. Every nerve in their bodies burned and tingled painfully at the same time, the ending draining both of their health and stamina.
Danny shook it off faster. Jane was obviously stunned a bit longer since her stats were a little lower than his own. Now it's time to end this in one go. "Firesurge!" Danny shoved his blade into the ground, creating a strong Firesurge wave to advance on Jane. He then used his weapon swap skill, switching from the Seeker T-sword currently stuck in the ground to his Dynamon Hammer. As soon as he held onto the hammer, the T-sword faded from view, going into phase since one cannot use both weapons at once even with weapon swapping enabled. This hammer is all he will need to finish Jane off. After infusing the metal material with non-elemental magic, he tossed the hammer with all his might, calculating as Jane already took a hard hit from Firesurge weather this extra hit will do it.
Jane was sent back some more by the sudden blunt force of a flying battle hammer, struggling to keep herself conscious as the room felt like it was spinning everywhere. Her heart rate was faster than it was at the beginning of this battle. Is Danny going to win?
"Hm... Wasn't enough, and that was most of my MP. I'll just stick to Blast Shot."
Jane turned around stiffly with an evil glare in her expression. "You think it would be that easy?!" Jane knew she surprised Danny, but she has to win this, to prove she isn't the weaker one here! "Telepower!" Jane began kicking, punching, and fighting Danny's unguarded figure from a distance, transferring her hits telekinetically into his body. She used this moment to close enough distance to Danny's position to slide into another combination sequence. "Median-Flare!" Jane launched her directional light screen spell, dealing a great amount of HP damage to Danny. But even while reading the scope readout, she wasn't stopping there. "Kill Wave!"
Kill Wave is a deathblow no matter what. Danny knew he needed to get away from here and fast, but Jane will also be defeated soon too. Only one thing to do. Danny aimed himself and his free hand carefully at the ground with an angle while his back was turned to Jane. "Power Blast!" Danny's idea was interesting, as it launched himself at a high rate of speed into the air, out of the kill zone of Kill Wave, and straight towards Jane.
Danny could hear the minor explosions happening where he just left, but now he was about to head-butt straight into Jane, who had no defense against this. Although, a simple body collision won't do any HP damage either, and Danny has no MP left to fight with after Power Blast. On top of this, his sword is facing the wrong way to slash at Jane at the right moment.
Jane was suddenly soaring through the air after a blunt hit from Danny's torpedo head. The sudden closure coaxed Jane into yelling out, all while forming an SMG in each hand, holding the trigger and shouting out to end Danny's physical tirade. Jane felt strange firing bullets like this in the air while flying back. Her health is so low, but she's still okay so far. The bullets that hit Danny didn't knock him out, but with his health already so low, the impacts dealt a lot more pain than they normally would. Now she had the upper hand again, and plenty of MP energy to finish this off.
"For someone with such a tactical mind, you let your MP run completely dry. Quantum Beam!" Jane quickly charged all of her remaining energy into her aura, and launched her wide-area beam straight into Danny while he was down. The impact was almost explosive given the force behind it. The loudness of all that fighting made Jane's ears ring during the ensuing silence that followed...
At last! Jane finally won against this psycho! At last! "Yeeees! I am the stronger one!"
Chapter Theme Shift:
Taylor got to witness the whole thing. She could tell already that Jane wasn't entirely herself at the moment. Her health stats are nearly drained as well. She might even faint or fall out if she continues like this. But now, the fight was finally over. That idiot almost had her too, using his own style.
The Siriean dome collapsed around everyone. The crowd spectating were cheering, really for either winner as all they enjoyed was the action, but it was difficult for Taylor to feel any kind of success. After she got to go first battling Jane, she learned firsthand what kind of opponent Jane is like. If Danny can get as close to defeating Jane as she did, that right there deserves some praise. How can a person fighting like that still be stronger than everyone, without ever invoking her own symbol?
Jane wasted no time in using her healing orb, but she felt a little hazy in the head even after its effects began to take hold. Jane soon sat herself down in the soft grass, taking a full body rest from the amount of stamina that took out of her. She noticed Taylor slowly approaching Danny to check on him. She looks so defeated. After all, Danny losing that bet is so worth it.
Still... That pipsqueak actually came closer than Jane initially realized. No, it's more than that. Danny learned so much during this fight alone. Jane also learned something. She has a few more weaknesses left open to work on than what she previously believed she had, and that's a real shame.
By the time Danny finally woke up, their moods were beginning to change, but for Jane, one thing was always going to be a constant. The amount of fun and action in both of those battles was the most fun she has ever had in her entire life! Even against fighting Danton, Jane had to worry in the background about her symbol activation. But out here, it doesn't matter. Both of them know her secret. Half the people in Sprawn Valley, especially here in Gross City also know that she is marked, if only they'd recognize her. There isn't anything to worry about with these two. Even so... "You know, I don't think I've had enough fun today."
Danny sat up quickly upon hearing more of Jane's insanity. "Really? You haven't had enough fun kicking my butt and rubbing it in?"
Jane refused the subtle giggle. Her mind was weighing on something more intriguing. "The both of you have grown a lot stronger than I made myself aware of. In both of those battles, we had close calls. I've seen you both fight at your hardest today. However..."
Jane let the "however" clause sink in a little further, but her dramatic affect wasn't all too welcome. "I've only seen you two at your absolute best when you're fighting together as a team."
"Huh." Danny heard Taylor utter the same response. Couldn't really argue with that. After all, Danny would never allow Taylor to fall behind. If she did, protecting her would be even more difficult.
"That said, I think we can have one more battle. Let's settle something Danny. I can give you one more chance to redeem yourself from your mistaken bet."
"You can?!" Danny didn't care about the honor of winning. Dreading this lost bet he made was already more than enough to restore his will to fight Jane again. "How so?"
Jane replied, "It's simple. What I crave now, is a taste of your powerful teamwork. I want to battle against the both of you this time, in a team-battle."
"A team battle?" Taylor questioned. It's still there. That look in Jane's eyes, that excitement from before, it's the same way she gets when she's about to battle, but Taylor has never remembered seeing Jane this fired up since back before she was marked.
"Yes. You two, only against myself. And before you refuse, Danny, if you actually are able to team up with Taylor and defeat me with everything you've got, I will reverse your bet, meaning you would win and I will still loose."
"A second chance," he clarified.
"But," Jane added, "to make things more interesting, I know already that Taylor might not want to win. Can't be sure if that is true, so I'll add this. Taylor, if you can team up with Danny and defeat me, I will bestow upon you, twenty thousand credits from my arsenal. You would then be able to buy all of the favorite clothes you like. Or, you could use them to go on a nice romantic retreat with Danny. Either way, I don't care what you do with the winnings."
Taylor felt a little embarrassed still to have Jane talk about them both like that, but she was calmer about it today than before. "I guess if it's okay with Danny?"
Danny didn't bother giving Taylor a look of confirmation. There is already a small issue Jane is forgetting about. "Jane? If we both went all out against you, really gave it all we've got, then there isn't a doubt in my mind that your symbol will activate on its own, against your control."
"I've got the hang of it now. You didn't see it show up when we battled separately."
"Exactly," Danny agreed. "Me and Taylor against yourself? What are you trying to prove here? I know that once you're already to a certain point of exhaustion, that symbol will kick on whether you want it to or not. It's a protection mechanism, not a toy."
It's hard to argue with that fact. Jane didn't realize that Danny pays this much attention to those details. "In either case," Jane defended, "even if it were to activate, I would never do anything to harm either of you. You know that I get to control how I use that power."
That's not how it turned out in New York. Danny didn't say that aloud. Jane might already be depressed for having that mark as it is. It seems to only get worse the more she learns about it... What did Mainne call it again? Lunastasis? "If you're sure..." Danny exhaled with a long breath, preparing his nerves for this. "We've still got time. Let's have the battle of a life time!"
Jane almost jumped for joy literally. "Yes! I knew you couldn't refuse another opportunity to prove me wrong!"
How childish do you have to be? Danny felt this way not too long ago, but right now, the reason is different. He glanced back behind him with a different expression, out towards the far stretch of the city limits. There is something about the outside world that doesn't feel right. Yes, it might be paranoia again, but Brash Danton just publicly declared war on the Scarlet Syndicate for their attack on Gross City, yesterday morning. It doesn't take a genius to know that this isn't going to end well. The days of fun battles and relaxing hangouts, they might very well be numbered.