Ciel and the others, contrary to their expectations of smooth sailing, found themselves under assault from Ming Xuan's arrows. The Aura-dense projectiles sailed across the hills ahead, descending in orbital trajectories that sundered the very ground they trekked upon.
All three spotted and scrambled to evade the opening strike; they witnessed its aftermath as a gaping crevice, disproportionate to the projectile's size, divided the grassy hill behind them into mounds of dirt.
"What is it this time?" Xia yelped, her eyes bulging at the destruction.
"It's Brother Ming," Nuan's face fell. "This is bad. I never expected him to come after us too."
"Where is he?" called out the First Bride as more arrows rained from the sky.
"Not here, that's for certain," expined the Yulong Princess. "His Aura enhancement allows him to pinpoint our location and rain down fire from at least a kilometer away!"
"What kind of hax is that?!" the Princess of White screeched.
But Ciel was already formuting a countermeasure. "Xia, can you seal the attacks with a binding spell?"
Eyes lighting up with epiphany, Xia began gathering White Force, painting the air with a pearly glow and the scent of jasmine. Meanwhile, the Lord of Union retrieved a long-range uncher from his coat.
WHITE MAGIC RANK III: BIND
Several javelins of light materialized in the air. Their caster flicked her fingers, directing the spell upward to intercept the Aura-packed arrows. Each collision produced a dimmed fsh as multiple projectiles became locked in stasis by the white impalement.
Ciel seized the opening. He shouldered the long-range uncher, fired into the distance, and vanished; transferred toward the marker he had unched.
The two women, watching their companion disappear, turned to each other.
"Where is he going?" Nuan asked.
"I don't know."
Before their confusion could linger, cracking sounds split the air. Both maidens heard the sound and leaped away as a searing fire whip cut across the grassy incline, transforming leaves into smoldering ash. The fiery red tendril struck upward, retreating to its owner with an acrid sting to the air.
Shuguang Yulong entered the battle, wasting no time to announce her presence. She caught her retracting weapon with practiced ease. Her legs strode across the gdes as she unched into a dynamic flying kick at Nuan, showing no fear. Her hand formed a gun with thumb and index finger, pointed at Xia as Red Mana concentrated at its tip.
RED MAGIC RANK II: BOLT
A spark of Red Magic, combining kinetic force and heat, fired at its target. Xia threw it aside with a hand protected by White Force. The White Mage took up the challenge, charging her body with strengthening magic and bsting forward to meet Ming Xuan's aide in a mighty exchange: the woman in white rushed forward in a tackle, her opponent evaded it, and Nuan narrowly missed her swipe of AURA BLADE. All fighting parties nded at opposite ends from where they started, three pairs of eyes observing the opposing side's every move.
Nuan was the most affected; she couldn't believe who had attacked them.
"Sister Shuguang?" she questioned the woman, whose obsidian hair flowed to her waist with both beauty and discipline. "Why are you doing this?" She begged for an answer from her closest half-sister. "This doesn't make any sense! You and Ming Xuan should know better than this."
The older sister heard her protest and couldn't meet those eyes. "I am sorry," she confessed. "Father discovered our pn to help you. We need to bring you in—"
"Why am I having a feeling Ciel would call this idiocy?" Xia cut into the conversation. "We have been attacked thrice because of Mandrake," she unburdened her frustration, "but all I can see are your personal forces. Where is the rest of your army? Where are the logistics chain, siege engines, and actual war tactics?"
The other two women stopped and stared; even the speaker herself halted, surprised by her own observation.
"That," Nuan spoke up, chewing down the bitterness of the following words, "is actually a good point."
"Oh my lord," Xia muttered, eyes widening. "I am starting to sound like Ciel."
Whereupon Shuguang responded with a refutation: "Are you telling me I am the stupid one here?" Unsatisfied with such an answer, the Dragon Scion gathered Mana of Red and White, building it into two spells to punctuate her next action. "All of you can shut up and behave, especially you, Curtis' wench."
RED MAGIC RANK I: HASTE WHITE MAGIC RANK II: STRENGTHEN
Xia bit back a curse, seeing her opponent glowing with translucent white light and coursing with red electricity. She quickly concluded who her opponent was: a dual-color Red and White Mage with Aura: likely the most combat-oriented combination in existence.
White Magic excelled in strengthening, sealing and destruction. Red was an uncrowned champion in speed-to-devastation ratio. These traits, on top of Aura, made Shuguang Yulong one of Acceltra's most promising warriors.
Xia's abdomen caved from her opponent's Aura-cdded fist, flying with magnified speed and strength. Another round-house kick dazed her more. White Force flowed inside her body, repairing the damage, giving the Celestial Bride the opportunity to catch the hybrid mage's elbow. But she wasn't fast enough to match Shuguang's speed. A punt slipped through, hammering her kneecap, forcing her to kneel into a knee-strike to the face.
Nuan, seeing her comrade receiving a beatdown, leaped in. But her sister read those moves and replied with a kick to her face.
The Massacre Princess, knowing better, countered by wrapping herself around her sister's leg. Her own foot slid in the air, aiming at her opponent's face.
Shuguang's enhanced speed then shifted into gear. She slid beneath Nuan's boot, her nose barely grazing the sole. Whip slipped into hand, coated in Aura as it shed.
The weapon struck Nuan's ankle, shackling around it. A tug ter brought the young woman falling on her face.
"I don't want to hurt you, Nuan." She begged her prone sister. "Please don't think badly of me for this."
WHITE MAGIC RANK III: BIND
Two shackles of light emerged in the caster's hands, binding her opponent's wrists and ankles with a sonorous "click."
Nuan, ft on the ground, gritted her teeth. She had been avoiding her lethal moves that would end in her opponent dying, but it had not been easy to take on her older sister while holding back.
But Shuguang never had a chance to enjoy her short-lived victory. A white light shone below; one which did not belong to her.
WHITE MAGIC RANK III: BIND
Xia repositioned herself, from the ground, to deliver the javelin of sealing light into Shuguang's face. Her aim missed due to her opponent's speed amplification spells, but it successfully forced her target to give up valuable ground. She got back to her feet with a sweep, which forced the opponent to back off even further, and delivered the next spell.
WHITE MAGIC RANK VI: SANCTION
The shining ray descended in divine grace, bathing the Dragon Scion in light of suppression. Xia, not wasting her advantage, continued her assault. She pressed forward with a low kick. More jabs rained from her, each expertly intercepted by the crimson-eyed maiden. A closing high knee flew at the Dragon Scion's face, winning the Celestial Bride more territory even when her opponent intercepted it.
Shuguang flicked her fingers, firing more rank-two Red spells at Xia who simply overpowered them through her Aura and White spells' reinforcement. The First Bride leapt into the fray with a stomp, forcing her opponent to evade.
Shuguang, losing ground, maneuvered herself to open fire with another spell.
RED MAGIC RANK III: F--
Xia interrupted the spell with a swinging backfist before it was unched. The Dragon Scion, in response, stabbed forth with her finger, but the Princess of White was ahead. She grabbed her opponent's digits, forcing them upward like bent wood, and redirecting the bolt of Red Magic out of the way. Her leg struck out, kicking the wind out of Shuguang's stomach.
Ming Xuan's closest aide flew back. She looked up to see Xia coming after her, only to be stopped by an arrow, fired from afar by her older brother. The airstrike smmed in front of the Princess of White, stopping her rampage by cutting a crevice in the ground like a parting ocean.
Shuguang gasped, heaving in and out like she had run a marathon. This fight had become ridiculous; if not for her brother's timely interference, she would either have been locked into a losing battle or outright defeated. Two red and wearied eyes turned upward as the breathing ebbed down. They reflected the image of the white-cd warrior coming right at her.
What the ignorant girl didn't know was Xia had experience dealing with multiple-color mages. The elder Princess of Curtis had a younger sister gifted with not one, but three branches of Magic: Red, Bck, and Blue. She had grown up with a girl who possessed a rarity only shared by two other women on the pnet, and regurly won their sparring sessions. She, more than anybody, knew the secret weakness of dual Mana users: multiple specialization at the expense of mastery.
A person has limited time in their lives. The result of trying to master both Red and White Magics on top of Aura transted to slow progress, which showed in how not even two of Acceltra's most prodigal Princesses couldn't match Xia in expertise and tenacity.
The Dragon Scion in red and white took out her whip and pulled her final effort to stop the White Mage.
RED MAGIC RANK III: FLARE
Red Mana coursed through her whip filled with Aura. The multi-faceted warrior shed forth with fming chained segments of her whip; each part a scorching fme. It slithered through the air as a glowing red mamba, burning with unquenchable fmes and Aura.
Undeterred, the Princess of White greeted this challenge with White Force bzing.
WHITE MAGIC RANK IV: SMITE
The pouring light muscled through fmes, sundering the attacks into broken pieces of weapon. Shuguang felt the scorching ray streak past her face with biting wind; her mind calcuted her assaint's traveling speed and concluded she wouldn't be able to react in time. She gnced to the open sky for another arrow of salvation; but none arrived.
The only thing Ming's little sister could do was let out a tear of despair as Xia ended her effort with the sealing javelin through the chest.
