A Strike at Lightning

  ?When Blade and Raiden first met in their clash, it had been an utter defeat for Blade. Even if you factored in the intensive training Blade went through in the time between their two fights, it still wouldn’t make up the difference. An Authority holder's strength increases passively, as there will always be someone honing their skills within that concept. For Raiden, that would entail that as long as lightning grew stronger, or someone became better at their lightning magic, she would get stronger from it. A branch can never be stronger than its roots. Yet, this would be under normal circumstances.

  ?Blade had noted it before, but had it confirmed in this clash. She seemed partially dead. As if a part of her had died to take in the two other Authorities. It was the opposite for him, where he felt more alive when he took in his Authorities. Blade had no proof, but the longer he stayed here, the less he began relying on proof for his speculation.

  ?Each clash they made, each strike made lightning sprawl across the ground, causing cracks to form in the Arena. This time, Raiden had not decided to fight due to the Overseer’s influence, a small part of her had become interested in Blade. Maybe it was because this fight was the closest she would get to freedom. Maybe it was nothing more than a twisted delusion, at this point, even though she was unsure about her own feelings.

  ?Neither of them had a particular edge over the other. Each time Raiden attacked, Blade could dodge or deflect the attack to the Arena. And when Blade tried to counter, he was evaded or countered. The ones in the most danger were the audience, specifically those finding themselves too close to the Arena, as when Blade deflected an attack from Raiden, the lightning would go spiraling everywhere. The safest place to deflect it was up, causing it only to split the sky, yet Blade could not both prioritize keeping the audience safe and fight Raiden.

  ?After another unsuccessful clash, Blade jumped back with Raiden mirroring his gesture, creating some space between them.

  ?“Are you not going to use your other Authorities?”

  ?Blade finally asked. It was weird, she had seemed fully capable of using the Authorities just before. Even in their last fight she had used them, granted her mind was deteriorating a lot back then. Even still, she did not seem like a person who would openly look down on their opponent.

  ?Raiden seemed a bit woken up by his question. Like waking up from a dream, she looked a bit dazed, though it was quickly hidden and thrown away. She seemed to debate the idea, something that made Blade wonder as he went in to attack again.

  ?He went faster now, using more Mora to strengthen himself further. To him, the weirdest thing was how she seemed hesitant to use more power, but also how she seemed to know so little. When he got his full Authority, everything about it had flown into his head, and he had been told that even the memories of the previous holders would come to him, meaning she should have both Indra and Iris’s memories. Yet, she seemed to have no recollection of any of it.

  ?If she had Indra’s memories, she should have information about how he fights. And now that he truly thought, he should really not be standing any chance. Even if you ignore the strength, memories, skills, and everything else she could have gotten from Indra and Iris, it was simply the difference in their strength. Even with his training and new power, the gap should not have been closed this quickly. He doubted she would simply sit around, and even if he based himself on the fact she had not trained, the shared power she got simply from existing should still go to increase the gap, or at least it should.

  ?This was properly confusing Blade, and he didn’t like the uncertainties that came with it.

  ?As he went in to swing, Raiden found herself on the defensive. Leaning back to dodge his first slash before jumping back and into the air, staying there as she raised her hand. Blade tried to stop her, recognizing the move immediately, but being stopped by a field of electrical wires she set up. And when he tried to shoot her, both by transforming Severance into a bow and creating weapons that he launched at her. Even the ones that managed to get through because he coated them with enough Mora—were blocked by the protective shield she put around herself.

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  ?“Pierce the Heavens, obliterate the ground. Heaven’s Wrath

  ?An incantation? It was the first time he had heard one his whole stay here.

  ?Normally, one would use an incantation to support a spell when casting. As you got better, you could cut out the incantation, and for some, you could even cast silent spells. Or at least so had it been in his world. Yet, naming a spell here was easily the difference between life and death. So what would that mean for incantations?

  ?As Raiden’s hand fell, so did the earth. Giving way far faster than Blade could notice as the lightning struck from the heavens. They were more ferocious now than ever, and Blade realized it now.

  ?From what he had gathered, a move was only at 20% of its true power without a name. This though allowed one to freely utilize it as one would like.

  ?If you named the move, you could get the full power of it, 100% in other words, but you would be limiting the move a bit, giving it a set form, you could say. So what would incantations do? Well, he understood it now.

  As the move hit, the destruction was the only conclusion he needed. Just like when he had felt the euphoria in his awakening. A selfish feeling that had brought out 200% of his potential, an incantation sought to mirror that. Though only an increase by 120%, could even such a simple boost be the factor that meant death.

  ?The destruction he saw from the move was nothing like any previous attack. It wasn’t just the destruction. The intensity, chaos, scale. All of which had become worse than anything Blade had seen previously. Luckily, she was not the only one with new moves.

  ?Blade had been looking for ways to combat the territorial advantages her Authorities gave her. The reason he had not only been studying energy, but the specifics of lightning. From the ways they formed, to the moment of discharge

  ?At first, he had wanted a way to avoid the lightning, but after talking the idea over with Severance, she quickly shut it down, saying It would be like a child trying to outrun lightning.

  ?And so he went back to the drawing board. His second idea had been the ability to block the lightning, yet this one he shut down himself. What use would it be if she could simply wait until he was tired?

  ?So he talked about it with Severance. Before they had left the village, Blade had asked her about what made the people here so different from other realms. Though she had held back a lot, she had said it was due to the existence of a core and mora. Unlike normal realms, the people here are intertwined by body, mind, and soul. She clarified that it did not make them invulnerable to mental damage and mind breaks, but that it rendered anything that couldn’t attack the soul and body at once ineffective. To even damage them, you would have to be able to damage at least two of those aspects simultaneously.

  The more he learned about mora, the further he felt himself walking into a sea of information. A necessity for here, just like what mana had been in his world.

  ?Then it hit him. If he could not block or dodge it, why not deflect it? The answer seemed obvious, even if it was trickier than presented. This was an idea Severance didn’t immediately shut down even if she wasn’t totally on board with it personally.

  ?With his study on lightning, he realized the place it hit was random. It had no true path, so what if he carved one? If he cut a path into the air, using Mora to help guide the energy, would it be possible to control its path? That way it was predictable, making it far easier to deflect.

  ?Unfortunately, it was still nothing more than a theory, as he had no luck with naturally occurring lightning, but it gave him more time to adjust the theory until it had a solid foundation. It would also require the lightning to be natural and not something she produced using pure Mora. And now the time had come to try the move out.

  ?“Heavenly Reversal

  ?He said as he pierced the point into the sky, creating the greatest path for the lightning to traverse, even going as far as to momentarily stun Raiden, though it only lasted a moment as the lightning hit Blade. And he felt it properly now. not the lightning, but the Mora. He had taken into account lightning made by Mora, but what about lightning empowered by it? Having completely forgotten that they could strengthen their Authorities through lightning, Blade was struck as he crashed into the Arena wall. Lightning coursing off his body and into the wall and ground, as it crumbled.

  ?Raiden landed softly, lowering her hand to his level, as the lightning strikes formed a spiral from the ground before forming a torpedo with a dragon head at its end, hovering above her. This was it. This was his end.