The battle raged like a storm made flesh, and the air inside the northern training hall had long since turned into a furnace of silver flame and crimson energy. Jin's breaths were deep but steady, sweat clinging to his porcelain skin, his chest rising and falling beneath the tight black shirt. Rena floated above him, her long white hair with faint crimson tips flowing like a river of light, eyes glowing a deep molten red.
She hovered, her black dress fluttering in the updraft of power, silver fire wrapping around her body like a second skin. The ground below her had already been fractured, molten cracks glowing beneath shattered tiles from her earlier attacks.
Jin, on the other hand, stood calmly at the center of destruction, Nihil resting loosely in his right hand. His expression was unreadable—a mask of quiet anticipation, though his eyes told another story. They shimmered with intensity, a burning crimson hue that mirrored the blood-red moon etched into the seal of the Rotschy lineage.
Rena grinned. "What's wrong, love? Getting tired already?"
Jin raised his eyes to hers, smirked, and rolled his shoulders. "Hardly. Just warming up."
In the next breath, his mana surged violently.
The very air rippled around him. A heavy silence descended before a pulse of blood-red mana exploded from his core.
Rina's eyes widened slightly as the atmosphere grew denser—suffocating, primal.
"What is happening... Mana is red, what is this?"
Jin's voice dropped, cool and commanding. "Crimson Moon: Ascent of Madness."
A blazing red sigil ignited behind Jin's back, etched in delicate ancient script—the emblem of the Moon of Fury, a forbidden form of lunar mana channeled only through Rotschi blood. His pupils sharpened, turning reptilian for an instant, and the aura around him cracked with raw power.
In a single movement, he vanished.
Rena barely had time to raise her arms before Jin appeared before her, his sword swinging in a horizontal arc infused with red mana. The slash carved through the space between them, and Rina only narrowly evaded, though her left arm bore a fresh burn.
She winced. "That… was fast."
"And this is just phase one," Jin replied, already launching another attack.
Red crescent blades erupted from his sword, slamming into the ground as Rina weaved and danced between them. Each strike carved deeper into the foundations of the room, tremors rattling the pillars.
Jin was a whirlwind—fluid, graceful, and devastating. The red glow of his mana gave him a spectral silhouette, as though a god of war had descended into the world of mortals.
Rena's body responded instinctively. She summoned the silver fire through her veins and formed it around her fists, her kicks, her very breath. Every strike of hers now held the bite of both phoenix flame and dragon fury.
She met Jin head-on.
Their clash became a blur of light and heat. Silver against crimson. Fire against gravity. Blade against flame.
Then Jin roared, and the seal behind him split in four, forming a full sigil of the Red Moon.
"Crimson Moon: Bloodfield!"
Mana expanded outward like a shockwave. The training hall darkened. Time seemed to slow, the air thick with bloodlust. Rina felt it immediately—her body heavier, her mana disturbed. The Bloodfield manipulated gravitational fields and sensory perception. A technique only someone of Jin's mastery could wield without destroying themselves.
"This... feels like hell itself," Rina muttered, wiping blood from her lip.
Jin didn't answer. He was already in front of her.
Their hands met.
A fist enveloped in silver flame struck a palm glowing with crimson light. The resulting explosion shattered the eastern wall of the chamber, sending shockwaves throughout the Rotschi estate.
Dust and mana crackled.
Jin appeared behind her again, his sword stabbing forward. Rena twisted in the air, barely dodging, but the blade grazed her side, tearing fabric and skin. Blood mixed with silver embers as she flipped and landed on a fractured pillar.
Rena laughed through the pain. "You're stronger than last time. So this is your serious mode, huh?"
Jin finally spoke, his voice laced with red-hot steel. "You wanted a fight, wife. Don't complain now."
She grinned wildly. "I'm not complaining."
Then she dropped.
Silver fire wrapped around her as she dove, legs ablaze. She struck the ground hard, aiming to drive Jin through the shattered floor. He blocked, their powers colliding in a sonic blast that cracked the training platform.
Jin summoned a storm of red arcs—mana constructs shaped like scythes—and hurled them toward her. Rena conjured a spinning flame barrier, melting each construct with a fierce howl. She darted forward, her hands shifting into twin blades of white-hot flame.
Their bodies met in a flurry of blows, and for a brief moment, they moved faster than thought—two divine forces locked in a deadly, exhilarating dance.
Jin felt it.
Excitement.
Adrenaline.
Respect.
Rena was no longer the fragile bride-to-be. She had been reborn.
And she was dangerous.
-------------
Heat: Did you like the fight? Is it fierce?
Or do you want me to make it more ferocious and bloody?