Tailless cleaved through the air as Miyabi shot forward, but before she could fully close the gap, a wolfish grin spread across Illya's face.
A small particle of ether split apart, triggering a chain reaction that flooded his system with pure energy.
Vooooom~
Illya directed the explosive energy downward and shot it from the soles of his feet, launching himself into the air and out of Miyabi's reach.
BOOOOM
The explosion kicked up a cloud of dust and sent numerous pieces of earth flying outward, though Miyabi cleaved apart both the smoke and debris flying her way with a single slash.
Taking a light step forward, Miyabi didn't bother pursuing him- Instead, she sheathed her blade and assumed an Iai stance.
Pushing the red button on her sheath, a wave of azure flames and crimson lightning wreathed her figure, flooding her body with strength.
SHSHSHSH
A dense net of blue lines flew towards Illya at a speed that left him with little wiggle room, but the human fission reactor was nothing if not resourceful.
Using a series of controlled etheric explosions, Illya threaded through the narrow gaps in Miyabi's offensive and repositioned himself for a counterattack.
Channeling Ether into Igla, Illya aimed the weapon and launched a Cold metallic stake from its core- though he made sure it was launched at a speed that Miyabi could react to.
The Young Void Hunter tensed her muscles as a flash of steel covered her vision, momentarily pausing her offense to dodge the Needle flying towards her.
That brief moment was all Illya needed.
WABOOOOOM
A large explosion lit the sky up in fiery hues of orange and red, accelerating his descent to the ground.
Leveraging gravity itself, he swung Igla down at Miyabi's retreating figure, the sheer force behind the blow seemingly warping the air under its weight.
Miyabi's eyes sharpened.
BANG
The attack kicked up a cloud of dust as he touched down, but unfortunately for Illya, the only thing that his Igla made contact with was the ground.
A flicker of blue light flashed in the corner of his eye as Miyabi's form tore through the smokescreen around him, a flaming Tailles flying straight towards his neck.
Illya just sighed in silent resignation.
'Ah. Good one.'
CLANG
The flat of the blade slammed against Illya's neck, the clash of flesh and steel producing a sound more akin to that of metal against metal- launching him back a few meters.
While the blow had barely fazed him, it had succeeded in providing Miyabi with an opportunity.
During her training period, she had once again familiarized herself with the Martial techniques of the Hoshimi Family- more specifically, those of the previous family heads.
And unfortunately, while she was able to understand them with perfect clarity, Miyabi found herself unable to perform them.
Why?
Well, she lacked a key body part that her ancestors possessed.
Tails.
And not just one- Nine of them.
Truly, the wielder of Tailless was ironically the same.
Still, despite this glaring lack of appendages, Miyabi was not deterred.
She had instead found a clever workaround.
Drawing a deep breath, Miyabi gripped Tailless with both hands, using the blade as a conduit to gather swathes of fox fire around her.
Wrapping herself in the gathering fire, she began to concentrate it, forming the unique etheric energy into something akin to a cloak.
As Miyabi's focus intensified, the cloak that she had covered herself in began to elongate, forming nine flaming tendrils that rippled with crimson lightning.
"Holy shit-"
Illya's jaw dropped as he watched the spectacle.
The young Void Hunter exhaled as her ruby eyes gleamed with satisfaction, a small smile spreading across her face as she took in the growing shock on Illya's face.
"Get ready, Senior-"
She readied Tailless and assumed a stance, the tails behind her dancing as dense bolts of crimson lightning began to beat against the ground.
"Here I come!"
Illya barely had enough time to blink before Miyabi's form blurred, his eyes unable to keep up with processing her speed.
Unable to even bring Igla forward to block, the flat of a blade pressed against Illya's stomach, folding him like a sheet of paper and launching him into the air.
CLANG
Now airborne, Illya tried to gather his bearings, but before he could, a fiery tail wrapped around his leg.
'huh?'
He felt an immense force tug down on his leg, folding him in on himself and slamming him into the ground.
BAAANG
'Huh?'
Illya pushed himself out of the humansized crater with a slightly dazed expression, barely even registering the storm of flaming blue tails coming down on him.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
As Illya was getting pummeled by the tendrils of fox fire, Miyabi drew in a deep breath, sheathing Tailless and assuming an Iai stance.
A storm of raging cold flames began to gather on the sheath of her blade, and as Miyabi crouched lower to the ground, an even more intense vortex of frigid fire swirlled around her.
Miyabi exhaled with a controlled burst of focus as she drew her blade, launching forth an arc of pure blue energy.
SHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The projection of force cleaved apart the training ground, splitting everything in its path as it began to approach Illya.
Miyabi hadn't dared to hold back, not even considering the possibility that it would seriously injure her Senior.
And she was right.
The arc that seemed unstoppable suddenly halted in its tracks, the fiery slash flickering as it exerted its remaining force in a futile attempt to cleave its obstacle apart.
As the arc fizzled out, Miyabi's eyes narrowed, her gaze piercing through the smoke of dust that her attack had kicked up, and locking on the figure standing upright amidst the destruction.
"Nice~!'
Illya grinned and flashed Miyabi an emphatic thumbs up.
The smoke slowly cleared and revealed his form.
Miyabi let out a small sigh as she saw that he was completely unharmed, the only difference from before being his glaring lack of a shirt.
Illya chuckled softly and let out a pleasant hum, readying Igla as he allowed more ether into his system.
Splitting the ether and controlling the reaction, he sustained it in the critical stage and allowed the flood of ensuing energy to empower every corner of his body.
"Shall we go a step further?"
A shockwave pulsed outward from Illya's body, blasting away the residual dust.
"Gladly."
Miyabi and Illya assumed their respective stances before both of their forms blurred.
CLAAANG
The two met in the center, their weapons locked in a clash- A clash that forced Miyabi to retreat.
With Illya now exercising more of his power, Miyabi could no longer contend with him in terms of pure strength, something that had become immediately clear to her as soon as Tailless and Igla made contact.
As Miyabi jumped back, her nine flaming tails bore down on Illya, each one lashing forward like a whip.
Illya barely even reacted, allowing the tails to slam against his body as he powered through, attempting to launch a follow-up attack on the retreating Miyabi.
Miyabi's brow furrowed as she watched him shrug off her attacks, but she didn't let it break her composure as she stepped forward to meet him head-on.
Illya slammed Igla downwards, but Miyabi parried the mace, forcefully opening up a gap in Illya's defense.
KLAANG
Threading Tailless through that gap, Miyabi attempted to land her own attack, but Illya dropped Igla and clapped Tailless's blade between his hands, pulling on the blade in an attempt to disturb Miyabi's balance.
However, Miyabi's tails proved their utility quickly.
The flaming tendrils grabbed hold of the weapon that Illya had just dropped and swung the heavy mace at his head, forcing him to let go of the blade and catch Igla's head with his bare hands.
Miyabi, seeing that Illya now had his hands full, lashed out with tailless once more, hoping to attack the insides of his knees and destroy his posture, but-
Before she could-
A stake launched from Igla's core, forcefully halting her offensive.
The brief moment that Miyabi took to dodge was all Illya needed to regather his bearings.
Allowing more Ether to enter his system, he increased the scale of the reaction in his body, creating an even denser stream of energy to enter his bloodstream.
Now even more enhanced than he was before, Illya was able to completely ignore Igla's head-heavy balance and quickly thrust the mace forward like a spear.
With how close Illya was to her, Miyabi didn't have enough space to comfortably parry the blow, so she brought her Tailless up in a block and used her tails to obstruct the mace's trajectory as much as she could.
Unfortunately for her, the weight of his blow was more staggering than she thought.
BANG
The sheer force behind the strike sent her flying into the air, desperately trying to gather her bearings.
Using her tails to stabilize herself, Miyabi reoriented herself before trying to lock back onto Illya-
But during this brief moment, he hadn't necessarily been idle.
An orange glow briefly registered in the corner of Miyabi's eye as a volley of blazing etheric missiles was launched at her airborne figure.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
Miyabi managed to cause the orbs to explode prematurely by smacking them with her tails, but the ensuing explosions had kicked up a black cloud of smoke, obscuring her sight.
She quickly cleared the smoke with her tails, but those few seconds of obscured vision had cost her dearly.
Her senses screamed at her to look upward, and when Miyabi did, her eyes widened as she quickly brought her Tailless up in an attempt to block- but it was too late.
Illya's feint had paid off well.
Swinging Igla downwards, a small smile spread across Illya's face as the mace slammed into Miyabi's blade- the satisfying sensation of steel clashing against steel transmitted through the shaft of his weapon.
CLAAAAAAANG
Miyabi's form blurred as she rocketed towards the ground, a small, bitter smile playing on her lips.
BOOOM
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Illya landed a beat after Miyabi had slammed into the ground with a worried expression on his face.
Miyabi's impact on the ground had kicked up a thick cloud of smoke, obscuring his vision and intensifying his concern.
"Sorry- Did I get too carried away? Are you-"
"I'm fine... Senior."
Illya shot a small shockwave from his body, instantly clearing up the smoke and allowing him to get a clear view of Miyabi.
The Young Void Hunter was staring up at the sky with her chest heaving up and down, her blade no longer in her grasp.
Her foxfire cloak had protected her from the impact and any other harm that she might have incurred, but the exhaustion from maintaining such a construct had taken its toll on her.
She was extremely tired, to say the least.
Illya let out the breath that he was holding in, silently relieved that she was unharmed.
Tiptoing around Miyabi as she gathered her breath, Illya carefully sheathed Tailless and set the weapon down beside its master before dashing over to his duffel bag.
Rifling through the bag, he grabbed a couple of water bottles and quickly ran back over to where Miyabi was lying.
Illya handed her a bottle and placed the rest next to her without saying a word.
"Thanks."
Miyabi sat up and completely drained the bottle before letting out a satisfied breath.
"Better?"
Illya plopped down beside Miyabi, his eyes drifting to her comically large ears.
Miyabi nodded with a small sigh.
"Still a bit tired, but I'll be fine in a few moments."
Illya drew in a deep breath and looked up towards the sky with a small smile.
"You've gotten a lot stronger, y'know? I was actually shocked at how much you improved since the last time we met."
Miyabi's ears twitched as she subtly twisted her face away from Illya.
".... Thank you..."
Illya chuckled softly and closed his eyes.
"You really don't disappoint, Miyabi."
A small flush spread across Miyabi's face as her usually upright ears curved.
She reached out beside her and desperately grabbed a water bottle, downing the whole thing in an effort to cool the heat spreading across her face.
Illya, oblivious, let out a small hum as he took in a deep breath, savouring the moment.
The still flustered Miyabi took a tentative glance at his side profile, her lingering gaze perpetuating the quiet moment.
"..."
"..."
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After a few more minutes of similar silence, the two eventually gathered their belongings and went back inside to tidy themselves up— Surprising a few of the Hoshimi family servants along the way.
News of the haggard young miss and the shirtless man she brought with her was definitely going to be the topic of the maids' gossip for days to come.
Anyway
Blissfully unaware, Miyabi and Illya quickly showered before changing out of their dirty—and in Illya's case, destroyed— clothes and into something a bit more presentable.
"Do the clothes fit fine?"
"Mhm~ They fit great, don't worry."
Of course, that was a lie.
Not wanting to raid Souichirou's wardrobe, Illya was forced to borrow a few of Miyabi's clothes.
The Fox Thiren stared hard at Illya.
"Senior, are you sure-"
The fabric of the thick, knit sweater Illya was wearing strained as it tried to accommodate his frame, tiny hints of his flesh peeking out from beneath the cross-hatch pattern of the stitching.
Illya waved her off.
"Yes, yes, it's fine."
Miyabi still felt a bit skeptical, but at his assurance, she decided to drop the subject.
Still, she was about to follow up with something, but a sound cut her off before she could.
RING RING RING
'Huh?'
Illya felt a vibration in his pocket as the familiar sound of his ringtone echoed in the air.
Reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone, he checked the Caller ID.
'Nicole...?'
Illya thought for a moment before briefly glancing at Miyabi, flashing her an apologetic expression.
"Sorry, could I take this for a moment?"
Miyabi nodded.
"Would you like some privacy?"
"Nah, it's fine. I doubt it's anything big."
Illya accepted the call and quickly took back what he just said.
"BOSS! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!"
...
Clearly, it was extremely important.
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(A/N: What did you guys think of this action sequence?
I wanted to make Miyabi and Illya's fight play out a bit differently, so I ended up giving her a bit of a power-up.
I still felt like it was relatively on brand, considering her grandmother, swordmaster, had a bunch of tails of her own, but I digress.
Also-
Originally, Nicole was supposed to call Belobog to sort the whole Vision debacle out, but since she's now employed by Illya, I felt it would be relatively realistic for her to call him instead.
The 1.0 story will conclude similarly to how it would normally play out, but there will be a few differences that'll subtly influence future events.
Other than that, if you guys have anything you'd like to ask or say, feel free to comment them.
If you're enjoying the story, then please add it to you're collection, and if you want more bonus chapters, send some more power stones my way.
Thanks for all the support, and I'll see you in the next chapter!)