CHAPTER 142: EPIC CLASH

There was a momentary silence after their warm up.

The tension between them was already a living thing.

On one side of the stone platform, Elreth stood tall, her crimson hair flowing like a banner of war, flame coiling in lazy spirals around her spear. Her stance was low, forward-leaning — a predator ready to pounce.

Opposite her, Khione’s pale figure radiated a ghostly chill, her long white hair drifting with the breeze of her own frozen domain. Her wand, shimmered faintly, already drawing in the moisture in the air.

They locked eyes.

She’s faster than last time. Khione narrowed her gaze. If I give her the opening, her flames will overwhelm me before I can freeze them.

’She’s holding back her domain... interesting.’ Elreth smirked.’Trying to keep me guessing?

Too bad, Khione — I’ll burn right through it.’

Wind rushed between them — a false wind, born from their conflicting temperatures colliding. The stone under their feet cracked as their prana surged to its peak.

Elreth’s body blurred.

In an instant, she became a streak of crimson light, spear thrusting forward with a roar of flame. Khione reacted without a flinch — her wand cut a small arc through the air, and an ice wall erupted from the ground like the spine of some colossal frozen beast.

The spear met ice —

BOOM!

The impact sent shards of molten ice spraying like bullets, hissing as they hit the heated floor. Elreth twisted her wrist mid-thrust, using the momentum to sweep her weapon sideways, carving through the wall in one brutal motion. Steam exploded outward, briefly clouding vision.

Khione’s silhouette was already gone.

A sudden crack echoed behind Elreth — ice spikes shot upward in a jagged line, aiming to skewer her from the ground. She leapt back, feet barely touching the platform before she pushed forward again, using the rebound to launch herself into the air.

From above, Elreth spun her spear like a flaming windmill, each rotation shedding fragments of crimson fire that rained down in arcs. They weren’t just heat — each ember carried compressed prana, detonating on impact.

Khione raised her left hand. Frost spiraled outward from her palm, forming a domed barrier of layered hexagonal ice. The flaming embers struck it like meteors, flaring and bursting into steam. Visibility dropped to near zero.

But Elreth was already inside.

A trail of heat cut through the mist as her spear lunged forward —

Khione pivoted just enough to avoid being skewered, her breath misting in the scalding air. She countered with a backhanded wand strike, and a blade of ice formed mid-swing, aiming for Elreth’s neck.

The princess ducked, her wings — still dormant until now — igniting with a sudden burst. She had just unleashed her flaming wings, she expected a little bit of reaction from the Ice Queen but got nothing.

Elreth used the wingbeat to propel herself backward, sliding across the stone, the floor hissing under her boots. She grinned.

’Ice wings against flame wings... let’s see whose sky it belongs to.’

Khione’s frozen domain pulsed. A halo of frost expanded around her, and from her back, wings of pure ice erupted — sharp, jagged, refracting the training ground’s magical lights into shards of color. They beat once, and the temperature plummeted.

The steam vanished instantly.

Both women launched upward at the same moment — Elreth in a burst of scorching light, Khione in a flurry of frost. Their movements tore at the air, leaving twisting trails of heat and snow.

High above the platform, they clashed — spear and wand meeting mid-sky with such force that the impact cracked the sound barrier. Rings of air pressure rippled outward, shaking the barrier dome.

Khione’s speed in the air was surgical. She darted in and out, leaving afterimages as she fired ice lances from impossible angles. Elreth blocked and deflected them with twirling spearwork, each spin of her weapon leaving streaks of flame that lingered like molten walls.

Then, in a sudden dive, Elreth thrust her spear downward —

The spearhead split into three flaming blades mid-strike, forming a burning trident aimed to crush Khione’s guard.

Khione crossed her wand with an ice-forged saber, both arms tensing against the force. The moment the weapons met, frost spread across the trident... then cracked and shattered under the heat, shards glinting like falling stars.

’She’s pushing me harder than before.’

Khione’s heart raced, but her eyes stayed cold. ’Her control over fire... it’s sharper, more refined. But heat is still heat.’

Elreth’s smirk widened. She’s reading me faster too. Good — I don’t want a boring duel.

They separated mid-air, circling each other like predatory birds, wings flaring wide.

The next charge would be bigger. Faster. More decisive.

The moment they broke formation, both moved at speeds that shredded the air.

Khione’s wings beat once — ice feathers fanned outward, releasing razor-like shards that spiraled around her before darting toward Elreth. They weren’t random; they moved in calculated patterns, weaving like serpents of frost.

Elreth countered with a downward sweep of her spear. A wide arc of crimson flame blasted forward, the heat so intense it turned the nearest ice shards into a rain of boiling droplets mid-flight. Yet some shards slipped through, forcing her to pivot in mid-air, wings tucking as she spun and deflected them with her weapon’s haft.

Khione used that moment — she vanished in a burst of snow, reappearing right behind Elreth.

Her wand thrust forward, tip glowing with compressed prana.

CRASH!

Elreth twisted in time, crossing her spear to block — the impact detonated a shockwave of steam and frost, flinging both back several meters.

’Hoh!Her teleport movement... it’s faster now,’ Elreth thought, tightening her grip. But she still needs a medium — the frost she leaves behind.

Khione’s eyes narrowed. She’s not falling for direct strikes. I’ll need to bind her wings.

She lifted both arms — the moisture in the air froze instantly into massive chains of ice, each link as thick as a tree trunk. They shot toward Elreth, twisting like serpents.

Elreth flared her wings, every feather blazing bright. Her entire body became a whirlwind of molten gold as she spun — the chains melted and snapped upon contact, molten droplets raining down onto the training ground below, burning into the stone before the repair enchantments erased the damage.

Then Elreth’s counter came —

She thrust her spear skyward, summoning dozens of flame spears, each one orbiting her like a miniature sun. With a flick, they launched toward Khione in a storm.

Khione’s wings wrapped around her, forming a cocoon of crystalline ice. The first wave of flame spears shattered against it, but the heat began to seep through. Her eyes glimmered — she pushed her wings open, sending the outer layer of ice exploding outward in jagged shrapnel. The fragments caught several flame spears mid-flight, breaking their trajectories.

They clashed again mid-air.

Spear and wand met in a flurry — each strike faster, heavier, each block sending shockwaves that cracked the barrier dome itself. The crowd if there was any— thought — would have been blinded by the sheer flashes of color: orange heat and pale blue frost colliding over and over.

Elreth’s movements were aggressive, relentless, pressing forward like a wildfire. Khione’s style was sharp, economical, countering with precise bursts of force that froze the air between them solid.

On the tenth clash, Elreth overextended — intentionally.

Khione lunged for the opening —

And the princess vanished.

’No—!’

Khione’s instincts screamed. She spun around just in time to see Elreth diving from above, spear engulfed in spiraling fire like a comet.

Khione’s wand carved a circle — a spinning ice disk materialized above her, catching the blow. The impact split it in half instantly, flames surging through. The shockwave hurled Khione downward toward the ground.

Khione slammed into the stone platform — but she didn’t crash. She caught herself in a slide, ice forming under her boots, and with a whip of her wand, she sent a wave of jagged ice spikes tearing upward toward Elreth’s descent.

Elreth didn’t dodge.

Instead, her wings folded forward, forming a flaming shield around her body. She punched through the spikes, melting them instantly, before landing in a crouch — the stone beneath her scorched black.

For a moment, they were both on the ground again.

They exchanged a single glance.

Then they blurred forward.

This was different now — no long-range spells, no flashy flight. Just raw, fast, lethal close combat.

Elreth’s spear spun in figure-eights, forcing Khione to block high, low, and from impossible angles in rapid succession.

Khione retaliated with ice-forged blades forming in her free hand, dual-wielding wand and sword, although she wasn’t really proficient in this.

Metal rang against crystal as they moved —

Every step cracked the stone. Every strike carried enough prana to kill ten ordinary cadets outright.

She’s reading my rhythm, Elreth realized after a dozen exchanges.

’She’s letting me set the pace,’ Khione noted at the same time.

Then they both changed tempo.

Khione burst backward in a spray of frost, wings unfurling as she took to the air. Elreth followed instantly, the ground behind her igniting from her launch.

They soared higher than before — past the artificial cloud layer forming from the steam of their battle.

The temperature here was unstable — blistering heat on one side, killing frost on the other.

Khione raised her wand — a massive ice javelin formed above her, easily the size of a siege weapon.

Elreth gripped her spear with both hands — its tip glowed white-hot, surrounded by spiraling flames.

They locked eyes one final time.

One strike.

Swoosh!!

Both dove.

The ice javelin cut the air with a sound like tearing metal.

The flaming spear roared like a dragon.

When they met —

KA-THOOOOOM!

The explosion ripped the sky apart. The shockwave flattened the clouds in a perfect circle, the barrier dome around the arena flaring dangerously. Half the sky blazed red-orange, the other half crystallized in pale blue, the border between them a jagged fracture line.

For several seconds, there was no movement — only light, heat, and frost consuming everything.

When the energy dispersed, both fighters were on opposite ends of the arena, breathing heavily. Neither had fallen. Neither had bowed.

The fight wasn’t over — but they both knew:

The next blow decides it so once more they moved toward the sky.