Legacy World 2.16 Alice vs Rosalyn

"Hey, hey, please tell me at least one of you two have some trump card I don't know of!" Stephan whispered through gritted teeth. He had his hands full trying to occupy the Blessings as much as he could while Ethan and Violet dealth with the remaining Talents. However, it was much easier said than done. Violet was agitated and it made her slip up more than once. Ethan was equally distracted. Half his attention was on Alice. He was ready to risk his life and rush to her aid, but an unknown force kept him rooted to this side, causing him great distress. As a result, the trio got covered in bruises and cuts.

"We have to figure out something quick! Alice needs us!" Violet cried. Alice had started fighting on her end.

Ethan remained silent, his lips drawn into a firm line, and his mind going into overdrive to come up with a move on the spot.

A deep laughter sounded, interrupting Ethan's thoughts. The familiar deep voice mocked, "What's the matter? Losing your cool because of a mere Normal? Have you not noticed that you would have sharply increased your chances of winning if you would just forget about that dispensable teammate of yours?"

/Dispensable?/ Ethan's veins popped out at the side of his forehead and his eyes almost bulged in anger. He recognised this voice as the one who spotted his bubble that had held Alice earlier on.

"Violet, blast the strongest fire you can keep up at them." Ethan said with death in his voice. His tone sent chivers down Violet's spine while she immediately followed his instruction.

"Ethan, don't be taunted. He's one of the stronger Blessings." Stephan warned.

"I have some beef with him." Ethan growled. He then activated his wind ability to create a fire storm. It forced their opponents a considerable distance back and caused them to split up. The intense heat from Violet's fire still caused minor burn wounds for those who reacted a tad too slow.

/Since I can't seem to go against this goddamn force, I might as well quickly end it here so that I can go to Alice!/ Ethan made up his mind as he sped himself up further.

The moment Ethan's target's vision was cleared up of the fire, he was met with a fist in his face. It was too fast for him to dodge, so he reflexively went for a blow for blow exchange. He raised his knee upwards. Ethan's target flew downwards, while Ethan flew upwards.

Ethan's target spat out blood and teeth. The strength behind Ethan's punch was surprisingly and intimidatingly strong. His gut told him that it was far from an equal exchange. His veins bulged due to irritation. "That wasn't a normal punch, was it?" He asked through gritted teeth. If he had neglected his physical strength, he would likely have been knocked out cold by that punch.

Ethan replied with a kick from above. The speed at which Ethan's foot descended on him was now as expected. He easily dodged Ethan's kick with the help of his wind ability and blasted fire at Ethan. Ethan did not bother with dodging and used water to negate the fire attack.

When Ethan landed onto the ground, he created a crater bigger than expected and rebounded at a speed faster than expected. /It's happening again! What's going on?!/

Vines appeared out of nowhere to form a thick shield. It also surrounded Ethan. Ethan calmly spun around to kick the vines. It turned the vines into shambles. Then, Ethan easily broke through the vine shield, that had frosted up, with a single punch. However, his target was not beyond the shield. Ethan instinctively flew to the side, dodging a kick to his back by a hair's breadth.

Ethan's target confirmed his suspicions and knew that he had to break Ethan's momentum to break that mysterious acceleration. However, the strength behind his punches and kicks were still no joke. /I should still work to avoid getting hit another time. And where did that frost come from? Are those guys not doing their jobs properly?!/

While Ethan went all out, Violet and Stephan skillfully kept the remaining four from interfering in Ethan's fight. However, this meant that they could not lend Ethan a hand either. They could only choose to trust in Ethan's capability. To their relief, Ethan did not struggle as badly as they had anticipated, which also came as a shock to all the other Blessings.

Rosalyn continued to talk since Alice did not seem interested in looking at her friends. "I can guess how you informed the other three about the ambush. You're different. Promising. I like you. I would ask you to join me if I could be sure of your loyalty..."

Alice merely raised an eyebrow.

Rosalyn sighed lightly. "You rather die?"

"Who said I would? I choose to live but not for you." Alice smiled mockingly.

Rosalyn finally frowned. "Who do you think you are? You're a mere Normal from an even less outstanding background."

"And that's enough to go against you." Alice's smile deepened.

Rosalyn's lips twitched as her anger steadily rose at her blatant disrespect. 

"All you know is how to scheme. That's all you did from the start to the end." Alice continued.

Her temper finally flared which made her breathe harder. "I'll show you!"

As soon as Rosalyn exploded in anger, Alice ignored the spears surrounding her and jumped up to escape. More scratches covered her body and more blood flowed. Alice's fast reflexes stunned Rosalyn long enough for Alice to gain some distance away from Rosalyn. Realising that she had been played, Rosalyn vengefully manipulated the spears to go after Alice. One successfully pierced Alice's thigh. Alice hissed in pain but did not let it slow down her movement.

Rosalyn ran after Alice as well. However, she soon started to pant hard. Sweat freely trickled down her skin. Moving needed more effort and her stamina was strangely significantly lower than usual. She quickly realised that it was even getting hard to breathe, like she was suffocating. She panicked. This was a first and she could not understand what was going on. The spears that were still chasing after Alice and the one embedded in Alice's leg disappeared.

Alice knew that this was the only chance to attack Rosalyn but she decided against it. She should play it safe. It was likely impossible for her to win against the second female lead of the story. Alice stopped running when Rosalyn was at Alice's maximum range of effect. If things went south, Alice should still have enough time to return to the group.

Rosalyn dropped down on all fours. Her hands were balled in a tight grip with torn grass in it. She thought that she was perhaps having a panic attack from experiencing her first failure after so long, but nothing changed even after she tried to slow her breathing and calm herself down.

Her eyes turned red in desperation and anger. /Even if I die, I'll make sure to accomplish what I set off to do!!/

She looked up and straight at Violet, then activated a long and thin arrow that traveled insanely fast towards Violet.

Alice's eyes went round. She desperately threw herself in the line of fire while activating her water ability. She turned the layer of water closest to her into ice. However, the arrow was deceptively brittle. It steadily shot through the layers of water and ice. Alice dodged by reflex and the arrow cleanly shot through her shoulder, only to continue in its path. Alice decisively used brute force to crush it to smithereens. She did a backflip and stomped hard on the ice with all the spiritual energy gathered in her foot. Unfortunately, this caused the controlled blood loss to flow freely again.

Rosalyn saw everything that happened and noticed how it had gotten slightly easier to breathe the moment Alice executed her moves to save Violet. Her eyes turned red in anger at the humiliation she suffered. She smiled crazily as she yelled at Alice, "I'll give you the glorious death you deserve! Count this as thanks for a good fight!"

She slammed her palms onto the ground and activated all three abilities consecutively, almost without a break between each activation. All the Blessings who heard Rosalyn and saw her action immediately recognised impending doom. Among them, it was rumored that she was the next closest to Stephan, who mastered almost simultaneous activation of abilities.

Their heightened sense of danger told them to move out of the area, which they did. Stephan took care of Violet while Ethan went after his fleeing target intending to deal the final blow. He had a feeling that he had to end it now or never. Just as he did, fire shot up from the ground where everyone was at. It blazed strongly and killed indiscriminately. The Talents died as a result of not catching on fast enough.

At the same time, Alice found herself being pressed into the ground by a great force of wind. It prevented her from running. It took all the energy Alice had to push herself up.

An ice sword flew down from on top of Alice. It cleanly cut off her legs at her knees. Tears sprung to her eyes as pain shot through her body from her legs. Alice stifled a scream that threatened to leave her throat. Her fingers dug into the ground as her arms gave way and she fell back down. As muffled as Alice's scream was, Ethan heard it loud and clear. His heart ached so badly that it felt torn apart. His final spinning kick landed heavily on his target's chest. The crack of bones breaking could be heard. Blood spurted from his opponent's mouth. His opponent's body crashed into the ground and formed a small crater.

Ethan intended to go to Alice's aid immediately but his eyes went to Violet and Stephan instead. A thought of ripping his eyes out flashed in his mind. This mysterious phenomenon of being not in total control of his body was vexing him to no end.

Just as he took a step forward, vines wrapped all around his body and kept him restrained. A creepy cackle was heard. "What a softie. I see why Rosalyn chose to single her out. My heart should have burst from that kick and I would have certainly died but you got flustered and kicked the side of my ribs instead..." Crazy laughter was heard followed by a fierce coughing fit. "Each and every time that girl got injured, you faltered. You'll never win like this." He said confidently. Fire blazed from the bottom of Ethan as if he was being cooked alive.

Ethan frowned deeply and clenched his jaw to bear with the pain. He covered his body with thick frost to counter the heat. He also worked on freezing the vines like he usually would so that he could break out of it. However, new vines kept forming and restraining him. It was a matter of speed now.

On the lead couple's side, Stephan got the initiative of the first attack after escaping from Rosalyn's indiscriminate attack. He immediately trapped the two remaining opponents within a ball of darkness followed by encasing them within a cube of ice. Violet only had to rain her light attacks on them coupled with his lightning to end their lives but he found her running off to Alice instead.

"VIOLET!" Stephan yelled half in anger half in worry. His lapse in concentration allowed the two trapped to break out easily with their wood and earth abilities. They saw a stray Violet with her back towards them, and so focused their attacks on her.

Rosalyn's eyes was filled with mirth when she saw Violet running to Alice. "That's right, go ahead, cover her." A whole plethora of ice weapons that were left waiting in the sky above Alice began raining down on her and an approaching Violet.

Stephan went into full defensive mode against the attacks that came from behind Violet.

Ethan experienced another rush of adrenaline and recklessly used water slicers on himself to cut the vines and set himself free. He ignored the self-inflicted injuries on his body and propelled himself forward, only to find himself flying towards Violet. He instantly paled at the realisation that he would not reach Alice in time.

Tears gathered in his eyes as he refused to be controlled. /My body may be held back but my mind shall not!/

He disregarded the risk of weakening the shield due to size and expanded the water shield from covering only Violet to covering Alice as well.

Just as Ethan expanded the water shield, Violet's body flew back and crashed into him, knocking him back and onto the ground. This threw them out of the range of Rosalyn's ice weapons. It also caused Ethan's shield to dissipate.