Mira knew that although both Maria and Celaine were hurt, it wasn't nearly enough to take them down so as soon as she launched Celaine through the air, she followed up to continue putting on the pressure.
Celaine and Maria understood Mira's intentions and hurriedly got up and started launching all sorts of ranged attacks to create a bit of distance between them.
Maria was constantly launching Swords of Light and Light Beams while Celaine created a Pseudo-Domain of Wind Blades in front of her. She got this idea from the world Elenei sent her to. Essentially, Celaine makes the air around her turn chaotic, deadly, and sharp, but the reason she considers it a Pseudo-Domain is she doesn't have full control over it. She can still get hurt if she steps inside it.
Mira was forced to stop for a second as she felt a bit of danger from this Pseudo-Domain. It wasn't enough to kill or severely injure her, but it was more than enough to cause a bunch of scratches and gashes all over her body.
She could probably dodge or make her way through it with minimal injuries, but with Maria launching a bunch of annoying-ass spells at her… Even she would be forced to take some unnecessary injuries.
Unbeknownst to Mira, this was all part of their plan and not just some makeshift escape plan.
Mira decided to just go around the chaotic space Celaien created as that would be much quicker.
You might be wondering why Mira has barely used her Dao or Ice abilities and in truth, Mira didn't want to start using some of her more overpowered abilities just yet. Why would she end such a great battle before it can even start?? She wants to see how much Maria and Celaine have grown over the last 2 years! She wants to be able to learn and evolve through this battle just like how those 2 have grown and evolved over the last 2 years! Brute forcing her way to victory would be such a waste!
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtSo instead of taking a more optimal route like covering herself in an Ice Armor and bulldozing her way through Celaine's Pseudo-Domain, she decided to just go around.
Maria and Celaine also took notice of this, but they weren't surprised as they too have cards they don't want to use or show just yet.
However, this made things easier for Maria to corral her towards a direction she wanted Mira to go.
Maria launched Swords of Light one after another and would occasionally mix in a very weak Light Beam, but these Light Beams were a bit special. Maria wasn't sure if Mira would notice the difference in the middle of an intense battle like this so she was forced to use all kinds of Light Beams that ranged from big to small and from weak to strong, switching between special and normal all so she could try and fool Mira.
'YES!'
Maria shouted in her mind when she felt one of her special Light Beams land on Mira. Actually, that's been Maria's goal this entire time other than creating distance between her and Mira.
Maria didn't actually care if any of her Swords of Light or Light Beams actually hit and only cared if one of her 'special' Light Beams hit.
Luckily, her Light Beams are incredibly fast and with Mira not sensing any danger from it, she lets it hit her in a non-vital area on her body. This was because she was forced to dodge the bombardment of Swords of Light. Naturally, she would have to take some hits as Maria's Light attacks are just too fast.
Achieving her goal, Maria started backing up a bit more and slowed down her bombardment to prepare for her next skill.
Celaine, understanding what Maria's doing, decided to rush towards Mira but with her Pseudo-Domain still active.
Seeing Celaine run at her again, Mira smirked and covered herself in a beautiful ice dress that played the part of the armor. She layered her head in frost and covered the front of her face with an icy veil that acted as a helmet.
She looked like a Queen that just descended onto the battlefield.
Elenei watched this with interest as she hasn't seen Mira use this ability yet and wondered why she just didn't create a set of full-body ice armor, but what she didn't know is that Mira doesn't like wearing armor. They restrict her movement and even light armor restricts her movement slightly.
But a dress made of her ice gives her a full range of motion while also protecting her from any superficial injuries.
Knowing this, Mira didn't hesitate to walk straight into Celaine's Pseudo-Domain, as she was mostly protected, thanks to her dress. Of course, she also sustained light injuries over some parts of her body, but that can mostly be ignored.
While charging at Celaine, Mira started to cover the ground around her in ice while making the air a bit foggy, essentially turning the space around her into a Pseudo-Domain that will force Celaine's movements to slow.
Mira then started to release ice spikes from the ground towards Celaine while creating mini crystalline bombs from the icy fog that will explode on impact.
Two Pseudo-Domains were now stacked on top of each other, but they weren't conflicting and were actually synergizing quite well... At least for Mira. Her mini bombs were constantly moving in random directions thanks to the chaotic air around her, but naturally, she wasn't worried about getting hurt by her own creations.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThe same can't be said for Celaine as these mini bombs and random ice spikes were truly a huge pain to deal with in this fog.
Barely a second after this, the two of them clashed with their weapons and started going at it again just like they did at the beginning of the fight. Except for this time, Celaine was using her Wind Dao to try and force Mira to stagger or move in ways she wanted her to move. While Mira was constantly creating spikes in the ground, shooting extremely thin ice needles, forming mini crystalline bombs, or trying to entangle Celaine in some way.
Surprisingly, Celaine actually wasn't on the losing end of the battle this time as her Wind Dao is stronger than Mira's and she's also learned many auxiliary and defensive ways to use her Wind Dao.
Like any time Celaine was about to get entangled, she'd shoot out a burst of air from that part of her body, blowing away the vines. She can also use her Wind Dao to help sense things in the air around her, helping her dodge those tiny crystalline bombs and needles.
There wasn't much she could do about the ice spikes except stay light on her feet.
Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, neither of them was able to escape a significant amount of injuries that ranged from light scrapes and bruises to deep cuts and/or fractured bones.
They kept fighting for 2 minutes until the entire battlefield changed in an instant!
All of a sudden, a rain of light suddenly assaulted Mira from 2 different sides. It was like she was being targeted by a mini-gun from a helicopter except the bullets were made of light!
Before Mira could react, she was already peppered with countless 'Light Bullets', or at least that's what she decided to call them for now.
Her ice dress became shredded and multiple spots on her body were inflicted with severe wounds.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the end for her yet as Maria dropped from the sky behind Mira with a full-powered sword attack at her neck. Celaine, working in conjunction with Maria perfectly, launched a full-powered saber attack at Mira's chest.
Mira felt extreme danger for the first time and managed to bring her scythe behind her to block Maria's attack and create a makeshift ice shield to protect herself from Celaine's attack.
But it was too little too late as both attacks landed and she was launched like a ragdoll at the speed of sound while tumbling on the ground.