Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"Damn it," Frowned Jules, a barrier forming in front of her as she swung her blade down at her opponent, who suddenly stomped on the ground, triggering a slight shockwave.

As Jules stumbled back slightly, she quickly raised her blade defensively as the barrier faded and her opponent lunged at her, her right fist vibrating intensely before she drove it forward as she closed in on Jules, a small but intense shockwave bursting out upon impact.

Jules's feet skidded back several meters across the ground, her arms numb and shaky from the force upon impact, before she whipped her blade across and unleashed a rapid slashing wave of flames towards her opponent.

Her opponent sprang back and formed a couple of barrier walls in front of herself, the flaming slash breaking through one of them before coming to a stop against the second one, cracks spreading out across the barrier but it didn't break.

"This girl is strong, she generates shockwaves with her strikes and those barriers are quite durable. I'm rather low on stamina and Mana after my last fight, Raven may have healed my injuries but my fatigue is still rather high. I'm far from being at my best right now, it'll be tough to defeat her in my current state.

In which case, perhaps my best option is to maintain this stalemate and buy time, instead of potentially risking defeat. I must keep her occupied...her defense is solid but her offense is limited to close-range. I'd like to simply overwhelm her with a barrage of flames, but I don't have enough Mana left...Raven barely had enough time to heal us, let alone restore our Mana. I suppose I'll just have to make do," Jules thought to herself, before unleashing a pressurized slash of flames towards her opponent.

She was using a small amount of Mana, only shed pressurized and concentrated it to its absolute limit, generating an immense amount of speed and force.

Her opponent narrowly blocked the attack with a couple of barrier walls, before forming a thick, layered barrier dome around herself as Jules unfurled a vicious barrage of rapid, concentrated slashes of flames, cracks spreading rapidly across the barrier and shrinking as her opponent repaired the damage as fast as she could.

"I doubt she has an unlimited supply of Mana, or whatever energy her powers are fueled by, so she cannot maintain her barriers forever. My attacks may be failing to break through, but I've got her pinned down, so she can't attack me either," Jules thought to herself, as she continued attacking, striking the barrier repeatedly.

Suddenly, her eyes widened in surprise as her opponent deactivated the barrier, before stomping on the ground and unleashing a powerful shockwave, launching her up into the air.

Jules fired another slashing wave up at her, before her opponent whipped her arm across and unleashed another shockwave, blasting herself across to the left, before launching herself straight down towards Jules with a shockwave behind her.

Jules sprang back right in the nick of time as her opponent closed in on her, another shockwave erupting out as she landed, blasting the ground apart before quickly forming a barrier in front of herself as Jules swung her blade across and fired another slashing wave, narrowly blocking it.

"That was close...," Her opponent muttered, eyeing Jules warily.

"I see, she can use that ability to generate shockwaves with a lot more versatility than I thought, I need to be careful," Frowned Jules, narrowing her gaze at her opponent...

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the playing field...

Wistari unleashed several blasts of lightning as a wave of ice spikes came rising up towards her, the spikes shattering to pieces as she peppered them with her lightning, before racing towards her opponent.

She swerved across as fast as she could as a large hammer of ice appeared before plummeting down towards her, hitting the ground with a deafening crash and shattering, before Wistari unleashed a rapid, crackling bolt of lightning towards her opponent, who swiftly raised a wall of ice, blocking the attack.

Wistari raced towards her, weaving through the space as a barrage of ice arrows came shooting out towards her, a few of them grazing her as she avoided any direct hits, before firing out a lightning blast from her mouth.

Her opponent narrowly blocked the attack as he formed a chunk of ice in front of himself, which shattered with a puff of mist as the blast struck it, before Wistari leapt forward as she closed in, lightning crackling around her blades.

As she swung her blades down, her opponent formed a couple of chunks of ice, intercepting her slashes before she quickly lowered her blades defensively as a pole of ice rapidly extended towards her stomach.

It struck her crossed blades with a sharp clang, pushing her several meters back across the space, her feet skidding along the ground before she came to a halt, letting out a slow exhale as she kept a close eye on her opponent.

She then zipped across as a barrage of ice shards came shooting out towards her, blasting several of them with bolts of lightning while blocking the ones she missed with her blades, deflecting them away, grimacing as a few of the shards grazed her, drawing out trickles of blood.

Her opponent then stopped firing and formed a thick wall of ice in front of himself as Wistari unleashed a barrage of intense, crackling lightning streaks towards him, which danced across the ground and struck the ice wall, shrinking it down and blasting it apart, before several ice disks came shooting out towards her from behind the wall.

Wistari raced away, ducking and weaving to evade the disks, as her opponent took down the ice wall and focused on attacking.

"He's strong, I am barely holding my own. I cannot afford to lose focus for even a moment, a single mistake could prove fatal. I must be careful," Wistari thought to herself, as she continued evading the attacks...