Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

As soon as Celaine switched up her strategy and began leaving openings, Mira knew exactly what she was trying to do.

However, even if she knew, she didn't have much of a choice other than to go on the attack. For one, Celaine was no longer performing actions she could learn from. Secondly, Mira could barely hold in her urge to attack, seeing Celaine leave so many openings.

Fortunately, Mira had learned plenty from being on the defensive, so there was no reason not to attack right now.

But as someone so experienced in battle, Mira wasn't going to attack the next opening Celaine leaves. There'll come a time when the 'fake' opening Celaine creates isn't fake.

'You've gotten quite cocky, haven't you? To think you even dare to bait me into attacking. Hmph! I guess it's time for me to show you the difference between skills and experience!' Mira thought to herself and began planning her counterattack.

The first step is obviously to show Celaine that she's planning something. To most, this would sound ridiculous as Mira would be leaking information to her enemy, but since Celaine already knows how fearsome she is in combat, it's a different story.

If Celaine saw that Mira was barely trying to counterattack, she'd turn skeptical and would immediately raise her guard. Celaine knows that Mira isn't so stupid that she can't see the openings she's leaving, so if Mira wasn't taking the bait, it meant that she was planning something.

Therefore, by showing Celaine that she has taken the bait, she can lessen that skepticism. Of course, Celaine will still be on guard, but hopefully not as much since the girl knows her openings are fakes.

The next step of the plan is to force Celaine into a state where the next opening she 'creates' won't be fake and will be an actual opening for Mira to take back the momentum in the fight.

However, this is where things get tricky, and Mira can only do this against Celaine because the two have fought against each other so many times. Even if Celaine's fundamentals are perfect and her movements are nearly flawless, her foundation is still the same.

If Mira were against someone else, she wouldn't bother taking this approach, but since it's Celaine, it shouldn't be a problem.

Just like Mira suspected, over the next few strikes, Celaine learned of Mira's intentions to strike back and prepared herself for Mira's attack. However, Mira kept slowly directing Celaine's saber in ways where 15 moves or so from now, an opening would appear.

The people watching could clearly tell that something was about to happen and held their breaths in anticipation. They've never seen someone at the same cultivation force Mira back to such an extent!

Although they were all grateful to her and the opportunities Mira granted them, they still couldn't help but want Mira to take a little beating herself. Of course, they only wanted someone within Mira's little group to beat her up, not some outsider. They wanted to return all the beatings that Mira gave to them back to her!

Maria was also thinking something similar, but for a totally different reason. Mira's injured body is so defenseless when she's badly injured, allowing Maria to kiss and touch her body all she wants.

Although she feels bad about Mira getting injured, she can't let go of such an opportunity, can she?

So, while everyone was cheering for Mira's loss for different reasons, Celaine's eyes narrowed as she sensed danger.

She had just left an opening for Mira to take, but for some reason, right after creating the opening, she felt like she shouldn't have done that.

Unfortunately, it was too late, and Mira had already swung her scythe towards her with enough force to rip her body apart if she took it head-on without any defenses.

Celaine had no intention of trying to block or deflect such an attack, so her only choice was to dodge.

In the middle of her dodge, she sensed another attack incoming, causing her to wonder what was going on.

Just a second ago, Mira was on the defensive with seemingly no hope of coming back, but everything went wrong in just a split second!

Now, Celaine not only lost all the momentum she had built up throughout the spar, but Mira was quickly taking over the fight and progressing at a rapid rate!

Mira didn't allow Celaine to gather her thoughts as she went on the offensive. With every twirl of her scythe, she gathered more momentum, causing her scythe to spin faster.

Mira was also using this time to understand how she could make her attacks more potent. From her experience and observations so far, wielding a scythe is all about timing, momentum, spacing, footwork, and deflections.

To Mira, all of this boils down to one thing: to never stop moving. As long as her scythe and feet are constantly in motion, then she's on track to bringing out the full potential of a scythe.

The scythe is a weapon unlike any other weapon, with its large frame, awkwardly shaped curved blade, and unique center of gravity. Although they are similar to a halberd or a battle axe, their curved blades drastically change the way they are used.

A scythe is a weapon meant for reaping lives if used properly. Every swing is meant to be a killing blow! Even if the blade just grazed someone, it should be more than enough to cause medium injuries due to the nature of a curved blade.

However, the downside of the scythe is its attacks are large, easy to read, and slow. At least, that'd be the case for someone who wanted to swing a scythe like a spear. That's why gathering momentum by always keeping the scythe in motion and spinning it is so important. That way, a scythe's weight, awkward center of gravity, and large swings can be turned into something fast and dangerous.

Truth be told, for these reasons, scythes are not all that great in spars like what Mira is in right now. Unlike weapons like sabers, swords, and spears that can be picked up and used at full potential without any preparation, a scythe takes a while to build up power, especially against a skilled opponent.

However, this is a weakness that Mira wants to circumvent! She felt that if she could find a to go from 0 to 100 in a split second, then she could successfully call herself a master with the scythe! Unfortunately, things weren't so easy, so all she could do now was to keep drilling the fundamentals.

The battle between the two raged on as Mira learned more about which muscles to use, how much she should use them for various actions, what kind of footwork she should be using for specific attacks, when she should retreat and advance, how to keep up her momentum no matter the situation, and many more things.

And although all these factors were improving at a rapid rate due to her pseudo-enlightened state, they were still nowhere near perfect. She'd have to fight against all kinds of people, beasts, and weapons if she ever wanted to reach the point where she could comprehend Scythe Intent.

Maybe if she was only using her martial arts, she could have achieved Intent by now, but she lacks the necessary experience with her scythe to be able to do that right now.

After another half an hour of fighting, Mira and Celaine had reached an equilibrium where neither of them were able to hold the advantage for very long. Occasionally, Celaine would be able to push Mira back, and other times, Mira was able to push Celaine, but neither of them were able to finish things.

Knowing that they reached a point where no matter how hard they tried, they won't be able to gain completely win, Mira and Celaine looked at each other, nodded, then jumped away from each other at the same time.

The people watching all knew that they were preparing for a final attack and watched on with bated breath!

Mira spun her scythe, allowing it to reach its maximum potential, while Celaine got in a peculiar stance that showed she was ready to end this in a single blow.

The two waited for each other until their preparations were done, showing their respect for one another as warriors.

Then, without warning or the need to say anything, the two disappeared from their spots and clashed!

*BOOM!*

That single clash caused the ground the fracture and dust to fly everywhere, making it, so the ones watching could not see the battle's conclusion.

They all leaned forward, hoping to see a saber held against Mira's throat! The only person who was unconcerned and even a little disappointed about this whole thing was Maria. She didn't need to be able to see, to know what the outcome was.

She shook her head lightly while thinking, 'Dammit, Celaine, couldn't you have at least broken a few bones?! How am I supposed to get my cuddle time with Mira if you end it just like that?!'