Chapter Twenty Three: Eris Vs Lucina

Both Lucina and Eris launch at each other like rockets, cracking the ground where they originally stood as they attack. Their gauntlets collide almost instantly with each other, sending a shockwave through the entire colosseum, and leaving a shallow crater underneath their bodies. Both the vampire and the werewolf feel a sharp sting in their hands where their fists collide, but they still smile at each other with excitement.

Lucina moves around her fingers and says, "That was epic! My hand has never hurt like that!"

"That's because you haven't faced your mistress in battle before. But now I'll change things up a bit more. Come forth sword of Azrael, Nightmare!"

A black sword appears in Eris's right hand. The black blade of the sword is almost as long as Eris's arm, and it tapers towards the end. The weapon has a t-shaped guard in the shape of a pair of black, angel-like wings, and a diamond-shaped fuller at the end. Then there are red, rose vine-like patterns going up the length of the blade. Eris also notices that a sheath for the blade appears on the left side of her waist.

"Using a sword in a fist fight? That's kinda unfair isn't it?" Lucina asks with a joking smile.

"Don't give me that. Those gauntlets on your arms should be easily able to block a strike from this sword."

At that point, the two attack each other head on once more. This time, Eris attacks with a downward slash, but Lucina sends her fist straight into the blade. Like Eris said, Lucina's gauntlet received the slash, and they blocked each other. The two get into a pushing match, Eris with her blade and Lucinae with her fist. In the end, they push themselves off each other, and send each other flying back fifty feet. Then Lucina quickly closes the distance between the two of them and unleashes a flurry of fast-flying punches. With the steel of Nightmare, Eris deflects the werewolf's fast-flying punches. The Eris starts moving around the stadium at high speeds in order to better block Lucina's onslaught. To the average eye, it would appear that the two of them have just disappeared and that there were random booms and sounds of clashing metal coming from the field. But in reality, these two were moving at unimaginable speeds.

Eris goes in for a horizontal slash. Lucina evaded by jumping back with a backwards flip. The werewolf lands her hands and feet, and pushes herself off the ground, towards Eris, with all her strength.

The vampire is able to block the side kick that Lucina hits her with, in the next second. She then pushes the werewolf away, and goes in for a slash while Lucina is still suspended in mid air.

Lucina sees the attack coming and puts up her metal gauntlets and greaves to defend. Her plan works, as she's sent flying through the stadium by the force of Eris' blade. She manages to recover and land on her feet, but Eris doesn't give her room to breathe.

The vampire launches herself at Lucina, who still has yet to get a stable footing, and goes for another horizontal slash. The only thing Lucina can think to do is use her body's flexibility and bend over backwards to avoid the attack.

Doing this surprises Eris, and Lucina manages to land a powerful kick in the vampire's abdomen. Eris is sent flying back, and digs her blade into the dirt of the field to keep her from going into the wall.

The two of them keep up with their current state until Eris notices Lucina's fist starting to glow with an orange color. The vampire quickly puts up her sword to block. Though the weapon blocks the brunt of the hit, Eris is sent flying into the wall at the other end of the stadium. A massive amount of dirt is kicked up and pieces of the stadium wall fly across the field as a result of the vampire's impact. Some of the spectators gasp at the sight of their revered empress being sent flying.

Hadrian stands and shouts angrily, "Lucina! That was too far!"

"Huh?!" Lucina asks with a confused and worried expression.

A voice emerges from the cloud of dirt and dust, "Stop Hadrian!" the spectators and Lucina turn to see Eris emerge from the cloud with only a small scrape on her left cheek, "I told her that she can go all out with the exception of magic. There's no need to reprimand her."

"Very well, Empress," he answers with a sigh.

Eris wipes the blood off her cheek with her gauntlet, "Want to keep going?"

"I will if that's what you want, mistress," the werewolf answers as she gets into a fighting stance with her wolf's tail wagging.

Eris' left hand becomes engulfed in red flames that seem to form savage-looking claws and Lucina's right hand does the same but with orange flames. The vampire and werewolf one again face each other with a head-on attack, and as their flaming claws touch, a massive explosion and shockwave is created. A huge cloud of dirt and dust is kicked up as both Eris and Lucina are sent into opposite walls of the stadium, creating smaller clouds from their impacts.

Even though Eris is confused by the situation, she can't help but smile as she's embedded in the wall. Not only is she able to use t powers that her avatar possessed in the game, but she has tons of knowledge within her head. Weapon techniques and various martial arts, grappling techniques, magic. She has knowledge that only master fighters who have been training for all their lives should have, and she's able to utilize them to their fullest. With all of this, the vampire gets more and more excited as the battle continues.

The fighters pull themselves off the wall and continue with their deul. From that point onwards, they begin to move as fast and to attack as powerfully as they possibly can. Craters are formed where their weapons make contact, clouds of dirt are kicked up where they hit, and the walls and grounds of the arena start to crack and crumble. After almost thirty minutes of non-stop fighting, the werewolf is brought to her knees. Eris stands over her with the edge of Nightmare at her throat.

"Checkmate," Eris says with a smile.

Lucina smiles as well, "You're as amazing as ever, mistress."

Eris lowers her weapon and then places it in its sheath before Hadiran stands and exclaims, "Empress Eris is the winner!"

The crowd claps and cheers while Eris thinks, "I don't think I got the opportunity to test out my All-Seeing Demon Eyes Skill in the game. I shouldn't use any damaging ones so…" she then speaks to the werewolf, "Lucina, do you mind if I look at your power?"

"Go ahead, Empress."

The werewolf watches as Eris' eyes turn from a blood red to a beautiful green color. However, the result of this test is not what the vampire expected. Eris expected to see her stats, skills, and titles, but instead, she's looking as a black outline of Lucina. In the center of the black body, there's a large white flame. Eris looks at her own body to find a similar white flame but hers is just a bit bigger.

"What's wrong, mistress?" Lucina asks, noticing Eris' confused expression.

"Don't worry about it," she answers with her eyes going back to their original red color, "More importantly, I have orders for all of you."

Hadrian, speaks as he and the others make it to Eris' side, "Yes, Empress."

"I want a constant watch on our surroundings and within the castle itself. Nothing will move unless I hear about it. Chrono, Lulu."

Two individuals step forwards. One is a male with red eyes, black hair that reaches to his shoulders, and slightly pale skin. He wears a black long coat that goes almost down to his ankles, a white shirt, black pants, and fancy black shoes. He also wears black gloves that have red, chain-like patterns on each of the fingers.

The other is a young girl that looks to be around fifteen years old, with light skin, bright green eyes, and long blond hair tied in twin tails with black, crescent moon-shaped hair pins. She wears a black jacket, black shirt, black skirt, black leggings, and black boots to top it off. Like the young gentleman beside her.

Chrono and Lulu kneel before Eris and answer, "Yes, you highness?"

"Until I'm sure the perimeter is safe, you two will be my bodyguards. As for the rest of you, you have your orders."

They all kneel and say, "As you command, Empress."