Riva swallowed a lump in her throat. She felt her throat parched, her muscles tensed. The air was hot but her body felt chilly. She knew what this feeling was. It was fear, something she had not felt ever since the battle with the Great Ravager in the Scorching Sands. She was the best fighter amongst the Lavans. That was the general consensus of her people. Grand Marshal Lionel could rival her but only in brute strength. She was humble with her exploits and achievements, which made her position as the best fighter a fact known only to her people. The other tribes knew not about this.

  At present, Riva felt inadequate in front of the Syer with dark markings over its body. She had seen them before but she had never fought one. There were a few times where the human traders would be escorted by these mechanical puppets. She knew how formidable these golems were, even though she had never fought them. Now, the Syer in front of her was different, not just in appearance.

  Riva didn’t have time to concoct a pn of action. This was an entirely new foe. She knew not what it could do and she didn’t have the time to figure it out as the Dark Syer was already on the offensive. She flipped to the side to avoid a ssh that reached further than the tip of its arm-bde. She noticed the familiarity of the manner the technique functioned. It resembled Aura Bde, a commonpce combat technique amongst the tribes of Ulrum.

  The Syer did not stall from its failed assault. It spun around and continued its offence. Riva brought her swords up in defence as the Syer thrust its arm-bde. Sparks flew and scattered from the result of the collision. Riva felt the mighty force behind the Syer’s thrust. She went stumbling back as a result. If it were anyone else but her, she doubted they would survive that blow even if they guarded against it.

  The Syer persisted and unleashed a flurry of attacks. Riva widened her eyes. Being a veteran of the battlefield, she had seen plenty of bloodshed and violence, but none could compare to the ferocity of the Syer. It swung its arm-bde at a pace that no being of flesh and blood could match. She parried a few blows, guarded two, and dodged the rest. If she hadn’t brought her trusty twin swords to this battle, she would have been able to keep her body intact as one. Any other steel would be destroyed by a single blow from the Syer.

  “This is no time to be reserved,” Riva told herself. Though she was being oppressed in this battle, she was not completely hopeless. Being the best fighter among the Lavans, she had plenty of tricks up her sleeves. As she exchanged blows that she couldn’t dodge with the Syer, her bdes ignited into fmes. Suddenly, she began pressing back the Syer’s momentum.

  For a brief moment, the Syer had a confused expression. Riva did not let that slip. As far as she knew, Syers had no emotions. They were not alive. They were just machines. Yet, this one showed a reaction to the shift of the battle tide. Seizing the opportunity, Riva began the retaliation. It was her turn to unleash a flurry of attacks. Though she wasn’t swinging as fast as the Syer, the strength behind her blows were enough to slow the Syer’s impetus.

  The Syer retreated away from Riva’s frenzy retaliation, far enough for it to be safe out of Riva’s reach. However, Riva leapt at the Syer, twirling in the air along with her swords. The Syer was fast but it still cked agility. It couldn’t evade Riva’s assault. The Syer was forced to meet her bdes. It flinched when the edges cshed. The Syer stumbled a step back but it regained it immediately with her wide swing of its arm-bdes.

  Riva dodged low but the Syer was anticipating this. It brought its arm-bdes back down on her mid-swing. Riva rolled out of the way and countered with a quick thrust. The Syer swung upwards without losing its momentum. Riva retracted her thrust and aimed for the Syer’s legs. It reverted its commitment and parried the strikes that were aiming for its legs. Riva kept throwing feints and counters and the Syers responded aptly to her tricks… until it fell for one feint.

  Riva had lunged forward with her head and neck bared for any bdes to cut. The Syer took the bait and went in for the kill. However, Riva dodged its bdes by a hair’s breadth, gliding harmlessly over her neck. Simultaneously, she was swinging her swords in a wide motion. Her swords caught the Syer’s waist. The Syer’s stance crooked and it was forced to leap out of harm’s way to recover its bearings.

  Riva clicked her tongue. If that had been an individual of flesh and blood, this fight would have been over right then and there. For a machine like a Syer, it would be an inconvenience at worst. Riva did not let the Syer assess its damage. She lunged with her swords raised. The Syer lunged in response. If they csh with their heads, the Syer would surely be the victor. Using her swords, Riva flipped over the Syer and spun with a ssh.

  The Syer spared no gnce but it blocked Riva’s bde regardless. Instead of tutting, Riva smirked. She pressed her sword into the Syer’s guard. She swung her other sword with the fmes raging stronger than before. As her sword cshed into the bde-lock, an explosion ensued as a result of the csh. The Syer was sent tumbling but not for long. It stopped its roll and flipped back onto its feet. It raised its bde-arm to guard against the next attack, only to realise it was missing half an arm.

  Realising its limits, the Syer also transformed its other arm into a bde.

  Riva dashed through the smoke and dust with the fmes burning as fearsome as ever on her swords. The Syer thrust its arm-bde, unching an invisible projectile that could be discerned only by the whistling noise it left in its wake. Riva couldn’t see the attack but she felt it. She deftly dodged the projectile and swung her swords even though she was nowhere close to the Syer.

  The Syer prepared to defend, anticipating an attack simir in nature to the Aura Bde. However, instead of an aura projectile, a gigantic aura manifestation appeared around Riva, bearing an appearance of an armoured soldier wielding twin greatswords that were as rge as the wielder itself. The manifestation swung its swords along with Riva, their movements and stances mirroring one another.

  The Syer froze. Of all the things it had anticipated Riva to do, this was not one of them, not even in a million years. It was simply outside of its logic parameters. Such a feat was never thought possible by its creator. The Syer dodged out of the way at the st moment before the manifestation struck the ground where it had stood. Before the Syer could find its bance, the manifestation began throwing javelins moulded of aura at the Syer. Each of the javelins exploded upon contact with a solid surface.

  The Syer had a difficult time avoiding the manifestation’s attacks. The manifestation was as fast as its conjurer but as it was far rger, the reach of its attacks were also rger. When the Syer tried to close the gap between it and Riva, the tter would employ her swords, which her manifestation mirrored. Unencumbered by its size and weight, the manifestation was gradually overpowering the Syer. The manifestation eventually struck the Syer on its side and sent it flying a good distance away.

  While Riva was joyous about the overturned flow of the battle, she was not convinced of her victory even in the slightest. True to her unease and uncertainty, the Syer rose from the small crater it had formed when it crashed into the ground. It limped out of the crater with half of its body warped from damages. It twisted its crooked leg until it was bent back into position, eliminating its limp.

  “Just how far has human understanding advanced?” Riva muttered grimly to herself. The only opponent that had survived a strike from her Aura Manifestation was the Great Ravager and a Syer had just survived that very same manner of attack.

  The Syer gathered all of its bearings and charged at Riva as a pair of wings sprouted from its back.

  It was Riva’s turn to be astonished and dumbfounded but her surprise didn’t st as long. She had no idea what this particur Syer was capable of but she had prepared herself for the unexpected. The wings allowed the Syer to swiftly evade all of the manifestation’s attacks and reach Riva with little difficulty. Riva dispelled the manifestation and leapt away from the Syer’s storm of sshes.

  The Syer chased her down with ease as it was moving through the air. Riva tried creating more distance but the Syer was faster. It came into her path and unleashed a ssh that sliced through everything for hundreds of yards. Riva had shrunk herself to avoid the lethal cut. Before she could retaliate, the Syer was already upon her. She swung her swords in haste but the Syer battered her swords out of her hands with its wings. Before the Syer could finish her off, they both heard noises rapidly approaching them. It was the Lavan soldiers, they were catching up to her.

  “Hell,” Riva cursed. “Not now.”

  This was no time for reinforcement. They were not half the fighter she was, as much as she hated to admit it. They would be of no help to her. They would only be liabilities.

  Riva took advantage of the Syer's brief pse in its loss of focus. She stuck the Syer in its chest with her palm coated in her aura. The Syer stumbled but remained unharmed by the sudden strike. It shrugged as if to show Riva her ck of strength. Perhaps the Syer sensed the Oni’s dread, it turned its attention to the approaching sound. It then began striding towards the Lavan army.

  Riva tried to stop the Syer but a beat of its wing sent her sprawling away. She recovered her swords and charged at the Syer once again. The Syer turned around and traded blows with Riva until the tter strengthened her strikes and pressed her assault. The Syer struggled to push back against Riva with only one arm until it retracted its wings and grew back its missing arm.

  Riva shuddered at the realisation but before she could back away, the Syer impaled the arm-bde through her body. The bde missed her vital organs but a bde through a body was nothing to scoff at. Being a veteran warrior, Riva endured the pain and grabbed the bde, preventing the Syer from retracting its arm. Then, she brought her sword down, slicing the Syer’s arm off. Before she could get another swing at the Syer, it kicked her away to save its own neck.

  The Syer approached Riva and pulled its severed arm-bde out of Riva’s body and merged it back onto itself. Riva screamed from the pain of the bde being yanked out of her. She bit the agony down and forced herself to stand. The Syer noticed this and kicked Riva back to the ground. She coughed and retched. She gagged at her attempt to scream. The pain was reaching levels that she could no longer bear.

  The Syer raised its arm-bde, preparing to end Riva’s life and suffering. But before it pass the sentence, a streak of pressurised air tore through its arm. The air nearly took its head but the Syer dove out of harm’s way. It looked to the sky and saw a giant shadow gliding above the clouds. Then, it turned around after sensing the air shifting behind it. It was too te. A fist crashed into its body from behind. Unlike Riva’s palm strike that merely made it stumble, this fist completely obliterated all that was in its way. And this fist belonged to a woman with long white hair and dark yet pale bluish skin.