[???]
"Che."
Mallory tilted her head, just enough to let the crackling, lightning-infused fist of Lukas barely miss her face. The force of his punch tore through the space where her skull had been just milliseconds before, the air hissing in protest at the velocity. Electricity arced violently in all directions, illuminating the air in brief, erratic flashes. But Mallory? She remained unbothered, exhaling through her nose as she leisurely backpedaled, her pace more akin to someone taking a casual stroll rather than engaging in a high-stakes battle.
Even as she moved, her hand shot up to her cap, adjusting it ever so slightly. Priorities. Her emerald eyes, however, weren't even trained on Lukas. Not in the slightest.
As if to further demonstrate just how ridiculously detached she was, her movements remained loose and effortless as she twisted at the waist, barely avoiding a serpent-like abomination that lunged for her. The creature hissed as it coiled past her, its unnatural body writhing back toward its master, Adrian.
The two young men—one a wielder of a Divine Relic, the other a summoner of demons—stood ready before her. Yet, Mallory still looked bored.
And that? That irked Lukas more than anything.
Even as his fingers clenched into fists, his blue eyes seething with irritation, Mallory remained unfazed, her gaze locked elsewhere—off in the distance, where the aftermath of an absurd event was unfolding.
Grimm.
Blasted. Into. Space.
Her lips curled into a smirk, smug satisfaction rolling off her in waves as she bore witness to her own General being hurled into the abyss of space.
("Heh. Serves you right for tossing me like a bag of potatoes.")
Before she could bask any longer in this moment of petty revenge, Lukas surged forward, his leg snapping out in a merciless sweep. A direct attempt to take her legs out from under her.
Yet.
Mallory's foot lifted off the ground at the perfect moment, dodging the attack without even looking.
Her body twisted midair, an effortless backflip following suit. The motion was natural, as though she'd done it a thousand times over in her sleep. The moment her boots met the ground once more, her landing was graceful, as though she hadn't just evaded a strike that could've sent her sprawling.
And perhaps most importantly?
Her hat was still perfectly in place.
That was the real achievement here.
"Where the hell are you looking!?" Lukas roared, his patience finally snapping. His stance tightened, his fists sparking with barely contained anger as frustration bled into every fiber of his being. "This is a battle!"
Mallory, however, barely spared him a glance.
"Huh? You're still here?" she asked, her voice dripping with genuine disinterest.
But internally?
("Hmm. What should I have for dinner when this stupid festival is over? Pork or chicken? …Maybe both. Yeah, both sounds good.")
Adrian, meanwhile, watched—not nearly as ruffled as Lukas, his serpent demon, still coiled beside him, suddenly unraveled, its entire existence dissipating into wisps of black vapor.
"You're quite nimble," Adrian observed.
Mallory blinked, tilting her head at him before her lips curled ever so slightly.
"You hitting on me?" she asked.
Adrian froze, his eyes widened just a fraction, caught entirely off guard by the absurdity of the question.
Before he could even process a response, Mallory continued, dead serious, "Sorry, I'm only into boys prettier than me." She held up a hand, fingers lightly grazing her own smooth chin, as if deeply contemplating her own beauty. ("Or someone hot like the general,") Then, she shrugged, completely unapologetic.
Adrian simply… said nothing, he didn't even know what the appropriate words would be.
Lukas, on the other hand?
The vein on his forehead visibly twitched.
"Oh well," Mallory suddenly stretched, haphazardly throwing her arms above her head, her tone still light. "I best get serious."
Both Adrian and Lukas tensed on instinct, Mallory's gaze sharpened.
"Since the General does it, I will too," she stated, cracking her neck. "I'm uber strong, so you better give up now."
…
The silence that followed was deafening.
Adrian and Lukas both stared at her, completely deadpan.
Mallory blinked.
"...No takers?" she asked.
Her laziness, her uncaringness, the utter lack of presence or menace in her words—it was almost comical just how unfitting it all was for a battlefield.
But then…
Then she spoke again.
And the moment her lips parted—
"To be brought into existence… is in essence, a curse in itself."
A simple sentence, yet it was enough, a shift in the air—subtle, but palpable.
Adrian and Lukas felt it instantly.
Confusion flickered in their gazes.
Because something was forming. Not in some grand display of light or sound. Not in an eruption of something ethereal. But rather, something was simply coming into existence.
Forcefully.
Unnaturally.
A long, lithe shape manifested, its presence ripping through the space of reality as if it had always been there, merely waiting for someone to recognize it. Steely gray, metallic.
A spear.
A manifestation of a curse.
Mallory's fingers closed around the weapon effortlessly, as if the act of holding it was as natural to her as breathing. She gave it a casual spin—a casual spin that cut through the air so fast it nearly split the sound barrier.
The sharp edge sang.
Her emerald eyes lifted, now devoid of their previous droopiness, their laziness.
No.
Now, those eyes belonged to a killer.
"This is my Draconic Resonance."
Lukas and Adrian tensed.
"I define freely what the curse is… and then I bring it into existence."
A single step forward.
Adrian felt it immediately.
Lukas felt it immediately.
Her presence had changed entirely, the lazy, unbothered, half-asleep girl from before?
Gone.
"Last chance to give up." She lifted her spear, her posture now impossibly perfectly honed. "I won't play nice."
Lukas gritted his teeth, electricity crackled.
Mallory got her answer.
A split second.
That was all it took for the battlefield to shift.
Lukas's entire form ignited in blinding arcs of lightning, white-hot veins of energy exploding from his body, crackling with a intensity that turned the air around him into volatile energy. The heat from his surging power warped the space around him, the static alone causing the fabric of his armor to ripple violently against his form. His once-human silhouette was now obscured by the writhing tendrils of electricity.
And then along with that, reality split apart.
Adrian exhaled, his fingertips twitching as something—no, two things—began forcing their way into existence.
The air behind him ripped open, dark gashes tearing into space like slashes from an invisible claw. From those abyssal rifts, a blackened mist slithered forth, thick and putrid, seeping into the world with a vile, suffocating presence. It coiled outward, taking shape—flesh and bone being built from nothingness as two monstrous figures clawed their way out of the void.
Demon hounds had arrived.
Their hulking forms hit the ground with enough weight to cause the earth beneath them to tremble. Their skin was a mix of flesh and chitin, pulsating as though something inside of them was alive and moving. Their eyes—if they could even be called that—burned with eerie, hollow pits of red.
Mallory still did not look impressed.
Meanwhile Lukas's thundered across the area.
Lightning erupted beneath his feet as he launched forward, the earth beneath him exploding outward in a burst of electricity. His figure blurred, the force of his movement displacing the stone beneath him, sending debris scattering in all directions like shrapnel from an impact zone.
The two demon hounds mirrored his charge.
Three forces, one target.
Yet—
Mallory barely moved, barely shifted, she simply waited.
The moment before impact, she sidestepped.
A single, effortless pivot.
Lukas's blazing fist came within inches of her face. The static alone should have burned her skin, should have at least singed the edges of her uniform.
But it didn't.
Because by the time his fist closed the distance, she was already gone.
Mallory's body twisted her form moving just beyond the reach of Lukas's strike with a movement so natural it was almost insulting.
Lukas's fist slammed forward, detonating the air, but it hit nothing. And before Lukas could even process it—
SHRRKK!!
A single, flashing arc of movement—one that barely even seemed to register as an attack—
And the demon hounds were no more. Her spear's edge gleamed as it cleaved through both creatures in one seamless motion.
For a brief, frozen moment, nothing happened.
Then—
The hounds' bodies split apart, their forms severed with such speed that their halves barely even shifted at first.
They collapsed, their bodies dissolved into black mist, their existence forcibly undone.
Mallory landed softly, her boot pressing into the ground, her eyes still half-lidded, only now, her gaze turned fully onto Lukas.
"Your move, Sparky."
Lukas snarled as he twisted his entire body, using the momentum of his missed strike to shift into a follow-up attack. His heel snapped out, cutting through the air like a blade as he attempted to catch Mallory off-guard.
She ducked letting the kick pass over her head by mere inches, Lukas didn't let up.
A left hook—parried.
A knee strike—sidestepped.
A rising elbow—deflected with the blunt end of the spear.
Lukas's teeth clenched, his frustration mounting, Mallory's foot shot up, a perfect, razor-sharp axe kick, descending like a falling guillotine.
Lukas's eyes widened.
He barely had time to register it before—
CRACK!!
Her heel slammed down on his shoulder, the impact sending a shockwave through his entire frame, forcing him downward. His knees nearly buckled, the force rattling his bones, his body nearly collapsing beneath the impact.
Mallory landed, twirling her spear once before propping it against her shoulder, her expression lazily smug.
"What, already feeling sluggish?"
Lukas growled, Mallory, on the other hand, looked almost insultingly unbothered.
Her eyes flicked over Lukas disinterestedly, her movements loose, relaxed, as though she were fighting out of obligation rather than necessity. Even the way she adjusted her hat, casually tilting it back into place with the flick of a finger, was enough to make Lukas's jaw clench.
And then, with an exhale, Mallory smirked, smugly.
"What's with that look, Sparky? Don't tell me you're getting tired."
Lukas gritted his teeth.
Tired?
He'd show her tired.
The ground detonated beneath Lukas's feet as he kicked off, a massive surge of compressed wind and lightning blasting outward, his entire form vanished in a burst of speed, a flash of electric blue light cutting across the battlefield, heading straight for Mallory with the force of a hurricane.
She was already moving.
Mallory tilted her head lazily, her half-lidded eyes tracking Lukas's movement effortlessly, her expression still detached.
Lukas reappeared in an instant, his fist already cocked back.
Mallory barely shifted.
With an almost insulting level of casualness, she angled her body, letting Lukas's devastating punch sail past her by a hair's breadth. The wind pressure alone should have blown her back, should have at least forced her to brace—but it didn't.
Instead, Mallory's counterattack was already in motion.
Her leg snapped out, clean and precise, her heel striking out in a sharp side kick aimed directly at his ribs.
Lukas twisted—barely dodging.
But she was already following up.
The blunt end of her spear came next, swinging up in a sudden, whiplike motion, aiming for his jaw. Lukas barely had time to duck, the attack grazing over his head so closely that he could feel the wind off its edge.
Lukas countered.
He slammed his elbow forward, aiming for Mallory's sternum, but—
She flowed past it, weaving through.
And that was when—
WHOOSH.
The air roared to life, Lukas's fist suddenly unclenched, his fingers snapping outward, and in an instant—
A massive gust of wind exploded forward, compressed to the density of a steel wall, a force meant to engulf Mallory entirely.
She was already gone.
Not blown away, not overpowered—just simply not there anymore, by the time Lukas realized, Mallory had already sidestepped cleanly out of the blast zone, her form blurred, moving with the practice of someone who had done this far too many times before.
Her voice, however, remained annoyingly smug.
"Ohhh, is that your plan? Blow me away with hot air?"
Lukas growled, his frustration boiling over—
And he unleashed another.
This time—
Two enormous torrents of compressed wind erupted from his palms, cutting through the air like scythe blades, carving trenches into the battlefield.
Mallory's eyes flickered, the blades of wind screamed toward her, moving at speeds too fast for any normal warrior to react to.
Mallory…
Simply…
Walked through them, or at least, that's what it looked like.
In reality, she had noted every angle, every arc of motion, every millisecond of timing, and simply moved where they weren't. Not a single hair on her head was touched.
Her hat? Still perfectly in place.
Anyway—
Mallory attacked.
The ground cracked beneath her as she surged forward, her spear suddenly whipping into a blur of rapid strikes, its razor-sharp edge blurring.
Lukas blocked the first strike, barely.
Blocked the second.
The third grazed his shoulder.
A sudden kick followed.
Mallory's heel slammed upward, catching Lukas clean in the ribs, sending him skidding backward, his sabatons carving trenches into the stone beneath them.
He barely had time to recover before—
Her spear shaft struck him across the temple, rattling his skull with enough force to blur his vision.
Mallory spun her spear, her stance annoyingly relaxed, as if this was just another routine exercise.
She sighed.
"Sparky, you ever consider that fighting's just not your thing?"
Lukas's jaw tightened.
And with one final inhale, he unleashed everything, the sky itself, a hurricane of wind and electricity ignited.
Mallory, for the first time, paused, not because she was worried.
"Oh? Gonna get serious now?" She smirked, tapping her spear against her shoulder. "Guess I should at least pretend to try, huh?"
Her eyes barely shifted as an enormous fist, dark and riddled with red veins, came crashing down toward her from above. The air itself howled in protest, the force of the strike distorting space, sending spiraling shockwaves outward like a bomb about to erupt. The magnitude of the incoming destruction would have obliterated an entire regiment of soldiers on impact.
She yawned.
At the last possible moment, just as the enormous demon fist was about to flatten her like a bug, her form blurred—a lazy yet eerily fast sidestep carried her just inches from obliteration, the force of the impact sending splintering cracks tearing through the earth beneath her. Dust and debris exploded outward, but Mallory remained untouched.
Then—another one.
A second colossal fist surged in from the opposite side. Blackened skin, came crashing toward her with an even greater speed than before. The demon's massive form twisted, putting the full weight of its monstrous bulk behind the strike, aiming to catch the lieutenant and grind her into nothingness.
"Tch. You're gonna make me move more?" she muttered, feigning irritation as she shifted weightlessly—her body curving just outside the strike's lethal radius, her form brushing dangerously close to the monster's thick, gnarled knuckles.
The moment she moved, both behemoth demons let out inhuman roars, their malformed jaws stretching, their glowing eyes flaring with mindless anger.
Mallory's gaze swept downward, her free hand casually tapping against the demons' massive ashen legs.
And then, with a single bored breath, she uttered:
"I inflict the Curse of Decay."
The results were instantaneous, a sickening crackle resonated through the air, a nightmarish shuddering seizing both behemoth demons at once. Their towering bodies froze—no, they convulsed, their flesh beginning to distort, sag, and peel away in chunks.
The creatures howled—a shriek so harrowing it sent tremors across the area, their immense forms collapsing under the weight of their own self-destruction. Skin blackened and cracked, muscle withered and shriveled, and bones turned to dust in mere seconds. The towering demons had been reduced to rotting husks, then to nothing at all.
Mallory didn't even bother looking at them as they dissolved into the void.
Instead, she turned to Lukas, who, in the very same instant, had launched himself forward—his entire form enveloped in blinding arcs of lightning once more as he barreled toward her.
Mallory merely sighed.
At the very last second, just before Lukas's storm-clad fist made contact, Mallory's foot flicked outward—a casual sweep, as if she were brushing away an insect.
The result?
Lukas's entire body was yanked out from under him.
The moment her foot connected with his ankle, the full force of his momentum flipped against him—his body twisted wildly, his own power suddenly working against him. In less than a blink, he was on the ground, slamming onto his back with a resounding CRASH, electricity splintering outward, scorching the earth around him.
Mallory, standing over him, tilted her head lazily.
"Great strength can also be a curse, you know?"
Her tone was mocking, but there was something dead serious in her words, Lukas's eyes widened, his arms flexed, his body tensing to push himself up—
But he never got the chance.
Because the very next moment, Mallory flipped backward, her slender form arching, her leg snapping downward in a perfect crescent arc, her shin driving down directly into Lukas's stomach.
A shockwave detonated outward, cracking the earth and shattering the ground beneath them. Lukas's armor split upon contact, spiderweb fractures bursting across its once-pristine surface. A guttural choke escaped Lukas's lips as his pupils vanished to the back of his skull.
For a moment, silence.
"The contestant is unable to fight. Therefore, he is eliminated."
Then, in the next instance, a brilliant white glyph ignited beneath his fallen form. The runes pulsed, their glow intensifying—and in an instant, he was gone, whisked away.
Everything fell quiet.
Mallory exhaled, stretching her arms overhead with a lazy groan, her posture once again completely relaxed—as if she hadn't just single-handedly dismantled Lukas.
Then, casually, she adjusted her hat, tilting it back onto her head at just the right angle.
With a smug smirk, she muttered to herself:
"Hah… Well, that was easy." She exclaimed as her eyes snapped to something in the distance, "Holy shit."