Chapter 110: Still warming up
The air crackled with elemental power as Commander Elira faced Whisper, their initial clash sending shockwaves through the surrounding battlefield. Snow and ice particles hung suspended in the air between them, caught in competing currents of elemental energy.
*FZZZT-SNAP—BOOOM—tink-tink-tink*
"Your command of air is... adequate," Whisper taunted, her form seeming to blur at the edges as she stepped sideways with unnatural grace. "But air is merely the beginning. Void is the ultimate expression—the absence that defines presence."
*whssssh*
Elira’s response was a concentrated burst of compressed air that sliced through the space Whisper had occupied mere seconds before. The attack carved a deep furrow in the frozen ground, but Whisper had already shifted position, appearing three paces to the left with a subtle displacement of air.
*SHRIEEEEK—CHRRRKK—pop*
"You mistake speed for mastery," Whisper observed, raising both hands palm-outward. The space between them darkened visibly, light itself seeming to be drawn inward toward her fingertips with a low, ominous resonance. "Allow me to demonstrate true power."
*thrummm*
The void-tinged air shot forward in rippling waves. Elira countered with a swirling vortex of her own creation, the competing forces meeting with a thunderous impact that sent both warriors skidding backward through bloodstained snow. A nearby tree shattered from the concussive force, wooden splinters embedding themselves in the corpses littering the ground around them.
*VWOOM-VWOOM—WHOOSH-WHUUURL—CRACK-BOOOM—shhhk-shhhk—CRACK-SNAP-CRASHH—thunk-thunk*
Elira recovered first, drawing dual currents of air into a compressed sphere between her palms. The sphere rotated with increasing speed, creating a high-pitched whine as air molecules scraped against each other with violent intensity.