Ravens of Eternity

Lucifer blocked and evaded all of them as best ze could. Ze ducked down as Freya’s hook flew above, then swept hir leg under Freya. When she fell to the ground again, ze performed a powerful downward ground punch, and poured extra energy into it.

But Freya quickly blocked it with her forearms, and redirected the strike’s energy off to the side. At the same time, she swung her legs upwards, planted her feet on hir chest, then kicked Lucifer away.

She then used the momentum to flip herself back upright, as Lucifer flipped with a back handspring to regain hir balance.

The two faced each other quickly, then re-engaged in melee.

Freya was once again hyper aggressive with her attacks, and pummeled Lucifer with a multitude of strikes from every angle. She began with an overhand right, then a left uppercut, followed by a fast right jab, then a left knee.

Lucifer did hir best and parried, blocked, or evaded each of Freya’s blows, but that was all ze could do. Freya’s attacks suddenly became too frenzied and powerful.

So much that ze could feel the devastating strength of her fists despite how much ze redirected or blocked their energy. As a result, ze had no choice but to empower hir body even further to compensate.

.....

It dawned on hir that things would only escalate to their peak, and grinned in anticipation for the moment. Then, ze realized that if ze wanted to take Freya out, ze needed to up hir game a considerable amount.

Waiting for an opportune moment was without a doubt, the wrong move. So far, the two were frozen to a veritable standstill, and the only way to break out of it was to make a daring play.

As they exchanged blows, Lucifer contrasted their styles as ze devised hir plan. Hir preferred style had always been high on lateral movement and counterattacks. Freya was adept at fighting both forward and laterally, and was highly aggressive on top of that.

Ze recognized hints of the Naval academy’s close quarters combat style in it, and saw the doctrine of speed etched in many of her moves. Although Lucifer didn’t know the style at all, ze understood the mechanics of the Drogar bladedancer – or at least what ze had seen of the dance on the Ravens’ ‘Cast.

Hir mind analyzed potential weaknesses in the two styles, and formulated counters to any that stuck out. But again, ze couldn’t wait for Freya to use them – instead, ze had to create those opportunities for hirself.

The play was now to entrap Freya into a counter that she couldn’t defend against, and the devil couldn’t help but grin at the thought.

Lucifer ducked under one of Freya’s extremely powerful left hooks, and threw a straight left towards her gut. As predicted, she spun away as she evaded it, twirled around, and flung a backhand right in response.

However, instead of evading it, ze allowed it to cross her defenses. Her blocking arm slipped beneath it just enough to let it pass. Then Lucifer leapt forward with a burst of speed as ze extended hir arm into a hook, and slammed into Freya’s side.

The force of it was powerful enough to knock all of the wind out of her. But Lucifer was far from done.

Ze slammed her to the ground with incredible force, and dazed her from the blow. Then, while Freya was stunned, pulled her arm behind her back and pushed her wrist to its rotational limit. She was forced to turn her body face-down on the ground as a result.

At the same time, ze put hir knee on Freya’s back and pinned her onto the mat.

Pain shot through Freya as Lucifer pressed an arm hold on her shoulder. She felt her muscles strain as ze pushed it right to the very maximum she could handle.

“Yield,” Lucifer said. “You can’t get out of this. It’s simple body mechanics. Your shoulder won’t go any further than this. If I put any more pressure on it, it’ll get dislocated.”

Ze then applied a tiny amount of pressure, which caused an unbearable amount of pain for Freya. Not just in her shoulder, but her wrist as well. Lucifer had an incredible hold on her, and she knew it. Her shoulder certainly wouldn’t go any further.

But getting out of it? That was a completely different story.

She laughed at hir declaration, then softened her bones and relaxed her muscles. Their sudden elasticity loosened all of the tension within her arm and shoulder instantly, and whatever hold Lucifer held simply slipped out of joint.

The sensation was incredible to Lucifer – Freya’s internal structure had lost most of its rigidity, and the biomechanics that pinned her joints in place no longer applied.

Ze felt as Freya slipped underneath hir, and spun around easily, to the point where ze was now straddling her chest. Surprise had filled hir at that moment, and lacking any real options to fight, leapt off and backed away just as Freya reared back to strike hir in the face.

At which point, Freya resolidified her body, performed a kip up and got back to her feet. She got back into her stance, and raised her fists in the air.

“That was a really good try,” she said. “But you’re gonna have to do better than that.”

“I should’ve known you’d be able to do that,” Lucifer replied. “How’d I miss that in my research?”

“Haven’t really had a chance to use it often. The first time was to get out of Chase’s restraints. I found it so handy that I decided to keep practicing. Who knew it got me out of joint locks so easily too!”

Lucifer was now utterly stymied by Freya. Locking her joints and forcing a submission was no longer an option. Ze could wear her down and turn it into a battle of attrition, but had no idea if her stamina pool was greater than hir own.

It suddenly struck hir that winning the fight didn’t mean having to beat Freya into submission. There were other ways to defeat her. Just because ze couldn’t lock her didn’t mean ze was beaten.

Ze had proved that entrapping Freya into a counter was doable. Ze just needed to do it again and again until ze won.

Lucifer raised hir own arms up defensively, then began to circle Freya once again.

“Speaking of the commander,” ze said, “you really fucked that up, didn’t you?”

“Oh, what, now you’re saying I shouldn’t have killed him?” she replied.

“Not at all. Of course he needed to die. What I mean is, you should have killed him slowly. Painfully. Over the course of a week, or even more. Instead your instincts told you to kill him instantly, and got you sent into this mess.”

“It was the only choice I had! No way was I gonna let him have his way with me!”

Freya shot forward again, this time incensed by Lucifer’s provocations. She began with a straight right, followed by her favorite left hook, then threw a front kick. All of which were blocked and parried by Lucifer, who countered by sidestepping, and flung a knife hand right at Eva’s neck.

She moved her arm up to parry, just as Lucifer wanted, and instead of continuing hir strike simply grabbed her wrist again. With an incredibly swift motion, Lucifer grabbed Freya’s elbow with hir other hand, then twisted as ze threw her to the side.

Ze kicked her squarely in the chest as she stumbled to maintain her balance.

Freya was thrown back a half dozen meters from the force of the kick, and the wind was knocked out of her a second time. She felt her mind blur from the momentary lack of oxygen, but she kept her cool and did her best to stay on her feet.

She stumbled as she backed up, but remained upright. Then, she solidified her stance and restored her balance before Lucifer could press hir advantage.

“You should’ve let him do it,” Lucifer said. “It’s just a body. If you endured the indignity, bided your time, thought things through, you wouldn’t be going through this, now.”

“Just take it?” Freya exclaimed. “Are you serious? You think it’s okay to simply get assaulted? And what the hell would you know about it anyway?”

She didn’t even bother to wait for a response, and immediately charged forward and attacked Lucifer. She knew that ze was baiting her, but she couldn’t help it – she truly believed that what she did was right, and there was no shaking her from it.

Freya poured more power into herself and launched into another powerful combo – a few jabs and hooks and even a crescent kick in between. Lucifer blocked or evaded all of them, with only fractions of a second to spare.

And revealed a false opening for Freya to take.

Except this time, instead of capitalizing on the opening she spotted, Freya instead changed tack and performed a feint instead. She swung her hand out as though to clock Lucifer squarely in the face, but opened up her hand in surprise instead.

Lucifer was indeed surprised, the shock of it held hir for a moment. And although it was brief, it was certainly long enough for Freya to exploit.

While ze was focused on her surprise hand, her other one came in and smashed hir from the other side. The blow was strong enough that Lucifer’s eyesight blurred, and time stood still.

Ze raised hir arms up defensively and staggered backwards as hir mind recovered.

But Freya hardly waited. Instead, she pushed her advantage and performed a spinning roundhouse that threw hir to the ground from the force.

Lucifer felt the ground as ze hit it roughly, but didn’t bother to recover. Instead, ze rolled away quickly in case Freya continued to press. Then ze got up and shook hir head clear.

Both panted heavily while they both caught their breath.

“I know exactly what it’s like,” Lucifer said between breaths. “You aren’t the only one who had to suffer being violated, to be put through hell. Only I waited for the right time to strike. And he died slowly, painfully. Would’ve taken longer, but he was more fragile than I thought.”

This disarmed Freya, and she lowered her guard. Just a little.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” she said. “But you’re you, and I’m me. We both did what we needed to do, nothing more, nothing less.”

Freya inched closer as she raised her fists again.

She had since understood the place her trait had in her life. It certainly wasn’t the answer to everything, and it might seem like it was wrong at times. But it wasn’t actually wrong – what was wrong was her own perception of it. Her interpretation of it.

Freya had come to believe that it applied to everything that she did in life. But over the course of all the problems she had faced, realized that wasn’t how it worked at all.

It certainly guided her in the moment, like a form of prescience or foresight. It pulled her into certain directions, or out of the way of a bullet.

She was simply nudged in a direction, and how she chose to act was a matter of how she interpreted the feeling. It was never going to lead her towards some predestined conflict-free life, only a life that was slightly better than otherwise.

Slipping out of her restraints and killing the commander was going to be better than the alternative, no matter what anyone said.

With a smile, Freya shot forward once again, and showered Lucifer with a multitude of blows. As before, she avoided any obvious openings and instead let her instincts guide her to the next action.

“You can’t convince me that my instincts are wrong,” she said. “I’m using it against you right now!”

“Shouldn’t that mean that you’d be winning?” Lucifer retorted. “Except I’m still here and still standing!”

“I am winning! And besides, that goes for you, too. If your cold calculation is superior to my instincts, you would’ve flattened me by now. But you haven’t. Which means it isn’t. I dare you to prove me wrong.”

Lucifer’s eyes narrowed. There was definitely truth in what Freya was telling hir. Neither gained much ground, no matter how much they played to their strengths.

Ze had revealed multiple openings, but Freya didn’t bite a single one of them. It was clear hir gambit was now useless, thanks to her instincts. Which meant it was time to change things up.

Lucifer swatted Freya’s blow aside, then aggressively struck her with a strong right uppercut into her ribs. The move was so out of hir pattern that Freya was completely surprised by it.

Pain shot through her side as hir fist dug right into her. Not that ze stopped there.

Ze immediately followed up with a jab, then a cross, then a knee. And since Freya was caught off guard by the first hit, every subsequent blow struck squarely. She was knocked around by Lucifer’s powerful strikes, and dazed further by every blow.

Lucifer ended with a simple push kick that knocked Freya backwards put a bit of distance between them.

At the same time that Freya recovered her footing, ze pulled off hir coat and threw it to the ground.

“It’s time to get serious,” ze said.