Chapter 180: The Satin And Lace – Ace

“So..” Zura said, pausing to flip locks of her long, black hair to the side. This small act caused a sweet smelling scent to waft through the air.

“Are you ready?” She asked. The two were now standing in the center of the large courtyard in front of the Silken Petal.

“Are you sure you want to do it here? The landscaping is so nice. I’d feel guilty if I messed up your lawn. Besides, I just got in trouble for fighting in public..” Agni asked.

“It’s fine. I can pay to have it redone. As long as your battles aren’t disrupting uninvolved parties, you’re fine.” Zura said with a pleasant smile.

“Okay..” Agni replied as she stepped forth. The distance between them was a little less than three meters (9ft) in distance. Agni pondered all of the tools in her arsenal, Whisper would require bridging the distance to at least six meters, but even then she wasn’t sure how effective the technique would be.

“Is anything off limits?” Agni asked as she sized up her ‘opponent’.

“No. Use any means at your disposal.” Zura replied.

“However, for the purposes of this sparring session — you must force me to my knees to consider it a win. The same applies to you.” Zura explained. The Courtesan lifted her right hand, causing a long satin sash to appear. The item draped around her neck and coiled around each arm. Rather than a piece of clothing, the item seemed alive, suggesting to Agni that it was a weapon of some sort.

Though Agni was the one to suggest the sparring session, she was now having reservations. The woman before her was absolutely beautiful. Zura held a certain grace and quality to her, one that Agni had yet to capture as a woman. Her aura was so..alluring, so attractive that Agni felt “wrong” even considering the act of aggression against her.

Unlike the aura of overwhelming strength and power which emanated from Vivian Lex, Zura Rigart felt out of Agni’s league.

Untouchable Queen.

These two words formed in Agni’s mind before she could convince herself to think otherwise. She shook her head to dispel lingering doubts and took a step closer. Agni wasn’t sure why, but she felt rooted in place. It was as if she now felt reluctant to even act.

“What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind. And here I thought I would finally get to stretch a bit. Don’t tease me.” Zura’s words were playful and light, more like flirtation than provocation. Nevertheless, Agni realized them for what they were, a call to battle.

*Fine. Let’s see how she handles this.*

Agni lifted her right hand and began to focus, causing a spark of flames to issue forth and arc outwards towards Zura. The Courtesan seemed unbothered, she didn’t make a single motion to indicate that she would try to evade the magical attack. Instead her sash, the one that seemed to coil and writhe around her shoulders and arms like a snake, lashed out. The sash extended, a faint glow of mana covering it, as it coiled around the magical orb of flames and snuffed it from existence. The counter skillfully cancelled out Agni’s probing strike with minimal effort.

*That’s impressive…* Agni thought to herself as she cycled through her list of options. She decided on testing Zura’s reaction to mid-range attacks. Agni called forth her halberd and hop-stepped forward, performing a lunging swing as she did so. Just when it seemed that the weapon would strike Zura’s neck, the Courtesan pivoted, turning her body towards the blade of the halberd. The sash around her shoulders then arranged itself to intercept the blow.

Agni watched as the sash hardened, allowing her to “catch” the strike effortlessly. With another pivoting motion of her body Zura jerked Agni forth by the handle of her own weapon, the force was significant enough to break her balance, distracting the succubus. This split second was enough for Zura to gain the upper hand in their scuffle. Agni found her wrists bound by two red ribbons of sash, each pulling at her from different directions in response to Zura’s hand movements.

The succubus was then lifted upwards until her toes no longer touched the ground. She could only dangle like freshly done laundry as Zura smirked coyly in her direction.

“You’re already enjoying this aren’t you.” Agni murmured, once again she felt flush in the face.

“A little. Ha ha.” Zura said with a chuckle. This was one of the few times Agni had the pleasure of seeing the woman smile, it reminded her of sunshine. Zura gently placed Agni on the ground, the sashes binding her wrists receded and Zura nodded her head slightly.

“You don’t have to hold back, you know. Despite my looks I am a rank three adventurer. Halfhearted attacks will never reach me.” Zura said as she placed her fingertips against her bosom.

“I’m not holding back…I’m just seeing what works..” Agni retorted as she sent her halberd away.

*This is…a lot tougher than I thought. She sealed my long range and mid range attacks easily.*

After a moment’s consideration, Agni settled on a new plan of attack. The sash extended quite far, at least two meters and as such Agni was now about this distance from Zura. She decided to use this to her advantage if possible.

*Maybe I can overwhelm her.* Agni thought as she brought her hands to chest level and turned them palms upward. This act sent a sphere of mana outwards around Agni, it was the same technique that Oliver Pagnal had gone through great pains to teach Agni and the others most recently. During her time in the red shard, she was forced to keep this ability, Mana Reading, active at all times. And during her most recent camping trip Agni acquired a new application of the technique. In essence, Mana Reading was the ability to divide a large mass of mana into many smaller segments until they were tiny spheres.

These spheres would then normally function as a means of early detection, invisible to the naked eye. But Agni modified the technique to one that could be used like this–

A visible mass of mana energy extended outwards, with Agni as the point of origin. This mass of energy then began to divide into several dozen spheres, each of a different size and mana density. The final step was to infuse her will into these spheres of mana. Agni closed her eyes and forced her mana outward even further, converting the mana spheres into balls of flame. Despite having performed this feat of magic, Agni was also surprised. She played around with manipulating the orbs of mana, but never took the final step of infusing flames to the technique.

“Well, this is impressive. Is this free magic? You’re quite skilled to be able to do something like this without a spell.” Zura said, genuinely amazed. There were at least twenty orbs of flame, many of differing sizes and intensity which surrounded the space around Agni. The closest of them to Zura was a little less than one meter (3ft).

“I try.” Was all Agni said before she began to release the barrage of fireballs towards Zura. Fireballs large and small began to issue forth, causing a satisfying whoosh of flames with each movement. Zura was quick to respond, she dashed to her side — at least as much as her current dress (a kimono) would allow. The larger fireballs moved much slower, allowing her some wiggle room to evade. The smaller ones traveled more like bullets of flame and made it to their target — only to be blocked by Zura’s mana infused sash. The satin ribbons moved around on their own, as if they were a form of automated defense.

Furthermore Zura’s movements were agile and efficient. She dodged most of the flame spheres outright and her sash blocked the others. The few that did manage to get close were swatted away by Zura herself using her bare hands.

When all was said and done Agni was left awestruck, over half of her mana was also gone in the process.

“My turn.” Zura said with a smile as she brought her left hand up to her lips and blew a kiss in Agni’s direction. For a moment Agni thought that she might be hallucinating, as a vivid display of colorful flowers and petals sprang into being. These flowers were carried on an air current which saw even more flowers spring into being from impossible places. A soft, sweet scent filled Agni’s nostrils , the same scent she smelled prior to their show of skill. Agni could feel her senses dull as a haze overcame her, forcing her to sink downward.

When Agni came to the sight of cascading flowers had disappeared. She was bound, the satin sash looped around her neck and traced down her back to bind her wrists together. She was also on her knees staring at the neatly trimmed grass of the courtyard.

“I win.” Zura said, her voice appearing from behind the captive Succubus..