As she stared up to the rise box, I growled. Running swiftly and tackling her to the ground, I grabbed Nyx's chin and roughly twisted her face towards mine.
"Never," I snarled, "turn your back to your opponent. If you're going to fight, then focus, and fight. But if you want to worry about things out of your control, you will get hurt."
She whimpered softly. "But...Amaterasux, she's--"
"Beyond your control," I said, my gaze softening. "Trust me, Nyx, I've seen this before. There's nothing you can do for her. She'll get better on her own." I hope.
I held her down for a few seconds more, and then sprang to my feet. I walked a few feet away from her, saying, "Make your decision soon, Nyx. I won't wait forever. You can't help her, but you can still fight me."
I knew she'd made her choice when an arc of light came slicing through the air towards me. I rolled out of the way easily, smiling. "Now, that's more like it."
I attacked her with feral viciousness and inhuman strength. Dashing forward, I slashed her across the face and jumped over her, dodging the swing of her sword and landing a few feet away. Quickly releasing the catches on my Legato Melodies, I let the chains slip to the floor.
She sent another bolt of light my way, this one bigger and stronger. I managed to dodge it, but was momentarily blinded. I heard rather than saw her lunge at me and held up my left arm to block, getting slashed in the process.
I quickly called up my chains to bind her arms as I put some distance between us. Licking my wounded arm, I realized it wasn't as deep as I had thought, but still, a wound, nevertheless. I pulled my chains back, releasing Nyx from their confinement, and brought them back to me.
She stared at me with a hard look in her eyes, finally getting into the fight. I laughed. This was what I was waiting for. "Come on, prey," I called, "show me what you got."
Bidding my chains to wrap around my forearms, Nyx came in for close combat, striking at me rapidly with her sword from every angle. I read her body easily, parrying and blocking her slashes and thrusts, and threw in several harsh punches. She jumped back after a few moments of this, and began to glow with power. She was amping up for a huge attack, I could tell; she wanted to try and end this.
As I watched her, I shook my head. I wondered how she would fare against my ultimate attack, Chained Rhapsody. I dropped all four of my chains to the floor, filling them with my energy. I whispered, "Hunt," watching as the chains around my feet multiplied and grew, like slithering snakes. Holding my arm out in front of me, pointing at Nyx, I said, "Prey," and the chains began making their way across the battlegrounds.
As she turned up her energy, her body began to rise off the floor, emitting great amounts of light. She was incredibly strong, I would give her that. No matter who won or lost this fight, Nyx was one hell of a fighter.
But this wasn't really about the fight. The real question was, who was the better survivor?
