Chapter 108: Lira vs. Mara (1)

The next morning, Mara had her right arm bandaged with the camp’s leather strips — not out of necessity, out of functionality. The elbow responded but with the three-day delay she had admitted.

Lira saw it when she came out of her tent.

She calculated the right arm’s range of motion in two seconds.

She put on her sunglasses.

---

There was no prior provocation.

Mara reached the central fire, saw Lira, nodded toward the field.

Lira set down her hot water.

She went to the field.

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[Stream active]

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[DraconicLegacy: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ LIRA VS MARA ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Chris_Murray: Mara with her right arm bandaged. Lira saw it and calculated before putting on her glasses.]

[Warwolf: team Lira today. after what I saw yesterday I want both of them to give Mara what she deserves. LET’S GO LIRA!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Per_Sundin: LIRA!! LIRA!! LIRA!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ Mara’s right elbow already damaged. Lira knows it.]

[Kalgarth: team Mara. always. even with the bandaged elbow. (ง’̀-’́)ง (ง’̀-’́)ง]

[Drakeking: MARA WITH ONE AND A HALF ARMS!! STILL WINS!! (ง’̀-’́)ง (ง’̀-’́)ง]

[TheDeadDragón: no prior provocation. no speech. Mara pointed to the field and Lira went. both know what they’re here for.]

---

The three hundred Orcs formed the circle.

Kai on the perimeter with Urgo.

Serah on the other side — her markings recovered to seventy percent after the night, enough to stand and watch the fight.

Lira in the center of the field.

Without her sunglasses — she’d left them in the tent before coming out. Her red eyes with the intensity they had when her blood magic was fully active.

Mara facing her with her right arm bandaged and her smile.

"Duchess," Mara said.

"Warlord," Lira said.

---

Blood magic came out in currents from the start — not at forty percent like in training, at a hundred. The currents creating resistance in the area around Mara, the air turning dense in the three meters between the two.

Mara took a step.

The step cost her twice what it normally would.

She took another.

"Interesting," Mara said. "The air is heavy."

"Yes."

"Do you always use this as your first response?"

Lira looked at her.

"Not today."

---

[DraconicLegacy: LIRA AT 100%!! FIRST TIME IN WEEKS!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Warwolf: THE AIR IS HEAVY MARA!! LET’S GO LIRA!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Per_Sundin: "not today" — Lira heard what Mara said about blood magic as a first response. she processed it. she changed.]

[Kalgarth: Mara taking steps against the blood resistance. it costs her but she advances. (ง’̀-’́)ง MARA DOESN’T STOP (ง’̀-’́)ง]

[Drakeking: Lira applied Mara’s criticism to her own fight against Mara. that’s clever. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[TheDeadDragón: Mara asked if she always uses this as a first response. Lira said not today. Mara doesn’t know what comes first then.]

---

Lira waited until Mara reached the second meter.

Then she lunged — she didn’t wait for Mara to cross the resistance, she went toward her while Mara was still fighting the dense air.

The SS lateral step — the speed she’d used thirty times against the administrator, now applied forward instead of laterally.

She reached Mara’s right flank.

The bandaged arm.

Palm strike to the right elbow — direct to the point Serah had worked the entire previous fight, the one already carrying three days of accumulated damage.

Mara turned with the blow — absorb and turn, the pattern Lira had seen with Drak and Brek.

The turn left her left side exposed.

Blood current to the left side. Concentrated, to the specific point between the ribs where skin resistance wasn’t as dense.

Mara received both impacts simultaneously.

She stepped back one pace.

---

[DraconicLegacy: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ TWO IMPACTS AT THE SAME TIME ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Warwolf: LIRA WENT WHILE MARA FOUGHT THE RESISTANCE!! THAT’S TACTICS!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Per_Sundin: the right elbow damaged AND the new side wound. Lira opened two fronts in the first exchange. (°ロ°)]

[Kalgarth: (°ロ°) Lira used the resistance as a distraction to get in. Mara didn’t see it. (°ロ°) ... Mara recovers. (ง’̀-’́)ง]

[Drakeking: Lira spent all of Serah’s fight calculating how to reach the right elbow. she got there in the first exchange. (°ロ°)]

[TheDeadDragón: one step back from Mara. the perimeter felt it just like yesterday.]

---

Mara stopped.

She looked at her right elbow — the bandage with the impact of the palm strike on top of yesterday’s damage.

She looked at Lira.

"Eight hundred years," Mara said. "And you start with the damage the wolf left."

"Why reinvent what already works?"

Mara smiled.

"You know what that tells me?"

"What?"

"That you’ve spent eight hundred years learning from what others do." Mara repositioned with her right arm closer to her body — protecting it. "When was the last time you invented something of your own?"

Lira looked at her.

"Right now."

The blood resistance changed — not the area around Mara, the ground. The currents dropping to the field’s surface, creating resistance at Mara’s feet instead of in the air.

Mara took a step.

Her feet stuck for half a second before releasing.

---

[DraconicLegacy: THE RESISTANCE ON THE GROUND!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ LIRA INVENTED IN REAL TIME!!]

[Warwolf: Mara provoked and Lira answered with a new technique. THAT’S LIRA!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Per_Sundin: "when did you invent something of your own?" / "right now" — the most Lira answer possible. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Kalgarth: okay the ground resistance is new. I never saw it in the labyrinth. (°ロ°) but Mara broke free. (ง’̀-’́)ง]

[Drakeking: Mara provoked Lira to see what she had. Lira showed her something Mara hadn’t seen. that changed the fight. (ง’̀-’́)ง MARA ADAPTS!! (ง’̀-’́)ง]

[TheDeadDragón: Kai watching the ground resistance. the first time he’s seen that variation. I saw it on his face.]

---

Mara adapted.

She lifted her feet higher with each step — not running, advancing with her feet leaving the ground completely before returning to it, eliminating the contact time where the resistance stuck.

Slow. But it worked.

"Clever," Lira said.

"You too." Mara advanced step by step. "You know what else watching you fight tells me?"

"What?"

"That you’re the most dangerous of the three." Mara reached the first meter. "The wolf fights with her heart. The human fights with his head and instinct. You fight with all that plus eight hundred years of knowing exactly what you do and why."

Lira didn’t answer.

"That makes you the hardest to read." Mara reached the second meter. "And also the easiest to provoke."

"Really?"

"Yes." Mara’s left arm came out — direct, fast, using the momentum of her advance against the resistance to add inertia to the blow.

Lira dodged it.

By three centimeters.

---

[DraconicLegacy: "the most dangerous of the three" — MARA SAID THAT ABOUT LIRA]

[Warwolf: three centimeters. THREE!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ LIRA HOLDS ON!!]

[Per_Sundin: Mara talked throughout the advance to distract. Lira knew it and still the blow came within three centimeters. (°ロ°)]

[Kalgarth: "the easiest to provoke" — Mara found the thread. now she’s going to pull on it. (ง’̀-’́)ง]

[Drakeking: Mara complimented her and attacked her at the same time. Lira processed the compliment for a second and that second almost cost her. (ง’̀-’́)ง MARA!! (ง’̀-’́)ง]

[TheDeadDragón: Serah on the perimeter. markings at 70%. watching Lira with something that isn’t jealousy.]

---

Lira repositioned.

The ground resistance active. Mara’s right elbow with accumulated damage. Her left side with the current from the first exchange.

Mara with her right arm protected and her left as her main tool.

Lira went for the right elbow again.

The lateral step — fast, the angle calculated to arrive before Mara turned.

Mara turned first.

Mara’s body using the turn to convert elbow protection into the start of a counterattack — her left arm in a descending arc toward Lira’s shoulder.

Lira raised her forearm.

The impact reached her forearm.

She went a meter to the right.

She repositioned.

---

"You know what’s most interesting about this?" Mara said.

"I don’t care."

"Of course you do." Mara circled. "That you and I are the same."

Lira looked at her.

"We’re not."

"We left our territories. Both of us. You the vampire kingdom, me the Orc territory." Mara kept circling. "Both because what we had wasn’t enough."

"I was banished."

"Really?" Mara smiled. "Or did you just do what was necessary to get yourself banished?"

---

Lira didn’t answer.

Because the question had an answer and the answer wasn’t the one she wanted to give out loud in the center of a training field with three hundred Orcs on the perimeter.

Mara read it in the silence.

"Eight hundred years doing exactly what you wanted to do." She kept circling. "And you still tell yourself things happened to you instead of that you made them happen."

The blood current came out before Lira decided to launch it.

At one hundred percent. Direct. To Mara’s chest.

Mara received it — her chest absorbing the current, the impact moving her two meters backward.

Standing.

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[DraconicLegacy: LIRA AT ONE HUNDRED PERCENT STRAIGHT TO THE CHEST!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Warwolf: Mara touched something real and Lira responded with everything. TWO METERS BACK MARA!! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Per_Sundin: "or did you just do what was necessary to get yourself banished?" — that wasn’t empty provocation. Mara researched before the fight.]

[Kalgarth: Mara two meters back. first big retreat of the day. but Lira lost her head for a second. (ง’̀-’́)ง Mara’s going to use that. (ง’̀-’́)ง]

[Drakeking: the current came out before Lira decided to launch it. that’s exactly what Mara wanted. (ง’̀-’́)ง MARA IS WINNING THE MENTAL GAME!! (ง’̀-’́)ง]

[TheDeadDragón: Kai on the perimeter. unmoving. watching Lira recover her composure. both know what happened.]