Iro vs Nik and Agapi

“AHHHHHHH!” Nik screamed.

Iro calmly skated around Nik’s strikes, avoiding most and deflecting the few she could safely do so, but her focus was not on him. No, her focus was on her mother and her bow.

*Twang*

Just as Iro moved to throw a kick at Nik to force him away, the sound of an arrow flying forced drew her attention, and she quickly pulled out her sword to deflect the incoming arrow. This was followed by raising her hand to use her sky shot to knock down 3 more arrows, and this left her distracted enough that Nik nearly got a hit in on her side. She just barely dodged, but his aggressive stab went straight down to the ground instead, creating an explosion that knocked them both back. Even as she was flying through the air though, even as she prepared to recover and roll back to her feet, her focus was still on her mother.

Nik wasn’t a problem for Iro. Sure, he was dangerous with his daggers and his explosive magic potential, but he was also predictable. He was an angry, straight forward fighter who either swung his explosive daggers wildly at whoever was directly in front of him, or threw explosives when he couldn’t hit them with his daggers. Sure, he had the potential to take you out with a single hit if he landed a good one, but he was so easy to kite and avoid that his threat was almost negligible. Iro in particular had gotten quite a bit of experience sparring with him, so avoiding him basically came without thinking.

Agapi, her mother, on the other hand, was a huge threat. Sure, her mother had only started training seriously after Iro’s father died, while Iro herself had been training for years even before then, meaning she was realistically weaker than Iro. But what she lacked in experience, she made up in intelligence. The woman had a tactical mind that made most of the more experienced combatants intimidated, and a willingness to take advantage of any advantage she could get, no matter what it was.

*Twang*

“Crap!” Iro exclaimed as her mom shot arrows at both Mina and Natalia. Iro was forced to abandon her recovery in favor of shooting the arrows down with sky blasts. This also resulted Iro landing face down in the dirt, which Agapi took advantage of by attempting to shoot her in the leg.

Iro luckily managed to use her sky boots to raise her feet straight up, but this resulted in her essentially being upside down, and face to face with Nik and his bombs.

“AHHHHHHHH!”

Nik screamed as he generated bombs in his hands and moved to throw them, but Iro was ready for this. Before he could throw any bombs, Iro shot one of his hands with a sky blast, making the bomb go off prematurely and sending him flying. She then used the recoil from her own shot to turn towards her mom and sent a volley of half a dozen bright looking blasts. They weren’t strong, but they looked strong, meant to cause a fear reaction rather than damage, and her mom reacted exactly as expected. She dove to the side as far as she could, not even thinking to cover her dive with a shot from her bow, and this allowed Iro the time she needed to quickly right herself.

Iro then decided it was time to take out the bigger threat, and began skating towards her mom with her sky boots. Her mom’s eyes widened when she noticed this, realizing she’d fallen for her trick, and she quickly stood back up to fire another arrow. Iro was too quick though, firing a sky blast and knocking the bow out of her mother’s hands.

“Oran Sfyri!”

Only to be blasted in the face by a sky blast from her instead. The hit stopped Iro in her tracks completely, making her stumble back both in pain and shock.

‘That was a sky blast! Since when does mom know any magic?’ Iro asked herself.

*Boom boom boom*

“AHHHHHHH!”

Iro was so caught off guard by the blast that she didn’t even notice Nik coming from behind her and throwing more bombs at her. The bombs sent Iro flying forwards, screaming in pain, and right into another sky blast from her mother.

“AGHHH!” Iro screamed, but pushed herself through the pain. She pulled up her sword and positioned it to block another pair of wild slashes from Nik’s daggers. But rather than use her magic to deflect his explosions, this time she triggered her sky boots and allowed the explosions to push her away at speeds, right towards her mother. With the momentum given to her by the explosions, she swung her sword right at her mother’s chest plate, moving too fast for her to react. The hit knocked Agapi back and made her grunt in pain, but she didn’t falter.

“AHHHHHH!” Nik screamed as he threw multiple explosions. Iro primed herself to dodge, but she didn’t get the chance.

“Oran Sfyri!”

Her mother shot the bombs from behind, speeding them up and making them explode before Iro could react, as well as adding to their power with her own. Iro stumbled back in pain, but forced herself to look up. And when the explosion faded, she saw Nik and her mother charging her side by side, blades drawn. In response Iro gripped her own sword in both hands, and prepared to meet them head on.