109 Clash II (1/2)

”Don't give up,” called out Li.

Tia rushed forwards, her claws scratching up small clouds of dirt and grass as she soared through the air like a compact missile, surging towards Azhar.

With a confident smile etched on his face, Azhar leaned backwards beyond ninety degrees, exhibiting a degree of extreme flexibility that made it seem as if his bones themselves were fluid. Tia, having calculated her charge to strike at Azhar's chest, now hit nothing, flying past Azhar.

”Way too slow, missy,” said Azhar as he stood up straight. ”Woah there.” He stepped backwards, casually dodging an irritated swipe from Tia.

Li figured this would happen. Azhar was much too fast for Tia. A twenty-level difference made sure of that, and Azhar had specialized almost the entirety of his stat points into agility, further emphasizing the disparity.

Tia snarled again, rushing forwards as she unleashed a flurry of strikes and bites. The snaps of razor sharp wyrm teeth biting down on thin air clacked through the air as Azhar dodged and dodged and dodged again.

Li observed that Azhar observed a bravado that was not like him. When he fought, he used his speed to its maximal capacity, never using a single ounce of worthless energy. He did not dance around his enemies to taunt their slowness. At least when he fought, he was always serious.

But here, Azhar seemed to show off his speed to the max. When he dodged Tia' attacks, he did so at the very last moment, and he exaggerated his moments with spins and flips, showing her that he had all the time in the world to dodge her slow strikes.

Tia paused, her breathing heavier as she looked at Li for support.

Azhar took this moment to dash in, swiping down with his dagger at her body before immediately darting out, evading a retaliatory bite.

”Gotta' learn to handle yourself, missy,” said Azhar, his eyes wide as he made sure his words connected with Tia.

”If this isn't working-,” said Li, preparing to give her an alternative strategy revolving around turtling and letting Azhar waste his energy dodging. He figured this was better because Azhar, having not activated [Bowman's Stand], could not deal enough melee striking damage to really punch through the thick layers of Tia's bark-like scales.

Where before her scales had been smooth and sparse, they now formed a formidable suit of emerald armor all around her, clustering into jagged stalactite-like formations around her head like a helmet. Azhar's knife, a ceremonial bone knife designed for boosting shamanistic spells rather than providing raw offensive power, did not have the ability to get through that level of natural defense.

But Azhar raised his hand, bidding Li to stop.

”I got this,” he said to Li, breaking his stare from Tia to make sure she did not understand him. ”I can sense she's mighty riled up now.”

Tia growled almost continuously by this point, her eyes wide and zeroed in on Azhar with concentrated bloodlust.

”She's frustrated, and that's good. Makin' her hit her head on the wall again and again, lettin' her emotions build up more and more – that's gonna' get her to evolve.”

To prove his point, Azhar darted into Tia's range with his hands behind his back, prompting her to lunge at him. He swerved sideways, evading her cleanly.

Azhar yawned. ”Ain't trynna' make me fall asleep, are ya?”