The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

"Good." Aria said, grinning as she charged towards Elgin with great velocity. An element of surprise. Since Elgin was this confident, she was expectant of what he could serve her.

Unlike Reina, she did not intend on giving this man a shred of leisure right from the start. She had became familiar with this man's fighting style, and that was grasping for chances until he can land a killing blow on his opponent. Thus, she could no longer stay in place and wait until the attack launched like she did with her previous opponent.

If Elgin truly had something under his sleeves, then the technique would surely be one that could end her off in one simple motion given the correct circumstances. If she was back in her prime, she would not hesitate to wait for Elgin's strike, but she couldn't afford to do that now.

Elgin had formidable power, and he had a high sense of mobility. It would be hard to fend him off once he gained an upper hand. The balance would be tilted, and Aria would no longer be the one holding the winning chances.

In order to prevent that from happening, Aria had to tilt the balance to Elgin's side and purposely make it hard for him to correctly fight. Mess up the calm and create a storm.

In less than five seconds, she had closed the distance between him and was in range for an attack. Elgin stood still, which was out of her predictions since she expected the man to immediately flee and blend in with the speed she served.

That was the style she knew Elgin possessed.

Even though she thought that it was a little bit weird, she still continued to attack.

Aria landed a kick against Elgin, but it was blocked by his hand. Elgin gripped onto her leg with his bare hands. Her kick was supposed to contain great power, so for it to be blocked as if she was nothing but a fly's annoying buzz was another surprise.

In her mind, Elgin was indeed strong, but most of his fighting potential relied on his craftiness. Thus, his strength and defence should not be that adept. At the very least, he shouldn't be this composed after receiving a blow from her.

Instead of being pressured, Elgin did another thing. It was a simple movement. He took his other hand, which was still inside of his pocket out and grabbed onto Aria's body. With one turn, he threw her to the ground.

Aria felt a great force suppressing her. Her resistance was enough to keep her out of harm's way, but not all the damage was able to absorbed.

"...Were you such a strong person from the start? I thought you were the assassin type," Aria wiped a line of blood that dripped from the side of her mouth as she looked at Elgin in disbelief.

The taste of iron was vibrant inside her mouth.

Did her memory fail her? That shouldn't be so. Elgin was adept in maximizing his potential in the speed department, and he had a high dexterity that allowed him to use several weapons in addition to close combat. It was a mixed battle style that suited him through and through with his fast thinking mindset. His actions were rapid fire, and you could get sucked into the man's continuous attacking flow very easily, making it hard for you to counterattack.

This was the situation Aria wanted to avoid, and thus she decided to become the attacker from the start.

"Of course. People change, right? Naturally..." Elgin smirked. "I also have to present you with something fresh,"

Elgin became the attacker. The suppressor. He didn't give Aria any time to recover as she immediately charged towards her way and wanted to land another blow. This time, he used a weapon. It was still daggers, but somehow Aria's danger senses warned her that she should avoid them with all her might if she wanted to not take a serious injury.

"Rallaka, create stairs! Dianthe, propel me!" Aria commanded. Several platforms that were hard to step on were made. It required the one using it to have a great sense of balance and speed. They were all distanced quite fairly, and if taken by an inexperienced person would certainly end up in a bad state.

Aria observed the man, who had just destroyed the ground that she was standing on a few seconds ago. The man's gaze lined up with hers, as she grinned in uncertainty.

'I don't know what made him be able to initiate such a change, but it's alright.' Aria resolved.

"This is way too fresh, I will admit it," Aria stepped down from her temporary flight. She did not expect to have to use her spirits in these tests. She thought that her pure power would suffice for them, but it might be trickier than she predicted.

Elgin's new strategy. Unfortunately, she was someone who was used to unexpected variables popping out of nowhere. She was an expert at solving them, too.

She tracked Elgin's movements and digested them into a sequence. After she was done, it was time to pay back the blows that Elgin had given to her. Blood for blood.

"Sadly.. it doesn't change anything. If my former knowledge of you was proved wrong, then I just need to adapt to your new fighting style. It won't work," Aria started getting used to Elgin's dynamics as she too started to push back against the man's attacks, landing her own blows in the creases within her defenses.

He used to evade and attack, but now he is adamant on chasing. If so, then she would just take a step further than him every single time he made a move, and chase the chaser.

Aria's speed was faster than Elgin as of now. She had determined this after exchanging a few blows with him. For her more extreme movements, Elgin had a delay before he was able to track down her movements, whereas she was always completely cognizant of his.

This meant that as long as she could calculate her evading time, she could also slip in an attack.

Every time Elgin went to attack her, she would evade, and time things just right so that Elgin would have to take in a blow from her during the split second that he was delayed in tracking her moves because of his lack of speed recognition.

It was simply a disparity of their tracking ability. Since Elgin was already attacking, it left him with no chances to perfectly defend when it was Aria's time to counter the blows.

Elgin received a kick, a punch, another kick, and by the time he realized that something was off from the start of their battle, he had already accumulated quite a bit of damage.

Elgin's eyes widened as he would have never thought that Aria could adapt to the new situation this fast. He knew that the woman had a frightening ability to discern the situation and find out ways to come out of the dilemma with brilliant solutions, but who would have thought that the required time was this little?

The surprised he prepared couldn't even last for more than five minutes before the problem was cracked down by Aria. Although he felt quite wronged, he still persisted and kept his attempts up. He tried to flip back the situation and use all of his power to try and resist.

How could his tricks be broken down this fast? He was terribly confused, but those thoughts were set back for later.

The tide was turned successfully by Aria, and Elgin's high pedestal was destroyed as he couldn't fend off against the second attack that Aria would make every time he was able to dodge one of hers.

If he attacked once, she would dodge twice. If he dodged once, she would attack twice.

The calculations were off, and the odds were on Aria's side.

They exchanged more blows, and with time, Elgin continued to suffer more and more. In the end, he was cornered to a point where he could no longer find a way to escape or attack.

It was checkmate. He was pressured from all sides, and he knew that the fight was over.

"How cute, right? It was a good try, but it's not enough to take me down. How unfortunate. Perhaps, next time is the charm?" Aria tilted her head as she slung [Halvargg] against the side of Elgin's neck, millimeters away from reaching his skin.

Elgin gulped a mouthful of saliva as Aria's cold weapon touched his skin and threatened to create a wound.

"...Alright, you win," Elgin heaved a huge sigh as he dropped down to the floor and raised both of his hands, ending the fight with his words.

Aria lowered down her weapon and smiled before extending a hand towards Elgin. The man had put up a good fight. He wasn't incompetent, it was just that no one could win against Aria as long as their strength was below hers at this point.