Mock Fight: Esdeath vs Ballad

[Lubbock]

The General began to break a sweat in her frantic panic, drops of cool liquid plastering her forrid underneath her symbolic headwear. This man... his sadistic tendencies closely matched those of Esdeath herself. The popping and cracking of blazing foliage followed terribly close behind her as the flames seared a catastrophic path towards the fleeing ice witch. The sizzling amber inferno crackled and licked at her heels; of all things, she'd rather flames not lick her shoes.

"Damn..." Esdeath irately cursed under blistering breath, smoke and ash flooding the air in which she breathed. A coughing fit was obviously subsequent, and the sapphire-haired General stumbled like a blind panda, every breath searing her eyes and damaging her lungs. Through sheer will alone, Esdeath pushed her legs to the limit, until her calves were burning as hot as the apocalypse gaining on her. She had to find high ground.

But to her dismay, she was faced by an immense stone wall. With fearful but determined eyes, she scanned the jungle around her upon sliding to a clumsy stop and whirling around. An orange haze was all her sapphire oculi were filled with, and she fought the raging desire to drop to her knees and accept defeat; she was stronger than that.

The strong live and the weak die. Countless times the Ice Queen had repeated this mantra. Stiff determination coursed through her veins, her head began to pound as she flicked her gaze over every inch of the cindering landscape.

Regardless, no exits were in sight. Esdeath released a defeated breath, but yet refused to die. She still had an ace up her sleeve, as much as she dreaded using it. Instead, she set her cold gaze upon the flames creeping in front of her, as if attempting to freeze the storm with a look. A lumbering, juggernaut-like figure shambled through the surging swath of death, as if simply wading through a knee-high swamp. With a swift, sharp swipe, Esdeath flung the crimson haemoglobin off of her steel blade, and the life liquid bubbled and hissed by her foot as the heat swamped it.

A wicked, maniacal grin had gripped the green man's features, as foam steadily flowed from his mouth. The outraged bull before Esdeath had lost his grip on the burning world around him; he had one mission, and he was aiming to accomplish it with blazes and bullets. The General had to stop the soldier before he could bring further harm to her, but that required a post closer to death.

Nonetheless, Esdeath made a mad dash for her mortal enemy, gripping her weapon vertically as the distance between the two rapidly closed. If she was going to finish the man, she had to do it right there and then.

As the soldier raised his weapon of sizzling destruction, Esdeath swung her blade upwards, a crisp clang ringing out into the roar around them as the weapon was deflected. A spurt of flame shot upwards into the canopy, but Esdeath gave no more than a carefree grunt. She thrusted forwards, aiming to spear the soldier's abdomen, but his enhanced reflexes bested her blade's accuracy, and he simply sidestepped the possible impalement.

A foot from the encroaching doom, Esdeath managed to pirouette on a single heel, bringing her momentum around and smashing the soldier's jaw with a haphazard spinning hook kick. The green man stumbled away, almost roaring in pain, and the Ice Queen used the chance to roll away from the heat at her rear, coming to a stand in the clearing...

Or at least what was once a clearing. Presently, Esdeath stood encircled by roaring flames... but her expression warped to a smug grin, and her eyes shut.

"It seems the cat has driven the rat into a corner..." Esdeath mused, sheathing her rapier and dusting herself off casually. Her eyes flew open and pierced the man. "But the cornered rat bites the cat." She finished, before muttering a single word;

Mahapadma.

Everything around Esdeath - the burning jungle, the swaying trees, the minimally shifting soldier - all came to a shunting halt and the Ice Queen's arena's spectrum all faded into an icy blue.

I only have five seconds.

Esdeath bolted, dashing off as quickly as her burning legs could take her. She reached out with her rapier on the way past her opponent and slashed a deep trench in his side, but she held no brakes. Over the frozen flames she pounced, the light of the beach evidently racing closer...

Three...

Two...

One...

The world spun back into motion, and Esdeath was flung into the sand as the flames engulfed her legs, sweeping them out from under her. All feeling had left them, and she lay helpless on the sun-bathed sand, dropping black charcoal in the white.

Exactly 800 words again... every press of the backspace button was sheer agony as I cut almost 200 words off...