Child of Destiny

...

Alice and Cloe stood a few meters away from each other as they took their respective battle stances.

Alice was currently wearing a traditional martial-arts outfit which was as white as snow. There were some blue lotus symbols embroidered on the different parts of her clothing, indicating the symbol of her family.

A blue belt made of satin fabric was wrapped around her waist which made her upper cloth to be fitted on her body but slightly loose on its lower end.

Her current look was cold yet elegant, signifying her status. She appeared to be a beautiful fairy who appeared on the human world in her current outfit while an air full of coolness was currently surrounding her.

In the meantime, Cloe was also excluding a similar air. She might not look like a cold fairy but she still looked like a goddess of war who descended from heaven.

Her outfit was not as elegant as the one that Alice was currently wearing but it was still appealing to anyone's eyes.

Her simple yet alluring clothes were not going to lose to Alice's clothes. The plain while sleeveless martial-art shirt and black loose pants was complementing each other. A black belt was also wrapped around her waist which made sure that her upper clothes would not come loose.

A cold beauty standing right across from a charming girl.

These two were about to clash against each other as they stared with their opponents without having any intention of taking their gazes off.

Alice took a stance where her left foot was current in front of her while both of her arms were raised in front of her chest. Then the air around her started to revolve around her as she slowly released her Mental Energy.

At the same time, her irises suddenly turned rhombus as she also activated her 'Mind Reading' talent while staring at Cloe straight into the eyes.

But to her surprise, her opponent seemed to be a blank sheet of paper as she couldn't read what was running inside Cloe's head. It was as if the latter was not thinking about anything.

Then she saw Cloe smirked a little without dodging her gaze.

Cloe was currently jumping up and down. She bounced on the ground with her light jumps while her shoulders were also moving up and down to match the rhythm of her bounce.

Shiella shifted her gaze between the two before raising her hand in the air. "Ready!"

The two girls inhaled deeply as they heard her voice.

"Start!"

Shiella shouted while lowering her hand hanging in the air, signaling the start of the match.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Her voice was still echoing in the air when the two quickly made their moves.

Alice gathered the Mental Energy surrounding her on each of her hands before throwing consecutive palm strikes in front of her and sending multiple energy waves towards her opponent.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

At the same time, Cloe immediately kicked the ground right after she heard Shiella's signal. She lunged forward without any hesitation as a transparent Internal Qi started to surround her body.

She might not be able to see the incoming attack that her opponent had sent to her, but she was still able to tell where exactly they were going with her other senses.

Right before the first energy wave arrived at her, Cloe suddenly stomped on the ground to halt her charge before lightly moving her hand in a circular motion.

Bang!

An energy wave was deflected to the side right after it came in contact with the back of her hand.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Then similar things happened as she continued to move her hands gently and rhythmically.

Boom!

The ground right beside her exploded as she directed the energy waves to the side. And when the final attack was blocked, she took a deep breath and exhaled gently as she maintained her stance steadily.

Bang!

Then a loud sound could be heard as she kicked the ground once again and charge at her opponent for another time.

But this time, she was charging at a much faster speed than earlier. And it only took her a couple of breaths to arrive in front of her opponent who was currently in the middle of throwing a palm strike to greet her.

Cloe did the same and even borrowed the momentum of her change to reinforce her attack.

Bang!

The initial clash sent both of them away from each other.

The two did a couple of flips and light hops to reduce the force that they got from the impact before landing gently on the ground.

They didn't even look in front of them as they simultaneously kicked the ground and launched themselves towards each other.

Then an intense melee immediately broke out as they exchanged blows against each other.

At first glance, the battle seemed to be on equal footing. But in the eyes of the young experts such as Shiella, Jerimiah, and Vincent, it was pretty clear that Cloe was currently at disadvantage.

Alice's attacks were much powerful than her opponent which was putting a lot of pressure on Cloe who kept on blocking or deflecting them.

But despite that being the case, Cloe was still holding her ground quite firmly as her defensive stance didn't let a single attack land at her. She was even throwing a couple of counterattacks that were catching her opponent from time to time.

Alice couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable during the exchange despite her being the aggressor. And despite her attacks pressuring her opponent, not of them was managed to land a clean hit.

Following her instincts, Alice took a quick step backward to create some distance between her and her opponent before covering her right arm with Mental Energy.

Then she quickly twisted her waist in a counterclockwise motion before retwisting it towards the other direction while also swiping her right hand towards the same direction.

She was planning to release the accumulated Mental Energy on his hand to send a crescent wave. But before she could even swing her arm, Cloe suddenly stepped forward to match her backward step, shortening the distance between them.

Alice was slightly taken aback since Cloe was supposedly moving backward earlier due to the pressure of her previous attacks. This sudden step forward was completely out of her expectations.

Then Cloe blocked her opponent's arm with her own while her other hand was holding the elbow of her opponent. Those actions completely killed the momentum that Alice's arm hand, completely stopping the incoming attack.

After that, Cloe immediately grabbed her opponent's arm and pulled it back while her leg was tripping Alice over.

"Ah!"

Realizing what was about to happen, Alice quickly kicked the ground to jump before spinning in the air to free her hand from Cloe's grip.

But despite her being able to free herself, she couldn't block the next attack that Cloe did immediately after.

Cloe quickly steadied her footing and put a lot of strength on her upper body before pushing her shoulder to collide with Alice who was currently spinning beside her.

Bang!

Alice was sent flying and Cloe immediately chased after her, not willing to let the opponent go. The latter was about to reach her hand and grab her opponent's leg while the Mentalist suddenly sent a powerful energy wave towards the ground to propel herself up in the air.

Cloe was also forced to halt her actions and crossed her around in front of her face to protect it from the debris from the explosion.

Ta-ta!

Then Alice landed on the ground after a couple of flips in the air.

The two didn't immediately resume the battle as they stared at each other with caution. Especially Alice who was couldn't shake off the uneasiness that she was feeling.

In the meantime, the others who were watching from the side were currently discussing with each other.

"What do you think?" asked Jerimiah to the person standing beside him while leaning his head over.

Vincent slightly knitted his eyebrows when he heard those words before replying. "I am not sure either. It is pretty clear that Cloe is in backfoot earlier when blocking Alice's attacks, but sudden counter catches me off-guard."

Jerimiah quickly nodded his head in agreement. "I know, right?"

He then stroked his chin while continuing. "Moreover, she is supposedly moving backward earlier, so that sudden step forward should have thrown her balance off. But not only does she hold her footing firmly but she also manages to completely cancel her opponent's technique."

"Hmm… I wonder what she did there?" he muttered to himself while squinting his eyes.

This time, Vincent suddenly responded. "But I have a feeling that it is some sort of Assassination Skill."

"Hah~!?" Jerimiah suddenly turned his head at his cousin and looked at him with a weird expression on his face, clearly showing his confusion and disbelief.

Vincent maintained his calm demeanor and answered with a nonchalant tone. "As I said earlier, I am still not sure and that is only my initial assessment."

He then squinted his eyes and focus on Cloe before quickly adding. "I still have to observe her a little more before coming up with a clear conclusion."

...