‘Valkryie Gears change the world,’ was a common slogan Ash used to hear in advertisements, but not one that he had ever put much stock into until the day he first used a Valkryie Gear for himself. It turns out, the saying itself was pretty misleading. A more accurate way of saying it would be ‘Valkyrie Gears change how you see the world’.

Yes, despite the absurd strength and speed the military grade weapons granted their users, the first thing that anyone who actually used one would remember is the sudden change in their own sensory input. The world around Ash had become hyper focused, she was perceiving everything from the speks of ice still falling from the sky to the minute details of shock twitching on Magnolia’s face. While she was familiar with a slight increase in her senses when she was ramping up, that had been a x10 to the Valkryie Gear’s x100.

It would’ve been utterly overwhelming if it wasn’t for the fact that her thoughts suddenly felt like they were going a mile a minute. The only thing that Ash could do was assume that the Valkryie Gear had something to do with it as well as she mentally analyzed the entire battle so far in 0.01 seconds. The white haired former-boy-now-girl had been granted mental facilities even a genius would be jealous of…

All that and she still couldn’t keep her damn mouth shut.

“What’s wrong?” Ash smiled as flight system alerts appeared in front of her HUD. As if she had been doing this for years, the Vintrkind instinctively began to weave in and out through the air, firing off coherent slugs of kinetic energy from her pistol. “I understand my presence must come as a shock, but you’re quite something to look at as well if I say so myself.”

“Wha- I- Agh!!” Magnolia growled in frustration as she suddenly had to dodge the rain of rapid energy fire. Raising her hand, she summoned her spear back to her grip before giving it a flourish. “It doesn’t matter that you’re using a Valkryie Gear now! That only means I can stop holding back!”

“Mmh, I’ve heard that one before.” The white haired girl smiled. “But if you really think you can handle me, then I’m all yours.”

She said that, but internally Ash was freaking the fuck out. Oh my god what the hell was he saying?! He needed to keep his cool and… And the winter that usually tried to rip and tear at him apart was now evenly spread out through his body. A chill, more stable, but not the biting cold that he usually used to stop himself from saying or doing dumb shit. It was basically the equivalent of a light breeze for him. Combined with the thought-based network communication system, he couldn’t help but reply with the first thing that came to his mind.

Unable to stop himself, Ash prayed for death.

Well he would’ve if she still didn’t have a showdown to win. Her thought process split, one focused on ramping up the winter in her veins while the other put all of it’s attention in focusing on the battle in front of him. Ash had been put through an entire week of experimentation and while she hadn’t exactly learned how to use a Valkryie Gear to its fullest, she had gotten the hang of what Loptr was capable of. Instincts kicked as Ash shoved as much frost as he could into his pistol. Ice began to form on the edges of the machine, but soon she could wield the gun like it was a new limb. And if she pushed just a bit further…

“First up,” Ash began as she shot towards the glass ceiling of the arena. Magnolia quickly began to fly towards her but the white haired valkyrie locked on to the Asgardian before pulling the trigger on her pistol. “Hailstorm Blizzard.”

Winter ripped out of the pistol in a far greater amount then it did while she was transformed. Pure white chunks of ice flooded from her small barrel, crashing down onto the girl and smothering her in chunks of hail. Despite the sudden blinding white though, Magnolia merely narrowed her eyes before shouting. “Podarke mode! Wings of Arke, Fly!”

There was a blast light around her feet before she rocketed forward, bravely holding her spear forward as she broke through the winter hail. Even with the Loptr’s hyper sensors, Ash barely had time to cut off the hailstorm and fly backwards before the blue valkyrie’s spear cut through the air to where she had been floating. Magnolia didn’t waste a second as she recalled her spear and unleashed a barrage of thrusts. “Don’t think you’ll win just because you started using your gear! Experience is the most important factor when it comes to Valkryie Gears!”

“And I’m sure a girl like you has lots of experience,” Ash commented as she dived underneath her opponent before winking. “Bang.”

The overcharged shot crashed into Magnolia, knocking her back a few inches, though her face only shifted into an annoyed tick as the girls began to engage in a game of rocket tag. Wind blew in their faces at high speed as the Vintrkind attempted to gain more distance, yet no matter how many shots she fired at the girl, Magnolia's sonic pursuit never faltered. “What’s wrong?! Has it finally gotten through that thick block you call a brain that this fight is over the moment I close in on you?!”

“Oh my, you want to get up close and personal with me?”

The blonde’s face shifted a magnificent shade of red. “STOP TALKING LIKE THAT RIGHT THIS INSTANT!”

‘I would if I could’ is what Ash thought. What he actually replied though was the gut reaction “You’re so cute when you’re flustered.”

The reply that came from her mouth was not anything remotely intelligible, but instead a rather ferocious scream. Rather than blinding her however, the wrath of Magnolia only made her wielding of Achilies even sharper, something that became apparent as she once again drew close enough to strike out at Ash.

Ash shifted to the side so a thrust that would have taken her square between the breasts merely skittered off the side of her chest, but the blow still took a hefty chunk out of her shield all the same. Sticking around to take more of the same would be a good way to lose the match, but Magnolia was both faster and more durable than the Vintrkind girl. She could neither win head on, nor flee to maintain distance, so the only remaining option was… trickery.

Her wings folded as Ash dove, rocketing toward the ground with Magnolia in hot pursuit. Pulling up bare meters above the hard ground of the stadium, she unleashed the entire remaining charge of her pistol point blank into the earth. The blast, entwined with the coiling chill of Winter, hammered into the ground—and promptly bounced off. Reflected by the solid surface of the stadium floor, the cacophony of force and cold erupted upward into a mushroom cloud of snow and icy fog, hiding both Valkyries from each-other’s sights.

“I know you can’t get enough of me but as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.” echoed out over the comms, but not for nothing was Magnolia Hale a Wing Candidate. Even in the grips of her offended fury, she had the presence of mind to respond mentally, rather than give away her position with a verbal retort.

“At least fight with dignity! Not… This!”

Ash simply laughed in response, twirling her weapon to reload it even as she reached out mentally to touch the traces of icy power that filled the air. It was tricky, controlling the cold after it had already been expelled, but he could just about manage it, and if this plan worked it might even net him the win.

Through the cloud, Ash could feel Magnolia’s body, the tiny flecks of ice brushing against her form as she moved through the cloud in search of him. With a triumphant smirk, Ash commanded the ice to latch onto her and grow. If Achilles made her too fast to handle, then all Ash had to do was slow her back down!

The cloud around Magnolia seemed to ripple and collapse inward on the valkyrie, as the fog rushed to do as the Vintrkind directed—only to fail entirely. The rush of fog poured in but failed to find any purchase on the Valkyrie’s form, sliding off her like water off a duck’s back.

A moment later and the opportunity was gone, Magnolia shooting up and out of the cloud before Ash could attempt to correct for whatever was preventing the ice from sticking.

Well, that didn’t work. Perhaps a different tack…

“What’s wrong? Getting cold feet?,” she said as the gun in her hand flickered. The long pistol stuttered like an image from a faulty projector, before suddenly reaffirming itself as an entirely different weapon.

Ash hefted the short-handled axe in her hand to get a feel for the weapon before soaring up and out of the mist, wings flaring behind her like some strange alien butterly. Magnolia must have been waiting for that, for she was on the Vintrkind almost instantly. She clearly did not expect the change in armament, however, as her charging thrust was only barely converted into a hasty block as Ash crashed into her.

The heavy blade of the axe met the sturdy shaft of the spear with a peal of thunder and Magnolia was sent tumbling away, completely unprepared for the force of the blow.

With an exultant cry Ash shot after the other valkyrie, seeking to press the advantage. Unfortunately, Magnolia’s experience proved itself yet again, as she managed to regain control in time to brace herself against the Vintrkind’s next blow. Now prepared for the unnatural force behind the tiny-seeming weapon, the wielder of Achilles was only sent skidding backwards several meters through the air, rather than sent head over heels as a lesser warrior would be.

“What?! How can you have changed-?!” Magnolia exclaimed in shock, before cutting herself off. “Modeshifting?! No, you’re still clearly the same- It doesn’t matter! As if something so simple as a different weapon would let someone like you beat me.”

“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” Ash shot back, darting forward to swing again, only for Magnolia to flit out of reach.

“Don’t you get it? It’s hopeless for you! Certainly, the ranged weapon left you at a disadvantage because you couldn’t maintain distance, but now you’re restricted to melee! You can’t even hit me anymore, for what little good it did you before!”

In response, Ash cocked an arm back and hurled the weapon at Magnolia, the axe spinning like a buzzsaw as it carved through the air. Magnolia contemptuously dodged before blasting forward spear first.

“Idiot! You’re open!”

Ash only smirked, grasping at the air and yanking. An arc of lighting formed in her grip and instantly pulled taught, tying the valkyrie to her wayward weapon. The axe turned on a dime, reversing direction to smash directly into Magnolia’s unprotected back with the force of a meteor.

The blonde girl let out a squawk of surprise and indignation as she was swatted from the sky hard enough to bounce when she met the ground.

Ash spun, pirouetting like a dancer as the sparking lash of lightning coiled around her like a living thing. A flick of her wrist sent the whip hurtling downwards, the axe at its tip whistling through the air to impact with a boom of literal thunder. Dust and shattered stone plumed into the air as the Asgardian Valkyrie was driven into a Magnolia-shaped crater.

Again and again the whip struck, snapping and twisting through the air, laying into the grounded Valkyrie with the rolling crash of an ongoing thunderstorm.

And then... something broke.

“ENOUGH!” Roared out over both the comms channels and the air itself as a pillar of light erupted from the ground, blasting away the dust and rubble with the mere wind of its passing. “PYRISOUS MODE!”

Ash barely had time to widen her eyes before it slammed into her, carrying her up to smash against the forcefield that marked the ceiling of the arena. The field flared into glowing opacity as the beam zigzagged across the surface of the dome, grinding the helpless Vintrkind between the immovable object and the unstoppable force. Finally it stopped, and with a twist Ash was hurled back down toward the dirt below.

Wings flaring almost unconsciously to stabilize, warnings that her shield was below 10% blaring, Ash righted herself just above the ground and looked up at what hit her.

There, floating a few meters below the ceiling, her face a rictus of incandescent fury, was Magnolia Hale. Everything below mid-thigh was eclipsed by a surging torrent of light, the floating plates of armor by her hips having split open to pour out even more, giving her the overall appearance of wearing a skirt of white flame.

“I,” she spoke aloud, echoing herself over the comms to ensure she was heard, “have had enough. No more jokes, no more games. This ends now.”

“That’s… A neat trick you got there.” Ash grunted out, trying to ignore how her body felt like the time she had been caught on the wrong side of an exploding service bot. Thanks to the Valkryie Gear’s shield, there was little actual pain on her end, but that didn’t do anything to stop the whiplash from the constant battering throughout the arena. “But since you decided to show me yours, I’ll show you mine.”

The Vintirkind kicked herself off the ground, floating as she held open her hand. The axe once again flickered as Loptr registered the new data input… before a spear of her own appeared in her hands. Different, yet distinctly similar to the burning hot blaze in Magnolia’s grasp.

“A copycat then,” the asgardian concluded. “That’s what you are? What a disgrace.”

“It’s something like that.” According to the scientists who had experimented with Loptr, it was more akin to ‘taking the opponents data and using them as inspiration to create new gear’. Ash didn’t fully understand the details himself if he was being honest, all he knew (And cared about really) was that the Valkryie Gear generated new weapons based off of his opponents. “But most of it is all me.”

Winter, piercing cold, shot through her veins and into the spear. The helix at the tip began to spin, winds whirling and gathering into a blizzard. Frost began to exude from the weapon as it grew and grew to world shattering sizes. A spear of metal and ice, biting at its wielder's hands as her arms slowly grew numb from the frosty grip. Yet again, she was ramping up further than she ever had before.

Magnolia and Ash stared each other down.

Summer and Winter, Fire and Ice.

In unison, they charged at each other. The air stormed as ice sublimated, steam filling the air. Each second dragged on forever, their weapons closing in on each other until in one big climactic clash-

The sound of a whistle wracked their skulls, disorienting both girls as they went off course and dropped to the ground. The ice coating Ash’s spear shattered, leaving a regular metal spear behind, while Magnolia’s flames faded as she swapped back into her Valkyrie Gear’s original mode. Both Valkyries groaned as the voice of their instructor spoke in their heads.

“Twenty minutes, times up,” Miss Rivers calmly stated. “Whitelund’s shield is at 6.2%, Hale’s shield is at 84.9%”

There weren't any doubts about it.

“I’m calling the match, Hale’s the victor.”

Magnolia had won.

DaZe

Had a friend of mine make some mockups of the characters in Koikatsu. Not exactly how I imagined it but there are limits to the engine in the end. Slightly risque though so open it at your own risk.

Spoiler

Ash Whitelund (Valkryie)

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Spoiler

Magnolia Hale

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