The heck is the point of this?

Obviously, I'm no expert in either magic or combat, I wouldn't even say that I'm moderately knowledgeable on either, so maybe I'd be confused no matter what, but this especially perplexes me.

Normally, S fights very offensively, almost recklessly in most cases, crudely throwing sand at things (especially in their eyes) and going ham with his glass blade thingy whenever he has an opportunity. This time, however, he's just kinda running around the battlefield, barely using his blade at all, save for the occasional parry or attempt at a cheap shot. The former of which frequently leading to the thing breaking, though, since he can just unmake and remake a new one in not even half a second, it didn't really matter all that much.

And, instead of throwing sand at his opponent, he just sort of sprayed it everywhere. All around the battlefield, as if he was trying to slowly flood the place. While one hand was deftly swinging and slicing his cutting edge, the other was just sprayin' away at the ground like there was no tomorrow. 

There was no immediately obvious justification for this. Frankly, it looked kinda dumb.

There's gotta be a limit to how much sand he can summon at a time, right? Now, sand seems pretty simple, and he's seemingly pretty good at the whole magic thing, so I'm sure he can go for a while without running out of magic juice, but... There was getting to be a lot of sand, y'know? 

The other guy didn't seem all that fazed by this. If anything, he almost seemed... Intrigued, maybe? I dunno. Anyways, he was just fighting normally. Chasing and swingin' away with his sword. It was clear to me that he was pretty good with it, too, despite how he looked. Concerningly good, even. Though, I did think it was odd how he was only ever using one hand, except when he was blocking, strangely. He didn't have a shield or anything, and the other hand was clearly usable. One would think that if the other hand was available, surely it'd be wise to use it all the time, right? I guess he probably knows better than me, but it all seemed silly to me.

"Did you run into anything while you were on the mountains?" Sis asked quietly as I watched the fight. I wasn't sure what she was doing. "Thinking about it, with your teleport-y thingy you should've been out pretty quickly, otherwise."

"Oh, uh, no. Not really. Well, I did encounter an unusually aggressive mountain lion, but I just teleported past it. Mostly I was looking for S." I explained. 

"He didn't tell you where he was? He expected you to find him yourself? That's unsafe! How irresponsible!"

"Actually, he found me, strangely. Not sure how, honestly. It's not like he knew I was coming. He even said he'd have come earlier if I hadn't appeared while he was taking a leak."

"Took that long because of that? Must've been one hell of a piss."

"Uh, y-yeah, probably." Well, that's a bit vulgar, isn't it? 

Though, she's absolutely right. That must've been a lot. When he found me, he was totally pale. I hope he didn't like, pee blood or anything. Ah, ew, ew, I don't even wanna imagine that. Gross, bleh. Eeeh...

Time to think about literally anything else... Like what happened after that. Sure, that works.

I talked to S about some stuff, he figured that nasties would be hiding out in the ruins, I warped us there, he said he wanted to fight the guy alone for some reason, I went alone into the ruins for some reason, talked to the guy about some stuff, turns out he wanted to fight me alone for some reason (just as S predicted, somehow), and that he also wanted to do it in a weird, gladiatorial arena type deal, probably because that area in the ruins was seemingly made for that for some reason, I went into the waiting room, I waited for a while, Sis beat up the door, I briefly communicated with her, She left, later I left the room, I said some dramatic stuff, I did the switcharoo, I got Sis out after that, I talked with Sis about some stuff, and now we're here. 

Whew. That was a long one. I was just thinking that sentence and I feel out of breath. 

"So, that's your plan, is it? You made such a big show as you arrived, and for what? To spray sand everywhere?" The man fighting S said menacingly. 

Oh, I guess they're talking now. Good thing they waited until now to do that, or it would've been drowned out by other conversation. Good timing, guys. Also, we really didn't make that big a show of anything, really. It was just the bubble-smokescreen bit I did at the river that one time. Which was kinda cool, I guess, but it took, like, 30 seconds, and featured special effects that were reminiscent of a certain iconic transition screen from a certain mega-popular cartoon series about a well-dressed sponge.

"Right..." S began, seemingly rather short of breath. "How 'bout you just focus on fighting, why don't ya?"

He was being quite cocky for someone who was seemingly on the business end of a beating. While he seemingly hadn't taken any serious injuries, he was breathing quite heavily, and he seemed almost weak at times, all while he hadn't yet made any serious progress. But despite all that, he looked so confident in himself, with that stupid cocky, oddly hostile smile of his... It's almost making it hard for me to be concerned about him. 

"You're a brave one, aren't you..." The man said with a vile grin. "I'm going to enjoy tearing your head off!" 

Wow, that's a bit dramatic, isn't it?

"I don't think you're going to do that." S said. 

I think the other guy said something in response to that, but it was quiet. I couldn't hear it from where I was. Whatever he said, S just rolled his eyes in response. 

That all seemed oddly casual, given the circumstances. I guess S did allude to the idea that he's met this guy before... I swear, if the punchline to this is that they're longtime friends and this was just some elaborate reunion prank, I'm gonna be pissed. Though I would certainly have to respect the effort that went into it.

That said, I doubt that's the case, considering they're still fighting each with great intensity. Actually, S would probably consider that a pleasant outing, now that I'm thinking about it...

Anyways, stabbing each other. 

Looks like they're just doing more of the same. Running, chasing, parrying, swinging, et-

OH 

NEVER MIND

NEVER MIND HOOOOOLY CRAP.

THAT JUST-

HE JUST SLASHED ACROSS S's ENTIRE TORSO LIKE HE WON AT TIC-TAC-TOE 

Immediately I slammed my hands together, and-

. . .

He's... He's still smiling.

Eeek.

And the other guy just... Stopped moving?

"Please... I'll be fine." S said. Who the heck is he talking to? Me? The other guy? Himself? And what's-

He raised his hand free hand to his wound. Oh, does he know healing-

Aaaaand he's spraying sand into the wound. I feel like I should've seen that coming.

I heard someone sitting in the stands spit out their drink. 

"...Sand is... The m...ost versatile..." S said, very clearly in very serious pain, though still closing (or at least filling) the wound all the same. 

"The next one won't-" The man began. S, being very good at interrupting people apparently, simply threw his blade at him mid phrase.

He caught it, just like before, cast it aside, and went in for another swing.

Only for that, too, to be interrupted, as a sharp burst of sand knocked his sword out of the way.

S seemed looked more smug than ever, (almost irritatingly so. And I'm rooting for him, I can't imagine how those dudes in the seats must feel), despite still seemingly being at a great disadvantage. You could see it on his face, too. Aside from that smile, he looked almost ill, like his heart was working overtime just to keep him afloat. If you saw someone laying like that in a hospital, you'd think they were counting the days. Yet, he just kept smiling.

"That it? That your big plan? Lay a couple traps? Big whoop." The man asked.

"Nah." S said. "This is." 

S once again began running around the battlefield, swinging his arms about wildly, as the sand he'd spilled everywhere seemed to animate and coalesce around him, and he began to rise into the air, before being consumed in a cloud of sand.

When the dust settled, what remained was......

S...

Piloting what appeared to be a giant mech suit, straight out of those eastern cartoons.

Made entirely out of sand. 

Huh.