Orimi was transfixed as Miya nimbly circled around Vael. With a combination of lithe footwork and precise arm movements, she used small bursts from her blade's thruster to propel herself in different directions. It was as if she was a talented dancer performing a solo act, her movements both effortless and elegant.

Miya's heels screeched across the ground as she skidded to a stop, the sound blending with the metallic scratch of Vael's exoskeleton, receiving several lacerations. The once-solid black surface of their torso now resembled a zebra's coat, striped with black and white as the metal underneath was exposed.

Several diagrams and indicators floated past Vael's eyes. They relaxed their shoulders as Miya took another swipe at her lower leg, making their knees buckle.

"Calculations completed," Vael murmured. "Patterns and battle intel analyzed. Initializing EDONOR-12 protocol."

Miya twirled across the floor behind Vael. She brought her blade up to her eye level, arching her shoulders and gripping the hilt with her fingers, her thumb resting on the pommel. The engine of her blade hummed with anticipation, and a burst of blue exhaust erupted from behind her. With her blade extended several inches in front of her, she surged forward, her eyes fixed intently on the back of Vael's head.

Vael's eyes widened to the edge of their sockets as they spun around, their arm nearly grazing Miya's hair in their sudden assault. Miya instinctively twirled away, twisting her foot inward to halt her momentum as she focused on Vael's glowing magenta pupils. But then, everything went white, and a blinding light consumed Miya's vision.

Vael swung a powerful follow-up punch that sent Miya flying off her feet. She tumbled and bounced before finally stopping, gasping for air as she dug her blade into the ground. Vael stomped their foot into the ground and then took off with a burst of speed, the wind whipping around their sides. Miya quickly scrambled to her feet and dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding Vael's massive foot as it came crashing down and caused the floor to shake. Miya pivoted on her feet and tilted her blade, deftly maneuvering around Vael's right side.

Vael raised their palm, revealing a gleaming silver orb in their hand. Miya stopped mid-turn and spun her blade before them. A plink of metal caused Miya to wince and lose her balance, lifting a foot off the ground.

"I see now," Vael said, their voice low and menacing.

Their mountainous shadow loomed over Miya as they continued to speak.

"You timed your deflecting maneuver to match the jolt my hand gave off when I fired my projectile. And then, you used the opportunity to gather speed and maneuver accordingly."

Miya looked up to see Vael with a fist racing toward the side of her face like a speeding bullet.

”But this time,” Vael said, their voice cold and controlled, “I decided to suppress my internal piston spasm and delay the shot.”

Miya felt a searing pain surge through her cheek, spreading rapidly to her face, neck, and chest. She gasped for air as her body was sent tumbling through the air, Vael's fist relentlessly driving into her cranium. Finally, Vael slammed Miya onto the ground with a sickening crunch, her body bouncing up and creating an eerie shadow against the alloy surface, the sound of cracking bones echoing through the air.

Vael continued their assault, throwing a flurry of body-shots that sent Miya's body bouncing back and forth off the ground. Miya’s eyes rolled to the back of her head. Her throat squelched out a hick with each jab.

With her blade's thruster revving loudly, Miya propelled into the air and landed on the second balcony, gasping for air as she clutched her chest. She crawled backward from the ledge, taking hurried breaths as her suit emitted puffs of steam from the flaps on her chest and arms. With each wheeze, she coughed up more blood, staining her chest crimson.

Vael landed on the balcony with a heavy thud, causing the entire level to shake like a miniature earthquake. Miya's back was pressed against the wall, and she used it to support herself as she stood up with a series of groans and gasps. She gritted her teeth. Vapor poured from the flaps on her suit like geysers.

“Your vitals seem to be stabilizing. Pulse… Respiration… Temperature… A restorative brig.”

Miya gritted her teeth while shaking her head from going unconscious. “Shu… Shut up…”

“Mustrem. Your armor won't save you forever,” Vael taunted. “Whenever that vapor leaks out, it only means your time is running out.”

Vael took a step forward, then started walking towards Miya, slowly increasing their pace until they sprinted. “I'll strip that armor off your flesh and sell it on the market. And if it's activated by your cells, I'll just cut off your limbs and sell you with it, yubrera!”

Miya hurled her blade into the air, its thrusters producing small bursts that sent it tumbling like an airborne baton, slicing the ground before her. But Vael swatted the blade into the wall, unfazed by Miya's tactic, and continued her brazen pursuit. Miya lunged forward, meeting Vael halfway and deftly dodging a swift uppercut. With lightning-fast reflexes, she landed a quick two-hit punch to Vael's stomach but immediately evaded another hook from her side.

Miya rolled out the way of a brisk kneeing assault, then climbed up the wall using a kick-off of Vael’s raised leg. She then pushed herself off the wall while tugging her blade from the metal crevice in the same move. Vael created an ‘X’ around her body using her broad arms, then tackled Miya into a pod’s glass surface, making it shatter to the ground like lost beads. Her lower arm’s metal flaps began peeling back, releasing several nanode injectors that scurried across her black skeletal bones toward Miya like ants out of their burrow.

Miya tilted her blade down and pointed it at Vael’s stomach. The chassis burned with a sapphire blue as the thruster purred like a lion and then blasted into their abdomen. Vael began to slide across the ground, dropping Miya from her grip while trying to stop the tip from sliding deeper into her exoskeleton. Miya shook her head, then with a warrior’s cry, she ran forward, took ahold of the pommel, then pushed Vael off the side of the railing.

With a clambering thump, as they crashed to the ground, Vael’s mask let out a cloud of smoke as the blade continued to rev its thrusters, pushing even deeper into her stomach as they laid on their back. Their arms, now bare black and skeletal, barely held onto the metal shaft as their torso oozed with purple fluid.

Miya stumbled back, her suit giving off continuous puffs of vapor until blood trickled down the flaps like syrup. V903 ran over to Vael, grabbing at the blade as well, and began desperately tugging as one of Vael’s eyes began losing its purple gleam.