Dwelling in Chaos

Outside of the guild, in a private arena-like place, where rubble was present everywhere from constant training within the guild, Artemis and Luna stood in front of one another. Both of them were calm, composed, and yet a strange dynamic built up between the two. Almost the instant that they stepped onto the battlefield, dialogue had all but terminated; replaced with an invisible, overpowering force of competition.

“So, are we going to begin, or are you just going to stand there like some idiot who has fallen head over heels for me?” Luna sarcastically told Artemis, as her lips soon formed a devilish grin. Artemis threw off the comments, and responded, “I was waiting for you to finish doing your hair, Princess.”

“Ooooh dayum!” Norma exclaimed in the background, causing Priscilla to hit her on the head. “Shut up and watch the fight, Norma.”

“Oho? You can talk the talk for sure. But…can you walk the walk?” Luna replied, as an aura of red energy manifested around her, before cackling with violent sparks of electricity. “Scared yet?”

“You’d think so, wouldn't you?” Artemis adequately retorted by increasing his own magical aura, causing it to envelop him in a golden hue, whipping out wisps of flames.

“Alright! Both of you, let’s go.” Randall refereed the match, and just announced its beginnings, despite regrettably doing so.

Immediately, Artemis pushed the ground away from his feet, leaping forward as he collected magical energy unto his fist; as he attempted to bash Luna with a single blow, the young witch’s hair instantaneously traveled forward, rotating around the arm before clenching it, stopping the magically imbued attack as soon as it neared her.

“Dammit.” Artemis muffled, as he used his magical aura to repel the hair that surrounded his arm, while moving back a few steps.

“So…is this all you can do?” Luna asked, before revealing a deck of cards that swiftly surrounded her being. Choosing a single card, she muttered “Fire and Ice.” Immediately, the card began spinning before her, letting loose a torrent of fire and ice respectively that homed in on Artemis’ being.

Quickly, he drew two runes to counteract the said energies, the Huǒ and Shuǐ rune respectively. Immediately, his waves of fire and water began to counteract their opposite elements drawn by Luna. As they headed towards one another, they collided, the opposite energies creating a spectacular scene of fierce red and blue energy prior to dissolving into thick mist.

“Oh? You can do something after all, then?” Luna commented, intrigued in the way Artemis used his Rune Magic.

“You’re such a pest.” Artemis noted, as he drew a Tǔ rune on the ground that immediately caused the earthen materials surrounding Luna to rise into a pillar-like cage around her, leaving her helpless.

Except not all went as planned for Artemis, for as quickly as Artemis drew the rune, Luna threw some die into the air. They both rolled for a brief second, before stopping at the number ‘2’. This pleased Luna, as a black energy quickly surrounded her; touching the tall structure that surrounded her, it began to break down almost immediately.

“That magic…it’s Probability Magic, isn’t it, Luna?” Alejandro wondered, much to the newcomer’s joy, as she responded “Yes it is, Alejandro. I’m surprised you picked it up.” Alejandro adorned a cocky grin, before Artemis intervened and tried to overpower his opponent using a horrendous volume of flames, hoping to overcome her annoying hair.

“Tch.” Luna moaned, as she quickly back-flipped once, before using the momentum of her previous backflip to ascend high into the air. In doing so, Luna summoned a card into her hand, before chanting “Dreams”. A vast amount of magical power erupted from the card, before folding into a spherical form that lasted for as long as Artemis’ flames burned, until both spells dissolved.

Luna was descending onto the ground at a rapid rate, but quickly used her hair to latch onto a pole behind Artemis, evading his secondary, magic imbued fist as it caused the boulder in front of him to be left with a permanent crater within it.

Artemis panted slightly; the girl was just as strong as he was, and their abilities were polar opposites, making it difficult for one another to hit each other. Likewise, Luna found it difficult to do so as well, despite her confidence in defeating Artemis.

Randall noticed this, and smiled wildly. “And we’re done here!” He shouted, causing Artemis and Luna both to be slightly disappointed. “But Master, I still have more left!” Artemis shouted, with Luna adding in “Likewise! I won’t let this fool beat me!”

Randall adequately responded by sending a pulse of magical energy to both combatant’s abdomens, instantaneously making them fall to their knees. “You’re done here, both of you. Artemis, accept it, Luna is strong enough to be in this guild. Likewise, Luna, stop insulting Artemis.”

Artemis and Luna both had their heads held down in slight shame, as they said “Yes Master” in unison. This made Raziel chuckle in the background, who immediately commented with “Oho, lovebirds in the air?”

“Shut up Raziel.” Artemis sharply told him off, as he began to walk to the guild, he told everyone “I’m calling it a day, if anyone wants me, I’ll be in my room!” before activating a rune on his glove that glowed with a bright purple, causing him to turn into bright purple energy that allowed him to teleport to the guild.

Back at the battlefield, Raziel approached Luna, nudging his head at her back, Luna turned around to notice Raziel smiling at her. “Don’t worry; Artemis is like that with everyone. Ask everyone else. He’ll take time, but he’ll open up. Just make sure you don’t put up any false impressions in front of him, he detests liars.” Likewise, everyone else giggled, as Raziel perfectly summarised what Artemis was. “He’s telling the truth!” Priscilla said, “Pretty much.” Garrett confirmed, “The dog knows what he’s sayin’ Lulu.” Norma reinforced, and finally Randall came up to her, smiled and told her “Welcome into the Desperados family, Luna Amatsugo.”

Luna couldn’t help but sincerely smile at the comments everyone made. It looked like she finally found a place she could truly call ‘home’. “Thank you…everyone!” Luna exclaimed. Standing up, she then told everyone “Let’s go back to the guild, shall we?” And as she lead the way, everyone followed along.

Fin.