Seeing the weapon swiping towards my head, I was already too invested in my attack, I simply had to rely on my armour to tank the blow. Her feint struck first and the sheer force of the blow made me reel to the side.

All it took for Nerissa to evade my strike was a simple torso movement and to follow up on her sudden advantage, she kneed me in the stomach, using my own momentum against me. The sudden blows happened with such speed, I was still reeling backwards and yet another strike from her sword was once more descending upon me.

My body flared up its instincts, the faint already left a deep gash across my helmet, a full power attack would penetrate deep. Bringing Zircon into a half-sword, I just barely got her up in time for the two swords to collide.

The sheer weight in the power of the attack I received forced my knees to buckle, but for some reason Nerissa stopped, allowing me to make distance to reset the fight. I immediately positioned myself in a high guard and watched as Nerissa simply began inspecting the edge of her sword curiously.

'How intriguing.' She couldn't help thinking. The beatdown she just placed on Apollo was supposed to be a reminder to never underestimate a foe, especially an ally. Her sword was supposed to cut deep through his armour and into his shoulder. A wound she knew he would recover from.

The blade she had made was a replica of a sword she had seen the god Vulcan gift to one of her siblings. She knew it was atomically sharp and was truly a sword of wonder. However, as she looked upon its edge, she spotted a small chip.

She then raised her gaze and for once her intrigue was not at Apollo, but Apollo adjacent. His sword. Zircon. She knew the sword was no mere sword, of course. It was floating beside him a moment ago, but still. The sturdiness...

"Apollo, hand me your sword." The spar could continue in a moment, she first had to sate her intrigue or she would not be a fair opponent, she would be distracted and she promised Apollo a proper spar.

I lowered my guard slightly, it hanging loosely over my head. "Is this a trick?" I asked warily, I would happily stop for a moment and allow myself to cradle my stomach in the fetal position for a moment, but I was weary from the feint attack.

However, when Nerissa dropped her weapon and took off her helm, I knew she was serious. "Oh, um. Sure. Is everything ok?" I said, lowering my guard. I then held Zircon out and allowed Nerissa to come close.

With my hands extended holding Zircon out, Nerissa did not take the blade from my grasp and merely observed it. Watching her eyes switch from deep green to amethyst purple was a sight to behold.

A tickle in the back of my mind made me realise something. 'Do I have an eye kink? It's the one thing I fixate on more than anything. I hope not. Jewel would get upset...' I was taken out of my odd revelation by Nerissa stating.

"Your weapon is something else. I think I understand how your sword could take my blow. I will admit, I am a little envious, you have a fine weapon there. However, be careful Apollo, I am pretty sure your sword is quasi sentient.

I said nothing, she wasn't quasi sentient anymore, well she currently was. But when she needed to be, she could tap into the hive queen she once was. Like to inform me of situations such as Onyx's secret keeping. 'Though I am pretty sure if you do it now with the new resident, my mind would shatter so stay simple, please?'

Zircon vibrated in affirmation and I turned my attention back to Nerissa who has clearly gotten reprepared for combat... "Are you serious?" I couldn't help but vocalise as I suddenly realised I wasn't reincarnated into a futuristic universe, but clearly some fantasy medieval one.

Nerissa was holding off to one side a gigantic axe of unwieldy proportions. It was roughly six feet tall ,which while large, isn't outlandish, but its head... The gigantic torso sized head with intricate engravings and the purple crystal like blade upon its edge looked straight up impractical.

If anything, with the size of the head, it was more like a bardiche, but its shape made it more like an axe. Nerissa smiled at my confusion before placing her helmet back on. "Prepare for the unexpected Apollo, You survived my lesson with that sword of yours, so prepare for something else entirely.

Despite its size, I felt a confidence overwhelm me as the weapon looked entirely too large to be effective... That was until Nerissa started swinging the blade with a grace I wholly did not expect.

She did not use the weapon with brute force like one might expect. No, she used the size and the length of the weapon to perfect example as she began swinging in a pattern around her.

She was using the weapon as an entry denial weapon. Using the momentum of the last swing to power the next. I couldn't get close to that thing. without being cleaved in twain, but fortunately for me, I did have range capabilities.

I acted foolish at first, approaching the axe with a fools guard. However, unlike before where I just charged in, I instead fired a full powered flaming Psionic bullet towards Nerissa while draining myself as I attempted to apply as much gravity upon the axe as I could muster. The effects were imminent. The axe dropped on its downward swing and my Psionic bullet travelled incredibly swiftly.

Nerissa had expected this, but not the speed of the bullet and only just dodged the bullet, a seared mark on her armour showing that she was right to dodge. She then smiled unknowingly sadistically as Apollo had failed to predict the fact that the purple edge of her weapon was a Psionic element, forcing him to expunge too much energy for his Gyrokinesis to apply. She kicked up her axe and with the momentum, Struck down with it. Again, she would only cause minor injuries, which to others would most likely be fatal, but Apollo survived Psionic decay, he could survive this.

However, she was caught by surprise again as Apollo's sword left his hand without prior movements and flew towards her through the air.

I used this moment of minor distraction to dodge the blade, pushing it away on its flat side as much as I could in the window of opportunity and dashed towards Nerissa. I shoulder checked her shortly after she swatted away Zircon like an annoying pest and using my reserves of Psionic energy from my Origin, I turned myself into a bulldozer, sprawling the Praetorian onto the ground.

I used the short advantage I had to hastily clamber atop her, following in mommy's footsteps, I used my legs to pin her arms to the ground and started punching her helmet as hard as I could

My gauntlets after the first three punches were badly damaged, only a sliver thin inner layer remained intact, the same material the helm was made of. But my goal wasn't to destroy her helm. I wanted to do as much blunt force damage I could before- Nerissa threw me aside like unwanted trash and swiftly recovered back to her feet.

She had to admit she was impressed by Apollo's battle spirit. He was clearly shocked by the size of her weapon, but in such a hasty amount of time, he had come up with a plan that had her on her back, staring up at him as he mercilessly pounded her.

She might be holding back power and speed, but that was still a great feat on his part and she would be sure to tell him so.. Right after she embedded her axe into his torso. Literally stomping on the ground with enough directed force, her axe jumped up into her hand and she was charging at Apollo before he had gotten up.

As I raised my head and saw the terrifying sight of Nerissa charging towards me with her massive weapon, I suddenly realised Zircon was a fair distance away. I had no time to panic. I had to improvise. Fortunately for me, I was good at that.

Taking a defensive boxing stance, I acted like I was ready to square up. I began tensing my muscles, ready to give it my all and just as Nerissa lined up her swing upon me, I acted.

*ROAR!*

From out of nowhere, with no discernible indicator, Sapphire materialised from behind Nerissa and swiped out with her massive claws towards the Praetorian. This wasn't cheating, Sapphire was my weapon, I just don't use her often because she is too cute and chonky.

Sapphire had barely been able to get her claw into the armour of the Praetorian before she had an axe barrelling towards her face as the Praetorian's reflexes were nothing to scoff at when she was being serious.

Sapphire was a big target and a weapon of that size would do some serious damage to her. She braced to get sent back to Apollo's mind before a punch from behind at the Praetorians arm knocked the weapon off balance, cutting off only a piece of surface flesh from her form. A simple flesh wound.

Nerissa expected this, but had to rebalance the fight, if she didn't target the cat, she knew its claws could actually damage her armour so she had taken precaution. She then began spinning the axe again, with speed greater than before in an attempt to make some distance. She then felt a threat from behind her and without looking deflected the oncoming blade.

The Blade flew a short distance after the deflection before being caught by a raised hand.

Apollo then lowered his hand and took his trusty weapon into an ox guard. Nerissa couldn't see, but she knew Apollo had a pleased expression on his face. For she too was smiling under her mask.

Things had just gotten interesting.

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