Nox's POV:
"Welp! That takes care of that!" I said, as I finished making my anti-twinkle-star-tunnel across the mesosphere.
Had my core been back to normal, I could have finished in just an hour, but it took me an entire day to finish setting up a barrier tunnel that could withstand the meteors crashing down upon this icy turd-pole.
"Hm? I should probably charge the guy for this! There aren't a lot of mages who'd brave the danger of such a dangerous neighborhood just to lay safer roads." I said, as I took my first steps into the thermosphere.
Only a few meters away from the top of this absurdly tall hill, I looked back on the distance I have traveled. Gazing upon the magnificent tunnel I had constructed, something resonated within me. The joy I felt for laying down this road was indescribable.
"I wonder, why not retire from magic and pursue a career in road construction instead. Yeah, that sounds like fun! I'LL BE THE GREATEST TUNNEL MAKER IN THE HISTORY OF-!"
*Smash**Smash**Smash**Smash*
Interrupting my declaration of retirement, came a glaring reminder of why my fantasy of changing my name to bob and starting a new life as a builder would never come true.
"Why is it that whenever I make something, some asshole has to show up to destroy it?" I asked myself as I watched the thunder-sweating asshole smashing his way through my barrier tunnel.
He was shooting himself upwards by reversing the polarity of his magnet trick to jump of the swords in my tunnel, and for some fucking reason, he was also waving that electric knife of his around the place. The tunnel I made is only sturdy on the outside, so when he frantically throws lightning everywhere, he damages the enchantments holding the barrier up.
*Sigh*
I let out a sigh, feeling depressed at my shattered dreams, and decided to just get out of here as I walked up to the tippy-top, as I couldn't bear to see my masterpiece getting demolished by that savage.
'GREATE HERO! THOU HAVE PASSED MY TRIAL! NOW STEP FORWARDS AND-!'
"Yeah, yeah, sounds interesting! Anyways! Could you direct me towards the exit? I gotta get back to beat my kids before they realize I'm gone and try to make a run for it!" I said to the cracked sword in the stone.
…
"Kill, kill, kill…" Jai repeated like a broken record.
Throughout his arduous journey up spirit sword mountain, his desire for revenge had transformed into an obsession. Jai came from a rather prestigious clan and hailed as a genius by his peers. Throughout his life, there had scarcely been a time where he did not get his way, and when it didn't he could usually just use force to get what he wanted, but because of this, he has a tendency to get easily riled up when something doesn't go the way he wishes it to, often holding grudges over the smallest of slights. So, you can imagine he was not too pleased with Nox after she ripped away his one chance at the spirit sword mountain trial. Which was only made worse by the fact that he would constantly blame her for the injuries he sustained climbing the mountain after her. Though, as spiteful and self-important as he is, there is no denying his tenacity, as his unyielding rage is what carried him all the way up the mountain, as fate had ordained him too.
As Jai finally reached the exit of the now destroyed anti-meteor tunnel, he was hit in the face with a sudden burst of room temperature air as he phased through the bubble-like membrane protecting the mountain peak. He felt a slight burning sensation on his skin as his body, numb from the cold, began to regain its sensation. He took a deep breath, finding it easier to breathe up here. This was because the peak of spirit sword mountain is surrounded by a transparent membrane that isolates the environment at the peak from the harsh environment outside. If not for that, they would have been blasted with dangerous radiation, while being either frozen or scorched by the sunrays, while struggling to not suffocate while frantically dodging the space rocks falling through the sky. Of course, Jai didn't care about any of that as he had just one thing he wished to do up here.
"KILL!" Jai screamed as he swung down his copper blade towards the masked spider woman.
*Crackle*
*Boom*
After Jai finally reached the peak of the mountain after wrecking Nox's anti-meteor tunnel, he blindly rushed towards Nox as he swung down the Roaring Thunder Sword, releasing all the stored-up energy from his sprint through the thunderclouds with the intent of destroying even her ashes. However, it didn't work.
"Hey, do you mind not interrupting! Can't you see we're having a conversation?" Nox complained as her hair, that had finally gone back to normal, shot out in all directions again due to all the electricity that just went through her body.
Nox had sidestepped Jai's sword without bothering to look at him. Due to Nox's aura control and spirit magic which she can use to control the flow of energy inside her body, damage from things like cold, heat, or electricity can be easily warded off or minimized by simply redirecting it through none-lethal pathways, to expel it with almost no injury to herself. Though, the energy within Jai's sword was definitely enough to overclock the limits to which Nox could control in her current state, the unfortunate thing is that only a fraction of that power actually hit her. Electricity tends to arch out looking for different pathways to reach the ground the fastest, and while some of it had branched towards Nox as it passed by, much of it had simply shot into the floor instead.
"DIE! DIE! DI-! *Gag*"
"Pie!" Nox said, as she stuffed the cold slice of pie she had pulled out of spatial storage into Jai's screaming face.
"*Ptooey**Cough**Cough*! GO TO HELL!" Jai screamed after spitting the pie out of his mouth, while swinging the copper blade again.
*Zap*
Unfortunately, the Roaring Thunder Sword only had enough energy left to shoot out a couple sparks in Nox's direction, as Jai had used up all the energy stored inside the copper blade with his first attack. After realizing this, he brought out his other sword, but.
"DIE!"
*Zap*
"Don't worry about it! It's not uncommon for a guy at your age having trouble performing!" Nox said in response to the tiny sparks that came off the hilt of the Lightning Storm Blade.
The reason why the Lightning Storm Blade was not working is because it requires the qi of its wielder to manifest its lightning blade, and Jai was tapped out. Between the large amounts of energy he wasted while speeding through the thunder cloud, and the bursts of magnetic propulsion he had used to reach the peak of spirit sword mountain, not to mention the times he started flailing his Lightning Storm Blade like a madman upon spotting Nox part way through her tunnel. He had only just barely made it up to the peak before running out of batteries. Had he been even a second later to step foot on the horizontal floor at the top of the mountain, his magnetic feet would have run out of energy and he'd plummet down the mountain like a meteor, likely getting sliced and diced by the swords along the way.
*Incoherent angry grumbling*
"Okay so as I was saying, I don't care about some stupid-!"
"I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!" Jai screamed, interrupting Nox as she addressed the cracked sword in the stone.
Jai then lunged towards Nox and grabbed her throat as he tried to strangle her. Nox on the other hand, was kind of just lying there and letting him do as he pleased as she just continued speaking with the wind-based enchantment on her mask.
"Anyways, could you just tell me where the exit is? I'm not really interested in whatever you're selling!"
"WHY AREN'T YOU DYING?!"
"Would you stop shouting? I'm not talking with you right now! So, wait your-!"
*Bang*
*Crack*
"- turn!" Nox said, as Jai punched her mask so hard a piece of it cracked off.
*Sigh*
*Gag*
"Okay, you have my attention now!" Nox said, her eyes turning dark as she suddenly jolted up and grabbed Jai's windpipe, lifting him off his feet with one hand as she strangled him in the air, reversing their positions in an instant.
*Gag**cough*
"What? You feeling shy or something? Tell me what you want already!"
*Gag*
"How *Gag* you … doing … this!"
"Doing what? You mean this?" Nox said as she tightened her hold on Jai's throat.
"*Gag* Let … me … down!"
"Oh? Is that all you wanted?" Nox uttered as she kicked the Roaring Thunder Sword at her feet into her free hand before carrying Jai over to the ledge of the platform, dangling him over the foggy depth below.
"Okay! Goodbye!" Nox said, as she let go of Jai.
"YOU CRAZY BITCH!"
However, despite Nox letting go of his throat, Jai, held on to the arm she had choked him with, as to not fall to his death. He then tried to climb her arm to get back on solid ground, but Nox kept him at bay by tasering him with the copper blade in her hand, reloading it with whatever lightning energy remained in the air using her spirit core.
*Zap*
"AAHH! HAVE YOU GONE MAD WOMAN?!"
*Zap*
"AAH! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
*Zap*
"AH! STOP THAT AT ONCE!"
*Zap*
"AAH! STOP THAT, OR I WON'T FORGIVE YOU!"
"AAHH! IF YOU DO NOT STOP, I SWEAR I WILL NOT REST UNTIL I HAVE KILLED THREE GENERATIONS OF YOUR FAMILY!"
*Continues zapping*