Time was not on her side, and neither was the Other. The copy was furious. The sopping wet cape dripped on the Other Noble's petite form as her hair hung around her face like a bedraggled puppy.
Noble forced a smile. "Bad hair day?"
The comment pricked the Other's pride. "You should see yourself!"
Child of Promise frowned. "I suppose I am in a way."
That was all the respite either of them got. Nearly drowning was no excuse for a feud to cease, after all.
The Other raced forward, her cape deforming slightly around her from the weight of the water it had absorbed.
The aerial fighters tore through the sky. From the ground, it seemed like their silhouettes sliced through the heavens, snuffing out the stars they passed with their fearsome forms.
Noble and the Other Noble spiraled and corkscrewed in their deadly dance.
Child of Promise dove like a wingless bird, creating a whirlwind behind her. The Other twisted upward in a sharp arc, unwilling to answer the challenge so close to the lake. She had been thrust into the water once already.
Noble looped back to pursue her enemy. They collided, their contrails of wind wrapping and tangling as they wrestled in the air. Their swords collided, igniting sparks through the night sky. Noble deflected the shockwave, sending it and the sparks like a starburst around them.
The entire heavens bore witness to the duel. Even those below pulled their eyes from their own troubles to view the display for a moment.
The ballet was as beautiful as it was catastrophic, and the two fighters felt the force behind the blows keenly.
Yet a smile came to Noble's unhelmeted face as she watched the water continue to drip from her opponent long after she had shaken out the water in her armor.
As their faces came within centimeters of each other after a particularly intense exchange, Noble stifled a laugh.
The Other furrowed her brow. "What? Have you finally lost your mind?"
Noble shook her head, repelling her enemy and managing another cut on the Other's hand as she did. That made almost a dozen small cuts on the copy's skin, not that Noble was counting…
"It's a bit of a paradox." Child of Promise laughed. "So similar and yet completely different."
The reflection hissed, wiping the small stream of blood from her hand as she sailed away with effortless speed.
The Other had landed many hits on Noble, further injuring her already useless ankle and causing the original internal damage from the myriad of shockwaves that had wracked her body.
The cape had protected the Other's body splendidly, yet the recently mounting number of cuts concerned her greatly. Everything concerned her more than it should, especially Noble's words.
"I am you," the Other raised her sword. "Only better."
Noble carved an elegant arc through the cloudless sky as if the air itself bent to her command.
"You are me, only perpetually angry, murderous, and clingy. How you took all my lovely qualities and still managed to turn out like that is a mystery." Noble clicked her tongue. "However, you were not what I was talking about when I mentioned the contradiction."
Noble slipped through the sky, her sword slicing sideways as she reached her enemy. The Other met the slash with gritted teeth.
"What did you mean, then?"
"That relic around you." Noble shrugged, pulling back her blade as the copy tried to kick her in the gut.
The Other sped at her enemy, rolling her shoulder at the last moment to slam into Noble's breastplate. Unable to get her blade up in time, Child of Promise released her sword with one arm and lifted her elbow. Her cowter plate collided with the copy's ear, sending the reflection's head reeling.
The Other Noble's muddled thoughts cleared, but she continued to feel like she was too slow. She wiped more blood from her hand. Why weren't her cuts healing?
Unbothered, Noble continued.
"That cape certainly looks like my armor and even functions like it. Quite an impressive relic that Mirage possessed! It could pass for a twin of my humble suit."
"It is far superior!" The Other scowled.
"In some ways, perhaps. But it will never be my armor. The moment you die and I regain control of that cape, your armor will disappear entirely. It will return to looking like the cloth it has always been. You see? A paradox!" Noble felt like she was teaching a master class to the most unwilling of pupils.
But it turned out the student had learned something after all. A smile formed on the copy's face. "Why wait? I can make it disappear right now?"
Pulling the hood over her head, the Other tucked her sword behind her. The cloth changed, blending with the night sky and making the wearer invisible. The emotional signature of the Other disappeared too, vanishing like a forgotten dream.
Noble's eyes swirled as sparks formed in her left hand. She spun the Zenith in her right, warding off any immediate attack.
The Other, however, did not go straight for the kill. The moment of silent anticipation stretched out. Seconds passed, feeling like hours to Noble's tense muscles.
The noise from fighting below was the only sound filling the world around her.
'She didn't run. I can feel her.'
Noble might not have been able to sense the copy in any traditional sense, but her intuition told her that the reflection wouldn't stray far.
As the dagger finished forming in Noble's left hand, she lowered her Zenith and shut her eyes.
'Where are you?'
A movement of wind alerted her to a danger behind her back. She dodged just in time for the relic's blade to whiz by her ear. Noble spun, engaging the Other with her short and long blades, looking like she was slashing at phantoms but hitting a solid form instead.
The Zenith and its shorter helper deflected hit after hit while Noble studied each and every strike. It was a deadly game. A millisecond off would spell her doom, yet she fought on. At last, a collision with the relic reflected a shockwave at the Other, throwing back her hood. The copy's pupils dilated, giving her an empty, hollow look.
Noble raised both blades to strike the one who stole her face, but they were caught against the sharp edge of the relic.
Noble and the Other Noble stared at one another, a trance holding them in place and in time. The Other leveraged the relic sword, forcing Noble to reverse the location of her shorter blade. Caught in stasis between the dagger and the Zenith. The Other grinned, overcoming Noble with her brute strength as she slowly pushed Child of Promise toward the mountainside.
"Weak," she scoffed.
Noble kept her arms locked, continuing to restrain the blade even as she sank through the air. Seeing the Other aim her descent toward the mirror lake, Noble shook her head.
"That cape is very impressive, as I said. Invisibility is not something that can be taken lightly. In fact, there is something else your protection has that my armor does not."
Seeing Noble's watery demise grow near, the copy smiled viciously.
"Oh? And what's that?"
"Seams."