Let's Enjoy [Klein, Amaranta]

"Show me something worth holding my attention, then, Klein. Enlighten me."

Amaranta offered no other dialogue than that. After all, that was what a woman of her ilk desired. At this point, the only thing that would hold her attention is a display of unrivaled strength. From her point of view, charming worlds could only carry Klein so far. To become the unequivocal locus of her attention required resounding defeat. That was all there was to it. The alternate release phrase piqued her curiosity during his shift in appearance, to say nothing of the absence of the crimson mist.

The unfamiliar nature of it isn't exactly a bothersome affair, no more than something to account for if anything. She had already intended to observe him with a pinpoint focus from the outset. Falling in line with that intention, Amaranta shifted her body in preparation for an explosive punch, shooting her fist forward to release an incendiary explosion of heated air to knock those razor-sharp feathers off their intended course.

Whatever the intent of that attack was, the leonine woman found herself unimpressed. Still, if her perception of the man is anything to go by, he isn't the type to approach a battle without a game plan. Which meant that taking him for granted was out of the question. Forming a column of golden flames to defend herself from any further attacks, Amaranta rushed forward to position her fingers like a gun, releasing a far-reaching beam along a straightforward line from the point of her finger. Rudimentary acts, no doubt, but with a battle this crucial, she wasn't exactly aiming to throw her own set of cards out here by any means.

"Haha, wow. You're pretty strange. Now I'm really curious to see what you have up your sleeve."

"Of course you would. What? Ya trying to tell me my tall and thick body ain't enough for you anymore, Kleeein~?"

The playful hum at the end of her banter illustrated that her words were no more than lighthearted in nature, a faux display of disappointment at hearing those words. Whether he took them in stride or not was the furthest thing from her mind, after all. The real amusement was in observing all these new tricks he had to offer in his arsenal. In the moment he evaded her attack, Amaranta remained alert enough to swing her enflamed fist forward to deflect his second array of feathers.

"Well, if you were the average Joe, I doubt I would have entertained spending any amount of time with you to begin with. Exceptional is obviously what I want out of a man who is trying to claim an extraordinary prize like yours truly."

There was no rush to her pace nor any tension in her movement. Inquisitive sapphires were positioned directly on him, observing his movements until she felt it was the right time to pounce. Considering her overall scope of power, she could afford to be patient. No need to reveal the entire depths of her flames if he wasn't pressing her into a corner right? Well, yes and no. One part housed no intention whatsoever of overestimating him, while another was thinking of any strategy that would throw him off his game.

Perquisa allowed her to track his silhouette as he vanished toward one of the bodies of the fallen foes. Hm? What the hell was he playing at? What purpose did it serve for him to---in the next moment, an answer is provided for her in the form of an immense arrow slicing through the air at an impressive velocity. Throwing her fist forward to collide with that arrow, Amaranta felt her body shift back by ten meters in the resulting clash. Casting a glance back at her fist, the leonine woman whistled as she tilted her head.

"What in the scavenger's hell is that ability? Sheesh. Don't go coming near me with that one!"

Booming laughter echoed from her lips as she used the ground as a springboard to throw her body into the skies above. Manipulating the flame surrounding her body, Amaranta spun around in several rotations until a tornado formed around her. Positioning her finger in the same stance as a gunman, Amaranta released an array of her own projectiles, launching several beams of light and fire to strike at Klein from above. A rain of hellfire to test his agility.

"Dance for me, little man!"

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll put on an impressive performance all the same, Klein!"

Arrows and hellfire clashed in a roaring display of intermingling energies. To overwhelm her assault, he executed a vast number of shots to set her on the back foot, a feat that brought her no small ounce of joy. Amid the roiling mixture of fire and reishi, Amaranta maintained an enthusiastic grin as those leonine sapphires bore down on the winged archer from below.

His offense was impressive, a step beyond what he displayed the last time they fought. There was no fault in it whatsoever. Questions of capability shot through her mind like a wave of inspiration. What was the extent of his capabilities now? Where did his limit lie? Where did her limit lie? Even under the threat of fire, the booming laughter did not stop. At present, she was consumed by the exhilaration of battle. A bliss that no words could describe.

That same rush of exhilaration led her to compose two polearms of blazing fire. Spinning them around with immense physical prowess, Amaranta pointed her weapons in Klein's direction. The sheer force of momentum draws the wind around her emblazoned form, feeding into the flame to form a gathering of incandescent fury that dwarfed her last attack in offensive capability. In a contest of sheer firepower, who would win out? Amaranta desired to see that answer for herself here and now.

Rotating her arms backward at coordinated angles, she shot the polearms forward to release a vast stream of conflagration from above. Like a burning meteor falling from above, it roared from the skies to burn everything in its sight. Of course, she expected him to dodge the attack. That would be the expected reaction, after all. Yet she wasn't so foolish to ignore the crucial effect that might have on his offensive. If that attack hit the ground, it would start a wildfire, eliminating the resources he could scavenge from in short order.

Awaiting his reaction with unrestrained glee, Amaranta would dive through the skies with weapons in hand, soaring around in preparation to attack him wherever he appeared next. To earn her in her entirety, he would receive her in her entirety. Such a prize would not be taken lightly; she would offer every iota of strength to make that fact known.

"Your little display with those arrows inspired me to get a little creative myself. I'm no archer, but I'm really good at causing a lot of destruction. Whaddya think, babe? Impressive, eh?"

"Haha! What can I say? When push comes to shove, I can get a little creative with my repertoire, too. From the looks of it, you've picked up some pretty cool tricks yourself the last time we fought!"

Compared to Klein, Amaranta was freely swimming in every wave of euphoria this battle afforded. The twists, the turns, the sheer unpredictability Klein presented in this unfamiliar form. His efforts were pretty commendable, all things considered, and if he was showcasing a display of why he ought to demand the full scope of her attention, she had to admit he was making a reasonable case. The phenomenon unfolding with those feathers in the air did not go unnoticed under the gaze of her Perquisa. There was some rumbling energy on the horizon; predatorial instinct told her that it would be foolish to ignore whatever he was cooking up even in the middle of her adrenaline rush.

Much to her amusement, though, rather than play another game of cat and mouse, Klein opted to meet her head-on with sword in hand, a multitude of feathers accompanying his charge as each shot at her in various directions. Naturally, there was no way she would be able to evade every single feather, but with her level of hierro and her durable frame, she didn't exactly feel she needed to, either. Relenting was the last thing on her mind. No, she'd move forward and plan carefully. Shooting forward with enough speed to shatter the sound barrier itself, Amaranta's body carved through the air like a fighter jet controlling its trajectory with superlative precision.

"Aw. An actual clash, eh? Look at ya. Treating me to my favorite dance."

She applauded his audacity to face her head-on as they danced together through the air. After all, in a contest of sheer strength, she was pretty confident that she'd win every time. In addition, each time they crossed each other, those polearms would shoot forth with the intent of sending him backward, using the explosive impact of her release state to set him on the defensive. His bold offense proved distracting enough for some of those feathers to earn purchase against her imposing frame, each forcing her off course now and again until she redoubled her flight. They packed a pretty hefty punch, no doubt, but she was something of a durable lady. She could handle it.

"Whoa! Someone's starting to actually put me on the defensive. These bird feathers might overwhelm me at this rate."

Extending her flaming tail outward, Amaranta motioned her hips around in a whipping motion to deflect any other feather off its intended course. Weathering the storm to a respectable degree, she recognized that clashing with him, remaining wholly ignorant of these feathers peppering her from above, would only work against her in the long term. On one hand, she loved seeing him display his best techniques for her. On the other, she wanted to win. Weighing the options between which she preferred most, victory was far more illustrious than the performance he was putting on. Affirming that within her heart, two actions would unfold in short order.

"Nowhere else to run from hereon out, Klein. Let's keep on embracing each other, shall we?"

The first was Amaranta seamlessly fusing the two polearms into a medieval lance dwarfing her tall frame in size. The second, through the snap of a finger, was the expansion of an intense heat wave that expanded to a total of forty meters. It was a natural extension of her release, but she hadn't felt the need to apply it yet... until now. What better way to turn up the pressure than turn up the heat, right? The explosive roar of the conflagration below was intensified by the heatwave, the wildfire empowered to such an extent that the flames began to surround the both of them in a calamitous cage of fire. Pointing that lance above her head, Amaranta grinned excitedly as she soared through the air in preparation for another attack, the tip of her blade glowing, her expression overjoyed at the wildfire melody filling the air.

His tenacity was impressive. There was no denying that. He appeared relatively unfazed by the overwhelming pressure of the conflagration surrounding him. The product of his release state perhaps? Or was it Hierro? Or was it neither? Burn through it all. No matter what it was, she wanted to incinerate it all to ashes. Go beyond her limit. Compared to that, this discipline of his was relatively inconsequential to her. It was certainly entertaining, no doubt, but meaningless in her grand scheme of conquest.

Fierce sapphires followed his every movement and action until his form temporarily transcended well beyond the speed he had typically displayed thus far. Instinct told her that this was the natural result of Sonido, yet there was something decidedly different about his application. Since it momentarily removed any trace of a spiritual signature, Amaranta maintained her offensive charge regardless of what came next, devoting the embers of flame onto the tip of her lance, focusing her entire sense on reaction time alone. Additionally, as her body gained further momentum, accompanied by the heat and flame surrounding her, she became shrouded in a column of golden fire, as though her body were akin to a meteor hurtling through the sky.

There, in the blink of an eye, his form reappeared shooting toward her like a bat out of hell. What filled her vision next was the mighty column of crimson swinging toward her. Even in the face of that tremendous strike, Amaranta remained unfazed. It was impossible to telegraph the direction of his far-reaching swing simply by merit of deceptive speed and overall range of attack, and so the natural result ended with his attack cleaving through some portion of her flesh as a spray of blood streaked through heated air. Even so, her body remained in constant motion.

Like a spinning cyclone of fire and heated wind, Amaranta's body continued to dart around at the highest velocity she could achieve at the current moment. A maddened cackle danced from her throat as she used the gathered friction and momentum of her charge to increase the overall size of the blazing pillar encompassing her body. The wildfire that surrounded them was now, at every turn and revolution of her body, being altered to suit Amaranta's needs. Greater momentum, greater friction, greater speed. Her current offense was not enough. It was not meriting the results she desired, and so she felt it didn't really belong on this stage anymore.

The wildfire was being drawn inward by the sheer force of her momentum as she swept through the air, creating a large tornado of fire, intent on engulfing them both. The lance was filled to the brim with her spiritual energy, but she hadn't seen a reason to employ her next attack quite yet. A large gash across her skin was less than ideal, but that didn't matter. She was still standing tall. Surrounded by a pillar of flame amid a conflagrating tornado. Nothing was ever easy with this deceptive bastard, new form or otherwise, and she wasn't ready to stake all of her cards until the right opportunity presented itself. For now, her body would continue to stride through the air until they were completely and wholly covered in fire.