Rita stood around 20 feet away from her opponent in a narrow alleyway, just waiting for the person in full black armor to make the first move.
"Blastia give power to the undeserved." A distorted, male voice erupted from the armor.
"Ah, right to the point," Rita's fire in her left hand grew larger, into a ball.
With the introduction of new Blastia, magic had taken on a more liquid form. While spells would still need to be used for more powerful magic, experienced and talented Blastia users could control their basic magic with ease, making it more ideal for combat.
The man drew his long, dark blade from its sheath, and rushed toward her.
Knowing her advantage was from distance, Rita ran back and launched a stream of fire from her hand, the man blocked it with a shield that formed from his arm protector, which was clearly advanced combat technology.
Rita used both hands to pull water from thin air, attempting to slow him down for her next attack.
The man's sword retracted, and instead a second shield popped out to protect him from the water.
Rita has stalled him just long enough for her to cast "thunder blade," a powerful, lightning based spell.
Her hope was to subdue the metal man, using his own armor against him, while also calling for help.
A direct hit, the metal man seemed paralyzed. Instead, he looked up, his suit now radiated electricity which he directed back at her by pointing his finger at her. Rita barely managed to dodge her own redirected spell.
"Ok," she said, "Time to get serious."
Rita pulled out her next element, hurling stones at the man, who simply cut them down with his sword that he extended once again. It was as if his suit was designed specifically to fight her.
Rita, with a very powerful grunt, threw as much fire as she could at him. He pulled out his shield to block it, walking through her fire with little struggle.
The shield turned red hot from the flame, but ultimately he would outlast Rita's spell time limit.
Rita stopped to catch her breath, and the metal man's shield began to glow. Rita felt her Blastia begin to change on her hand, it expanded and slipped off of her wrist and was pulled toward the shield.
The blastia returned to its original size midair and stuck to his shield, he had stolen it from her.
"What?!" Rita shouted.
Somehow, this metal man was able to have access to Patty's blastia magnet technology before it could even be produced. This raised a lot of questions that Rita didn't have time to answer.
Rita instead pulled out her sword, not wanting to go down without a fight.
Rita went defensive, trying to run and stall for time until her friends could show up to rescue her. She was slightly faster than the metal man, which worked in her favor. The problem was, she was running into a dead end.
Rita panicked, as there was nowhere left to run.
She turned and faced her attacker with as much confidence as one could have while trying to fight a foe much taller than you, while wearing your fancy dress clothes, without your main weapon.
Rita assumed the guard that Estelle had taught her, the first attack came. Rita blocked it, but something about the suit was clearly making him stronger, because her shoulder already hurt after the first parry.
Rita couldn't get a riposte in even if she wanted to, she was stuck blocking all of the attacks until eventually she was knocked off of her feet.
Her blade clattered to the floor as she cowered in the corner, she was sure she was done for.
A brilliant, white beam of light suddenly struck the man in the back, knocking him off balance.
He turned around and was met by the majority of Brave Vesperia.
Yuri, Repede, Flynn, Patty, Judith, and Karol all stood and threatened him.
"I'd get out of that suit and surrender," Yuri told him.
"You'll be given a fair trial," Flynn promised.
"Or we could beat you up if that's the way you wanna go," Judith twirled her spear, it flowed at the tip just to enunciate her point.
The metal man weighed his options before releasing a horrible smoke bomb on them. While they were focused on the smoke, he used a grappling hook gadget to swing to the top of the alley and make his quick escape.
"Don't let him get away!" Karol shouted.
"Estelle, stay here, we'll handle him," Flynn told her.
Flynn, Yuri, Repede, Judith, and Karol all took off after the mystery attacker.
Estelle walked over to Rita.
"Rita, oh my gosh!" Estelle was nearly to tears, "Are you ok? Where does it hurt? How many fingers am I holding up? Can you hear me ok? What's my middle name?"
"Estelle, slow down, I'm fine!" Rita assured her.
Estelle closed her hand, and green light came from her blastia, healing the minor cuts and scrapes she had received from the fall.
"Thank you, love," Rita told her, "But I'm really fine."
Estelle hugged her, "I was so worried when I saw your spell..."
Rita hugged back, patting her on the back, it would seem her wife had been hurt by this encounter more than she had. Estelle was loving in that way.
"If I ever see that jerk again..." Rita said, vengefully.
"What happened to your blastia?" Estelle asked, looking at the tan line on her wrist where it usually went.
"The metal man..." Rita said, "He had access to technology that only Patty and I knew about... or so I thought."
Rita got up and walked forward a bit, finding her Blastia on the ground near where the smoke was deployed.
She picked it up and reattached it to her wrist, "I will make him pay."
"I'm sure you will, honey," Estelle held her wife's hand.
"Attacking me when I'm in this uncomfortable formal attire, in this alley, using a stupid suit that seemed to be designed to fight specifically me..." Rita rambled on, "It just makes me so..."
"Well," Rita changed her tone, "If blastia can be taken so easily, it just means I have to be that much better with a sword."
Rita turned to face Estelle, "How about another private lesson?"
Estelle smiled and nodded, "Let's head up to my room, there's plenty of space, and I think it's time you met my sword master."
•••
"He's running for the docks!" Karol shouted, gasping for air.
"There are no boats unlocked that'll support the suit," Flynn said, "His choices are to ditch the suit and leave himself vulnerable or spend a lot of time unlocking another one."
"Wait, do you have the entire manifest memorized?" Yuri asked him.
"N-no," Flynn lied.
"You so do!" Yuri pestered him, "You're such a stiff and a freak for knowledge!" He laughed.
"Do you think this is the time to be making jokes?" Flynn countered.
"Hey, it helps me think!" Yuri defended.
Flynn drew his blade and sliced it through the air, sending a sharp, brilliant white light towards the metal man.
The wave struck the metal man's armor, which received minimal damage, barely a scratch.
They finally reached the end of the docks, he was surrounded.
"Give it up already!" Yuri shouted.
The metal man slowly walked back.
"Don't do it!" Flynn yelled.
The metal man stepped off of the dock and into the water, the party watched him sink to the bottom.
"Guess he didn't wanna be caught?" Judith asked.
Right as she finished that sentence, some sort of jet engines came online in his suit, which began driving like a boat underwater.
The suit clearly had no air supply, since he surfaced quickly but continued onward into the ocean.
"Now that's just stupid!" Karol yelled out, hoping the man could hear.
"Guess there was a third option you left out, Flynn," Yuri sat on the edge of the dock, feeling slightly defeated, "Swimming."
"Don't worry," Judith told him, giving him a consoling pat on the shoulder, "I'm sure we'll see him again."
"Seem like we can never catch a break," Karol sat down next to them, watching the sun set on the horizon, flickering over the lake.
"Evil never rests," Flynn told them, "It is the heavy burden of those with the necessary ability to combat evil to use it."
