Chapter 8: Weiss vs. Kotori

Weiss charged towards Kotori, trying to strike her with Myrtenaster but Kotori easily moved out of the way. "Ice Dragon's…" Kotori took a deep breath. "…Roar!"

A glyph appeared under Weiss's feet as a blast of snow and ice was fired at the heiress. Weiss use the glyph to swiftly move out of the way as the area behind her is being covered in ice. Weiss spin the dial on her rapier until it stopped on an icy blue crystal, coating the blade in an icy blue aura. Weiss stabbed the air several times, firing ice-like bolts at Kotori. Kotori smirked, making no adepts to dodge as the bolts hit her and created an explosion. The smoke cleared and revealed that the attack had no visual effect on Kotori.

"Now it's my turn again!" Kotori said as she coats her hands in ice, turning them into claws. "Ice Dragon's…" Kotori charged towards Weiss. "…Crushing Fang!"

Weiss quickly pointing Myrtenaster to the ground as the dust created a shield of ice, blocking Kotori's attack.

"That's not going to work!" Kotori said with a smirk as her ice claw shattered Weiss's shield, slashing her shoulder. Weiss winched in pain, grabbing her injured shoulder. "Ice Dragon's Twin Fang!" Kotori swung both of her ice claws at Weiss. Weiss tried to block the attack with Myrtenaster the best she could but was overpowered. Kotori kicked Weiss hard in the gut, sending her crashing into a tree.

Weiss fell to the ground again after taking another one of Kotori's attack. She skidded back a few feet until she hit a tree covered in ice back first. She struggled to get to her feet but collapsed due to the damage she had taken.

"Is that the best you can do?" Kotori asked.

'Come on Weiss, you have to get back up.' Weiss thought, tightening the grip on her rapier. 'I have to find a way to catch her off guard, but how?' Her eyes widen when an idea popped into her head. 'That's it!' The dial on Myrtenaster started to turn as Weiss slowly started to get up.

"You still want to keep going?" Kotori said with a sigh as she slowly walked towards the heiress. "I guess there's no point to dragging this out any further than it has to go." The dial stopped turning and the aura on the blade turned red. "I'll end it now."

Weiss got back to one knee as she looked up and saw Kotori standing over her, ready to finish her. Kotori lowered one of her ice claws down on Weiss. Her eyes widen as Weiss jabbed her rapier at the ice claw, stabbing her hand. Kotori winced in pain as she felt a burning sensation in hand, like it's on fire. She looked at the pierced hand and saw the ice around it quickly melting away,

'Now's my chance….' Weiss thought, pulling her rapier out of Kotori's hand. She created some glyphs heading towards the dragon slayer.

"Not these things again!" Kotori said, looking at Weiss's glyphs. Weiss started to leap one glyph to another as the aura on Myrtenaster changed from red to purple. Weiss jumped on the last flying glyphs and angled it towards Kotori. "I see." Kotori looked at the heiress. "You're trying something new with those things. But it's not going to save you." Kotori tried to jump towards Weiss but couldn't. She looked down at her feet and saw a black glyph, holding her in her position. "What?!"

'Now!' Weiss shouted in her mind as she jumped off the glyph towards Kotori.

"You left yourself wide open!" Kotori shouted. "Ice Dragon's Roar!" Another blast of snow and ice was released from Kotori's mouth and flew towards Weiss. Weiss quickly made another glyph and jumped off it, avoiding the attack. Weiss landed on her feet and charged towards Kotori, jabbing her rapier at her. "Ice Dragon's Crushing Fang!" Kotori swung her claw towards, blocking Myrtenaster before it could reach her. The dust built up in the blade, causing it to explode and send Kotori crashing through a tree.

"Did that do it?" Weiss asked herself, leaning on her weapon. The smoke started to clear and revealed Kotori slowly getting back to her feet.

"You damn brat!" Kotori shouted angrily, glaring at Weiss. "You'll pay for that! I'm done playing around with you!" Then a giant glyph appeared on the ground, started to spin at a fast pace. The aura on Myrtenaster changed into a bright cyan color as electricity surge through the blade. "You must think I'm stupid, do you?! I'm not falling for another one of your tricks! Ice Dragon's Crushing Fang!" Kotori charged towards Weiss, swinging her ice claw down at the heiress. Before the claw could touch her, Weiss disappeared and a glyph appeared in front of Kotori.

A flash of lighting came out of the glyph, piercing through Kotori. Kotori widen her eyes as her body get electrocuted, making her cry in pain. She looked behind her and saw Weiss standing there, glaring at her. "Damn it…" Kotori said as she fell to the ground.

Weiss skidded on the ground, breathing heavily as she looked at her fallen opponent. "I think that should do it." She said. "Now I need to find Blake. We have to help Ruby."

"Just where do you think you're going?" Kotori said, stopping Weiss before she could move. Weiss looked at the dragon slayer and saw that she's slowly getting to her feet. A light blue aura wrapped itself around Kotori's body.

"No way…" Weiss said in shock that the dragon slayer is getting back up.

"I must admit, you're stronger than what I first thought. But I'm afraid this is where our little game ends. I never thought that I would use this but you left me with no choice. Ice Drive!" Light blue patches appeared all over Kotori.

Soon the air around Weiss started to cool down to the point where her body started to shake for the cold. 'What's going on?' she thought. 'It's gotten so cold all of the sudden. Is she doing this?'

"What's wrong?" Kotori taunted. "Is it a little too cold for you? That's too bad because it only gets worse from here. But not to worry, you won't have to suffer for long. Ice Dragon's Roar!" Kotori released a powerful version of her breath at the heiress. Weiss quickly jumped out of the way as the attack not only froze the area behind her but destroyed it. Weiss looked at the destroyed area with widen eyes. As she turned around to face Kotori, the dragon slayer was gone.

"What the…" Weiss said shocked. "Where did she go?" Weiss looked around the area for the dragon slayer but she was nowhere to be found. But unknown to the heiress, a pair of eyes appeared on the ice behind her. Kotori smirked as she appeared out of the ice, preparing to attack.

"Ice Dragon…" Weiss widen her eyes as she looked behind her shoulder and saw the dragon slayer. "…Waxing Fang!" Weiss screamed in pain as she was getting slashed by Kotori's ice fangs. Then Kotori kicked Weiss in the face, sending her crashing into a tree. Kotori walked over to the faller huntress and picked her up by her collar. Ice started to cover Weiss' collar and slowly began to spread throughout her body. "It's over. The moment that this ice covers your body, it'll be the moment that your life ends. To be honest, I don't know what Mistress Ito see in weaklings like you. Well at this point, it doesn't really matter. Once I'm finished with you, I'll help my brother to kill that friend of yours. Then, we'll deal with that girl with the red hood."

Weiss gritted her teeth in frustration as the ice continues to spread through her body. She grabbed Kotori's arm as tight as she could before her arms was completely frozen. "No, you're not." She said. "I won't let you lay a figure on them."

"Oh really, what will you do about it since you'll be completely frozen in a minute?" Kotori asked, using her magic energy to speed up the freezing process.

"I will stop you, one way or another." Weiss said as her body is almost completely frozen. "I won't let you hurt anyone of my team, no matter what!" Then a white magic circle opened up underneath Weiss as her body is covered in a white aura, forcing Kotori let go of her.

"What the…" Kotori said shocked. "What's going on?!" Her eyes widen when the ice that covered Weiss shattered into pieces, releasing the heiress from her icy cocoon. "There's no way…" Then black snow started to surround itself around Weiss as the heiress looked at Kotori with a fierce glare on her face.

To be continued…