"Next cycle?"
"Like always."
Lapis closed the door of the arena smiling.
She was practicing with Star for several months already and was getting quite good with her sabers. She was no master of course, but dueling fulfilled the purpose she took it up. She felt free and powerful again. While dueling it seemed like she was flying again. She couldn't pinpoint why, but it felt so nice after all this time. She enjoyed every second of it, the intensity; the clash of blades, the dance like movement, all of this filled the blue gem with intense excitement.
And as she got better in the art of the sword, she noticed that her ideas of what was acceptable and not started to change slightly. She didn't know why, but instead of the typical two part dress worn by lapis lazuli gems she started wearing a military uniform, similar to the ones worn by quartzes, except for the diamond symbol, which colorless as she wasn't truly part of homeworld military. She also started carrying one or both of her sabers everywhere she went, which garnered glances towards her by both soldier and non-combatant gems who were perplexed to see a terraformer in such attire.
Lapis expected to be hated by obsidian soldiers because of this; after all, a proud soldier would despise a lowly worker for desecrating theher uniform by wearing it. But to her surprise obsidians didn't see it this way. And at a quick rate Lapis had made several new companions.
These gems were far different from any other soldier gem used by the homeworld. They were clearly good warriors, but they weren't very eager to fight, and weren't as aggressive as quartzes and ruby's. Lapis was dumbfounded by this, but didn't ask, afraid of their reaction.
She loved spending time with them, even though they kept calling her different nicknames relating to her size, as she was quite small and thin compared to their quite titanic forms. But she didn't feel mad about it, just slightly annoyied, which didn't ruin the enjoyiment in the least.
She closed the door, ready to head off to the barracks to meet up with her friends and then froze in place. In the middle of the corridor stood someone who she didn't expect seeing. Delta was standing in front of her, slightly smiling. Before Lapis could react the prime obsidian walked to her and hugged her.
"I'm sorry I acted this way." She muttered into the blue gems ear.
Lapis remembered clearly how the obsidian reacted when she offered her help, and wanted to push her away. She was angry, and rightfully so. She lifted her hands but instead of pushing the gem in front of her back, she started hugging her, all anger dissipating.
"It's nothing."
"A success I presume?" Alpha asked.
"As you can see." Replied the scientist, while taking notes on what was happening.
They were both sitting in front of Moranites console in her workroom, and observing an experiment that the scientist had proposed.
And it was a clear success, the lapis lazuli gem, even though clearly being angry at Delta just moments ago, forgave her after short time in her proximity. The situation had turned so much, that the lapis lazuli was apologizing for her behavior, even though she was innocent and begging for forgiveness.
"Should I turn it off?" Morganite questioned.
Alpha nodded, and the orange gem turned off the apparatus. She then turned off the data stream after hearing how the Lapis lazuli was offering Delta to come see her and Star dueling next cycle, to which the obsidian accepted.
The scientist then turned to the general sitting next to her, who asked.
"So, what is your opinion?"
"Absolutely fascinating but there is a chance that this won't end well."
"Care to elaborate?"
Morganite turned back to her console and pulled up a document detailing all the information she had on Omega, and then one which detailed the template of a prime obsidian. She put the documents side by side and scrolled down to the sections which detailed physical qualities.
"Look for yourself." The orange gem turned the console towards her comrade. Morganite let her study the information for several moments and then began speaking again.
"As you see, while Omega has huge amounts of metallic impurities in its gem, most of its composition is similar to that of yours and Deltas, and because of this I am quite afraid. If it develops any empathic abilities, with its understanding of the world…"
Lapis stood in the middle of the arena. Star was a short distance in front of her, grasping the handle of her sword and ready to draw it out of its sheath. Lapis herself had already drawn both of her blades, and was ready for combat. She could barely hide the fact that her entire body was shaking. Why did she do this? She didn't have any idea anymore. Star was better than her in every single way. She was stronger, faster, and more agile and had far more battle experience. So why did Lapis challenge her mentor?
She quickly gazed at one of the balconies and saw Delta standing there. And for some reason her negative emotions dissapeared again. The shaking stopped and now she felt confident and strong again.
"Are you ready?" Star asked in an emotionless voice, drawing her blade.
For this duel the pearl used a weapon known as falchion, it was purely of a black color and had no ornamentations or decorations on it.
"I am ready." Lapis assured.
Star smilled when hearing the answer. And then exclaimed.
"Let's begin!"
Even before the discolored gem could finish the sentence Lapis charged at her. When the distance was minimal she moved her weapons in a similar manner to how wings flapped down, trying to sheer her opponent in half. Star quickly jumped back, evading the attack, and charged at the terraformer, trying to stab her. The blue gem deflected this attack with the dull side of her saber, at the same time striking with her other weapon, aiming for her opponent's neck.
Star had no way to defend herself from the attack. Or at least Lapis thought that way…But Star had other ideas.
The defective pearl pushed aside the saber with her bare hand, losing most of it in the process.
Even before her cut off fingers fully dissipated the pearl regained her balance and punched the blue gem in the face, even further mutilating her already cut up hand.
Lapis was thrown on the ground by the strength of the punch, but quickly stood up, still holding her weapons.
Her mentor was smiling, and used what was left of her left hand to gesture the blue gem to attack her, which the terraformer did.
This time she attacked using only her right hand weapon, swinging it in a wide arc. Star ducked under it and mimicked the motion. Lapis quickly lowered her left saber and both weapons collided.
The discolored gem quickly rolled backwards and jumped to her feet. She didn't expect Lapis to be this good, and was positively surprised by this. And now she wanted to test how strong the blue gem truly was…
Delta was quite surprised by the duel. She came here expecting to see a dance, a performance, but instead this duel was far more brutal than she had expected from such gentle gems. Combat was only going on for a short period, but both gems were barely able to sustain their forms from how much damage they had received.
Both of them had numerous cuts, bruises and impact marks clearly visible on their bodies. But the damage they had sustained wasn't limited just to that. The pearl now lacked her left hand completely, while lapis had her nose malformed by the constant barrage of punches her mentor used to escape situations in which she would be defeated…
Delta was so focused on the duel, that she didn't notice a massive figure which was now standing next to her. She slowly turned her head, as realization dawned on her.
And indeed the one standing next to her was it. Omega… It seemed that during the year she hadn't seen the defect it had chosen an even bigger form. She wasn't sure how big it was, but it almost reached the ceiling of the balcony, which was nearly twice her size, which was massive, even though Delta herself was only a little taller than Lapis. Its body shape was the same though. It still looked like a massive terka soldier, and was dressed similarly. It turned its head to Delta. And after several moments of silence it opened its mouth.
"I'm sorry… I hope this is enough…" It then turned around and walked out of the room leaving the prime obsidian confused.
Delta wanted to go after, but she heard a victorious scream and turned around to see Lapis standing over Omegas pearl, who kneeling down in front of her, accepting defeat.
"It took a lot out of you, didn't it?"
"She can be pretty brutal when she needs to let it all out."
"Then I guess another one?"
"You mean a recharge?"
"What else?"
"That would be rather nice."
End notes.
Sorry the duel didn't last for very long, it seemed longer in my head. But its purpose was to give you an idea how both Star and Lapis dueled and I think it did this quite well.
Have a nice day!