New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The portal twisted and turned, giving Astaroth and Phoenix a slight headache and minor nausea, but it quickly receded once they were out of it.

Looking around themselves, Astaroth was already confused, and Phoenix was flabbergasted.

They had landed in a forest of some kind, but the scenery was so different, it looked like they were in a different world, where the normal laws of nature didn't apply.

The tree had trunks of transparent crystal, where a clear blue sap was visibly travelling, slowly. There were some on the ground, which was a myriad of different colours of dirt, and others floating sluggishly through the air.

Birds with bodies of vibrant colours flew around, catching their attention almost immediately with their anomalous morphology.

Some were flying around fast, with elongated bodies, almost like cranes. Others were round and bloated, flying about slowly, like bubbles in the wind.

In a matter of seconds, Astaroth could already feel his mind swimming, but it was rapidly eased away with a notification.

*Mental affliction: Disoriented, detected. Mind Over Body activated. Condition resisted.*

His senses went back to normal, and immediately he fell into high alert.

'What kind of place did she bring us to? Was this on purpose?'

Turning his head toward Phoenix, he could see her eyes were slightly glazed over, most likely under the effect of the Disoriented status.

Albeit one of the most annoying statuses, it was also easy to remediate.

Astaroth waved his hand in front of Phoenix's face, and snapped his fingers a few times, interrupting the stimuli from the forest itself.

"Hey. Snap out of it. The terrain is causing us mental afflictions. Make sure you don't focus on it too much."

Phoenix shook her head, her senses coming back slowly.

"What a troublesome battlefield to fight in…" she muttered.

"Yeah, tell me about it. This fight could have been over in moments if my passives didn't block it out."

Phoenix made sure to not stare too long at one thing, and never focus on it either, making her look like a panicked and scared person. But it was better than falling into a daze and getting slain while unable to defend.

A cracking sound came from their left, and both of them spun, their weapons now drawn, as Lady Grove pulled out between a row of crystalline trees.

Two massive wings were unfurled behind her, Phoenix and Astaroth seeing them for the first time. They were of the same colour as the trees, with blue lines pulsing in them.

But Astaroth could sense what was in those veins. And it wasn't sap or blood.

Astaroth eyes narrowed, as he finally scanned her.

*Titania*

Level: 150

Grade: Mythical

Health: 13,811,400

Mana: 938,450

**

His blood froze.

"Phoenix. Go all in. No hesitation."

Immediately, as he said that, he started melding with Luna. He was also ready to cast Sublimation, and chain it with Royal Protection, to give himself a ten-minute boost.

Of course, the whiplash would be massive afterwards. But he expected he would need it.

With the level and grade he saw, the health and mana didn't add up to what he estimated was the right amount. This meant she had at least one more stat that was highly boosted, that the scan didn't show him.

He immediately knew this would not be a tough fight. It would be a matter of how long they would last.

Phoenix, hearing his words, and seeing him meld with Luna straight away, understood he was not kidding, and immediately condensed a large part of her mana into flames, and coated herself with it.

She had been practising this move for a while now, and transforming into her Avatar of Flames form was now much faster.

But she couldn't go into supernova mode as fast. She would need at least thirty seconds of channelling her flames to do so.

Even if she could do that while fighting, she wasn't sure if she would have thirty seconds. Astaroth very rarely went all in from the start.

She had a good grasp on his train of thought and knew he liked testing himself as much as he could before pushing himself harder.

If he insisted on going guns blazing at the start, then he already knew he couldn't do so.

Phoenix almost didn't dare to scan the councilwoman because of this.

But she had to.

And once she did, she instantly understood the mistake they had committed.

"You should have said no," she said to Astaroth, her tone shaking with anger.

"Yeah… I realize that now…" he replied.

The Fey woman kept walking toward them, slowly, every step filled with the grace one would expect of royalty. The dirt under her barren feet shimmered in a myriad of colours when her feet touched it, almost like the ground was happy to feel her.

When she stopped only a few metres away, Singing Grove, or rather Titania, grinned.

"Now that you have seen this, and are ready to take me seriously, how about we start this spar? I believe we are all busy people, and wasting time isn't good for any of us."

Astaroth lowered his stance, his white hair already flaring up, as a miniature sun appeared above his head.

"I agree. Let's get this over with."

Before any other movement was done, Phoenix bolted backward, throwing a quickly conjured fire spear at Titania, before taking off into the sky. She wanted to keep a distance, so she could activate her battle regalia and supernova mode.

Titania knocked the spear away with ease, as two thin swords appeared in her hands. They looked like a mix between a rapier and a sabre, the blade thin and long.

But, with how sturdy it sounded, as it smacked the flaming spear away, Astaroth knew it could slash just as much as stab.

Titania watched as Phoenix flew away and took a single step forward.

Astaroth saw her disappear from her spot as soon as she lifted her leg and knew where she was going.

Although his speed was not fast enough to follow her, he had other aces up his sleeve.

"Ipos! Swap us, now!"