Astral Odyssey: Dying Ember

World 2.8: Alice

Since this was her final night sparring with Violet and Stephan, she spent one hour sparring with Violet then having a doubles match. The improved relationship and chemistry between Stephan and Violet made it harder to defend against their attacks and attack them. However, the tricky and flexible nature of Ethan's and Alice's abilities, their original good chemistry, and Alice's improvement in the use of her ability prevented the lead couple from gaining much of an advantage over them. It was truly a doubles match now instead of a combination of two individual fights and they were caught in a stalemate for almost a full hour.

Suddenly, a loud crack rang out through the hall just as Alice was occupied with covering for Ethan while he attacked the pair with a tidal wave. Ethan immediately recognised the sound as Stephan's lightning cloud sneak attack and looked up to find it above Alice.

His body reacted before he could think. 

That lightning was too strong for Ethan to block completely with his water ability. Ethan used his wind ability to propel himself towards Alice. At the speed he had to go, Alice's neck would have snapped if she was not ready to be swept away by the wind, so his only choice was to personally get her himself. 

When he reached her, he wrapped his arms around her with one hand supporting her neck. A loud explosion rang out through the battle hall. Although Alice was only a few feet away, they barely escaped being struck. The back of Ethan's blazer was singed and the ground where Alice was standing was blackened and smoking.

Ethan and Alice were now several feet away from where the lightning struck. The hall was now so silent that that they could almost hear each other panting. 

Ethan loosened his hold around Alice then pushed her loose hair out of her face gently. "You okay?" Ethan whispered. 

Alice separated herself from Ethan by taking a step back. "Thank you." She whispered.

"No need." Ethan said softly back. He then admitted their loss for the other two to hear. "It's our loss."

Violet finally recovered from her shock and pouted. "Stephan, that's not very fair of you." This was the strongest attack Stephan has ever used in a sparring match.

Stephan merely shrugged. "All's fair in war."

Violet lightly punched him. "Firstly, this isn't war. Secondly, what would have happened to Alice if Ethan did not save her on time?"

"Well... She wouldn't die..." Stephan averted his gaze but could feel Violet's glare on him. After a while, he sighed lightly then faced Alice to apologise to her. "Sorry, I got too excited in the match and got carried away trying to win." He smiled wryly.

Alice shook her head to show that she did not mind.

"Talking about that, this was probably the best and most fun match we ever had!" Violet agreed with Stephan. Alice and Ethan nodded in agreement.

"This is a great match as a last one." Violet continued sadly. "Alice, let's hang out some time?"

Alice wanted to reject but the words stopped at her throat when she felt a fierce glare on her.

BaoBao, is he glaring at me?

Very much so.

"Of course, don't we see each other for lunch?" Alice ended up rejecting in a roundabout manner.

"I meant besides lunch. There is an upcoming school event for Christmas! It is in around 2 months time. How about we meet up for that?" Violet proposed.

Feeling an intense gaze on her, Alice nodded curtly.

Ethan smiled. He was now in a good mood. He liked that he had the chance to spend time leisurely with Alice.