"You don't get it, if you fill up the Book of Darkness, something terrible will happen!" the one named Nanoha shouted, though Vita hardly paid any attention.
What sort of lunatic thought they knew more about the Book of Darkness than its very own Guardian Programs? "Tch, I know everything I need to know about the Book of Darkness!" Vita said, launching four iron spheres at Nanoha. Wreathed in magic, they shot towards her as four red streaks.
"And you won't even call it by its proper name?" Nanoha asked, putting up a barrier that creaked a little, but ultimately stopped all four spheres. "Raising Heart!"
"Axel Shooter" the Mid Childan device confirmed.
A dozen spheres of pink light surrounded Nanoha. Vita was a bit too stunned by her words to stop her enemy, but she quickly shook her head and glared at Nanoha once more. "As if you'll be able to control that many!" Vita shouted, rushing forward. "Raketenform!"
Graf Eisen matched her shout, and Vita's speed increased significantly.
"I don't need to!" Nanoha shouted, and merely set them all to begin flying towards Vita.
Conjuring a triangular barrier in front of herself, Vita just barreled through the shots, ignoring the four that the barrier couldn't stop and simply taking the pain of the four attacks hitting her. "I WON'T LET YOU KILL HER!" Vita screamed, swinging Graf Eisen.
"We don't want to kill anyone!" Nanoha yelled in response.
"Round Shield," Raising Heart, her device, intoned.
Graf Eisen crashed against the glowing glyph, which held it at bay. "Go through, Graf Eisen! Shatter that barrier!" Vita commanded.
"Jawohl!" her hammer acknowledged, and Vita pressed the shield with all of her strength. It crashed like so much glass.
"Flash Move," Raising Heart answered, pulling its wielder away from harm. Nanoha quickly ducked into an alley, causing Vita to growl.
Vita clicked her tongue. "All you can do is run, you coward!" she yelled, rushing forward once more and rounding the corner.
"Divine BUSTER!"
Only to be met face to face with a rather large pink beam that barreled into her before she could put up a defense.
"Will you just stop trying to kill me and just listen for a moment!?" Nanoha shouted, taking to the skies above the city and looking down at the rubble where Vita was buried.
However, Vita merely burst from the rubble, growling in anger. Graf Eisen had ignited, and soon Vita was spinning in circles. Nanoha barely had time to put up a barrier, and it didn't last even a second.
Graf Eisen pushed Nanoha's barrier jacket to the limit as it struck her ribs. If Vita had to guess, the barrier had weakened her swing enough that she hadn't just squished the girl's insides, but that would leave a nasty mark nonetheless. "Stay down!" Vita yelled.
Of course, Nanoha didn't. Her Divine Buster, however, was dodged this time. "Can you at least tell me your name? Calling you Chibi-chan would be awfully rude," Nanoha mentioned as she flew up, ready to defend herself at any moment.
"I am Vita, the Knight of the Iron Hammer!" Vita yelled, proudly. The girl might be her enemy, but a worthy opponent is a worthy opponent, and despite everything else, Vita was still a Belkan knight.
"I'm Takamachi Nanoha, and I wish I could say it's nice to meet you," Nanoha countered.
"Graf Eisen!"
The cartridge was loaded and expelled swiftly. Vita felt the power coursing through her, and she once more rushed forward.
***
"I cannot allow you to interrupt that fight," Signum said, Laevateinn in her right hand, while her left held the sheath, currently locked with the shaft of her enemy's weapon.
"I see… but I must help Nanoha," the blonde said. "There can be no peaceful solution to this."
"You are right," Signum admitted, breaking their stalemate by letting the hand holding the sheath in place drop, parrying her enemy's attack. She didn't fall into the trap of continuing the attack, however, and instead pulled back just in time to avoid being chopped in half. "You're very fast."
"You're very skilled," her enemy countered.
It didn't take more than a second for both of them to leap to the full extent of their capabilities and begin duking it out in a heated melee exchange. Both were incredibly fast, though the blonde clearly held an edge in speed. Signum had to rely on superior skill and experience, as well as having a parrying weapon in the form of Laevateinn's sheath, to hold the upper hand. They traded attacks, neither budging nor allowing themselves to fall for any false opening.
For a moment, Signum lost herself to the rhythm of blades dancing as she and her opponent drowned out everything around them with the shockwaves resultant from their clashes. However, her reverie was broken when she hit her enemy with her sheath, striking her chest hard enough to send her flying. A single opening, to be exploited, had born fruits. However, as Signum rushed forward to give her opponent the follow up, she had to hastily move out of the way as her opponent performed a somersault that revealed she had changed her weapon's shape to an energy scythe, and had thrown the weapon's blade towards her.
"Impressive," Signum admitted. "You lured me in by taking a hit."
"It didn't work, though," the blonde admitted.
"It almost did," Signum noted, her hand carefully brushing the right side of her barrier jacket, which had been cut through. There was a sizable vertical cut that was still bleeding. "You've impressed me. What is your name?"
"I am Fate Testarossa," the newly named Fate said, readying her glowing scythe.
"Very well. I am Signum of the Wolkenritter. Now, let's continue," Signum said, calmly.
Fate nodded, and immediately threw several more copies of her scythe's energy blade at Signum, who destroyed them with Laevateinn before they hit her, each causing a cloud of smoke. Knowing it was a smokescreen, Signum let her flight spell go for a moment and she fell a little, causing Fate's follow up attack to sail right over her, as several pointy spears of lightning rushed through the spot Signum had just occupied, followed by Fate herself slashing through the smoke.
Signum stabbed at her with Laevateinn, but Fate was very quick, and managed to roll out of the way. The sword scraped her, however, causing a shallow cut just below her belly button, a little wider than an eye.
"You're a worthy opponent," Signum said, rushing at Fate even as the blonde dodged out of the way of another slash. "Schlangenform!"
Fate seemed to almost squeak as she thrust her scythe forward. "Defenser!" the weapon called.
The whip that Laevateinn separated into crashed against a yellow glyph, bouncing off harmlessly.
"Laevateinn!" Signum called, and the weapon consumed and ejected a cartridge. The links of the sword chain became wreathed in blazing fire, and she swung the whip again, this time crashing through the shield completely, though the girl herself escaped with nothing but a singed cape.
It seemed she'd taken the time to prepare a spell, however. "Plasma Smasher!"
Signum's eyes narrowed. "Dammit," she muttered to herself, hearing Laevateinn's confirmation of the return to its normal longsword form, just before a torrent of lightning pierced through the air. She narrowly dodged it, though part of her left arm was caught. The entirety of her Barrier Jacket shuddered, and she gave up the arm as a loss for this fight. It was paralyzed and crippled beyond use. She'd have to ask Shamal to heal her before their master awakened, lest she get worried.
Fate, however, was not giving her down time to muse about how she'd explain her wounds later, as the melee was re engaged.