Alexandria, or rather, Lemis stood up from her throne and slowly approached Tina. Tina pulled out her rapier and fiercely glared at Lemis.
"Why are you glaring at me? I am still your sister. We grew up together and we bond like family before."
"I would have been more attached to you if you didn't plot to kill me off and revealed your demon form in a confession from. But you made a mistake. You are not my sister, will never be my sister, and will be forever my enemy! Give back the body of my sister, you parasite."
"If I do that, then you will only receive an empty husk of your sister. She already lost her original soul the moment I entered her body. Isn't that pretty sad, sis?"
"That is fine and much better compared to someone using her body as she pleases!"
"It looks like you are set to stone on reclaiming your sister. Unfortunately for you, I don't plan on doing that. I am not a dumbass."
Tina sighed and assumed a battle stance. "In that case, I will forcefully take her body back from you!"
In a single step, she disappeared and appeared next to Lemis and stabs behind her. But Lemis laughed as her body turned to smoke and disappeared.
"Did you really think I am that easy to defeat? You thought it would be similar to how that human killed my brother so easily? Did you really think of it like that?!"
Lemis then reappear before her and tried to stab her where Tina quickly blocks it with the rapier's thin blade.
"Khhh!" Tina struggled when Lemis slowly overpowers her and she can also feel that her rapier seems to feel like it was about to snap.
But she remembered what Bladeheart said to her before they went to battle.
....
...
"Remember, Tina. This rapier might look and feel flabby to you and you might also think that it has a small chance of bending. Although it does feel like that, you don't need to worry about it as it is designed that way. Rapiers are tending to be a bit brittle compared to normal swords but that is due to how it is designed to be used for stabbing and not for slicing. However, I believe that you will soon find enemies that can bend and break your weapon in one go if you are not careful enough.
Now, remember that this is a rapier that should be brittle enough to break in a slight bend. But this new weapon is not going to do that. Sure it might bend but it will just bend, not break."
"Will just bend? How is that possible? Isn't that long a rapier if that is the case?"
"I don't blame you on that. This new weapon has been redesigned and gained a new passive called [Malleability] and [Shape-Memory]. It can bend and it can be folded by force but it will remain stable and will return to its normal shape if you apply a little bit of mana into it. It was something I added to make sure things are much more stable compared to your old rapier. So if there are any enemy who tries to do something to that blade, surprise them with that!"
...
...
Tina then saw her blade getting bent. For a rapier, a bent blade will not do anything and cannot do anything well.
"I already know you are well too reliant on your weapons since you don't have innate talent in magic. So if you don't have a weapon, perhaps you will also lose your hope in winning, isn't it?"
Tina sighed in relief. It seems the changes that Bladeheart did to her equipment were indeed the right choice.
Lemis bends her rapier too much that it is no longer possible to use it as a weapon in that state. The moment Lemis let go of the weapon, Tina immediately retreats to the side to look at her weapon.
"Now, would you look at that, pretty powerless and weak, isn't this just a shame for you to fight with a weapon like that?" Lemis grinned expecting to see the helpless look on Tina.
However, contrary to her expectation, Tina didn't wallow in despair and instead posed to her usual combat stance with the bent rapier on her hands. And just like earlier, she disappeared with her quick movements. Lemis thought she will be using the same tactic as earlier and decided to also do the same thing.
But before she knew it, Tina isn't doing the same thing earlier. She appeared next to her and instead of using the rapier, Tina grabbed her neck tight and choke her using her unexpected strength.
"Did you really think I will do the same thing twice? What a naive mind you have "little sister."
Tina tightens her grip on Lemis's neck to the point that a small vein is slowly popping up the skin of Tina as she increases the strength of her grip to the fullest.
"Ghhh..." Lemis didn't expect it and struggled a bit.
'Since when did this bastard manage to get this strong?!'
The grip is now too much for her to handle and if she didn't do something about it, she will seriously be in big trouble. She activated her escape and used her smoke form to shapeshift and escape the grip on Tina's hands which allowed her to escape the grip of death.
"KUHAK! HAK! GUH!" Lemis coughed as air returned to her throat and her lungs.
"Where is your spunk? I thought you would be tougher than I imagined," Tina glared at her as she pointed her rapier which is now back to its former shape on her throat.
"Heh, did you really think that was it? That I am just all talk and no act? It looks like it is time for me to get serious as well, "big sister", perhaps it is a blessing for you to experience this one.
SNAP!
Tina then saw small saplings grow from the bricks of the castle and slowly go out like a vine.
"Vines?" Tina was taken aback since this ability is the skill of her sister when she was still practicing magic. Or perhaps the demon's ability during the magic study. It has been a while since she used this skill so Tina has not seen it for a long while but seeing it now, is showing that nothing is good happening at them right now.
"Remember the skill that we used to use to climb high trees and create decorations in the castle? This is it now."
Lemis snapped again and the vines detached themselves on the bricks and wherever it was growing and like a snake, the vines started to move towards the center.
Tina looked at the moving vines which is pretty disgusting especially due to how green the vines are, it looked so bad that it resembles some kind of tentacle seaweed that stumbled upon the land and struggles to find water. She wanted to stay away from it as far as possible.
Then, the vines gathered in a pile. The disgust meter on Tina escalated more the moment the vines gathered. That's when Tina realized what she was about to do.
Gathering the energy in the surroundings, she focuses the gathered energy to her rapier targets the gathering vines in the middle of the throne room.
"Evaporate to nothingness! [Piercing Light]!"
Tins might not be able to use magic properly due to her missing mark but she didn't lack any kind of skills that requires the usage of mana. It might not be a regular skill but it is still a skill she properly developed for herself to mitigate the lack of her ability to cast magic and spells.
One of those skills is [Piercing Light]. With the skill, she pierced through the gathering vines and destroyed half of it to dust.
"Eh? Did you think that will work, big sis?" Lemis grinned as the vine gathering slowly turned into a big ball monster made up of vines.
The turned to Tina and without waiting for a prompt from its master, it lunges towards Tina and formed it's small arms into a large fist using the vines on its body, forming a large sledgehammer shape hands. Tina didn't have enough time to process that as she was sent flying in the air with it.
Tina didn't stay in the ground rolling and immediately used her hands and feet to properly land, minimizing the damage it would have caused her.
The vine monster lunges again and this time, Tina jumped in the air and gathers a bit of energy before she sends a variety of piercing attack towards the vine monster.
But it didn't do anything. It might have made some holes but that was it. And those holes were immediately patched by the vines once more.
"Haha, silly sis.. Did you really think your petty fencing skills is enough to handle my creation? After all, I made sure this thing is designed to be your bane and nemesis."