Flight of the Cardinal

Ziccarra’s vermillion boots lightly grazed the surface of the grassy island terrain, Surrounded by ocean water on all sides, Grand Cardinal Isle; home of the Liafador Family Pit. The last time Ziccarra stood on this island, Quintus Knightfall descended into the pit to take command of the shadow cardinals.

As the first female in the family to complete the pit; Ziccarra thought of everything that lesson taught her. She returned with a soul aligned, and eventually went on to conquer her family; molding it to what it was today.

The sound of the ocean beating against the edges of the island kept her focused on the past events. Quintus, Catalina, Marcos, Amora; all her enemies made moves on her family in the preceding months; resulting in the destruction of Malaga, the kidnapping of Maya, and attacks on both Isis and Zeon.

Her duties as Spain’s primer kept her busy, but with Valerie Huntingdon on as the Deputy Prime Minister, La Malagueta could focus her attention on the problems at hand. First was Amora, Ziccarra’s natural weakness to magic became a pressing issue; battling the Asgardian Goddess without defenses would prove to be difficult.

Having met a few days prior with the CEO of Greystroke industries, Ziccarra found herself retrofitted with a new L-87 Tactical vest. Coated with nanotechnology and vibranium; Ziccarra’s new suit allowed her stealth capabilities; in addition to repelling electricity and magnetism.

The kicker in how in related to Amora, was it came with capabilities to fuse with her Aegis Shield, which repelled magic.

As for the rest of her enemies, today was the day Ziccarra would personally gauge the strength of her family. Having sent messages to the members that dwelled within the palace; she told them to come, she told them to be ready. The first person to arrive would be attacked without warning.

Thee Champion was no stranger to warrior trials. Challenges designed to assess the readiness and ability of an individual on the field of battle. In his journeys across the stars, during his visits to different worlds in the cosmos, Alexis has encountered and welcomed these challenges. Many mistake his charismatic affability, his golden heart for an apparent inability to be a warrior. Alexis however, had always been a great warrior, he was simply a greater person. The sky trembled in fear as it was torn asunder by the screaming shock-wave that accompanied the sequence of sonic booms that trailed behind a blazing blur of red and blue. The superheated plasma left the scent of burnt ozone in the air as clouds were parted and evaporated by the cone of scorching heat enveloping him; Thee Champion.

A luminous tail of blue whipped whipped behind Alexis' soaring frame. The tail, a result of the particles in the air, charged by the Herald of Hope's energy, converted ambient gases into ions. Their bright blue glow left a fading streak in the clear sky as Alexis sped off into the distance beyond the horizon before bringing himself to an abrupt halt. Hovering meters in the air, the ocean water below him split violently from the monstrous kinetic energy that came with his arrival. Powerful gusts of scorching air and tardy sonic explosions ruffled the trees, plants and grass in the island before him as they blew past him with commanding authority. The aura of blue plasma faded from his being and he brought himself closer to the island, the image of his wife, Ziccarra, ready and armed for battle meeting his tame gaze. The quasi-armored, azure garments with red highlights adorned his tall, Greek god-like physique.

His cape, a shade of dark red like his boots, hung with magisterial flair from his shoulders. His skin, perfect, fair, and unblemished despite many years of battle, seemed golden, glowing from the divine power that vibrated underneath the New God's flesh. His features, chiseled and archangelic, held an expression of mental composure as his eyes, orbs of mesmeric deep blue welcomed the sight of his spouse with calmness. Completing a gentle landing, the soles of his boots crushing the grass beneath his feet as the scent of burnt ozone faded and gave way to the salty aroma of the fresh ocean breeze, Thee Champion met his spouse's gaze. The rest of the family had yet to arrive. He saw neither Leonel nor Maya and Selene. Zeon was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Leonardo. It seemed that he and Ziccarra, husband and wife, and father and mother to the Liafador-Pettis family were to open the gauntlet.

The moment Ziccarra attacked, so did Alexis. The blue in his eyes glowed as he energized the particles in the air, using his powers over electromagnetism to accelerate and direct a large blue beam of highly-energized particles to near-superluminal velocities. His target; Ziccarra.

A battle? Leonard had rarely been in a fight in his lifetime, whether it was due to the magnitude of his abilities or he simply didn't seem like the type of person to even want to fight. He'd solemn been picked on when he attended school or traveled alone, and when he was he simply ignored his aggressors, non of them having the strength to shove or push him, and any blows to his face usually broke their hands and or their weapons. In truth the Liafador legacy preferred not to fight, but to talk whenever possible, his passive nature towards life probably causing him to not attract many fights. Though, despite all of this, he was raised by the mysterious Emerald Cardinals since birth, and the skilled warriors made sure to instill within him a fighting ability. He'd never lost his skill, just hardly used it.

The Emerald Cardinal wore a form fitting black suit of armor. It was flexible yet durable, withstanding the velocities Leonard flew at, something he acquired as a gift at a young age to wear from the Cardinals themselves. He soared above the clouds, his youthful though hardened and toned body rocketed across the sky at high- hyper-sonic speeds, a string of sonic booms accompanying him. Beneath him the clouds dissipated in response to the speeds he flew at, and he continued at the speed while the super-heated air enveloped around him. This was one of the few times he flew at such speeds, or flew at all, Leonard usually hovering from time to time. He slowed as he picked up his elder sister's energy signature up ahead, and braced himself. Realizing he'd be about to fight warriors of his family with decades of experience actually caused him excitement, contrary to his pacifistic ways.

And then he landed, the sudden stop of his momentum causing a gush of wind to wash over the island and bend trees upon his arrival. His green gaze turned to Thee Champion, who'd already arrived and his sister who attacked him. Alexis attacked at the same moment and shot a beam of energy towards her. Their fight had just begun and Leonard guessed he would wait for others to arrive for his partner. For now at-least, he watched the two of them with an analytic expression, impressed by their fighting prowess and power. However he readied himself, as he presumed the next Liafador to enter the island would be the one he'd be fighting, unless it was Zeon. Though she was older and held much more experience he guessed he might injure her or worse if he landed a good blow.

The mist of the sea glistened around The Liafador Matriarch as she stood at the front of the speed boat she was currently taking to get to the Grand Cardinal Isle. Her eyes were focused upon the island as her hair danced behind her in the forceful wind. For months Zeon had been scrambling, trying to fulfill her duties as family Matriarch, deal with betrayal within the family, the brutal acts upon Isis and even more recently, the attack on the youngest member of the family, Tassi.

Zeon had been going around the world trying to find ways to strengthen herself and she had actually found something that may give her a fighting edge in the world of Gods and Goddess. Today was the perfect day to try out her newest weapons, because if her skill and weaponry could harm them… then she stood a chance against impossible odds.

Finally reaching the island the boat came to the shore, Zeon’s loyal White Cardinals sat silently in the boat as they watched their leader jump down into the chilly salty water that reached up to her knees. Knowing that this was one of the few moments that the Matriarch was to be left to fend for herself the pawn soldiers began to drive the boat away from the island, leaving Zeon alone. She was dressed in her White Cardinal uniform that was waved with vibrainum, allowing any impact made by her powerful members to be lessened and keep The Matriarch safe. However when it came to electricity, it would re-route the energy to the sheath of the blade, allowing the vibrainum part of the blade to absorb the power of the electricity and to be used against her opponent.

Her chestnut eyes carefully searched around the immediate area as she reached the shores, her feet sinking into the soft sands of the island as her vision was limited due to the lush green brush that met the sandy beach. The island was an ideal place for these battles because of it’s variety of terrain. One section was grassy, while another part was lush forest and another section almost desert like terrain. Her body began to tense with every step she took, her years of Cardinal training kicking in as her senses began to work overtime as sounds of battle could be heard echoing through the island already.

Zeon was at a disadvantage when it came to this battle, as the members of the family were powered with abilities that could crush The Matriarch with little effort. She was going to have to fight smart in this fight, keep distance and use the battle field to her advantage. Grasping her collapsible bow into her hand she flicked her wrist as it formed into the actual bow. Reaching behind her she pulled out a Testardo arrow and took aim at one of the many large trees, letting the arrow fly as the teeth of the tip of the arrow dug into the wood of one of the branches. With a quick tug to make sure it was safe she began making the climb above the battlefield.

The tree stood high above others as Zeon could get a full 360 vision of the island. Which came in handy as she watched from a safe distance as Alexis and Ziccarra began their fierce battle. But The Matriarchs eyes quickly caught that of her ‘uncle’, landing not too far away from where she sat silently in the trees. She knew he would be just as difficult to fight, knowing well of his super human qualities. But she was never one to back down from a fight, no matter who it was.

Silently she pulled her Scoppiare arrow from it’s shaft as she took aim at her Zio, and let the arrow fly downward towards his direction. But knowing well that his beyond human reflexes would most likely cause him to catch the arrow, she aimed it down in front of him, and as soon as impact was made with the ground the arrow erupted into an explosion. Chunks of earth being torn from the ground as a thick lung irritating white smoke also engulfed the area. Knowing she didn’t have much time she grabbed the line of her Testardo arrow and swung down onto the ground, getting a running start as she pulled out her vabrainum blade in one swift movement. Holding her breath as she stepped into the white smoke (to avoid the checmicals effecting herself) she swung her blade in a upward circular motion, the edge of the blade coming upward towards her uncle as her body spun in a counter clockwise motion. Upon coming back around her left hand then lashed out like a serpent, her index and middle finger launched forward, aiming at the young Liafador’s left axillary area, aiming not to break a bone or even break the flesh, but to simply put enough pressure against his median nerve that ran down his left arm to give a sharp pain radiating down his entire extremity. She was unsure if this would even do any harm to someone with Leonardo abilities.

Taking a leap back and out of the smoke she took in a sharp breath, wanting to keep a distance from Leonardo as she gave a small smirk. “Ciao Zio.”

In the few days following the death of Catalina, Maya rarely said anything; she was now down another older sister, making her the oldest in terms of Tassi and Selene. She never got a chance to meet Isadora, but she and Catalina were close almost as close; almost as close as she and Selene were. Cat rarely showed anyone her GOOD side, but she showed Maya; that’s how the power princess knew she was worth saving.

Now, she was gone. In the days Maya did everything to try and convince herself what she was feeling wasn’t real, that Catalina was just a copy of their mother, a replica, a being that never should’ve existed. She couldn’t do it, Cat sacrificed her memories so that Retrofire could live; she sacrificed her freedom so that she could escape the 3^rd Society, she saved Thee Champion on Earth-3—she was in her own way they family’s protector.

With the role as the oldest female sibling now hers, Maya’s focused turn to protecting Selene and Tassi, Selene could hold her own in any confrontation, but Maya was going to see that she didn’t have to. Tassi was young an innocent, one of the lucky few that didn’t bear “Liafador” as her last name; she was the beginning of a new bloodline.

Maya’s lithe frame descended upon Grand Cardinal Isle with the same grace her mother usually carried. Scanning the grassy terrain she watched as; her mother and father’s energy immediately begin to illuminate the area. Thee Champion and The Goddess, no matter how much they loved each other; they would not pull any punches.

Not too far off was her cousin Zeon, the leader of the Liafador Family; battling against her uncle Leonardo. She wasn’t told that this little family “outing” was going to involve fighting so she didn’t dress accordingly.

Throwing her hands below her waist, she gradually brought them up, crimson mystic energy spiraled around her slender body, within moments she was –the Red Cardinal.

Normally a person of sound temperament, Maya was angry, furious even; not at any one in particular—more so herself. Making a fist with her hands, the power princess begins to emit a terrorizing pressure that sent minor fissures tracing through the island.

As arguably the most powerful member of the family currently here, Maya made her presence known; she wasn’t here to joke, nor was she here to prove anything. She just wanted to let off steam.

The Warrior goddess released an arrogant smirk, as her husband tore the atmosphere on his way to the island. Throwing herself at him the moment he touched the Island, Ziccarra detached her shield, and charged forward. “Stay close…” She whispered, pulling her shield in front of the powerful eye blast. The shield did as intended, the pressurized optic blast did not penetrate Ziccarra’s legendary Aegis shield; however the force from the attack blew her off her foot causing her to stumble backwards.

Rising to her feet, her pacific blue eyes scanned his adonic features, the last two times Ziccarra and Alexis’ fought; mountains crumbled. She didn’t want that this time, especially not with the family watching. Engaging him in a long range engagement gave him the advantage in the long run, and due to his training with Leonel her illusionary prowess would no longer be of use.

Before she threw herself further into battle with Alexis, she noticed Leonardo and Zeon immediately engaging each other in battle, then with the force of a volcanic eruption--The Power Princess arrived. She could tell just from Maya’s demeanor that she had to hit something. It pained her to see Maya like that, but her attention returned to Alexis.

Doing a cartwheel to the right, She released her first illusion which landed with her Artemis bow in hand, pulling back on the quiver; her mystical psionic energy took point as the arrow. Firing a succession of the explosive energy, she ran in pursuit of the champion; using the concussive explosion as a mask more illusions.

Ziccarra navigated through the explosive blast with her illusion in tow. One within grabbing distance, the other offset. Ziccarra’s illusion attacked high in attempt to send its faint fist sailing through the Champion’s face. In actuality, Ziccarra was the offset entity; running at full speed, she dropped and slid on one knee; looking to hook his waist and slam him with a powerful german suplex.

Aware of the magnitude of the power that they wielded, both Alexis and Ziccarra had made an effort not to exercise their full power during sparring sessions. Often times it felt as though the entire world shook whenever they clashed during their training. Mountains crumbled and the sky split. Today however, they exhibited a certain degree of restraint. Though battle-ready, it seemed that both husband and wife took simultaneous notice of Maya's earnest demeanor following their daughter's arrival. It saddened, worried them both seeing Maya in such a state of mind and spirit. It was an emotional disposition that Thee Champion disliked seeing in any of his loved ones. He hoped, truly, that the family bout would allow his daughter to release her pent up indignation.

Returning his attention to the ensued battle with his wife, Thee Champion almost smirked in response to Ziccarra's evasion of his fired particle beam. The air crackled as electrical arcs surged all about, the airborne particles having been energized, struck by the beam's immense energy. Aware of his wife's prowess over the illusionary, Alexis focused his sight only on cosmic microwave background radiation, a tactic learned from his training with their eldest son, Leonel. It enabled him to see through everything. Even lead, and even The Goddess' illusions, something which had often troubled him in the past during his bouts with the Cardinal Goddess. And so, as she burst forward, threatening to enter range, the New God sought to exercise his superior reach by extending his arm from the shoulder, his fist closing as he executed a counter-jab to intercept the rushing Cardinal Goddess from beyond her striking range.

Its said that game-plans crumble once one is stunned by a strike from a distance seemingly too great to land a strike from. That was what Alexis sought to achieve. Crack his wife's chin with a fast, intercepting jab to keep her on the outside. It seemed as though it was the perfect counter... until Ziccarra, a martial genius, proved that it wasn't. As the blades of grass were blown aside, the ground somewhat cracking, the trees mildly bending, the air growing scorching hot, and the particles in the air energized and charged by the sheer amount of energy released by the New God's jab, Ziccarra had, like he, exercised the advantages brought by her shorter height. She dropped to a knee and slid under his strike before maneuvering herself behind him to secure a belly-to-back suplex. Thee Champion had never encountered a greater Greco-Roman wrestler than his wife. Her ability to set up takedowns from the clinch was difficult to contend with.

However, as a former NCAA Division l Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, Alexis was no slouch in the field of grappling. Immediately upon anticipating the suplex, the New God's wrestling instincts took hold and he dropped his weight, creating a heavy base before grabbing Ziccarra's wrist and applying pressure. Because the suplex required the grappler's legs to be close to the opponent's, Ziccarra's legs rested mere inches from his. Quickly hooking his leg around hers from the outside to prevent her from getting his hips off the ground. His intention however, wasn't to break her grip, it was to prevent her from getting his hips off the ground and lifting him over her for the suplex.

With no pause, Alexis would then unhook his leg and use a free hand to reach down to his wife's ankle, bringing his shoulder closer to the ground before shooting his leg in between hers with the intention of rolling over his shoulder, and potentially forcing Ziccarra's head forward in a transition to the ground before locking The Goddess' trapped leg with a figure-four leg lock before tucking her ankle underneath his armpit and hyperextending her knee in an intended kneebar.

@zeon_liafador:

The Liafador legacy instantly sprung up from his crouched as as arrow landed right in-front of him. Just moments earlier he'd sensed another presence enter the island, but he couldn't see it. He'd had a mere nano-second to scan the arrow before it exploded right into his face. The explosion itself did little more than cause dirt to fleck onto his Adonis-like features, however with it also came a white smoke, that tickled his lungs and made his eyes feel strange. In that instance he clapped his hands together which released a shock-wave that scattered the irritating gas. However little did he know in doing so he exposed his armpit, something his unknown combatant took advantage of.

It seemed as soon as he cleared the smoke, Zeon had made her way down and struck the nerve-filled area with unparalleled accuracy. The blow to his median nerve caused something akin to an electricity shock to course through his entire body. It was sort of the same feeling as when he stuck keys into an outlet when he was a mere child. It didn't particular hurt too much but the feeling was alarming to say the least. As soon as her attack finished she leaped back with a sly smirk; "CiaoZio."

Of all the people he would fight today, it had to be the one he wanted to fight least. She was easily one of the most tactically and martially skilled of the family, bar maybe his eldest sister, but even that gap Leonard figured must be due to their age and experience difference. Zeon was all Leonard expected the Matriarch of the family to be, with or without power she was a challenge to even him. Leon took the chance of her leaping away to initiate his own attack, and tore massive chunks of the ground though his gravitational manipulation. He compressed and pressured the rocks down to the size of basketballs, increasing their density.

He then broke them up into pebble sized pieces and shot them all at his combatant. He made sure they traveled just under the speed of sound and as the pelted towards her he fallowed up with a medium sized beam of energized particles from his hands, and launched it at her at supersonic velocities, still holding back as to prevent anyone from getting too injured from this fight. As both his attacks made their way he used his own superspeed to travel around her in an arc, stopping just near her side where he dropped to his feet in a spinning leg sweep aimed at her calf, a smirk playing upon his own chisled face; " Ciao Nipote. "

@maya_liafador:

There was no herald to announce Leonel, the Azure Son's arrival. Blades of grass, the trunk of trees, and the stem of plants were not bent by violent gusts of the scorched air that had followed his father, Thee Champion to the island. There was no sharp, loud cry from a shock-wave that tore the skies in half. Nor was there a trail of sonic booms that caused the ocean waters to ripple from its reverberations. No kinetic energy striking airborne particles into an energized frenzy to generate plasma in many forms e.g. lightning. There was nothing. Only an unearthly stillness. As if time was frozen, its stream suspended in anticipation of Leonel's certain ingress. With his only contention being Maya, Leonel was arguably the Liafador-Pettis family's most powerful member.

And possibly, the Earth's most powerful being as a whole. There was no true limit to what he could accomplish. He simply had yet to realize the infinite boundaries of his potential. Yet even then he still held a ferocious, god-like might. One that eclipsed even his mother and father's combined power. Though it was his ruthlessness in battle, his complete and utter lack of mercy for his foes that made him truly dangerous. He entered every battle with a supreme confidence and wicked swagger that spoke of his belief that he would win, and nothing could convince him otherwise. He did not care who his opponents were, or who they thought they were, he felt there was no one that could stop him... except for Maya. It was fitting in a sense. She was not only the closest of his siblings but she was best friend.

His confidant. He told her everything and she reciprocated in kind. Perhaps the only thing they did not do was train together. While he lacked the complete martial prowess of his mother and father, Leonel was a grappling virtuoso. His striking was basic, defined by his immense power, and his swordsmanship depended entirely on his outrageous speed and the offensive capacity of the antimatter sword (held by electric and magnetic fields) he often generated. His grappling however? He held a freestyle wrestling prowess that rivaled even the grappling pedigree of his parents. And the manner in which it supplemented his striking, and in particular his swordsmanship, especially his wrist-locks, one often forgot that he wasn't in fact, a complete martial artist.

With no warning, he emerged, manifesting from the planes of higher dimensional space, a domain reached through the employment of magnetic fields. Immediately, as the soles of his shoes touched the island's grassy surface, his senses alerted him to a multitude of bouts. His father, Thee Champion, engaged against his mother, The Goddess. And his nephew, Leonardo, engaged against his aunt, Zeon. His eyes however, fell on only one person, Maya. They were both dripping with indignation. Leonel for a number of reasons. For being too weak to fight off the corruption that seized his mind in Earth-M. For failing to protect Catalina as he was originally tasked by Ziccarra. For not being there to prevent Madison's death. For the brutality that Quintus had subjected Isis to. And for the League's attack on Tassiana. Both siblings it seemed, were there to release some steam.

Acknowledging Maya with a glance, Leonel aimed his palms in her direction and immediately unleashed his assault, a speeding torrent of explosive bursts of gamma radiation seeking to bombard his sister.

Throughout history, The Liafador Gauntlet never saw a true winner, today was the beginning of a grueling sojourn that Zeon was to embark on—the pit. She’d be contained within the walls of one of the most hellish structures on the planet, and forced to adapt her mind, body and soul to combat its corruptive nature. This family spar was more than just an training event—it was to be the birth of a new family powerhouse. Because of it, the entire family was to showcase what they’d been taught to show Zeon the rewards of the pit.

Her husband’s battle-wit usually left her impressed, but this time even in the heat of close combat; she found herself on the negative end of a stick situation. Alexis managed to grab hold of her wrist, though not at full power, his hold was strong enough to bruise the skin. His powerful legs hooked on the outside, showing her he had no intentions on be tossed around. Not fully committed to breaking the lock, especially now that she was bound by his pressurizing grip, Ziccarra felt her body stumble forward. Facing planting in the grassy terrain; she released a subtle grunt, Alexis managed to secure her legs and lock them in a form of Kneebar.

She was no stranger to her husband’s array of techniques; the two had fought seriously twice now; most of the time it was reduced to energy projectiles and widespread damage; but never a close quarter’s bout. Even as the Spanish Prime Minister wince and grunt in agony, she found herself slowly getting aroused in the heat of battle.

He was strong, there was no amount of hope or faith that would allow her to break such a hold, but she was crafty. Each time they fought, Alexis brought something new to the table; she was never able to succeed with the same tactic twice against him, he was always evolving. To beat an adaptive opponent, she also had to be adaptive; which was why she started with an intended german suplex. Though her attempts to send him flying failed, she managed to achieve her short term goal—keep him close.

At this range, most of his powerful projectile based attacks were too close to risk using, his strength—while a problem; would be combated by her nimble body. In short everything he could do to her, she could do back at this range.

Even though his strength was largely diluted, she could still feel his vice like grip on her knees and ankles. Her initial thought was to take to the air, it wouldn’t break the lock but it’d stop his constrict of her blood.

As the pain continued to circulate through her writhing body, Ziccarra didn’t need to actually cast an illusion to create one, throwing her hands up, she fired several psionic blades just past his head hoping to rattle him. In that motion she started by kicking her locked leg forward with as much strength as she possibly could, she simultaneously through her body away in a “shrimping” motion, freeing up just enough tension on her leg to grip his boot. Pulling back, she sought to lock her free leg around her previously captive leg creating a triangle.

She sought to secure a lock underneath her husband’s heel, whilst rotating her body slowly out to the right. Answering with a submission of her own.

Maya very stoically turned to see Leonel, she knew he was coming for her. They were arguably the two most powerful members of the family, partly because no one knew what exactly Selene and Leonardo were capable of. Even with such fabled power, Maya was among the weakest physically; her punches didn’t pack enough power to really injure anyone, nor could she actually take one.

Leonel’s power on the other hand was terrifying; he wields enough power to shatter stars and craft singularities. This was their first documented physical encounter. Maya sparred with her mother numerous times, she’d got to witness her dad in action too; but she’d never actually had to go toe to toe with Leonel.

His power scared her, after what happened on Earth-M; they didn’t talk about it. She didn’t want to fight him here, but deep down she knew it would be a good way to get something’s resolved. As he pushed forward, Maya moved back with almost no effort; it was as if she were a specter not grazing the ground at all.

He was far too fast, he moved almost faster than she could see, throwing her hands up in what looked like submission Maya cast a mystical shield around herself. The velocity of his attack, hit her shield causing an unnatural pressure to blow a good sized crater in the ground beneath her.

Maya wasn’t much of an offensive person, but she knew how to protect herself. “Time to calm you down!” She screamed, channeling her mystic energies, The Power Princess sought to augment the dimensions of their immediate space.

Increasing the natural gravity to that of a fully grown star, in space; she saw what kind of power she needed to have to contend with Leonel. His speed was unobtainable, his power was unquantifiable, but their world was composed of both rational and irrational elements—Leonel being Rational, Maya being irrational.

Hoping to have atleast slowed him down significantly enough to fight him on even footing; Maya fired a concussive volley of light based magic projectiles’ toward Leonel. “Are…the fcking?” She asked, her attention briefly snagged by their parents

The look of surprise on his face told her that the nerve strike, while didn’t exactly injure her uncle, did cause discomfort. She was going to have to play on that, she was going to have to keep close quarters to strike quickly. But before she could push forward again Leon took a leap backwards, creating an even more distance between the two. Quickly putting her blade away with one hand, she pulled out a small object with another, a metallic object that fit comfortably in her hand but didn’t have any sort of blade on it and was obviously no gun.

She watched as he used his abilities to rip the boulders of the earth out of the ground and the White Matriarch cursed under her breath. Of course he would have an array of powers she was going to have to fight through. Within seconds the giant boalder like chuckles of earth were reduced to small pebble size. Then, in a blur they came rushing towards her. Standing on the balls of her feet she quickly spun in a clockwise motion, in that instant the small metal object that she held in her hand unleashed a long crimson energy as she held it high above her head. It was none other than the lightwhip that her once friend, Vinicius. The energy hissing around her body as it coiled around her body, but never touching her skin. Her over a year of training with the weapon had finally paid off as the pebbles that came flying at her disintegrated down to nothing as they collided with the crimson whip.

Anticipating a second attack the White Cardinal quickly pushed her reflexes and agility to the test as she quickly preformed a flawless backbend, the lightwhip now turned off to prevent it from hurting herself as the energy beam flew just centimeters above her body. Not stopping she continued to move as she then went into a kick over, her legs pushing up and over as she got back into a stance. But her eyes widen as she realized Leon wasn’t in her eye sight, where was he?! That question was met as her legs were swept from underneath her, sending her falling down back to the grassy plane, her back slamming hard on the ground as her uncle returned the confident smirk and a greeting of his own.

With a grunt she preformed a kick up, standing back up on her feet as she quickly used the close quarters that he so graciously provided. Dropping to her knees she threw her free left hand towards his right hip, her fingers attempting to strike the large sciatica nerve that ran from the buttocks all the way down to his feet. Knowing he might have been anticipating that attack she then preformed a backwards tuck roll, and back into a stance as her lightwhip became active once more. The crimson heated energy whip hissed with energy as the Matriarch began flicked her writ forward, the whip flying over her shoulder and snapping downward at the fellow Liafador as she then rolled her arm back and her wrist behind her quickly, the whip being pulled away from Leon and snapping behind her, getting momentum as she then brought her arm back from underneath, the whip this time coming from the ground up towards Leon as it snapped forward again, all done within just a second as she brought her whip back to her side. Curious to see if her newest weapon would be able to injure him.

She was so focused with the fight at hand she hadn't even noticed that both Maya and Leo had landed on the island. Her full on attention was upon Leon.

@shanana:

It seemed... felt as though he had, to some degree, been played. Thee Champion was a towering figure. He boasted not only the reach to force his opponents to remain on the outside with his strikes, but his long-range abilities essentially allowed him to throw intercepting jabs and counter straight lefts across hundreds of meters in the form of particle beams and streams of scorching plasma. A tall fighter fought tall. Ziccarra however, was a stockier, shorter fighter. She thrived when there was no gap between her and the opponent. She was most dangerous on the inside and fighting dirty in clinch-range. And on the ground where the element of distance control was virtually nonexistent, she seized this advantage of doing battle at close range by escaping the kneebar and securing a heel hook.

It spoke volumes of her ability as a grappler. The psionic shards she had propelled in his direction didn't bother him. It was her grappling prowess that proved her most troubling skill-set. She had maneuvered herself from the figure-four lock, freeing up enough space to escape the kneebar... and counter with her own leg-lock. Though his wife's exotic, sensuous features were not overt in its expression, Thee Champion could discern from the manner in which the corners of her lips curled upwards, that the battle's fervency aroused her. And it in turn, garnered a smirk, subtle and cool from the New God as he, for a moment, met Ziccarra's eyes before wincing in response to the heel hook. The leg-lock reminded him just how strong his wife truly was. He'd never forgotten her grappling pedigree, but her strength? It was easy to forget exactly how phenomenal her strength was. Watching her battle was an effective indicator, it allowed one to guess as to how strong she was.

But The Goddess' strength was only truly known once one's body is at the mercy of her hands. Heel hooks, like most leg-locks were dangerous. And held a notorious reputation in grappling circles, in particular, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It however, was its own breed of venom. It affected multiple joints and put severe torque (rotational force) on the ankle which subsequently subjected the knee to torque. Despite its name, the heel hook's true target was the ligaments in the knee. It held one of the highest injury rates of any leg-lock and was even banned in most martial circles. With no intention of allowing his ligaments to tear, Alexis immediately commenced his counter, aware of the danger that his leg would break should he do nothing. Posting a hand on the dried grass, the New God quickly used his other hand to grab the back of Ziccarra's ankle while sliding his free leg's knee towards his posted hand before cutting through the leg triangle that previously restrained him and extending outward.

Alexis however, made no effort to completely escape. Instead, once enough space was acquired from his extension, he dropped the knee of his locked leg over his wife's thigh. Certain that the Cardinal Goddess would not relinquish her hold over his foot, Thee Champion then used his free leg to back-step before attempting to use the positional benefits of his maneuver to crawl into side control from where he intended to unload an unrelenting barrage of 'ground & pound' inspired strikes from the top e.g. elbows and hammer fists to the head, and knees to the ribs, each strike thrown with the speed and power to cause the island to tremble and shake, and its grass to superheat from their sheer kinetic energy.

@maya_liafador:

While Leonel's palms emptied burst after burst of explosive gamma radiation in his sister's direction, few things would have allowed the New God to anticipate Maya's answer to the barrage. Immediately, the gravitational field of their surroundings was altered. While capable of surviving in the temperatures, pressures, radiation, and gravity of a star, it wasn't without effort. And Maya knew that. "Heh...", Leonel smirked, lowered to a single knee by the sheer gravitational force of his surroundings. His gaze never left his sister's as a portion of the island was torn asunder and ripped into fundamental particles by the powerful gravity's tidal forces. With his movements severely slowed down and the strain of immense gravity seizing his body with agony, the New God struggled.

Rising to his feet was a mission best left for another time. His energy was to be used for his offense. His bones began to ache and some of his muscle fibers teased a tear or two. The surface of his flesh seemed to tighten and his teeth were gritted as he exerted some kind of effort to resist. It was difficult, painful really, but manageable. 'Are... they fcking?', Maya inquired, momentarily shifting her gaze in her parents' direction, garnering a knowing smirk from the Azure Son. He understood grappling, he saw and comprehended the ground battle that had ensued between both his parents. "No. They're rolling, grappling, fighting for positions from which they can secure a choke or joint lock or even strike from". Then, as Maya fired her own volley of energy, Leonel's golden boy features went earnest.

The barrage hit. It scorched his flesh and struck him with enough kinetic energy to send him tumbling across the island's deteriorating environment. Though prior to falling victim to his sister's assault, Leonel had responded. The air around his sister's ears? He had superheated it, causing a rapid thermal expansion which resulted in a loud, crack of a shock-wave... thunder. From many miles in the sky, thunder could shatter windows and dwarf any sound that dared compete with it. However, from some inches away? It could rupture the eardrums, tear apart flesh and bombard internal organs. Fortunately, Maya's personal barrier would shield her from the more severe consequences.

@zeon_liafador

"What the hell....Is she pulling out a flashlight?" The words escaped his mouth with utter confusion as the Matriarch pulled out the silver object as he initiated his attack. It's use was proven once his first attacks came flying at her, and the silver object soon emitted an ominous red, whip-like beam. The super-hardened pebbles were reduced to nothing in a frenzy of crimson. The energy beam was flawlessly avoided with agility, however it in that moment he'd taken the opportunity to gain the momentum of the fight and sweep her legs out from under-her. The attack was done with Leon holding back as much as he could, despite her wearing a protective suit of vibranium, it didn't take a genius to guess even a half powered sweep would tear her legs in half.

His surprise attack landed successfully and Zeon fell onto the green earth below them. Just as soon as she fell she kicked back up, and utilized the close distance between them to attack once more. Up until now, the Liafador Legacy slowed down his reflexes and perception to match that of Zeon herself, however not wanting to experience another nerve blow they were sped up and the teenager back-flipped away from it. The dodge was anticipated he guessed, as she herself tucked away, putting more distance between them.

In that moment the energy whip activated once-more and Zeon preformed a flurry of motions with her wrist, sending the whip towards him multiple times. He easily deduced it was made through some sort of contained super-heated plasma by simply how it reacted to the pebbles. He blocked each of the blows with his arms, they stung indeed, however after the first blow he expanded his own personal electromagnetic shield covering his body to absorb most of the energy. Around him he felt large amounts of energy being tossed around, the island hurting because of it. However he didn't dare take his eyes off his opponent, a lesson he learned first hand as a child through the Emerald Cardinals.

Leonard took the next nanosecond to retaliate, and a surge of energy burst out of him as the usual, undetectable and harmless energetic beams that he always emitted became more powerful. Around him the air became un-breathable and super-heated as it was transmuted into a green plasma,while the ground around him burned and crisped, while the rock dissolved into a molten form. It wasn't at all an attack, more or less an effect of him holding back less than before, the appearance of the whip telling him he shouldn't underestimate his opponent too much. Of course he still contained the majority of his power, if he didn't he guessed the sheer heat and energy that he continually released would destroy the planet.

The moment after, he initiated his second attack. While he couldn't blitz toward her without unintentionally turning her to goo from the sheer kinetic energy a fraction of his speed in this state would emit, nor could he risk even flicking her without giving her a concussion, he decided to tap into an ability he seldom used in combat. Quickly he transmuted the ground beneath her into the worse possible thing he figured chick would want to stand in, chocolate and cupcakes. It was then, a small energetic circle formed on the tip of his fingers and he fired them at her with his hands making the gun shape. As they fired towards her he made " pew pew " sounds. The barrage of energized particles individually didn't carry more force than a bullet, however he was firing a lot of them, and each of them were massively faster than even the fastest bullet. He guessed she could destroy them with her whip, but he relied on her being at-least distracted for a second at the chocolate and frosted covered cup-cakes beneath her now.

Before receiving the message from Ziccarra, Mark was already anticipating this battle probably before the Ex-Matriarch had thought of it. It was the logical next step, after recurring successful attacks by the likes of Quintus it was only a matter of time before she felt the need to asses her family's weaknesses and strengths. Having studied the Liafador Legacy, Mark was aware of the possible consequences should he choose to ignore a call from the Matriarch, whoever he wasn't sure if the possibility of being thrown into the Cardinal Ring of Fire (whatever the hell that is) was still on the table should he choose to dismiss Ziccarra. Most importantly in his mind, even if subconsciously, this was an opportunity to prove himself in front of the Liafador clan by utterly defeating their leader in the battlefield, that and the fact that there was no way in hell that he was going to humiliate anyone else without extensive preparation.

Unlike most of the would be gods in the island, the Knightfall Legacy does not have the ability to fly at the speed of light, he does have a vast fortune and arsenal passed down by his predecessors who had a fetish with overly expensive pimped out vehicles which can make margaritas and play Netflix while he sat back and enjoyed the trip. Money, even if the source of all evil, was indeed the best super power. He had made sure that the jet was in camo mode, not because he was planning some sort of stealth attack but because it was nearly impossible to watch television from all the sound that damn engine made.

Mark was wearing a prototype uniform which showed no sign of Knightfall symbols but rather represented the colors of the Liafadors, after the criticism which he received he saw it was appropriate to wear it, after all he only wanted to please people. He had no quarrel against Leonardo, he was just another bastard child like himself. At the same time, Nox did not intend to share this fight with him. Zeon was his to battle after the disrespect that she showed him in the hospital even when he provided crucial information about the League of Shadows willingly.

"Shoot to thrill" begun playing from the outside speakers of the plane, that wasn't originally there, he had it installed a couple of years ago for moments like this. Mark had developed an obsession with theatrics at an early age, making an entrance had almost become his calling card. After jumping down with an overly complicated triple front flip and landing with a titanic pose, his mouth spouted the first of many insults at Zeon. "I got her, go play with someone who's actually a challenge to you". There was something overconfident about his expression, that always seemed to inspire hate in the battlefield. He knew that Zeon would be a challenge to fight, that didn't mean that he intended to lose.

She could tell, while her whip was causing some discomfort, wasn't actually doing any serious damage to the fellow Liafador. Zeon frowned at herself, how was she suppose to take him down? She could feel the itching sensation along her right ring finger, where her lantern ring sat, in a way, trying to call out to her. But she couldn't, she wasn't angry, the ring would be useless if she wasn't harnessing her anger. But then Earth around them began to tremble, a shock wave rushing through the entire area, catching Zeon off guard and causing her to lose her balance. Only to have the earth beneath her... turn into cupcakes and chocolate? She blinked her eyes in confusion as her boots sunk into the pastry down until she was in knees deep. "Cos'è questo?!?" She yelled out in irritation, unable to move around thanks to the sticky sugary sweets. But it was too late, the next attack was unavoidable for her. A barrage of energy bullets came flying at her, and with her being unable to move, she couldn't adequately use her energy whip. Slipping it away with one hand she pulled out her sword with another. Swinging it from left to right she managed to deflect a couple right back at Leon, but they were coming too fast and too many and with her being unable to move from her spot, they began to slam into her forcefully. Her chest, abdomen, shoulder... even with her vibrainum armor it still caused some pain. But the one that skinned her cheek caused her to almost yelp in shock as it drew blood that trickled down to her chin. He drew her blood... now she was pissed.

Breathing heavily she jammed the blade into the cupcakes and chocolate and began cutting her way out. She now made her way back to solid ground and at that same time an annoying blaring sound of rock music echoed from above. It completely distracted her from the battle at hand as she watched her 'cousin' pathetically make his way into battle. Making a show out of the tradition of this battle. He landed next to herself and Leon and her grip upon her sword only tightened as the crease between her brows only grew deeper. Then he began to speak, as if The Matriarch was some trophy to be won. She could feel her red lantern ring burn as it began to influence her without her realizing it. "Do not speak to your uncle like that." She spewed out. "You come here not knowing what this is, mocking the family sacred ritual." She put her blade back and pulled out her lightwhip once more, but this time, upon activating it, the lightwhip was glowing brighter than before, it's hissing louder as it sizzled against the ground, burning the grass and causing a think blanket of black smoke to rise. The dark energy crystals that powered it, was feeding off her anger. "You care nothing of this family tradition, of being a Liafador." The Matriarch began slowly moving herself into position, until she was in the middle of the two men. "You just see this as a game." She hissed between her teeth as she then went onto the assault.

Using the position she was in, with her left hand she threw down a smoke pellet, the entire area around them engulfed in a thick white smoke that made even the glowing lightwhip difficult to see. Then threw the smoke two of her adamantium lined throw knives made their way out towards the two men, one for each. Neither of them were aimed at a specific part of their body, but flew directly at them none the less. Then without warning, her lightwhip went into action. This time preforming the Sydney Flash with five cracks. Swinging her forearm forward the whip flew over her shoulder and snapped downward at Nox as she then brought her arm back, the energy whip snapping backwards at Leon from above as she then flicked her arm at waist line that caused it to snap back at Nox at waist level, bringing her arm back upward and flicking her wrist over her shoulder the whip once again snapped at Leon from above again as she then brought her arm in a downward motion towards the ground, the whip lashing out once more at Nox but this time from above again. The entire move done within two seconds, her body moving effortlessly through the series of swings as the smoke began to slowly clear.

Ziccarra struggled to keep focus on her heel lock, because her husband was in the process of countering. Stubborn in her resolve, the Cardinal Goddess found herself buried under her husband’s hulking figure. Though the two gods were fighting with only a fraction of their respective powers, Ziccarra felt the concussive blow of each and every one of his mighty strikes. Her husband could crush and pressurize diamonds, move whole worlds; and shatter star systems; the amount of pressure behind one of his punches would cause any lesser opponent to shatter on impact. The severities of his strikes were apparent when his hand periodically missed her head; and sent minor tremors quivering through the isle.

However, in the thick of bare-knuckle brawling, Ziccarra thrived, her body was built and conditions for such encounters. As his knees, elbows and feet plowed, into her ribs and head; Ziccarra was able to see a small amount of blood trickling from her own mouth. In previous encounters, the sight of blood awakened the killer instinct that lay dormant within the Cardinal Deity. With time she learned how to control her own rage, channel it, and focus it on an area she could capitalize on.

Admittedly the blows made her a bit confused and left her feeling dizzy in the head; planting her feet hard against the ground, Ziccarra shifted to the balls of her feet slightly elevating her body. The strongest part of the Cardinal Deity wasn’t her upper body, rather her lower. Years of professional dancing, preconditioned her core, back and legs to perform at the peak of flexibility.

Now in a side bridge, Ziccarra had the arduous task of trying to physically surmount the strength of her husband. They stood locked in stance for what seemed like hours fighting for position, for Ziccarra it was a matter of freedom; or Alexis to remain in control.

As she struggled to break from the back bridge, it became apparent for Ziccarra she was not going to beat him in terms of physical strength, a sly smirk drape the corners of her mouth; as she know figure out a way to break free. Her head hurt; bad. She could feel the contusions from his powerful knee strikes on her ribs. If she didn’t get him off of her now, she would be unable to continue.

Expunging a small amount of psionic energy off herself, she sought to place it on the both of them. With them still momentarily interlocked Ziccarra sought to conjure a dangerously close psion shield; with it honed in on Alexis. Should it work a massive explosion would take them; leaving Ziccarra untouched because of her psionic draining capabilities.

Maya continued to levitate in the air with her limbs concealed by her ornate cowl. Her damage to Leonel was a confidence boost, Leonel had a plethora of skills; skills that weren’t meant to be contained by one star system. To keep him at bay this early in the fight was a huge bragging point for the Power Princess.

As she prepared for a follow up, a sky splitting boom went off in her right ear; causing her to fall from the sky like a doomed fly. Hitting the island with enough force to cause a minor crater; Maya suffered far more injures than Leonel’s thunder intended.

Her lithe frame hit the dirt causing severe bruising on top of a few fractured bones. As her frail body came to a rolling stop, she gripped her wrist in pain; as the fall hurt more than the actual damage to her ears. “Fck…” she spat shooting a thick string of saliva from her dusty lips.

No one had ever attacked her like that, as much as she wanted to quit and call it a day; she couldn’t look weak in the eyes of the matriarch. Maya never truly carried for Zeon’s appointment to Matriarch; they two spent virtually no time together before then. Now however, Zeon was one of the more protective members of the Liafador Family, if she couldn’t prove to Zeon she could take care of herself—she’d never be able to go out in public without the cardinals stalking the rooftops.

Staggering back to her feet, her eyes immediately darted towards Leonel. Her impressed smirk crept across her lips, but she took an arrogant bow legged stance before channeling her mystic energies around her. Very slowly, her wounds began to dissipate; even the deaf eardrum returned to its former potency.

Still with the speed advantage, Maya took off in flight away from the island, flying low enough to touch the water; her hexing abilities begin to channel the water around her, casting a “tube” around her body. Changing course midflight, she saw to compensate for her lack of speed by attacking with the force of a concentrated tidal wave.

Leonel couldn't help but grin, in both excitement and wordless commendation as he watched Maya rise from the ground. She was performing better than initially anticipated. She had never shown any significant interest in honing her prowess in battle, and yet she exhibited the same instinctual ingenuity that every child of Ziccarra and Alexis' seemed to possess. Still reduced to a single knee on the ground as he allowed his body the time to acclimate to the sudden increase in gravity caused by Maya's reality-warping, the New God coolly shut his eyes, his bruised and scorched features wincing in terse agony. But then, a smirk, earnest and dripping with a disarming swagger, curled at the edges of his mouth.

"Yeah this is gonna be fun", he paused, slowly but surely rising to both feet, rolling his shoulders, his gaze never wavering from his sister. While he wouldn't be as fast as he'd prefer, his body having yet to fully adapt to the abrupt rise in gravity, he could, at the very least, move. Bursting forward in moderate acceleration, Leonel sped forward, rushing towards Maya as if intent on intercepting her with brute force. Because they were now airborne, he could not rely much on his freestyle wrestling pedigree save for the ability to secure certain submission maneuvers. So instead, he focused on the cerebral employment of his powers. One of the New God's most uncommon abilities was the power to manipulate the inertia and temperature of gas molecules.

In gases, temperature is related to the average kinetic energy of their particles. Inhaling the surrounding air with a deep breath, Leonel's lungs (or whatever the New God's equivalent of lungs were) reduced the inertial mass of the inhaled air molecules so that as he exhaled, the air was rendered much, much, much colder. It was, in essence, freeze breath, with the intention of encasing his sister and the surrounding water in a thick layer of ice.

With the ground battle firmly in his grasp as a barrage of knees, hammer-fists and elbows poured from Thee Champion as he sought to make good on his opportunity from side control, there was an immediate shift in the air, the iconic calm before the storm. The world seemed to grow still, it lasted no longer than a second however, as the New God found himself flung, violently off his wife's frame and across the island. The air was scorched, oxygen and ozone burned from the heat that the explosion's kinetic energy conjured. Blades of grass were reduced to ash, portions of the sand were turned to glass from the heat, and trees and plants found themselves uprooted, ripped from the ground without mercy by the explosion.

The shock-wave inspired towering tsunamis from the island's surrounding waters, while the island itself shook, its ground breaking apart, fissures tearing through as the shock-wave from Ziccarra's explosion traveled deep into the body of land. Its kinetic energy struck the particles in the air with so much force that an explosive, chain reaction followed, further aggrandizing the explosion's force. And despite the environment effects, the truly frightening bit was that the majority of the explosion's force laid no finger on the island, but on Alexis, Thee Champion. Pain rang through his body as his bones ached, and his superheated and bruised flesh cooled as he descended into the ocean waters from having been blasted from the island with the authority of a goddess. The water boiled, heat from the explosion causing some of it to evaporate. The battle, it reminded him of his earliest bouts against his wife.

Before their marriage and during the rare moments when either one of them was under the spell of some malevolent, external force. He lingered underwater for a moment before in a quick burst, darting into the air, inspiring the surrounding water to part in a rising circle as towering waves traveled all about. Though he was wounded, just as severely, if not more than his wife, Alexis smirked as he hovered in the air, water dripping from his Greek god frame. "I'll give you round one, babe", he paused, "But now, its time for round two". Darting forward, the Herald of Hope generated a massive electrostatic discharge; lightning. He'd assessed Ziccarra's speed long ago when they had first met. She was, even in her worst day, fast enough to evade any bolt of lightning that chased her. Alexis however, sought to use this to his advantage. While the Cardinal Goddess was hopefully distracted with bobbing and weaving past the lightning, he would pounce.

Accelerating forward, inches behind the last bolt of lightning, Thee Champion attempted to secure grips on both his wife's wrists. His intention wasn't simply to use his grappling prowess and god-like strength to exercise simple wrist-control from the clinch. He sought to use his strength and grappling to create openings for his strikes. And in order to accomplish that, he made use of thumbs-down grips, as in wrist-grips where the gripper's thumbs are pointed towards the ground. Why? Because one can only escape a secured wrist-grip by yanking the arms away from the thumbs. And with his thumbs pointed towards the ground, it would force Ziccarra to yank both her arms towards the ground and away from her upper-body, exposing her head to what would be elbows slid across the top, followed by uppercuts slipped through the middle, each strike intended to introduce every iota of kinetic energy they generated to the adversary; Ziccarra.

The Herald of Hope however, exercised caution. In truth, he was risking exposing himself to another of Ziccarra's psionic energy explosions. He trusted only in his assumption that she could not generate that much energy in rapid succession. Or could she?

Ziccarra stood visibly gassed with her index finger twirling the tips of her long raven hair. “Round one? I was not even aware we were fighting” She sarcastically replied, preparing herself again for battle. Most of her injuries were visible on her face and neck; William Greystroke’s L-Tac 87 armor concealed her body injuries.

Just as it was designed to do, Ziccarra’s armor actually diverted Alexis’ electricity, still she was not able to contend with his speed. Within moments, Alexis had gained control of her wrist, his hands left a perfect impression on her olive toned skin. Churning her feet, whilst throwing idle knee strikes; Ziccarra fought fruitlessly to free herself from the vice-like grip of her New God Husband.

Forcing her hands down to the ground, she immediately felt the consequences with a bone shattering elbow strike across her face. Ziccarra’s head jarred backwards momentarily stunned; she snapped to only to be hit with what felt like a cosmic uppercut.

Ziccarra’s body was forced into the air involuntarily, actually losing consciousness midway up; she descended in a thick veil of heat, before hitting the island with the force of a meteor. Pieces of the island were swallowed whole due to her impact. Her body bounced before coming to a halt, had it not been for Greystroke’s armor; it was probable that she wouldn’t rise.

The armor proved to be exactly what William said it was, impervious to blunt force; however her face was not. The blood-spattered Cardinal Goddess slowly rose, visibly livid. Wiping blood from her eye sockets; she saw it was time to take it up a notch, while she wouldn’t allow herself to attack her husband with murderous intentions—she’d make him feel what so many before him had—pain.

Lethargically rising to her feet, she spit blood from her now crusty lips, and enveloped herself in her TK shield. “Round 2 huh…” She said, as if she were acknowledging his impressive start to the “second round”.

Taking off with as much speed as she possibly could, Ziccarra closed the distance between them with blood dripping from her eyes. At the last possible second, Ziccarra cast an illusion, having timed how fast it took previously for her husband to read and react to an illusion; she sought to capitalize.

As the Illusion went sailing over his head, Ziccarra dispatched her Conquistador bullwhip and immediately; sent it spiraling towards Alexis’ right wrist. Should her whip connect, she sought to pirouette in close; using the momentum of her spin and protection of her TK to force him in close.

This would allow her to combat only one of his hands, as he was propelled forward; she sought to come out of the pirouette with a crushing elbow packed with psionic energy, followed by a systematic series of kicks aimed at his chest, followed by a powerful tk push.

“Ooooh boy” Maya whined, her entire body encased in a chasm of water became immediately frozen by Leonel’s super-breath. Naturally, Maya wouldn’t be able to surmount such a obstacle, but having channeled Flash Fire’s speed on Earth-M through her Reactive Adaption skill, she immediately began to vibrate her body until she literally phased through the ice.

Falling from the ice her teeth chattered uncontrollably, rising to a knee she gave Leonel a pissed leer before jumping right back into fight mode. “So that’s how you want to do it.” She said, thinking of a way to combat Leonel’s quick thinking.

Her eyes briefly darted to the other fights transpiring on the island, Zeon; the Matriarch had taken on two comers in Leonardo and Mark. It was surprising to even see Mark here; he didn’t really associate with the family.

The other fight, Ziccarra vs. Alexis. Her parents. Their climatic clash seemed to be the most brutal of the three conflicts; as parts of the island were slowly crumbling from their might. Though she tried to keep her focus on the fight in front of her, she couldn’t help but casually glance at them. They fought like they wanted to kill each other, but she knew that wasn’t the case. “They have so much respect for each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

“NO MORE GAMES!” Maya yelled throwing her hands outward towards Leonel. On every side of him a “spacial” portal opened with the properties of a singularity sought to rip Leonel’s body in various directions—a feint.

Hoping he would be rendered temporarily immobile, Maya allowed her light energy to ionize within her palms before sending the energy scorching over the earth towards her brother.

Alexis Vs. Ziccarra

The uppercut from the clinch, slipped through the pocket of space exposed by Ziccarra's arms, had blasted into his wife's chin with authority and shot her into the scorched air. Denim blue eyes watched the Cardinal Goddess' plummet back to the ground and blinked as the impact's vibrations reverberated all about their environment, now an island warped by the destructive clash of two gods. Thee Champion paused for a moment, allowing himself the time to scan for his wife's vitals. Her muscle fibers still produced electric fields, and his auditory perception detected no audible snap or the vibrations of a break from her bones. She could resume battle. Though they were husband and wife, both afforded a profound degree of respect for one another as warriors.

It was once difficult, during the earliest period of their marriage, for Alexis to fight his immediate instinct to worry over her well-being during their violent spars. But now, in the field of battle, he had learned to respect her first as a warrior, and love her second as a wife. And so as she stood and made her playful taunts, he smirked, blood trickling from the corner of his partially swollen bottom lip. Though superhumanly durable to the highest degree, Thee Champion wore the consequences of Ziccarra's previous psionic explosion on his features. They were bruised, burnt, and bleeding. "Heh, I love that woman", he murmured as she rushed forward, her blistering velocities heating the surrounding air into oblivion as a shock-wave, loud and destructive, from the rapid thermal expansion of the air, rippled across the island as it shook the ground and ripped trees into the air.

The air around his wife was compressed into a cone of hot red air. The kinetic energy for her movement was immense. She struck the particles in the air with tremendous energy, almost teasing nuclear fusion as the oxygen and nitrogen were suspended in the air, frozen in time before another destructive chain reaction began as the violent eruption of energy tore through the island. Though he could now see through illusions, a benefit from his training with Leonel, he couldn't ignore the incoming torrent of destructive, highly energized particles. Crossing both forearms before his features as a means of instinctive protection, Alexis braced himself and resisted. Yet as he did so, he found something coiling, tightening around his wrist before yanking him towards, Ziccarra. Unfortunately, the New God wasn't greeted by an intimate embrace from his loving wife, but instead an elbow strike, surging with psionic energy.

The sharp point of her elbow joint slammed into the side of his head and he felt every iota of kinetic energy that the strike unloaded as his skull cried out in pain. A gaping laceration was left behind beside his left eyebrow. Ziccarra struck with enough force as it was, yet when aggrandizing herself with psionic energy? She simply hit that much harder. And because his footing at the time had rendered his plane weak, he was in essence, rocked. He seemed to be reacting slower, sounds grew fuzzier, and his knees buckled. All the while, his blood, New God blood, a fluorescent, golden liquid poured from his laceration. Then a succession of kicks came. Fortunately they didn't target his head, and instead slammed shin against pectoral muscle. Under normal circumstances, the Herald of Hope's instincts as a grappler would have inspired him to catch the first kick and tuck the ankle under his armpit before sweeping his wife's remaining, planted leg for the takedown.

Instead, the kicks rained down on his chest. He was rocked, he was reacting slower. As he sought to catch the kick, the shin instead rammed into his chest and bruised his flesh. Though soon he recovered, but the moment he was no longer rocked, Ziccarra caught him in the midst of a counter-attack, with a telekinetic shove that sent him flying across the battlefield before upon composing himself, responding first with a series of optical blasts, ionized beams of highly-energized particles accelerated to near the speed of light, striking the particles in the air just as much, if not more energy than Ziccarra's initial acceleration, causing a chain reaction of his own, one that generated destructive energy all about, an explosion of his own. And second, he sought to superheat the air around Ziccarra, so that her skin would tighten and her breathing become laborious as oxygen decreased.

Leonel Vs. Maya

As he bore witness to his sister's escape from her icy confinements via molecular vibrations, Leonel smirked, "No, the game's just getting started", he replied, intent on darting towards her to resume their bout before, rifts tore open from every conceivable angle and from them, the relentless gravitational consequences of being near a singularity, violent tidal forces capable of ripping atoms apart and reducing the largest of stars into fundamental particles, poured and targeted the Azure Son's person. Or so he thought. It was a simple feint. A fake. A tactical maneuver designed to distract him for that one second he allowed. And he paid the price. Having paused to strengthen the protective field of continually replenishing quantum particles around him by elevating his body's production of said particles, Leonel felt it.

The storm of energy that turned part of the island black and burned away the air in its path as it swallowed Leonel whole. The blast burned. Burned so hot that it felt cold. But Leonel was not entirely helpless, he answered. Relying on his ability to store energy of any kind in a personal quantum dimensional state, he absorbed what he could and answered in kind, with Maya's own attack, redirecting a large portion of her own energy in an identical blast. They would both burn. As brother and sister, Leonel thought with internal laughter.

Leonardo's attack was successful as his niece was pelted by the energetic bullets. Eventually she carved herself out but the scene was a tad bit funny to the Liafador Legacy, managing to put a slight comedic spin on the battle. Before either of them could continue on, the sound of rock music interrupted them. Out of nowhere appeared the young man known as Mark Knightfall. Leonardo personally had no ill feelings toward the him, in-fact he slightly pitied him at the way his relatives had treated his initial arrival into the palace. Leonard figured blood was blood, and that had to count for something.

At the request that he leave Zeon for himself Leonard nodded slowly, before the Matriarch barked indignantly. The next moment the area was covered with smoke and out of no-where something sliced his shoulder. How...How did something pierce his skin? His entire life he'd never seen his own blood and it freaked him out to say the least. His cosmic knowledge alluded to him the blade was made of adamantium, the only material strong and sharp enough to cut the godly teen.Before things could get even worse he instantly propelled himself backwards. He figured Mark and Zeon would be a perfect fight, and he personally didn't like the idea of continuing vs one of the most technically skilled Liafadors alive.

He soared up and out of the smoke, leaving the two to go at each other. From the vantage point he scanned the island, noting his sister and Alexis fighting, and then Maya and Leo one brawling. Zicc's fight seemed to be the most passionate fight, a battle between lovers he figured, was something he didn't want to intervene in. However Maya and Leonel's quarrel was something he could get in on. And as his niece finshed her most recent attack,opening up portals on either side of Leonel, Leonard pushed down onto the land near them, his violent electromagnetic aura still effecting the surrounding patches of ground.

He grinned; "Hope you don't mind I cut in." He'd scanned both of the siblings, the two of them were easily strong enough and more for the Liafador legacy to cut a bit more loose on without worrying about serious injuries. Around him the air sizzled in response to him tapping into more power, mini-lightning arc'ed at the sheer energy he casually emitted, and the air was compressed into green plasma. It was essentially the same effect that had already been taking place when he let loose moments before in his fight with Zeon. Only now he accessed more power, and the ground beneath him cracked and scorched. His eyes bounced from Leonel and Maya as he decided on who to attack first, coming to the conclusion of simply firing an massive ray of green energy encompassing a large enough area to hit both of them, being mass-less yet still powerful particles it accelerated at near-lightspeed toward them. He figured it was enough to begin and watched, anticipating an attack from either of them.

In lieu of successful series of strikes, The Goddess found no moment’s reprieve, the instant her husband rebounded from her attacks; he immediately returned fire. Not quick enough to dispatch her shield, Ziccarra braced herself with her hands positioned in front of her in an “X” pattern. His elephantine optical energy burst plowed directly into her, her body rocked back and forth as she was pelted with the vast amount of destructive energy.

Under normal circumstances, a simple brace wouldn’t have been effective enough to keep a vertical base; much less surviving with only mild injures; however before her prior incursion she tactically encased herself in a telekinetic shield. The shield took the blunt of the energy leaving her bleeding wrist to take the residual less potent force of the blast.

He was astonishing, Alexis never employed the same tactic twice; she found herself diving deeper into her skill set to match his prowess. He was the New God, forged at the pinnacle of human ingenuity. Never had she faced an opponent with such a high level of battle intellect, never had she faced anyone that was so much more powerful than she.

“The greatest thing humans ever created…” She whispered with a smirk, biting her bottom lip to surmount the pain of her stinging wrists, Ziccarra’s face was a canvas to Alexis’ paintbrush. The blood spattered goddess staggered faintly; with blood seeping through seemingly every orifice.

As she stood awaiting his next move, she found her skin becoming increasingly clammy; a slow sweat began to case her body. Was she tired? It certainly seemed like it, she took deep laborious breaths trying to surmount this newfound obstacle.

Reduced to one knee, her eyes darted across the dilapidated pasture to her husband—the source of her problems. “No…” she whispered, not completely able to deal with the lack of oxygen; she had so much more fight left. If this was round “2” she was prepared to go 10 more. His mental prowess was astounding, thanks to Leo; her illusions wouldn’t work, and she couldn’t force a thought into his head.

As she was reduced to two knee’s her mind continued to wonder, was there anything she could do to surmount her husband? By now she was choking, her face was turning an ornate purple; there seemed to be no way out of this tricky predicament.

Taking a last breath, she had about twenty minutes until she ran out, what exactly was the problem? Other than apparent suffocation, Ziccarra’s body wasn’t physically under duress from Alexis’ maneuver; something around her was. The Air. Giving zero indication of a rebuttal the Malagan Goddess focused her thoughts on Alexis, not exactly his physical being, but the chemical composition. Ten minutes now.

Attempting to channel the actual molecules Alexis was composed of; Ziccarra saw to temporarily freeze his entire body. She needed only 10 seconds; any longer would’ve made her susceptible to a massive migraine. With five minutes of breath left, whether or not the attack work; she closed the distance quick looking to launch a flying knee towards Alexis’ chin.

Her strike had to purposes, drawing blood; and the hope that he’d grab her skin guard; making him susceptible to her psionic drain.

Maya’s eye’s briefly darted towards her uncle, his untimely intrusion in the battle cost her vital seconds, seconds she payed the price for; as Leonel’s rebuttal hit her shield abruptly; eclipsing her entire body in a chasm of light.

The force from what was essentially her own attack left her visibly charred, had she not been in the possession of healing capabilities; her modeling career would’ve reached its end. Blurt spurt from her once immaculate skin, her body very slowly began to regenerate restoring her skin cells to their previous disposition. “T-that hurt…” she whispered, holding her chest almost as if she were scared.

There was no moment’s reprieve, now her uncle had joined the fight utilizing a wide range emerald blast of accelerated energy towards the both of them. Too fast to dodge, the energy smashed into Maya sending the Power Princess reeling off the island.

Her body hit a slope and eventually crashed into the water below. Steam sizzled from her now torn outfit, she arrived at the island looking for a fight; and she’d found one. Digging her nails deep in the slope to pull herself from the ocean, she wondered how her parents did it. How could they clear such high octaves for a prolonged period of time? Even Zeon seemed to exude near infinite endurance.

As she pulled her body back to the island, Catalina, her sister; appeared heavy in her mind. “Get up and fight Maya!” She screamed. She was unsure if the Leo’s had knocked her senseless, or if she was actually hearing Catalina, but against all her bodies objections—Maya rose once more.

“I will not be defeated so easily!” She screamed, throwing her hands in her brother and uncle’s direction. A low crimson hue began to shimmer around her hole-filled gloves before casting what appeared to be an illusion.

Maya didn’t cast illusions—she created realities. A parallel island appeared over them inverted to that the surface was visible from where they stood. “TAKE THIS!” She screamed, a rim of her own light magic appeared around the circumference of the island, on her command a massive beam of light energy shot down towards both Leonel’s filling the space equivalent to the island they were on. This put ALL the fighters in harms way.

Alexis Vs. Ziccarra

Many were left puzzled as to how a couple, so in love and devoted to one another, still managed to engage in spars that dripped with the intensity of a fatal gladiatorial bout. The answer was devoid of complexity. It was, simply put, a matter of respect. Thee Champion and The Goddess held a respect, profound and genuine, for one another, not only as spouses, but as warriors. And as the New God, battered, bruised, bloodied and even burnt, partially, hovered in the air, his gaze resting on the sight of his wife, the Cardinal Goddess with a martial resolve that instructed her to never yield, he saw what he believed to be the truest incarnation of a warrior. Ziccarra's story had always been one of overcoming adversity, of moving forward despite the world doing all that was possible to push back.

His eyes, denim blue windows, met Ziccarra's and gazed into them. He saw, and could almost feel the fiery desire to continue that rested in his wife's eyes. She endured a good deal of the worst he could offer, and not only did she bite back, she sought more, she sought to continue and to respond. To fight. To win. To defeat him. Because she could, and she possibly would despite the odds. He respected her for it. And it was because of this respect that he darted forward, the air behind him erupting as a succession of sonic booms tore through. Accelerating through the scorched air that now grew hotter, Alexis intended to end the battle with the final attack. If he didn't leave Ziccarra unconscious, she would him. Though as his speed increased, suddenly, his body froze and he was suspended in midair.

Ziccarra had seized him by the molecules and then.. she struck. A flying knee rammed into his chin. His planes were weak and therefore he was in no position to absorb knockout blows. And for the battle, his force field of continually replenished quantum particles remained nonexistent, which weakened his physical durability. It was, simply put, the perfect strike. Thee Champion had been completely exposed, and he felt every iota of kinetic energy from the flying knee. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, white. His hearing grew muffled and stuffy. And time froze, for a minute or so. Why? Because he was unconscious. With his back against the ground, Alexis was defeated.

Leonel Vs. Maya & Leonardo

For a moment, silence hung in the air as Leonel's eyes shifted back and forth from Maya to Leonardo before, a smirk, subtle but supreme in confidence, cool in swagger and flair, graced his golden boy features. Finally, his body had grown accustomed to the conjured gravity Maya had enveloped hers and Leonel's battlefield with. Having already suffered from his sister's previous attack, the New God had no intention of falling victim to Leonardo's. The accelerated particles approached and teased superluminal velocities. Leonardo's attack was incredibly fast. Almost as fast as the maximum speed permitted by the physical laws of the universe. And because of their velocity, their kinetic energy was immense.

It would superheat the matter of anything it touched, and reduce what was left behind to fundamental particles and ionic goo. Simply because it was so fast. But, Leonel was faster. He was quick, generating magnetic fields and entering higher dimensional space to move above and beyond the speed of light. He seemed to simply disappear. To vanish. Reappearing further into the air, beyond the blast's radius. He remained there, allowing himself to recuperate from the wounds sustained from Maya's previous attacks. From there he watched as his sister, in a fit of destructive tendencies scorched the entire island with a beam of radiant energy. He was certain his father would have, by then, regained consciousness to evade the attack following his defeat at the hands of the Cardinal Goddess.

Whether or not Leonardo was struck, remained to be seen. He believed in Zeon's ability to improvise and survive, and harbored no concern for Mark. Once the energy dissipated and the air cooled, Leonel descended from the far reaches of the upper sky, eyes resting on both Leonardo and Maya. "Let's make this fair. And fun", he smirked, "The two of you against me", he dared. Suddenly, and violently, the island shook, crying in pain as it threatened to completely break apart under pressure from what was now the release of Leonel's power. The New God's frame was bright, lit by an aura of outward flailing, superheated plasma held in spherical form by his electromagnetic field. The air was quickly being burned up, and the mass from the sheer quantity of energy in his aura began to induce its gravitational effects on the island, ripping trees into the air, and rearranging its surface.

Radiation, in many forms was released. Particles in the air were turned into ionized goo that sunk into the New God's aura before abruptly, the environment was calmed. The island ceased its teased break, and trees previously flung into the air were dropped back onto the ground. There stood only Leonel, eyes devoid of pupils and irises, and flaring with a luminous blue, while all of his power, now absorbed, vibrated inches beneath his flesh which, like his hair, seemed to now glow and was now scorching hot at the touch. "Let's fight", he smiled.

His attack was partially successful. The near-superluminal beam struck true onto maya, sending her flying off the island, however Leonel avoided it with sheer speed. The next instant his niece retaliated with zeal, sending a island wide beam towards them. Wanting to get a feel for how powerful she was, the Liafador legacy braced himself as he watched it approach and eventually engulf him and anything else that didn't escape it's powerful presence. It hurt, it surely hurt more than he'd been hurt in his lifetime, and then he realized his niece had reality warping powers, or something akin to an ability set even he had next to no counter for.

When the dust settled, he stood, though he had been pushed back a few yards. He winced as he smoke streamed from his body, his gaze still focused onto the two of them. And it was then his nephew barked a challenge with a powerful display, he would fight both Leonard and Maya. Surprise lit Leonardo's green gaze, however he would take advantage of the cockiness displayed. He exchanged a glance with the power princess, and was off. He grew tiered of purely using his mastery of the electromagnetic force, and accelerated at speeds that dwarfed the speed of light times over.

The reason behind this ability to bypass the law of the universe was through a combined use of mastery over gravity and electromagnetic fields, the surrounding island taking no ill effects from the God-like speed Leonardo raced towards Leonel with. Once near the Azure son he would attempt to unleash a frenzied barrage of strikes that carried the same speed he raced off with at his upper body, especially the facial area. His previous structured training in martial arts be damned, at the moment, all he purely cared about was letting loose as much as possible and having fun, though naturally he still maintained using a little less than a third of his power, however the strikes individually still carried a massive amount of kinetic energy.

He hoped his niece would use this as an opportunity to ready her own attack. Leonards plan? Simply overwhelm Leonel with his own might and have Maya deal the finishing blow.

“What the hell” Maya whispered, visibly gassed. Leonel possessed more power than she originally thought. With only a fraction of her actual abilities “unlocked” it was clear she would never beat him on her own. “Did he just go Super Saiyan?” she jested with a hint of seriousness. “I don’t see how this constitutes as fair” even backed by unusual confidence; Maya saw no way to defeat Leonel.

Her doubt was brought on only, by the notion that neither of them knew exactly what Leonardo was capable of. Sure he was the brother of her own mother; but did that alone merit his abilities? It was time to find out.

Giving a slight glance to her uncle, Maya watched as he raced off head on to combat the cosmic connoisseur. Watching in awe for a brief moment, she wondered why she wasn’t born with the freak speed and power of her sister Selene; hell even her durability would’ve been a major help right now.

With Maya’s body structure, she was easily one of the most nimble and flexible members of the family, having learned core strengthening techniques from Ziccarra; she could get herself get herself out of any hold within reason. Combating Leonel close up wasn’t an option however; any blow she suffered had more than enough power to keep her down.

She’d have to settle with the long range approach, first she sought to provide aid. Throwing her hands up conjuring her hexing abilities Maya actively tried siphon Leonel’s arrogant energy display, and tried to channel those energies into Leonardo; if effective he’d be able to dish out as much punishment; as Leonel displayed.

Next she pushed her hand forward, in an attempt to lock Leonel’s energy signal, once she achieved the lock; she fire a mysterious white beam of energy; in an attempt to relief Leonel of his cosmic powers just long enough for Leonardo to land a definitive blow.

The moment her energy left her hands, her eyes darted to a figure on the far side of the island. Sword and Shield drawn, the battle scarred Cardinal Goddess returned to battle But on whose side?

Regaining consciousness, the world was hazy was to the eyes. The sounds of his battling family members, of the ocean waves that crashed against island walls, they were muffled. Simultaneously, his body felt heavier, and his mind light, buoyant. "Heh...", he smirked, bruised and bloodied, lacerated and partially scorched, "I'll get her next time", Thee Champion promised himself with a sportive smile. Rising from the grass that cushioned his back, Alexis, now technically excluded from the bout, could only sit on the sidelines and watch as a spectator. Silence hung in the air, until its particles crackled in excitement from the energy Leonel's power struck them with. Rising to his full height, the New God hovered into the air, arms folded before his chest as from the open sky some meters above the island, he played spectator to the ensued bout.

"The two of them against Leo? Well, this ought to be good", he murmured to himself, his denim blue eyes dripping with interest. Meanwhile, on the island, Leonel, physically aggrandized by the energy that coursed through his veins and caused his flesh to glow with scalding heat, smirked in response to Leonardo's charge. Why? Because he believed his relative had essentially counteracted his own efforts in attack. There was a reason why Leonel, despite also possessing mastery over electromagnetism and gravitation by virtue of his command over quantum particles, could only breach the light-speed barrier by entering higher dimensional space. Because normal space, in the physical universe was governed by the physical laws that kept it intact. There were those who could employ supernatural means to bend the laws of the physical universe to achieve the impossible.

But to use the universe's fundamental physical laws to bypass another physical law... in a physical system governed by those laws, it made no sense to the Azure Son. There were particles, with positive mass, that would always move slower than the speed of light. And there were particles, with negative mass, e.g. tachyons, that always moved faster than the speed of light. Accelerating past the speed of light, with positive mass, was a violation of a physical law. And because physics was universal, once one violates a physical law, one violates them all. It implied that the very electromagnetism and gravitation that Leonardo used to accelerate beyond the speed of light would break down and vanish the very moment he breached said barrier, essentially returning him to 1% below the actual speed of light. However, should his teenage uncle somehow manage to retain his faster-than-light velocities, Leonel would respond.

Using magnetic fields to enter higher dimensional space in an effort to match Leonardo's speed was possible but Leonardo didn't exist in higher dimensional space, they would essentially, be in separate locations and would only be used if his attempts to slow him down failed. Instead, Leonel sought to use his quantum particle-control to seize the gravitons that comprise the force of gravitation that Leonardo used to accelerate, and send them to higher dimensional space with the intention of dispelling the gravitation his uncle employed, leaving behind only electromagnetism, certain that if successful, it would prevent him from moving past the light-speed barrier since it was impossible, as it would require infinite energy, to electromagnetically propel matter with positive mass to the speed of light, let alone beyond it. Should either the laws of the universe counteract his uncle's attempts or his own efforts in slowing him down prove successful, Leonel would meet Leonardo's flurry with cerebral counters. The first punch struck him across the chin and pain radiated across his cranium.

He felt every bit of the kinetic force of the second punch, the energy produced by their velocities almost superheating the matter on the surface of his skin, bypassing the protective field of continually replenished virtual particles around his body and almost rocking him... because it was energy that was being used, unknown to him, by virtue of Maya's hexing abilities. "This kid's good", he thought, recomposing himself, blood trickling from a now, partially swollen bottom lip and bruised patch of flesh under his right eye, "But you never charge a wrestler". And indeed one didn't, not without powerful takedown defense at least. Anticipating the second strike and predicting that his uncle would remain on his flurry, Leonel sought to counter, slipping under punches and dropping levels as his rear hand moved to grip behind Leonardo's lead knee as if teasing a takedown while his lead hand however, seemingly intent on securing a collar-tie around his uncle's neck, instead aimed its palm before his uncle's face prior to electromagnetically forcing particles into high-energy collisions to unload a gargantuan blast of... antimatter, one that like Maya's previous attack, threatened to destroy the entire island.

Yet immediately following his attempted counter, Leonel found that while powerful, his antimatter blast was not to the magnitude he had intended. "What the?", he murmured, unable to access his power over quantum particles. And for a moment, he was puzzled, until his gaze fell upon Maya. Still, he retained his speed, strength, and other abilities. And his cosmic powers would return in due time. Somewhat dazed from Leonardo's assault, knees almost buckling, Leonel shook his head before resting his gaze on his approaching mother. He smirked. "I want the three of you, and everyone else on this island against me". His words weren't in jest, or in arrogance. The Azure Son's aphrodisiac was battle. Doing battle with his entire family, save for Selene who wasn't present, and Alexis who was now eliminated from the bout, was a dream of his. "I'm a big boy. I can take it".

The universe. Leonard had all but perfect control of nearly everything that made up our physical universe. The only thing that vexed the LIafador legacy was the dark arts of magic, and the abilities to warp reality itself. And it didn't come as a surprise to him as his nephew looked on with a grin at Leonardo seemingly breaking the universal law of nothing with mass being able to travel at c. However he guessed his uncle hadn't known Leonard could control every aspect of his own body, down to the fundamental particles. This included making himself massless for a short period of time in order to break through the light barrier.

It was a complex process of making himself mass-less yet still retaining his power behind his strikes, however he managed to do it. Leonels attempts at controlling the gravitons were fruitless, as gravitational manipulation and more specifically the gravitons themselves were his second most learned power. And he learned it to such an extent that he could create blackholes, fire beams of pure gravitons, and even make himself mass less. He hadn't an idea why leonel attempted at messing with something that was Leonards forte.

The punches soared into Leonel at lightspeed, and before he knew it Leon had used the close quarters to get into a choke hold of sorts, and Leonardo instantly regretted foregoing his martial expertise for a pure charge. A beam of anti matter hit him from his nephew palm and the emerald cardinal prince shook his head. Despite it stinging, Leonard was more or less intrigued. He'd notice Leonel do two things he always wanted to accomplish, entering higher dimensional space, and using anti matter. He guessed they had similar powers, so the curious Liafador made note to ask his relative on how to do those things.

Back to the fight, he sought to use his sisters appearance and apparent distraction of Leonel to his advantage. The azure son wanted everyone to fight him? Leonardo thought the notion odd and simply continued in his assault. From him, immediately radiated a super charged AoE beam that accelerated at super luminal speeds. It carried about enough energy to vaporize a planet twice as big as earth, however it would only effect an area of around 10 feet in diameter around Leonardo, meaning the planet, and the island would be intact even If Leonardo missed Leonel.

Before Zeon and Mark’s battle could even push forward, a rumbling of energy surged through the island, one that was consuming everything in it’s path. “Merda!” The Matriarch shouted as she rushed towards Mark, skidding behind him in a crouching position, using him a as a human shield, as the energy came rushing at them, but was untouched by Maya’s blast. But before she could continue her fight with Mark, another rumbling of the Earth shook them., this time coming from Leo. She let out a frustrated sigh, how was she suppose to fight with all this interruption? Another wave of energy began to consume the island as Zeon’s eyes flickered with annoyance as she dropped down to one knee, slamming her right fist into the ground as a protective crimson dome of energy covered over herself and Mark, created by none other than the Ring of Rage that was on her finger. The dome hissed as the Leo’s attack rammed into it, shaking the foundation of the Earth the stood upon. The Matriarch knew she wouldn’t be able to fight in peace, not as long as Leo, Maya and Leon were still up and fighting.

Then, the call of her younger cousin caught the attention of the Matriarch, her head quickly snapping in his direction. He was arrogant, thinking he could take on everyone at once. Putting her lightwhip away she could feel her body had become increasingly worn. Unlike the rest of her family, her stamina had limits and she was beginning to reach hers. Her chestnut eyes shift back to Mark for a moment, “Mi dispiace cugino, but I have to answer this.” But she wasn't actually sorry, she was too consumed in her Liafador pride to care what Mark thought.

So she answered Leo, pulling out her bow, and reached behind her to quickly snatch one of her Scoppiare arrows. Quickly taking aim at Leo as she let her arrow fly towards her cousin as it whistled through the air aiming at his chest. If it didn’t hit the target, on her bow she would press a button that would instantly trigger the arrow to explode. Knowing the explosion wouldn’t do damage to her cousin, she used it more of a distraction to allow her cousin and uncle to attempt and get a hit on the New God. Zeon on the other hand, was now rushing down the battle field, but not towards Leo, no, she was making a rush towards her Zia, quickly closing the distance between the two as their eyes locked onto one another. It was as if the two were talking, no words exchanged, just very subtle movements of their eyes was more than enough for the two warriors to communicate. Ziccarra then began rushing towards Zeon, it seemed as if the two were about to engage in a battle of their own as The Matriarch swiftly pulled out her own sword, holding onto it tightly in her grasp.

But as the distance was finally closed, Ziccarra came to a skidding stop as she quickly crouched down, holding her shield upward against her chest as if about to block an incoming attack from Zeon. But instead of an attack, the Wildcard Liafador jumped up, her feet planting on the shield as Ziccarra pushed her shield upward and forward, using her Godly strength to send Zeon soaring upward into the air, soaring over Maya as she came downward forcefully at Leo. Holding her vibrainum lined blade with both hands above her head, she brought the blade downward as the distance was closed, her eyes taking aim at his left shoulder. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she would then shift the blade in her hand to a reverse hold as she quickly swung her right arm forward and upward in a diagonal strike, her body continually spinning to a 180 on the balls of her feet as she now had her back towards Leo as she then quickly maneuvered out of the way to allow the others to make their move on the Pettis.

Leonel’s declaration that the entire family fight him surprised Maya, she knew he had a lust for battle that rivaled Ziccarra’s; but did he really think he could take on four members of the family at once? Leonardo seemed to be in Leonel’s range as far as power, he could naturally throw strike that could dent Leonel’s tough exterior.

While powerless, Zeon’s prowess as a pure combatant would prove to be an irritant for the Cosmic Liafador, her ability to strike would be essential in toppling Leonel, because he would be too busy tending to the others.

Ziccarra survived and won a battle against Thee Champion without too much of a reliance on her illusion casting abilities. That feat alone spoke wonders about the Cardinal Goddess of Illusion, her strength and innovativeness coupled with the combined might of Zeon and Leonardo seemingly forecast defeat for Leonel.

Then there way Maya, though she was physically the weakest; Maya played essentially the biggest part of this handicapped bout. With her in play, she could heal allies, divert Leonel’s energy; and also deal a great deal of damage from a distance. Leonel was a fighter, a strategist, she was sure he knew of her role. It was almost imperative Maya stayed in the field of play while being cautious of anything Leonel might decide to throw her way.

The first into action was Leonardo, his released a unknown form of energy on Leonel, devastating in power; Maya shielded her eyes at the recoil of thick dust and debris. Quickly recovering from the dust brush, Maya’s eyes focused on an airborne Zeon, she and her mother had made use of a tag-team maneuver that saw Zeon get launched from the blunt side of Ziccarra’s shield.

“Quickly Maya!” Ziccarra yelled, finally recovering from her previous abrupt energy manifestation, The Cardinal Goddess enveloped her entire body into psionic energy, something Maya had never seen before. “G-got it” Maya said, somehow understanding her mother’s intent.

Maya manipulated the energy Ziccarra gave off, and actually managed to absorb her! “…this is so weird…” upon completion of the fusion, Maya’s entire body chemistry changed.

Instead of being 5’11 with a lithe model-like frame, the mother-daughter duo took on a 6 foot frame, a bit stockier in appearance. Adorned in Ziccarra’s combat armor, complete with sword and shield, the anagram Liafador bore the physical appearance of Maya, the physical durability of Ziccarra; with a combination of both powers. Could the two of them function as one person?

“Mom this is so weird, I can see all your thoughts…and I do mean all of them!” Maya whined outwardly.

“Stay focused Maya!” Pushing forward, Maya sought to completely change the dynamics of battle. Her reality warping skills coupled with Ziccarra’s illusion casting prowess; now allowed them to create physical beings on the battlefield.

Throwing her hands forward, Maya cast an illusion right in front of Leonel, Kane Liafador—an attempt to throw off Leonel’s psyche. With Kane in play, he had the physical attributes of the real Kane Liafador, making him lightly on par with Alexis.

Closing the distance between them, Maya waited under the guidance of Ziccarra’s will; until the most opportune time to release a cataclysmic psionic energy shield with the intent of overwhelming Leonel’s physical and mental makeup. If successful, she’d manage to shut down Leonel’s critical thinking skills, long enough for the foursome to strike again.

An expression of surprise lit Thee Champion's bruised but healing, albeit slowly, features. "They're gonna give Leo what he asked for. a fight". Hovering in the sky above, strong, herculean arms folded before his chest, Alexis watched, invested in the bout between his family members. "Leo goes into every fight with the exact same mindset; that he'll win. And he can't be convinced otherwise until he loses. And even then, he loves it", the Herald of Hope paused, a mild chuckle escaping him, "He loves to fight. The thrill of it is like an aphrodisiac to him. But to take on the entire family? That's a tall order. But it really does seem like he believes he can, and that he believes he will. He'll probably be proven wrong but knowing him, he won't go down without a fight".

On the field of battle, a scorched and cracked surface, sizzling hot air, and gods and warriors ready to do battle, the Azure Son smirked, his golden boy charm and affable charisma replaced by a cool, disarming flair, the swagger of an apex predator. "I'll take pride in the fact that it took the entire to whoop my ass", he remarked, excitement coursing through every fiber of his being, muscles twitching with years upon years of his military training from Reality-M. Then, the battle commenced. First was Leonardo who seemed to have sustained only superficial wounds from the weakened, antimatter blast. His teenage uncle's beam of energy sped towards him, and Leonel was immediate in his response, making use of one of his most unorthodox abilities, the ability to conjure negative mass. Negative mass is a state of matter in which all the properties of a particle are the same, except their reaction to certain forces.

A push on negative mass would redirect it in the opposite direction. By harnessing his unorthodox power, Leonel, albeit temporarily, turned the blitzing beam into one of negative mass causing the push of air resistance against it to instantly divert the beam to his nephew prior to cleansing the beam of its negative mass, and allowing it to retain its scorching temperatures and kinetic might in preparation for a potential collision with the teenager responsible for its conception; Leonardo. While his lack of mastery regarding his command over negative mass prevented him from using the power repeatedly, he still retained the skill to employ it twice more should he feel it necessary. In his distraction with Leonardo however, he found the flesh of his shoulder torn into by the sting of a vibranium blade. Though every pore in his body begged him to cry out in pain, he refused. He was a warrior, and a soldier.

Though as blood spurt from his graphic flesh wound, agony doing its best to prevent him from making immediate use of his now, weakened arm, Leonel managed to, in time, exercise his phenomenal speed to circle beyond Zeon's range, avoiding her secondary strike, hopping off his front foot and landing on his back foot before using his rear foot to spring himself forward, his arm extending from his other, uninjured shoulder as his fist, speeding forward, sought to blast into her chin. Because she was human however, he exercised considerable restrain, striking only with enough power to wound her, but nothing of irreparable severity. But then, then something of true magic seized the moment as his sister, Maya, and mother, Ziccarra merged into one being of unchallenged power. "Hehe, yeah...", Leonel's smirk widened, clutching his wounded shoulder while allowing his regenerative faculties to work.

For now he could strike only with one arm, a consequence of having chosen not to mind Zeon. Yet as he readied himself for a battle that seemed to have charmed his heart, the Azure Son, for a moment, felt he saw the image of Kane before his extraordinary perception and recent training with Alexis enabled him to see through his new adversary's illusionary attempts. And though he ultimately fell victim to their surprise assault, having succumbed to the split-second distraction of Kane, Leonel did launch his own attack prior to finding his mental functions suspended seemingly until his family members' following attack. His attack targeted both the Ziccarra-Maya fusion and Leonardo. With two high-energy particle collision-conjured blasts of antimatter, similar to his earlier attack on his nephew, but much much stronger. How much stronger? It released hundreds of septillion joules of energy, over billions of times hotter than the Sun.

Around Leonard, his family moved in fluently together in their attack. Maya and his sister did the fusion dance of sorts, seemingly combining their own physical traits and abilities, while Zeon charged for her own attack, leaping off of Ziccaras shield. Distracted by his surroundings, he felt a sort of heavy and warm force near him. The cardinal prince was struck with his own attack, courtesy of Leonels negative mass abilities, sending the beam rearing towards him. He could see the super luminal beam hit him in slow motion, however he felt no reason to dodge. It didn't particularly hurt him,as he would seldom emit a blast that would hurt himself and Leonardo blinked in response.

The next moment Zeons struck true, piercing the cosmic connoisseur in his arm, Leonel retaliating just as quick with his free arm. Whether it didn't miss or not mattered not as the new fusion, Miccara as he would call her, conjured an illusion of someone the Liafador legacy had yet to see before. However his appearance did seem to catch leonel off guard after he fired a beam towards the cardinal prince and the fusion.

Anti-matter. Along with adamantium, magic and reality warping, it's one of the few things actually capable of causing Leonard pain. As the pulse traveled toward him, he was able to determine the amount of power the super fast beam held. A moment too late in his examination caused it to collide straight into him, actually sending him crashing through the ground and into the water.

Leonardo emerged, smoking, from the crystal water below. A look of utter amazement lit his face. The attack had done more damage than he expected, and it burned his skin, scorching him and causing smoke to stream from his body. Leon gave himself a shake and prepared his own attack, plasma arc'ing around his palms as he gathered energy. He'd been fighting at nearly 20% his full power, completely shocked his relatives could push him to this level of exertion. But now, he was going to repay them in full.

From his finger tips shot a compressed beam that contained roughly the same amount of power and heat a supernova emits, only about 100 trillion times stronger. Leonel demonstrated immense power with his last attack, and Leonard figured he better end the fight now before Leonel pulled another trick out of his sleeve in the same way zeon had done so earlier, and fired it at the perfect time in combination with his families attacks.

He was much too fast for Zeon to avoid his attack, even with her years of Cardinal training, it was no match for the raw speed of the New God. His fist slammed into her chin, her teeth clashing with one another, causing her head to snap back in a whiplash. While the Azure Son pulled his attack, his God like strength was still shown in the punch, sending her flying backwards and landing forcefully on her back as her body skid along the grassy plane a few feet. Dazed from the attack she laid for a few seconds as the world seemed to spin around her. But The Matriarch forced herself to stand, confusion shadowing over her mind as she stammered on her feet for a moment. She refused to go to down and refused to be defeat so easily.

Her sword was no where in her grasp, loosing it after the attack as she looked down at her right ring finger where the Red Lantern ring was sitting. Crimson flickered in her eyes as she looked up at Leo’s direction, busy sending another attack to her uncle and Liafador fused warrior. The chaotic energy emitting from the ring created an aura around The Wildcard Liafador as she pushed herself forward, using the energy of the ring to accelerate her speed at an alarming rate, much faster than she could have ever moved on her own. But she wasn’t coming directly in front of him, instead she moved at a distance, encircling him, attempting to come from behind as she then quickly closed the distance. Knowing that she wasn’t nearly as fast as The New God,she could only hope he was distracted enough to allow her to catch him again off guard.

Without hesitation she attempted to strike, but not with a blade or arrow, but with her fingers. Like a serpent she downward knife strike with her right hand, aiming quickly at the right suprascapular nerve that is located in the trapezius muscle. In that location the cranial nerve IX runs down with the cervical nerves of C3 and C4, if Zeon is able to place enough pressure on that area, it could impair motor function or even cause his vision to black out for even a moment.

It was only one attack she was able to throw out, as Leon’s own attack then came rushing in, forcing the Matriarch to quickly push herself out of the way of the incoming attack, skidding to a stop as she dropped down to one knee, her body screaming for her to stop as sweat ran down along the side of her chin, breathing heavily, waiting for opportunity to strike again.

“Mom we have to generate a massive energy field” Maya commanded, throwing her hands up to prepare a counter to Leonel’s attack. “Negative Maya, Leonel and Leonardo are showing us what they are capable of. We have the upper-hand because they do not know what you can truly do.” Ziccarra instructed. As Leonel’s cosmic level energy streamlined toward them, Maya/Z pushed their hands forward crafting yet another singularity, this time for protection purposes.

As the powerful energy engulfed their frame, Maya’s protective shield slowly begin to dissipate under the pressure. “Mom…our shield will be gone before the singularity swallows all the energy!” Maya screamed, her skin roasting with every passing second.

To provide extra support, Ziccarra cast her protective TK barrier around them to soften the effect of the energy, but from that close there was almost no difference. “You are doing good Maya. Now, I need you to feel the energy…get a sense for its location.”

Their fusion was weakening, It was long speculated that with Maya’s energy manipulation skill, and Ziccarra’s ability to completely eclipse herself in mental energy; made them prime candidates for fusion, but this was the first time they could try. Since Maya was the host body, she was draining a lot of herself just to keep “Miccarra” sustained.

“I’m so hungry…” Maya lamented, as she finally managed to send Leonel’s energy through a spacial rend, the effects of the fusion slowly began to wear off.

“Bring it back!” Ziccarra held, the moment the moment the Fusion ended, Maya rerouted the singularity to deposit the colossal blast to the right of Leonel, throwing his own energy back at him. At point blank range. Throughout the entire time they were dealing with his energy, she knew both Zeon and Leonardo launched attacks, unsure if they were successful she acted accordingly to make sure he was down.

Maya immediately hit the ground depleted and exhausted. But Now standing tall as if Maya’s mind had purified her. The Cardinal Goddess watched as Leonel pulled himself from the fight.

Her eyes dart to Zeon, her niece, and Leonardo, her brother.

Zeon watched with a soft grin on her face as the Power House Pittes fell AND the young reality manipulator, her heart racing in her chest as her eyes quickly locked with Ziccarra’s. Forcing herself to stand she walked over to her blade that laid upon the ground, wiping the sweat from her brow. Sliding her foot under the blade she kicked it up, grasping the hilt of the blade in her right hand and began twirling the blade between her fingers effortlessly, as she was about to kick the next round started.

Right now she had a decision to make, attack Ziccarra and team up with Leon, possibly beat her and then face Leon once more and alone… who is even more of a power house than Leo OR team up with her aunt and attempt to take out Leon but then possibly end up fighting The Goddess herself. Whatever Zeon was about to do, if she made it through this part, she was going to be pitted against a very powerful opponent next.

Zeon’s eyes focused on her Zia, but then silently her eyes shot over at Leon before going back to the Cardinal Queen Liafador. Crouching down as she reached into her uniform and in a blink of an eye, threw out her left hand and allowed a lined vibrainum blade escape from her grasp, it flying towards Leon as she quickly followed behind it. When she was close enough she dropped to her knees in a skidding slide as she slid to the left of Leon. Hoping her blade would cut the thick skin of the teen just as it did with Leo, she aimed to slice the teeth of her blade into lateral side of his knee, more precisely to his lateral collateral ligament that helps with knee movement and weight distribution.

As she slid passed him she pushed herself up with her left hand, getting to a stumbling stop. Becoming tired was beginning to make her increasingly sloppy in this battle, she was going to have to be more careful. She could only hope Ziccarra would help team up with her to take down her brother/uncle… if not, she was about to fight a God and Goddess at the same time.

The cardinal prince watched as the attacks all made their mark and Leonel fell.Though he was still suprised it had taken nearly 20 percent just to simply defeat Leonel, he was satyfised in the teamwork his relatives showed at combating the cosmic wrestler. So far that made two who had been defeated in this fight. With that, there were five left, himself, Zeon, Z, Mark and Maya. He contemplated restoring any energy Alexis had lost simply to keep the fight going, Leonard possesing the ability to imbue anyone capable of containing it with his own energy, however would only do so with his own consent, as the herald of hope may want to simply remain a spectator for the remainder of the Liafador battle.

Movement, air pressure changing; his super hearing and vibration sensitive body picked up the expertly aimed blade flying towards him. It struck true, however it was all but effective. Vibranium blades doing no harm to his super-dense form. The same being true for the follow up attack from Zeon. Turning his attention to his elder niece, a light hearted chuckle escaped his form as he slowly walked toward her. "You know, I'm not Leonel. If you have any of those Adamantium blades left, those do a good job of piercing me, nipote. But vibranium? It's sort of like trying to cut steel with wood."

Now that he actually thought about it, who would he fight next? It was pluasible his sister would team up with Zeon to take him down, or she might simply fight him alone. If she was capable of taking down thee champ in a straight up fight, how would he, someone with only a few years of combative expierence fair? Or maybe they'll team up, his sister partnering with him to fight Zeon and Mark. Whatever they decided, Leonard simply levitated a couple feet in the air and watched, anticipation swelling within him.

“So you are a god” Ziccarra said watching as Zeon’s attack did seemingly superficial damage to her brother. “Born a god. An entitlement. Not bred through the fires of actual battle” She hissed, slowly stalking her younger brother. Ziccarra never had a good relationship with any of her siblings; especially the males. Formerly the youngest Liafador child, she found her younger self often manipulated by the forces that used to run the Liafador family. Though Leonardo seemed to have very little knowledge of the family’s past; the Cardinal Queen didn’t intend to allow his ignorance to be a source of mercy.

“You want my respect. Earn it” She hissed again, pointing her sword in his direction. Signifying that she was with the family’s matriarch. Ziccarra experienced a few highs in today’s gauntlet, for the first time she defeated her husband in a clean bout. She also aided Zeon, Maya and Leonardo in taking down her immensely powerful son. Thanks to the tentative fusion with Maya, the previous scars suffered in the battle with Thee Champion subsided.

She got a chance to see what Leonardo was capable of, devastating cosmic level energy attacks that rivaled Leonel’s, however her energy manipulating abilities would keep those at bay at least for now. It would take only one of his attacks to be absorbed before her own attributes expanded exponentially. He seemed incredibly fast—a problem for now. He had a robust exterior which shouldn’t pose to much of a problem considering what she’d already faced.

She felt the advantage was in her court, if he attacked long range; he risked the chance of her absorbing copious amounts of his energy—a skill she had not yet done. A close quarters fight favored her because of experience, not to mention the several techniques she could employ to soften a blow. Of course these were only theories. If he was indeed the child of Sabella Liafador, he’d have numerous tricks up his sleeve.

Channeling her mystic psionic energy into her shield, Ziccarra tossed her shield towards her brother, before immediately closing the distance behind it with her sword drawn. Launching herself into the air courtesy of her immaculate front aerial ; Ziccarra pushed her hands down releasing a massive psionic energy wave from just mere inches above his head.

“Are you ready darling” She asked Zeon, prepared to take the fight up close, giving Zeon the option to fall back and attack from afar.

Her throwing knife simply bounced off the Liafador God’s body as if it was nothing but a rubber toy and her sword doing nothing but giving pathetic display of superficial abrasions. She cursed silently to herself as he began walking to her, mentioning about how adamantium could actually slice into his Godly flesh. Why would he give away his weakness like that? Was he not aware of the significant of this battle? She did have two other blades she could use against him, but close combat was going to be out of the question for the mortal Liafador as Leon’s body began to levitate off the ground. She was going to have try and get him from a distance.

But her arrows were made from adamantium, though he could move out of their way much faster than she could shoot them, it was going to be the only way she could reach him and do actually damage to the Liafador God. She was becoming increasingly irritated with the powers of her family. With the exception of Ziccarra and Isis, it seemed Liafador’s now a day were born with the gifts of Gods, never knowing the true struggles of a warrior. They took their powers for granted, displaying them as if they were unbeatable, unable to be taken down.

Her eyes darted over to her Zia, it seemed she was just as irritated as she was, but for different reasons than her own. The former Matirach and the Matriarch herself now stood side by side to face their next obstical, the cosmic power house. Like a lioness on the hunt, Ziccarra went on the attack, leaving Zeon behind for a moment as she pulled her bow free. “Nato pronto .” she spoke in her Italian tongue as she took her stance, reaching behind her as she pulled one of her explosion arrows, taking quick aim at the ground directly below him. It would explode upon impact with the ground and hopefully distract him long enough for Ziccarra’s attack to take place without putting her Zia in harms way as well. As soon as The Cardinal Goddess psionic was finished, Zeon pulled out another arrow. A razor arrow that was lined with adamantium, carefully taking aim at Leon’s forearm, but right in the middle of it, hoping that her arrow would slice into his extensor digitorum muscle that helps with movement of the index, middle and ring finger of the hand. She let her arrow fly through the air, hoping that if her arrow would hit him, she could begin limiting his movements, hopefully giving Ziccarra a better chance to best him.

"Sh!t." The words barely escaped his mout as his elder sister's attack collided into him, bypassing his natural shield and rocking him. He hadn't been sent hurling into the ground, however he was pushed far enough so that just nearly avoided the adamantium tipped arrow, which if it had landed would have greatly hindered his fighting ability, seeing as it seems he was about to fight close quarters.

Fighting the two of them alone was going to be terribly difficult, his sister not only was much more experienced, but was aided by the tactical genius of the Matriarch. However his confidence didn't waver. He was sure he was more physically capable than either of them, and would put what training he did receive to use. He guessed Ziccarra expected him to assume the brawling tactic he tried against leonel, however he had observed the immense combative prowess of his sibling in her fight with alexis, and brawling was the last thing he'd do.

Instead he planned to exercise his greater speed and strength to compensate for the skill gap between them, and put his acrobatic and flowing martial style to use. They were still in close range, and he was taller than her and most likely had a greater reach, something he'd try and take advantage of. Quickly, he exercised massive speed as he moved in closer and brought his body upwards, powering his right handed upper cut he attempted to preform. If successful he would take advantage of the monentum and try to execute a round house to her side. Naturally he still moved at the blistering speeds he had vs Leonel, and once finished, whether successful or not formed a split second electromagnetic shield around himself to block a single attack.

Ziccarra knew Zeon was merely human, but it still became a source of frustration that her niece was unable to do any real damage. He rebounded, and seemingly zeroed in on her, standing ready and light on her feet; The Cardinal Goddess prepared to combat her younger brother. He moved at insane speeds, faster than she could see; before she could account for it, his fist plowed into her jaw drawing blood once more. As her eyes shot skyward, she grimaced again feeling concussive force of his kick plowing into her ribcage.

The momentum threw her body crossed the ravaged island, rolling to a kneeled stop, The Cardinal Goddess took a moment to wipe the cascading blood from her lips. “Impressive” She applauded, watching as her shin guards slowly began to glow. The powerful piston mechanisms within both her elbow pads and knee pads began to transmute energy, in this case physical to other parts of the Prime Minister’s body.

She could now move just as fast, and strike just as hard. Blinking twice, she cast an illusion on herself; because the illusion was concealed within her own frame, it’d be near impossible to detect with spectral manipulation. The signatures were hers. In Zeon’s direction she did the same. Pushing from the ground leaving a massive pile of mud in her wake; the Cardinal Goddess descended upon her brother with like speed, purposely plowing her shin guard into the constructive shield.

“Aww what’s wrong too much?” She jested, allowing her shin guards to begin absorbing copious amounts of energy from the shield. “You are powerful…” She applauded. He was far more powerful than she, but she stood to be the most experienced when dealing with people of his type.

“But I am the Goddess” She continued, immediately repelling the absorbed energy from the shield against his own, back by the power of her TK Bomb; Ziccarra literally ignited the entire island.

The Matriarch cursed to herself as she watched her arrow miss the Liafador God just centimeters, if she could have shot just a split second earlier, she knew she could have landed that attack. She felt so useless, it gnawed at her mind. Zeon watched from a distance as the two Liafador siblings went into combat with one another. Exchanging blows with one another as Leon had managed to actually draw the divine blood of the Goddess. Watching the two combat one another just made Zeon realize how much she needed to be successful in completing The Pit, because the way she was right now… wasn’t good enough.

But her eyes narrowed at The Cardinal Goddess as she realized what she was about to do. “Merda!” The White Cardinal shouted as she watched as Ziccarra released a TK blast without warning that wasn’t just going to hit Leon, but herself as well.

Throwing her right first forward she grasped a hold of her wrist with her left hand as a crimson energy shield hugged against her body, just milliseconds before the TK blast slammed into her. The force was of it was incredible and upon impact Zeon’s body flew into the air, the power of the blast pushing her off the island completely as she landed into the ocean. Her eyes blurred over with disorientation as she looked at the direction of where the light was shining through the water. The energy from her ring took most of the blast, but because she was still so new in using it, it wasn’t strong enough to keep her from being thrown off the island by her Zia’s powerful attack.

Swimming towards the light her head popped out of the water, her lungs gasping for air as she looked out towards the island that was now smoking from Ziccarra’s attack. What would have happened if she didn’t have the ring? The White Cardinal didn’t have time for thoughts like that, the fight was still going on, she had to get back. Making a fist with her right hand she threw it upward as her Red ring gave off it’s crimson glow. The energy once more embraced around her entire body as she levitated out of the water and thrusting her arm forward, flew like a bat out of hell back into the battle.

The sound barrier broke as the thundering clash could be heard coming towards the two warriors. Without slowing down Zeon’s eyes were focused on Leon as she created a gauntlet around her right fist from the energy of the red ring, aiming to slam it into his abdomen. As soon as she finished that she would quickly then reached with her right towards Leon as ruby red energy chains came flying out from her ring, attempting to wrap themselves around the young Liafador to try and hold him down for Ziccarra’s next onslaught.

The emerald prince was accurate in his attacks, sending Zia hurtling across the island. While effective, something troubled him; She stood, readily and confident from the attacks. Not only was she hardly disheartened by the short barrage of blows, but her armor, he could sense, via his own cosmic awareness that he did more harm than good in his moves. And then she appeared, right in front him, at speeds similar to his own. The young god had a massive array of abilities that enabled him to see the attributes, physical in nature, of another being. And from his previous scans, his sister was nowhere near this fast. He pieced it together, albeit through wasting picoseconds on the thought.

The Liafador legacy shook his head in frustration. His sister now rivaled his own physical strength whilst he was using 20 percent. He himself didn't think she realized how much strength she'd gained from that, traveling at just under the speed of light, her strikes would contain about 5.0x10^59 joules of energy, roughly enough to destroy an earth sized planet 4 octillion times over in a single blow, and that was simply added onto her own physical reserves for however long the absorbed strength could be maintained. Nevertheless, he firmly believed he still held the other advantages over the prime minister.

While she was currently his rival in strength, his own strikes at 20 percent wouldn't inflict much harm upon himself, and the speed factor was still in his ball park, at-least by his own assumption. While she may have gained similar speed, he believed the Goddess would encounter the same natural limit at 0.99% the speed of light as everything else, whilst Leonard held the ability to change his mass momentarily and bypass the law.

He'd sacrificed precious picoseconds in his assessment , the next instant he was sent flying through the air, courtesy of the nature of his siblings abilities, yet another thing he didn't have an resistance to. It would have only inflicted small damage, had he not been hit once more moments before he may have hit the ground, by Zeon. He would have bled had he not braced himself at the last instant and increased his defenses through gravity manipulation. "Not gonna' get me this time! Get over here!" His voiced cracked with adolesence as he noticed the chains arriving toward him, and grabbed them, and from there he would attempt to use his immense muscular strength to send Zeon flying and colliding with Zia.

Whether successful or not, the emerald cardinal air would then use his gravitational manipulation once more, this time doing something he'd rarely done in his lifetime. Before them, he created a black hole of ridiculous mass that, while under his control wouldn’t affect the planet, but rather only Zia and Zeon. If they were sucked in, the black hole would exert incomprehensible force upon them before spitting them out, and if not, it would still exert massive force, attempting to suck them in and hopefully slow them down. Meanwhile Leonard would then cause himself to turn invisible by absorbing any light that may reflect into their retinas, and then exorcizing his molecule control by causing the air around him at all times to stand still. Through both of those, he would literally not make a sound to anything not within 3 feet of him, nor be visible to the eye. From then on, he’d send beams of gravitons, the theoretical particles for gravity, at them with massive force, though not through his palms, but from simply around them, as to save from possibly exposing his location.