41 Defeat?

Lex hovered in the air as he waited for the correct timing and unconsciously drifted toward his second dagger. 

Gwendolyn closed her eyes as she focused all of her concentration on the whole body of the snake. And as she expected, there was a pattern in which the flame balls were attacking. 

As she was mostly focusing on Lex when he was attacking, the other body part of the snake was immobile.

Lex found this quite advantageous for him; why? Because he didn't have to monitor the flame balls constantly, he could just set one pattern and the flame balls would attack in that order. The Flame balls will then attack the stationary snake's body.

'Is this his plan? To distract me by making me think that his actual plan is to attack the head. But it could also be the opposite.' Gwendolyn went through every possibility she could think of. 

In the meantime, she also transferred ice to the snake to stall for some time. She wanted to counter but wasn't in the state to do it.

Now, she regretted using the snake from the beginning. She had not expected Lex's ability to be the perfect counter to her ability. If she had known about this, then she would have fought head-on. That would have been far better than fighting this defensive battle.

In the end, she just decided to be prepared for both attacks. Whatever comes, she would face it. 

Taking a deep breath, Gwendolyn again opened her eyes. She forced herself and transferred even more ice to the snake to make it even more durable. She then looked dead in Lex's eyes, challengingly. 

Lex smiled and winked at Gwendolyn. He was now sure that his plan was working as he could feel that the scales of the snake were getting harder. He thought, 'Noice! Time to end this.'

Lex then raised the dagger in his hand and sent a flame slash at the snake again. He didn't stop at just one and sent many flame slashes at the snake. Combined with the already raining flame balls, it created a perfect screen for Lex.

Although that put a toll on Lex's body, it didn't matter to him since he was going to end the battle soon. Gwendolyn also understood and brought her guard up.

She didn't try to stop Lex from getting the second dagger, as she knew it was inevitable. Lex would get it anyway, so why waste her energy?

She simply readied herself for Lex's upcoming plans. She began putting even more ice in the snake, going past her limits. 

Lex smiled and landed on the ground after melting away the ice on it. One of the reasons Lex had the upper hand in battle was because he could fly using his flames as a jet boost.

Gwendolyn's Ability to make ice everywhere was way too troublesome. Even now, she had frozen all the floor of the hall. He could use his flames to melt the ice, which would take up his concentration.

Because of that, he would need more flames that he couldn't afford to provide. He needed to focus all of his flames on Gwendolyn and her snake.

Taking a deep breath, Lex shot at the Snake again to make his final move. Gwendolyn narrowed her eyes and got ready to receive whatever Lex would throw at her. 

She understood that she had made only a single mistake till now. But this was a battle; one wrong mistake could cost her life. So, she didn't ponder over the past. She could have done many things that would have resulted in her winning, but that was all in the past. She couldn't change that, but she could change the outcome of the battle if she understood what Lax had planned.

'Now, tell me which one is it? The head or the body?' Gwendolyn's mind raced as she kept her focus on Lex. Her eyes never left Lex.

Lex smiled and made a small explosion on his feet, which made his speed almost thrice that of his previous speed. He arrived near the snake's head instantly and put both of his daggers above his head. He had a grin on his face as he looked at Gwendolyn.

Gwendolyn's eyes widened as she nearly couldn't track Lex and turned her head to look at Lex, ready to strike at the snake's head.

'Great plan! But that won't work,' Gwendolyn thought as she put both of her hands on the snake and began to generate ice to cover it. Blood began to leak from the corner of her mouth, but she still persisted.

She was going past her limits. It was clear that a half-perfected technique tired the ability users too much. 

Gwendolyn continued to send ice in the snake and looked above at Lex and found him grinning. Her eyes widened as she thought, 'Something is wrong! Something is definitely wrong, but what is it? He is here, and he's definitely spent, so he can't use his insane speed a second time. So what is he planning?'

Then she heard a loud explosion from her side and found a gigantic Fire Ball striking the Snake's body. Cracks appeared on the snake's body as the force of the several fireballs was too much for it to handle.

'I see. Impressive! He first made several weak points across the snake's body and then left a command to fireballs that they needed to merge at a certain time and drop on the snake's body. Brilliant plan with brilliant execution,' Gwendolyn thought. She was honestly impressed by Lex.

But she also knew that doing all of this wasn't easy. She doubted that she could even do this. All of this needed a perfect control over their abilities. They won't function on their own unless you have a high command on them.

"But this isn't enough to defeat me," Gwendolyn smiled for the first time and said. 

She was the President of the Students Council of Aethrian Academy for a reason. Not to mention, she was trained by an SS-RANK ability user.