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Two tigers cannot exist on the same mountain.
An old Chinese saying, Shiva had heard from her master. But now, to see it so blatantly showcased before her eyes...it was sureal.
She had seen fights. Had been in countless ones. Never quite as intense as the one between her daughter and her best student.
"What are we watching?" Sensei mumbled from the side.
"These two...unbelievable. And I taught one of them." Talia's voice carried awe, eyes wide like the rest of the masters.
On the pavilion of the Demon Head's castle, looking down at the dueling square, Ra's Al Ghul silently watched, occasionally sipping tea. Once in a while, his green eyes would gleam whenever something interesting happened.
Ting! Clang!
Whoosh,
Schree...
Clothes ruffled, the floor complained as a heel dragged across it's bricked surface, the friction scrapping off bits of dust.
Damian blinked at the blade passing inches from his eyes, severing strands of his white hair with it's sharp edge.
He'd barely dodged it. Would have lost a head if it wasn't for his new Alpha instincts, Ashura thrumming through his perception and heightening his reactions.
Clang!
Yet it was barely enough.
"Impressive." He grunted, daggers blocking the Katana in an X shape. Sparks lit up as Cassandra slid her longer blade against the shorter thicker twin weapons.
Slinggg!
One of Damian's titanium knives was severed in two, the cut piece flying and clattering to the floor. Damian disengaged with a leap, putting the fight on hold.
He frowned at the sole handle in his hand, then gazed at Cassandra, noticing the brief layer of white energy on her Katana's edge. Chi.
"I can do that too." He told her, enhancing his remaining dagger with Ashura.
Cassandra raised her brow as she disaappeared in a burst of invisible speed, leaving Damian staring at the fading afterimage.
Damian closed his eyes, cutting off the distraction of sight as he perceived the surroundings with his Alpha instinct's full capability- the Gray world.
A shadow moved through the space between seconds.
'It's over.' Cassandra thought, the tips of her feet lightly brushing against the floor as she lunged at Damian's unsuspecting back with a blade thrust.
Damian spun and thrust his enhanced dagger at the Katana. There was a sharp ring as both tips collided in midair. Then Cassandra's blade shattered apart, the pieces exploding outwards like grenade shards.
Cassandra easily danced around the shards while Damian charged forward in reckless abandon as he punched at her belly with his other hand.
A shockwave of Ashura rippled forth, blasting off the head of a stone statue near the stairway. Cassandra landed, holding onto the side of her hip, fabric tone to reveal scratched skin.
'My...Katana.' She thought, frowning at the handle of her shattered sword. It had been a gift from her mother, forged from a Chi treated metal ore.
"Doesn't feel nice, now does it?" Damian asked, his upper body covered in a few bleeding scratches that were quickly quickly healing.
'Even after training so hard and overestimating his skills, I still made a mistake.' Cassandra made a seal with two fingers.
Vooomph!
A burst of explosive Chi was unleashed from every single pore in her body, coalescing in a storm, forming the shadow of a monstrous serpent head behind her.
A gasp went through the masters as they watched on and Sensei even turned to Shiva, "You taught her the Dragon Soul?!"
"I didn't. She learned it by watching me." Shiva answered with a note of pride in her voice.
"Such exemplary Chi control. I hate to admit it, but Cassandra is the most talented fighter of her generation." Talia muttered, worry for Damian etched on her forehead.
As for Ra's, he was frozen in place, his tea cup halfway to his mouth. "The Wu San clan's most coveted Chi art. The Dragon's soul. Even after centuries of painstaking enlightenment, my own self-created Chi art, the Demon's Head is but a replica. This battle is over."
Damian felt no fear. And yet, he found himself stepping back as a tyrant aura washed over him, coming from a pissed off Cassandra, her eyes glowing white.
"Oi...maybe we should talk about-" Damian's words were cut off as breath left his lungs, courtesy of the hard pierced into his solar plexus. Or rather, almost. Quick thinking and a thick layer of Ashura had stopped Cassandra's fingers.
Damian grabbed hold of her head and raised his leg for a knee strike.
But his opponent was faster.
Cassandra's fingers, still pressed onto his midsection collapsed into an inch punch that carried enough force to blow Damian back before his attack could land.
Bouncing across the floor, Damian righted himself just in time to roll out of the way of a foot stomp, that cratered the ground and shook the whole square.
'If I hadn't shifted my organs out of the way, I'd be unconscious.'
He thought, swallowing the blood welling up his throat.
"Fu-" He cursed at the pain, raising his head to-
Bam!
A knee smashed onto his chin, rocking his brain. Cassandra then grabbed his hand and spun him around before throwing him away.
She disaappeared and appeared in mid-air to deliver an axe kick onto Damian's body, sending it back down to slam onto the square in a deafening impact.
Dust rose off the hole in the square, Cassandra quietly landing an instant later.
"We should call it off. The boy is clearly beaten." Sensei said.
"That's not our choice to make. It's the Demon's Head." Shiva countered.
"Thank you." Talia quietly whispered.
"I didn't do it for you. He may be my former student, but I know him better than anyone. This is not enough to put him down."
Talia narrowed her eyes. "Including me?"
A cocky smirk appeared on Shiva's face. "Especially you."
Talia scoffed, turning her eyes towards the castle and wondering why her father hadn't ended the battle.
As for Ra's, he was about to give the signal and do exactly that, when something on the square stopped him. Slowly, his raised hand lowered to his chin, starting to stroke his beard with a thoughtful expression.
The dust still hadn't cleared, but the silence had—replaced by a low, dragging laugh.
A cough followed it. Then, bootsteps. Slow. Steady.
From the shallow crater at the center of the square, a figure stood.
Damian rose.
His white hair was stained with soot and blood, clothes in tatters, one arm hanging low as it healed from that last axe kick—but he laughed.
"I saw it," he said through ragged breaths, lifting his face to meet Cassandra's still form. "I saw it."
A gust of pressure erupted from beneath his feet, a red storm blasting outward in every direction. The dust exploded away from his body in a circle, sending everyone—including the masters on the pavilion—staggering a step back from the force.
The red vapor wasn't vapor anymore. But a thicker, viscous liquid. Almost like blood.
This version of Ashura was something else entirely. Something that even Damian didn't know. But he could feel it. An unprecedented evolution had happened within him.
The Ashura spiraled around him like a storm-flowing with the ease of vapor. Unchained. Bubbling. Alive.
Behind Damian, rising from the swirling aura, a monstrous red demonic face took shape—twisted fangs, dark obsidian eyes, and horns etched in flame.
A single word echoed across the mountainside as Ra's al Ghul, from within his castle, stood up abruptly and shouted—
"WHAT?!"
Talia's lips parted. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Sensei's mouth hang wide open.
And Shiva's expression... finally cracked.
The Dragon Soul behind Cassandra roared, jaws widening in a challenge.
The Demon's Head behind Damian roared back.
Thunder cracked through the air, as Draconic Chi met Demonic Chi.
On the square, Cassandra's eyes narrowed, adjusting her grip on the sword hilt of her shattered blade.
Then—
Tap.
Damian's foot touched the ground, gently.
Cassandra reacted instantly, her body tensing to leap—
Only for cold metal to press against the back of her neck.
She froze.
The Damian in front of her... wavered.
Then disappeared, like heat rising from stone. An illusion. An afterimage.
Behind her stood the real one. Dagger ready. Smirk wide.
"You shouldn't look so shocked," he said softly. "It was only a matter of time before I figured it out."
Cassandra didn't move. Not because she couldn't—but because she wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
Damian lowered his blade, casually, like a teacher explaining a problem on the board.
"It's all about timing and supercontrol. First—" he raised a finger, "you release Chi from every pore in your body. That creates the 'afterimage'. A fake replica shell of you."
He stepped around her, walking in a slow, deliberate circle.
"Then the real trick. You burst Chi from your heels, less than 0.1 seconds after, and propel your real self like a bullet. Fast enough to blur, but silent enough to mask... all hidden within the residue of your fake body."
He paused in front of her.
"The shell hides the trail. The mind assumes the body's still where it stood. It's a trick. A bluff. An illusion built from pure speed and precise energy control. That, dear Cassie is the Phantom Step."
He tilted his head.
"Did I get it right?"
Cassandra lowered her head, then—
She giggled.
Not a loud laugh.
Not even a bright one.
But sharp. Excited. Dangerous.
A tremor of joy rippled through her shoulders.
She met his eyes again, and her smile twisted upward into something hungry.
"Finally." Damian told her, matching her grin. "Finally, you understand that feeling. The reason you're excited, why you can't control yourself...the feeling of meeting a worthy rival."
"You," Cassandra said, voice like thunder on a quiet night, "Damian Wayne… will lose to me today."
Her hand released the sword hilt and clenched into fists.
Vibrating with battlelust, Damian bit down on his split lip till the blood trailed down his chin. His shaking hands discarded the twin daggers, before similarly curling.
"I'm going to beat you senseless," he promised, "until you call me Alpha."
Their auras collided without moving. Dragon Soul snarled. Demon's Head gnashed.
In the distance, even the clouds seemed to retreat.
Two Tigers on the same mountain.
For now.