Lunar Legacy: Rise Of The Beastlord-Chapter 269: Lightning Construct

The instant the word echoed through the arena, Tasha exploded into motion.

Lightning erupted across her body, crackling and sparking as it coated her fists in brilliant blue energy. She shot forward like a bolt from the sky, closing the distance between them in a heartbeat. Her speed was incredible... enhanced by the electrical current surging through her muscles, amplifying every movement.

She came in fast and hard, her lightning-wreathed fist aimed straight for Jayden’s face.

He swayed to the side, the punch missing by inches. He could feel the heat from the electricity, smell the ozone as it passed. Before he could fully recover, Tasha was already pivoting, her other fist coming around in a devastating hook.

Jayden ducked under it, the crackling energy singing the air where his head had been.

"Not bad," he said, genuinely impressed as he weaved around another combination. Her footwork was excellent, her transitions smooth. "Your close combat has improved a lot."

Tasha grinned even as she pressed the assault, throwing a rapid series of strikes... jab, cross, uppercut, spinning backfist. Each one trailing arcs of blue lightning. "I’ve been taking lessons from Cassie."

The name hit Jayden like a physical blow, making him hesitate for just a fraction of a second. Tasha’s fist came dangerously close to his jaw, forcing him to snap back to attention and lean away at the last possible moment.

"Focus, Jayden," Tasha taunted, though there was concern underlying her playful tone.

The fight continued, and Jayden found himself in an increasingly difficult position. Not because Tasha was overpowering him... she wasn’t. But because he couldn’t bring himself to strike back.

Every time an opening presented itself, every moment where he could have landed a clean counter, he pulled back. His fists remained at his sides, his legs only moving to evade, never to attack.

The problem wasn’t lack of skill or opportunity. It was control.

His mind was a mess... Cassandra’s face, her tears, her words haunting every thought. And in this state, with his emotions churning and his concentration fractured, he didn’t trust himself to hold back properly. His strength had grown so much over the past months. One miscalculated punch, one moment where his control slipped, and he could seriously hurt Tasha.

He couldn’t risk that. So instead, he became a ghost... weaving, ducking, sidestepping, backpedaling. Every attack Tasha threw, he avoided with minimal movement, conserving energy while letting her burn through hers.

His plan was simple: outlast her. Let her exhaust herself until she had no choice but to concede. And that was assuming he himself didn’t burn out first.

Tasha’s frustration was building. She could see what he was doing, and it was pissing her off.

"Stop running!" she snapped, launching herself forward with another lightning-enhanced charge. "Fight back, Jayden!"

"I don’t want to hurt you," he replied, sidestepping a particularly vicious roundhouse kick.

"You’re holding back on purpose!" Tasha accused, her breathing starting to come heavier. "You haven’t used a single ability. You’re just waiting for me to tire out, aren’t you?"

Jayden didn’t respond, which was answer enough.

Tasha skidded to a halt about ten meters away, her chest heaving. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and her muscles trembled slightly from exertion. But her eyes... her eyes burned with determination.

"It’s a brilliant plan," she said, her voice low and dangerous. "But... you have no idea what I’m capable of."

Then her entire body lit up.

The lightning that had been crackling across her fists suddenly spread, enveloping her completely. Blue-white electricity danced across every inch of her skin, creating an aura of pure energy that crackled and hissed.

She was charging up. Concentrating her power.

Jayden’s eyes narrowed, his body tensing. This was new. She’d never done this sort of thing before.

His thoughts cut off as Tasha raised her right hand. The lightning coalescing around it began to change, to solidify. The crackling energy compressed, taking shape, extending from her palm like molten metal being forged.

Within seconds, she held a blade of pure lightning in her hand.

It was roughly the length of a katana, its edge shimmering with barely contained energy. The construct hummed with power, casting dancing shadows across the white walls of the arena.

"Holy shit," Jessica breathed from the spectator area, standing up in shock. "Did she just—"

"She created a lightning construct," Aileen finished, her voice filled with genuine awe. "That’s... that’s incredibly difficult for lightning users."

Jayden’s eyes widened, his professional assessment momentarily overriding his reluctance to fight. Lightning constructs were notoriously unstable. The energy was too wild, too chaotic to maintain in solid form. Most lightning manipulators spent their entire lives trying to achieve even basic construct formation, and sixty percent never managed it at all.

But Tasha had just done it. And she made it look almost easy.

"Tasha..." he started, pride coloring his voice. "This is amazing. You..."

But she didn’t give him time to finish.

She moved.

Faster than before... impossibly fast. The lightning blade in her hand left a brilliant blue trail as she closed the distance, becoming a blur of motion that Jayden could barely track.

His enhanced perception kicked in just in time. He registered the slash aimed at his midsection, his body reacted on pure instinct, twisting away at the last second.

The blade kissed his shirt, slicing through the fabric like it wasn’t even there. He felt the sting across his abdomen, a thin line of heat that blossomed into sharp pain.

Jayden leaped backward, putting several meters between them. His hand moved to his stomach, feeling the torn fabric and coming away with a smear of blood. Not much... barely more than a paper cut, but blood nonetheless.

He looked down in surprise at the thin red line marking his abs.

"Yes!" Jessica shouted from the sidelines, pumping her fist. "First blood goes to Tasha!"

"Wow, I can’t believe she actually hit him," Aileen added, her analytical mind clearly racing.

Jayden looked up at Tasha, a genuine smile spreading across his face. "That was impressive. Really impressive, Tasha."

"I’m just getting started," Tasha chuckled, her breathing labored but her eyes fierce. Then... a second blade materialized in her left hand, identical to the first.

And she moved again.

This time, Jayden was ready... or thought he was. His eyes tracked the blue lightning trail she left behind, his mind calculating her trajectory based on the vector and speed.

But she was faster than his calculations. By the time his brain processed where she should be, she was already somewhere else.

Pure instinct saved him. Some primal part of his brain screamed danger and his body obeyed without conscious thought.

He dropped into a crouch.

Tasha materialized directly in front of him, both blades crossed in an X-formation, whipping through the space where his neck had been a microsecond earlier. The air itself seemed to split apart, making a sound like tearing silk amplified a thousand times.

Before Jayden could recover, Tasha was already following up. Her right blade came around in a rising arc, aimed to slice him from hip to shoulder.

But this time, Jayden had predicted the follow-up. He swayed sideways, his body flowing like water around the attack. As the blade passed harmlessly by, and his hand shot out, catching her wrist mid-swing.

Using her own momentum against her, he rolled backward, pulling her with him. The move should have sent her flying over his head to slam into the ground behind him.

But Tasha was better trained than that. She twisted mid-air, using the rotation to her advantage, and landed on her feet with cat-like grace. Without missing a beat, she dropped her hands to the ground and swept her legs in a wide arc aimed at Jayden’s ankles.

He saw it coming and leaped straight up, the sweep passing beneath him.

Jayden landed a few meters away, exhaling slowly. His heart was pounding... not from exertion, but from adrenaline. That had been close. Too close.

Tasha rose to her feet, and he could see the toll the fight was taking. Her chest heaved with labored breaths, sweat soaked her tracksuit, and her arms trembled slightly as she maintained the lightning constructs. Creating and sustaining those blades while simultaneously using lightning to enhance her speed was burning through her stamina at an alarming rate.

She was running on fumes.

But her eyes... her eyes still burned with stubborn determination.

"Fight me," she demanded between gasps for air. "Quit holding back, Jayden. Fight me."

"I don’t want to hurt you," Jayden repeated, his voice soft.

"I don’t care!" Tasha screamed, and there was genuine frustration...maybe even anger in her voice now. "I don’t care if you hurt me! Just stop treating me like I’m going to fucking break!"

Then she charged.

It was desperate. Wild. Nothing like the controlled, precise attacks from before. She came at him with everything she had left, slashing furiously with both blades, screaming with effort and frustration. The movements were sloppy, telegraphed, easy to read.

Jayden weaved through them all, his heart breaking a little with each desperate strike; Left blade, he leaned back. Right blade, he sidestepped. Overhead slash, he ducked. Spinning attack, he backstepped.

Finally, when Tasha overextended on a particularly wild horizontal slash, Jayden moved.

His hands shot out, catching her wrist, holding it firmly before she could recover.

Tasha gasped, her eyes widening. She immediately tried to wrench free, tried to bring her other arm around for a strike, but Jayden caught that too, his grip gentle but unbreakable.

"You’re tired," he said quietly. "It’s over, Tasha. You fought well, but—"

"No!" she interrupted, struggling against his hold. "It’s not over! I’m not finished with you yet."

She tried to headbutt him, her forehead coming toward his face.

Jayden simply moved his head to the side, avoiding it easily. Then, before she could try anything else, he pulled her into a hug.

Tasha’s eyes went wide, her body going rigid with shock. "What are you..."

"You tried," Jayden whispered, his voice warm with genuine affection. "I’m so impressed by how powerful you’ve become. You fought really well, Tasha. That lightning construct? That was incredible. But it’s over now."

"I win."