Lanester had already wasted enough time dealing with the horde of monsters that he'd inadvertently brought down on his underlings so he wasted none on pleasantries or introductions when he found himself face to face with his quarry.  He kicked off his magically enlarged sword while at the same time reached back to grab the hilt, dragging the blade forward in an expertly aimed arc that meant to decapitate both the driver and the passenger hidden inside.  To his surprise the sword’s strike was deflected, causing it to arc over the carriage harmlessly.

    “Congeal the spirit in the lair of energy.” Titanias chanted under his breath.  He had already been preparing the seal to reinforce his body should the backlash of the acceleration be to much for him, but when he saw the fierce strike of the enemy in front of him, he had instead placed the seal on the reins reinforcing them with his magic.  He cracked the reins like a whip, slamming them into the broad underside of the blade and causing it to arc over the carriage cutting limbs and trunks of the surrounding trees.  

    Still onward Lanester flew and as the carriage finally finished its preparation and charged forward, he crashed into the coachmen's seat next to Titanias. Seeing the close proximity,  Lanester shortened the length of his blade to the size of a short sword and slashed it downward over his shoulder as he stood.  Titanias quickly dropped the reins, and used his right hand to parry the descending strike slightly outside of his left shoulder all the whole stepping into Lanester’s body.  At the bottom of the arc, when the sword arm is weakest, Titanias fastened his right hand over Lanester's wrist.

   Lanester, wanting to slice Titanias in two, rotated his wrist so that the business end of the blade pointed towards Titanias’ mid section and sliced inward.  Though Titanias' grip was strong enough to stop Lanester from getting much torque in his strike, Lanester magically enhanced the blade's size so that even the smallest turn of the blade was enough to smash into Titanias, slamming him into the back of the Coachman's seat.  Luckily Titanias armor was able to withstand the blow and he only suffered the ache of being tossed aside so handily.  Lanester withdrew the length of his blade again and, in a flash, was on top of Titanias, but Titanias was able to get his hands up in time, covering them in a hastily drawn barrier to protect from the encroaching sword tip.

   Locked in the deadly embrace, Lanester was close enough to see the insignia prominently displayed on the armor Titanias wore.  

   He scoffed. “Has house Evergreen fallen so far as to lend their sons out as coachmen?” he said with a scowl as he pressed his blade deeper into Titanias’ barrier.

    “Where the need is greatest House Evergreen will be.” Titanias grumbled through gritted teeth.  It was a traditional saying of house Evergreen that Titanias had spouted half heartedly as his focus was preoccupied elsewhere.  Suddenly the carriage jolted, jumping high into the air as Titanias cast pillar on the ground beneath it.  At the same time, Titanias pressed his heel into Lanester's gut and kicked upward, sending him flying over the top of the carriage and off the backside.

    At the last moment Lanester turned and reached out with his free hand, grasping the lip of the carriage at the last second.  He dangled off the edge, unable to pull himself up with one hand in the violence of the careening carriage's wake.  He decided to let go of his sword in order to pull himself up.  As he hauled himself toward the carriage, first one arm then the other, allowing him to throw his leg over the ridge of the carriage before rolling onto the top, he found Titanias waiting for him.

    He stood up and dusted off his suit, “Enough of this.  You can count yourself lucky to be among the few who have seen my skill, but you have annoyed me enough this day to have earned the right to die by my hand.” With that he activated his unique magic.  All around the carriage swords began to appear.  Ten, twenty, a hundred swords blipped into existence in a matter of seconds.

    Titanias, who had not been wasting his time seeing if his opponent would recover, had been replenishing his diminished store of mana by absorbing ambient mana.  He had only managed to replenish 25% of his stored mana when he saw all the blades appear. He quickly switched gears and prepared to intercept the incoming onslaught.

    The corkscrew image was still fresh in his mind and came easily when formulating a defense utilizing his own unique magic.  Spiralinging pillars of crystalized mana appeared instantly and as the enlarged swords crashed down on the zipping carriage they clashed against the twining quartz.  The more they struck the barrier, the more it spun, sending them cascading off into varying directions.

    It took a considerable amount of control from Lanester to maintain the formation of the swords considering the speed of the carriage and the velocity at which the swords were parried away.  On the other hand, Titanias had relatively free concentration as the barrier merely existed without having to move or reform to his whim.  What Lanester couldn't see was that the large barrier was rapidly depleting Titanias’ diminishing reserves of mana, as such the spells he prepared for the oncoming duel were the least consuming he could think of in the moment.

    Lanester released over half of the swords bombarding the barricade.  Despite his flashy performance so far Lanester Heaven's Tree was not a man of much martial prowess.  He'd gotten soft in the time he'd spent in the King's Court and as such he could feel his stored manna rapidly depleting.

   He instead summoned a sword to each of his hands and manifested a sword in front of himself.

    “Come Evergreen.  Let's end this.”

    Titanias tilted his head quizzically.  “I think that's my line.” He said while slinging his hands forward, throwing a five foot tall crystal barrier up into the air.  Lanester could see barrier only by the slight wavyness of the light as it passed through it.  With the speed the carriage was moving, putting up a barrier midair was akin to his opponent hurtling at him with impossible strength.  

     Lanester’s summoned sword was able to slice through the barrier with ease, but behind that barrier slightly to the right of the last was another barrier.  Lanester dodged left, and then slashed through the remnants of another barrier his hovering sword had cut through with the sword in his right hand.  Ducking under another barrier positioned to take his head off, he repositioned himself back in the center of the carriage’s hood.

    As he looked at his adversary's smiling face, as the two paused evaluating each other, Lanester got the uncanny feeling that he was somehow trapped in some type of game.  Then the barriers began again and all thoughts left his head as he fully focused on them.

    Long left, full middle, half top, full right, long left, long left.

    Dodge right, double slice, upward left slice, spin slice right, dodge right, advance.

    Lanester pushed forward through the onslaught thinking he had gained the upper hand, but a barrier turned flat that he hadn't been able to detect slammed into him.  He was only just able to slice through it before it pushed him off the carriage's top.  Sensing an opening Titanias increased the intensity of his barrage.

    Both men were sweating profusely as they engaged each other in battle.  Lanester stood in mountain stance which rooted him firmly in place to prioritize speed and power over dexterous movement.  The buttons on his blazer popped open as his three swords slashed with fierce precision.  His long silver hair flew wildly in the wake of his body's unerring turns. 

     Finally his concentration won him an opening.  A low barrier came speeding towards him and he hopped over it with ease while sending the floating sword charging forward with an endowment of much of his remaining energy.  It crashed through the projected barriers with such force that it blew them all away instantly and steamrolled it's way directly to Titanias’ chest.

    All except one little barrier that Lanester had missed.