Ascenturi leaped fifteen feet into the air, flapping his wings with all his might to create distance. The area they were fighting in was extremely disadvantageous, allowing him to only go twenty feet high at most, but at least it was long and wide enough for him to move around. He took the few seconds that the Guardian was allowing him to make as much distance as he could, judging that she was likely a melee warrior by the two swords hanging from her hip.

When the Guardian finally started to move, he was shocked by how fast she was. His incredible perception made it so that he could keep track of her, but it was still absurdly impressive- she could likely move faster than even him, and he could fly.

Time seemed to slow as it always did when his life was in danger, and with his incredible perception and the seconds-long moment he was granted to examine his opponent, it was not difficult to tell what she was doing. Her sword was half-drawn, glowing with pale blue energy. He’d seen several humans do what he reckoned she was about to do. Judging the angle of her slash, he threw himself to the left, plummeting two feet down in the process.

The instant that time resumed and he actually began to move, a pale-blue, ghostly mimicry of her curved blade leaped forward, cutting through the air with a whistle. It whizzed by his ear, but before it could get too far, his mind accelerated once more, granting him a brief moment to peer into the essence launched at him.

It was… strange, like a mix of life and death simultaneously. The word for it sprang to mind with strange ease- undeath.

‘Her essence is attuned to undeath?’ Turi wondered. That was… certainly unique. He wondered how the Guardian was even alive when her essence had such inclinations. He only barely had time to think ‘Maybe she’s not,’ before time resumed.

Before Turi could recover from his dive, the Guardian pushed off the ground, leaping into the air with tremendous force, aimed directly at him. There was no way for him to dodge it, and so his essence finally began to move.

Breaking past the pressure placed upon his essence, his eyes flashed with golden light as the air in front of him turned to mundane stone. She burst through it with extreme ease, but to his mind, she was moving painfully slowly, allowing him to time his response perfectly. The now-rubble in the air clung to her body and he yanked it all towards the ceiling, sending her and her new stone armor into the air.

Turi recovered and made some distance even as his essence continued to flow. By perpetually reforming the stone he’d trapped the Guardian in and using it to restrain her, he kept her pinned against the ceiling for a few precious seconds- enough for him to form a dozen spikes out of the essence ores spread across the room and launch them towards her.

Strangely, she failed to escape in time. The dozen spikes shot through the mundane stone with little resistance, slamming into her body and pinning her even more thoroughly to the ground.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

‘What?’ Turi wondered. Why had his very first attack succeeded? The question was answered a moment later, when the stones and spikes holding her against the ceiling all shattered simultaneously, revealing her body, ridden with a dozen holes- and yet, she looked fine. She was holding onto the ceiling with one hand, grinning madly, and not a drop of blood escaped the wounds. With a surge of essence, the wounds disappeared, and she let herself fall.

‘It’s the undeath,’ Turi realized. Injuries were practically meaningless to her.

“Very impressive, Ascenturi!” The Guardian shouted. The moment that the last sound left her mouth, she was moving again.

Ascenturi struggled to react in time due to the pressure on his essence, but he succeeded. His body surged with power, and his wingspan seemed to double, encased in a translucent gold. With a single beat of his wings, Turi shot back a tremendous distance, entirely dodging the decapitating blade that had been coming his way.

Turi besieged her with a hundred different weapons- the stone grabbed at her legs, the air pushed against her, metal spikes pierced her body, fire covered her body- but she kept on coming. It only took a few seconds for her to cover the distance between them, and Turi only narrowly survived the assault by expending pounds of essence. With more force than ever before, the environment itself seemed to fight against the Guardian, slowing her down just enough for Turi to remain alive. Countless wounds marred her body, healed within seconds.

Every moment, his perception of time was slowing- in other words, every moment, he was in tremendous danger.

Turi’s essence core was emptying out at an astounding rate, and before it could get any more dangerous than it already was, he called for the fight to end.

“Stop! You win!” Ascenturi shouted out, but the Guardian kept pushing. With the restraints of the room, Turi could not truly escape her for longer than a moment, and he was gradually being pushed into a corner.

Truly afraid for his life now, Turi resisted with everything he had. Narrow, thin cuts began to mar his body, tufts of feathers torn out frequently as he slammed his spear-like beak into her face and tore into her arms with his talons, and as the spikes began to aim for vital areas. Spikes pierced her throat and where her lungs and such should be, but she shattered them all and healed the damage in moments. He tried to use the rubble of the metals and stone to press her into the ground, but now that she wasn’t in the air, it was impossible- she was simply too strong.

Finally, Turi failed. His essence ran dry, and as his perception of time slowed ever-so-slightly, he saw her curved blade descending towards his throat- and stop, just barely, before killing him.

The Guardian’s surging aura and the suppression on his essence vanished, and she reached down and pressed a hand against his chest. He tried to shrink away, but he was far too tired. A second later, his many wounds and the soreness permeating his body simply… vanished, as life-attuned essence surged through his body, repairing the damage.

“You did a good job,” The Guardian said happily, “I don’t think I’ve ever incurred that many wounds in a single fight before.”

That was probably true. He’d stabbed her body so many times that it was absurd.

“The only way to kill you is to destroy your essence core, isn’t it?” Ascenturi asked- or, rather, he tried to ask. His method of speech was fueled with essence, which he had absolutely none of right now- effectively, he was temporarily mute.

It didn't stop him from letting out a tremendous sigh of relief, however.