With the air at his back Lewis took control of the battle. He forced the wind to turn violent and toss the Rouge around the sky. He couldn’t allow it to become motionless.
The Rouge quickly focused its mana into augmenting its body in an attempt to resist the raging winds. But Lewis had already predicted its plan and was already in front of it. In the blink of an eye, a lightning infused fist planted itself deep into the Rouge’s gut and in a blast of sparks the Rouge was launched through the sky.
Lewis rocketed after the Rouge, crashing straight into it and dragging it across the city. The Rouge strained against his hold, but Lewis released tendrils of intense lightning that danced along Rouge’s body scorching its clothes and caused its muscles to spasm. With one hand keeping tight hold of its cloak, Lewis viciously beat his opponent as they flew through the sky.
Suddenly black blades stabbed out from inside its cloak. Lewis quickly let a fiery explosion loose from his hand. He was blown back to safety and the Rouge was sent plummeting towards the ground in a trail of smoke.
Hovering above is falling foe, Lewis reached out with the air and attempted to grab hold of the Rouge. The Rouge twisted itself in the air and spiked, obsidian chains launched from the darkness of its cloak. Like they had a mind of their own they tracked Lewis and imprisoned his body. With a violent pull, the chains ragged Lewis down. He attempted to grab hold of the wind, but it was no use. He quickly discovered the chains were somehow disrupting his mana flow.
‘Shit’. He was smashed off a nearby roof, the force of his impact creating a crater. Without even being allowed a grunt of pain he was flung back into the air. The chains dragged him into the Rouges grip, its hand tight around his throat. Instinctively he tried to pry off the hand choking him, but it felt like trying to move a mountain.
‘These damn chains’. They were continuing to disturb his mana flow, preventing him from properly augmenting.
The Rouge’s grip tightened and the lack of oxygen travelling to his brain became more apparent by the second. His vision began to darken, and his head grew light. Choking him to death didn’t seem to be enough for the Rouge as it summoned a black sickle.
‘What did I do to piss it off this badly?’ he thought however, then realised it was probably a hired assassin. ‘Well then who did I piss off?’. Possible answers flooded his mind. ‘Stupid question’.
An intense nausea overcome him, and he realised he’d been wasting his last moments pondering over who wanted him dead when the answer was easy. Lots of people.
In a last ditched effort he let his mana run wild. If the chains disrupted his mana control then that was fine. He just wouldn’t control it. Like a feral animal trying to escape a cage his mana ran rampant inside him. It was damn painful, but he had no choice. He didn’t have the oxygen in his body to form a spell and instead just continued to let it swell and build in his body.
‘This is going to hurt’. His pupils vanished and his eyes began to glow a powerful white. The Rouge swung its sickle towards his side in attempt to pierce his lungs and heart. But it wasn’t fast enough, Lewis exploded.
A monstrous force erupted from Lewis and all the mana inside him was released. The air shook and the chains shattered like glass. The Rouge was swatted away like a fly.
Lewis let out heavy breaths, the symptoms of being choked to death fading as he gave his body the oxygen it desired. It was only when his brain recovered he realised he was falling. He quickly caught himself before crashing into the ground before shooting himself back up.
He instantly analysed his surroundings, searching with all his senses for where the Rouge had gone. Bastard was good at hiding his mana signature, better than anyone Lewis knew, but that came with being a Rouge.
History’s greatest assassin’s, and now one was after him. Great.
Mana spiked behind him. Lewis spun and froze the air creating a shield of ice. Black sickles crashed into the shield.
The Rouge stood on the roof it had smashed Lewis into earlier. It calmy stared up at him. He attempted to summon fire to his palm, but nothing happened. His body still hadn’t recovered all the mana it had just released. He needed more time. However, to his surprise the Rouge hadn’t moved. Hadn’t tried to defend itself or attack. Instead it just looked up at him, almost as if it was waiting. Lewis managed to calmly float down towards it.
“What? You want to talk now?” Lewis asked. He approached cautiously. It had been motionless for a while now and he prepared himself for an overloaded attack. “I didn’t think Rouge’s were mutes. Nothing like that was ever recorded in the books I read” he continued, slowing his approach so his mana could regenerate.
As soon as he got eye level it acted. An obsidian blade coated in a blazing white-grey aura swung towards his neck. Quickly raising his arm he infused it with ice and earth mana, coating it in a glistening blue crystal gauntlet. The sword was stopped in its tracks, slightly denting the gauntlet.
“I guess not” Lewis said. The Rouge took a moment clearly shocked at the ineffectiveness of its attack and that moment was all Lewis needed. His mana grew to a comforting level, and he released a burst of mana from his arm shattering the sword into small obsidian shards. Not giving the Rouge time to react, he reached inside the abyss and even though he couldn’t see anything he’d definitely grabbed its head. Spinning on the ball of his foot he flung it into the sky. Instantly following after it. He grabbed hold of the Rouge and struck in its face. Lewis tried to instantly throw a second punch however it was caught. Without breaking his flow Lewis hit it with a left hook and then an elbow its head.
“Don’t tell me you’re done” Lewis said almost sounding disappointed. He punched it in the face again. It attempted to fight back but Lewis quickly shut it down with a strike to its liver.
“Rouge’s where some of the greatest assassins and warriors in history”, he kneed it in the abdomen, “So tell me. Are all those stories lies or are you the anomaly”. His provocations were effective.
The Rouges body trembled. Sickles appeared its hands and it lashed out throwing them in the air. The sickles began to crack and with a white light and they spun through the air. Suddenly they shattered into small, hand-sized portals of whirling grey-white light.
An inquisitive smile formed on Lewis face as he leapt back.
Burning black sickles shot out of the portals and curved through the air straight towards him. They charged at high speeds and Lewis launched himself above them. However, as he cleared their trajectory they curved changing direction, and once again darted towards him. Lewis engulfed his fist in flames and punched towards the sickles. The fire left his fist and turned into twin flames shot out and moulded into dragon heads. Fiery jaws clamed around the sickles and combusted destroying both spells.
The Rouge leapt through the smokescreen. The portals it had created trailing close behind along with two new ones. Instantly the portals began spitting out sickles that soared through the air towards Lewis. He flung out spells of fire, ice and lightning that ripped apart any sickles that threatened him, all while keeping his distance from the Rouge. The Rouge disappeared into the aftermath of their of spell’s battle. Almost as if it had teleported, it suddenly tackled Lewis from above. Lewis quickly grabbed onto its arms locking its sickles in place before they could run through him. He sent a burst of mana to his legs and kicked the Rouge away into the air as he plummeted to the streets. Immediately the portals started shooting out sickles like a Itarian assault rifle. Combining the wind with his explosions Lewis launched himself away at high speeds. He skated through the streets keeping his distance from the sickles that hunted him down, his feet hovering above the pavement. He continued to cast more spells of varied elements however, the sickles just kept coming. He had to find a way to destroy them portals. His mind raced as he flew through Elysi and continued to shatter black sickles.
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Soon the streets vanished, and he exited into the huge open plaza next to the Great Cathedral.
Lewis brought himself to an immediate stop and readied himself as the Rouge approached. Once it got close enough he attempted his plan. He noticed earlier that the portal like its other weaponry where just constructs of pure mana however, unlike the sickles they weren’t solid constructs. Lewis reached out with his own mana, he injected it into the portals and forced his own will on the spell forcing it to completely disperse. Just as the Rouge closed in on Lewis its four portals vanished. All the sickles that had been launched seemingly stopped tracking Lewis and travelled in straight line. Using the Rouges confusion on what had happened Lewis dashed in front of it and flooded his fist with mana.
Just as he was about to deliver a devastating blow, distraught and panicked shouts and screams filled the plaza. Glancing back he saw civilians on the opposite side directly in line of the sickles trajectory.
“Shit” Lewis cursed.
He vanished from in front on the Rouge and darted across the plaza in moments. He still wouldn’t be fast enough. Suddenly the sickles just dispersed into mana. Baffled, Lewis glanced behind him to see the Rouge with its arm raised. It had cancelled its spell.
‘It doesn’t want to hurt civilians?’ Lewis pondered ‘It also didn’t hurt Ava or anyone at the orphanage’. Lewis shook his head. He could question it himself later. He channelled his mana into lightning and let it charge around his body, placing it first two fingers together he raised his hand concentrating all the lightning to his fingers. With a sharp crackle a thick golden tendril shot across the plaza in the blink of an eye. It crashed into the Rouge and tore across its body paralyzing and overloading its nervous system.
Lewis launched himself towards the Rouge and grabbed onto the back of its cloak. The air flooded underneath them and then were flung into the sky, with a second burst Lewis flew them to the top of the cathedral where he had taken Sera. He lashed the Rouge on the spire’s peak before landing next to it.
“Up here there is no one but us” Lewis grinned, “If you’re still holding back Rouge I’d recommend you stop”.
Then Lewis took a deep breath. If he was encouraging his opponent to go all out he should show the same courtesy. How long had it been since he’s done this? Lewis activated elements he hadn’t used in a long time. On one side of his body dark shadows crawled along his skin and emerged from his right eye. On the left side his veins began to glow, and golden-white light that then soon spread to his eye.
“You can use dark and light” The Rouge abruptly spoke catching him off guard. It’s voice didn’t match its appearance and it sounded like young adolescent man, and Lewis guessed he was a similar age to him.
“So you can speak” Lewis stated.
“I knew you to be an elemental, but you’ve shown more affinities than I thought possible” It stated ignoring him, “Just how many affinities do you have?”.
“All of them” Lewis said. He couldn’t see its face, but he had a strange feeling it was smiling.
Simultaneously their mana’s surged, and they charged towards each other for one final clash.
The Rouge surrounded them in portals that instantly started shooting sickles at rapid speeds while summoning two sickles to its hands. Shadows curled into the air from Lewis’s right hand and shaped themselves into razor sharp swords. The swords obeyed Lewis’s will and began tearing sickles apart. A golden-white sword of pure light formed in Lewis left hand a shadow blade in his right.
They collided, blades of light and dark striking again Obsidian bone sickles. They flew around the cathedral spire, every time their weapons connected the air shivered, and the city trembled. Lewis controlled the environment and let out spells of every element he’d demonstrated during the battle. The Rouge tried to lock down Lewis with chains while overloading its mana at any chance it got releasing devasting spells.
A grey blazing aura coated the Rouges sickle and it sliced towards Lewis’s neck. Tendrils of darkness shot of his arm and grasped onto the blade before instantly curling around the Rouge. Lewis swung his arm, and the Rouge was pulled into the air and thrown off the spire. Lewis charged after it and shot a beam of light that drilled into the Rouge sending it crashing into the roof of the cathedral, where the spires began to emerge. Without giving it time to breathe, darkness gathered around his shadow arm, before launching out like a pillar of shadows into the Rouge sending into crashing into the base of the spire.
Any normal wall would’ve shattered but the Cathedral was no normal building it was coated in ancient magic that made it practically indestructible.
The Rouge slid down to its knees, its chest heaving and heavy breaths echoing from its hood. With a flick of his wrist chains of darkness shot out from the spire’s towering shadow and locked down the Rouge’s arms. Lewis loomed over his opponent whose mana signature was fading by the second. The Rouge was finished.
Four blades of light hovered around Lewis and with thought they flew towards the Rouges limbs.
Suddenly the Rogue’s mana ascended to the highest it’d had ever been. It released a burst of mana, the chains snapped, and the blades of light shattered. The Rouge rose to meet Lewis’s eyes. Startled he took a step back, quickly summoning more blades of light and dark to his hands. An aura grey-white light coated the Rouges entire body like they were flames feeding on its lifeforce. The Rouge stuck out its hand and the aura began to gather at its palm. It began shaping itself, forming a huge weapon. Lewis charged. But he was too late. A sharp burning pain radiated the across his chest and he felt blood shoot up his throat and out his mouth with a painful cough. In less than a second the aura had transformed into a two metre, black, obsidian bone scythe that had torn across Lewis’s chest.
With newfound life the Rouge stepped to Lewis’s side and swung its scythe back across Lewis chest creating a bloody cross. With inhuman grit, Lewis ignored the burning sensation of the wounds were causing him and launched himself away into the air. Most people who’d had their chest cut open would probably panic, retreat, give up, pass out to blood loss, well not Lewis. He was far too stubborn.
‘Its Signature!’.
A demonic grin was stuck to his face as he looked down upon the Rouge. The Rouge leapt after him swinging its huge scythe towards Lewis, every strike intending to end him. Infusing light into his body to increase his speed and utilising bursts of air Lewis practically teleported around leaving only an afterimage for the Rouge to cut. It tried to augment its body even further in attempt to keep up with Lewis, but it was futile.
To his satisfaction the Rouge was clearly getting annoyed, it coated the scythe in a burning aura and spun it above its head. A grey fiery tornado was summoned into the air and launched towards Lewis. Holding his fingers like a gun he concentrated light to its tip and fired a golden beam straight through the tornado, completely dispersing the spell. The Rouge’s scythe sliced towards him, but Lewis countered sending blades of light and dark into the weapon. The Rouge was sent staggering back under the force of Lewis’s spells before it managed destroy them with a vicious swipe. Cracks could be seen forming all over its scythe.
‘It won’t be able to maintain that spell for much longer’. Lewis could probably bombard the Rouge with magic and try outlasting the Rouge. They were both clearly on their last legs. And also where would the fun be in that. If the Rouge was going to go all out Lewis should show it the same respect.
“I’ve never successfully completed this before. But I’ve also found I work best under pressure” Lewis said while gathering darkness and light inside him, “In today’s age it’s thought that it’s impossible to combine the elements of light and darkness. But me and history disagree”. Sweat poured down his face as he forced the elements to converge in his body.
The Rouge charged towards him its scythe raised but Lewis just let out a deep breath and thrusted his arm forward.
‘Eclipse’.
An arc of pure white light that seemed to fade in and out of reality tore into the Rouge. The Scythe shattered into mana and the arc shredded into its torse and bright red blood sprayed into the air. Lewis landed onto the roof and the Rouge keeled over clutching it chest to try and stop the bleeding.
“We’re even now” Lewis told it as it somehow managed to stand up.
“No” it spoke again.
“Huh?”
“I gave you two” it told him. At least it has a sense of humour. He couldn’t see under the hood, but he had a feeling it was smiling.
“True” Lewis admitted while augmenting his chest even further to control his wounds worsening condition, “I guess I’ll have to give you another”.
They both forced their cores to build up as much mana as they’d allowed and got ready to attack when suddenly an enormous mana signature engulfed the city. Completely drowning theirs out. Elysi trembled. the Rouge shuddered. Lewis let out an annoyed sigh.
“We were getting to the best part” he grumbled. To their right in the sky a man appeared, his messy white hair flowing in the air. Alex Athra entered the fight.