Zalroth, with gleeful anticipation, and the Energy Silhouette, with unwavering disdain, stared at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. The Silhouette contemplated running away but figure Zalroth would easily be able to keep up with them.

"Wait what am I saying, I'm invincible, so why am I thinking of running away... must be because of my host." the Silhouette thought to itself, it looked at its hands and realised they were quivering. They looked genuinely surprised at their quivering hands, but that surprise swiftly shifted to annoyance.

"Curses, I can't believe that brat's a coward." the Silhouette mumbled to themself and only snapped out of their train of thought when they heard Zalroth calling out to them.

"I know you probably haven't been around for very long, but it's pretty rude to be daydreaming in the middle of a fight," Zalroth remarked from behind the Silhouette as he stood on a magic barrier.

The Silhouette's eyes widened before turning around and quickly flying backwards, away from Zalroth. The Silhouette was about to say something but was stopped by a magic barrier that struck them on the top of their head. The Silhouette frustratedly grabbed the barrier before slamming it on their knee and snapping it in half, causing it to crumble away. Zalroth chuckled a little as the Silhouette rapidly slashed the floating pieces of the magic barrier and only stopped when he noticed the Silhouette was glaring at him.

"What are you playing at?". Zalroth tilted his head in response, which only made the Silhouette angry.

"Don't give me that dumbass expression, you're clearly messing around." the Silhouette stated while pointing aggressively at him.

"Whatever do you mean?" Zalroth asked with a smug demeanour. The Silhouette was about to continue talking but punched upwards when it sensed another magic barrier above them, causing the trajectory of the barrier to change. As the barrier fell past the Silhouette, it realised the barrier wasn't in the shape of a disc but was in the shape of a bucket. The Silhouette gave Zalroth an unamused glare, which made him lift his arms.

"Ok you got me, but I'm not going to waste my mana on trying to destroy you while you can still regenerate, now am I," Zalroth explained while shrugging his shoulders. The Shilouette narrowed their glare at Zalroth's explanation but widened again when Zalroth started to talk again.

"Although...". The Silhouette lifted their eyebrow as they slightly floated away from Zalroth but abruptly clunch their chest when a sharp pain coursed through their chest. The Silhouette's body slowly shifted to a paler/muted shade of purple along with its glowing hair getting slightly shorter, and cracks started to form on the Silhouette's torso.

"Papa! Scarlett's finished destroying the Angorthite." Lola shouted with her hands around her mouth. The Silhouette instantly looked down in Lola's direction before looking at its hands, and a wave of realisation washed over the Silhouette's face. The Silhouette considered retreating, again, but the thought only served to infuriate the Silhouette. The Silhouette quickly gathered energy into its fist before rocketing at Zalroth. Zalroth pulled his fist back before clashing it against the Silhouette's fist; the Collision launched the two of them in opposite directions but the Silhouette swiftly stopped their momentum.

The Silhouette looked up and realised Zalroth disappeared, It quickly darted its head around trying to find him. Its eyes widened as it tried to turn around but was kicked in the face, and was sent plummeting towards the ground. Zalroth created a magic barrier above him before back flipping and jumping off it. The Silhouette frantically spun around to face Zalroth and aimed its arm at him before firing a wide barrage of energy balls upwards. The energy ball weaved and evaded each other, as they encircled and surrounded Zalroth. Zalroth easily punched and kicked the energy balls away as he dived after the Silhouette. The Silhouette angerly widened its eyes and scowled at Zalroth; it quickly clasped the hand it used to fire the energy balls.

All the energy balls surrounding Zalroth rapidly shook before they all simultaneously rocketed at Zalroth. Zalroth countered the attack by encasing his feet with spiralling lightning magic and swing kicked any of the energy balls that got close to him; with each swing of his feet, he created a large, slightly curved lightning blade, with a snake-like pattern, that blocked the incoming energy balls.

The Silhouette landed on the ground and quickly leapt off the spot right before Zalroth slowly descended onto the ground with wind magic, that dispersed when he touched the ground. The Silhouette tried to charge another energy ball but heard a sharp chip noise, making it look at its left hand and noticed the tip of its index finger had a large crack over it. The Silhouette had a horrified expression on its face as it watched the index finger start to slowly crumble away. Zalroth started to clap his hands together.

"You have my... erm applause, but it seems you're running low on energy, so let's get this over with," Zalroth remarked. The Silhouette glared at Zalroth as they lifted their right arm but it suddenly felt lighter before a loud glass shattering sound echoed from the ground. The Silhouette slowly closed its eyes and sharply exhaled.

"I suppose I am... however,". The Silhouette tensed up its entire body, causing purple energy bolts to race across its body, and its aura to explode. The Silhouette's aura towered high into the sky before starting to rapidly shrink. The energy spiralled around the Silhouette's body and into a single energy ball, located in its remaining and rapidly cracking hand.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"I'll be damned if I don't give it my all till the very end!" the Silhouette voiced to Zalroth. Zalroth gleefully grinned as he pulled his left arm back as lightning and wind magic began to circle it.

"If that's the case, then I'll return in kind.". Zalroth clenched his fist and the magic around his arm merged into a dark blue, lightning-filled tornado, generating a strong wind that launched all the surrounding dust away from Zalroth. Zalroth grinned at the Silhouette and, to his surprise, the Silhouette rolled its eyes before slowly and reluctantly smirking back. The two of them simultaneously dug their leading feet into the ground as they hurled their arms forwards and launched their attacks at each other. The Silhouette fired a large concentrated energy blast at full power even as their arm continued to crack; while Zalroth launched a horizontal dark blue tornado, thats front formed into the head of a hydra. The attack dug through and swiftly slivered across the ground.

The Silhouette's eyes widened when the hydra-head formed but they quickly dug their feet even further into the ground. The Silhouette screamed at the top of their lungs as the energy blast rapidly grew and tore through the terrain, causing glowing cracks to race up their entire arm. The attacks violently collided with each other, the impact created a powerful shockwave that ripped through the ground and launched the debris at high speeds in every direction. Lola and Scarlett quickly ducked onto their knees as the debris careened past them and crumbled as they collided into the magic barrier.

"What's wrong, old man; is that all you got?". The Silhouette proudly boasted as their energy blast continued to steadily increase in size and even started to push Zalroth's attack back.

"Hardly."Zalroth retorted as his aura washed over his face, making his hair appear to shift to a pale cyan and his eyes glowed for a split second. Zalroth gathered all of his aura into his left fist before pulling it back and keeping eye contact with the Silhouette. The Silhouette's eyes widened in realization as Zalroth cheekily stuck his tongue out, in a similar manner to Scarlett, before hurling his fist in the direction of the energy blast. The mana flooded through his magic attack, making it exponentially increase in size, before easily overpowering and destroying the energy blast. The Silhouette tried to jump out of the way of Zalroth's attack but remembered they couldn't move. They looked at their feet and saw that their feet were completely buried in the ground. The Silhouette meekly looked up and helplessly watched as the giant tornado hydra was moments away from destroying them.

"F'in hell." the Silhouette muttered as they closed their eyes and pulled their head back. However, they suddenly felt a strong wind race past their face causing them to lose balance and for their legs to snap in half. The Silhouette landed on their back as they watched the magic hydra/snake attack soar into the sky before dispersing. The Silhouette let out a sigh as they rested their head on the ground, which caused their right eye to crack.

"You're surprisingly stubborn, especially your conviction," Zalroth remarked as he hobbled over to the Silhouette while holding on to his left shoulder. The Silhouette shakily lifted their head to look at Zalroth with their non-cracked eye.

"What makes you say that?" the Silhouette asked while eyeing Zalroth lacerated left arm.

"It's just a thing my friend used to say to me when he kicked my butt," Zalroth remarked as he steadily sat down. The Silhouette slowly lowered its head back onto the ground.

"That sound's like something a nerd would say.". Zalroth stared blankly at the Silhouette before letting out a snicker.

"I mean, he was obsessed with knights," Zalroth replied before his snicker morphed into an awkward laugh. The Silhouette rolled their eye as they raised their arm. The Silhouette looked at their extremely fractured hand before it snapped off their arm; the hand slapped the Silhouette in the face before it crumbled and flowed down their head. The Silhouette breathed out some dust from its nose and slammed its arm into the ground making the cracks on it grow.

"Say...". The Silhouette struggled to sit up but was helped up by a mini green tornado. The Silhouette's head jolted back and forth as its body started to crumble.

"Who're you anyway?" the Silhouette asked as their hair's glow started to flicker.

"Huh? Oh, I'm Zalroth.". The Silhouette nodded their head and the glowing parts of their body rapidly decreased in intensity. The Silhouette slouched forwards and coughed up dust whilst struggling to breathe.

"Zal...roth. Yeah, I'll remember that for our re...match." the Silhouette managed to voice before completely crumbling into a pile of super pale purple dust.

"I loo-". Zalroth abruptly covered his mouth as blood dripped through his fingers. Zalroth carefully stood back up while coughing multiple times. He removed his hand from his face and held it over the dust pile allowing blood to drop onto it.

"Papa!" Lola cheerfully shouted before jumping onto Zalroth's back, making his torso swing backwards. Zalroth's face cringed as he slowly turned his head to look at Lola. Lola's eyes contracted when she made eye contact with Zalroth and her ears slumped down. She quickly hopped off Zalroth's back. She profusely apologised while frantically bowing repeatedly. Zalroth straightened his back while biting his lip and trying not to scream. Lola extended both her arms out at Zalroth before creating a light pale green magic circle. Lola began to sweat heavily as the magic circle's glow fluctuated. Lola tried to cast the spell but the magic circle shattered and she placed her hands on her knees while breathing heavily. Lola lifted one of her arms but Zalroth lowered it with his hand.

"Don't push... yourself, I'll be fine.". Zalroth smiled, although being slightly crooked, at Lola which made her ears lift slightly; Lola smiled back at Zalroth before her ears pointed straight up. She grabbed onto his arm and started to pull him. Zalroth contently sighed as he followed Lola as she continued to pull on his arm.