Everyone followed Florian's order. No one tried to go outside, even though they didn't knew the reason behind the sudden explosion.

Many began to move on the wall to observe what was happening.

It quickly became known that one man was fighting alone a monster that they never saw before.

The man was moving around so fast, it was hard to get a sight of him.

In the end, even if they were able to get a glimpse of it, they did not understand anything. Who was Orion, what was the thing he was fighting, and what was on the line.

Further away from the soldiers, five people were intently looking. There was no exchange of words.

You could feel their anxiety, as it was written all over their face.

Amelia unlocked the Third Gear the moment she saw Orion release his magic, just like Ego told her to. She was believing in him, but still remained anxious.

Karteira was tapping her foot on the ground impatiently, waiting for his return.

The sisters were hugging each other, praying in hope that nothing horrible would happen to him.

Florian was observing, because that was a direct request from his new friend. If he saw a single moment where Orion was about to lose, he would jump from the wall, and do everything to recover him.

They were all hoping that he would return quickly.

~

Orion was getting familiar with this new use of moving around.

Running around with the Third Gear's full power was bound to exhaust him faster, just like using the Second Gear was at the time.

By placing warping portals all around, he was able to move greater distances without getting tired, while also assessing his enemy.

'I got the hang of it, but I don't want to be the first one to attack. I want to see his first move before moving in.'

But to his surprise, the being only looked at him with its dead eyes.

'Do I have to move closer?'

Orion changed the way his portal worked, and began to spiral toward Julian's corrupted form.

When he entered the ten meter mark, the corrupted unleashed its attacks.

Similar to when Julian was alive, it began by creating a hammer.

'It still possess the ability of the other Apostles.'

Knowing this, Orion had to be careful. There wasn't just the walls to deal with.

Orion stopped running, and stared at his enemy, waiting for his next move. If it was about to launch those orbs, it would be too dangerous to simply run around and potentially get hit.

He could always run out of the ten meters area, but he felt like the corrupted who ignore him then.

*THUMP*

The hammer's head dropped to the ground, and Julian began to slowly approach Orion, his head wobbling left and right as if it was going to fall down.

Its feet began to move faster and faster, with the hammer leaving a trail on the ground behind him.

In a few seconds, he was in front of Orion, the hammer falling on him.

With a simple backstep, Orion managed to avoid the first swing. The unexpected result took him slightly by surprise.

Using its other hand, the corrupted Julian grabbed the handle of the hammer and killed its momentum, before attacking once again with a sideway swing.

But Orion was always on the lookout for a sudden attack.

'Fighting in broad daylight is so much better.'

He was glad it was morning. Dodging attacks after attacks, with a swiftness only possible thanks to his Third Gear, he looked at the perfect moment to riposte.

With 'Calm Analysis', Orion found the perfect time. When the hammer was high above the head of Julian, Orion went for the core replacing his throat.

Orion spun on itself to gain strength, and tried to kick the core with his heel.

*Bang*

'That would have been too easy, isn't it?'

Moving a little further away from it after dropping his foot to the ground, he looked at the small protective wall where Orion landed his kick.

'Just like with Ivan, they do gain more control over their magic when they die and become a corrupted husk.'

Looking at the being in front of him, he was reminded of the soldiers that attacked Hocride, and Albriar. They were similar in many ways.

The difference between a normal corrupted, and a 'Lord' be it a beast, or and Apostle, was the ability to use magic.

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But the difference between a corrupted Lord, and a corrupted Apostle was the magic itself. An Apostle already had magic, compared to a beast that obtained it. The control over magic when an Apostle transformed seemed to gain a rank every time.

'What next now? This attack failed, meaning direct confrontation will not help.'

Orion weighted his options.

'I'll try multiple things.'

Now that he had a few ideas, Orion ran toward the corrupted Julian, and warped behind him.

Without even looking, it blocked the attack with another shield.

'I should have guessed. If they only focus on me thanks to the curse, of course they can feel me coming at them.'

Retreating again, he patiently waited.

'Come on, I know you want to do it. Come on.'

But he remembered that he needed to do something for that to happen. He needed to bait Julian to use his orbs.

'Let's go wild. Alcyone, come here.'

His white crossbow formed in one of right hand.

'Try reloading by yourself. You can do that right?'

He glanced at his crossbow, while speaking to his light element.

'Food...'

'Right, food. Get as much as you want.'

Orion felt a good chunk of his magic being drained, but the element successfully evolved thanks to that.

'Reload.'

*Clack*

The string moved and locked itself, ready to be fired.

'Swift arrows.'

With the commands done, Orion prepared to rush toward Julian. His right foot slid on the ground behind him, before he quickly left the spot he was standing on.

*Bang* *Bang*

Managing to block Orion's rapid firing barrage of arrows, Julian prepared to smash his hammer down on him.

'I won't let you.'

Orion once again spun on himself, but this time, his kick was straight instead of sideways. It want for the head of the hammer falling on him.

The tremendous force of the Third Gear against the momentum behind the hammer. A large noise was heard, before the hammer went flying a few meters behind Julian.

With such force, Orion was pushed away a little bit, but he managed to remain standing. The same happened for Julian.

'No surprise, the Third Gear is something else.'

Both of his legs were incredibly tougher than before. He knew that if he tried to do that with the Second Gear, his leg would be either broken, or completely ripped off.

Without bothering with any other thoughts, he recovered and ran toward the corrupted to finish the job.

He fired multiple arrows toward the neck area, but once again, they were easily blocked.

Back to close range, he once again went for the offensive, with a punch this time.

A wall finally formed in front of his enemy, something he was waiting for. He stopped his first before it touched the metallic wall, and stayed where he was.

He heard the sound of walking behind it, and the sound of the hammer being picked up.

And then.

*BUMP* *BUMP*

The wall suddenly vanished, showing two metallic orbs flying straight at Orion.

'I was waiting for that!'

Orion warped at the limit of the ten meters, and stared at the orbs.

*BUMP*

Julian kept creating orbs and launched them toward Orion.

'Let's see what you think of that.'

With all his strength, Orion began to kick the orbs coming at him, similar to Florian. Left or right, it didn't matter, he kicked with both legs in every direction.

When the twentieth orbs was kicked away, he looked at the mess of orbs bouncing around.

'Good. Switch to the Drilling Arrow. Taygeta, other hand. You can do the same thing and eat my magic.'

The dark element evolved too, leading to more magic being drained.

'Damn, you ate more than Alcyone! Alright, let's try another arrow.'

Orion, with both Alcyone and Taygeta in his hands, ran toward an orb that was coming his way.

'Using both crossbows at the same time is really hard. Why do I always find my next blockage in fights?'

He internally sighed, because he knew that to make the wielding of both crossbow possible, he most likely needed another unsealed ability from the Shackles.

'Well, for what I'm going to do, that should be enough.'

Dodging the first orb, he went for the one behind it.

A picture of his movement formed in front of him, a path that would be possible only by people like Florian.

Jumping on the orb, Orion jumped toward another one. The next one was too far away, and there was an orb coming his way at a weird angle from below, making it way too difficult for him to move.

That's were Taygeta came in play.

'Impulse Arrows. Are you ready?'

He pointed the crossbow that was in his left hand on his right, and pushed the trigger.

This kind of arrow was special, as it was made to push thing, and in this particular case, Orion himself.

*Click*

Another on, this time behind him.

Orion dodged the fast orbs in mid air with incredible swiftness. With the third trigger, Orion arrived where his objective was. An orb right above Julian.

'What do you think about eating your own ability?'

With a flip, he kicked the orb downward. It was a gamble to see if he would stop his own attack or not.

The orbs flew with incredible velocity downward, and crashed against a wall Julian created in a split second.

'I guess it was too fast for you?'

Creating a dent in the shield, and a crack following that dent, Orion aimed Alcyone at the center in midair.

The moment he fired the arrow, the most destructive one he had, he realized where he was, and how bad it was.

Four metallic orbs were all going in his direction. If he couldn't move away, this would be the end for him.

With a quick look around, his next action was decided.

'I'll drop directly on Julian, and kill him again when the shield breaks.'

He aimed Taygeta in the air, and fired an Impulse Arrow, launching Orion toward the ground, in the same direction as his Drilling Arrow previously fired.

*BING*

The first arrow made contact with the shield, and began to create more cracks, until it broke it.

It plunged further down, missing Julian by a thread, and lodged itself on the ground. Since Amelia only unsealed the Third Gear, and not the Arm Overdrive, it was way less destructive than the day before, only digging a few centimeters of ground.

Orion was right behind the arrow. He released Taygeta, and dive kicked Julian in the guts, sending him crashing only two meters away from Orion.

"Remember, cowards are never rewarded."

After speaking, Orion fired a Swift Arrow toward the throat of his enemy, ready to finally kill him.

'I would have understood if you wanted to survive, and ultimately went to change you ways, but in the end, all you tried to do was cause even more trouble for the ones living in peace. Shame on you, and every single Apostles that are like you.'

Laying on the ground lifelessly, the corrupted Apostle, Julian, stared at the arrow coming his way.

It tried to create one last shield to protect itself, but before it was completed, as if it was a recreation of the day before, the arrow went past it, and pierced the core, shattering it to pieces.

Once again, the head of Julian rolled on the ground, but his body seemed to still be able to move.

'There another core in his body. Where could it be?'

Orion hurriedly walked toward the convulsing body that would repair the core at any moment.

He kicked the body a made it lay on his back, before strongly stepping on its right shoulder to stop him from moving.

'Amelia said that there was a core in the body, where was it again?'

Aiming Alcyone at the body, he saw tentacles of muscles sprout from the neck of Julian.

'I don't have time for this!'

*Click*

First, he pierced the heart of Julian.

'Not there.'

Then, he remembered that the spot Amelia spoke about was right below the ribcage, in the middle.

*Click*

'Not there either!'

Orion was beginning to panic. If he was unable to kill Julian right now, then he would have to do that all over again. The worst was, some orbs were getting near him too at an alarming pace.

'Is previous wound!'

*Click*

Orion fired in the same spot as the day before, in the right lung of Julian, without hesitation.

The sound of something shattering was heard, and the husk of Julian stopped moving.

He removed his foot and walked away from the corpse, who began to disintegrate.

Every orbs fell to the ground, and also slowly vanished from existence.

In the end, only Orion remained, victorious over another Apostle.