With the battlefield churned down to a muddy crater, Nic held the absolute advantage in terms of terrain. While Yvaine’s wounds had already sealed, Nic could see that her skin had lost much of its metallic luster, and thin cracks remained spread across the surface- the gift left behind by two baptisms in his Primordial Mist.

Yet in all this time…

She hadn’t used her Shards.

Nic assumed her massive defense stemmed from one Shard. It was possible her four arms, or her ability to send rays of light flying from her fingers, were another. But both of those were easily explained by Techniques or birth.

No…

She still had at least two Shards to play, if not three.

Yvaine lifted a hand and beckoned for him with one finger. “C’mere, runt.”

Nic obliged.

He shot across the crater, forming footholds from the mud, platform after platform emerging to catch him as he vaulted between them with quick, skimming jumps. A bridge of mud rose as he flung himself towards Yvaine-

And vanished.

As the final platform lifted up, Nic never arrived. Yvaine’s hand carved through the space where he would have been, seeking a killing blow, but at the last moment Nic teleported instead, lifting the platform as a decoy.

His spear stabbed into her calf from the side, carving a crescent line that intersected with her achilles tendon and severed it, sending the demon-woman slamming down onto one knee.

He flickered and was gone, retreating as her hand sliced through the air in a bladed chop. Mud clawed its way up her wounded leg, binding her-

And Nic reappeared, Hollowsong drawn, Peacemaker hanging by its sling around his shoulders. Arrow after arrow lifted to the string, which sung out in its haunting, hollow voice as Nic launched a barrage of shots, each tipped with a talisman point.

Detonation after detonation.

Blasts of flame engulfed Yvaine, tearing apart her arms and legs, piercing into her belly. Massive chunks of her flesh were torn apart.

Killing intent roared in his chest.

The black demon rage filled his mind.

Yvaine’s hands hit the ground, her back bent like an animal. With a single kick she dived into the flying salvo of arrows, letting them shatter and burn against her back. She moved across the ground like a wild beast, hands and feet, steam pouring from between her clenched teeth- her face frozen in a mask of true rage.

An image was forming around her.

The massive shadow of a bear.

She crashed down upon him, swinging her hand like a claw. It swept upwards towards Nic’s chest and he dropped, sinking through the mud like a stone through water, escaping by a second. In the next moment he rose- slicing again at her weakened leg, coming up with Peacemaker gripped in both arms and slicing through her calf.

As she turned, he was already following through, stabbing forth again and again into the meat of her back and shoulders. He was only peppering her with small blows, but now, with her iron skin weakened, those blows could cut through and spill blood.

She turned, sweeping her hand - overlaid by the shadow of a massive claw - along the earth.

Nic escaped again, feeling the wind of the attack sweep against his face. Feeling the strength in that moment. A single blow would pulverize every bone in his body…

So he’d have to deny her that single blow.

With pure strength and ferocity, Yvaine took the initiative. She headbutted forward as Nic ducked back, and chased him with a claw, sending him dancing back further. Mist billowed from his body, swirling around him.

Illusionary doubles of Nic spread through the battlefield.

As she chased him, Nic moved bonelessly, refusing to be caught in her momentum. He dodged by the narrowest margin, expending as little energy as he could on defense. Waiting for the moment…

And as her claw swept down into his skull, tearing through, he found it.

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The ‘Nic’ she had struck dissolved into mist, and Nic unleashed a pure, straight shot towards Yvaine’s center, Peacemaker carving through the air between them like a comet. In that moment, she was extended fully, thinking she had finally caught his slippery movements…

And Nic watched the triumph on her face turn to sorrow as he appeared to her left, and she felt the glaive pierce into her guts. Nic twisted savagely, a thin layer of mud clinging to the blade expanding outwards into the wound, turning rock-hard and forming into needles within the wound to slow her regeneration.

She swung for his head.

He teleported back.

She lunged for him, swinging again.

Another teleport. Nothing but air in her claws.

All four of her arms moved now, striking wildly, sending beams of light flying in all directions. Huge chunks of the crater were gouged away, mudslides crashing down as she filled the air with deadly rays of shining steely light. Nic escaped easily, slipping between wild attacks with ease.

He came to a stop far away from Yvaine, watching as the warrior woman’s shoulders rose and shook with panting breaths, trying to drag air into her core.

Nic’s arrows had torn away massive chunks of her flesh, but she was regenerating, the wounds filling in.

This battle couldn’t end with a single strike. It would be a slow strangulation, an exhaustion of their resources until one of them could no longer heal.

That was why she’d held back on using the full extent of her Shards, only bringing out the bear-shadow in the direst circumstance to break free…

Because in this circumstance, attacking incautiously and wasting aura, or spending your aura on defense, was every bit as dangerous as taking a wound.

And Nic…

Nic held his own cards close to his chest.

Now she took a pill from the bags around her waist, popping it into her mouth. With a loud crunch the iron black pill split between her teeth. Veins bulged along her neck, hissing steam, her skin beginning to burn hot like the surface of a skillet.

The aura pouring from her redoubled.

The shadow of the bear overlapped her figure, its massive arms covering the upper pair of her limbs. It seemed to grow more real, more solid, with every passing second.

“Why don’t you…” She said… “Come here.”

And Nic felt a hideous sensation, like thousands of fishhooks pulling at his skin. In an instant he flickered out of view and reappeared-

Directly in front of Yvaine.

Nic’s eyes widened.

Her fist crashed down, sending him flying away, breaking the bones of his ribcage and pounding their shattered fragments into the organs beneath.

But as he flew back-

That feeling came again, fishhooks in his skin.

And he was right back where he started, in front of Yvaine. Another fist slammed into his gut. He was hammered into the earth, blow after blow slamming down onto him, until he managed to teleport away-

Only for the fishhooks to dig in again.

He ended up right where he started.

She crushed him with an uppercut, folding him in half around her fist and launching him up into the sky. Nic already felt the fishhook-sensation beginning, calling him back, making sure he couldn’t escape being beaten like a ragdoll for even long enough to breathe in.

Nic spat out blood.

As he was teleported back to the beginning, he shouted out-

STOP.

For a moment the attack slowed, and Nic escaped, sliding away. Mist cloaked his body. He was barely able to move without shattered bone digging into his flesh, but he forced himself to stay in motion, forced himself to dance between blows.

Yvaine had turned wild.

She struck out in all directions, oppressing by pure force. Her hands annihilated the ghostly legion of Nics that formed around her, staring up from the mist. The real one escaped unharmed.

And as her fist crashed through the final illusion, Nic unleashed the Mistwater Veil.

Pearls of water, dark and light, exploded outwards from the illusion as it shattered. Each droplet was as heavy as an anvil, striking against her skin in an explosion of force. She was forced back, feet skidding across the soft earth.

In that moment Nic stepped away, teleporting twice. It could only buy him moments…

But he’d spend that fractional heartbeat well.

“Cultivation map.”

In all this time, Nic had been building up Demonic Essence. He had never spent it before. He had never wanted to make it a part of him…

But it took a demon to kill a demon.

He poured out all the Essence he’d acquired, foul and corrupted by Demonic taint and the Marks of the Aleph, energy that not even that System fully understood. He let it sink into the nodes of his Internal Sacrifice Cauldrons Technique.

Jagged pain tore through his body. This wasn’t the System’s cold, calculated strength.

This was terrible and violent, carving his internal nodes into new shape. But as it did, Nic felt new strength flood his exhausted body. His veins pulsed- blue light flooded through them, rippling down from his core into his extremities. Again and again, with the drumbeat of his heart, light flooded through his body.

A sound like a rising roar filled his ears.

Yvaine pulled him forward, the fishhook-summons pulling him through time and space to arrive directly in front of her fist as it hurtled down.

Nic unleashed his Hand of Ash, lifting his open palm towards the descending fist.

And a shockwave rippled through the battlefield, a sound like the chime of an iron bell filling the air, as the two collided.

Nic slid back two steps.

Yvaine was sent skidding back four.

Nic smiled. He could feel his new demonic Technique burning in his chest, spending everything he had for raw, pure strength. This power had a name…

Internal Sacrifice Fission Technique.