The biggest issue in this battle of attrition remained using a Sin flame for too long, and the corruption that could follow. If you were not careful, the very same Sin you used to fight the Forsaken, could turn you into one.
Periods of exhaustion were the worst in fights like this, and this fight has gone on for a while, with both stands remaining in a relatively even standstill.
The martial artist Forsaken in front of me was something I had to focus on, but also keep an eye out for the Fae by me to help if I can. The both of us had our guard put up, and slowly moved towards each other’s area of reach. I was younger, and despite the chance in my body size, it was still above average for a 12 year old alone, and I was fighting adults with longer reach and more muscle than myself.
We both had our arms encased in our Sin flames, his being purple, which indicated the Sin of Lust, and mine of Wrath. In terms of power, I had the advantage in Sin, but this was actually the counter to the Wrath flame. Lust flames enhance the target’s desire, and Wrath users have a high level of negative emotion to enhance, which can easily create an opening for corruption.
Lord Wrath and I had not started sparring, so using it in a fight against another hand-to-hand user was tricky to guess. Rely on my body’s instincts to guide me through it, and try to take him out as quickly as possible.
Once we got close enough for him to reach me, he immediately ducked forward and curved his fist up trying for an uppercut to my chin. Maneuvering my upper body slightly so the punch was not knocking me in the chin, I hook my arm around his and pivot my body to cross our legs.
Using his powerful momentum from the uppercut, I pulled him so that his center of balance landed against my hip, and flipped him onto the ground using his own power. Before he can recover, I move to slam my Wrath infused palm to strike down into his chest, and he rolls out of the way so that the strike hits his shoulder, and not his Sin core.
The strike was effective to inflict Wrath into his shoulder, which cost him his left arm as it burned away from the shoulder slowly. Keeping my distance, I see the anger and madness at losing his arm flare his crazed mind even more, and I put up my guard expecting a berserk attack. Instead, he did something I didn’t expect from him.
He ran towards the women and other Forsaken. I yelled out, “WATCH OUT!” but it was pointless, the women were not his target. The one armed Forsaken man tackled his ally targeting the two exhausted Fae women, and began trying to eat him.
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I motioned for the two women to keep their distance from the two Forsaken, and ran towards the both of them, intending to kill the one I was fighting before something bad could happen.
The solo Fae woman of the trio who was fighting a Forsaken by herself managed to break its Sin core and he started to turn into ash smoke. Forsaken dropped a spear made of an unknown material, and I picked it up with both of my hands. The first time touching a spear since I gave mine up as Callum.
Remembering my years of expertise using a spear, I lunged and threw the spear now infused with my Wrath flames towards the Forsaken who were fighting each other to eat one another now.
Once the spear landed close enough, I said to myself silently, “I vow to use this power of mine responsibly, knowing the price you pay in return for it. Ambient mana, please help me save more of the Fae on this battlefield”. After my vow, I use my mana to ignite the crimson flame in the spear to explode out.
Sacrifices in war are inevitable, but can this really be called a willing one if the ambient is only doing it because we tell them to?
The crimson flame explodes in a wide Wrath infused fireball, burning both of the Forsaken’s Sin core and destroying them. Using the Sin flames like this was excessive, but I could feel something bad would occur if I let the Forsaken eat each other.
“Are the three of you okay to walk? We need to get you off the field to rest” I asked the three Fae women, and got uncomfortable with the look of heroic worship flickering in their eyes. I nodded to the three of them, and we quickly got back to the base where I left them to the medic squad to look over.
“Wait, what’s your name?” They called out to me as I was leaving, I told them “Luce! Rest well and good work!” and ran back to the battlefield.
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I spent the next 30 minutes running around to the areas that needed support and thinning the herd of Forsaken down. Lord Wrath and the former Lord Green were still fighting in the distance, and showed no signs of stopping. I did not know the limits of Lord Wrath, but using power of this level for this long had to start wearing him down at least.
Even I was starting to feel the limits of my stamina and mana from using the Sin flames. “I don’t suppose I could learn your portal magic, could I?” I asked Selene. Despite the battle happening, I swear that she was laughing over the mind link.
“One day, maybe. Perhaps around your 7th or 8th Tier promotion?” Damn, that was a long time to wait. Maybe I can learn it sooner with my talent? “No, that’s taking into account your talent, Lucian. Space magic is a very powerful magic, yes. The risks are always as great, and if you mess it up, you will only die if you are lucky. Now focus up!”
“Ay, ay, Captain!” and looked at the battlefield. I saw a group that was getting surrounded by a pile of Forsaken and ran towards them.
As I was about to reach them to help, I heard a laugh from the distance, coming from the Forsaken Lord Greed. Lord Wrath looked to my direction at the pile, and yelled, “SELENE! GET HIM OUT OF THERE!” Lord Greed pointed towards the pile, and his hand glowed a gold hue of his Greed Flames, and a massive gold sigil appeared on the pile of Forsaken I had run to.
Selene mobilized her magic to forcibly teleport me, but it was too late.
*BOOOOOOM!!!*
The sigil and Forsaken full of Sin energy exploded in a mixture of different colored Sin flames, and I was caught in the blast as well. My vision went white and my body flared in pain, and I did not feel myself hit the ground before blacking out.