As Kyrion held Birdion(Kyrin), his hands squeezed around the cardinal as he tested the man's bone structure. The birds in the man’s neck began to crack as mana flowed into his head.
A roar bellowed in the distance followed by drums. Orcish war drums. The sound was strong enough to cause the land to quake as though a charge of elephants were coming.
A loud splash was Kyrion’s only warning as Volain appeared out of the water, his face hidden by his orca helm, and a suit of black and white armor covered his body. Spinning in the air a metallic tail sent Kyrion and by extension, Birion, flew across the land.
Kyrion let go of his foe, out of a twisted sense of Mercy. If Volain were here to fight, him then the two would fight. Anyone caught in the middle would likely lose their life in a worst-case scenario. Rotating his torso and redirecting the wind allowed him to land on the water with ease.
“Did you take out Uriel’s team already?”
“Out of mercy. They were dying from Desert Purple Freeze.”
“Sounds delicious. Oh you mean Frostbite. Could they not start a fire? They should have had someone who knew how to deal with extreme weather.”
“You’d think someone on that team would have experience surviving in nature, it's surprising that their foundations were so shallow and yet they made it this far.”
“They may have lost more than just Marduk then.” Kyrion popped his back, feeling at his chest and confirming that his contingency was in place.
“You aren’t running away this time? I guess you can’t teleport right now, otherwise you’d be gone.”
“How did you bypass my senses? And plants?” Kyrion should have had some warning if he didn’t it meant something was actively counteracting his senses.
“No idea. Are you ready to continue?”
“Does it mat–.”
Kyrion moved forward as a fist aimed at his torso was bypassed while he slammed his head into Volain’s armored helm resulting in a large crack as Kyrion’s forehead gave slightly.
Volain landed and stayed perfectly still for a long silent second before he swayed slightly.
Kyrion’s forehead healed as he pushed mana into his muscles to temporarily raise his strength and endurance beyond his safe parameters while pushing into the limiters he’d placed on his mind to prevent an overload.
Volain moved faster than the speed of sound as he stopped an inch away from Kyrion’s face the movement was enough to cause a shockwave that caused the water to follow behind him like a relentless wave.
Kyrion took the blow head-on and was astounded by how even when making minimum contact the blow was capable of pushing his physical body past his limits. He still managed to land on his feet as Volain seemed to wait for him to rest.
“You’re dangerous.” Kyrion said as he observed his opponent. He then watched as steam rose from Volains body as he stood there.
“But you aren’t fully immune to the friction your movement causes. The nearby moisture is converted into steam for you to cool.” Kyrion turned and dashed away his movement faster than eyes could track.
“Oi!” Volain noticed his retreating and was tempted to give chase before caching onto the ploy.
Kyrion stopped when he realized Volain was watching him and not following.
“You do know we are attacking your fortress if you run away I’ll just turn and go after your friends.”
Kyrion sighed as didn’t want to destroy his territory. Just to take out one person.
“Do we really have to fight here? You are majorly outnumbered.”
“You’re someone who uses terrain advantage to fight, why are you fleeing from an area like this?”
“So that my territory isn’t destroyed when Cecil fires his giant cannon at the both of us.”Kyrion looked at the mech currently preparing to fire at the duo. Well, it was lighting up due to a rune Kyrion placed on it and was remotely activating. It wouldn’t fire but it did look like it was charging.
“Your team would risk you to take me out?”
“Volain, my alliance outnumber yours and many are skilled. A head on fight between the two of us would only end with one of us injured and the other sent back home either way.”
Volain squinted. “You would have teleported by now if you could. Which means you did something dumb recently and have been weakened. Spirit break?”
“No and in a way yes.”
“So your current options are limited.”
“Somewhat.”
“Well that sucks.” Tendrils of water grabbed Kyrion’s neck and limbs before dragging him into the water.
“Stay the–” Volain started before feeling a burst of mana.
Kyrion sighed as he began to sway while standing atop the water that didn’t smell like water. His expression was somewhat blank as he had a faraway look in his eyes.
“Hello there Voltmain.” Kyrion said as he took a step on the water and swayed nearly sinking in as his natural balance seemed to briefly waver.
“Did you hit your head?”
Kyrion laughed. “No… I lost a lot of blood earlier and now the blood in my system is mostly alcohol. Due to my sealed affinities nothing is working like it should and my body can’t deal with it right now.”
“So you’re drunk?”
“I prefer the term empowered.” Kyrion placed a hand over the lake and in seconds it caught fire. Green flames covered the area as the moisture in the air seemed to vanish.
“What did you do?”
“Well if you need moisture to cool. I thought dehydrating the environment would counter you.”
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
“You aren’t weakening me as much as you are limiting the time we can fight.”
“Evening the playing field.” Kyrion stated as he seemingly teleported behind Volain despite lacking the ability to do so.
Volain used his tail fin to block as he spun into an uppercut as it seemed as though it was a badly animated PowerPoint. Then the area between his movements caught fire as the air was burned.
Kyrion spun through the attack's range and landed a crushing blow on Volain’s chestplate causing the metal to bend inwards as the metal was superheated.
Volain was pushed back towards the flames as he struggled to breathe for a moment.
Kyrion didn’t give chase as he healed his right arm. As he’d broken some of his fingers and shattered his wrist.
“What are you? Made of muscle.” Kyrion sighed.
“If I’m made of muscle then you must be made of mana.” Volain huffed as the flames absorbed his sweat before his ability could cool him off.
“A bit of both. But mostly mana by this point. I’m mostly solar powered at the moment so…” Kyrion finished repairing his arm with his current regeneration. Though shattering it again so soon wouldn’t do him any favors.
Volain moved forward with the force of a charging rhino. The fire around him trailing behind him leading the water under him.
“This is suicidal.” Kyrion took a step back in confusion as pieces of Volain's armor began to crack. He then committed and entered a low defensive stance as Volain rammed into him.
The two were covered in burning water that seemed to flash boil the two of them. Steam covers the two of them resulting in a duo of yells. As both were being burned alive
Kyrion retreated so that his wounds could close. All of his hair had vanished and his mask was washed away. Various bits of skin seemed discolored and tinted green and his prosthetic eye was destroyed.
Volain jumped back as his armor fell off his body. His skin was covered in blisters and hot water burns and his helm shattered.
“You used That power to make those flames? How did my blow manage to miss?” Volain coughed as the burns spread on his body.
“Of course. I didn’t expect you to throw my own fire back at me like that. Snuffing it would have left me open enough for you to kill me and I couldn’t avoid the onslaught without being washed away. So I stood my ground. I won’t be able to replace my eye with a decent prosthetic for ten more days. It cost me favors just to get it that low. Not that I intend to stay, weakened for that long.”
Volain laughed. “In the end you’re just more durable.”
“No.I can just regenerate and I couldn't afford to take you on as directly as you may have wanted much longer.” Kyrion sighed as he tore off his robe and revealed a cauterized hole in his chest where his heart should be, yet currently wasn’t.
“You cheated! Of course you did. You just said that you could regenerate. How does this work.” Volain fell to a knee unsurprised and fighting to slow the spread of burning mana in his body.
“Currently pumping my blood manually. I won’t be able to fight long until I can heal it. You have taken me out of the fight for longer than you know. Though I suspect the rest of your people will soon follow This is the same reason I avoided fighting Sinbad. I’d have ended up too wounded to continue fighting. Mostly due to his abilities bypassing my natural abilities.” Kyrion felt something in his chest and scowled as his focus was scrambled.
“Do you mean reversing time in small intervals or the stopping aspects?”
“Both, you’d need someone with a lot of luck to combat that. Well, the good news is that if anyone else did this to you I’d have been able to swoop in and heal you. As we are enemies I’ll put you out of your misery.” Kyrion tossed Volain a potion bottle which distracted him for a split second as he caught the bottle. Kyrion poked both sides of Volain’s head, triggering the emergency wards.
In response, an explosion from behind Kyrion’s neck nearly tore his head from his shoulders and broke his concentration over his manual blood pumping. The world seemingly faded for an undeniable amount of time.
A feminine figure in a silver mask approached where the fight had been. Her silver hair was cut short as four rectangular cards orbited around her wrist. Her red eyes seemed angry as she eyed the position in anger. Two long doglike ears protruded from her head as she seemed to take in the scene.
“All is by the will of Gios. He’s likely dead if what he said was true.” The silver-masked figure walked through the river of burning flames causing them to turn purple as she did so.
----------------------------------------
Kyrion awoke on a patient's bed, his emergency blood pumping and damage control having taken up all of his mental faculties as he looked about. In a bed opposite of his Volain held a haunch of meat which he chopped through in irritation.
“So you’ve awoken? How was your two day nap? The potion you gave me was confiscated by the way. To be studied or something.”
Kyrion patted himself down and noticed that everything including his clothes and valuables had been stripped from his person. Which was common enough in hospitals. Especially when warriors went down during combat. Some people wake up swinging or reaching for sharp things that can be used to poke holes in people.
Kyrion felt at his core and scowled as it was still damaged. “How did she sneak up on me? No, how did she know to strike when all my attention was on keeping my body running?”
“She felt like one of those people you’re aligned with, but they looked different. I assumed they were reinforcements before they backstabbed you.”
“Can you not tell the difference between me and birdbrain?”
“Uh…Yes I can not tell the difference. At least not while you aren’t in the same area.”
“Ugh.” Kyrion rubbed his scalp a bit then his eyes and eyebrows as he regrew his hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes. As Volain hadn’t seen Kyrion regenerate himself before, the plant fibers that briefly appeared didn’t stick out as odd as the healing practice went on.
“Did you fix your heart?”
“Nope. Gonna take a minute. Do you know what's going on?”
“No. Most of everyone else wasn’t close to being as injured as we were. You still have a few people fighting at this moment.”
Kyrion sighed as he held a hand over the gaping wound and removed a plant apparatus from his chest. “Restore that which was and use this as a sacrifice. Second Circle transmute.”
Two green magic circles appeared over Kyrion’s open wound absorbed the ambient mana in the object he was holding and converted it into a beating heart. The heart was then placed in his chest as he willed the arteries valves to properly connect before he slowly ran blood through it as it adjusted to his mana. The wound in his chest closed and Kyrion let out a sigh as his blood began to pump naturally. However, the new heart would be weak for twenty-four hours after absorption.
“So… I take it your eye is next?”
“My what? Oh! That… Eye number four… Don’t have anything on my person that I'd use for an eye.” Kyrion stitched the empty organ slot shut and hid it with his hair.
“Doesn’t that hurt?”
“No. Like you, certain levels of pain are more of an annoyance than agonizing anything less and I may not notice. Healers must be able to stay calm while at death's door if they wish to stay alive.”
“So. If you’re all better, want to go watch what you miss? It’s been two days inside the other place. The viewers are watching an accelerated feed that shows highlights and live battles.”
Kyrion got to his feet before holding onto his chest. “This sucks.”
“Don’t you love to complain Mr. I can regrow hearts.”
“You’re right.”
“Go–.”
“I do love to complain about inconveniences.”
----------------------------------------
Kyrion had known something was off for a while, as he was submerged underwater to a degree where senses wouldn’t be able to track. He observed the area around him finding a portal that had been created a while ago, only to be temporarily closed. His expression was blank as he suspected someone was watching the fight.
Deciding that he shouldn’t come up without risking his life in a fight against Volain. Kyrion called on the older version of himself, who appeared within minutes having been a mere stone's throw away. But, the old idiot had been drinking himself into a stupor while Kyrion was fighting. Expecting that he wouldn’t be needed, which meant he wouldn’t be much use in an extended fight.
Kyrion sighed underwater causing bubbles to escape his mouth and begin to pop. Putting a great deal more power into the plant clone, he waited and watched the fight take place from a safe distance. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw someone resembling Nicole step out of the portal briefly, attack then return. The movements were methodological and deadly. Though seeing an attack confirmed a suspicion of his. Who was the Nico, Nicole claims to be? That could wait, if people thought he was gone then he had some time to kill.