Ehrek’s eyes narrowed as he took in the young man’s shock, noting the familiarity and recognition flashing across Merkmal’s face. Merkmal's voice held a hint of disbelief as he demanded, "How did you get my armor?"
Blue energy shimmered around Merkmal as he extended his hand, and the Rewrite button manifested in front of his palm, pulsing with raw, intense light. Ehrek gave a slight smirk, his armor gleaming as he opened two wormholes at his sides, pulling out a hammer in one hand and a sickle in the other. He glanced at the hammer, momentarily puzzled, but then shrugged off the feeling. “Not much for questions, are you?” he said. “Then I’ll get the answers myself.”
In a flash, the Rewrite button flared, and Merkmal surged forward, his royal blue glow intensifying as he slammed his fists into Ehrek’s armor. Though Ehrek barely flinched, he felt a sluggishness creeping in with each of Merkmal's blows, a drain on his movements. Sensing the impact, Ehrek swung his hammer, only to find himself slowed as if his strength was being siphoned away. Before the hammer could land, Merkmal had already teleported backward, summoning an array of glowing blue spikes that shot toward Ehrek with ruthless precision.
With swift reflexes, Ehrek tossed the sickle into the air, reaching into another wormhole to retrieve his sword. He plunged it into the ground, creating a barrier of orange and purple energy before him. The spikes clashed with the barrier, sparking violently as they were halted mid-air, hovering in a grid of flickering colors. Ehrek’s gaze tracked the sickle as it arced down, now glowing with an ethereal orange and purple aura. He grabbed the hammer tightly, slamming it into the hilt of the sickle and sending it flying toward Merkmal like a bolt of radiant energy.
Merkmal’s eyes followed the spinning blade as it hurtled toward him, and in one swift movement, he raised his hand, grazing the edge of the glowing weapon. As it brushed his wrist, a ghostly, transparent blue replica of the sickle materialized in his hand, an exact copy of Ehrek’s weapon, but forged in the same royal blue as his aura. The original sickle continued its arc, disappearing into a wormhole that reappeared beside Ehrek, allowing him to catch it in one swift motion.
“You know nothing,” Ehrek retorted, his voice carrying an ominous weight as Merkmal’s expression hardened.
Without a word, Merkmal raised his hand, and another translucent sickle, identical to the first, materialized in a burst of royal blue light. He teleported forward, his dual sickles flashing as he met Ehrek in a flurry of blows.
Merkmal’s form flickers, and before Ehrek can fully register it, he’s struck—a flash of steel, a sudden blow, and then Merkmal vanishes again. Ehrek holds his ground, defending each strike with remarkable precision. But Merkmal’s attacks are relentless, his teleportation unpredictable, shifting positions in sporadic bursts that keep Ehrek guessing and start to throw him off balance.
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Determined, Ehrek suddenly tosses his weapons to the ground. They vanish into wormholes as his hands close into fists. Merkmal’s next move brings him within range, appearing just behind Ehrek with his twin blades ready to strike.
Ehrek whips around with uncanny speed, hands reaching out to catch Merkmal’s blades. His grip tightens, his fingers pressing into the edges. Merkmal’s eyes flicker downward to Ehrek’s chest, where a faint glow seeps from a frozen crack in his armor, a vulnerable-looking fissure. Merkmal presses his blades further. But slowly, an icy sheen starts to creep over the blades, a cold Merkmal doesn’t notice.
The ground beneath them begins to tremble under the weight of Ehrek’s strength. With a grunt, he crushes the blades, shattering them in his grasp, sending fragments scattering. Merkmal reacts immediately, summoning a blade-like projectile from mere inches away, slashing it across Ehrek’s legs. A small explosion erupts between them as Merkmal teleports backward, narrowly evading the blast.
As the dust settles, Ehrek emerges, the paint on his leg armor scraped away, revealing the gleaming, untarnished metal beneath. Merkmal tilts his head, studying the small crack near Ehrek’s heart. “A wound over your heart, and yet you seem untouched,” Merkmal muses, as if contemplating Ehrek’s hidden strength. “Whoever gave you that scar… they must’ve given you a real fight.”
Ehrek doesn’t respond; instead, he opens another wormhole, his eyes narrowing as a spear slowly emerges from its depths. He holds it, feeling the weight of the weapon, and finally speaks, his voice low and dangerous. “Dodge.”
Merkmal tenses as Ehrek flings the spear, a portal opening at its tip and launching it directly toward him. Merkmal sidesteps, but more wormholes appear around him, each one redirecting the spear’s trajectory. Ehrek watches, expression focused, as Merkmal weaves and dodges, narrowly avoiding each strike.
Finally, while Merkmal is distracted, Ehrek steps into one of the wormholes and appears directly in front of him, grasping him by the throat. Merkmal’s eyes widen, a brief look of shock flickering across his face. In the same moment, Ehrek catches the spear just before it can strike him and raises it, pointing it at Merkmal. Merkmal struggles as Ehrek’s grip tightens, and with a flick of his wrist, Ehrek prepares to drive the spear through his enemy.
But suddenly, a flaming battle axe slams into Ehrek’s helmet with a shattering impact, slicing through one of the eye holes and revealing a glow from within, as though his very being is aflame. The blow is powerful enough that Ehrek’s grip loosens, and Merkmal falls to the ground, gasping for air as he scrambles backward.
Ehrek raises his head, focusing on a muscular figure across the field. The warrior catches his flaming axe, gripping it tightly as he glares at Ehrek, barely containing his fury. There’s a sense of recognition in his eyes as he takes in the cracked helmet and the burning glow from within.
“I don’t know who you are,” the warrior growls, “but I’m getting some serious déjà vu.” He holds his axe up, his stance radiating readiness as he locks eyes with Ehrek’s hollow gaze.