Two on the ground, two were floating motionlessly in the air. Viewing the fight that was promptly coming to an end. What was a duel between two had become a two on one. Green sword in hand, breathing that was slightly rough, standing alone in a large meadow. Bits of blood were rolling onto his olden clothes as parts had been cut here and there. No matter how rough and lonely he looked, nobodies dared to look down on the man.
In terms of overall power, no Ever was above another. What this fight came down to, no longer determined by raw output. For on the other side was an Ever and a person just below the standards of an Ever. If Everwood looked rough and beaten, Everhope looked like a dog that had been fallen into a river. His nice and fancy clothes were torn and ripped in many places. While his clothes lacked much dryness. What wasn’t covered in blood was covered in sweat as he breathed laboriously, looking at the monster in front of him with a bit of fear.
Not once had Everwood stopped fighting, only his movements which started rough had not stopped once. Once wild and arrogant were now without any feeling, quiet and pure. Each strike was true to its purpose, aiming at vitals with vicious precision. Making matters worse was, his blade felt alive. Once momentum was built, it increased its speed to a level that made defending a necessity that made going on the offense difficult.
Currently using an upward strike, he did something with his fingers as the blade shook like a pair of insect wings. Too fast for the eyes to see as the tip of the green blade shook gently as it dipped just enough to slip past the elves guard as it stabbed into his stomach as his own downward strike stopped the blade from going any deeper. Instead, what occurred was a ripping, as he was responsible for the blade being forced out of his torso by his own defending strike. Worst was the realization if he hadn’t the blade would have had time to go deeper and inflict internal bleeding.
“Holy hell, he is a snake…” While sounding offensive, for once Everwind looked over at his companion, not happy with his judgement. However, he remained taciturn as he couldn’t deny it. Everwood’s fighting style was above board and straight forward. Designed to start slow before eliminating large movements in an effort to save energy. When an opponent wasn’t finished off immediately, they had to deal with his deceptive finger holds. At some point, he had developed a technique to vibrate the blade in a way that the tip often disappeared.
Not vanishing completely, the blade didn’t come and go from random angles like a magician’s magic trick. What occurred was no less deceptive, as an inch or two was all it took to bypass a guard and inflict lethal damage. Unfortunately, even if he wanted to look down on that style, he had too many scars to say it wasn’t formidable.
If not for the hatchling being from the Elven Forest. Not just him, even Everhope would have likely fallen. Which was a statement one wasn’t supposed to hear. Evers were ever eternal. With authority given by the Will of the World, they were pseudo immortal. Living for as long as is allowed. The amount of power given by the Ever title was enough authority to put them above even people like the elf.
Having now lost a large portion of that authority, Everwood still stood above, however now even while looking like a dead corpse moving off will alone. He wasn’t able to instantly kill the elf that was just below Evers in strength. Every time Everwood came close to killing him, Everhope would step in to stop him. As someone with full authority, he should be able to handle Everwood without question. Only who was Everwood and who was Everhope.
One had fought for hundreds of years on battlefields, while the other had been alive for thousands of years in conflict for a large majority of that time. While being prided as one of the youngest Evers to ever exist, to Everwind it wasn’t something to brag about. One of the reasons he was willing to go around with Everwar was because he listened. While he needed his help, it didn’t change that he didn’t wildly use his authority and even developed a way to stop it from effecting his opponents in fights. While he didn’t struggle much in fights.
An Ever with full authority of their title could subdue someone right below them by simply releasing that authority. Even with a severely weakened authority, since there were now three Everwoods, the elf was still put on his knees for nearly five minutes, barely able to cope with that bit of authority. Saying nothing else of an Ever’s full authority. Now, as someone who prided themselves as one of the youngest, it was clear now that he never once struggled in a fight. Likely abusing his authority every opportunity he was given.
In Everwind’s mind, Everhope was barely qualified to call himself an Ever. All that ambition and will to obtain the title was used, as once he reached the top he had lost his edge. Turning dull to the mundane authority in the human world. Watching the fight, he glanced at Everwar. Feeling his gaze, he turned to look at him, giving him a strange look. Seeing the look, he couldn’t help but question the look he was given. He looked at the fight, as if trying to see what he missed.
Suddenly, the stalemate between the two changed rapidly. A large movement followed with a huge outburst of mana that wasn’t the norm of Everwood’s style. A huge sword appeared behind him, filled with the authority of an Ever. With grit teeth, Everhope needed to take the blow head on. In terms of mana capacity, Ever’s were different, however their efficiency with mana was what really put them a part.
While the entire fight showed Everhope his place amongst Evers, this blow was the largest he had received the entire fight. By all rights, he was stronger than Everwood. With full authority, he had more power at his disposal. However, Everwood’s experience and techniques showed him he didn’t have the ability to take advantage of his edge. Worse now he was shown that his mana efficiency, that was around hundred and ten percent, was far below Everwood’s own.
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That was to say that when using mana, he would receive a ten percent boost to the power of his attacks or defense with a set standard of mana. This was by no means small, there were a few individuals below Ever. None of them had efficiency above hundred and five percent. Still, he couldn’t comprehend how Everwood had to be at least a hundred and twenty-five by a healthy estimation. That was to say, he had never once let himself go in thousands of years. Never once giving up on his practice that was both tedious and nearly useless. Evers were forbidden from participating in wars. For all intents and purpose, rank of Ever put them at the top with almost no chances to fight.
The only reason they were able to fight now was because this was a meadow, spawned by the Will of the World, otherwise fighting would rend the earth and impact countless. Such would make them an enemy to the Will of the World. They who held her authority, a double-edged blade. While giving them unequal power, they were thus pawns that had to adhere to a set of rules.
With enough voice to push wind and space away, creating a violent vibration that caused a rumble to spread through the air as if it was the end of days. Enough mana had been poured in to make the illustration to become part of reality, as it blocked out the sun. Sitting in the shadow, Everhope had no choice but to defend for both him and the elf.
If filled with intent, turning his back on the blade would allow the controller, Everwood, to turn the majestic mana blade and cut him down without any defense. Therefore, given no choice, he gathered all his mana to ensure he would survive. The intent and will in the blade ensured Everwood would be drained. Dissimilar to an attack, defense didn’t expand all energy, while Everwood would lose everything, he could use all his mana and retain a bit for a counterattack.
Bringing his blade up as he tilted it slightly at a downward diagonal angle above his head. He poured his and the elves' mana into the blade before steadying himself. He would be lying if he said he didn’t regret it slightly by allying with the elves. Only with the two together, they would be able to hunt down the other two Everwoods and with both allied they would be nearly undisputed. Only Everblood and Everwater never involved themselves in politics, Everblood was easy to avoid, however they only needed to tiptoe around Everwater and everything else would be below them. He refused to lose.
As the mana blade came crashing down, it caused both Everwar and Everwind to produce mana shields in front of them. Seeing Everwind fill his shield with authority, Everwar was quick to follow suit. The two seemingly invisible entities in the sky simply looked down with interest. Izic even had a huge smile on his face, trying to hold back his laughter.
A large clump of dirt rained down as a dust cloud had covered the entire field. As everything calmed down, it was first possible to see the observers. Everwind had a nonchalant expression on his face. He knew from experience what type of man Everwood was. Everwar was breathing heavily as he looked at his shield that had cracks in it. Never had Everwind fought serious as they had never gone to war together, therefore he had never seen him fight seriously. Squeezing his fingers into a fist, he felt nothing but excitement he hadn’t felt since he committed genocide the last time he was in the Goblin Kingdom.
As peace and tranquility returned, the first two to react were Elizabeth and Izic. Elizabeth closed her eyes before sighing. Izic was laughing hysterically, unable to hold any of it in. If those below could hear it, they would make the entire situation worse. While looking worse for wear, the two were perfectly fine, if looked from a before and after the last attack. They had pale faces, and Everhope eyes were ablaze with hatred and anger that he had never felt in his entire life.
Everwood on the other hand was simply gone. While looking as serious as could be, the attack didn’t have an ounce of will inside it. After injecting mana and authority, he turned around and left as soon as the blade kicked up a storm to obscure the field of view of the entire battlefield. Kicking off the ground, Everhope tried to go after Everwood, however he quickly stopped as Everwar stood in front of him.
Stopping suddenly with his guard up, Loki looked at him as he pointed at him with a very serious expression on his face with mana cycling viciously through his body. As silence fell, he opened his mouth, “Hahahaha, look at you!”
With a red face, Everhope wanted nothing more than to tear him into pieces. However, he wasn’t in a position to do so. It was no secret that Everwar and Everwind had been traveling together for some unknown reason. While there was no alliance, the two were working together to find something. If he made a move, it was unclear if Everwind would intervene. He was also in no position for another fight.
Closing his eyes, he breathed out a deep exhale before turning to the elf. Seeing Everhope’s expression the man wanted to refuse but sensing the man’s anger he decided against such action. Closing his eyes as he used some type of technique, he opened his eyes before point in a certain direction. As he moved, another person blocked his path. Only this time he didn’t dare show any anger. A person no Ever wanted to deal with.
“She is under my protection.” Izic’s voice was light and filled with mirth of laughter that was not hidden at all.
“Izic you can’t interview with our business. We are under the jurisdiction of the Will of the World. Doing so would be an act of war.”
The laughter died as he heard this. Without making a move, a slapping sound resounded through the meadow. Loud and crisp. “Are you threatening me? Hahaha, are you dumb?”
Taking a step, the fallen Everhope had wanted to stand back up, but couldn’t. In his anger, he had forgotten who Izic was. A mad spirit that existed inside but outside their world. A being that seemed to rival the Will of the World without being a threat. For this reason, he was allowed to exist, but his actions were heavily restricted. However, he was by no means easy to deal with, and by no means sane.
Continuing to release his power, Everhope couldn’t even look up as he could barely keep himself from eating dirt under the pressure. Izic spoke in a voice that sounded happy and fun, only his words were anything but, “I always wanted to experiment on an Ever. I had one in mind to see if an Ever was truly immortal. While you can die, I had one experiment in mind to see if I could maintain the brain while pulling out the spine.”
Kneeling down, the entire meadow lost the warmth of the sun, clouds at some point had come to cover the entire field. Whispering into his ear, only everyone could hear his words, “Jessica and the boy our under my protection. You’re free to send two of the same rank after her at a time. Or instead, send one person one rank above her. If you break this, I will break you. But don’t worry, you will have plenty of time to think of escape or revenge as I experiment with your body. So either way, I win.”