Chapter 142: Early Advantage

Converging at the center, Armaros and Alex’s iris weapons clatter against one another as both young men look to gain the early advantage. Transferring his gaze from the shaking weapons to the golden earring to Armaros, Alex’s shimmering orange eyes tremble as his hair begins to blaze.

A tear sheds down his cheek, “Bee was only ten years old! Ten. Years. Old! She was happy and kind and smart and funny! She did nothing wrong! Bee wasn’t any kind of target; she was just a child!”

His hair and eyes glistening with a silver gleam, Armaros remains silent as he holds his position.

“Don’t you– do you not feel any remorse for what you did to her?! For what you did to them?!”

There’s a long pause as Alex allows Armaros to soak in his question, silently demanding an answer from Armaros as their weapons continue to rattle.

“What… do you mean?” asks Armaros, unable to comprehend Alex’s question.

Alex grits his teeth, “What I mean is that you killed a little girl for nothing! Absolutely no reason at all! That girl had a family! People who loved her! And yet, you don’t even seem to care! How can you be so heartless?! So insensitive to murdering an innocent child?! Why– why did you take her away from us?!”

“I– I’m confused. The details within the report included that the child of the pure was a threat that had to be eliminated. I may have misjudged who the correct target was, but…” Armaros shakes his head, starting to get flustered. “No! I couldn’t possibly know that girl wasn’t the target back then! I had a limited window, and she was the only child in the house when I arrived! The pure also protected her! She was a threat! No… no, no! She was just collateral damage; it’s rare, but such instances can happen on missions. I can’t believe I… I was–”

“You made a mistake!” interrupts Alex. “Mission this, report that. You killed an innocent ten-year-old girl! And the best you can do to justify that murder is that she was merely collateral damage for your error?!”

“Shut up!” yells Armaros, pushing Alex back a step as Armaros’s emotionless shell starts to crack. “Everything I do is for a purpose! If I was right, I would’ve been praised for my efforts! I knew this mission could’ve been a one-way trip, yet I followed through with the minimal information I had anyway! And as far as my superior knows, I completed my mission! Shouldn’t that be enough?! Now look at how things worked out! The real descendant I need to kill is right in front of me!”

Realizing there’s no getting through to Armaros, the rage Alex has been suppressing finally erupts. Opening his mouth, Alex sharply blows a quick huff of scorching hot air out of his mouth at Armaros, whose face is only a foot away.

Quickly thrusting his arm forward and activating rift flow, Armaros instantly vanishes before getting hit. Having been informed by Zeris about Armaros’s rift ability beforehand, Alex turns around on a dime and activates orasi to locate any traces of iris that would disclose Armaros’s exit point.

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Detecting some iris directly in front of him, Alex fuels his right arm up with iris and slashes it diagonally in front of him. His flames don’t connect with anything, but the sparse residue of iris backs off before Armaros unveils himself roughly twenty meters away from Alex.

“Seems Zeris taught you a few new tricks,” says Armaros in between heavy breaths before wiping his forearm across his mouth as he tries to mask his weariness.

Observing the assassin’s body language, Alex thinks.

He’s exhausted. I don’t know how much Scar’s fatigued state will hinder his fighting capabilities, but Zeris was right. I might actually have a chance at winning.

“You know Scar,” says Alex, trying to remain focused and not lose his cool. “You’re not the only one who decided to send themselves on a one-way trip.”

Now, let’s see if this works.

Clenching both his hands into fists, the fiery blades previously edging along the outer rim of Alex’s fingertips vanish. Carefully controlling his ability, Alex frees up the use of his hands as he keeps the scorching razorblades operative from his wrists all the way up to his elbows.

Hurling his right fist forward, Alex sends a preemptive vast fireball toward Armaros. The fireball wasn’t particularly fast, but it was great cover for Alex as he threw his left arm backward and snapped his fingers, igniting his hand with flames to serve as a fuel source to increase his speed.

Armaros’s movements were sluggish but instinctual as his muscle memory took over.

Channeling iris into his legs, he dodges the fireball and mutters, “Kathos.”

Spawning a broken mirror behind him mid-dodge, Armaros throws both daggers inside before reaching in and grabbing a glass, slanted block-like object. Taking the object out and tossing it on the ground in front of him, Armaros intended to use it to change both his speed and direction.

Channeling iris into his feet, Armaros lands and angles his right foot on the slanted block, his impact making the glass object crack. After his left foot lands on the block a moment later, the glass block is about to break as Armaros briefly squats down before pushing himself off the block at nearly a ninety-degree change of direction, the glass shattering behind him.

Kathos.

Spawning the broken mirror above him, the daggers Armaros had thrown in just a second earlier rebound back out and fall before him. Snagging both daggers out of the air, a re-armed Armaros closes the distance on an unsuspecting Alex, who still hasn’t realized the assassin had managed to jump around the fireball blast.

Bringing his right arm across his chest with his dagger pointed outward, Armaros prepares to use his blade to cut Alex’s head clean off his body with a single attack. Now only a few feet away from Alex, to his own surprise, Armaros’s hardened gaze suddenly softens.

As Armaros questions his resolve to kill for the first time in his life, Alex bellows out a roar and spins around with an expression blazing with an intense desire and seeking vengeance.

He knew! Rif–

His fist ablaze to an ample degree, Alex swings forward and punches Armaros across the face before the assassin can react.

Surprised he made direct contact, Alex followed through with his motions with as much force and vigor as he could muster, and Armaros was sent tumbling along the hardened mud surface.