Chapter 143: The Breath of Raging Fire
In the split second before Alex’s fist made contact, Armaros was able to transfer some iris into his cheek. However, not even a quarter of the needed iris to protect himself from the attack was channeled in time. The sheer power behind Alex’s weltering blow was staggering, leaving behind a toasted imprint of his fist on the right side of Armaros’s face.
But as soon as the assassin was sent flying, the following thought was already being processed in his mind.
I need to get back on my feet!
Plunging his daggers into the ground to stop himself from rolling any further, Armaros’s hands became slathered in mud as he used his iris to submerge his arms into the ground. With his hands burrowed underground, the rest of his tumbling body was forced to try and stop abruptly, but the power of Alex’s punch could not easily be dealt with. His hands and forearms violently tunneled underneath the ground, and Armaros’s body painfully contorted as he tried to stop his momentum. As he finally stilled, agonizing pain radiated from his arms, abdomen, and chest.
Adrenaline running high, Armaros quickly took his hands out of the ground, wanting to stand upright, but Alex was already on the offensive. Leaping toward Armaros and snapping his fingers, a small fireball was cast at the assassin’s legs, forcing him to move them out of the way. Unable to plant his feet, Armaros’s rift flow technique is rendered useless. He’s forced to go on the defensive as Alex snaps his fingers twice more, sending another pair of fireballs toward Armaros’s lower body.
As Armaros crawls backward to dodge the attack, Alex lands on top of him, forcing the assassin’s back to the ground. Coalescing his fists with flames, Alex attempts to finish Armaros off. Not trying to make any physical contact, Alex heaves his right fist forward and shoots a point-blank sweltering ball of fire at Armaros’s head, but the assassin manages to dodge the attack by weaving his head to the side. In quick succession, Alex blasts another point-black shot at Armaros with his left and then his right again, but Armaros weaves out of the way of both attacks.
Frustrated, Alex quickly inhales through his nose, planning to scorch Armaros’s entire upper body to ash with his breath. Armaros understood that dodging this attack from Alex would be impossible at such close range. Realizing what is about to happen, Armaros, still holding on to his daggers, bends his left elbow inward and barely slashes Alex along the torso.
Alex grimaces in pain, delaying his concentrated breath of fire for just a second as Armaros hurls his body to the side, attempting to slash Alex on the underside of his neck with the extra momentum. Alex is forced to dodge by leaning back, momentarily giving up his strength and positional advantage over Armaros.
Not wasting his chance, Armaros lifts the dagger off the ground with his right hand. Caught in an uncomfortable position, Armaros channels iris into his index and middle finger, the only two fingers on the backside of the dagger’s handle. Pushing only those two fingers forward, the dagger injects itself into Alex’s thigh.
With Alex grunts in agony as the blade buries itself into his thigh, Armaros attempts to slash him on the underside of his neck once more with his left-handed dagger, this time in the reverse direction. Alex hops backward to dodge again before completely backing off Armaros.
Being able to get back on his feet, Armaros spits out some blood in between heavy breaths as Alex yanks the dagger out of his leg. Without peeling his eyes away from Armaros, Alex uses his flaming blades to cauterize the wound immediately. But even though he tried to keep his eyes trained on his opponent, it didn’t matter, as Armaros cast his arm forward with a layer of silver iris encompassing it.
Activating rift flow, Armaros vanishes out of sight, leaving behind his other dagger as it falls and plants itself blade first into the dried mud.
While in his rift, Armaros manifests his broken mirror again and seizes a fresh pair of daggers. Studying Alex as he passes through his body, Alex’s eyes track Armaros’s every movement.
I must be even slower than last time. I need to wrap this up quickly. I don’t have much iris left.
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Quickly maneuvering himself into Alex’s blind spot, Armaros exits his rift and attempts to lacerate Alex in the midsection in the same spot where he had gotten a blow earlier. However, Armaros’s dagger was blocked by one of Alex’s razor blades before it could make contact. Transferring iris into his legs, Armaros disengages and jumps back to safety near the perimeter of the spatial arena.
Breathing heavily in and out, Armaros struggles to remain upright as his fatigue catches up with his body. Snapping his fingers, Alex refuses to let Armaros rest as he blasts a fan of flames in Armaros’s direction.
Turning and running toward the nearby curved wall, Armaros is forced to lessen the amount of iris output that was previously defending most of his body as he channels iris into his legs. Planning to rebound himself off the wall to jump over the attack, Armaros grits his teeth as soreness aches.
Leaping his backfoot off the wall, Armaros hears a snap of the fingers. The fan of flames only a few feet away suddenly expanded in size and height many times over. With the flames large enough to catch Armaros out mid-air, the assassin realized he could not dodge the incoming attack.
Spawning his broken mirror below him to shield himself from the attack, the mirror can swallow up most of the flames, only partial flares nicking away at Armaros’s legs and arms from around the mirror’s perimeter.
But Armaros wasn’t half as concerned about himself as what would happen to his ability. His broken mirror was a handy realm ability in battle, practically acting as a pocket dimension where Armaros could retrieve any glass item or weapon needed. However, realm abilities are weak against elemental abilities or, in this instance, Alex’s flames.
The outer rim of his mirror being burned away, Armaros understood that he wouldn’t be able to utilize his broken mirror ability anymore during this battle. This means that the pair of daggers clutched in his hands was the last bit of weaponry the assassin could rely on for the rest of the fight.
As Armaros fell through the air, Alex leaped forward to strike him. Crossing his bladed arms across his chest, Alex swiftly closed the distance, practically salivating at the mouth at delivering this final blow. As Armaros raised his daggers to block the attack, Alex’s flaming razorblades roared down on Armaros’s blades as he barely managed to stop Alex’s frontal assault.
Coalescing iris into the sole of his foot, Alex raised his right leg, intending to thrust whatever flames he could at Armaros’s legs. It was a surprise attack.
Feeling the warmth of the flames and activating orasi, Armaros detects what Alex plans to do. Taking a gamble and splitting apart his legs, Alex completely whiffs his attack. Armaros forced Alex’s bladed arms slightly to the side, drawing on whatever strength he could before pushing himself away.
Both men plunge back down to the dried mud surface with some distance separating them. Alex’s inexperience with iris visibly starting to take its’ toll, the two exhausted guys force themselves back up.
However, Alex still believed he had more in the tank than Armaros.
Still sticking to the strategy of not allowing Armaros any time to rest, Alex snaps his fingers, and a ring of fire encircles himself and Armaros. Now trapped inside, Alex smirks at Armaros’s disposition.
“Nowhere left to run,” says Alex before blasting himself forward with flames.
Snapping his fingers, Alex fires another fireball at Armaros. Not wanting to use any iris, Armaros jumps, tucks, and rolls out of the way. Instinctively deciding to keep his overall defenses up, Armaros channels iris along the perimeter of most of his body as a layer of protection, soothing his soreness.
Rift flow will get me out of this ring, but I don’t want to use that unless I absolutely have to. I’ll draw Ace close and strike him when his guard is down. Yeah, I just need to–
Armaros’s thought was interrupted by a most bizarre sensation the assassin had only ever experienced twice before. He never understood what this sensation meant. The only thing Armaros knew… was that he was in grave danger each time this feeling overtook him.
Flinging his head to the side, a dark green hue suddenly flashed by Armaros’s eyes. Alex was forced to a halt as the bizarre weapon planted itself deep into the ground. Both staring at the object, Armaros discerned that it was in the shape of a thin glowing iris disc.
That would’ve taken my head off if I hadn’t moved. Is this another ability of Zeris? No, he already has three. It must be… either Code or Ember.
As a fatigued Armaros lost his concentration and turned around to see who it was, Alex lunged forward, hoping to capitalize on this golden opportunity. Reeling his flaming right arm back over his head, Alex cast his arm downward to deliver the final blow on a distracted Armaros, but his assault was blocked.
Not by Armaros. Armaros was still looking away, trying to locate who had attacked him.
It all happened in less than a second, but a third person had joined the battle and jumped between Alex and Armaros to block Alex’s attack, using his ability as a barrier. As spurts of dark green sparked off the peculiar shield, Alex realized who the third person was.
Code…?