[Shift — Daymond]

The endless amounts of running was tiring me out. I felt like a chicken with its head chopped off trying to peek through every doorway and window to see if I could locate whatever hole the king barricaded himself within.

The hordes of knights waddling after me weren't helping either.

If I had to describe it, I had the same feeling that you get whenever you’re running late for work, but every stop light was red—just pure annoyance.

“Airstrike Tornado!” Wind swept up dozens of knights standing before me, flinging them across the castle. I looked back to see them spin around and then slam to the ground from high within the air.

“There’s no end to these guys!”

They entered the hall in stampedes, every time I knocked out a few, ten more scurried in to take their place.

After thinning out the herd a little more, I ran up to the second story. There were a handful of knights guarding a room at the end of the hall, their swords were already drawn and pointed in my direction. If they were guarding it, that meant there had to be something of importance behind those doors, right?

“The king?”

I ran full tilt directly at them.

“Stop! Stop it right now!” they commanded… although it sounded more like a plea than a command.

I lifted my knife and fired off another current of air, knocking all of the knights over in one strike like a rack of bowling pins. Some knights slammed into the wall while others flew through the door busting it wide open. I skirted to a stop right before the room, peeking my head through the opening.

I saw Claudius first, and then Cathy. Both of them were sitting on a large gray fluffy couch. Their vision was fixed on the fallen knights—they were still stunned by the sudden commotion of the door being blown off the hinges.

“Good god you worthless peasants! You dare call yourselves knights of Raeville?”

Cathy’s chains rattled as she perked up at the sight of me, her face full of delight, “Daymond! You came!”

“Oh… it’s you,” I said, glancing around the room, “Is Rae somewhere in here?”

Claudius didn’t give her a chance to answer.

He pushed off of the couch and unsheathed his sword. “I haven't a clue how you managed to slip past Velbir,” he grumbled, “but your nonsense ends now!”

As Claudius stomped forward, I peeked over my shoulder to see a horde of angry knights trickling in from the staircase.

“Weapon or not, you’re still surrounded,” Claudius' voice rumbled. “There’s no way in hell you’re getting past me…”

I stepped back from the doorway. Claudius lifted his hand as the knights surrounded me in a large circle. I lowered my posture and held out my knife, making sure to focus on him.

“...Attack.” Claudius said flatly.

The knights swarmed in from all angles, their fierce screams filling the castle hall.

“Airstrike Storm!” I pivoted the blade around me and flicked the air like the sharp crack of a whip with all of my might. A barrage of air burst from the blade and fired in all directions in a massive whirlwind that blocked out the sun. I heard the piercing screams of the knights and sharp clattering of metal all around me. The powerful gust of wind made it impossible to see any of the knights other than Claudius, who stood firmly before me, calmly maintaining his shield as though my attack were nothing more than a light breeze. The gust of wind forced me to cover myself with my arms and lean forward with all my body weight to keep from being taken by the storm.

As the tornado faded, the air cleared to reveal piles of knights slumped over each other like dozens of piles of laundry.

Claudius drew in a deep breath, “Quite impressive. It seems your attacks have gotten stronger. But, it is all too apparent that you have difficulty controlling your own power.”

He balled his hand into a fist, a translucent green bubble formed around him and rapidly expanded outwards, “Shield Break.”

The bubble exploded with a neon green shockwave, the impact felt similar to a bomb, the back of my head pounded against the hard floor as my body slid across the ground for a good fifty yards.

I immediately felt the severe throbbing of an impossibly large migraine pulsate in my head with each heartbeat. I struggled to my feet, my eyes spun around dizzyingly as intense waves of nausea lathered my stomach.

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My hand steadied against the floor, trying to get it to stop spinning beneath me.

“I have no time to toy around with you,” Claudius said as he walked briskly, “I’ll be sure to make this quick.”

I staggered to a pitiful stance, “Airstrike Slash!”

“Shield.” My attack dissipated before Claudius’ outstretched hand. I stumbled over and leaned my body up against the wall, focusing my vision.

“Your attacks are still much too weak to defeat me,” Claudius said.

I turned my back against the wall, my face tilted upwards toward the ceiling.

“Don’t worry,” I said, panting. “Just gimme a sec, it’s just a warm up…”

Claudius smiled and extended both of his hands, “Shield Break!”

“Airstrike Slash!” The impacts canceled out. A strong gust of wind flew across my body, waving the slack in my shirt around like a flag.

I set my footing firmly against the ground and trained my blade, fighting against the dizziness.

“You seem to be having trouble standing,” Claudius said, snarkily, “You were foolish to fight me, boy—”

“Airstrike Ultraspear!”

Claudius’ hand jerked, “Shield!”

The piercing wind collided with Claudius’ invisible shield, breaking it apart like a thick wall of glass being blown to shards. His body jolted as if he were jabbed to the stomach.

“What!”

I swung mightily, “Airstrike Slash!”

His eyes caught fire, he swung both arms outward, “Wall Of Haven!”

A thirty-foot-tall translucent neon green wall erected from the ground, covering Claudius on all four sides.

My slash collided, blowing off a chunk, but not nearly enough to reach him.

“Damn it! He had an even better shield all this time?”

The wall turned into green dust and faded into the air. “Maybe now you understand. There is no way which you can bypass my defensive abilities. However, I admire your effort. I do admit, you are the strongest foe that I have battled in quite some time—”

“Save your stupid ass compliments! This shit isn’t over.”

I swung my blade furiously, sending forward multiple ultraspears in rapid succession. Claudius raised up his wall of protection, my attacks chipped away at his defense like a machete to a redwood tree.

“Yes! Keep going!” Claudius said, “And now show me your grand finale!”

I sent forward more fruitless strikes before pausing to catch my breath. Claudius smirked, “Don’t tell me you’ve given up,” he swung his hands forward, “Shield Spring!”

Dozens of green shields the size of tables spun from his hands, hurling in my direction. I slashed through each incoming projectile, my lungs gasping for air.

“Any moment now!” Claudius yelled, his arms effortlessly swaying from side to side. “Show me what you’ve got, one last time before you're crushed to death!”

He laughed insidiously. The incoming projectiles became faster as he swung his arms in lightning succession. My arm ached and cramped from trying to keep up with the attack. My body couldn’t hold out much longer, at this point I was running off pure adrenaline.

The shields were relentless. They sliced through the air. There was no sign of him stopping as my shoulders popped and strained from overexertion. Still, the shields flung forward. Sweat dripped down into my eyes as my body moved, my breathing rasped and my mind slowed behind. Out of instinct I continued swinging even though the shields meshed together until I couldn’t distinguish one from the other. My brain was in overdrive. I needed to find some way to distract him before my arm gave out and his flying shields crushed me to death. That was the one and only thought that raced through my head. I couldn’t… couldn’t allow myself to get crushed.

Get crushed…

Crushed…

For a moment, I glanced up at the ceiling above Claudius, and an idea flashed into my head.

I wasn’t able to cut through Claudius’ defenses, but I could definitely cut through the ceiling if I sent a powerful enough current.

I yanked my gaze back onto his incoming shields, “Airstrike tornado!”

The tornado of wind shot from my blade and out towards him, his shields were ensnared in the wind and twirled upwards before crashing into all the nearby castle walls.

Claudius lifted his arms to shield himself.

With the remaining stamina I had left, I slashed wildly toward the ceiling directly above him. My sharp gusts of wind sliced through, revealing the bright blue sky as the ceiling crumbled in from above—boulders of stone tumbled downwards.

The protective wall Claudius had was definitely powerful. It protected him on all four sides, but it left the top of his head exposed. He had no choice but to lift his hands above his head and use Shield to block the crumbling debris.

The moment he did, I was ready.

As his hands raised, I pressed forward to use my most powerful attack.

“Airstrike Storm!” I fired the storm towards him. The gigantic tornado swept him off his feet and up into the air.

His muffled screams swirled within the cyclone as he flailed his arms and legs trying to remain in control. His eyes darted in an attempt to protect himself from my next attack, but the tornado was far too quick.

With one final strike, I launched off my back leg. With every remaining ounce of strength, I threw my knife, sending it spiraling toward his body with the speed of a jet engine.

“Airstrike Jet!” My scream echoed throughout the castle, as the knife boomed forward. A fierce canon blast of air surrounded the tip of the blade—rushing toward Claudius with unbelievable quickness and exponentially gaining speed.

The impact tore through Claudius’ golden chestplate as if it were little more than a sheet of printer paper, forming a bloody cavern where his heart and ribs were supposed to be. The blow knocked his body out of the tornado and sent him spiraling onto the ground with a loud thud. Where he laid, lifeless.

I flashed the knife back into my hand, and stood guard for a few fleeting moments.

When the tornado vanished and the air cleared, I immediately collapsed down to my knee and forced in as much air as my lungs could hold. I could feel my heartbeat pounding in my throat like a drum being beat with a mallet.