The sounds of battle between the clerics and the now-Eldritch warriors roared up from beneath him. The cacophony promised violence and death for his potential newfound allies.

His fight with the King was on a timer now.

Long whips of fire still snaked out of the opening of the South Tower. Gi's legion died in puffs of Aether as they were torn and ripped apart. Gi himself swam in the air around the tower as he summoned more otters and tried to find a way through the King's attacks.

Gi fired off a [Divine Commandment] at the King's back, but the corrupted human was just too fast. Fire interceded his attacks before they had a chance to cross the distance. While his Aether had properties of light, it was still just aspected Aether. It didn't move instantly.

He needed to close the distance to make his attacks hit. His concern was that he'd already found an opening to close the distance and it was himself that was lacking.

Even if the defense was tighter now, he was confident that with enough Aether behind it [Papal Legion] could force his way through, but how did he actually win?

The King's fire whips could easily cut through his summons, quickly thinning out whatever horde he tried to bring to bear. No, Gi would save brute force as a last ditch effort. If he drained himself of Aether, he'd be unable to even fly himself and escape.

A lance of fire speared him in the chest, hitting with all the force of a car. Gi tumbled back through the air, falling a short ways before he could swim and catch himself up. That was the second time his breastplate had saved him from a nasty wound.

He might have to ask Danna to be nicer to Plutus when he got back.

When Gi refocused on the King, he grimaced. With his distraction, the King had resummoned his fire shield. The fire whips reignited shortly after and Gi was back to square one.

"I don't suppose we could call this a draw?" Gi asked the King, but as lost in the voices as he invariably was, he didn't respond.

With the pitch of battle increasing below him, he was out of time. He still wasn't sure why his fighting style felt so off, but Gi had always learned best by doing.

It was time to roll the dice.

"Danna, I hope you've got a little spare divinity for a stupid husband."

Gi took off through the air, swimming with all the speed he could muster. He dumped half of his remaining Aether into [Papal Legion], summoning his all white otters as he circled the tower.

The whips still danced across the open air, but Gi commanded his summons to dodge and most managed to not get turned into wild Aether before Gi had fully circled the tower.

After completing his manuever, fifty of his legion completely surrounded the tower, each of them dripping liquid light.

At his command, every one of them shot a [Divine Commandment] at the King. A few were cut down by the fire whips, but the rest crashed into the sphere of flames, causing an explosion that set all the King's furniture on fire.

"For the Underbridge!" Gi cried out before he and his legion all swam directly for the King. Like he'd expected, the small explosion only gave them a short window of time before the fire whips started slicing through his summons.

Gi, himself, fell a little behind as he was forced to dodge out of the way of one of the errant whips, but still almost twenty of his summons reached the range for them to cast [Endless Torrent].

The fire shield broke as before, but the King wasn't willing to stay on script.

He let his shield tank it long enough for him to roll out from under the deluge of water. Drops hit the burning furniture, but didn't manage to put it out. Smoke had started to billow out from the tower, dropping visibility in addition to the already lingering steam.

The King had brought himself up beside Gi and his attacks lashed out like an angry snake. Searing pain lit up his arm as four precise cuts pierced his robe to leave cauterizing slashes across his forearms.

While the robe hadn't been of the same quality as the breastplate, it too had been enchanted and it had barely helped against the King's attacks.

A snarl still cast its ugly light across King Rellington's face, his attention almost completely on him.

The remnants of his [Papal Legion] let off another round of [Divine Commandment]. Ancient streams of light stabbed into the Prince's back, but the weakness between Gi's attacks and theirs meant that it didn't pierce far.

Blood dripped into the pool of water at their feet, but the Eldritch energies still ran unimpeded in the King. In the next second, he flicked his whips to take out the last ones and it was now back to just the two of them in melee.

Like before, Gi dropped into (Five Hands Firefly). Where Gi focused on palm strikes to make use of his light attacks, the King focused on kicks to leave his hands free to wield his whips. The whips themselves were at least partially controlled by Aether as light stabbing attacks could be made without him repositioning his arms.

They exchanged blows and Gi had to take full advantage of his summons casting [Endless Deluge], his Waterborn Vitality Core, and his chest plate to keep himself uninjured. It was a constant balancing act of twisting to dodge or catch a lance of fire on his Hephaestus's Hearth instead of somewhere that would wound him.

The King, on the other hand, used his kicks to disrupt Gi's attacks. If Gi launched forward with a palm strike, the King would use a snap kick to change the angle of his attack, keeping any of his [Divine Commandments] from landing.

The difference was obvious.

Gi was getting hit, but the King was not. His speed just made it too easy for him to counter Gi's attacks and Gi was far too dependent on his summons to protect him to use them offensively.

Those were the just trappings of their styles though and how they'd interact. It didn't fully explain the lacking feeling he got while fighting.

The smoke continued to billow up from the four posted bed and if it wasn't for the tower being open to the air, both of them would have succumbed to oxygen deprivation by that point. Each of their breaths were coming thick and heavy and Gi could feel the flagging of his own limbs as exhaustion was desperate to take hold.

Gi absorbed a whip attack on his armor, using the transferred momentum to hurl himself into the water, and transform it into a dive. He came up on the other side of the King, using a summon to block the incoming whip.

He fired off a [Divine Commandment] but his aim was sloppy coming up out of the dive. The beam of light went wide. Gi had the brief idea of controlling its path, but a back hook kick from the prince barreled towards Gi's face.

He brought his other arm up to form an X as he blocked the kick.

Even with the increased strength, it only sent him back a few steps. Gi couldn't afford to pause, but that single block had been enlightening.

To put it stupidly, he had two arms now.

It wasn't as though he'd forgotten, but his hard won [Fighting Style] had been built to optimize fighting with a singular arm and the Skills that he'd had at the time of the Final Dungeon. [Fighting Style] was a unique skill from the fact that it could be changed through intentional effort or momentous inspiration.

Its flaw that Gi was now discovering is that it didn't naturally lend itself to innovation. He had come into this fight just using his Skill and not forcing it to adapt to his new circumstances. It was so easy to do that he probably wouldn't have noticed if not for his current somewhat dire situation.

He rolled under another of the Prince's attacks. It struck one of the supports of the four poster bed and it now sagged, most of its accoutrement already burned.

Gi returned the attack with a [Divine Commandment], and like before, the King used a kick to make it go wide. This time, Gi sent another stream of light from his other hand and this one cut into the King's rich red robe.

Having two arms wasn't the only change that had happened since he'd initially evolved his [Fighting Style].

His Soul had awakened and he'd realized another aspect of his being. Most of his main Skills had evolved in some way and he even had some new Skills to incorporate.

It was about time his [Fighting Style] got an upgrade.

The second attack had changed the tempo of their fight and Gi needed to take advantage of that if he wanted to have the space to experiment. First, he activated [Divine Spouse] and a golden arm appeared at his side.

Flames immediately attacked it, but the hands were entirely formed of Divine aspected Aether and it only shimmered as the Fire passed through it. It did disrupt his ability to control it as it passed through and Gi's follow up strike with the golden limb was slow.

The King kicked it away at the same time his second whip cut through the water at Gi's feet. With his concentration on the arm, he was slow to react and his attempt at turning it into a glancing blow that his Core would take care of failed. The flames tore into his calf, sending him stumbling backwards. Only the water at their feet kept him from sustaining an even worse injury.

"Gi! Get your furry butt down here!" Ellen's shout carried across the battlefield and even now his Amulet of Many Tongues translated it for him. For her to ask for him, the situation down there must be really dire indeed.

He needed to end this. Now.

What Skills could he add to his [Fighting Style]? What was the theme?

Another summon burst into Aether and water as it blocked one of the King's attacks. Gi used another quick second [Divine Commandment] to put the King off balance. He was rapidly adapting though and only the addition of a third attack in the manner of the golden hand kept his return attack from taking Gi's head off.

Gi's movements were awful, but if he could just force his style to evolve, that would all smooth out.

He mentally flicked through his Skills. Ranged Light. Invisibility. Teleportation through Space Manipulation. Short Water Area of Effect. Additional Aether based limbs. Clones.

Those were some amazingly strong Skills he knew, but how did they combine? Where was the connection?

Accidentally, Gi returned to the well-worn grooves of (Five Hands Firefly) and found himself on the backfoot. Another attack landed on Gi's breastplate sending him stumbling precariously into a range that would favor the King with his arcing whips.

His current style was just too predictable.

An idea slowly came to him as he sacrificed two additional summons to return to the range he needed. He and the King traded a few blows as Gi's idea slowly turned into a concrete plan.

In answer to his solidifying thoughts, his Soul thrummed as the barest hint of a light, upbeat jazz was sent across his Skill [Divine Spouse]. Its melody was staccato and syncopated, but there was still a defined rhythm beneath it that held the whole thing together.

It was the perfect divine inspiration.

Gi started off his attack with another double blast of light. The King expected them now, but it gave Gi enough time to drop two summons for an [Endless Deluge]. These barely got their attacks out before a whip cut through them in a burst of steam.

A golden fist launched from above, but the King's Fire Aether disrupted its path so he could easily sidestep it. While the attack failed, it did pull the King's gaze up.

Even with his Soul senses, the scattering of Aether from his summons and the golden hand had given Gi plenty of time to cast [Concealing Light] and dart between his foe's legs underwater.

A kick against the submerged stone of the tower brought Gi flying out of the water with a massive uppercut to the King's chin. His teeth clacked together as they were forcefully closed, and if the King hadn't been so enhanced, that attack might have ended the fight right there.

Gi's explosion of inspiration had hit just like a herald of trumpets, dancing across the beat and interrupting the flow of battle. With the King recovering from the uppercut, Gi slid back into (Five Hands Firefly)'s familiar groove that now felt like the underlying beat holding up Gi's new burgeoning style.

Another [Divine Commandment] managed to cut into the King as he tried to claw his way back into the fight. As soon as the King settled into their former routine, Gi broke it again with a dual [Divine Commandment].

The King ducked low out of the way of the first one and sent a side kick at the same time in an amazing feat of flexibility, but Gi's attack wasn't done.

He flexed his dwindling Aether, using [God's Passage] to shorten the distance between Gi's palm and the King's chest. A beam of light cut through his chest and he could make out the blast of light from behind.

The ancient power of Gi's Will of Subverted Fate seemed to thrum at the decisive strike. The weight of history hung in the space of the South Tower as Gi's Aura finally broke through the oppressive air of the Old Ones.

The violet energy that had been pouring from the runes that were carved into King's chest flickered for the first time. They didn't burn out like Gi hoped they would, but it was a step in the right direction.

The combination of his own exhaustion and his near empty Aether tried to pull his confidence out from under him. He knew the fight wasn't over, but a sudden notification made Gi smile.

Your [Fighting Style] has evolved from (Five Hands Firefly) to (Boundless Serenade of the Enlightened Hands)!