Fader kicked off from his section of the platform and the shadows that clung to the onyx ground rose up, pushing him along to increase his speed. It wasn't a Skill, but simply his natural Agility and Strength that sent him flying across the platform.
His own Agility having reached the functional cap, he skipped backwards and avoided the strong overhand from Fader's sword. It seemed to be enchanted, but it wasn't the same demon steel one that he'd had in the previous dungeon. That one had been lost to carry his party to safety.
As the sword struck the glass platform of Gi's side, cracks sparked outwards. Gi stumbled backwards as he felt the blow directly against his person as a quake against his very essence. If the stars and galaxies overhead didn't clue him in, this wasn't a completely physical place.
The place represented their inner selves as well as their shared fate. The three pillars on each side weren't just a visual, but an actual representation of their Knots. The cracks in the glass platform quickly repaired themselves, but Gi realized that he wouldn't able to let him strike at it with any frequency or he'd be finished just as quickly as if the blows were hitting his body instead.
Fader looked curiously at his sword and then the ground as he watched the cracks heal themselves. He'd dropped his visor back down, but from their shared connection, Gi could tell he was grinning. Fader raised his sword high in the air to strike down at the glass platform again.
Without hesitating, Gi fired off a [Divine Ire], intending to interrupt his attack. As the three bolts of light shot across the short distance to him, he activated his own ability [Burning Descent]. With a plume of fire that clung to his feet, he shot upwards, dodging Gi's hasty attack and rocketing towards him too quickly for him to dodge when he wasn't already in motion.
Instead, Gi activated his Domain [Archbishop] as quick as a thought. A golden otter appeared in front of him, shield tilted up towards the sky. Two more appeared on either side of the shielding otter with maces raised for a counterattack as he landed. Gi, himself, only had time to brace against his summoned otter's back to provide additional strength against the blow.
It didn't matter. Fader's blow slammed into his summon's shield, cracking it before sending the force into his summoned otter. Even though they'd gotten more durable one as part of his domain and when his Vitality had reached C, the otter's body barely absorbed any of the force before dissipating.
Thankfully, that second that both the shield and the otter had bought him was enough. The otter's body struck Gi with the force of a freight train, sending him hurling backwards before it poofed into Aether and the sword cracked into the floor again.
Gi's being trembled, but he barely took note of it before his back slammed into one of the non-Knot glass pillars. It shattered from his momentum and if it wasn't for Gi's high Vitality, Unique Constitution, and his Robes of Demon Steel, he'd have been dead. As it was, he'd managed to deflect the attack enough that it wouldn't hamper his fighting.
He wouldn't be able to take one of those attacks head on however.
With a shield bash and a swipe of his sword, he immediately dissipated his other two summons and started back towards him again. Gi wasn't about to trade blows though. He'd already gotten himself up and started running, forcing Fader to stop and turn if he wanted to chase him.
With his leap ability on cooldown, the human slowed, conserving his Stamina, and was content to watch Gi circle him. Gi, on the other hand, was forming his strategy. Fader's strength was much higher than he'd guessed, pushing even past his own. For them to share a fate, he couldn't be many levels past him and definitely not enough to amount for the difference in Strength.
Something was aiding his destined foe. Gi expected the answer to come to his mind as he considered the human, but it appeared that this was outside of their connection or perhaps something he wasn't allowed to understand yet. It was irritating, but it didn't change what Gi needed to do.
"Stop running, fucking coward," Fader growled.
He ignored him. Instead, he circled through the shadowy part and leapt over the river of fire before sprinting back into his own section of the platform. As he ran, he passed all of the glass pillars that dotted his realm. Across six of the pillars, a summoned otter appeared on each of them.
Eighteen bolts of light cascaded down in a semicircle towards Fader. Gi kicked off a moment later and headed directly towards the imposing human in his demon steel armor.
Fader snorted, bringing his giant tower shield to bear and activated an ability. Gi had seen him use his old [Intercept] ability several times, but it had apparently gotten an upgrade as a portal of fire expanded out of it. All eighteen bolts surged within. An instant later, eighteen streaks of fire were spit back out, his summons' attacks transformed by the fires within. The Light Aether had even empowered the attacks, making them stronger than they'd been before.
All Gi did was duck his head against the sudden surge of heat as he charged Fader. He felt his summons perish all at the same time, but just as Gi arrived at the shield, he turned to light, activating [King's Guard]. One of his summons appeared where he was and blasted a [Divine Ire] towards Fader's feet. Meanwhile, Gi had circled around to his back before he returned to his monstrous form.
His [King's Guard] summon couldn't last as long as his [Archbishop], but he also was an exact replica of Gi himself. The light screen from his summons combined with the confusion provided by the [King's Guard] gave Gi a huge opening.
Six otters appeared flanking him as Gi took a deep breath, inhaling air as much as Aether. When it felt like his entire body would burst apart, he released. A huge cone of water poured forth from his mouth as Gi activated [Unstoppable Torrent]. Right behind it, another eighteen beams of light burst through the waves of water, each of them empowered by the Water Aether of his first ability.
Fader had activated his [Unblockable Blade], an upgrade of [Sure Strike],
against Gi. It spun his body around sword first faster than it should have been able to and Gi realized his true aim wasn't a counter attack, but a block. The momentum of the attack brought his shield around just in time to block around half of the [Divine Ire]s from Gi's summons.
The remaining nine empowered attacks weren't something that he could simply ignore. The blow blasted him backward until he blew through one of the smaller glass pillars shattering it and the one behind before rolling to a stop.
Fader's groan turned to a curse as he leapt to his feet. Gi couldn't see any damage other than a slight scuff on his armor, but he hadn't expected it. Fader's Vitality and armor were both stronger than his own. This would be a true slugfest.
In that moment that it took Fader to get up, Gi hadn't been idle. He jumped up, placing one foot on a pillar to kick off and sending himself careening towards the next one. He continued to dart through the pillars and as he did, he let one of his summons appear on each pillar he passed just as he had before Fader's [Reflect].
By the time, Fader turned to face him. The first [Archbishop] was already firing three shining bolts of light towards him. He blocked it easily on his shield, but as Gi dropped each one, the attacks started to come from more and more angles.
From their connection, Gi could tell that Fader was growing frustrated as he blocked their attacks. Gi himself had kept running to reach behind the bulky human, light already dancing across his own palm.
Come on, Gi thought, trying to block his ploy from their connection as much as he could.
Fader's eyes tracked to where Gi himself was and he felt his anger spike. As Fader started to activate his [Burning Leap], Gi smiled.
With as much power as he could put into it, Gi jumped into the air. The momentum was quickly built upon by his [Unstoppable Nobility] passive activating. Gi swam though the air as fast as he could go and Fader's skill wasn't fast enough.
He passed just below Gi as he took to the air. It had taken almost fifteen seconds for Fader to cast [Burning Leap] again. That meant Gi had somewhere between ten and twelve seconds to push his advantage assuming some margin of error.
Six summoned otters surrounded Fader in a crescent shape from their spot on top of the pillars while Gi himself lazily drifted above him. Now he could take the battle to him properly.
Fader sprinted towards the pillars, but Gi had already anticipated that and the globe form of [Divine Ire] burst into shards in front of him. Fader slid to a stop, letting many of the shards bounce harmlessly off of his armor, but it wasn't enough. His summons started firing, staggering their shots.
An endless flurry of light burst forth from the crescent of otters. Shimmering light bounced off of all of the glass pillars to simply disappear into the empty space around this battle. Fader dug in blocking all of it on his shield before activating his [Reflect] Skill again.
The fiery portal appeared and all of the incoming attacks disappeared into it. Gi quickly commanded his summons to drop flat onto the pillar as their own attacks raced back to them and all but one managed to survive. Gi reformed that [Archbishop] beside him and flew him off to provide another angle to attack the human from.
As bullshit as Fader's defensive capabilities were, Gi now had full control. All he had to do was ensure he survived his movement ability and he'd win this game of endurance. With his passive flight not using any Aether and his summons using minimal, he only had to bring enough Aether for their attacks which was manageable especially at the steady pace they fired.
Fader crouched below his tower shield forcing Gi to spread out his summons to get a better angles to fire from, but as attack after attack slammed against his armor, he could tell from their bond that it was more damaging than it appeared. Even Demon Steel couldn't completely negate the force of his attacks. He would win this.
So why did he feel this sense of apprehension...?
Despite the fact that Fader was unable to move or fight him, he merely seemed frustrated rather than despairing. Neither of them had shown a propensity for maintaining themselves at their lowest moments which had to mean... that he wasn't at his lowest moment.
"What are you planning?" Gi yelled, but the burly human wasn't in position to answer. Instead, a sense of satisfaction and relief spread through their connection and Gi had to assume that [Burning Leap] had come off cooldown.
Gi immediately swam through the air as fast as he could to make himself a smaller target, but he left his five summons on the pillars that they were on. Strangely, he didn't target him directly and instead jumped straight into the air and that's when Gi finally understood.
Just as Gi had been blocking his plans from their shared connection, so had Fader. There was a Skill that Gi had never seen him use because it would never make sense in the Dungeon where he was guarding his team. But here? Here it would provide the advantage Fader needed to take over the fight.
"[Armor Break]." The words of the Skill came unbidden to Gi's lips. Fader reached the peak of his leap and he activated the Skill.
His Demon Steel Armor shattered.
Shadows creeped out from underneath, lifting up chunks of armor the size of Samba's fist so that it hovered one or two inches out from his body. In some spots, there were huge openings that would undoubtedly allow Gi to inflict maximum damage, but the full nature of the Skill had been revealed to him.
When Fader's shield had shattered, its pieces formed black Demon Steel wings along his back and one pump of them was enough to keep him aloft and staring directly at Gi.
Even with his limited Soul senses, he could feel the Aether burning off of Fader with what amounted to a Beserking Skill like Jalx had used before he died. [Armor Break] traded defense and Vitality for increased Agility. Worst of all, he could fly. Gi's one advantage that he'd expected to end the fight was gone.
And if he didn't think of something, he would be too.