image [https://i.imgur.com/RCGrn1f.png]
The Gladus spread his fingers wide behind his back and a blast of Ventus blew back the Murus knives. The copy’s eyes enlarged as it was hit with the brunt of the explosion.
“Shameless.”
Floating in the air, a wave of pain struck Drac. The Galdus saw him distracted and let his lunky sword go slack. Leaning off-balanced, a palm hit Drac’s chest. Spittle and blood sprayed out from the boy's mouth as the wind crushed his ribs and sternum. The wind from the Gladus’s palm carried him many metres. Tumbling to the ground, Drac rolled to his knee, rolling again out of an Aura sword way. Axton’s connection flowed at its max to deflect jabs with pulses of aura. A faint caught him by surprise and his right shoulder was grazed. Another feint and Drac's left forearm bled.
One pulse of aura pushed the Gladus blade aside. With a reverse grip, an aura extended from Drac's blade, nicking the burly warrior on the cheek above his beard. The Mountworth man froze, his eyes full of disbelief and then pure anger.
Gladus swung upward with fury and extended his aura sword at the last moment. Drac's blade guarded his neck, however, the strength carried him an inch off the grass. The force rippled through him, causing his broken bones to ache even more. Drac flared his aura, coating himself with white flame. He turned, striking his left to hit back a solid aura.
Drac! I can’t! I’m…not enough! Call them back! Riw has them covered!
Between stabs, he recalled all his copies. Drac blocked the Gludus’s extending aura from above with two blades.
NOW!
Two copies split from Drac to the Gladus at speed, despite their injuries. With pulses, they separated, throwing rune daggers at the guard.
Murus daggers phased through an afterimage. A sonic boom echoed through the woods, shaking the leaves.
Surge saved Drac, giving him speed to intercept with his sword, Heilong, and its copy. Stopping the Gladus’s sword from slicing him in two from groin to head.
Drac burned his soul.
Before the moment of contact, Drac reversed Leviation to keep himself grounded. Pulse pushed off the Mountworth man’s blade, and lightning traced its way down his bulging aura-imbued arms. The two warriors' blades clashed, sparks flew like fireworks, and Terra became dust beneath them. The clouds oscillated outward from the impact, blowing Drac’s hood off.
Drac's arms were pushed back, and his grip on his Heilongs weakened and was blown away. The copy blade vanished. The original sword spun high in the air.
A copy split from Drac’s back to leap upward. Capturing the spinning blade, he accumulated aura to slice a wave. An aura sword stuck out of the copy’s back. Skewered by Gladus' aura, the copy threw back his Heilong for Drac to catch. Gladus retracted his aura to lunge. The two copies from before engulfed their blade in a bright white aura and struck at The Gladus’s back.
One Drac missed wide, its head a squashed red mess. The other’s sword was batted out of its hand. A head spun and disappeared into bits of light.
Drac quivered in absolute shock and fear. The gladus turned slowly to face him. He stared at Drac with disappointment.
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“You last.”
Another sonic boom and the Gladus closed in. Drac's soul burned as he deflected steel. Each clash rebounded against his broken and tired body. His clothes, drenched in sweat, felt heavy. His mind wavered between hopelessness and shame.
A green-eyed beauty mouthed, ‘Dew’. A face that made his heart flutter.
Drac's soul burned. Copies ran out of him, slashing at his enemy desperately. Gladus’s left hand grabbed his blade’s hilt. Like the wind blowing through the dense woods, Gladus whizzed past all three copies, arms and bodies twisted in his wake. A downward strike dug deep into Drac’s left shoulder. Before Drac could respond, the Gladus whipped his blade to his left tricep. A screaming boy summoned more victims. They fell fast to the master's blade.
Drac attacked by himself and slashed down with a blazing sword. The Mountworth man turned sideways, letting the blade pass and hit the ground. With two hands, the gladus struck at Drac's head.
Glowing eyes leaned back to dodge, but a left palm crushed his ribs once again. On to the floor, the boy fell and wept. A roll to his knees saved him from decapitation.
“Your clones are much easier to kill.”
Unable to answer with his mouth, Drac responded with copies, straining to summon them again. Arm behind his back, the Gladus parried and riposte with his extending aura. Cutting through the trio with ease.
“Will you send more again, child?”
Drac searched within himself, trying to find the warmth that had saved him many a time. The fire that burned is but a kindling. A single copy split from Drac. A disappearing corpse was flung away from the end of the aura sword.
“Is this how you beat them?”
Drac gathered his aura and blasted Ignis from his hand at Gladus. A wall of Murus stood between the warriors.
“You have learned a lot. Your skills are impressive. But absurdly shallow. Like a wide puddle.”
Drac wrote in the air and tuned a thick Murus barrier of his own. A slash down shattered the buried. A second line bled from Drac's chest.
“And this strange power of yours. A sight for these old eyes.”
A transparent copy died as it came out.
“I have seen ants fight the same.”
The gladus moved his sword to strike. Drac, tricked by the feint, bled from below his right ribs. Feint after feint, Drac bled. Blood soaked his black jacket, dripping onto the grass and soil.
“Before I return you to the soil, may I know the name of the boy, whose future I will extinguish?
Covered in gashes and cuts, his breath ached with every breath. “Fuck…You.”
The Mountworth man lifted his blade close to his chin. Aura coated the chunky blade and he positioned himself for a lunge.
“Alexander Tristan Gladus.”
The Mountworth guard’s sword shot out like a piston, breaking the air on its way to Drac's head. Drac moved his weary, arm. Holding Heilong, a block of metal in his hand, he strained.
Not fast enough.
Time slowed at the point of his death and Drac accepted. He wrung himself until there was nothing left of his body, his aura, or his soul. He remembered green eyes. His father’s smile. He closed his eyes, waiting for it to end.
Axton and Elkan stood beside him in front of a withering tree. Axton grabbed his shoulders roughly.
IT’S NOT FUCKING OVER!
Elkan nodded behind.
Use us. Take all.
A shove pushed Drac back into reality.
Alexander's blade glowed near Drac’s face. Its white glow felt hot.
Elkan’s and Axton's connections expanded. The warmth he so missed became three bright bonfires.
The flames burned from his soul as lightning marked his face. Murus tuned and blocked the point of Gladus’s blade. The Gladus attack rebounded with pulses, but Gladus brought his blade down with a wave of aura.
Alexander's attack froze midway. A golden pole collided with Gladus, pressing him back with a shockwave of aura.
A green giant walked out of the woods, crushing a guard's head in his hands. He put his hand up to grab a returning axe. Fenni scurried out of the forest on all fours, carrying rifles on their backs. Gunshots reverberate through the trees as Kankraa strode up to the wounded Drac.
"Missed m…-Oh fuck…! What the fuck happened to you!?”