Red examined the sword hovering in front of him. The blade was only five inches wide, and both of his feet were much too big to fit and find balance atop the sword. Even with his footwork expertise, he felt he would fall if the weapon did so much as a sharp turn in the air.
That was, however, his assessment regarding his earlier strength. With the powers of the Spirit of Slaughter running through his vein, not only did he feel stronger, but he felt more confident regarding his skills in combat, too. Whatever this demon gave its hosts, it wasn’t just an upgrade in power.
Now, he felt confident in accomplishing what he would have thought impossible before.
Red hopped onto the blade. The flying sword didn’t even buckle under his weight, and continued to hover in the air, feeling like solid ground under the youth. He had to turn his feet at an awkward angle to find proper balance in the sword, but he still felt confident in his ability to stay atop it.
“I won’t be able to speak to you from down here,” Hector said. “But you don’t need to worry yourself above dodging or moving about. Just focus on doing what you need to do, and I’ll make sure she doesn’t kill you.”
Red nodded and looked down at his hands. On his right grip was the flaming sword, while on his left one was the green crystal core. These were the only two things he needed to win the battle.
The elder nodded back at him with a resolute expression even through his weakened state. “Then go!”
Hector pointed at the flying sword.
A glow came from beneath Red’s feet, and he felt himself lurching forward as the blade moved. He was prepared for this, though, and bent his knees ever so slightly to lower his center of mass and help himself balance.
The sword was fast. It was still slower than when it was moving earlier, but it still provided Red with the fastest speeds he had ever travelled under. The ground distanced himself from him and in a matter of seconds he was already a hundred meters above, in the mists that spread through the sky of their sect.
Of course, this was no common water mist. Just by getting closer, Red could feel the pure undead energy contained in these small clouds, and for a second, he was worried about coming into contact with it. However, right before they touched him, a small blue shield formed from the tip of the sword, clearing the path ahead.
The youth was relieved, but he was now faced with another problem. He couldn’t see anything around him.
He could still hear the clashes from Aurelia and the other woman not too far from him, and he could even somehow feel their Spiritual Energy with the help of the Spirit. However, whatever powers it granted him, it didn’t make his vision obsolete.
Red still needed to see to do anything.
‘I wonder…’
He looked down at his sword, an idea coming to him.
The youth twisted his wrist, and with intent to kill, swept his sword at the surrounding mist. A dark-red flame arc shot out from his blade, clashing into the fog and cleaving through it like it was butter. Wherever the fire passed, the mist dissipated, before the blade arc also disappeared.
It was a success, yet the amount of fog the fire had dissipated was relatively small. Red was still surrounded by this sea of undead energy, unable to see anything.
‘This will take too long.’
Earlier, he saw Domeron do more with the flames than just shoot fire from it. Yet the man had who knew how many years of practice with it, while Red was just using it for the first time. Proper technique wasn’t something one could just improvise.
Just as he was wondering what to do, he felt another resonance inside of his body. It was the crimson mist again, trying to guide his movements.
‘Slower, more deliberate.’
It was what he felt from it. This time, Red didn’t hesitate to follow its instructions.
He waved his sword in a slow movement, as if painting the air around him. Flames trailed out from his blade, but instead of shooting out, they remained there, hovering by him without disappearing - a curved wall of fire. Red found this curious, but the crimson mist compelled him to continue.
‘Every direction.’
The youth did as much. With the same painting movements, he drew these same flame walls in every direction. He was afraid the fire would damage the sword he was flying under, but if the weapon felt anything, it showed no indications of it. In fact, it seemed as if the blade had stopped moving too, as if Hector was waiting for him to complete his plan.
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Soon enough, Red found himself inside a large semi-sphere of fire. The flames didn’t dissipate, being fueled by no energy that the youth could discern, and instead every trail that the youth painted joined together to form a stable structure.
‘Is this… a Spiritual Art?’
The crimson mist gave him another direction.
‘Spread. Wash away.’
Red followed its instructions and used the tip of his sword to touch the flame wall, commanding the fire to spread. As soon as he did that, the flame orb around him started to expand.
It was slow at first, before it seemed to rage with energy. The entire sea mist started to be burned away into nothingness, the flames washing away the entire sky. The orb continued to expand for hundreds of meters, until the energy behind it dissipated too, the fire flickering and disappearing.
By that point, however, the entire sky was cleared, and Red could see once more.
He looked over at where the battle was being fought. However, it seemed the combatants had stopped fighting for a moment and were both staring at him while hovering in the air.
Aurelia looked surprised, while the woman in black had a severe expression.
Aurelia made to speak. “How did you…?”
“Help me keep her still.” Red cut her off.
The youth had no problem saying his plan out loud because his intentions were obvious. He wanted to get close enough to use his exorcism technique, and if the woman didn’t see through his plan, then he would have been surprised instead.
Aurelia nodded with a frown, before dissipating into fog and charging at the other ghost.
The woman in black, though, didn’t remain still. She also assimilated with her surroundings, and in the next second Red lost track of both his ally and his enemy.
‘I still can’t sense them well, but…’
He spun around, swinging his sword to his left, shooting a flame arc in that direction. An invisible clash happened there the next second, before his blade arc swept through the area.
Both Aurelia and the woman’s figures were revealed for a moment as the fire passed through before they disappeared once again.
“Watch what you’re doing!” Aurelia’s voice reached his ears. “You’re going to hit me too!”
Red frowned but didn’t say anything. He was able to detect their Spiritual Energy right as they were about to strike, but his reaction was too slow, and he wasn’t able to discern friend from enemy either. He was still getting used to these powers, after all.
He didn’t attack again over the next couple of clashes, waiting as the flying sword took him closer to the combat. Its speed was impressive, but even then, it still wasn’t enough to keep up with the two ghosts.
Every time he got close, the next clash happened dozens of meters away from him. This was no coincidence, of course, since the woman in black was probably very intent on staying as far away from the youth as she could.
He had no choice but to attack with the same flame arc from far away. The next few times, his aim was more accurate, as he was able to aim his strikes at the place where the other ghost would appear instead of Aurelia. However, his attacks were still too slow, and the woman was always able to dissipate away before his flames made full contact with her.
They continued to fly in this chase, and by this point, they were already far away from the sect.
The sky above the town flashed with lights. Explosions of mist, immediately followed by a flame sweeping it away. A show of fireworks for the townsfolk down below, if it wasn’t for the fact they were likely terrified by the zombies attacking their formation right outside.
‘My attacks are too slow.’
It didn’t matter how accurately he could predict where the woman would appear. If his blade arcs couldn’t reach her before she disappeared away once more, there was no point to it.
On top of that, Red felt a mounting frustration from the sword in his hand. It seemed as if the Spirit wasn’t happy at his failures, and its struggles against his mind started to become stronger once more.
The youth started to formulate a plan, and he felt a resonance in his body. It seemed as if the crimson mist knew what he wanted before he even had the opportunity to ask it for help.
‘Concentrate. Point.’
This time, its instructions were confusing. Red, however, did his best to interpret its intentions.
‘Concentrate the flame on a single point.’
He held his sword up, exerting his control over the flame covering its surface. The majority of the fire shifted from the rest of the blade towards its tip, forming a dense orb of crimson flame.
Red felt himself struggle to control this condensed power at the tip of his sword, and he felt as if it would explode at any moment. He gritted his teeth, and beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.
Even with his extra power, what he was trying to do required more focus than the youth had imagined.
The crimson mist guided him again.
‘Thrust.’
The youth shifted some of his focus to detect the area where the woman in black would appear. Then, he felt it some dozens of meters away from him, a minute wave of Spiritual Energy that would have been impossible for him to detect before. Without hesitation, Red jabbed with his sword in that direction.
The ghostly clash happened right as he was finishing his movement, and he saw the faint shadow of the woman in his vision. Then, a moment later, the orb of fire at the tip of his sword shot out.
This time, however, it was no mere blade arc. Instead, the orb of fire exploded into a ray of concentrated black-red flame that seemed to sear the very air it crossed.
It struck the woman in an instant before she could disappear again.
For a moment, Red wondered if the ray of fire had done anything as it passed straight through her body before dissipating. Domeron hadn’t managed to wound her much earlier, and he wondered if this concentrated fire would be capable of such.
A moment later, he got his answer.
“AHHHH!”
The woman in black let out an inhuman scream as a large, burning hole had appeared in her stomach. Black-red flames flickered around her wound, preventing it from closing like before.
“Red, now!” Aurelia’s voice reached his ears.
Before the youth could even say anything, the sword beneath his feet lurched, flying straight at the woman.
This was the opportunity he was waiting on.