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My gambit worked, Amaris was dead and without much deliberation the monster called Tyrant had also crushed the man known as Wallace underfoot. Without any time to successfully rattle off his signature chants, he was nothing more than easy prey. His death was brief but efficient, the conspicuous red splatter now staining the ground was the only sort of significant impact his meek presence had left behind on the battlefield.

“TSSSHHH”

The gaseous stench of death was now escaping from either side of tyrant's blood smeared snout, it seems the death of its master wasn’t exactly enough to calm the monster's adamant rage. The first time I saw this creature I knew it didn’t recognize Amaris as its master but now the hate filled gleam in its eyes was being directed towards the three of us here.

“You....I’m going to kill you....” Ulric casually spat that murderous taunt; I don’t know if it was meant for me or the monster, but I suppose he wasn’t particularly concerned with the order.

Rising from his slumped posture, he began willing the mana in our surroundings into his body. The wind danced around his trembling frame, rattling his loosely clad armor plates and the dangling swords on his back.

“Ulric don’t get careless! There's something off abou-”

“Shut up!” Ulric barked

“How am I supposed to keep my composure right now!? This kid – No, that thing just had my sister killed! Forget the niceties, I’m killing them both, I don’t care if your dad’s a court mage!”

An explosive torrent of swirling winds immediately enveloped Ulric’s body in a pillar of compressed air, it cracked the ground beneath his feet and sent emanating waves of frigid winds pushing back both me and Owen. Given the surge in his magical power, there wasn’t any more room left for doubt, he wasn’t holding back anymore.

“GWAAAH!!!”

Tyrant unleashed a fierce howl in response to Ulric’s abrupt display of aggression, even while the very fur coating its skin was being rattled by the tempestuous winds emanating from its foe, the monster still showed no signs of backing down. From within the violent swirl of his own creation, Ulric drew the two longswords from his back, and after widening his arms he jammed the tips of both weapons into the ground and used them to form a sort of guiding frame to keep his body on course.

With both hands tightly gripping the hilt of the two silver blades and his right leg slowly extending behind him as if to stabilize his peculiar stance, he set his sights on his murderous target before dispelling the conjuring batch of winds previously parading around his body. The moment that tempestuous intensity disappeared, Tyrant lunged at the armored man with its mouth opened wide enough to swallow a small boulder, all the while its bloody fangs glistened with a deadly sheen as the bloodthirsty monster moved in for the kill.

Responding just the same, Ulric channeled all the strength he could muster into his forearms before leaning his upper body back and pushing off the ground with the very same right leg he’d been using as an anchor. His body burst forth like a tightly wound spring as he launched himself straight at the large beast with deadly precision thanks to the frame he’d formed with his swords earlier. Now all that was left was for him to clash head on with the chomping jaws that were now closing in on him by the second.

Even with such a monstrous presence fast approaching, Ulric was unfazed, his rage was completely overpowering any sort of hesitant emotion that was sprouting in the back of his mind and because of that, he was already prepared. He wasn’t just lunging himself at the creature without a plan, both of his weapons were already angled and waiting.

Using the initial burst of speed from earlier, he twirled his entire body in a sort of rotating motion and had now formed something like a bladed cyclone that could no longer be veered off its initial trajectory.

*SLASH*

That metallic sound drowned out all semblances of the malevolent growl that had previously been emanating across the battlefield, in its place came something that sounded far less sinister, yet it didn’t match up with the gruesome sight I was now bearing witness to. It was the drab sound of a splatter; a rain of blood and chunks of fur coated flesh were scattered about the battlefield as the whirlwind of steel tore through the once domineering foe, bones and all. The creature’s bisected head fell to the ground in an admission of defeat, and only then did the glimmer of hate finally fade from its upturned eyes.

Ulric, still unable to halt his charge, crashed into the ground before his body was sent bouncing a good ways off in the distance, he was much like Gavin in that regard, neither of them seemed to have much control over their destructive power.

Before his flailing body could even come to a complete halt, a sudden spark went off in my mind and I immediately shifted my posture to intercept the oncoming foe. It was Owen, he was already positioned on my right and in the midst of dishing out a deadly blow, one I had no chance of completely evading.

Instead, the moment my body had adjusted to his wind up I immediately performed a cross block with my forearms. The force behind the sweeping kick rattled the bones in my arms and sent my mana enhanced body staggering backwards.

Owen wasn’t letting up, he closed in on me again and swung an overhead punch strong enough to send cracks spreading though the ground. Though I could evade these attacks, engaging him in straight up hand to hand combat was something I wanted to avoid. That was never my forte and I was more than a foot shorter than my original height in this body, not to mention the overall advantage he had when it came to his experience as a mage.

Beating him like this just wasn’t very feasible right now, out of all the members of Brunhilde so far, he was surprisingly difficult to handle. I was constantly being pushed back, blocking whatever blows I could whilst patiently watching for any openings in his defense.

After ducking under two more of his sweeping kicks, Owen thrusted his fist at my chest, but I managed to block the calculated strike by angling my bloody arms in the shape of an “X”. As soon as I'd settled my staggering body, he rushed in to close the distance between us and was already in the midst of delivering his heaviest blow yet, an overhead axe kick.

The attack slammed down on my body with a crushing force, and I managed to block it using the exact same maneuver from earlier, but that was a mistake. Instead of adamantly trying to force me to the ground with that kick, Owen had instead followed through with the motion and used the kick to divert both my arms to the side.

I fell for his feint, before I'd even realized it the man was already executing his next move.

His armored fist dug into my abdomen, forcing the air out of my lungs and sending blood spurting from my mouth. The impact from the blow sent my body flying through the air, however, upon crashing into the ground, I used my hands to perform a well timed leap in a bid to negate some of the damage.

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Owen stared at me with contempt in his eyes, it wasn’t the kind of look one ought to give a child, but then again, I was probably doing the very same.

Now that we were both drenched in bloodlust and looking to kill each other at the drop of a hat, a sliver of understanding suddenly spawned in my mind. For the very first time over the long span of my existence, I could somewhat grasp the mortal desire for war and destruction. To my surprise, it didn’t take much for a conflict as simple as this to spiral out of control and start raking up the death toll.

That was something I could understand.

I understood it very well and yet every fiber of my being refused to let this human leave here alive. Although it was barbaric, although it was cruel, and even if it may be uncalled for; I was determined to see this human die by my hands.

That much was a certainty at this point, it had taken me a rather long time to figure it out but by now, I was nothing more than just another cog in the wheel.

“So that’s how it is huh....” I murmured between ragged breaths before rising to my feet.

Owen was still vigilant, but his stern expression gave way for a brief instant, it was just enough for him to raise an eyebrow in inquisition.

“Liam, I don’t know how you learned to fight like that, but you really shouldn’t have taken it this far. You and Oliver completely ruined my plans, I may not be able to kill him right now, but you’re a different story.” He snorted with a vindictive leer.

“Says the one trying to kill me; you must be joking.” I retorted, tilting my head with a scornful gaze.

After that last blow shook me to the core, my legs were now starting to wobble under my own weight and my body temperature was steadily rising in response to the collapse of the fragile equilibrium inside me. All that damage was starting to catch up to me, even with more than half of Brunhilde dead, all my efforts up until now wouldn’t amount to much if I couldn’t finish these two off.

Just a bit longer.....

“You’ve reached your limit, haven't you?” Those words weighed me down with an unseen burden.

“......”

“You’re almost out of mana, I can tell. Even if you had a lot to begin with, you’ve already expended the majority of it when you were trying to draw us out earlier and the attacks you used to kill Lucas and Amaris pretty much dried up the last of your reserves.” He mockingly added before cracking his knuckles against his open palm.

“Does it matter?” I asked in the midst of stomping out the tremors coursing through my right leg. “With or without mana, this won’t be over until one of us dies.”

“If you understand that; then let’s finish this.”

Just as I was about to accept his begrudging invitation, Ulric’s voice disrupted the tension sparking in the space between us.

“Owen! He’s mine, let me finish him off!” He roared

Arming his familiar longswords, Ulric unleashed a fervent slash without even waiting for his comrade’s reply. The whistling blade of wind shot towards me with almost no warning, I hurriedly forced my body into a backwards leap right before the gale projectile could connect with its target. The projected blade sliced through the earth and sent plumes of dust afloat – A golden opportunity if I ever saw one.

On instinct my body dashed in the direction the attack had come from, killing Owen would be a bit more difficult but as for Ulric, he was fair game. The target in question wasn’t very concerned with my approach, one after the other, he sent blades of wind hurtling my way.

Just dodging them wasn’t very difficult, they weren’t all that fast and could only move in a straight line, and on top of that these slashes were earthbound so predicting and evading their projected paths was fairly simple.

I shifted my weight onto my left leg and used it to dart out of the way of an oncoming slash, I was mere footsteps away from reaching Ulric but now that I was this close, he gave up on firing off more of those predictable attacks. Instead, he rushed in with a wide swing from the blade in his right hand. Without a doubt, he was aiming for my neck, if I continued to charge in like this then the only thing I’d be running into was a decapitation.

That would have been the case if I didn’t have this small body, instead of continuing on like that, I allowed myself to fall backwards; only inches away from its target, the silver blade whooshed past my face in a moonlit flash. My back hit the grassy plain just moments after and my body, still retaining its momentum from my initial charge, was able to slide right between the gap in Ulric’s fierce strides.

“What the-” he frantically stuttered, but it was too late.

As his towering figure swayed over my head, I grabbed onto his ankle and yanked it in the direction I was now headed - With a single swing of my arm; I managed to pull Ulric flat onto his face.

Then, I jumped onto his back and used my knee to pin his neck into the ground, a strange cracking sound came from his sunken face, but his body had yet to go limp under the influence of my reinforced frame.

As soon as I raised my head, I noticed the bulky figure of Owen swooping in to rescue his comrade, he was only a few footsteps away at this point and within three blinks he was already in range and winding up yet another punch. This time, his arm wasn’t swung along an arc and was instead headed straight for my face. Using my left hand to support my other wrist, I was just barely able to stop his fist from rattling my brain.

I grappled onto his large hand and focused the entirety of my dwindling mana supply into one final charge. The destructive red sparks soon began erupting from all over my body, prompting Owen to pull his hand back out of reflex, but I had no intention of letting him get away, my grip was tight enough to dent metal.

“Y-you were suppressing the last of your mana!?” He managed to stammer.

“Die.” I replied scornfully.

Another electrical discharge was fired off at ground level with my body serving as its focal point, almost the entirety of my mana was used up in yet another brilliant flash of light.

“Haaaaah....Hah....Haah....that was..harder than I thought...” Those fragmented words unconsciously escaped me.

I rolled off Ulric’s lifeless back immediately after my surroundings had returned to normal.

Two crisp bodies were once again wafting a putrid scent in the air, one was planted face down in the dirt, never to look up again, and as for the other......

“I know you’re not dead Owen.” I murmured after catching my breath, and right on cue, the once charred visage of the knight commander shattered like crystal shards before dissipating into the air.

“How did you know?” The man's voice sounded from behind me.

After lazily turning my head, I replied “You’ll need a lot more than that if you want to sneak up on me, I won’t let my guard down that easy since I know what your technique actually is.”

“You really think you’re all that huh? That attitude is what I hate the most about you and your father.” He spat, emphasizing the last word.

“You can say that after you’ve beaten us, I know your other half is acting as a decoy somewhere in this forest.”

Owen’s grimace stiffened, but rather than lashing out, he simply drew the short sword affixed to his hip.

“Fine then, I’ll kill you both at the same time.” His bitter scowl was the prelude to what would come next.

After calming himself and directing the flow of his own mana, Owen’s body started to ‘divide’ in every sense of the word. Right before my eyes I watched as a singular body became two, then three, then four until there were ultimately six people standing in front of me with the exact same face, clothes, height and temperament.

This was his trump card, Owen’s actual radical didn’t grant him the power of regeneration, but instead duplication. He could essentially make more of himself up to a certain point, this was the power he used to cripple the entirety of Zale’s forces. In reality, his real body probably wasn’t even there when the basilisk attacked.

Right now, I was almost out of mana and completely surrounded; but the only upside here was the fact that I didn’t need mana to deal with something like this.