As Kakai stood in front of the Seedlings, screams echoed behind him. A gray metal block was hurtling toward them, and he knew he was their only defense. With only one thought in mind, he had to stop it.
As the block flew through the air, Echo watched, stumbling from his dizziness, “Finally got it to go in the right direction,” he laughed before he realized what was behind Kakai, “By Umblu, I think I messed up!”
Kakai pulled the yellow metal ball towards his palm, fusing it with his hand. He took a deep breath and reared his arm back before stepping forward and bringing the momentum of his arm forward as best as he could. When his arm met the metal block, he was surprised by how light it was.
The man believed that the Echo mentioned by the elders was powerful, but it turned out they were wrong. He pushed his arm through while facing away, and upon completing the step, he realized something was not quite right. Upon turning, he noticed his arm was missing, and only specks of green light floated out.
Turning around quickly, he saw the destruction caused by the metal block. The bandits were flung by the wind, and a quarter of them were as injured as he was. Some even had green light shining above them, signaling the death of the Seedlings. In the distance, a loud explosion sounded, and a large crater was created as the block landed back on the ground.
Nesha and the rest of the group watched as Kakai let out a howl, unsure if it was due to the loss of his arm or the destruction caused by the metal block. Sivie lowered his bow, feeling disappointed with the way things had ended. However, just as he was about to speak, Nesha suddenly disappeared from beside him.
Kakai screamed with rage; this child had taken his arm away. Echo, the prodigy of the Metal Races, had caused this damage. Kakai was no longer willing to follow the elders' orders. Echo should not be allowed to exist any longer.
After screaming, Kakai took a deep breath. He threw his head back and let out a deep roar. "Echo, only one of us will see the light of Morin tomorrow," he declared.
Kakai lowered his head, and golden essence flowed out of his body. Gradually, it solidified and covered him completely; the vacant space of his severed arm slowly formed into a golden gauntlet before the rest of the golden wisp solidified into armor. Meanwhile, yellow metal pillars emerged from the ground and transformed into golden knights equipped with their own weapons.
As Echo watched, anxiousness washed over him. "He's not a five-star," he thought to himself.
In an attempt to protect himself, Echo used his external essence art to create a wall of gray metal. However, he knew it wouldn't be strong enough to withstand the force he was up against, as he could only infuse a limited amount of essence into it.
Echo jumped as a golden knight burst through the wall with a force that made the metal shatter like glass. Was it one of the external essence art knights or Kakai in his internal essence art armor? Either way, Echo knew he was in trouble.
Kakai followed his golden knight like a shadow and slipped through the hole in the wall just behind it. Then Kakai concentrated his essence art to transform the broken metal fragments that were still falling to yellow metal and hurled them at Echo in an attempt to impale him.
Echo sensed the shards hurtling toward him. He reacted as swiftly as he could, transforming the gray metal in his gloves into a small shield. Despite his best efforts, the shield proved to be too small. While some of the shards were absorbed into the shield, causing it to increase in size, the majority managed to slip past. The fragments shredded his grey metal skin, letting the motes of life essence float out of his body.
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A knight in golden armor charged toward Echo with a spear, but Echo used his shield to deflect the attack to the side. He used this opportunity to grab the spear, slowly turning it into gray metal. While the spear was slowly being taken by his grey metal, he used the metal in the glove holding the spear, transforming it into a gauntlet that he fused to the spear. Without hesitation, Echo jerked the golden knight's spear and infused it with his essence art, fully gaining control over the spear. With the newly transformed weapon in hand, he thrust it into the center of the knight's chest, causing the opponent to crumble.
Echo screamed, "One down, but too many left to go!" As two more knights charged, he tried to discern which one of them was Kakai as he knew that one of them must be, but he wasn't sure which one it was.
Kakai had a plan in mind. Echo was most proficient in hand-to-hand combat, but Kakai had trained himself in wielding weapons like maces, flails, and hammers which could be easily made with essence arts. Which was why the knight he used now also used a flail in battle. Though he hated the need to plan, he was anxious about the tales he had heard about Echo.
Kakai followed beside his knight, and both hurled their flails at the ground just in front of Echo.
Echo noticed the two yellow metal balls coming toward him. He quickly jumped back and used his shield to block the dirt thrown at him. But before he could let his guard down, he felt something smash into his back, causing him to stumble forward. It seemed one of the knights had snuck up on him while he was distracted. He scolded himself for being careless.
Without giving Echo a chance to breathe, Kakai swiftly transformed the dirt into yellow metal chains that tightly wrapped around Echo, who was still airborne. Meanwhile, Kakai's knight with the flail prepared to strike as they waited for Echo.
As Echo soared through the air, he felt an unusual sense of calm. All he could think about was how it was to finally live, rather than being cooped up in the castle, waiting for time to pass. Echo's laughter echoed through the air, causing a powerful wave that pushed the yellow metal ball off its intended path. It was all so much fun!
Echo's shield and spear began to melt; unlike Kakai, he didn't have enough metal to create armor. However, Echo had better control and could create gray metal spikes all over his body. The spikes broke the chains that bound him, but he couldn't change them to gray metal as Kakai was still pouring in essence. Echo flew past the knights and landed on the gray metal wall after flipping himself. He laughed wildly and looked at the knight he thought was Kakai.
“HAHA! Now I have enough,” Echo screamed.
Echo stood as the grey metal began to liquefy and slither up his body, transforming the gray metal into armor. However, a looming shadow fell from the sky above him before he could react.
Kakai gazed down at Echo as the gray metal armor slowly enveloped him. However, it no longer mattered. Kakai drew his hand back, re-fused the yellow metal ball with it, and brought it down with force, shattering the developing metal armor. He pierced Echo's chest, causing Echo to crash onto the ground with a deafening boom.
Kakai landed and stood above Echo, who lay with his face on the ground, motes of green light flooded out of his open chest.
“This is my win, you useless child! Some prodigy you were, now bask in my gl…”
Before Kakai could enjoy his victory, Nesha appeared in front of him. He only saw her hand move slightly before she put her foot on his chest.
She spoke flatly; her eyes appeared devoid of emotion or life as she declared, "How could you dare lay your hands on that which belongs to me?"
She gently pushed her foot forward, sending a shockwave that pulverized what was left of Echo’s already crumbling gray metal wall. When her foot fully pushed out, Kakai was propelled backward at a deafening speed, but all he could think about was the sharp pain from his arms and leg. As he was flying, he realized why. Both of his arms were still falling to the ground from where he was launched, and his leg was still standing where it originally was; now, all that remained connected to him was his one leg that held his Life Seed.
“I’m sorry, Echo, I was just too slow…” Nesha said, kneeling down beside Echo’s body.