The battle disappeared.

In this struggle, there was no room to think about the greater battle or the wider strategy. I did not think about whether or not the tiger general breached the inner ring of if Vendetta reached Armaros or if Yoshitsune’s mission was going well. I only possessed thoughts for my opponent. What was their next move going to be? Where would be the best location to counterattack? How should I manage my mana output?

Even though the screams and shouts and spells still surrounded me. Even though the rhythm of Capitaine’s guns drilled a rapid beat within my brain. There was no battle.

There was only this duel.

Stone broke and shattered like peanut brittle. Dislodged stone cobbles turned into projectiles that shredded through flesh and cracked walls. Acid and burning tar covered every surface, turning the cramped streets into slick obstacles.

Sir Leal attack patterns remained much the same as our first engagement. Light footwork consistently led into overhead heavy strikes to do the maximum amount of damage. It had honesty and directness that I found admirable. But, I could not help but feel offended that he was confident that this playbook would remain as effective after I had already faced it.

I had new toys.

The dog knight plunged from the sky to cause another teeth-rattling shockwave. I flapped my wings to help propel my step a little faster and use the walls as cover against the high speed shrapnel that peppered the streets like a grenade.

I slipped around the back of the building and charged out from a nearby side street. Sir Leal wreathed himself in purple and leapt up. With an eager smile. I leapt high in the air to grip my hands around the knight’s ankles.

My hands glowed black, but the thoughts of the eagle pierced my brain. That dissatisfied feeling twisted my stomach and forced me to rescind the spell. Instead, I yanked his artificially lightened body like it was a cardboard cut-out instead of the real thing. He immediately changed weights and my muscles bulged as I kept his legs from crushing my shoulders.

I managed to use my strength to flip his weight forwards. His head smashed into the ground and allowed me to remove myself from the oppressive weight.

An immediate weight shift occurred and he shoved his body back to his feet. But, I had already shifted my momentum to fly back in and scrape some life away with my claws. The hammer swung down to find only air.

Sir Leal barked in frustration, but did not look any worse after my attacks. It was pitiful damage like the claws of a house cat. These drive-bys were all I could do as long as that planet-sized weapon had the potential to pulp me with every misstep. I knew that I had a temporary life in my pocket, but I needed to be smart with choosing when I could take a shot.

The dog knight took to the sky again and dove back down on top of me. As he dropped down, I used my own fledgling wings to take flight and dodge the attack. However, as I went up, a similarly devilish grin spread across Sir Leal’s face.

“Now!” Sir Leal ordered, mana potion summoned between his fingers.

A handful of Grigori had managed to group around their Vice-Leader and had their weapons and magic ready to shoot me out of the sky.

I saw the flash of gold eyes as a Corpse-Seeker clamped down on the arm of one of the demons like a police dog. Aurochs slammed the distracted demon in the back and took them to the ground. A loud bang shook the air and a red beam of light cut through the air to turn the head of another demon into red mist. The body stood for a moment, unaware that it had died, before toppling over.

The two surviving demons managed to release their own attacks at me. I turned my body rapidly and pushed down to drop into a freefall. The maneuver allowed me to dodge as much of the attack as I physically could. Projectiles mana buffeted my scales to mild success.

I flew down back into cover but Sir Leal would not allow me to create any separation. He sprinted directly beneath me, waiting to knock me out like a baseball. Fortunately, Capitaine’s shooting disrupted follow-up attacks from the Grigori.

I needed to get rid of that stupid fucking hammer. If I could just touch it and activate [The Great Decay], then I could push the advantage my way.

First, I would have to find a way to touch it without being turned into tomato soup. I lowered slightly and saw Leal’s arms flinch in anticipation to swat me like a fly. He wanted to take a swing so badly that he couldn’t possibly hide his bloodlust.

I pressed it further and dropped aggressively on top of Sir Leal. He planted his foot into the ground and halted all of his forward momentum. His light hammer swung up with tremendous speed as it reached the apex above Sir Leal’s head. There was no outward change in the shade of purple, so I had to make an assumption that gravity had just reversed and the weapon was at maximum weight.

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My wings caught air like parachutes on a dragster and I stopped in mid-air. Sir Leal failed to stop his swing and the hammer uselessly slammed into the ground.

I dove down atop Sir Leal and he instantly fortified his body to meet me head-on as he tried to quickly drag his hammer to a ready position. As much as I wanted to accept that challenge, I kept to my target and jumped on the head of the hammer. The spell flowed through the bottom of my foot and infused the weapon with black mist.

Sir Leal yanked his hammer up and I rode the momentum through the air to land safely on the opposite side. He spared a glance at his hammer but pressed forwards.

Rocks exploded in my face and sent me scurrying to cover like a rat. Yet, that could not prevent satisfaction from flowing into my body like an oil spill. Though there was no visible difference in the hammer, my mana was being rapidly siphoned by [The Great Decay].

He smashed through the wall like a bulldozer, slamming his hammer without regard for any of the hunkered down citizens that might be collateral. I shifted my weight and leapt out of the way of most of the impact. Now that I had a goal, my brain quieted down to allow for more patient tendencies to take over.

I circled back around and raked my tail against the metal armor and swung my claws by his head. There was some minor damage to the armor and blood seeped from narrow wounds to stain his white fur.

Then, silence befell the fight and Sir Leal halted his next attack. The sirens and red sky fell away. The sounds were replaced with the forlorn clanging off a bell that caused Sir Leal’s ears to flatten as his focus to leave me.

“Shit!” Sir Leal shouted to himself as he bolted towards the chapel.

The duel shattered and the battle resumed. My feet instantly moved in response as my emotions boiled. How dare you turn your back to me? Right when my plans were about to reach fruition and we were about to engage in something truly savory, you cast me aside in favor of some bonds of loyalty. I would not allow it to end like this. I would have my blood and my satisfaction.

It was my turn to be aggressive. I slammed into Sir Leal’s side, sending the dog knight tumbling into the nearest house. He cloaked himself in higher gravity and smashed through the wall to avoid being stunned against it.

I took to the air and dove down on his position. The meteor flew by my face, warding me off and demolishing more of his precious city. My eyes narrowed to check for any effects of my decay, but there were too many pebbles to determine anything yet.

“Be gone, pest!” Sir Leal ordered.

“Not until one of us is dead!”

“So be it!”

Sir Leal took to the air to meet me; eyes full of red like a tortured bull in a Spanish arena. I flew over the reach of his weapon before catching his shoulders with my talons. He turned from feather to stone in my grip and nearly tore every muscle in my body trying to stay up.

I released my grasp and chased Sir Leal all the way down to the ground. To avoid taking the full damage from falling, he quickly changed to weightlessness. I stomped down atop him and smashed him against the ground. As I descended down upon him with tooth and claw, he turned off his ability and planted his foot into my chest to send me tumbling away.

Before I could charge again, Sir Leal had already recovered. But, I could now see a steady stream of sand pouring from his hammer like an hourglass.

We charged at each other, both impatient for completely different reasons. Our legs pumped like runaway trains doomed to derail each other. The hammer rose over his head and I could see the surprise in his eyes when I didn’t bother dodging. Whatever happened next was out of both of our hands.

An extinction event came down atop me. My health disappeared. Searing pain was sent through each ruptured muscle and every cracking bone. A small golden skull appeared over my health bar and began to tick down.

I felt it give way like a glass bowl of concrete. The rock that once turned me into paste broke into thousands of pieces to join the rubble that scattered our battlefield. Holding only a stick, the sudden lack of resistance made Sir Leal over-swing.

Instincts and adrenaline took the reins of the bloody chariot that was my body. I pounced at my target with a crazed look in my eye. Sir Leal delivered a punishing blow into my ribs that bruised organs and filled my mouth with the taste of blood. It didn’t slow me down at all as I finished my leaping tackle. I was a bullet fired from a gun. I could not be damaged anymore. I could not be stopped anymore.

I felt like God.

Claws boiling with heat and seeping with decay dug into armor, popping weak links and dismantling the defenses. I ripped the chest plate away to reveal undefended flesh underneath.

I raked my claws along Sir Leal’s chest and dug my teeth into his neck to recover from his precious blood. But the dog knight had yet to give up. He continued to punch me and summoned a dagger to plunge repeatedly into my side, eliminating any health that I was recovering.

Every twist of the knife brought a smirk to Sir Leal’s pained grimace. He could see the icon on my health bar as well as I could. He gripped his hands around my wrists and applied max gravity to his body. Either we were both dying or I was.

I opened up my Inventory and two recovery potions dropped from my subspace. I was unable to grab hold of the vials. There was no time anyways. I lurched my face forwards and caught them in my mouth. With a terrible crunch, I crushed the glass in my mouth. Sharp shards of glass pierced my gums and palate. Blood flowed from the countless wounds to combine with the medicine that swished around in my mouth.

My health reached the halfway mark and slowly depleted from the several bleed tickers that covered my health bar. I survived.

“Your victory is meaningless! Leader Armaros will make you all suffer!” Sir Leal bellowed into my face. The smug demeanor had gone away to be replaced by the traits of a sore loser.

Oh well. I didn’t respect his personality anyways; just his strength.

“What a great idea you’ve given me!” I screamed in return. “I will take your corpse and deliver it to Armaros. When you wake up, you’ll watch me kill your hope.”

Before Sir Leal could respond, I tore out his throat and allowed myself to be showered in the delicious crimson that sprayed out from the wound. I spat out the glass that coated my mouth and downed another couple potions to top off.

With a grunt, I lifted the limp body from the ground and looked in the direction of the ringing bells in the distance. I flapped my wings and took to the sky.

“I’m going to kill your God.”