Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.01.11]

The Arslancle’s last attack was merely a light, fast sweep with the warhammer’s long shaft. It was fast – almost rivaling the speed of Aisha’s serious weapon swing – but lacked the power to break through Zeph’s guard. Nonetheless, it spoke volumes about the man’s physical prowess. Even when feeling the movement in his Veil, it almost took him by surprise.

But that wasn’t the most concerning part.

That can’t be right, Zeph thought, seeing the unblemished armor of his opponent. Two beads should’ve hit him almost point-blank… The shrapnel isn’t—

Shhhhha! Gru sent victoriously as his vision returned fully; the dark spots in his peripheral vision disappearing altogether.

His companion’s message brought more information, though.

The attack that made him blind was directed at his Soul. To be more precise – at the links between his Soul and body. Somehow, the man managed to pump impressions and overwhelm the Soul links connecting the general area of his eyes and surrounding nerves to his incorporeal part – effectively disrupting the information flow and causing his brain to short-circuit because of conflicting sensations.

And because the deluge of illusory darkness was that much intense, Zeph’s mind started processing that information before anything else.

The attack was instant from his perspective, but he knew well how Soulscape worked. The man had to mark him in the auditorium and enter the field prepared. There was no way to do something like that through the weak Soul bond that was connecting them – Gru would’ve known.

I should’ve felt the intrusion—the thoughts sped through his mind—Gru should’ve seen it coming. An instant attack? Without an ability to use Will directly? Impossible. It was too complex… Was a ritual of some kind involved?

It made sense but it also meant that Arslancle was much more similar to Aisha than Zeph was comfortable with. Rituals that she made were mostly to gather the attention of her Onji – to use that goddess’s special Mana in more complex ways, like marking the Souls of hostiles in the vicinity.

I have my Spells and he has the support of an Onji… is that how you set us up? His eyes squinted.

He couldn’t find any other logical explanation. That attack was much more sophisticated than anything a human should be able to produce on this stratum. And that fact sent shivers down Zeph’s spine.

Don’t tell me he is a part of that sect… No, I should stay calm, he steadied himself as his first Telekinetic barrier finally finished assembling on his right flank, so forced the other end of the funnel-like construct to lift one of the big needles from the back of his belt. Paranoia and fear are not going to help me here.

“Having doubts?” the man asked, rising to his feet; misunderstanding Zeph’s petrified state.

He wouldn’t be able to surprise us again with Gru staying alert, Zeph quickly concluded, glancing around without moving his head. The live-detection beads would be useful in the worst-case scenario. The explosion beads were all around them, too, but seeing the state of his opponent’s armor, he wasn’t going to activate more of them.

Not until he found an opening.

“Yes, I have some,” Zeph answered after quickly analyzing the battlefield, straightening up. Looking back at his adversary, he noticed that the spasming of his muscles almost stopped. He allowed that to happen, as well as for the talk to buy his opponent time.

Carbon monoxide in low concentrations isn’t working fast, either way, he thought, taking a more aggressive stance with his spear, playing an honorable contender that he wasn’t.

Crouching down, he raised his right arm behind his back to reach above his head, keeping the spear’s shaft high, while his left was extended forward, reaching as far as possible. This stance was more suited for thrusting or charging forward, but it was surprisingly compatible with how he used the spear’s enchantments and the gravity-defying, inertia-depending style he learned from Aisha.

“Mostly about your allegations, though,” he finished, assembling the Flash once more, just for the sake of testing its usability.

The man’s head dropped – either in contemplation or anger – as he moved the warhammer head into a ready position to his left. The surface of his armored gloves and the weapon darkened as the metal saturated with Magicules of unknown type.

In the next moment, he was charging at Zeph, big swaths of grass and dirt left in the wake of his explosive first jump.

Using the enchantments in his boots, Zeph Anchored himself to the ground and pushed with all his strength. The thrust was slow because of the weight of his spear, and the execution was a bit too early to reach Arslancle. But just as the spear was reaching its maximum range, quadruple-Flash exploded between them and Zeph jumped forward after cutting off the enchantments.

This was enough of a surprise, along with his speed and reach, to startle his opponent. Arslancle reacted too late and had to swat away the spear near his body with the shaft of his weapon. The Discharge’s sparks flashed momentarily through the length of both weapons, only to ground itself below them without effect.

Flash out. Discharge out, flew through Zeph’s mind as he pulled his spear back, speeding up his advance and rotating the weapon to brace for impact.

He held his breath.

Neither of them could adjust the weapons in time and they crashed violently. Zeph used his knee to direct most of his inertia to the man’s abdomen, when Arslancle tried to elbow him in the head, managing only a glancing blow.

The loud clash of metal perfectly obscured a silent hiss of compressed gas escaping from multiple small containers.

They spun just above the ground and started separating because of the centrifugal force, but Zeph would have none of that. He reached with his right arm to try and hook it around his opponent’s neck.

As their bodies started to flat out in the air because of the spin, Arslancle roared angrily and—bending his body impossibly—spun his torso around to face upward, freeing himself and using the momentum to punch Zeph’s side, shoulder, and helmet in quick succession.

A hidden blade shot forward from his armguard every time, but was deflected by the microplates of his armor.

Falling, Zeph finally took a breath.

After hitting the ground, now separated, both quickly rolled to their knees and swung their weapons in sync. Zeph had been holding his spear upside-down, so the warhammer’s head met a solid sphere on the other side of the spear’s end.

Two enchantments activated and an explosion of force rattled the bones of both combatants. The grass and soil around them twisted because of the Anchoring enchantments keeping both of them in place.

Zeph’s weapon was sent back at speed as Arslancle continued the swinging motion, standing up, and diverting the movement of his weapon into an overhead blow.

But even with his speed, Zeph was ahead thanks to the previous exchange. He spun his spear, activating the vibration enchantment and, at the same time, preparing to jump forward while positioning his Telekinetic barrier, hastily putting Matix Force weave on its surface.

In the middle of a cacophony of metal-cutting-metal and a lightshow of sparks, he cut a deep gash diagonally through the man’s torso.

That did nothing to dissuade Arslancle as the warhammer started falling. Another Flash ignited, and Zeph jumped forward, still spinning his spear above his head.

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A crack of supersonic projectile echoed in the arena as the warhammer suddenly stopped just above Zeph’s back. Zeph’s constructs raptured violently, causing an explosion of air, and—at the same time—a dense wave of unknown Magicules rolled through his back, breaking even through the excellent Mana protection of his armor while decimating Phleya’s population inside.

Zeph held his breath as his body was launched to the ground and slightly to the right, causing another hiss of released air. The darkness returned, invading not only his vision but all other senses this time.

Arslancle grunted in pain; his warhammer landing heavily on the ground as he swayed unsteadily.

Zeph tried to stand up but his body was sending him confusing signals. It hurt in places, but his muscles were numb. Shivers coursed through him, some feeling like caused by temperature change, some pleasant, some just confusing. His heartbeat was irregular; his hearing overwhelmed with white noise; his touch stinging, wavering, and thoroughly illogical.

I don’t have time for this! He clenched his teeth, effectively filling his mouth with a sweet taste coming from nowhere.

Angrily, he forced his Soul to shift, then sent an enormous amount of Will through all his Soul links up to his Soul to reinforce the change and the functions of Willforce Morphon working on that side, while forcing all present Willforce Mana-constructs in his body to start the synchronization process.

He was too preoccupied to notice the, temporarily, unintelligent warnings sent by Gru. By the time he regained basic control over his body, the pickaxe end of warhammer was already cursing through his Veil.

His body spasmed as he reflexively tried to dodge, but it was too late.

The sharp end dug deeply into his left arm, breaking the bone and almost piercing all the way through, stopped only by the armor on the other side. His body was flung to the side as he screamed; the movement tore the weapon away, causing even more damage.

He rolled on the ground; weapon lost. He was bleeding heavily, but he could already see through the vestiges of his Mana that the man quickly followed. Not as fast as previously, but still right behind.

Fuck it! Suppressing the pain as much as possible, he grabbed at the center of his chest, where two bandoliers that were crossing his torso connected to a metal plate, and released the latches with a push.

Gru, double-S! he sent, discarding the belt contraption while still rolling.

It was armed with a small explosive that was just enough to break all canisters containing compressed carbon monoxide, as well as a small surprise from Pavail.

Just as the man was to smack it away, he was hit with two ‘Soul whacks’ coming from… relatively opposite directions.

The man spasmed, just as the canisters exploded in his face, purple smoke blocking his vision.

Zeph screamed again after using his good arm to grab soil and grass to slow down and rotate to his knees, sliding almost two more meters before finally stopping. He was sent down the slope of the hill, thankfully. He wouldn’t be able to make much distance otherwise.

His senses were almost recovered. Gru was working overtime to get rid of the strange Magicules and Soul influence, resonating as he could to influence Zeph’s Soul, while directing Phleya to focus on his blood and the wound.

Not giving time to his opponent to recover, Zeph took out the spear’s scabbard from his belt with his good hand. Just a moment ago, Arslancle did an involuntary pirouette before crashing almost right at his feet, facing the sky. The cut that Zeph managed to inflict didn’t go through the armor, but a deep dent was visible on the left side of the Arslancle’s chest, in the lower part of his pectoralis. There, a trickle of blood was painting his armor red.

He fired from the scabbard almost point-bland at that area. The enchanted Spell trashed the man’s body for a fraction of a second, until a gray-black explosion of Magicules and force sent them both flying away in opposite directions.

Zeph’s Veil was almost depleted. His senses once more confused, but not as badly as previously. The scabbard was lost, and he was blindly coursing through the air. So, he used his good arm to cradle the damaged one, covering the wound with his hand, and braced for impact—

—one agonizing moment later—

—he was sprawled on the soft grass, dizzily looking all around in confusion.

It seemed that his brain was done with the pain because he felt nothing. The numbness assured him that he was very high on adrenaline… or whatever Gru and Phleya were pumping into his organism.

It’s probably a shock of some kind…isn’t it? he wondered, fighting off the drowsiness. It was a long time since he felt such a strong compelling to just stay put and close his eyes. He was also sure that he lost consciousness for a moment there.

Well, the simplest thing to do right now is… he thought, closing his eyes… and raising his leg up. He was still on the hill’s slope – legs facing down – which helped him sit up as he moved the leg down.

He was ready when the sharp, tearing pain returned. He hissed silently, but the sensation eradicated any sense of weariness. He looked around once again.

His adversary was to his right and back, slightly higher on the slanted grass field. It seemed that the man had problems with rising to his feet and, even from the distance of almost 20 meters, Zeph could hear his wheezing, shallow breaths.

“Ah, so that’s why,” Zeph whispered tiredly. He expected to be eliminated after wasting so much time, but he now understood.

Because Arslancle was facing in the other direction, Zeph would clearly see a large, uneven rapture in that armor of his. The circular opening looked almost like an exploded tin can.

That needle that penetrated his armor wasn’t made from normal materials, so even when compressed and deformed, it still didn’t fall apart. His Telekinetic funnel-slash-barrier transferred enough energy for it to open a much larger opening on the other side.

And then, a part of his Force-drilling Spell got inside from the front a moment ago…

That lung is in shambles, he concluded, slowly standing up. It’s a good thing they don’t have hearts on their left side. But—he straightened with difficulty—what do people like him eat to survive something like that? Aisha, I really hope that’s not a standard in this world!

He took out one of the explosive beads and his combat knife. He had only one hand to work with, but maybe he wouldn’t have to use it that much. His Veil recovered somewhat, so he also started constructing Heat Beam.

Moving slowly up the hill, he also started spinning the vortex of Ambient Mana Channeling using an external part of his Veil. He wasn’t in a hurry and waited until his opponent noticed him.

“Ready to surrender yet?” he asked as the man turned to him.

Zeph was still walking uphill to reach, at least, a level ground. He also deliberately kept his head turned mostly forward, to not indicate that he was looking directly at the man.

“Because of flesh wound of… cough… this proportions?” Arslancle answered with difficulty, yet still arrogantly. “I don’t think so…”

What are you? The Black Knight? Zeph thought, shaking his head. The man was visibly weakened, and not only by the blood loss and collapsed lung. “Then, no hard feelings if I kill you by mistake?”

Arslancle had inhaled enough carbon monoxide for the effects to start showing, not to mention Pavail’s toxic surprise, whatever that was.

The Passive Enhancements only strengthened what already existed – the state of the body was the base. And seeing his movements earlier, Zeph was sure that his armor was extremely heavy – probably right at the limit of what he could comfortably use. The discrepancy between his linear movement speed and maneuverability was just too vast, not to mention the slow swings of the warhammer’s head that stood in opposition to the swift movements of its shaft.

Even if the poisoning resulted in a 10% drop in strength, the man now had only one working lung and was heavily wounded. The fact that he wasn’t even trying to move uphill right now—still fighting to not sway too much on his feet—spoke volumes as to how much all that impacted him.

And yet, he didn’t surrender.

“Hmph! If you manage that… in your state…” the man answered slowly in a gurgling voice while suppressing a coughing fit; clearly miscalculating the condition of Zeph’s body. “You will have my respect, not enmity.”

It ended up more useful than I had thought… he thought, noticing the slight slur as he spoke.

His poor acting aside, using a gas in the open plain wasn’t going to help Zeph much. At least, that was what he had thought.

But it was a free action he could take, so he made sure their clashes made the gas-releasing mechanism activate just as the man was taking a breath. Zeph had enough combat experience to either predict or force those moments. The canisters were also appropriately enchanted – preventing the gas from dissipating too quickly and instead forming dense conglomerations in the air.

It was something he had learned from Aisha – the inevitability of faltering in certain circumstances. The very method she had used to defeat three post-100 warriors in North Tarak. She even used a similar method back then by suffocating their opposition. The environment often mattered more than personal strength in such scenarios.

But he knew that if his opponent didn’t inhale enough of the toxic gas, it would be all for naught. It had been a backup plan, at best.

That’s why he was so impressed by how well it had gone. Now, they stood face to face. One man without a working arm. One man brought down below his opponent’s strength. Both without their main weapons. The results were more than satisfactory.

“So be it. I won’t hold back,” Zeph stated coldly. His Veil regenerated enough during this short battle of words.

He threw the bead at the man, closely followed by a thin Mana tendril, and activated the Matrix Force weave Spell to build inside a glob of Mana-L by his side.

Arslancle, predictably, also threw something at him before taking a defensive stance. His projectile-deflecting enchantment was activated and his whole armor darkened.

But before the bead could get even close to the dome of deflecting air current, Zeph reshaped his AMC vortex into Mana rupturing beam. It shot forward, taking the small glob of unfinished Stabilized Force weave with it. Zeph swiftly dodged the thin knife the man had thrown at him as the beam obliterated the defensive Spell and the man’s very Veil, piercing straight through and forcing him to take a step back.

The Force weave finished constructing and immediately exploded near Arslancle’s left hip.

His body didn’t fly away – the deep gorges in the ground testifying that he Anchored himself – but his body was turned around nonetheless as he fought to stay upwards.

Zeph fired the Heat Beam, aiming right at the gaping hole in the armor’s back, then activated the exploding bead that finally reached its destination.

An explosion behind him confirmed his suspicions.

It all happened in a span of two, maybe three seconds. Zeph’s Veil was, once again, depleted, and his body pushed forward by a shockwave.

But a powerful Mana signal, red glitter coming from ahead, and a multicolored lightshow that erupted all around him were all he needed to welcome the inevitable meeting with the ground as he soared through the air.

Finally, I can jus—another agonizing moment later, and his wish was granted as the darkness consumed him…