With a new found wave of confidence, I struck a stance, challenging my comrade to a one-on-one battle. Tyler smirked and briefly adopted a stance of his own. Our eyes locked, and the symbolic bell rang to begin our match.

Tyler charged first, as quick as a thunderbolt, attempting to drill his arm through my chest.

I caught his arm in place and delivered a roundhouse kick to his face. Tyler dodged by a hair's breadth, the force of my kick ripping off strands of his hair.

Tyler grinned and launched his forehead with full force to deliver a headbutt that landed perfectly on my temple. I felt my skull crack on the impact, but the adrenaline rush allowed me to respond with a gut strike that launched my adversary a few metres away.

I chased him down, but the latter had already recovered from my previous attack, gaining footing as he spat out a bit of blood from his mouth.

Tyler locked the pool of blood as a distraction, and the liquid made contact with my eyes, stunning me for the perfect amount of time for Tyler to land a devastating combo attack on me. He ragdolled my helpless body around and kicked me a distance away from one another.

"Is that all you're made of, Jaxon?!" Tyler rallied me. "Surely you're not this weak."

I steered myself up, circulating my breathing in the best way I could. I realised that if this kept up, my stamina would slowly fade away, and the limitations of a human body will slowly kick in. I had to end this battle fast, knowing very well that another opponent sought to challenge me immediately after I had concluded the battle with Tyler.

My eyes sharpened with determination, and I locked in. This prompted the reaction of a smirk from my adversary, but that did not seem to bother me. I leapt off the ground, and using the wall as a springboard, launched myself towards Tyler.

Mid air, I swung my leg in full arc, and Tyler responded with a kick of his own, which was followed by a series of strikes whilst I was suspended on air.

I landed on the ground and delivered a quick legsweep, but Tyler sidestepped with ease. I delivered a flurry of punches and kicked in rapid succession, but Tyler matched my speed, diverting and blocking every attack scheme I pulled off.

Tyler held one of my arms and delivered an elbow strike to my face, but I responded with a precision strike to his solar plexus, forcing Tyler to double over, gasping for breath.

I immediately took advantage of the opportunity I had created and I delivered a nasty head butt followed by a knee to the gut and a final definitive punch to send him crashing to the ground.

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I did not stop there, delivering a nasty kick to make my statement.

"Don't make me do this, Ty." I tried to reason with the conscience of my comrade. "You can't tell me that our friendship was all a lie and a part of his plan."

"Sorry to say, Jaxon, but that really was all there was to our relationship." Tyler broke the news, slowly beginning the process of regeneration once more as he struggled to rise.

I struck his midsection in anger, drawing a groan from him. "Nonsense. We can do this together, you know? Rebel against this shitty prick called Zyron."

"You should be grateful that he hasn't struck you dead by now." Tyler chuckled, using his arms to deflect the kick.

"And what if he can't?" I posed the question. "And that's the reason he had to resort to other means? Have you ever thought about that?"

"You're really a delusional kid, aren't you?" Tyler mocked, the blood filled ground soaking his clothing. "This is merely another game he has to conquer. There must have been thousands of your kind, wanting to make a name for the glory of your Lord. It's pitiful, to say the least. Worship him, and have no troubles whatsoever. Or bear the consequences and be another fish on his cutting board."

"This is not the Tyler I once knew."

"Don't be silly. The Tyler he wanted you to see was all just an illusion, to make you have a sense of superiority over others, whereas you are nothing but another pawn on the board. When will you understand this, Jaxon?"

Tyler got to his knees, cackling like a maniac. He had reached the peak of madness, and I had nearly lost the will to hurt him any further.

"Be like me, J." Tyler proposed. "With all this power you can get just by being under the influence of his control you can get and do whatever you want. Is it the fame, is it the riches? You will get all of that in surplus and rule the material world. Is it the women? You can get them in all sizes and shapes, man and you can get to feel, misuse and abuse them to your pleasure. Heck, you could have started it all with Shayna, but I guess that's not an opinion any more."

Tyler's burgeoning cackles began to create some sort of irritation in me. He seemed to have ticked me off somehow, and I do not want to believe it was at the mention of a certain someone.

"That's enough, Ty." I ordered, trying to conceal my anger.

"Oh?" Tyler smirked. "Did I hit you where it hurt? It's kind of insane how much of an influence Shayna is on her prey- Hey… tell me something… between you and me. If you had the chance, would you have smashed-"

I had reached my boiling point. Instinctively, before my brain could send orders to my hand, I drilled a hole through his gut in annoyance, silencing my comrade forever.

"I told you… that's enough, Tyler." I said, my voice dead as well as the expression on my face.

"Urgh…"

My eyes widened in shock. I felt a huge arm reciprocate the action I had performed on my friend to me. I gasped, looking below to behold the arm going right through my body.

I tried to circulate my breathing in the best way I could, but the otherworldly energy that oozed damaged my vitals to the point that I could barely let out a sigh.

My eyes turned to see who dared to do this. It was no other than Xandro, visibly impatient.

"He he he." Xandro chuckled, lifting my nearly lifeless body up the ground. "You're not all that, Rebel. Farewell."

Xandro ejected my heart out of my body and launched me with a mighty force of energy to be nailed by a sword on the wall.

Just like that, it was over. Jaxon Storm ceased to exist.