As the dust settled, and the chaos subsided, Pix laid several feet away from Barak, lightning streaks all over his body, with his shirt completely burnt away, and his skin with several burns marks, as the excess lightning jolted off of his body into the ground, his breathing was severely labored, as he lay there motionless, his scythe was planted in the ground with the end of the blade broken off and missing as his eyes met his tattered scythe,

“sh….shit”, he said, his voice weakened and hollow, as if he were grasping for air,

“ guess…. Guess, I…….Lost”, he continued, coughing and wheezing,

Barak looked on at the state he left his opponent in, as he sat there in disbelief, his sword stuck in the ground in front of him, steam poring off of it, he could feel a burning sensation in is chest, looking down he a large gash on his chest, with the broken blade of Pix’s scythe sticking out of it, as the blood gushed out of it, Barak, placed both his hands on it, and gathered what remaining strength he had, pulling the blade out of his chest, a small slpurt of blood shot out as the blade left his flesh, the small droplets of blood splattering across the ground, Barak looked at the broken piece of the blade once more, then threw it towards Pix,

“ you pillars sure are making me work hard today”, A strange voice rang out, a purple masked man appeared next to Pix, kneeling beside him checking his body, before looking across at barak,

“i see no need to attack you, you are much worse for ware than you seem”, the voice rang out, this time from next to barak,

“now, lets see, multiple broken ribs, severe burns, divine energy exhaustion and overusing that natural blessing of your, oh not to mention the concussion you might have”, the masked man said, reappearing next to Pix,

“lets get you to a healer shall we”, he said, placing his hand on them as the two of them disappeared,

Barak picked himself up, walking up the short hill of the crater, as he looked around he spotted, krio, and made his way over to him, he was still breathing and barely conscious, barak sat him next to a large piece of rock that lodged itself into the ground from that last attack,

“don’t go dying on me now”, barak said, looking at krio directly in his eyes,

“…….”, krio whispered something,

“what did you say”, as barak leaned in closer,

“put your hand on the mask”, krio said softly,

“okay”, barak replied, as he placed his hands on the mask,

a feint glow appeared from barak’s hand and the mask, as barak felt a small bit of his Divine energy leave his body and enter the mask, as he looked at krio's wounds they began to slowly close up, at least partially,

“thank you”, krio said to barak, his voice only a bit stronger now, barak just gave him a soft smile,

“luckily I’m not done fighting for the day,”, barak said, as he slowly stood up, looking in the direction of the Dracht capital, as he walked off slowly, towards it,

somewhere else on the battle field

Polaris’ sword blocked the two incoming blades, that were aiming directly for his head, as aux danced around him, looking for an opening to attack,

Polaris had been at this for some time, but now his mind was on something else,

‘thinking about it now, am I even good enough as a person to be standing next to people who are so good to me’, Polaris rambled on in his thoughts, forming a layer of thick ice around himself as a volley of dark blades flew at him in every direction,

‘ while the others trained to get stronger, he made me into a killing machine, all these techniques he taught me, I cant enjoy the thrill of battle like Levant or barak, and I can’t make a mental challenge out of it like Aster, when I fight all I can do is suppress my overwhelming urge to kill my opponent’, Polaris continued in his thoughts,

his ice barrier melted away, as he jumped out of the way of two more dark blades,

‘ while we were all enforcers, our official clan records says that Levant had the most victories in battle, a total number of 18 victories, though they really were executions, when in reality because of that bastard zaraar, unofficially I probably have three times that amount’ Polaris thought to himself, as his mind drifted back to an unpleasant memory

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a few years ago

“ I can’t believe these guys are the ones who stole from our vault”, Barak said, standing over a mangled corpse,

“ I know right, these were the guys that were hanging out close to the village every night”, Levant stated,

“if we had known we could’ve gotten rid of them right there”, barak replied,

“oh well we know now and because of what they did the elders ordered us to get rid of them”, Aster chimed in,

“ by the way where is Pol ?”, Aster asked,

“ he’s probably off somewhere sulking by himself, when he’s ready he will come back”, Levant stated,

“wait, wait, wait, it wasn’t our idea to rob the vault, someone on the inside told us to, they told us they would cut us in on whatever they made off of the items”, the man dragging himself across the ground pleaded,

“shhh, shhhh, they’ll hear you”, Polaris, said, putting a single finger over his masked covered mouth,

“this isn’t because you tried to steal from us, three weeks ago, you, your mother and your wife, defected from the congregation of the church of junorra here on arteva, the church has already made both your mother and your wife repent, now it is your turn”, Polaris stated, pulling out a small dagger,

“wait, what do you mean repent, what have you done to the…..”, the man asked, but before he could finish, Polaris sank the blade into his throat,

the next morning broke, and the boys were back home, Polaris knelt on both knees in front of Zaraar,

“well done Polaris, I’m sure once the body is found with junorra’s symbol carved into him and the fact that he was chained to a tree, that will deter any more dissenters from leaving the congregation”, zaraar, said standing above Polaris, as his cold eyes looked down on to him,

“now take the pill I provided and leave”, Zaraar said,

back in to the present

Polaris shook his head, trying to rid himself of that memory, he was shaken by what he had done, but, now wasn’t the time to be worried about that, Aux was charging at him full speed, as he came into reach of Polaris he slashed at him, Polaris barely managing to dodge the attack, or so he thought, as the dark blade extended, giving Polaris, a razor thin cut across his chest, Polaris finished jumping back, trying to create distance between him and Aux as he tried to gather his thoughts,

But Aux stopped in his tracks,” there are two reasons why you currently wont win against me”, Aux began to explain, pointing his blade at Polaris,

“one you’re distracted, I can tell, your body is here, but, your mind is somewhere else”,Aux explained,

“two, you fight in a way that isn’t suited to you, I could tell that from the night I raided the rebel base, you start to attack the vital points, places that if you land a strong enough attack, will definitely kill a person, but then you switch where you target, your fighting styles are conflicted”, Aux finishes explaining,

“so why are you telling me this in the middle of a battlefield, to someone who is your opponent no less”, Polaris questioned, Aux,

“its simple, I have my pride as an assassin, and seeing someone hold back their honed assassination skills, feels disrespectful, look around you at where you are, a battlefield, everyone on both sides are laying down there lives, and here you are trying not to kill someone with techniques that were meant for that very same thing, to me it’s okay to embrace that darkness that is inside you, I recognize it within you to me its like meeting a kindred spirit, so embrace that darkness and make yourself whole”, Aux lectured to Polaris,

As Aux dashed forward to Polaris,’ yes embrace the darkness, it all people like me have anyways’, he thought to himself,

as his mid flashes to his past, to when he first held a knife,and felt he warmth of another creatures blood, to when he first saw a mans life leave his eyes,

“hmmph, you might be right”, Polaris states, as he too dashes forward to Aux,

the two clash in the middle, but, Polaris heavier weapon, pushes back Aux, sending him flying through the air, Polaris rushes him down, swinging his sword and aiming for Aux’s neck, but He is met by Aux’s dark blade, the force of the blow sending aux flying once more in another direction, this time along the ground,

As aux tumbles over the dirt, he regains his composure, using the momentum from Polaris attack, he pushes, himself off of the ground, and into the air, as three dark blades appear in each hand, Aux launches them in Polaris’ direction,

“fuck, he is good”, Polaris, said, jumping to the side, trying his best to avoid, the incoming blades, but, he was a second to slow, as the last blade, pierces through the flesh of his leg, going in one side and coming out the other, sticking into the ground behind him, as the dark blade, disappears in a small mist,

a burning pain, began to flow through Polaris’ entire leg, as blood began to pour out of the wound, staining the ground with his blood, as blood seeped into his white pants, Polaris knelt there on the ground, clutching his wound with one hand, though Aux gave him no time to breathe, appearing above him, with his blades at the ready,

“guess I don’t have much of a choice but to use it”, Polaris said smiling to himself,

As his hands began to turn an icy blueish color, and his eyes began glowing, he could feel his Divine energy grow as he activated the technique, in Polaris mind he was standing chest height in a body of water,

“UNHOLY WRATH: CETO-NU”, Polaris shouted, with the appearance of multiple sharp shards of ice appearing in front of him, Aux knew he couldn’t dodge all of them, as the icicle shards launched at him, pushing him back off of Polaris, cutting him, all over his body, some piercing straight through parts of his body,

Aux landed, quite a ways away from, Polaris, as he narrowly escaped that attack with his life intact, he smiled to himself,

“i see you’re starting to accept it”, Aux said, planting his feet firmly into the ground as several blades rose up out of his shadow,

Aux rushed forward towards, Polaris launching several of the shadow blades at him, as he circled around Polaris,

Polaris thinking quick on his feet, sticks his sword in the ground causing a cluster of icicle spikes to shoot out of the ground stopping the shadow blades,

Polaris, gritted his teeth as he froze the surrounding area of the wound on his leg, as a burning sensation once again shot through his leg,

As he stood once more readying himself for the final part of this battle