Arakiel il Kalanaar and the rest of his party stayed for five more days on the mesa and although he and Ezekiel were training just about every waking hour, he welcomed the strain, the exertion and the mental challenges with grit and determination. Finally, he was making actual progress and the more he did, the better he felt about not only himself, but about the entire upcoming planeswalk.
He had been stuck in a sort of limbo for so long, hoping to gain a shortcut to the divine through Shemyaza’s ritual, never once wondering whether he would still need to adapt and overcome after it happened.
For some reason, he had felt that he wouldn’t need to, but that seemed laughable now. While everything his parents or the other feats demigods performed seemed so easy from his point of view, they were all doing what they had always done. Adapt, endure, overcome – and in the end, be the last man or woman standing while everyone else was either broken or dead. The Transcended demanded ambition and more importantly, perseverance to see it done.
To become a planeswalker was to embrace ambition, seek challenge and overcome any and all obstacles by whatever means necessary. It was the only way to wealth and experience, both things needed to seek even greater heights to eventually reach power.
Why would that ever change?
Through his training with Ezekiel and Aurora, Arakiel remembered a few things he had forgotten, having learned them in his early youth, only to discard them after his first planeswalk had ended in a literal disaster that saw him lose his entire party while he ran with his tail between his legs.
Even now, almost 15 years later, he felt shame about the incident, but it had haunted him long enough, had dictated his line of thinking for too long.
Actions have consequences and he had chosen to bring his aurea, his little sister and a slightly dubious ally along to this planeswalk in which there were only two real combatants – Ezekiel and Arakiel. It seemed ludicrous, or so he had thought initially, somewhere deep down.
Now, nothing of the sort remained. The only feeling that remained was confidence that he could pull this off, for he began to grasp the ramifications of what they had done.
They had become ascendants not in a classical sense, for they only had one class – but their class gave them theoretical access to the abilities of several classes, most notably that of mages and sorcerers.
Mellia had been correct. They were immortal spellcasters despite being mortals, which was already fairly noteworthy… but it didn’t end there. Most immortals only had access to one path, some had access to two, while only the most elusive and most powerful immortals had access to three or, according to some legends, even more. Of course, path diversity wasn’t everything as one still had to have a certain affinity to an element or a sorcery, but more options were almost always a good thing.
And who better to teach them immortal spellcasting than an immortal?
Mellia could give rough guidance on how the Class System had adapted the immortals’ system from which it undoubtedly stemmed, but Aurora was an immortal and although she, too, only started out, she had insights that neither Ezekiel or Arakiel might’ve ever considered.
His seraphim didn’t need a teacher, it was like any awakened immortal possessed some sort of innate knowledge that they only had to dig up. Most likely, she called upon the experience of whatever souls hers originated from.
Children born of two immortals took a sizable chunk of their parents’ souls with them, which is why immortals usually mated with mortals, using other means to eventually pass down the torch without implicating themselves too much. How Arakiel knew? He had been in the business of scouting prey for Immortal Hunters and fresh or expecting mothers were among the easiest targets, but even the men were greatly weakened after having sired offspring – it just happened at different stages.
Either way, Aurora became a wellspring of knowledge after Arakiel convinced her that she was worthy of not only training by their side, but also teach them what effectively boiled down to the core concepts of immortal magic, which were called the Soul Arts.
Spells were woven with soul and ‘will’, with ‘will’ basically meaning the intended effect, just on a more complex, internal level.
In the most simple terms, immortals wished for an effect to happen and if the soul could do it, it did it. If the soul’s path – meaning elemental or sorcerous alignment – didn’t match the wish, it just didn’t happen.
The key to effective spellcasting was to figure out what one could wish for without immediately using up all soul and then tie it to a sigil, a specific shape created in a specific manner.
There were limitations, of course – but those would only start to be a problem once they sought to imitate higher rank spells, at which point a single sigil wouldn’t be enough. They’d need to add sequence as well, but not for now.
And while the way that Arakiel, Aurora and Ezekiel created sigils was the same for all three, the way to actually use them was not.
Aurora had it easiest, for she only needed to imagine the sigil at which point her soul’s fire would rush out to form it, and then dissolve by itself, causing the intended effect to happen. She could direct it, but it didn’t seem necessary.
Arakiel, when he took on Aurora’s aspect, could think of the sigil in his mind and Aurora’s soul would then form it in close proximity to him, but it did not activate by itself. Arakiel had to touch and then direct it.
Ezekiel, however, had it the worst; not only did he have to draw the entire sigil by himself while he took on Selene’s aspect, he also had to direct it afterwards. Arakiel could only assume it somehow tied to the way his and Selene’s covenant had been formed.
The three of them had more or less figured this out by the end of the second day, at which point they began to put it into action and whenever Aurora focused on theory and whether she could recall anything else, Arakiel and Ezekiel began to spar to give her space.
At first, they barely used any magic, but by the end of the fifth day, they had a rough, albeit general idea on how they’d fight for the time being.
Ezekiel’s awkward limitation basically made his spells more of a hindrance than a boon in close combat and as such, he chose to go all in on what the Class System would consider the school of alteration with a potential branch to thaumaturgy later down the road.
For now, he mainly focused on strengthening his own body and his first two sigils made his body swifter while also diverting the first successful hit against him. It also helped him preserve his soul’s fire, for he had no outside source to draw from besides Selene.
Arakiel, on the other hand, had Aurora’s temporary dawnshards to tap from and given that his casts were relatively quick, he mainly focused on evocation with a dash of alteration. By the end of their preliminary training, he could fling a small orb of golden fire, cause a fan of golden flames to spread out and lastly, create a shield of air around him that should hopefully deflect some projectiles send his way.
For now, he mainly focused on fire with a bit of air while Aurora made use of the astral portion of her shards. Since she would not participate in actual fighting, she mainly focused on enchantments – or one specific enchantment to be precise.
It thoroughly drained the entire golden portion of her shards, but the resulting array seemed worth it. It covered Arakiel in a thin, almost translucent golden barrier that occasionally repelled strikes and whenever it did, it briefly flashed up to such a degree that the person striking was disoriented for a while. It didn’t hamper him in any way, even if the flash occurred while also lasting over an hour.
The last spar against Ezekiel saw both men draw from their entire, albeit extremely limited, repertoire and Arakiel won that match only because Aurora’s shield kept throwing off Ezekiel at random intervals, even if none of them could say when or why – not even Mellia had something smart to add on this front.
Ezekiel mentioned feeling something invisible, almost intangible lash out at him with every single strike he made, but he couldn’t understand why it worked rarely when it didn’t all the other times. Nonetheless, it was an exceedingly useful tool and with two dawnshards, Aurora could apply a barrier onto Arakiel and Ezekiel both.
All in all, all of them made considerable progress in one way or another. Mellia got to use her crosspath enchantment to fix either Ezekiel or Arakiel, Aurora got to explore her own kind’s magic while Arakiel and Ezekiel made tangible first steps on embracing their class’s potential. And while Selene ast Rhea did not follow in Aurora’s wake, she eased into her role as Ezekiel’s argent with each passing day, which had its own boons. The Selenyean princess’s haughtiness remained at a steady high level, but that didn’t stop her from obeying her master’s guidance to basically become the party’s temporary maidservant until Ezekiel caught himself a more fitting individual. It allowed everyone else to focus on the tasks at hand while leaving the menial work to Selene and although there wasn’t a lot of skill involved making a fire and roasting some cuts of cured meat, it was still a nice change of pace to eat some warm food and if Arakiel had to take a guess, the Selenyean princess kind of found slivers of happiness in Aurora’s and Arakiel’s praise, even if she might never admit it. Mellia straight up considered the argent unworthy of any attention whatsoever whereas her interest in Aurora grew with each day.
The surrounding landscape began to change over the course of the next several days. More and more of those rock formations began to protrude from out beneath the desert before eventually, signs of life started showing as the sand started to recede.
At first, it was just sparse shrubbery with the occasional cactus, but then more and more patches of a dried out green emerged and on the Day of Initiative of the Sixth Liberation, they crossed over into what Arakiel might consider a savanna-type biome: long stretches of more or less flat land with sparse, gnarly trees and lots of shrubbery alongside a few signs of actual wildlife.
By evening, they found a herd of relatively small, wild horses around a pond that must’ve sprung forth from an underground source, but the first sign of water after such a long and arduous stretch in the desert was certainly a welcome change.
It allowed them to refill their supplies and more importantly, take a bath. It heightened everyone’s mood quite considerably and Arakiel personally ensured that Mellia had the time to tend for herself as he sparred with Ezekiel in quite a bit of distance away.
It was much harder to find the tranquility and focus that either needed to come up with a suitable sigil while traveling, so they more or less stuck to the ones they used and Arakiel only used up the shard that was about to turn to dust tomorrow. Nonetheless, the physical exertion was good and necessary, although they both needed new clothes – very soon.
Arakiel’s tatters were about to become undone while Ezekiel’s robe and boots were also unsuitable for this type of environment. Aurora’s black dress held for now, but he could tell that his aurea really longed for a change in attire. Selene was most likely the same. From what Arakiel knew, she only voiced her displeasure when no one else was listening and Ezekiel specifically asked for it.
They sparred until only the stars sparsely illuminated their surroundings and when they returned to the camp, Arakiel found an exceedingly agitated Mellia who immediately jumped at him, telling him in a very roundabout and upset way that he should not just leave like that, that he should not leave her alone out here, especially in the dark.
When he held his shivering little sister in his arms, Arakiel realized that he had kind of forgotten that this planeswalk was truly Mellia’s first – and she was thoroughly defenseless by herself.
He apologized profusely and earnestly, chastising himself for being so careless. He had been so focused on everything else… but that wasn't an excuse.
As a means to somehow make up to his little sister, he let her have one wish that she could call upon at a later time – a wish he’d have to fulfill if anyhow possible.
This, alongside a chocolate-flavored stick of shortbread and a promise to never do it again was enough to calm his restless kin down, somewhat.
In that night, she slept close to him and Arakiel felt honored by the faith and trust she put in him.
As he drifted off to sleep, he felt as though he might’ve just made the first real step in mending his broken bonds with his kin, most notably his close family.
On the morrow, the little party set out once more.
Arakiel looked to the sky which was still spotless, with nary a cloud to be seen far and wide. The sun shone down with impunity and although he did cherish the crystallized shards of the dawn’s light, he was more averse to having his skin exposed all the time… not that the sun cared.
Parts of Arakiel’s skin had turned to an unhealthy reddish color, indicating a rather tangible sunburn on his face and parts of his arms and hands. It came as shock, for he had never needed to even consider the weather as a Traveler, but now that he was just a measly level one class… things differed – and he hadn’t considered it.
Neither had Ezekiel, which at least made both of them look like fools while the girls around them seemed utterly unfazed. Granted, Mellia did so through her hooded cloak, but the seraphim just were not affected at all.
It was a mild annoyance, but it reminded him that he needed to consider things that he had taken for granted over the past years.
Another such thing happened around noon, when Arakiel suddenly heard shouts in the distance, coming from somewhere in the front-right. There was a little slope there, just enough to most likely hide whoever was behind it.
It was just… he did not understand a single word of what was shouted and it hit him like a fireball to the face, not that he had ever had that happen to him.
As a Traveler, he had been able to learn any language on the fly. Now… not so much.
Nonetheless, the sudden presence of natives posed an altogether different question which wasn’t even connected to the question of language. It tied in, but only afterwards.
What were they to do? Stay away, engage and if, peacefully or with outright hostility?
Of course, this was largely determined on what kind and how many natives there were and when Arakiel and Ezekiel hurried over towards the slope, they heard lots of voices and movement.
Nonetheless, they had to know and judging by the sounds these guys also had mounts.
Both did not take on their seraphim’s aspect just yet as it’d make them stand out against the environment.
Arakiel let himself fall onto the floor close to the slope’s peak and when he peered beyond, he saw a rather curios scene.
In the distance, there was relatively flat earthen terrain with patches of grass, shrubbery and very few trees that held much greener leaves than those they met so far. Furthermore, there was a sizable pond alongside a small stream that led to it from further up north. Next to that pond, a collection of roughly two maybe three dozen people dressed in wide, black clothing were scrambling to mount a defense against another, approaching group of roughly a dozen riders while about twice that size marched further in the back on foot.
Stolen novel; please report.
Judging by the goods-laden wheelbarrows close to the black-clothed tribe and the eighteen camels that were currently drinking on the pond’s shore, they had made camp here, only to get raided by the other faction whose horses and riders were covered in mail, partially even plate armor alongside lances.
The soldiers further in the back walked in a relatively tight formation and their gear seemed decent as well, with leather harnesses, aketons and a slightly bent steel cap on top. Their unit had mixed weapons, with halberds, spears, swords and shields. A small banner even held massive greatswords. Mostly iron and some steel as far as Arakiel could tell from a single glance, but it was hard to make out at such a distance. His sight used to be much better.
On the flipside, the defenders in their wide black clothing relied mostly on spears, javelins and bows, with a few having some kind of curved sword – most likely a sabre – on the hilt.
Most black-clothed people began to draw their bows and only a few grabbed their spears and shields but instead of going to the front, they were heading backwards.
Arakiel’s eyes followed them to the defender’s center. There were four people of note, one of which seemed to be the leader with two curved swords and a gilded, conical cap on his head. He was shouting orders, skillfully directing the supposedly surprised defenders into formation.
Another, tall and burly man held a far longer and most likely stronger bow of a dark medium bright shade of orange color: birch wood. He was accompanied by a smaller, slender person that kept tapping the archer’s shoulder after every shot.
When one of the tall man’s arrows suddenly brought one of the incoming horses low by making it trip and crash, Arakiel could only assume the archer to be an Air Alterator, who were notorious for their skills as archers and snipers. The dying horse’s rider was sent flying in a high and most likely very painful arc. He did not get up right away while the others charged on.
The last notable person looked just like the others, but he had to be a mage as well, most likely an Earth Enchanter given that two soldiers with spear and shield approached him, only to hold out their bare hand which the mage then touched.
As soon as he was done, the two charged to the front while the Earth Enchanter prepared for the next pair of soldiers.
Ezekiel queried whether to watch or intervene from the side, and Arakiel wasn’t certain yet.
There were over sixty people down there, far too much for them to handle on their own.
And then the black-clothed leader suddenly rushed over to the earthmage, taking one of the soldier’s spots. It seemed to cause a bit of confusion at first, but as soon as the Earth Enchanter had touched the leader, he charged off while shouting something.
The men echoed his cry and when the leader with the two curved swords arrived at the front, he repeated the earlier call while raising one hand to the sky, fearless in the eyes of the charging cavalry.
Foolish, that’s how Arakiel saw it. This was a minor plane and even if the guy was level seven, he couldn’t just casually take a lance to his face.
From one moment to another, the leader’s outline began to burst into lemon-colored, yellow flames that thoroughly engulfed his clothes without singing them. They flared high, but not high enough to engulf the man’s blades. His display of power strengthened his men’s morale.
Just shy of the lance charge connecting, the Air Alterator dropped another horse and when the Fire Alterator in the yellow flames jumped over the incoming lance in order to evade and strike at the rider, Arakiel decided to intervene.
He and Ezekiel hurried back to the women who immediately began with their respective enchantments when they saw the men taking on their seraphims’ aspects.
Aurora began to draw upon her dawnshard’s gold while Mellia put her relief array onto Ezekiel, as he was more likely to get wounded in combat.
Ezekiel and Arakiel began to draw their respective sigils for buffs.
Mellia followed up her first crosspath enchantment with two more single arrays. An astral one granted Arakiel a means to divert the first successful mundane attack against his body while the nature enchantments she applied to both of them filled them with a relatively minor and slow, but also barely fatiguing regenerative effect. She had used that on them during their intense sparring sessions in order to shore up bruises and minor scratches.
Arakiel took the two red-white shards alongside three other dawnshards, leaving one full shard for Aurora.
Then, he and Ezekiel reminded the girls to call for help but not fight back unless the enemies were actually attacking them and after they had given their okay, it was time for Arakiel’s first proper battle since a long, long while.
He hoped to make a positive impression on the side they helped as no matter how he intended to tackle this planeswalk further down the road, he needed allies… and he needed dying people on the opposite faction.
The two Mortal Ascendants burning in a golden and silver aura charged across the slope, briefly taking stock of the situation.
The lance charge had cut a partial breach in the defender’s formation, many of whom lay on the ground with a broken-off lance in their chest. Arakiel counted six dead and three mortally wounded. The riders had probably expected to charge through entirely, yet the second line of defense had stopped or somehow stalled them, forcing them into a melee while surrounded from all sides.
The heavily armored riders moved their horses skillfully as to create distances while slashing or blocking those who were foolish enough to approach right away. However, they might be stuck unless they could break out somehow.
After all, their relief was still a ways away. Not too long, but Arakiel wasn’t sure if the riders could hold out long enough, especially when the Fire Alterator blazing in lemon-colored flame had just thrown a rider off of his horse, with several other men already drawing their daggers in order to finish the deed.
Some of the archers tried to damage the knights from up close, but most of the arrows just bounced off of the plate.
Only one of the riders, the one with a particularly decorative plume of feathers on his helmet, was mowing down defenders left and right until the Fire Alterator jumped him, at which point the two were locked in combat.
The defenders would most likely overwhelm the riders before the infantry arrived, but they had already suffered over a dozen dead.
“We’ll help the defenders… they’re more likely to not jump us immediately after the battle is over,” Arakiel reasoned and Ezekiel affirmed, saying.
“I agree, my partner-in-crime. Remind me to thank you for hanging me out to dry in Kalanaar after this planeswalk’s over… I cant bring myself to find too much fault in your actions so far.”
“Me neither, although I think you should experiment a little with Selene.” Arakiel returned, looking to the side.
“New positions to mount her?” The slaver asked dryly and then shrugged. “Joke’s aside. Let me handle my women as I see fit.”
“Fair enough, just saying. There’s gotta be more untapped potential.” Arakiel said defensively.
“I know, I’m also fairly certain how to tap this potential. But I’d rather not give her any ideas before I’m sure my collar adorns her neck in a prim and proper way.” Ezekiel laid out and then charged, shouting. “Enough talk, let’s get to it!”
Arakiel followed him and the two charged down the slope towards the battle, their first order of business: acquiring a weapon.
Thankfully, a lot of people had fallen or died already and since they more or less jumped into the defender’s back, none of them even realized that Arakiel and Ezekiel were there until they were right in the thick of things.
It was such a stark difference, being inside a battle. The smell of blood and sweat, the constant cries, grunts, groans and most notably, the clanging sound of iron meeting iron, the banging sound of steel meeting board or timber and of course, the little noises that resounded whenever a bow’s string snapped back, followed by a little whoosh.
Arakiel took note of it, even assessed it, but no longer found any fear from it. Maybe he had changed, after all.
Both men aimed for the same enemy, one of the riders that had just slashed his broadsword across a defender’s neck, leaving the guy to collapse with a rather pitiful death rattle.
Ezekiel charged ahead, bringing the curved sword he had taken just moments ago to bear against the horse’s unguarded feet.
The horse reared up in pain and panic, enough to distract and imbalance the rider which Ezekiel then toppled with a mad and honestly reckless dash.
But it worked – he toppled the heavily armored rider and as soon as he hit the ground, Arakiel ripped the visor open and buried a broken spear’s tip in the man’s widened, terrified eyes.
Without further ado, the two Mortal Ascendants charged towards the next rider that was just about to kill another screaming man when he suddenly froze on the spot.
Next to him, a relatively small man quietly retracted his hand before he shouted something, at which point several nearby defenders began to pull the unmoving rider off of his horse.
With that target taken care of, Ezekiel and Arakiel aimed for another rider that they brought low in a similar fashion as the first one, at which point it felt as though the defenders had realized that two men had come to their rescue.
Shouts and yells were raised and Arakiel noticed twice how one of the archers had initially aimed at him, only to then focus their efforts onto the infantry that had made contact with the defenders just now.
Further in the back, the dual-wielding Fire Alterator fought against the armored knight who wielded a longsword that glowed in a slightly blue light, just like his shield did. His movements atop the horse were much too fast in Arakiel’s estimation and he could only assume that the guy was another Alterator.
Really, every mage that engaged in any kind of melee voluntarily was some kind of Alterator.
Deeming this guy too dangerous, he and Ezekiel instead joined the grand melee that was about to begin although they quickly understood a particular problem.
The mailclad enemies were using a strict formation: halberds paired with men that had large shields and one-handed spears who took the majority of the arrow fire. Now and then, a greatsword had been mixed into the second line in order to cause a breach when the time was right. The defenders, however, only had a few men with spear and small shield to ‘hold the line’ while the others tried to spread out, constantly peppering the tight formation with arrows that would be effective if the enemy soldiers didn’t have good helmets and very perceptive shielders.
Their formation had one weakness, however.
They were right next to one another.
Arakiel called for Ezekiel to buy him a few seconds as the two charged at the formation with over two-dozen soldiers who were using their halberds to swiftly hook the few defenders out of position in order for their allies to finish the deed.
When the spears found some kind of resistance underneath the wide black clothing, greatswords and the axe blade of the halberd came crashing down to finish the poor victim.
Arakiel noticed the enemy becoming aware of him, calling him out and then preparing to meet him, but he was ready.
Just before he came into contact, he drew red from the shard and a golden sigil with a heavy red tinge formed right in front of him, in the shape of the letter ‘V’ with one circle at each turning point. He grabbed the sigil with his free hand and then drew a low, wide arc, causing a fan of golden flame to wash over their enemies. Given that their armor was mostly cloth, almost everyone that was hit by the evocation began to catch flame.
The soldiers cried out and more importantly, their formation broke as some tried to rush Arakiel, but Ezekiel intercepted them while Arakiel, still drawing from the red, imagined the sigil with the letter ‘O’ which he then grabbed and hurled at a guy that was about to flank Ezekiel.
The golden orb of flame exploded in the guys’ face, causing his beard, cap and skin to catch fire.
A shiver ran down Arakiel’s spine at his opponents wails which mixed with the cooked, burnt flesh, making him briefly recall the raid of Selenya.
“Focus!” He then heard Ezekiel suddenly shout next to him and before Arakiel could react in time, he saw a spear and a halberd’s pointy end striking him. The spear bounced off of a thin astral barrier, but the halberd pushed through, piercing him in the side.
Ezekiel immediately decapitated the soldier with a mighty swing, taking his halberd in the process and Arakiel briefly shook his head and cleared his mind, biting through the admittedly sharp pain.
The next strike to his left, he blocked at which point he called for Ezekiel to fall back a bit.
On the retreat, Arakiel hurled another orb of flame towards the formation. It hit, sending several more soldiers into a panic, but he did feel the red portion of the dawnshard having faded.
Their little distraction didn’t last long, but it nearly broke the enemy’s ranks and only because of their unit leader’s pointed and powerful barks did most of the soldiers calm down enough to help their mates and close shoulders once again.
The men in black clothing hadn’t been idle, though, having used the enemy’s diverted attention to not only bring low several shield carriers with arrows, but some had taken Arakiel’s attack as a sign to strike their foes from the flank and rear.
It kind of worked, but also cost the defenders more lives – yet the melee was now truly underway, with the opponent’s infantrymen attempting to march through to their leader while the defenders constantly attacked only to retreat, yet whenever the halberd’s hook caught another man’s leg, he was swiftly brought low.
Casualties were high on both sides and when the soldiers had all but forgotten about Arakiel, he returned, bringing another fan of golden flame before tossing two more balls of golden fire into the enemy’s midst.
This time, the defenders and Ezekiel brutally exploited the confusion his evocations caused. Ezekiel alone killed two men, most notably a guy with a steel greatsword which he took and then brought down onto another soldier who only managed to raise his shield in the last moment, causing Ezekiel to half-split the skull while leaving the sword itself lodged in the shield.
Arakiel burnt through the third shard when two soldiers with maddened expressions written across their face jumped him. One held a sizable shield and spear and saw his recklessness rewarded for he blocked Arakiel’s fan of flames with the wooden shield. Arakiel had expected the man to dodge sideways which would’ve exposed him, but alas, he did not.
His companion, on the other hand, was a man with a halberd who was partially singed by the fanned flame, but not enough to take him out right away. Two hastily created orbs of golden fire rectified that problem.
The young soldier with the scorched shield and the spear screamed something foreign as he forced Arakiel into a melee and although his opponent saw some initial success, he soon found himself disoriented as Aurora’s astral shield happened out of the blue.
Arakiel only had a curved sword to fend with, but his enemy was relatively young and most likely not that high of a level, if he even exceeded level one. At first, the fight had been a struggle of slashes, deflections, thrusts and even a few kicks, right until his opponent cried out while raising his arm to shield himself from a blinding light that Arakiel could only guess.
Using that major lapse on his opponent’s part, he brought his weapon low and managed to bypass the young man’s shield arm. He struck with all his might and half-buried his curved sword in the foe’s lower arm, at which point he reached for his opponent’s dagger with which he slashed the guy across his neck.
He managed to bring his melee opponents low in a relatively reasonable amount of time, yet Arakiel could tell that his specialty lay not in dueling. That might change once he got a few decent alterations, but not as he was now.
During the time where he had fought the young lad, most of his surroundings had finished one way or another, with only the mounted commander remaining. Still he fought the Fire Alterator and according to Ezekiel, who had kept more enemies from joining Arakiel’s duel if the four dead bodies around him were any indication, the commander was winning. His fellow party member seemed unharmed, surprisingly. Ezekiel was certainly a better fighter than Arakiel.
Yet when the knight realized that most of his allies had fallen, he suddenly caused an explosion of water around him, after which his horse trampled over a defender that happened to be in its way while shouting something that Arakiel could not understand.
The other three remaining riders that had somehow managed to persist also turned around, following their leader and causing even more damage on their way out.
Nonetheless, with the enemy commander routing, the battle was over.
Ezekiel warned Arakiel to be ready for anything at the same time that Arakiel warned Ezekiel and at first, the surviving defenders did raise their weapons towards them, but the foreign words of their leader made them lower it.
“I don’t suppose you got a language card, do you?” Ezekiel noted from the side and as Arakiel raised his hand, he briefly thought about an entry on the slip of parchment.
The next moment, he held a thin, translucent slip of glass in his hand.
Ezekiel let out a hearty, dry laugh that indicated that he wasn’t all too surprised. “Now to find two victims,” he then suggested, to which Arakiel replied.
“Shouldn’t be hard.”
As he said those words, he noticed the young man he had dueled earlier, his eyes widened in disbelief as he kept coughing up blood after Arakiel had struck him across the neck.
“Look, already found one,” he noted with a calm, emotionless tone and then knelt down, bringing the Transcended’s language card to his forehead.
Without hesitation or mercy, Arakiel pressed it against the man’s skin, who began to scream in terror and pain.
The slip of paper began to pulsate in a grey light roughly five seconds later at which point Arakiel retracted the language card, causing the screams to cease. Then guided the glass to his own forehead.
The young man beneath him was dead, his last moments filled with agony as he witnessed his own language being torn from his very mind.