Kamil looked like a crazed madman. His eyes were bloodshot, and he kept making this weird motion with his hand as if grasping at something in the air.

The gleam in his eye was one of hatred and vengeance.

“I’m going to slaughter everyone associated with you, brat. That I guarantee,” he said in a sinister voice.

Looking at him, I simultaneously felt a sense of danger and excitement. Maybe it was all the juice I received from going max on the GB skill, but it was a tantalizing and addicting experience.

“I need to give 110 percent on this fight, or I’m not going to make it,” I said excitedly.

Kamil screaming out like a madman didn’t personally affect me that much; I believe I was ready for the fight. What he said, especially about Eva and the twins, got me fired up.

I felt good with the GB skill and DSS at max.

“Let's go,” I said as I glided towards Kamil.

Seeing me start to move, Kamil quickly raised his hand as his glaive weapon materialized from his right arm.

Shot after shot of the plasma beam flew my way. I would zig and zag as I glided in the air to avoid them, but getting close to Kamil proved to be a challenge. The way he maneuvered his weapon and timed his shots seemed to block my every attempt to move closer to him.

“Fuck, what's with this guy? Does he have some telepathic skill that can read my thoughts,” I said, getting frustrated with the lack of progress.

I stopped to reorient myself and figure out how to break through his defense.

Kamil looked at me and grinned. He could tell I was getting frustrated; that was what he was looking for.

“Kid, you have some amazing skills but zero combat experience. That puts you at a disadvantage against people like me.”

“Let me show you how skills are supposed to be used, especially tier ones like the ones you might be holding,” he said as he started pressing buttons on his CAD bracelet.

Instantly, his yellow hair started turning red; it seemed to glow, almost like it was on fire.

A thin red mist started to envelop Kamil. It was strangely fascinating to watch. My curiosity got the better of me as suddenly; the mist turned into a crimson flame that enveloped Kamil entirely for a second before dying out.

Standing before me was Kamil, now enveloped in what looked like a suit of molten lava. The lava looked alive as it kept circulating his body. His face was covered in a full-face mask that resembled a lava flow with a web-like texture all around; the flow shifted with every motion that Kamil made.

Little red sparklets occasionally came out of the suit and mask.

“See this, you little shit; this is called Molten Armor. It’s a combination of tier-one earth skill Stone Armor and tier-one plasma skill Ignite.”

“Putting them together, you get the best of both worlds, as the armor rating is through the roof, making it unbreachable, and thanks to Ignite, the armor has enhancements in strength, healing regeneration, and vitality. I can also use the fire attribute as needed,” he said as he positioned himself to attack.

He looked imposing. I should have taken him more seriously, but I didn’t.

Watching him coming at me in a sprint, I assumed I could take his punch with my DSS enhancement and be able to counterattack with my wind blade.

I was wrong.

As soon as he was in range, he unloaded a straight left to my chest; I put up my right forearm to block it, but to my surprise, it felt like I got hit with a battering ram.

The punch knocked me off my feet, sending me flying back. As I was in mid-air, Kamil instantly raised his right hand and blasted me with the plasma beam. He fired two consecutive shots.

I had no chance to duck or evade the shots, so I could only do the next best thing: cover my face.

I instantly brought up both my forearms to block my face. The plasma shots caught me in the chest and right side of the ribs. It wasn’t what I expected; it Fucking Hurt.

“AAAHHHGGG… it fucking hurts you son of a bitch,” I screamed in agony as Kamil's shots found their target.

BOOMMMM!!!!!

I was blasted back around 100 feet from where I was. I broke a few of the rubber and Ficus trees behind me as they interrupted my path.

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I was utterly disoriented from impacting the trees; I couldn’t tell up from down as I tried to recuperate by resting on one knee.

“I just need a minute to reorient and get back into this fight,” I told myself when suddenly, out of the corner of my right eye, I spotted what looked like a mini sun approaching at high speed.

“Fuck what is that now, “I said as I brought up my arms to block it.

In the next instance, I was engulfed by a ball of flame whose temperature was hot enough to burn off my clothes; luckily, my battle uniform from school was underneath.

This ball of flame was scorching; it felt like my insides were starting to boil.

While trying to figure out how to get out of this ball of flame, I heard a laugh from in front of me. I saw Kamil laughing like a lunatic about 30 feet away.

“How do you like my tier-one flame skill, boy? It's called Flameburst, and it can melt even the strongest steel,” he said with a wicked grin.

“Shit, how many tier-one skills does this guy have,” I thought.

The two plasma shots had weakened me quite a bit; I was not expecting them to hit me so precisely. My DSS had held out, not allowing much external damage, but my internal organs were jostled around quite a bit.

I felt like my organs were going to rupture.

Now you threw in the flameburst crap, and it was just unbearable.

“What do I do,” I kept asking myself when a kick landed on my head. My arms were up so I could block a lot of the kick, but some still got through to my ear and neck.

I was so preoccupied with turning off the flame that I never saw Kamil attack from the side.

That kick sent me flying again. I hit a giant rubber tree in my way hard. My head slammed against the trunk of the tree so hard that it knocked me out.

I was out cold; Kamil knew this.

“Kid, this is far as you go, but don’t worry, I’ll send some of your friends to you in a little while,” he said to himself.

As Kamil approached with a steady pace, his face couldn’t help but have a peculiar smile, neither evil nor good.

“This is how it has to be; only the strong can live on,” he mumbled.

“You should have heeded my warning and let my guys live; so much time spent on training those guys only to have them killed by a pathetic 15-year-old punk like you; I don’t think so,” he said as he walked closer to Khyrum, who was still unconscious.

As he got close, a blade of what looked like crimson steel materialized on his left hand.

“You’re lucky, kid; you’ll be the first to die by my fireblade,” he said, kneeling beside Khyrum.

With a quick hand motion, Kamil thrust the blade deep into Khyrum’s stomach.

NO!!!!

Came a scream from the back.

Damian had just passed the last people at the park's entrance and made his way to where Kamil and Khyrum were fighting.

He got there just in time to see Kamil stab Khyrum in the stomach.

“What have you done, you stupid motherfucker,” said Damian as he rushed forward to attack Kamil.

Kamil was taken aback by seeing Damian jump in.

“Aren’t you Damian Jarda,” he asked seriously.

Damian didn’t say anything as he watched the blade sticking out of Khyrum’s stomach.

Seeing that Damian didn’t say anything, Kamil continued.

“Don’t interfere, Ghost,” said Kamil with some respect.

Ghost was the name Damian had earned from his time as leader of the Death Knights. People said he appeared like a ghost out of nowhere to hunt down his prey.

Kamil moved to grab for the blade to pull it out and stab again; he reached the blade, pulled it out, and aimed for the heart this time.

At that moment, Damian attacked with all his might. He used a wind blast to knock Kamil back; then, he used an air walk to reach Khyrum.

Damian kept an eye on Kamil as he looked over at Khyrum.

“Aren’t you Kamil from the 46th-ranked Phantom Force in the world rankings,” asked Damian as he positioned himself between Kamil and Khyrum.

“It seems you have a good eye,” said Kamil.

“Now that you know it's me, better that you leave as that little shit is not escaping death today,” he said in a cold tone to Damian while pointing to Khyrum.

“I wish I could, but I can’t; some powerful individuals protect this little shit, as you called him; I’m not sure you want to offend them,” said Damian carefully.

He knew he was not a match for Kamil.

Damian was a good fighter but at a different level than Kamil. He needed to stall to see if he could contact his boss, Selin, or maybe the city enforcer, Oliver. But to do that, he first had to ensure that he and Khyrum stayed alive.

While all this was going on outside, Khyrum had made his way back into his meditative state.

“Why the fuck am I back here. I have no new skills to learn, and even if I did, I’m right in the middle of a death match. I can’t be doing this right now,” I told himself.

I wanted to leave but couldn’t find a way to do it.

After a short while, I finally sat cross-legged to concentrate to see if he could speed up the closure of his little time off.

As I concentrated, the reel-like image popped into my mind.

“What this? I don't recall learning a new skill, so why is this reel here,” I said as I looked at the reel before me.

Suddenly, the reel started spinning, and the DNA sequence for the Wind Technique began to display.

“This is weird. Why am I seeing the Wind Technique,” I asked myself.

After a little while, another reel appeared next to the first one.

“What the hell? Two Reels,” I said, extremely surprised. This had never happened before.

The second reel started to spin, the same as the first, but the DNA sequence of the DSS skill appeared on the second reel.

“Hmm… What's happening with this; why are the two skills running simultaneously? Could it be I overused them just now, and this is somehow a consequence of that,” I said quietly.

As I kept wondering what was happening, I noticed the two reals starting to glow, one green and the other silver.

Back outside in reality.

Damian had just engaged Kamil, and both men watched each other's moves.

They had not realized that the wound on Khyrums stomach had started to close by itself. The passive Healing skill had begun to do its job. Also, from Khyrums chest, a faint but present hue of silver and green started to pulsate. It seemed to have a heartbeat.

Inside Khyrums mind.

“What’s up with these two skills? I don’t understand why I can’t return to the fight,” I kept saying.

Suddenly, as the two skills glowed brightly, they started to meld into each other.

“What the fudge, are they combining,” I said in utter disbelief.

After about 10 seconds of both skills grinding into each other, there was a bright flash of green and silver, and everything was normal again.

Except for now only one reel was present, instead of the two.

The reel began to speed as I concentrated on the DNA sequence.

About 15 minutes had passed in real-time, but in my head, it already seemed that I had been there for hours. I had been researching the DNA sequence and finally got it—the skill.

“Well, color me green and call me an ogre,” I said, stunned over the skill I had just learned.

“What the hell is Azura Armor!”