A minute and a half before Present Time

“You knew that I was going to throw him towards Mr Dius.” Alexandar accused with a thin gaze, staring at his vampiric rival.

Off to the side, both of the young combatants finally slid to a stop from the force of the flying Von Lung heir.

“It was an educated guess. You tend to throw things to your left.” Tyrius grinned smugly, his gaze flickering towards Crowell and Alec for only a moment as the vampire kicked the human teen off him.

“Haaaaaah. We fight far too often.” Alexandar sighed, summoning his staff just so that he could lean on it exhaustedly.

“Oh, I’d say not nearly enough.” Tyrius responded with a humored grin.

“You would you battle maniac!” Alexandar snapped animatedly before taking a breath and deflating a little. “Why throw Crowell towards me, especially if you wanted him to end up thrown at Mr Dius in the end?”

“It’s truly a shame that you won’t take that child as your apprentice.” Tyrius responded, seeming to ignore Alexandar’s question entirely and getting a small twitch of the old man’s eyebrow. “Surely, like I, you can feel the overwhelming talent that flows from that boy.”

“I’m aware that Mr Dius is skilled, it’s why I awakened his mana.”

“Precisely. I doubt it was too long ago, a week perhaps. Maybe two or three at the very most.” Tyrius questioned, looking Alexandar up and down for any of the mages' tells.

“Just under a week.” Alexandar answered simply, feeling a change in the air as he heard the conversation between Alec and Crowell thanks to a little mana-strengthened hearing.

“Tsk. That boy…. If you were wondering, Alexandar, that attitude right there is precisely why I threw him at Dius.” The man’s hand twitched and his mana swirled for barely a second, his want to fight his rival beginning to get the better of him.

“So, he can get a feed?” Alexandar retorted disapprovingly, only to get a roll of Tyrius’ eyes as he slowly drew his blade and pointed it at the mage.

“Of course not, Alexandar. Crowell needs an attitude check. Coming from you or I, it would mean nothing. But from a human as young and inexperienced as Dius? But enough about them, for now. It’s been far too long since we’ve fought, and I want to see your Garden of Genesis once more!”

“As fun as it would be to thrash you yet again, Tyrius-'' The tip of Tyrius’ blade struck the edge of Alexandar’s barrier, a loud ‘pong’ echoing off the thick, translucent barrier.

Alongside the reverberating sound of the flexing barrier, the force of the shockwave shredded the ground beneath them and shattered the forest. The wind whipped furiously around the two of them as boulders and trees were thrown into the air as easily as a child would throw a pebble.

“I think that that level of mana output would simply overload Crowell and Mr Dius, don’t you?” Alexandar finished his sentence with a grin and a raised eyebrow, evidently just as happy to fight Tyrius, even if he was far better at controlling himself.

“Hmmm. True enough. I suppose we can’t go all-out then.” Tyrius hummed, jumping back a few meters and raising his blade so that the tip faced Alexandar as he half-crouched with his weight all on his back leg.

“Using something like that so-“ Alexandar’s surprised exclamation was cut off by the pulse of mana that left Tyrius and the shattering of his barrier.

‘Why would he use a Power Stance so early into a fight? Tyrius has never been the type to go that hard so early into a fight without provocation. Is it because I can’t use Garden of Genesis?’ The elderly mage thought to himself, a magic circle flashing to life over his left hand as his right clutched his staff in a white-knuckled grip.

“Tell me, does Dius know about Power Stances yet?” Tyrius questioned with an amused grin; Alexandar’s eyes widened in understanding.

“I’d appreciate-“ Three tendrils of sharpened wood exploded out of Alexandar’s palm and promptly exploded into sawdust and woodchips in a flash of metal and the resplendent reddish-purple of Tyrius mana, not unlike that colour of red wine. “If you’d stop trying to put my charge in harm’s way!”

“I don’t know what you mean, Alexandar. I’m not attacking him with a Power Stance!” Tyrius replied with a small grin, cracking the earth beneath his feet as he launched himself forward.

Alexandar’s body flooded with magic as the two of them traded fast and heavy blows, blade meeting reinforced staff in cracks of air and sparks of metal. The superhuman body of Tyrius met the magically enhanced body of Alexandar in a flurry of blows that cleared the dust around them just from the shockwaves and whipping winds.

“So, Alexandar! How long do you think it will take Dius to figure out Power Stances!?” Tyrius crowed, ducking under a spiked pillar of earth that arched over the back of Alexandar’s shoulder and tried to strike him directly in the bridge of his nose.

“Mr Dius is skilled, but he isn’t even aware of Contracts yet, Tyrius! You give him far too much credit!” Alexandar responded, having to forgo his follow-up attack to lean back and avoid the rising foot of his rival as he stabbed his blade into the ground and used it as an anchor to lift himself up, over and back onto his feet.

“So, you think he can’t do it?” Tyrius hummed in amusement, shifting his stance into something more side-facing with his blade tucked in tight and body far more relaxed than his first Power Stance of the fight.

“I think that expecting him to do so on his first time seeing one is pure lunacy.” Alexandar huffed, the orb within his staff beginning to glow a bright, almost blinding green.

“Hah! So little trust! What a poor protector.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you, bastard.”

And with a single step, the ground beneath both of them exploded in brand new trees and greenery, throwing both of them high, high into the air.

XXXxxxXXX

With Alec and Crowell

Sparks showered the upturned earth and shattered flora of their landing zone as Crowell leant back to avoid having his left eye gouged out by the sharpened edge of Alec’s blade, twisting his wrist while jerking his head to the side. Simultaneously avoiding his blade as it no longer had the shaft of his own spear to block it, and smacking the flat of his blade into Alec’s thigh to stop his leg from raising fully so that he could try and kick him.

In a reflexive jerk of his leg, Alec’s foot met the earth once more and launched him high into the air on pure instinct to avoid the large sweep of Crowell’s weapon.

A brief surge of panic flooded through his body as he realized he was higher than he’d ever jumped in his entire life, his limbs flailing for half a second before he landed back on the ground once more. The teen freezing up and shivering at the pins and needles that went from his feet to his hips in the aftermath of landing with his legs far too unmoving for his level of durability, magically enhanced or not.

And in the meantime, as Alec tried to shake his legs out as best as possible and hissed under his breath, Crowell twirled his spear in his fingers and focused his mana on his stump of an arm.

‘It’s aggravating that this human is pushing me so far, but I can’t beat him with only one arm. The quicker I can get this arm back, the quicker I can unleash some of my more refined Power Stances. In the meantime, I’ll engage in a prolonged attack rush.’ The Von Lung heir strategized, launching himself forward without a word.

The reason for Crowell’s insistence on regenerating his missing arm was simple, a Power Stance required a perfectly recreated stance to be undertaken before it could be used and Crowell had a single stance that could be used with a singular arm at the cost of lost speed compared to its two-armed variant.

‘Shit! His arm is healing!’ Alec’s eyes widened in alarm as he batted the razor-sharp blade of Crowell’s spear to the side.

The angle of Alec’s deflection allowed Crowell to quickly and easily step-spin into his next attack, the blade of his spear trailing behind him and raising up and over his head to bring back down on Alec. The speed of the strike left the teen unable to do anything but bring his blade up above him in a high-guard that he braced with his off-hand.

With a reverberating impact, the two weapons clashed. Both of Alec’s feet sinking into the upturned and loose soil as his entire body protested having to endure so much punishment.

Though Crowell had no intentions of giving Alec any time to recover and push back, drawing his spear back and entering into a flurry of stabs that forced Alec to backpedal over loose and uneven ground. The teen only avoiding falling to his ass thanks to some quick reflexes and a healthy dosage of pure luck.

‘Just my mana-enhancement is good enough to keep up with him on a physical level but the difference in our experience and technique is wild!’ Cuts appeared over Alec’s arms and left cheek as he continued to parry and block the vampire’s attacks as best as possible.

The battle, at its current pace, would end with Alec dead within a minute’s time. Alec knew it and he knew that he couldn’t allow it to reach that conclusion, but he had no way to sneak out of this position with his current skills and knowledge. He was at the starting line; he didn’t have the variety in techniques and experience needed to come up with something new that would save him from this predicament.

The only thing he even potentially had to try out was the stance of Tyrius, but he had no idea how that worked or even if he could make it work.

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Though before he could second guess himself, the ground beneath their feet cracked and split, creating an instant chasm. In twin bursts of mana, the two fighters shot away from each other, eyes wide and breathing heavy as a tree root seven meters in diameter tore itself out of the forming chasm, only widening it further.

“What in the-“

“-Hell is that?”

Both of the fighters muttered in confusion and mild fear, their gazes naturally following the root to its origin. Only for their breathing to stop entirely as they saw the giant flower bud, pointed towards the ground, that began to bloom before their very eyes.

The flower bud in question was, itself, twenty meters from side to side and about twenty meters from where it met the gigantic stem to the tips of its petals and a hauntingly dark black with midnight blue splotches haphazardly strewn across it.

Just staring at it made every muscle in Alec’s body pull in different directions at once and Crowell’s missing arm on-the-spot regenerate from the sheer terror induced by the mana that filled the air as the petals began to slowly unfurl.

In this moment of terror and supposed death, the instincts of both fighters roared to life with an intensity that had never been matched in their entire lives. Whether it was the 17 years of Alec Dius, or the 73 of Crowell Von Lung the fear they felt was that of equal intensity.

But their reactions were not.

In the instant Crowell turned to begin running, Alec’s eyes snapped to him, instinctively drawn to the movement of his enemy. The idea, the thought, that this would be the only time he would ever get such a free attack against such a dangerous entity all that flowed through his head. The movement of Alec drawing the gaze of Crowell as, just as had happened to the human teen, his gaze instinctively latched onto the movement of the swordsman.

Alec knew nothing of Tyrius’ technique, nor did he have any way of figuring out its mechanics with the knowledge he currently had. He knew nothing of magical contracts or how to initiate them and had never even heard the term ‘Power Stance’ in his life. But the basics of the techniques were easy for him to parse even from the singular time he had seen it.

Tyrius’ technique was a lightning fast thrust of incalculable power. Superhuman abilities combined with mana-enhancement to bring a regular thrust of a blade to the level of being able to shatter the barrier of Alexandar of all people. And as far as the teen was aware, there were three basic steps to the technique.

First: Take the stance.

‘He can’t have-‘ Crowell’s eyes widened in fear, the pressure in the air from the unfurling giganto-flower completely shattering his regular rationality.

Second: Pulse your mana.

Crowell’s body moved on instinct to try and defend himself, his panic and the memories of the singular time he had been the recipient of the real deal rearing their ugly heads and overriding anything else that may have been going through his head.

Third: Launch yourself forward and initiate the thrust.

Alec pulsed his mana and shot forward, bouncing off the titanic root to clear the chasm between the two of them and thrusting his blade forward just as Tyrius had. His blade striking the hastily raised metallic shaft of Crowell’s spear and bouncing off to strike him in the shoulder instead of his intended target, the center of Crowell’s torso.

And in the same instant that Alec’s blade met flesh, the giant flower fully bloomed. All the mana that had flooded the area receded back to the flower as if caught in a black hole and the pistil of the flower glowed a blinding green.

With a shockwave that shattered the petals and stem of the giant flower itself, the pistil was fired into the ground. A piercing entity of wine-coloured mana struck the pistil and detonated it into hundreds of shards that rained down on the surrounding forest. Each shard exploding into spiked spheres of wood, leaves and flowers.

An attack as deadly as it was beautiful.

One such shard forced both the weaker combatants to separate with quick jumps back, an action which nearly sent Alec tumbling into the abyss as he waved his arms wildly to avoid falling into the chasm.

‘That human took one of my arms out of commission again. Even for a bastardized version of Tyrius’ maneuver it managed to tear straight through my shoulder.’ The vampire heir thought to himself, holding his spear in one arm once again as the other hung limply at his side, a spherical hole torn into his shoulder from the force of Alec’s magically charged thrust.

It would heal much quicker than a complete removal of his arm, as it had to contend with in the beginning of the battle, but such an injury would still leave his arm unusable for long enough for Alec to take the advantage from him once more.

“You disgraceful being…I will have your head for this!” Crowell snapped, swiping his spear to the side as Alec managed to regain his center of gravity and took a few steps away from the edge of the chasm.

The stem, at least what was left of it, began to wither away from the shattered peak. The necrotization of the magical construct beginning to make its way down the roots slowly.

“Once again, I’m not just going to lie down and let you kill me. Are you actually insane?” Alec responded; his gaze locked on Crowell with a laser-focus.

“It is your place! How such commonplace knowledge has escaped you is beyond my understanding, but it is a simple fact of life.”

The fighter’s conversation, while short, was cut off by the snap of air as Tyrius and Alexandar appeared besides their respective charges, covered in small injuries and dust.

“Hah! Just as fun as I remember!” Tyrius crowed, a cut on his forehead sealing before Alec’s eyes.

“Oh really? You were a bit slower, been snacking a little too much, Tyrius?” Alexandar egged his rival on, grinning smugly at the petulant glare that he got in return.

“How dare you! I’ll have you know that I keep an impeccable watch over my figure!”

Behind Alexandar, Alec clicked his tongue in annoyance, watching the hole that he’d gouged in Crowell’s shoulder begin to slowly close now the vampire had the time to focus his attention squarely on the regeneration.

With a glare that could probably melt steel, Crowell took a step forward while raising his spear, only to flinch back at the hand that was placed in front of him by Tyrius.

“Tyrius what are you-“

“We’re done for today, Crowell. I’ve gotten a small skirmish with Alexandar, and it seems like you’ve met your own match, wouldn’t you agree?” Tyrius hummed in vague amusement, which only grew stronger at the way that Crowell ground his teeth together.

‘This doesn’t make any sense. Humans are beneath vampires in every conceivable way. It's common sense. They can’t regenerate like we do, they don’t live forever like we do, and they don’t have enhanced strength, durability and agility like we do. For one to match me, for one to have been able to injure me to this extent…’

“You, human.” Crowell suddenly snapped, getting a curious hum from Tyrius and a raised eyebrow from Alexandar.

“Him or me?” Alec deadpanned, pointing between Alexandar and himself.

“You.” Crowell replied, equally as deadpan.

“I have a name.”

“What is your rank?” The Von Lung heir questioned, entirely ignoring Alec’s cool indignation.

There was only a singular way that this situation would make any kind of sense to Crowell, a singular way that this event could ever possibly fit within his view of the world.

“…Copper.” Alec answered cautiously, his gaze narrowed on the vampire.

And with a single word, Alec casually smashed his way out of Crowell’s worldview. Completely ruining the brief, shining hope that Crowell had allowed himself to cling to that the teen had somehow been a [Silver-Rank] adventurer or higher.

“Well, Dius-“

“My name is Alec.” The teen cut Tyrius off, only making the elder vampire pause for a fraction of a second before he continued.

“Well, Alec, since my apprentice is a little shocked at the moment, I suppose I should fill you in. Crowell, himself, is an [Iron-Rank] combatant.”

‘He’s an [Iron-Rank]? No wonder he was such an ass to fight.’ Alec thought, some of his inherent teenage angst rearing its ugly head as he scowled and clenched his fists tightly, popping one of his knuckles around the hilt of his blade.

‘He’s a [Copper-Rank]? There’s no way that a Copper should have ever been able to put up a proper fight against me, one arm or not. This human, he’s not like the others. He’s an exception.’ Crowell thought, his eyes widening with renewed bloodlust as he stared at Alec.

Crowell, in that very moment in time, knew what it was that he had to do as the future Warmaster and leader of the Von Lung’s: Take out Alec Dius with extreme prejudice. Alec Dius was not just a uniquely skilled individual, but a uniquely dangerous individual as well. Within the same rank, not a single vampire within the Von Lung bloodline was able to defeat Crowell, however that meant that those same vampires would struggle far more against the likes of Alec.

The human teenager may not be able to use Power Stances now, but given some more experience and a few more battles to grow used to their power? Given time to properly acclimate to his mana and refine it more?

No. The gap between Alec Dius and the rest of the Von Lung warriors would only grow wider and wider the more experience he received, which would directly put Crowell’s divinely appointed quest in jeopardy.

So long as Alec Dius lived, so long as Alec Dius had no check or balance, the vampires, though more accurately the Von Lung, would never be able to claim their rightful place at the top of the food-chain.

“Well, Alexandar, until next we meet!” Tyrius smirked jovially, grabbing Crowell by the shoulder, unfurling wine-coloured wings and taking off in, what appeared to Alec to be, a crack of air and a complete disappearance of both vampires.

“Well, that was awfully abrupt. I suppose I’ve never met Tyrius while he’s had a charge to take care of before…How are you Mr Dius?” Alexandar asked, throwing his musings to the wayside to turn around and look at the sword-wielding teen.

The teen himself was wound up like a spring about to fire off like a rocket, though when it became evident that both the vampires were truly gone all the tension fled his body as he sank weakly to his knees, and then collapsed back onto his ass.

“That was the worst experience of my entire life…”

“Oh, was it now?”

“I hate you.”

“Wha- What ever did I do!?”

“If I hadn’t been with you, I never would have been put through that!” Alec snapped, his patience and emotional bandwidth having hit and exceeded their limits about two minutes ago.

“If you hadn’t been with me, you wouldn’t have had the skills to even survive half of that.” Alexandar pointed out smugly.

The teen opened his mouth to stubbornly argue, only to come up short, realizing the man was right. Perhaps if he had been more mature he might have acknowledged that and apologized, unfortunately he was still a young, brash teen and had yet to develop such maturity.

“…I’m just gonna rest for a bit.”

“You do that, Mr Dius. How about I help you with those wounds, hm?”

“...thank you.”

XXXxxxXXX

Meanwhile, With Tyrius and Crowell

“Are you ever going to stop glaring at me, Crowell?”

“You took me away from Alec Dius!”

“Oh? Using a human’s name now, are we?” Tyrius asked, craning his head down to give the far younger vampire an equal part amused and inquisitive look.

“He’s an exception to humanity. One that I have no intention of allowing to pull ahead or continue living. On my title as heir to the Von Lung, I swear to kill him.” Crowell scowled, gripping the shaft of his spear with a white-knuckled intensity.

‘Apologies, Alec. It seems like this is the only way to keep Crowell even somewhat curbed. You may have been a regular adventurer before this, but for as long as your lifespan permits, please continue to be the check and balance to Crowell. Please be a Nemesis the likes of which cannot be ignored.’ Tyrius thought to himself, closing his eyes as he flew and gently banking back towards the Von Lung Castlegrounds.