His strength.
His speed.
His desire to kill.
This was the same man I have always known. From boy to man, he kept the same look in his eyes. Vengeance—that was what he sought after the day our hometown was attacked. Or so I thought.
While we locked weapons in several chains of clashes, I looked deep into the eyes of the man I thought I had once known. Dark and bloodthirsty. Maybe I was a fool to believe that we had ever fought for the same thing, and now I realize that this man—Al—is nothing more than a threat to this world.
He pushed off me, landing uneasily as he favored one side. Al then lunged forward, thrusting rapidly at me with his spear. I blocked his attacks and waited for the prime moment to parry. With the opposite end of my double saber, I spun sharply around and slashed at him.
Pain flared up in my chest, forcing my attack to hit low, allowing him to dodge backwards and sweep at my feet with the end of his spear. His spear slammed into my leg, forcing me onto the ground with a spear tip aimed at my throat.
"You are a disgrace to humanity, you know that?" Al said, gripping his spear while limping to one side. "To think the former hero would not only try to prevent the justice we had been craving for since we were boys, but also side with the very beings that aided those freaks to attack."
"Heh, justice?" I kicked his leg, knocking him down. That's on him for showing his weakness. "What justice comes from knowing that we were the ones who provoked their attack?"
Al quickly recovered and slashed at me with his spear. I caught his blade with mine, locking us in a clash.
"Still spewing that nonsense?" He said as he pushed harder against me. "Humans are the invaders? So what?"
I pulled away from him and darted around him, slashing at his torso. He narrowly avoided the attack and pulled out a small flare gun from his uniform.
"Shit!" I turned towards where that woman had once been when I arrived. "Get out of here…" However, my words fell meaninglessly in the wind as she was nowhere to be seen.
Honestly, that was for the best, as a red streak was followed by a deafening whistle that flew high into the air.
He was calling for his armor.
I thought it was strange that he came here without his power armor, but given his condition, I could only guess it was damaged. But for him to call it out here in a fair battle between the two of us, he's more hurt than he lets on.
"What's wrong, coward? Can't beat your former leader in a fair fight without the use of your power armor?" I taunted as I lunged forward, spinning in the air, arcing towards him.
He ducked and threw a punch, connecting with my ribs, right where I had been injured. I fell, sweeping the ground as I landed to drive him away.
"Coward, huh? Is that how you view your own tactics?" He said unbothered. "I recall you saying that doing anything in war to survive was acceptable, as honor was no longer a thing we needed to abide by."
Tch, damn him. Of course, he would somehow use my own words against me. But he was right; anything goes when you are trying to survive, which means he knows that he can't beat me in a contest of speed, so he is opting for strength.
I needed to kill him.
Killing him is the only way that peace can be obtained.
"Those eyes." He said, smiling. "You've experienced it, no? The joy of killing the creatures of this world? The blood that stained you. You had some fun before meeting me. Too bad, I will not lose to you."
He reached out his hand and spoke.
"Holy chains of light, ensnare my foe and tether him to the ground!"
A white light appeared below me, similar to the yellow circle that devoured me while I was free-falling.
I felt my chest burn and throb as I looked to the side of him. I needed to get out of this and to do that.
I pressed my foot deep into the ground and surged forward, leaving a clone of myself behind to get ensnared by several shimmering white chains that shot out of the ground.
"Neat trick," Al said as he rushed towards me with his spear tip aimed at my head.
I stepped to the side and gave the shaft of his spear a high kick, forcing his arms high into the sky. I slashed at him with my blade, just grazing his chest as he bent backwards and kicked me in the chin.
He flipped backwards and shot forward. I readied my weapon and clashed with his strike, leaning forward.
"Nice trick? I could say the same to you. How on earth did you learn how to use magic?" I said.
Al twisted his spear free and leapt back with a smile. He faked a retreat and dashed around me, thrusting his weapon forward. I countered with a slash. We grazed each other's shoulders. I spun, hoping to recover faster than him, and arced my blade towards his thigh.
He parried my strike with a heavy blow that left my hands tingling and rammed the blunt end of his spear into my side. He followed up with several rapid thrusts that I avoided with just the skin of my teeth.
"Who the hell cares?" Our weapons slammed hard into one another with a flurry of sparks that danced in the wind that swept through the burning forest. He pushed against me hard while keeping his eyes locked with mine. "How I learned magic means nothing to a dead man such as yourself. All you need to know is that I will use it to save humanity, the same humanity you abandoned."
"Abandoned? We've been lied to. These endless years we have spent fighting were because of a lie to justify our actions. How can you sleep knowing that innocent lives are being lost?"
"Do you mourn the death of every bug you crush beneath your feet? Do you cry for animals killed for the sake of food? You don't, I've been by your side for all these years, and I have yet to witness you shed a single tear for those lives."
I pulled back, forcing him to dip forward with the excess momentum. I threw a punch at his side. He winced and let out a groan before jabbing me in the ribs with his elbow.
I brought my weapon around and slashed at him. He caught the shaft with his muscles trembling.
"What does that have to do with anything!?" I said, trying to overpower him.
"That right there!" he said. "That hypocritical view. What is the difference between them, us, or any living creature that breathes, screams, or bleeds? We all have souls; we all have brains. So I'll ask again, why don't you mourn the lives of the insignificant?"
A bright light illuminated the battlefield, followed by a deafening crash. Dust and debris flew into the air as Al released my weapon and disappeared into the smoke.
He was running towards his armor; I was sure of it.
I turned heel and dashed towards where my armor had been placed. It was damaged, with its shoulder plate broken off, but it was enough to keep me on an equal footing against Al. However, the only issue was my helmet. Where was it?
Before I could find it, a red light illuminated the smokescreen. A beam of light surged forward, clearing the smoke around the beam. The beam slammed into my armor, pushing me back. Then, a shimmering red spear tip poked through the smoke, surging towards me.
With a yellow glow, I brought my double saber up and blocked his attacks. His spear scraped across my left arm's plates, pushing him forward. I kicked out, slamming my metal leg into his side. I felt the feedback of his shield push me back, but I kept my momentum and quickly slashed at his back with a strange wind enveloping me.
In an instant, one slash turned to four, and a light blue hexagonal shield bounced off each hit, shooting me back from the recoil.
"Heh…" I let out a noise as I stared at Al in his armor. It was hard to see his expression, but I could tell he was irritated. His armor seems not to have been fully repaired, which was odd since Mira was usually on top of repairs after a battle ended.
Our shields drew a lot of power. As a result, they run on a separate power grid in our armor. This means that compared to the armor itself, the shields could take much longer to charge. And seeing his shielding flare up like that means he's below 50%, which means he's not at his fullest.
But then again…without my helmet, I have no way of knowing my own shield levels, and considering that his attacks did not bounce off means my shield must be down.
I needed to be careful.
"What happened to Mira?" I asked.
I heard a slight buzzing in my ear, followed by his voice.
[Heh, you still have this thing enabled?] Behind his words, I could hear the slight discomfort in his voice. [Wouldn't you like to know about her, traitor?]
Al lowered his stance. A red beam of light charged at the tip of his spear.
Was he a fool?
No, Al isn't careless enough to drain his power like that. He's planning something, but I won't let him.
I held my ground and took a defensive stance, readying my weapon to throw.
"Your tone tells me all I need to know. You can't control her?"
[Heh, I'll have you know that she just aided me in killing one of the last two beastmen nobles. She did most of the work without much of a problem.]
"Yet the whole time, she kept to herself and hid her status from you. And seeing as your armor is still damaged, she was wounded in battle. Honestly, your leadership leading her to being hurt enrages me more than anything you've done."
As the light on his spear tip reached its peak, I threw my weapon towards him. It danced along the trails of wind that guided it true. A spinning yellow blade slammed into his side, bouncing off his shields as a beam of light surged forward, missing me. My weapon flew back towards me, and I rushed him.
"And now," I slashed at him with both ends of my weapon, flipping around in the air with ease. "You can't even get support from Emlyn, who is now preoccupied because of your failure to kill off two girls."
That last part was a bit of a stretch, but knowing Poppy, I would assume she was tracking down the sniper who was trying to pick them off. As for that woman in the strange dress, I have no idea who she is or where she went with the injured elf she was holding.
[Shut up!]
He surged forward in a fit of rage, thrusting wildly at me. Each attack, lacking precision. Al was slower than Poppy. Her attacks left me questioning whether I had grown weaker, but in reality, they showed me just how fast elves are compared to humans.
I countered with a strike to his head, then I flipped around, slamming my bottom blade into his right shoulder. A shattering sound filled my ears as my blade wedged itself into his armor.
Now is the time to kill.
The thoughts flooded my mind. How to murder him. How to prolong his suffering. Things that I had once hated filled my mind with ideas.
I mean, why shouldn't I?
He tore me in half. He played around with my intestines. He made them turn against me. Al deserved more than death, and I would give it to him—
[JUDAS!!!] A voice screamed through my earpiece; it was not Al's, it was Velantra's.
It snapped me back, and I leapt back, as something blurred past me, rippling the air. A large arrow that could be mistaken for a harpoon blasted past at sonic speeds. Then another suit of armor dashed out into the open.
A suit of armor with a single purple stripe on its left arm. Armor that belonged to Emlyn.
[Lucan.] A soft yet bitter voice filled my ear. [Next time we meet, I will kill you myself. That is your price for toying with my heart for all these years.]
She grabbed Al and tossed him over her shoulder and dashed off into the woods.
[Sorry,] Velantra's voice came through the earpiece. [That soldier got through us.]
Us? Did I hear that correctly?
As I questioned that, I heard the faint rumbling of leaves behind me. I turned to meet a large green circle that floated over the flaming forest. A gentle wind, along with green specks, danced through the leaves, smothering the flames.
"Well, that was not part of the plan." A familiar voice called out. A voice I hated more than anything—Korne.
I turned to face him as my power armor grew heavy. Its power must have reached its limit.
"Say, how did you like my gift?" Korne said with a smile on his face. The same creepy grin that he always gave me. "That, with a bonus to fix things with Poppy. Some alone time, as people might have called it."
"What are you talking about?" I said. "I got here in the middle of a heated battle between an old ally of mine and a strangely dressed woman, some pathetic elf, and Poppy."
Korne stopped in place as he looked around. This smile faded to a frown, and he glared at me with a sharp gaze. "So, you weren't the one to save Poppy?"
"No…?" I stepped out of my armor and gave him a confused look.
"I see," he said before staring off into the sky. "To think you could be wrong." He muttered faintly, but not faintly enough for my ear implant.
Just who was he talking to?
More importantly, where are Poppy and the others?
"Let's go, lad," Korne said. "Poppy should be heading towards the bar to look for me. I told her to go there if something were to happen. Oh, and leave your armor and weapon here; the beastmen will smell that from a mile away if I don't cast a spell on it."
I did as he said and followed him. After that, I had no idea what happened as I blacked out. Perhaps I overworked my body. Maybe mana deficiency, or internal bleeding from the broken rib that stabbed me all over during that fight.