Kev's expression remained calm, his fingers twitching as his shadow stretched beneath him. Shadow Movement kept his form slightly blurred as if melting into the ground and reappearing with each subtle shift. It allowed him to narrowly match Dorrell's terrifying speed, though the strain was building.
Kev wasn't trained in the Abyss he survived it. He explored it. The Sixth Abyss wasn't a place of structured guidance.
"Shadows," Kev whispered internally. "Track his blood movement."
From within his cells, ancient voices stirred.
[YES, BEARER.]
His vision sharpened as bloodstreams glowed faintly around Dorrell's limbs. Kev adjusted his stance slightly.
Dorrell blinked. "That eye of yours… it's not just for show."
"Neither are the voices in my bones," Kev whispered.
Suddenly, Dorrell struck. His body blurred forward, leaving only red lines where his blood threads lashed out like razors. Kev's form dissolved into a shadow and reappeared behind him, blade-shaped fingers grazing Dorrell's side.
But Dorrell didn't flinch. "Predator's Echo," he muttered.
In a blink, Dorrell twisted his body mid-air, perfectly anticipating Kev's angle—striking his rib with a blood-threaded knee. Kev staggered back as blood trickled from his mouth.
"You're fast," Dorrell said. "But I only need to watch you once."
Kev's breath was ragged, but his eyes remained focused. "Then I won't let you watch me again."
The street around them cracked as Kev unleashed Shadow Movement at full tilt. Dorrell grinned and followed with hunting precision, their battle spiraling deeper into Noctera's has it was collapsing .
The silence was broken by a whisper of wind. Kev stood amid the shattered ruins of the eastern watchtower of Noctera, his breath calm—controlled. His right eye glowed crimson, but his left burned with an eerie violet, pulsing as though alive.
Dorell grinned from the edge of a collapsed archway, his boots crunching on broken stone. The smirk never left his face, even as a faint cut bled across his cheek. "That eye," he chuckled, voice amused, "You're finally using it. What does it show you, I wonder?"
Kev didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he let the Shadow Eye peer deeper. Information flooded his mind—not words, but impulses, sensations. Fear hidden beneath Dorell's laughter. Pressure points on his ribs. A sudden shift in stance suggesting a feint, not a real strike.
"Your smile trembles when you lie," Kev said coldly.
Dorell's eyes narrowed. "You think you've figured me out?"
"I don't think," Kev replied, "I know."
With a blur, Dorell moved. His body vanished into a streak of blood-red afterimages, closing the distance between them in a blink. But Kev had already anticipated it—Shadow Movement folded him into a mist of black, and he reappeared behind Dorell, blade of condensed from cell control forming from his hand.
They clashed again, and the ruins trembled.
Dorell spun mid-air, catching the flesh blade with a hunter's dagger glowing in crimson bloodlight. Sparks flared as the two energies collided—Blood Aura pulsing violently against Kev's ether-infused cell.
"You've gotten faster," Dorell admitted, arms strained. "But you're still one ranks beneath me."
"Ranks mean nothing when I see your every move."
Dorell's grin broke for the first time. "Tch… annoying."
With a roar, Dorell unleashed a shockwave of aura. The force shattered a nearby pillar and sent Kev flying into a wall. Dust clouded the air. But through it, a violet glow remained steady—his Shadow Eye never blinking.
Kev coughed, blood trailing from his lips, but he was smiling now. A thin, dangerous smile. "You're panicking."
The words hit harder than his blade.
Dorell was indeed growing cautious. The boy in front of him wasn't fighting wildly. He was dissecting every move, reading each emotion, every flaw. That wasn't a battle—it was an autopsy.
"You know…" Dorell said, stepping back, "I was told to drag you back barely alive. But maybe I'll rip out that eye instead."
He slashed downward with both blades, the ground erupting. Kev countered, shadow rising around him like a vortex, swallowing debris, redirecting attacks.
Still, Kev's breathing was uneven. The fight wasn't even. He was only peak soldier, and Dorell—a low general—was faster, stronger, and more experienced.
Kev needed an edge. His eye showed him Dorell's weakness, but landing the blow?
That would require something else.
Suddenly, Dorell's aura shifted. His dagger trembled has was preparing a skill more like a grand skill.
But kev was relaxed cause the skill he was using was not really strong due to limited amount of aura. But all of a sudden he brought out a pill that was red but the energy it radiated was insane.
Kev's eyes narrowed. If he didn't stop it now… this battle would end.
And not in his favor.
Kev then used shadow movement but it was too late has he swallow the pill
Dorell stood atop a crumbled wall, blood pulsing in his veins, eyes alight with cruel anticipation. His grin was feral, lips curling as he prepared his ultimate move.
"You're stronger than I thought, Kev," he sneered. "But this ends now."
His palm throbbed with power.
" SKILL: BLOOD ECHO."
From his fingertips, torrents of shimmering blood erupted—coalescing into weapons of liquid red light: spears, whips, and blades that lashed out with deadly precision.
They swept toward Kev like a crimson tide.
Kev's eyes — one burning red, the other glowing violet — flickered coldly. Not a shred of mercy or hesitation marred his expression.
The city around him was nothing but a chessboard, and the people? Pawns—disposable.
With ruthless calculation, he activated Shadow Movement.
His form blurred, evading the attacks with unnatural speed. Each strike he dodged crushed the stones beneath his feet, shattering the city further and killing the inhabitant of noctera.
Blood spilled. Screams pierced the air.
Kev's shadow eye scanned the battlefield, sensing fear, pain, and hope — but he felt none of it.
A shard of bloodlight pierced a fleeing merchant's chest.
Kev's lips twisted into a cold smirk.
Let them die.
He clenched his fist, and the flesh around him erupted into tendrils.
"FLESH MAW" has he shouted remebering how he trained in the abyss with different forms of cell control.
The maw bellow him opened wide, swallowing the blood weapons and anyone foolish enough to approach.
Bodies were crushed beneath the onyx maw.
Dorell's eyes widened with shock as he stumbled, struck by Kev's sudden counter.
Kev reappeared behind Dorell in an instant, a blade of pure flesh slicing through the air.
Dorell gasped, clutching his wound.
"You're ruthless," he hissed, eyes flashing.
Kev's voice was icy and unyielding.
I don't care about Noctera or its people. They're laught at me every day when I was in Noctera they put me has a urban legend for there children."
Dorell smirked, wiping blood from his lip. "Good. Then you and I have much in common."
The fight resumed — flesh and blood clashing violently as the city crumbled.
Kev moved like a predator, relentless and cold.
No mercy.
No hesitation.
Only destruction.
Smoke choked the sky, painting the heavens in sickly shades of gray and crimson. The once vibrant city of Noctera lay in ruin beneath the relentless storm of power unleashed by Kev and Dorell. Streets cracked open like broken bones, homes collapsed into heaps of rubble, and cries of despair were swallowed by the howling winds.
Kev stood at the center of the chaos, his crimson and violet eyes glowing with ruthless focus. The flesh tendrils wrapped around him like living armor. Across the ruined square, Dorell's face was a mask of fury and exhaustion, blood dripping from a dozen wounds but his spirit unbroken.
"You still fight," Kev said coldly, voice slicing through the chaos like a blade. "You should have given up long ago."
Dorell spat blood but grinned fiercely. "Giving up isn't in my nature."
With a guttural roar, Dorell summoned the last of his strength, activating Blood Echo once more. Crimson spears of energy rained down, piercing the shattered buildings and searing the earth. But Kev was already gone — a blur of shadows melting into the ruins, avoiding the deadly assault with uncanny speed.
The shadow eyes analyzed every movement of his opponent, calculating weaknesses in real-time, and guiding Kev's strikes with brutal precision. His Shadow Maw ripped through the spears of blood like a tempest, turning Dorell's final assault into a pale echo of its terrifying potential.
Kev's own attack was merciless. Shadow claws erupted from the ground, ripping through the debris and closing in on Dorell with unrelenting force. The air itself seemed to warp around Kev, the boundary between reality and shadow dissolving with every step he took.
Dorell staggered as a tendril sliced across his side, tearing flesh and armor alike. Pain blossomed, but his eyes burned with desperate defiance. He lunged forward, his hands glowing with concentrated blood energy as he prepared to strike at Kev's exposed flank.
But Kev was ready.
With a swift motion, Kev's violet eye flashed with the power to read hidden clues and emotions — fear, desperation, even the faintest hesitation. In that split second, Kev shifted his weight, vanishing into the shadows before Dorell's strike could land.
Suddenly, Kev reappeared behind his opponent, the flesh Maw extending like a monstrous jaw to engulf Dorell's body. The crushing force of flesh overwhelmed the general, shattering his defenses and forcing the breath from his lungs.
Dorell gasped, his body trembling as the flesh constricted, but his mind remained defiant. "You might have won this battle... but you'll never win the war."
Kev's voice was cold and final. "Then you'll die trying."
Dorell's scream was cut short as his body collapsed into the dark abyss, swallowed whole by the ravenous shadows.
The city of Noctera trembled as the battle's final echo rippled through its bones. The earth cracked wide open, swallowing entire districts beneath gaping chasms. Flames consumed the remnants of buildings, painting the night with flickering death. The cries of the city's inhabitants dwindled to nothing but distant memories, buried beneath the wreckage.
Kev stood amidst the ruin, unyielding and cold. His crimson eye scanned the destruction, unmoved by the devastation.
Noctera was no more.
From the depths of his shadow, the voice whispered again — ancient, dark, and hungry.
"You have grown strong... but your journey has only begun."