The Ogre Lord once again charged forward without waiting for the other man to respond to his words. This time he gripped the ax with both of his hands and launched a vicious slanted cut toward his foe. It would be less decisive if it landed, but it would also be much harder to dodge.

Randidly Ghosthound did not bother to dodge. From his crouched stance, he thrust his spear forward, the razor-sharp pyramidal tip gleaming as it shot forward through the air. Their two blows smashed into each other, both sides aiming so that the focus of their power would meet directly rather than glance off of each other.

The ground beneath them cracked and both attacks stopped dead. A second later the ground in the surrounding area cracked in a larger radius, a testament to the power contained in both attacks.

Lightning fast, the Ogre Lord manipulated his huge body to use the momentum of the charge and continue forward. Then he planted his foot and twisted outward, exposing his back to Randidly. However, due to the recent impact between the two weapons, the Ogre Lord was confident that his exposed weakness would pass by without the opposition seizing that chance.

And as he predicted, the Ogre Lord spun around safely and brought his left hand in a vicious backhand blow toward the Ghosthound. Yet his opponent’s emerald eyes remained just as calm as always. He quickly brought his own left arm up to deflect the blow, lines of white light tracing the movements across the metal limb.

The two left arms smashed together. To the Ogre Lord’s horror, his own arm was knocked up into the air. All his strength was blasted away. He wasn’t completely overpowered, but it seemed that it wasn’t a fluke earlier when the Ghosthound was able to contest him physically and come out ahead.

Before the Ogre Lord had much of a chance to respond to the block, his instincts cried in warning and he instantly leapt backward away from his opponent. Just in time too, because the Ghosthound brought his huge lance across in a vicious sweep. Despite the rapid reaction of the Ogre Lord, the tip of the Ghosthound’s lance ripped a shallow cut across the Ogre Lord’s chest. A trail of blood splattered on the dusty road.

With all three heads grinning, the Ogre Lord reached up and touched the wound on his chest. He rubbed some of his own blood on his ax, almost affectionately. “Do you know how long it has been since I have bled…?”

The Ghosthound didn’t even respond. This time he seized the initiative, shooting forward with his lance raised with deadly intensity. The Ogre Lord stomped, cracking the ground beneath him. In addition, the Skill spread outward and shattered the ground beneath the Ghosthound, destroying his footing.

The cracked in the ground radiating outward from their fight rapidly grew larger.

But in the split second after the Ogre Lord stomped, the Ghosthound had already jumped into the air. He spun gracefully, his lance always zeroed in on the Ogre Lord, and then seemed to explode with momentum downward.

Grimacing, the Ogre Lord could only roll to the side and swing his ax to utilize his Shining Slash Skill. Two blades of energy shot forward to meet the Ghosthound at his landing spot.

Rather than landing, the Ghosthound simply thrust his lance forward as he rushed toward the ground like a meteor. When he landed, what he really did was pierce through the crust of the ground and puncture a hole into the underlying bedrock. The surrounding land of the road ruptured immediately upward in a wave of displaced stone, rapidly destroying the two attacks that the Ogre Lord had launched.

Again, his instincts screamed. Again, the Ogre Lord ducked down and readied his ax as the ground in front of him was split open. The Ghosthound’s lance shot upward, only a split second from piercing through the mouth of the leftmost head. But because the attack missed, the Ogre Lord finally had a chance to counterattack.

The veins on his hands bulged as the Ogre Lord pushed everything into this counter toward the small human’s torso. In comparison to the strike’s target, his blue crystal ax seemed large enough to crush the human entirely.

Yet right when the Ogre Lord believed that he had this Ghosthound, he felt the sensation of constriction on his one arm. Instantly, his encumbered arm let go of his ax and lashed outward to knock the grip away, but after the Ghosthound’s lance had separated the three individual vines that formed the tip were very powerful. The Ogre Lord could not shake them quickly loose.

And in that opening, the Ghosthound tugged on the spear shaft that was now anchored to the Ogre Lord and pulled himself forward. The blue crystal ax cut through nothing but air and the Ghosthound closed the distance between the two figures in an instant. The Ogre Lord’s limbs were simply too large; he could only watch as the Ghosthound raised his metal limb for a brutal punch.

BOOOOOM!

A figure half as tall and one tenth of the weight of the Ogre Lord shot through the air and smashed his metal fist into the jaw of his central head. Although he had prepared himself mentally for the reverberation, most of his focus was knocked silly by the blow. Even as enough momentum was transferred to send the Ogre Lord staggering backward, the two side heads watched the Ghosthound with wariness.

There is something about his body…

Just being near him suppresses us…

This battle…

….we are finally having fun again.

Yet the Ghosthound wasn’t going to let go of this opportunity without punishing the Ogre Lord for being taken by surprise. His horrendous aura of heaviness blasted outward with enough force to knock the stumbling Ogre Lord off his feet and to the ground. Then the Ghosthound reached out and seized one of the tips of his spear that he had let go of earlier, yanked it, stared intently down at the Ogre Lord, then grabbed the spear precisely at the spot of the grip.

In a movement that didn’t seem possible, the Ghosthound adjusted his lance and thrust it toward the Ogre Lord’s chest before he could react. That strange, dark energy seemed to be seeping out of the Ghosthound’s body and into the surrounding air. The Ogre Lord felt his chest constricting as the strange energy suppressed him. His lungs struggled feebly even as his three heads scrambled to think of a countermeasure to this attack.

After being stunned from the punch previously, the central head finally recovered. It opened its eyes and glared up at the Ghosthound. Let’s see which of us can afford to bleed more, Ghosthound.

The blue crystal ax flashed upward toward the Ghosthound’s side. In exchange, the Ghosthound’s lance slid into the thick muscles of the shoulder that wielded the ax. Almost immediately, the power of the Ogre Lord’s simultaneous attack dropped by half. Yet the weight and momentum of the strike couldn’t be stopped as it slammed into the Ghosthound’s side.

The Ghosthound grimaced. And then he continued to attack. He flicked his wrist and threw himself downward toward the Ogre Lord to strike a more decisive blow while his foe was pinned to the ground. For the Ogre Lord’s part, he looked on in disbelief as his blue crystal ax had cut a divet in the Ghosthound’s dark grey armor but otherwise hadn’t managed to pierce his defenses.

Still, this was enough of a chance that he had been waiting for. While the Ghosthound was rushing midair down toward the Ogre Lord’s chest, the right-most head abruptly turned and released a brown beam of decay toward the Ghosthound. Mid-air, it was impossible to-

The Ghosthound’s emerald eyes slid sideways to the right-most head and narrowed. Then his body seemed to suddenly blur about the edges, contorting in a way that shouldn’t be possible. The brown beam slid harmlessly past and the Ghosthound kicked off his lance and landed a few meters away. Emerald and orange fire seethed around him, igniting that dark energy his physical body created to produce a horrible wave of oppression that pressed the Ogre Lord to the ground.

The Ghosthound’s face twisted into a grimace. “So you want to compete with some Mana Skills huh? Then let’s-”

But the Ghosthound abruptly stopped speaking. For the first time, the Ogre Lord saw genuine shock on the Ghosthound’s face. The man hopped a meter back away from the Ogre Lord and twisted to look toward the gate that connected the Ogre world to Earth.

Randidly Ghosthound stared that way with a grim expression for several seconds. “...it was dumb of me not to realize that he could do that as well. But still…”

The air around the Ghosthound rippled and then a monster stepped out of the dark energy aura the Ghosthound produced. Its right arm was simply a long protrusion of bone, stained with dried blood. Its left arm was a monstrous claw with five talons. Two tails flicked impatiently side to side, one at the base of its head and a larger one growing from its tailbone. And most disturbing of all, it wore the Ghosthound’s face.

“Go to the stadium. Don’t interfere with the Nemesai… just kill the duplicate.”

The monster tilted its head to the side in askance. Gritting his teeth, the Ogre Lord used his good arm to seize the lance that still pinned him to the ground and pulled it out. Blood gushed out of the wind, creating a veritable creak of crimson liquid that ran away from the Ogre Lord’s wound.

The Ghosthound glanced at the Ogre Lord’s movements but didn’t bother to do anything about it. Instead, he kept looking at the monstrous image that he had separated from himself. “This is my fault for not thinking this through… but this is also the fault of the people of New Earth. If they hadn’t allowed the rot to settle in so deeply… would the Nemesai get this chance? If I save them from themselves now… how will they learn?”

The monster nodded and disappeared. As the Ogre Lord staggered to his feet, he was surprised to find that the image’s departure had taken a lot of the pressure out of the air. He could breathe normally once more. But more than anything, the Ogre Lord could see the exhausted expression on the Ghosthound’s face. The words he had said to his own image had drained him deeply.

Perhaps this is my chance, The Ogre Lord decided. Despite the wound, he felt wonderful. Better than ever. He felt like he had finally recovered his mentality from the old days of conquest. If he diverted a portion of his strength to deal with something on Earth...

“Are the petty squabbles of those beneath you truly so important?” The Ogre Lord asked with derision.

The Ghosthound shook his head and then turned to face the Ogre Lord. And at that blank and focused look, the Ogre Lord’s instincts screamed again that he had to run as far away from this man as possible. “It’s time to stop playing around and finish this.”