Charging forward I held my sword down low. I had an advantage when it came to speed, reach, and weaponry so I doubt he would be able to counter any of my attacks. Once he was just within reach of my blade I swung it upward towards his arm. Changing the way my blade would hit as I did so that the flat part of the blade would smack him instead of cutting him. However, Scott shifted his body at a speed that was close to my own.

I had forgotten. I had forgotten that Scott was skilled enough to fight with only his fists even when intoxicated. Without anything more than pure muscle memory he shifted his weight and grabbed my wrists and punched me square in the jaw. The force of which sent me flying onto my back. My sword was knocked out of my hands in the process and sent in the opposite direction.

Looking up from the floor I saw Scott charging at me. As quickly as I could I jumped back to my feet and began deflected his punches. The force of him running at me didn’t stop so I had to back up as I deflected his blows to keep some distance between us. Without my sword, I didn’t stand a chance against Scott without possibly hurting him. All I could do was deflect and dodge his blows until I could get my sword off the ground.

Then I messed up. My repetitive motions to deflect his blows allowed Scott to guess where I would put my hands. Rather than punching he reached out and grabbed my wrist. Twisting my arm before spinning around and throwing me on my back. The act of which made me lose my focus on the mist surrounding me. Making Scott significantly faster. Which equipped with his skill and strength made him just as deadly as Oberon if not more so.

I didn’t have time to reform the mist as he slammed his fist down towards my face. Deflecting his fist as well as I could I shifted out from under him and attempted to kick him in the head. However, he caught my foot, and with a swift strike, he shattered both the spirit armor and my leg. I howled in pain as my leg snapped before being reformed in a near-instant.

He attempted to break it again but I kicked him in the jaw as hard as I could with my other foot. He fell back for a second, giving me enough time to charge towards my sword lying on the floor not three meters from me. As I ran I focused on returning the blue-ish black mist around me. Upon grabbing my sword I was instantly knocked to the floor face first as Scott gave me a jumping front kick to the back.

Rolling over, I got up to face Scott again. He had me completely figured out and was just playing with me at this point. With the state he was in, I was pretty sure that he was venting his anger that he doesn’t know what to do with. I knew that he was aware of how little I could affect with my abilities so blaming me wasn’t rational. However, I don’t think he’s being rational. He knows who’s to blame but he doesn’t want to. Compared to everyone who he could blame rationally I was the one who knew him for the least amount of time. It would only make sense for me to be the target of his blame rather than one of them.

“You done?” Scott asked with a shrewd smile.

“Like hell I am! I don’t plan on losing to you when the one I need to beat is so close.” I replied with a determined grin as I held my sword out.

“Fine then.” Scott said before his body began glowing. He wasn’t even using his runes up until this point.

Shooting at me like a bullet, Scott threw a punch towards my face. I tried to deflect it with my sword, hoping that the impact would allow the sword to absorb the runes. Before my sword made contact with his wrist he pulled his punch and I felt a pain in my gut as I was launched to the side. He had changed his punch to a kick within a half of a second.

Thankfully, I was able to stay standing as I was in a fairly stable stance when he kicked me. Before I had time to prepare for another attack Scott was already within striking range and released a flurry of blows into my chest. The force of it sent me flying back into the wall with an impact that made me cough up blood. Looking up I saw Scott charging at me again. Instinctually I swung my sword at him and the next thing I saw was blood dripping down the end of my blade as it absorbed the magic runes coating his body.

* * *

At that moment Elysif and Medea had made their way around the castle and were taking a look at the inner court. A large grassy field with gravel walkways encircling it. In the center of the field stood Merlin and Director Langston who were both busily working on painting the field in a similar way to that of Medea’s ritual. Rather than using controlled blood, they were drawing out the three-dimensional shapes Medea had created with her blood in a two-dimensional plane. The whole idea of it baffled Medea but she understood the reasoning behind it.

“We need to get closer so that I can use my blood to alter the function of the circle. If I can just do that then it will self-destruct and kill Merlin when he activates it.” Medea said.

“Alright, but don’t think that you helping us makes us even.” Elysif replied as she started to sneak up the side of the castle. Before Elysif could move from their hiding spot though, Medea grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

“I know that I can never be redeemed for what I’ve done and I won’t ask for your forgiveness. However, you can’t be redeemed for getting all your siblings, nieces, and nephews killed either. At the very least, I would like for us to be like mother and daughter again so let’s try and get along with an understanding that we are both irredeemable.” Medea said with a sorry look that Elysif had never seen her proud mother wear.

“It doesn’t matter. Let’s worry about that when we’re done here.” Elysif replied with a stern and somewhat annoyed look. Like before she tried to sneak up the side of the castle but her mother grabbed her again and pulled her back.

“What is your problem?” Elysif asked in a hushed tone.

“There are Agents wearing a cloaking spell of some kind that way. We should go the other way to avoid them.” Medea said as she pointed out the root-like strings of blood she had lining the wall of the castle.