Hirrus had been struggling to deal with the man in a calm manner.

It was obvious the new Merciless was determined to make Hirrus a villain. But they ought to have been on the same side.

The most reasonable course was to defend himself and refrain from attacking. It seemed like a peaceful solution was impossible, though.

There was no way for Hirrus to be on the side of this man’s decision tree and not appear to be the villain in his story.

But now there was no other option than to fight.

It was his only choice. His hand was forced; if he didn’t kill the monster this man had become, then Hirrus would be the one to die.

Of course, being presented with a foe who bore a strong resemblance to the creature that had killed Julissa made the decision slightly easier to swallow.

The beast stood ominously for a moment, flexing the claws of its free hand. The man had seemed eager to revel in the fear he thought he inspired, so the dramatic pause wasn’t unexpected.

But it was foolish.

Having decided that he was forced to violence, Hirrus had no intention to draw the fight out longer than was necessary. Using Fidelis’s metal sword meant that Electric Field was an unwise decision, but Pumped Kicks, Going Ape, and Iron Typhoon took just a breath to activate one after another.

He closed the distance at speed and whipped the blade up at the man’s torso.

The blow landed solidly at the same time as the surprise registered across the reptilian face. His attack did over three thousand five hundred damage, and thanks to Iron Typhoon, an additional three thousand on the double attack.

He tried to follow through on the attack with a backhand, but the pain of the blow galvanized the man to action, and the gladius whipped up with speed the man hadn’t shown before.

Hirrus used his move speed advantage to duck back, but the blow clipped his shoulder.

Despite the blow being a glancing one at best, it still slammed into his hit point pool for just under five thousand damage. Hirrus grimaced at the sobering reminder that the empowered Merciless form imparted a significant increase to the stats of the user.

Despite Hirrus' superior skill, the Merciless form alone made this man more than a match for him, numerically.

The gladius whipped around again, the blow too guileless to land, but the scaled arms moved at improbable speed, bringing it in for yet another attack. Hirrus was forced to accept the hit for over four thousand damage, but his hooked blade landed a trade, scoring a critical strike and dealing over six thousand damage. The weapon’s special attribute activated on the critical hit, granting Hirrus a temporary buff, increasing the damage of his weapon by ten percent.

The man’s weapon came down in a brutal chopping motion, and Hirrus twisted out of the way. It meant the blow barely missed. The force of the wind off the slice made Hirrus fear what it would mean to fall short of dodging it.

Not to mention that the awkward movement that the dodge necessitated meant that he had to leap back so that he could reset his feet in a proper stance before the next attack.

The monstrous figure before him snarled and lunged again. Hirrus weaved under the incoming attack - a blind haymaker blow - and delivered a backhand to the metal greave guarding the man’s right thigh.

His strike landed, doing a little more than four thousand damage. The impact of it threw the creature off-balance, the snarl developing into a frustrated roar.

“It doesn’t have to end this way,” Hirrus snapped. “But if you do not change course, this will be the end of you.”

The Merciless monster struggled to try to attack again, regardless.

Hirrus brought his foot up and kicked the monster’s leg in the same spot he’d just struck. The blow sent the man down onto one knee, inflicting a surprising four thousand five hundred damage.

It took Hirrus a moment to remember that the Pumped Kicks Arcana dramatically boosted his unarmed damage.

In lieu of an argument, the draconic beast let out an enraged bellow, lunging at him with a snap of its sharp-toothed snout. The familiarity to the bite that had disabled him - and forced him to helplessly watch his wife’s death - making him flinch back more than was necessary. Hirrus avoided the bite by a large margin, but it put him off-balance.

The next sweep of the creature’s gladius slashed across his gut, inflicting four thousand damage.

Hirrus stepped back from the assault too slowly. His foe was empowered by some sort of rage - perhaps an unknown Arcana? - and the next attack smashed into Hirrus' shoulder for four thousand five thousand damage. The gladius whipped around again, but Hirrus' hooked blade managed to catch it before it slashed across his face.

The actual physical power behind the weapon was intense, and it would far surpass Hirrus' strength easily once his stat-boosting Arcana ran out. For now, though, the monster’s strength only edged him out by a small margin.

Considering the potency of the Merciless buff, he thought it a blessing that he wasn’t entirely outclassed.

As the gladius blade inched closer, the beast brought its other hand up, grasping the hilt with both hands. Hirrus was forced to break away and dive back to avoid the redoubled strength driving the weapon into his throat.

The skill disparity wasn’t enough to overcome the raw power of the Merciless form.

A direct physical confrontation was a doomed venture, unless Hirrus stalled out the entire duration of the buff.

The most logical course was to decline a direct physical confrontation.

Throwing back his head, Hirrus unleashed a Chilling Howl that blasted the area immediately around him. It only did a little more than two thousand five hundred damage to his draconic foe, but it applied a nasty slow effect. Combined with the speed boost of Pumped Kicks, Hirrus easily evaded the monster’s next charge.

“It’s over,” Hirrus said, raising a hand in a gesture that obviously threatened more Arcana.

“He has the high ground!” Alric yelled from his hiding spot behind the fountain, despite Hirrus very much being on even footing with the Merciless monster.

The Merciless monster tossed his head. “Then end it, coward,” he snarled, never stopping his attempt to charge Hirrus. “If you are able!”

“Don’t try it!” Alric barked, though he declined to emerge from his cover to make good on the threat.

Hirrus, however, was more than capable enough.

X’ruhn’s Balance traded Hirrus' inflated BUR from Going Ape to ATT.

Eyes On Me applied a further bonus to ATT.

Slowly walking backwards, keeping ahead of the man’s doomed final charge, Hirrus executed Andrew’s buff suite, pinging the monster with a couple of paltry attacks that empowered him, before taking a moment to plant his feet and hurl a powerful finishing Arcana at his foe.

Andrew’s Z-Cutter move had the highest multiplier, but Hirrus was more familiar with the behavior and trajectory of ReisenFeuer, which was only slightly lower.

The enormous ball of molten flames crashed into the beast, bursting in a fiery blast.

Hirrus was aware that the attack dealt nearly twenty thousand damage at a single stroke, but the smoke from the burst filled the air, shielding the effects from view.

The smell of burnt flesh told Hirrus everything he needed to know. He turned away before the smoke cleared and started to stomp his way northwest once more.

“Holy shit,” Alric said, poking his head out from behind the fountain. “You turned that guy into crater con carne!”

“I shouldn’t have had to,” Hirrus snapped, grabbing Alric by the shoulder and yanking him along. “We should have been able to come to an understanding. I need to stop Rumi, so that I never have to do that again.”

Alric scrambled to match Hirrus’ pace. “Oh shit, you’re right. We gotta fuck off at high speed now. I mean. What if he wasn’t alone?”

Hirrus stopped.

He remembered the sounds he’d heard. Without finding a survivor, there was no explanation for them.

Someone must have been there.

Even just standing here now, he still had that feeling of being watched.

“He wasn’t.”

Hirrus turned slowly. He carefully dragged his eyes over every nook and crevice of the buildings around the courtyard, trying not to linger on the fire-mauled corpse on the ground.

No immediate threat presented itself, but that nagging sensation didn’t go away.

Not only had the man not been alone, but his ally was in the immediate area.

Watching.

Waiting.

“Yeah, okay,” Alric said, shifting anxiously - and noisily - from foot to foot. “That means we should leave, right? That guy smacked me one before you showed up to help me. I’ve got like thirteen hit points left, man. If there’s something else here, I don’t want to be here.”

“Be quiet,” Hirrus said, holding up a hand.

“Aw, man,” Alric said, lowering his voice. “I’m gonna get ganked by a reanimated chicken dinner, I just know it…”