There was a wind blade protruding out of his stomach.

Had this been six months ago, Lukas would have probably perished, or barely managed to hold on, praying that an EMT was on their way. Maybe if he was lucky, they’d get him on stretchers and drive him to the nearest hospital. Hell, had this happened in the initial days of his wandering about in the Crypt, he’d probably have gone through a second deal with Inanna, bartering away with whatever the Goddess would have wanted in exchange for setting him straight.

Now? It was just an annoyance.

The dichotomy between then and now was absolutely staggering. He had once feared everything about Inanna— the power and skill she had displayed against that massive khorkhoi. He had been awed at the power she had thrown around when dealing with Tanya under the influence of Frost. A part of him couldn’t help but imagine what he would think of that fight now.

More importantly, what would his past self think of what he had become now? Would he think of his future self as one of the very monsters that he hunted, and try to put him down on general principle?

Sheep fear wolves. That was what Inanna would say. And Lukas couldn’t help but agree with that opinion.

Back then, Inanna had given him an offer. To be her follower. Her castellan. Her absolutely obedient hatchetman, ready to fulfill her every command, in return for power and pleasure he had never known. The Lukas Aguilar back then had rejected the opportunity. Now, Inanna was gone, and it was up to him to find a way to get her back. Remanifest her in the way she was, with all her perfection and her imperfection.

It had to have been possible. She had done it for him.

But that was for later. For now, he had a fight to win.

Grasping the nigh immaterial blade with his fingers, he pulled it out of his stomach, feeling the wind blade dissipate away, as hot, crimson blood oozed out of the wound. Using a little fire mana, he quickly cauterized the wound at the surface end, allowing lifeforce to deal with the inner injuries.

“All right,” He murmured, “I suppose that was enough foreplay.”

And with that, Lukas grinned.

Accessing Monster Prototype — KIRIN

Accessed Skill — Speed Blitz

Lukas felt the cold and passionless instincts of the Kirin take over, and vanished.

Before Tanya could even ready her defense, a fist cloaked with flames met her head-on. Tanya had barely been able to raise a windshield before Lukas snatched his fist away and attacked from the bottom and then left, then right, up, up, right, and left— the hammering kept going on and on like pistons of a steam engine. He could see Tanya almost try to snarl in frustration but fail to even do that as she was bombarded with lightning-fast jabs from every possible angle— her own agility and perception as a Wind-Shaper only barely allowing her to see a shadow of the attack before it smashed against her.

Every time she tried to hit him back, Lukas was one step, two steps, several steps ahead of her, and right when she thought she was before him, he was right behind her. The two combatants danced all across the battlefield, with eyes for no one but themselves. A part of his mind casually observed that neither Zuken Banksi nor Olfric Bergott tried to even interfere in the fight in the slightest. There was an expression of calm acceptance on Banksi’s face while Bergott looked utterly confused, their perceptions barely allowing them to even observe the ongoing battle with any more clarity than an average person could trace the path of lightning tearing through the heart of the sky.

Time to raise this to another level, Partner.

And way above them, facing the black beast that was Ezzeron in the heavens, Arah barked out a victorious laugh.

Monsters. That’s what those two are. Monsters.

Zuken Banksi stared at the destruction fest happening all around him. Neither he nor Olfric had reached the level of skill to be able to materialize their Kami in their unbound state. Asukan norms preferred keeping the kami bound and hidden. Instead, the Shrines preferred to train aspirant spiritists to extract as much mana as possible and understand the finer balances of mana crafting— given the ever-present threat of mana-poisoning that hung like a naked sword above every aspirant spiritist’s head.

Hell, he was sure that his old tutors back home would have called Tanya and Aguilar suicidal heathens for attempting something so dastardly crazy. That is if they weren’t too busy turning green in envy at the raw power being thrown around by either of them.

He watched as the world went red and howling as Aguilar tracked his attack up and down a portion of the entire arena, scorching and blasting everything into finely ground rubble. He watched as Tanya created an orb of pure vacuum, absorbed Aguilar’s flames, and threw it back at him, only for Lukas to capture the implosion in a wreath of flames and then dissipate away with a slashing gesture of his right hand. Hell, even the air around them felt alive, being utterly charged with enough mana to make one choke to death.

And the two of them were fighting in the middle of it and showing utterly no signs of stopping.

“MORE! SHOW ME MORE!” He heard Aguilar comment, at which Tanya vanished and rained down a hammer of wind from above.

It only seemed to make Aguilar grin harder.

“Just what are these people?” Olfric asked, his voice shaky. Not that Zuken could blame him. He had already uplifted his perception by several levels using Terramancy, and even then he was having trouble keeping up with the two of them.

“You know….” Olfric continued, “I think neither Aguilar nor Tanya had gone all out back at the Anomaly.”

Zuken snorted. That was as understated as any. He had always sensed that Tanya had always held herself back.

But even he hadn’t expected something like this.

He watched as Tanya hacked right and left with her wind blades, flickering cuts as swift and light as the beating of a hummingbird’s wing. She struck at arms, shoulders, and faces, leaving nothing but little incisions the depth of a fingernail’s width in soft spaces of flesh.

Aguilar on the other hand was an immovable object to her unstoppable force. He would heal almost as fast as she struck him, before dishing out heavy hits with his massive ax. His fire met head-on against her frost. His heavy hits were met with her blades of wind. His immensely powerful ifrit kept the roaring storm of blackness that was Ezzeron.

Truly the two of them were evenly matched.

Well, he found himself thinking, At the very least, no one will raise questions about either of their abilities.

The thought made him chuckle.

“What?” Olfric asked.

“Oh nothing,” Zuken replied, his voice wavering more than he’d have liked, “Just that even in a situation like this, I can still think of profitable things.”

He remembered the next few moments of the fight the same way a man would remember being caught amid a raging storm.

Surrounded by attacks from all sides, assaulted at every angle, Lukas’s brain shut down and reverted to the most basic levels of self-preservation. Details were lost amid a swirl of imagery. Solid information was washed over by a sea of blurred pictures. The concrete was replaced by the abstract as the mind funneled resources dedicated to surviving instead of observing. It was now down to muscle memory. To reflexes. To reaction times strained beyond their breaking point. His surroundings became an afterthought. The environment became a hazy blur. Everything became indistinct and muddled.

Monster Prototype— KIRIN Discarded

Tanya was good. Very good. With Ezzeron truly unbound, she was able to dive into the depths of its skill, and use it to shape her attacks. It helped that her fighting style was perfectly suited for wind crafting— tall, lean, lithe body with just enough muscle to make it count, and relying too much upon agility with speed tactics and getting the job done.

“That ax is good, very good in fact,” He heard Tanya comment, casually sauntering towards him, her entire body oozing with power.

“But,” she said, “if you cannot cut me in half with it, it’s little more than a sharp implement.”

She was as much as a battle nut as he was. A part of him that liked war as much as sex wanted him to claim Tanya, and vanish into the mists so that they could continue this fight on a grander scale.

A part that didn’t just want to defeat her, but to claim her in every way possible.

And Lukas was finding it more and more difficult to not succumb to that temptation.

Focus, He told himself. Finish this fight first.

But Tanya was right. The powers of Kirin were good, but he couldn’t play by Tanya’s own rules and expected to win.

He needed something else.

Something that bent the rules.

But what was faster than the wind?

The answer was simple.

Suggested Monster Prototype Found

Enacting

“I suppose you’re right. Allow me to make that up for you.”

And then a bolt of lightning came streaking down from the heavens like the hammer of God.

Right at her.