When the time came, tens of thousands of Tal’darim gathered around the Pits of Ascension. A duel between the top ascendants was rare, and everyone was eager to see a battle which would end one of them. To the Tal’darim mass who would likely never reach the place of a top ascendant, there was something about seeing a powerful figure way above them scream and perish that was just so satisfying.

The ascendants were especially so. The idea of rising a step in the chain of ascension simply by sitting around was more than appealing.

Surrounded by his army of supplicants, Shalek floated into his position. His cloak dragged behind him, radiating void energy. His entire body shined with confidence and power. A few ascendants slightly below his level frowned. Someone as powerful as him might be an obstacle to their ascension. Even the top ascendants were slightly confused. They weren’t allowed to eliminate ascendants that might be a threat before they could rise to power, but only fools would simply ignore potential threats. Even the Highlord had eyes and ears around Shalek.

All of them were surprised when they realized Shalek was stronger than they thought. The Seventh Ascendant was almost 20% stronger than he used to be.

As he entered his position, Shalek threw another meaningful glance at Nuroka, who looked back at him in full confusion.

Shalek turned back, impressed. No wonder Nuroka was the First Ascendant and he was the Seventh. The warrior’s ability in pretense was impressive. Now that he thought about it, if Nuroka responded with a nod or something, it would tell the other ascendants Shalek and Nuroka were in an alliance. This might be seen as a threat and attract unwanted hostiles.

Shalek sat down. Nyon wasn’t here yet, and he closed his eyes and started meditating. His newly gained power was slightly tougher to control than his original ones, and he needed all the time he could to get used to it.

Minutes passed, and the audience was getting more and more restless. They were here for blood and death. Patience wasn’t exactly something that they have. Thankfully, someone was more worried than they were.

“Does Nyon fear me so much that he doesn’t even dare to face in combat?”

Shalek stood back up. His eyes burned red. He didn’t know why Nyon still wasn’t here, but that didn’t stop him from using it.

“It is evident that Nyon doesn’t have what it takes to do Amon’s biddings! He doesn’t even deserve to be a Tal’darim! I suggest we strip away his fleet and send blood hunters after him. Cowards don’t deserve to live.”

“Highlord?” Alarak looked at Ma’lash, waiting for him to make a call.

“Cowards certainly don’t deserve to live, but I’m not the coward here.”

A voice came from behind the Tal’darim audience, and everyone turned to find Nyon walking toward the Pit of Ascension. A thousand supplicant warriors, in bright crimson armor and shining with powerful red void energy, followed him in four straight lines.

At the first look, it was apparent Nyon’s forces were stronger than Shalek. The common Tal’darim immediately thought twice about disrespecting Nyon. He might be defeated by the terran, but he was still stronger than 99.99% of the population of Slayn.

The Seventh Ascendant groaned in annoyance and slight surprise, but it was too late to turn back now. Plus, supplicants couldn’t directly intervene in the duel. The most they could do was slaughter his supplicant forces and provide their psionic power to Nyon. As long as he could take Nyon out before that, he could still reach victory.

“You came. I take back my words. You are not a coward.” Shalek continued to provoke. “You are a fool. A fool who doesn’t know his place.”

Nyon smirked. He wasn’t a low level zealot. The Seventh Ascendant’s words don’t piss him off. Someone with any intelligence could see that Shalek was trying to annoy him and make him make wrong decisions during the duel. He was beyond the point of falling for that.

“You wield your voice like a weapon, Shalek, but true Tal’darim use something else. We use the art of blades. Only terran and Daelaam weaklings bother with words, and you, Seventh Ascendant Shalek, are a weakling.”

Shalek’s face turned red, and Nyon smiled inside. The whole point of this duel was to reestablish his image. Every step he took was for that purpose. He arrived at the last minute on purpose because it could draw the most attention. At first everyone thought he was not coming, and then he popped up with an entire army of supplicant elites. Now he was making Shalek look bad with words and therefore make him look good.

“That’s enough. The Rak’Shir shall begin at once.” On his throne, Ma’lash waved his armed hand. He didn’t know what the two were saying, and he didn’t want to know. Whoever the winner was, he couldn’t threaten him. According to traditions, only the First Ascendant could challenge the High Lord. Ma’lash eyed Nuroka. This duel didn’t really concern him. The winner needed to follow his command anyways. He was only here because he wanted to see someone scream.

Now that the words were exchanged, the two ascendants walked to two opposite directions of the pits right in front of two giant holes that connected to the planet’s core. Their own private armies formed up behind them. Their objective was to push their opponent into the hole behind them. The defeated would be melted and the victor would inherit everything the defeated once owned, including his ships and his armies.

Without another word, the two drew their blades and charged at each other. Their supplicant armies followed, and under the thrilled eyes of all the thousands of thousands of Tal’darim audience, the two sides clashed.

Nyon’s double bane blades made contact with Shalek’s weapon, drawing a cloud of red sparks in the air, but Shalek was already on the next step. He pushed Nyon’s blades aside with his own and a string of crimson lightning came out of the lower ascendant’s fingers and hit Nyon.

“Ehhh.” Nyon backed off as he quickly formed a plasma shield in front of himself. The lightning disappeared, but the plasma shield was shattered as well. The next second Shalek launched himself forward. His void energy formed a fist and punched into Nyon’s chest.

The Sixth Ascendant fell back, struggling to defend himself.

“I can promise you one thing. This will take a long time to end.” Watching Nyon collapse, Shalek smiled. The only sense of doubt disappeared, leaving just confidence and arrogance. There was no way Nyon could defeat him. At this point his only concern was to end this before all of his supplicants die.

All around Shalek’s supplicants were giving their lives to buy Shalek more time. They were dying in droves, but they ignored the losses and held their ground. Nyon’s forces were pushing through, but they needed time.

It appeared like Nyon didn’t have the time.

In a wave of cheers from the Tal’darim bystanders, Shalek slammed Nyon onto the scorching ground of the planet once again.

Ma’lash turned away in boredom. “Pity. I thought I could’ve seen a fair battle. If I wanted to see a slaughter I would’ve done it myself.” Thinking the fight was already over, he stood up and was about to leave when he suddenly paused.

Inside the pits, Nyon stood back up once again. Shalek smirked and pushed his arms forward, channeling the power within him, but the once overwhelming strength seemed....off.

“What’s wrong. Can’t feel your void energy?” The Sixth Ascendant ignited his blade once more as Shalek’s expression changed drastically. “Maybe it’s something you took. Maybe... maybe...just maybe...the highly concentrated terrazine that blood hunter gave you had something in it? Something that doesn’t qutie agree with you?”

“What...how did you…” Shalek backed off in slight fear. He tried to contact his power even harder, but the more he tried the less control he had. It was as if what was in the terrazine was just getting started.

“Simple. I know it because I gave it to you.”

That was when Shalek realized why he could beat down Nyon so easily. The drug in the terrazine could only function when being activated, and Nyon must’ve activated it somehow when he first clashed with him. He needed time for the drug to work, so he pretended like he was losing. As beaten as he seemed, Nyon wasn’t really wounded.

And now that the tide was turned, Nyon could easily crush him. Shalek had no way of proving to the audience something was wrong because he would be dead at the end of the duel. Every Tal’darim outside the field would think Nyon was just toying with Shalek. Make him feel like he could win and then suddenly crush him with overwhelming power. They would only admire his strength and cruelty.

But if the terrazine came from Nyon, then the blood hunter was from him as well. Shalek thought back to the few times he looked at Nuroka and realized the First Ascendant didn’t have a poker face on because he was good at keeping secrets. He did so because he had absolutely no idea what was going on.

But if that was the case and the blood hunter came from Nyon, then the thirty blood hunters he added into his supplicants were from Nyon as well…

Nyon smirked and gave out a psionic order, and the next second thirty zealots collapsed with their bodies severed. Invisible scythes came out of nowhere and cut the defenseless warriors into pieces.

The survivors were caught by surprise. They were already losing, and now the blood hunters were the final straw. Their numbers decreased exponentially. The supplicants fought bravely, but they could no longer able to even delay the inevitable.

Screams and cries cover the field as hundreds of elite Tal’darim warriors collapsed and perished in the wrath of their own brothers and sisters.

“This is unfair! Rak’Shir is a battle to determine who’s the strongest! You used tricks!”

“Intelligence is a part of strength, Seventh Ascendant. It’s not my fault that you are a fool. Let this be a lesson. Next time, don’t believe in everything you are told. Oh.” Nyon pretended like he just realized something. “Wait, you don’t have a next time.”

“You...die!” The practically maimed ascendant suddenly charged forward. His void energy was crippled, and he couldn’t even afford to maintain a plasma shield. It took all he had to keep his blade lit. He charged toward Nyon with his bare legs. Floating in the air or even turning his body into energy and charging then was a luxury he couldn’t afford.

Nyon waited until the last moment to draw his blades…

Two minutes after the severed body of Shalek first hit the ground, the last of the Seventh Ascendant’s supplicants perished with a particle disruptor round through the chest.

“Get rid of this filth.” Nyon waved before leaving the pits. Behind him, two supplicant zealots tossed the armor that once belonged to Shalek into the core of the planet. His body was gone shortly after his life ended, and the armor represented his defeat in Rak’Shir.

As he walked, Nyon noticed all the Tal’darim warriors lowering their heads in obedience. As far as they could see, Nyon had the upper hand the entire time. He only allowed Shalek to appear victorious because a crushing defeat at the very beginning was boring. When Shalek thought he was about to win, Nyon stepped in and demolished him, brutally demolishing his spirit. They were slightly confused as of why Shalek didn’t turn on his shield during the final charge, but they quickly decided it didn’t matter.

What really mattered was the fact that Shalek was dead and Nyon was alive. That was it.

The conversation between Nyon and Shalek was done psionically. Both projected their voice directly to each other. None of the other Tal’darim knew what truly happened.

As the Sixth Ascendant left, his mind was filled with one thought.

The twenty blood hunters he gave Jean might be the most cost effective blood hunters in the history of the Tal’darim.