The serpentine sword easily pierced the king’s golden armor, piercing through the king’s torso and coming out through the other end. The king’s crystal sword was aimed at the already crystallized arm and as he yelled out in pain, he kept his hand steady and decided to trade blow for blow, swinging his sword straight down. The sickly glow was no longer there and the armor looked frail. With a clean cut, the arm tumbled to the ground and shattered into countless green crystals, which only served to strengthen the green crystal platform below them.

Despite his missing arm, Vaar had come out on top of the exchange. The king’s golden shield slammed into his side and Vaar went crashing into the crystals below him, taking the serpentine sword with him, but the blow was nowhere as strong as it seemed. The sickly glow that once surrounded the serpentine sword was seeping into his wounds and surrounding his entire body, corroding the golden armor and weakening the king with every second. Although the effect wasn’t immediately visible, the king’s wounds were starting to get worse and his flesh was starting to decay and wither, rapidly aging.

The two of them resumed to clash with each other, but the king was always half a step late, whether it was dodging Vaar’s blows or landing his own. The sickly glow around him wasn’t dissipating like Orou expected it to, but instead, it clung onto his armor, waiting for its turn to attack the king. It was the king’s turn to retreat as he forfeited all offense and blocked each and every one of Vaar’s hits. In Vaar’s slashes, the king pointed his shield towards the sun and the runes on it became more distinct, slowly but surely completing the circle of runes all around the shield. Although Vaar saw what the king was doing, he didn’t change his strategy, relentlessly assaulting the king’s seemingly unbreakable defense.

Although the king’s movements were getting slower and slower, that didn’t stop him from fighting. After a minute of clashing, the battle took another sudden turn. As the king pointed the shield towards the sun, the final rune on the shield was completed and the shield exploded in a golden light. Waves of golden sunlight rolled off of the shield and started surrounding the king’s body, driving the sickly glow off of him and closing his wounds. It burned away the blood that was staining his armor and made its way into his body, healing him from inside out. As the first wave of golden light dispersed, an even larger wave of light enveloped the shield and completely covered it. A second later, the king was no longer holding a golden shield, but instead, a shimmering bracelet appeared around his wrists.

The golden light continued its way downwards onto the king’s armor and where it passed, it left a trail of shimmering spirits, the ones that Orou used in his spells. The shimmering spirits lit up the entirety of the king’s armor, making it almost impossible to even look at his body. As the spirits started spinning, the king didn’t waste any time to counter Vaar’s previous blows. He regained his earlier vigour and each swing seemed to be stronger and heavier than the last one. The bracelet on his arm shone each time he slashed at Vaar, leaving behind a scar in the sky, a golden glow wouldn’t fade.

Although Vaar was still faster than the king, every little hit that landed on him was devastating. His skin turned to crystal and his body started to burn from the light. The crystals themselves felt like they were imbued with light, constantly singing his skin and flesh. While the king couldn’t land a deciding hit, the small cuts started adding up as Vaar’s wounds weren’t healing and soon enough, a third of his body, spread out evenly through his torso, arms and legs, was covered with small crystals. Vaar was struggling to properly hold the sword simply from the pain he was experiencing, but the worst thing was that he wasn’t hurting the king.

As Vaar once more swung out against the king, the shimmering spirits on his armor rushed towards the spot he was swinging at, as if they could tell where he would swing even before he swung. The shimmering spirits created a thin, translucent barrier of light to soften the blow and although his sword could cut through the barrier, he couldn’t pierce the king’s golden armor. Still, Vaar kept on assaulting the armor as with each swing, the spirits and the bracelet around the king’s wrist got a bit dimmer.

As the spirits got dimmer and dimmer, the king decided to not waste any more time on swinging his sword and instead, pointed his bracelet towards Vaar. Immediately, the shimmering spirits on his body shot towards the bracelet and merged with it until eventually, it was as bright as the sun. The bracelet floated off of the king’s wrist and started to expand, expanding until it was as large as the king himself. If one looked in spirit vision, the spirits didn’t disappear, but instead, they were spinning so fast that it was almost impossible to notice that it was made of several spirits instead of a single entity.

Flicking his wrist towards Vaar, the rapidly spinning bracelet launched itself towards Vaar. The thick, green crystal platform that couldn’t be pierced by either the crystal nor the serpentine sword had a single, clean line digging several centimeters into the platform, created by the spinning bracelet. Vaar was retreating, but he was nowhere quick enough to escape the bracelet. Instead of lifting his sword to block the bracelet, Vaar rapidly turned around and his cloak, made entirely out of black strands slightly pulsed. The cloak already made it hard to see where Vaar was at all times, but at this instant, it seemed like Vaar completely disappeared, in his place was a mass of shadows, clashing against the shining bracelet.

In his black and white vision, Orou saw that Vaar hadn’t disappeared anywhere, though he had somehow hidden completely out of sight. As light and darkness clashed, the light started to cut through the black strands making up the cloak and instead, the cloak started rapidly absorbing black strands from Vaar’s body. Slowly, the light became dimmer and the darkness enveloped the light, completely extinguishing it, but the victory over the bracelet didn’t come at a cheap cost. The cloak had several cuts in it, but in reality, it was Vaar who suffered immensely. He was noticeably smaller than before, his muscles less bulging, his demeanor less impressive and with a profound exhausted on his face, he stopped fleeing and step by step, started approaching the king.

As the shimmering spirits disappeared from his body, the king’s true state was revealed. His pristine condition reverted back to his haggard body, covered in several wounds and aged several more years. His wounds started bleeding once again and the black, withered flesh around his wounds started squirming as if something had burrowed under the king’s skin and was trying its best to rip open the king’s skin and get out. His once shining armor became covered with black spots, becoming much, much dimmer than before.

The two of them were in critical conditions. Vaar’s arm was missing and his entire body was burned and still covered in crystals, which were slowly expanding to cover the rest of his body. The king was covered in wounds that wouldn’t stop bleeding, his entire body aged and withered, his crystal sword chipped, his shield gone and his armor damaged. Despite that, both of their eyes burned with nothing but resolve and anger towards each other. Step by step, the two of them got closer to each other, their respective swords vibrating as if excited to once more meet in battle.