The red aura around Tain coalesced into a thin pseudo-armour that also extended onto his sword. An overwhelming pressure emanated out from him, even when he was just standing there.

A blue aura shone out around Hellion. All of his trinkets seemingly coming to life and glowing with the same aura. Several talismans floated out of his robe and into the air as the moon on his forehead shone. An ethereal full moon blotted out the sky and enveloped the sun, plunging the area around them into darkness, the only thing allowing them to see being the moonlight shining down.

Tain knew that this would be the toughest fight of his life. He had just managed to reach the second tier of the manifestation rank recently, but his opponent had already been in it for decades. He shot forward towards Hellion as one of the talismans started to glow.

He felt his balance being interrupted as the world around him started to spin, yet he carried on moving forward calmly. While it was offsetting, he was able to focus his other senses to the point that he didn’t have to rely on his swimming vision.

Another of Hellion’s talismans shone as an invisible barrier appeared around him. Tain held no doubt that he would be able to break it, but it would slow him down for a couple of seconds if he went at it normally. Instead he flared out his aura from his sword unleashing an attack from range that was like a flowing river of blood towards Hellion. He sped up his running and timed it so that he would reach the same time the attack would, allowing for him to break the barrier instantly by combining his two attacks.

However, Hellion had other plans. He lifted up his hand as one of rings glowed with a blue light and shot out a prismatic beam of light that intercepted his first attack, which would cause him to have to spend time to break the barrier.

Yet, Tain had expected that his first attack wouldn’t work. Just as he reached the barrier, from the ground shot out a red blade of aura that Tain had released into the ground the same time he shot out his first attack. The blade cracked the barrier just as he reached, swinging his sword enhanced by his aura at the barrier breaking it.

Instead of the barrier breaking like glass would, it instead exploded into a maelstrom centered around him. Shards of the moonlight barrier collided with his armour of aura causing resounding and continuous banging.

Another of Hellion’s talismans glowed as his dizziness got worse and the ringing of the shards got louder in his ears. He could feel the sound overwhelm him as blood started to slowly trickle down his nose.

This can’t go on. Tain was barely able to think at this point. He gathered his aura within him and exploded it out at once, causing the shards of moonlight to go flying. Unfortunately, it also dispersed a good chunk of his armour that Hellion took advantage of.

Several of his talismans shone as blades of moonlight resembling the shape of crescent moons shot out towards Tain. He was quickly able to regain his focus and raised his sword, parrying two, but the third one managed to score a hit on his side, leaving a massive gash.

He used the pain to clear the rest of the dizziness that was caused by Hellion and shot forward once again. He manipulated his aura into several small sized needles that shot out towards Hellion and rushed forward to try and close the space between them.

One of Hellion’s bangles shone with a blue light as a smaller barrier appeared in front of him for a second and intercepted the needles, fading shortly after. Tain had already used the chance to rush forward and was only a dozen feet or so away from Hellion as he started swinging his sword towards him. Yet as he took another step, he felt himself step on something.

Tain looked down and saw blue light shining from underneath his boot. He tried to jump away just in case, but he felt himself being weighed down. He felt like he was carrying a brick house on his shoulders. He focused his aura on his foot and shot it down into the ground causing it to explode, shattering the talisman that he had stepped on.

Yet it had cost him several seconds. He looked towards Hellion and saw that he had his hands together in a praying motion towards the moon that had blotted out the sun. He noticed that it was far brighter now than it was at the beginning of the fight. He reacted as quickly as he could, shaping all of his aura into a conical shield above his head.

Tain quickly crouched down so most of his body was covered in his shield as the sky of moonlight fell. Tain felt a large area around him be destroyed as an overwhelming pressure enveloped him. He used all his willpower to hold his shield together, but even then he could feel it cracking. His boots which were mostly uncovered by aura burned and scalded as the light roasted anything in its wake. He felt his feet being roasted by the burning metal.

He grit his teeth as he felt several blood vessels all around his body bursting. Finally after what felt like a millennium, the light around him faded as he refocused his aura into his body. The area around him faded back into the same level of darkness at the beginning of the fight. Tain looked over and saw that his surprise attack had somewhat worked, Hellion had a spike of red aura through his gut.

During the attack he had sent some of his aura through the ground, sacrificing some wounds in order to be able to injure Hellion. If the pain slowed Hellion’s activation of his rituals by even a millisecond then Tain considered it a worthwhile trade.

He shot forwards towards Hellion once again, his feet flaring in pain. Yet he was used to the pain. The Iron Heart technique required one to have an unbreakable will by subjecting the user to unending tormenting pain for years. If he got distracted by a little pain now, then he would be a failure of the elites of Killian.

As he got close to Hellion again, two of his talismans shone with blue light. Tain felt himself becoming sluggish as he slowed down significantly. Then he felt a torrent of force shoving him backwards which he couldn’t resist with the sluggishness overtaking him. He was pushed back several feet before he felt both the force and sluggishness fade from him.

“Give it up Tain, you can’t win against me.” Hellion shouted while panting. In response Tain focused his aura into the shape of three blades around him and focused them to shoot forward towards Hellion.

Hellion raised his hand once again as another blue flash occurred from one of his bangles. Another barrier formed in front of him, but Tain willed the two swords on the side to curve around it. The middle sword smashed into the barrier causing damage to it as the other two skirted around the side in attempts to reach Hellion.

He raised his hands towards the two sides as two more of his rings shone with blue light and shot out prismatic beams towards the swords, destroying them. During that time Tain had rushed forward, once again sending out a wave of aura ahead of him to destroy the barrier.

This time it worked since Hellion was distracted by the two swords and the barrier shattered, completely this time. Tain rushed towards Hellion and got in range, swinging his sword in order to behead him.

Yet before he could, he noticed that Hellion let out a smile as he opened his mouth. In an instant, Tain responded by gathering all of his aura to his front and exploding it outward. Hellion’s mouth shone blue as his tongue ring activated, forming a dagger of coalesced blue tinted moonlight in front of him. It emanated pressure similar to that of what Tain had felt when the moonlight fell on him.

The dagger and Tain’s aura collided, causing a massive explosion which sent the two of them flying in different directions.

After landing and rolling a couple of times, Hellion struggled to sit up. His collarbone had been shattered and both his upper and bottom lip had been ripped off in the explosion, leaving his bloody and battered teeth visible. Half of his nose was missing and his jaw had been dislocated.

That bastard should be dead though. Hellion thought as he surveyed the area. A large cloud of dust had been kicked up from the explosion and obscured his vision. He used one of his healing talismans on his body to try and stem some of the damage, but he wouldn’t be healing to full anytime soon.

After a few more failed attempts he finally got himself up as the dust cloud started to fade. Yet before it faded to the point where he would have able to seen Tain, he noticed movement within it. Ignoring the pain as best as he could he willed one of his necklaces to activate. A similar barrier appeared in front of him as a slice of red aura crashed into it.

“You’re still alive you rat bastard?” Hellion shouted as the dust started to fade. There’s no way he should have been able to survive that. The thought set him on guard, before realization overtook him. There was only one reason that he would have been able to survive that attack. One person.

“Have you noticed?” Tain’s broken and cracked voice echoed out. Two figures walked out of the dust cloud confirming Hellion’s worst fears.

The first figure was that of Tain. He had managed to turn his body away at the last second, focusing most of his wounds onto one side. Several of his left ribs were broken, his arm was torn to shreds and snapped in several places, his left ear was gone and his left eye was crushed. Several burns mangled the left side of his face and body. Yet, still he stood, ready to kill the foe before him.

The other figure was that of his old friend. The messy brown hair, the sunken cheeks. The person who stood before him was the former Vice-head of the Shamans, Bi’wan.

“After everything I’ve done for you Bi’wan?” Hellion shouted at Bi’wan. He had been the one to notice his talents first and raise him up. “I gave you everything!”

“You killed my family! And don’t you dare deny it. I’ve already got undeniable proof that it was you.” The guard captain already showed him everything he needed to see. They had managed to get a Shaman to record the travesty as well as capture and interrogate the one who did the killing, getting the confession that Hellion had ordered to attack on his family.

“That’s enough talk. Let’s finish this.” Tain said as he got into stance. He pushed off on his burnt and mangled feet, his ribs digging into his organs. Even so, he still shot off with impressive speed towards Hellion.

“Since it’s come to this.” Hellion mumbled as he looked at the approaching Tain and the supporting Bi’wan. He grabbed his left pinky and pulled it off, revealing it to be a prosthetic with a needle at the end. He stabbed the needle into his neck as a drop of violet blood entered his veins. He really didn’t want to use this as he would be in recovery for a very long time, but he wouldn’t be able to win without it.

Damnnit. Tain thought as he watched Hellion plunge the needle into his neck. He knew that he would have something up his sleeve, but he wasn’t expecting it to be at this level. Hellion’s totemic energy multiplied until it completely outmatched Tain’s aura. The moon in the sky became twinged with a violet tint, it’s visage twisted as the craters shifted and began to look like screaming faces.

However, with the support of Bi’wan’s amplification, he still held hope in his heart that he stood a chance against him. Blue totemic energy flared out of Hellion as one of his talismans burned up in violet flame, shooting out a violet tinted blade of moonlight before fading into ashes. The blade flew so fast that Tain barely had the time to respond, let alone dodge out of the way.

Tain pooled all of his aura into a spear shape, which was then amplified by Bi’wan. He shot the spear forward, causing it to crash into the moonlight blade. His aura spear shattered, but it had bought him enough time to stumble out of the trajectory of the blade.

Tain knew that Hellion wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long. A couple more attacks at most before the strain of overburden consumed him. He just had to survive, even if it was easier said than done. He was exhausted and almost out of aura. His body was shattered and burned. He had thought that it would have been enough to overcome no matter what trump card Hellion had, but he was wrong.

Tain continued running towards Hellion whose veins were now bulged out and visibly pumping. His speed had slowed tremendously but he couldn’t stop. Another one of Hellion’s talismans burst into violet flame as an overwhelming sensation of dizziness surged through him. He couldn’t keep his balance this time and toppled to the ground, even as Bi’wan amplified his sense of balance. It just wasn’t enough to overcome the difference made by the overburn of Hellion.

Bi’wan watched as Tain laid there in the burnt dirt. He had arrived late, but he had done his best to support Tain. Yet, against Hellion it wasn’t enough. Tain would die, and then he would be next for ‘betraying’ Hellion. There was one last thing that he could do, but he was wavering.

If he ran now there was a high possibility of escaping while Hellion was finishing off Tain. He would be wanted and on the run for the rest of his life, but he would at least be alive for the time being.

I don’t want to die. As Bi’wan thought that, he remembered the words of the kid he encountered in the baths.

‘I’ve seen a lot of people die, and usually they die because of others. They aren’t able to do anything they want before they die. No goodbyes, and no correcting regrets. You still have an opportunity, don’t you? To at least lessen the guilt and regrets you have.’

He was still alive now. He wanted to live longer, but how could he wish for that after taking the wishes of hundreds of others. Bi’wan reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a small violet orb the size of a fingernail.

“One last experiment.” Bi’wan muttered the words that the violet eyed man said when he handed over the orb. The ingestion of the orb would bring his amplification abilities to the next rank and beyond. But he knew that once he ate the orb, it would mean the end of his life. It was the ‘last’ afterall, meaning he had no more use.

After a moment of hesitation, Bi’wan steeled his resolve. Tain was a good leader and a decent man, he was capable of protecting the town. For Mazual. For his guilt. For his regrets. For revenge.

Bi’wan placed the violet orb in his mouth and swallowed it.