Even if he felt he could defeat the man, there was no sense in not taking every advantage he had. Sage felt no reservation in wasting the enemy’s energy and making him battle his own subordinates. Before he rose up to continue the battle he had deactivated his Hypnotic Eye and switched over to the Timeless Eyes. Getting a glimpse into the future was his greatest strength in battle and the main reason that in the past he could fight those much stronger than himself. Even if he couldn’t match their power, it didn’t matter if they couldn’t hit him.

Sage didn’t waste his energy rebuilding the Blacksilver Pawns, the previous confrontation had already shown him that the flames of his enemy were particularly effective at dealing with them. So many of his methods had already been wasted or damaged taking on the Flares. It was just too bad for the enemy that he’d been pushed to a breakthrough. With his new level of strength, even without any tricks, he had the confidence of coming out on top. Sage surged into motion, the huge serpent body sweeping back and forth, undulating over the ground as he rushed towards not the flames, but the man in the wheelchair. Nearly every one of the hypnotized Flares had already been killed by the flame giant, but Sage had made his move before they were completely wiped out. There were just enough of them to impede the flame giant while Sage rushed at full speed towards their controller.

His head was tilted oddly as he moved, keeping the flame giant and the enemy commander in his field of view. He even added some distance to his trip to make it easier to keep both the man and the flame within his gaze. As he approached in his giant snake form, his true form, his mouth flicked open and with the help of the Divine Breath technique an orb of green liquid shot out. It flew through the air at high speed, like a most vile and terrible ball of phlegm.

The man in the wheelchair was not as simple as he seemed, merely sneering at Sage. The ball of Greenrose Venom splashed against an invisible wall. The empty air sizzled, the power of the Law of Corruption effective even against the psychic’s barrier. The man’s eye twitched and then the smear of venom just fell to the ground with a splat. That puddle of doom was completely ineffective as it had fallen to the dirt a dozen yards from its target.

In that quick span of time, Sage continued to advance, closing the distance. At the same time, the flame giant erupted with violent flames and settled the last of the hypnotized Flares. With no one else impeding it, the flame giant rocketed through the air towards Sage, it’s speed many times higher. Seeing it fly through the air without touching the ground, Sage was more convinced it wasn’t a creature and simply a manifestation of power. The flame giant shot towards him, pulling back its arm and then throwing its hand forward. The giant’s palm spread and a cone of fire burst out.

Sage didn’t even bother to slow down. His scales were still quite charred, blackened, and torn up from the battle earlier, but he didn’t avoid the flame giant. Instead, a huge black worm appeared between the snake and the fiery man. Warp Worm! The one he’d linked to earlier had been caught and killed by the army of Flares, but they were a mixed force with hundreds of different variations in ability. The Warp Worm was truly only useful for digging and dealing with elemental attacks! What was this flame giant if not a ball of fire?

After wearing down the flame giant it was now man-sized, and the Warp Worm was three feet thick. While the cone of flame burst towards Sage, the Warp Worm spread its mouth open like an inverse umbrella, stretching to more than six feet across, and swallowed up the majority of the flames. The worm’s body glowed, a red light traveled from its head to its tail and then a concentrated beam of flame shot out of its tail like a laser beam. The tip of the tail flicked towards the flame giant and cleaved it in two. The giant wasn’t all that damaged, merely losing a few more inches of height before it reformed. Yet, the important thing was that it was slowed down, giving Sage the time he needed to close the gap.

“If you would, Miss Haelee. I think it’s time to go.”

Unlike every other time, the man’s voice was not booming and approaching from all directions at the same time. Instead it was weak, and pained. Struggling to get out his words, yet filled with polite kindness. The woman with greying hair behind him nodded and turned the wheelchair around, pushing him away. At the same time, the air started to shimmer. Already, their appearance started to grow hazy and the farther away they walked the less visible they became. In just a dozen steps the two of them disappeared completely from view like they were never there in the first place.

Sage hissed! How could he let the enemy that caused him so much trouble get away that easily? His huge cobra body jerked its head to the side, starting a chain reaction that traveled down the length of his body like a wave. Then the serpentine body rolled over on itself, hurling the tail towards the front with a loud crack!

Boom!

A violent detonation rattled the ground, the energy in the atmosphere used as fuel to cause a powerful explosive force. It blasted the area in front of him, that same place the man in the wheelchair had just been. There was a loud crash. The shockwave smashed up against a barrier. The air and light shimmered and the pair of woman and man reappeared. The woman stumbled and her illusion had faded. The man coughed, his barrier having stopped the vicious strike, but not without cost.

The flame giant, now a flame man, tossed a flaming ring onto the ground around the Warp Worm and then rushed into the battle. It whooshed through the air and pounced upon Sage’s twisted body. Currently uncoiling himself to make another Wave Combustion attack, he was unable to avoid the flame man that leapt onto him. Everywhere the flame touched, there was a loud sizzle and melted flesh. The air quickly filled with the smell of burnt meat. Sage’s body curled again, starting to whip around for another Wave Combustion, but the flame man dove onto him and struck with full power. The influx of burning flame and fire qi to his inner body disrupted the flow of energy and dissipated the Wave Combustion technique. Sage made a second attempt, and the flame man repeated his earlier action, smashing him at just the right time and position to interrupt his technique. Sage tried to retaliate, but when his tail whipped against the flame man, it ended up injuring himself more than it did the enemy.

Miss Haelee regained her balance and started pushing the man in the wheelchair away with a bit more haste than before, but it only looked like she was moving at a hurried pace to catch her train and not fleeing for her life. Sage was amazed at her continued lack of haste, but he could only focus on dueling with the flame man. He spit out another ball of Greenrose Venom at the fleeing man, but the barrier stopped him again and he got burned a few more times as well. Seems I have to wipe out the flames or it’ll start to get risky again.

He was worried about the pair getting away, but with the power of the Timeless Eyes, he had some reassurance at catching up to them. Fixing his attention fully on the flame man, Sage dodged its attacks while he drew in long, deep breaths. He was breathing in far more than he was breathing out, and when he drew in a breath two air vortices formed in front of his nostrils. The dirt and dust swirled madly with each breath, the nimble serpentine curves swaying this way and that, avoiding bolts of flame, arrows of fire, burning spheres of sparks, lances of ash, and smoldering boulders of coal.

The enemy had disappeared again, but Sage focused on the burning man and opened his mouth. His fangs didn’t flip out, but his throat swelled up like a frog and the full power of the Heavenly Wind, Stormbreath, was released. Like a drum with a rapid beat, bullets of air were released with a deafening roar. Moving many times faster than sound, the bursts of air shot holes clean through the flame man. Its limbs were blown off like they were candles on a birthday cake, and then its body was shot full of holes till it looked like a piece of swiss cheese lit on fire.

Having already foreseen the flame man failing to reform itself, he was already moving to catch up with the enemy that was trying to escape. His chest thumped a few more times, firing shells of air into the distance with a spread pattern. Sonic booms stirred up the ground and the resulting dust and dirt swirling into the air helped Sage pick out the correct area. Then he prepared to attack again, each time glimpsing the future results of his actions. Only after two dozen attempts was his aim true and he released the attack, smashing it against the man’s invisible barrier once more.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Another rapid beating of a drum and booming of the air. His ears were already ringing, but he didn’t care. The woman toppled over and the man in the wheelchair coughed up blood. The barrier broke apart and the aftermath of the attack knocked him out of his chair.

With a weak voice, he screamed out, “Ahh! You can’t do this to me! Don’t you know who I am!?”

Then that booming omni-directional voice reappeared, “I am Beast Kira! Bow down now and I shall make your death painless!”