The Undying

The Warpainter’s body began reforming, coming together as though he wasn’t even cut. He stood up and stretched his arms outward.

“Man, you two are strong.” He says. “The game doesn’t do you enough justice…”

He grabbed his swords from the ground and raised them.

“I’d rather not kill a specimen as good as Valeria… ” He spoke. “I mean, she’s the whole package. A strong warrior with a nice body. But… I don’t quite need a senile old man, not for the world I’m aiming to create.”

“Disgusting. Whatever kinda world you’re trying to make, leave us out of it!” She exclaimed.

She swung her blades in a horizontal double slash, and his also clashed with hers at the same point of the swing. Confusion initially filled her face, but she quickly spun around with another horizontal slash and saw him performing the same move as their blades clashed once more. She jumped and spun her body downward like a spiral, but their blades clashed again in mid-air.

“How do you know the dual fangs style?!” She questions. “That’s a—”

“...Style you made yourself? I know it. Every style used in the game. I can remember every move of theirs.” He says. “It’s like looking at a photograph of each movement step-by-step. Not too hard to copy, with a body like this.”

After the clash, he kicks her in the stomach. The old man slips in behind again and cuts his leg off, then slices it into tiny pieces.

“You’re the only anomaly, old man. You never fought in the game, so I don’t know your style.” He lowers his blade to slash the dean.

Valeria pulls him to her and blocks his blow with her armored boot. Then, with her other leg hits him with an aerial roundhouse. They landed on the ground afterward, while he was sent flying into a tree.

“This isn’t good. It doesn’t seem like he’s getting tired in the slightest. Not to mention…” She began.

The Warpainter’s leg grew back as he tried to stand up.

“Valeria, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t try to stop me from killing your grandfather.” He glares.

“You think I’m gonna let you?” She questions.

“Fine. I guess I’ll take a leg and an arm from you first.” He sighed.

The bit of his body that was cut off by the dean, erupted into spikes. The dean dashed in, catching the spikes meant for her leg. Several spikes went over his head and stabbed into her arm and shoulder.

“Well, at least he’s taken care of.” The Warpainter clapped.

Valeria looked down at the dean. Spikes stabbed into most of his body, piercing through his back and stopping right after.

“Damn it!” She shouted.

The dean fell over, and blood crept out of his body as he coughed.

“Valeria… You can’t beat him alone. Bring them here. It’s the only way.” He says.

Tears slipped out of her eyes. But she kept her eyes trained on the Warpainter the entire time. With no hesitation, she imbued her flames on her sword, dispersed them, and reignited them. Through her tears, she glared like a beast.

“Wow, scary.” He says.

She rushes in with a flurry of slashes, without any cadence or hint of humanity. Like a rampaging beast. The Warpainter struggled to keep up with her. After a horizontal slash was blocked by his blade, she spun around with both her blades.

“Try as you might, you can’t avoid using your own style.” He spun his body to match her, but she increased the speed and changed the angle, getting cut across the arms and torso, in exchange for cutting his lower half off entirely.

“Huh…?” He questions.

“Don’t underestimate us,” Valeria states.

Arte came flying in from behind, after being thrown by Armstrong. She raised her blade high as white flames wreathed the blade. The Warpainter looked up at Arte, and a wide grin formed on his face. Seeing her red hair and white flames caused his body to ache. She came down with a spinning slash. The Warpainter’s blades flew up and blocked the blow.

“Are you serious?!” She questions.

Valeria grabbed one of the blades, but couldn’t budge it even an inch. The Warpainter’s legs regenerated, and he kicked Valeria in the gut, but she grabbed his leg, stabbing her sword through it. Leo snuck in, cutting his leg off again with a speeding slash from his dagger. As he jumped and faced the Warpainter, a deck of cards appeared in his hands. Leo threw one card that stabbed into Warpainter’s neck. A dark green aura surrounded the Warpainter.

“Evasion down!” Leo exclaims.

Leo lands and comes dashing back toward them. Valeria tosses his leg far into the distance and leaps toward him. Arte leveraged her weight and strength, using it to flip over the blades. The three of them closed in on the Warpainter. He sighed and clenched his fist, causing an aura to well up from deep within as he exploded in a spiral of darkness. The explosion created a giant cloud of smoke and a shockwave that hit the entire campus. Beneath the Warpainter was a giant crater. The trio goes shooting out of the cloud like bullets. Valeria crashes into a tree and falls onto the ground. Leo happened to slip behind her before the blast, sending them in the same direction as Valeria. They crash into a nearby tree and watch in a daze as the Warpainter walks over.

Leo moves and grimaces as he feels pain below. A branch impaled him on the side of his torso. Arte moves her body in a pained expression, and Valeria looks up to see him approaching. Leo breaks the branch and pulls himself off the branch, groaning in the process. The cards in his hand glowed and morphed into a coin.

“This class was so hard to use because you can’t predict what you’ll get next. You just have to roll with whatever it gives you.” He thought.

“Once I’ve killed you both, I can finally repair this world.” The Warpainter said on approach.

“And just what is that?” Arte asks.

“Since it seems you both tainted the purity of this world… I’ll need to start from scratch. Rebuild this world from the ground up.” He begins. “There are many strong people in this world I could have bred with one another to create powerful descendants, all for the purpose of creating my very own hero. Then I’ll restart the game and live out the dream my mother couldn’t!”

“You’re sick. What do you mean by your mother’s dream?” She questions.

“My mother is none other than the greatest calamity this world has ever faced, Malady.” He explained.

Shock spread across their faces as Arte’s mouth was agape.