A Conclusion (I)

There were no sounds to be heard inside the walls of the crimson barrier, save for the creaking of contorted metal and spreading flames. As I stood there soundlessly, Nobelys gave a little shrug, and began tucking his robes back into shape.

“What was that absurd alias she went by again? Crossmark? Collarbone? The foolhardy leader of that worthless gang of criminals, who attempted to go against direct orders of the great kingdom Onimus itself. You can’t expect me to remember the name of every little pest I take care of.” As he spoke, the energy started to creep back into his voice, as the manic fire flared up in his eyes once again. “Well, I was just following the orders of my superiors, but this should work as the sufficient bait to lure you into action.”

“Shut up.”

“Yes, that’s it! Be fueled by the uncontrollable, blinding flames of your wrath, and come at me with everything you have!” With a gleeful laugh, Nobelys flung his arms out at his sides. “Am I a sadistic villain who relishes in the death of innocents, a madman obsessed with an absurd end goal, or a coward too weak to take responsibility for his actions? After all this time, I no longer know which side of me is real anymore! So come, Conqaide, and bring me my salvation at long last! Allow me to find the answer to –”

“What, did you expect me to fly into some kind of unseeing rage at this shocking disclosure? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but that isn’t going to happen.” I hardened my stance, stepping towards the spot in the plaza where Nobelys stood. “The woman named Crossbones is dead, and has been for a long time. I’ve already come to terms with the fact that I’m never going to see her again, and whether you died back then or not won’t change that fact. So, I’m not going to lose myself in anger at your words.”

“You’re not going to attack me, then?” Nobelys’ eyes were momentarily clouded in confusion, breaking his overconfident character for a second. “But why, why are you acting so calmly? Am I not the person who –”

“However, while I will not become meaninglessly enraged, that doesn’t mean I won’t attack you.” Bending down, I picked a long piece of scattered metal off the ground, grasping it tightly with both hands. In the distance I could see Martha’s eyes widening, and I knew that despite the muted bubble around her, she was yelling as loud as she could for me not to engage the man standing in front of me. But I just couldn’t heed her warning, as I finally stopped just a few feet from Nobelys.

“Because even if I have fully accepted her passing, you remain the man who took Eleanor Conqaide, my only family, away from me.” As I brandished my makeshift metal weapon, I glared at Nobelys with death in my eyes.

“And that is unforgivable.”

“Oh, so you are still going to fight after all.” Nobelys breathed out, giving a dainty little shake of his head. “You had me worried there. For a second, I thought maybe –”

My metal bat smashed against his arm from the side, and he teetered back in surprise, barely managing to shield himself with Crystalline Barrier. As the air reverberated with the sound of clanging steel, Nobelys swung his arm out, flinging away the piece of metal with a nervous laugh. “You’re a fast one. You almost caught me off –”

Powered by the raw strength of the work energy I had built up, the metal weapon slammed down again from the top, then once more from the right, cutting off whatever comment he had wanted to make. Each time Nobelys only barely managed to keep up, conjuring the faceted magical shields just a hair’s breadth from where my metal weapon would have slammed into his skin. Since I had silently activated my work energy while he was talking to himself, I held the upper hand in this surprise attack, viciously assaulting him from all directions and forcing Nobelys to stay on the defensive. With every work-energy backed swing that Nobelys blocked, giant shockwaves burst outwards from the strength of the attack. I had spent so much time trying to come up with a plan of attack, but now that I was really in the fight my body moved on instinct alone, and I knew every move that I had to take. Nobelys had devastating offensive power, so I needed to keep him defending as much as possible.

But after the first few seconds the element of surprise wore off, and Nobelys began to properly get ahold of his bearings. The next time my metal bat slammed against his protected arms he was ready to counter it, and he swept both his arms to his side, causing a massive gust of wind to blow me off my feet and into the air. As I sailed backwards, I forced my eyes open against the powerful wind, and noticed with a jolt that Nobelys had already pulled his arm back to ready an attack. Dammit! Can’t dodge in the air!

“Gale Scythe!” Swiping his arm up, the gargantuan wave of razor-sharp wind came barreling at me from a distance away, vertically slicing a path through the ground from where Nobelys was positioned. At the last possible second, still flying backwards in midair, I slammed my bat down to the ground in a sideways movement. This propelled me to the right, causing me to crash against the ground, but I managed to push myself out of the way just in time. I had a moment to marvel at the gaping crevasse, almost a foot wide, which had been left behind by Gale Scythe completely obliterating the stretch of ground where I had been flying above just a second ago. The vertical slice of wind tore past me and slammed into the crimson wall of Tempest Field behind me, causing the entire semicircle to rumble.

Without even a moment to waste, I bolted towards Nobelys in a wide arc, boosted by the agility-increasing powers of Raptor’s Wind. Using my momentum to increase the strength of my attack even further, I swung my metal weapon with the force of a cannon blast, but Nobelys was ready for it. No matter how strong my attack was, it wouldn’t be able to overcome the durability of a high-tier defense spell like Crystalline Barrier. Sparks flew as my weapon impacted the faceted transparent shield, but the recoil of my assault was starting to get to me, as my closed fists took another bout of the metal’s violent vibration. But I could see that Nobelys was only holding up his left arm to create the Crystalline Barrier, and his right arm was already pulled back for an attack. It was only because I anticipated this that I ducked my head downwards, and a fraction of a second later, Nobelys made a slashing motion with his extended index and middle fingers. A sharp blade of wind followed his exact motions and burst from his fingertips, like a smaller version of his Gale Scythe, and my thick metal weapon was sliced in two like a hot knife through butter. The attack was close enough to my head that it sliced off a few tiny locks of electric blue hair, and I knew for a fact that if I hadn’t dodged out of instinct, my head would have been cut clean off.

But my years of combat training and fighting experience paid off, and my body continued its attack despite the current situation. I made a stabbing motion with my stump of a metal bat towards Nobelys’ gut, and he brought both his hands around, catching my weapon in the air using wind magic. I saw a glint of delight flash in his eyes, like he believed that he had trapped my weapon and rendered me vulnerable, but my dirty tricks didn’t end there. Scrunching up my face, I grabbed the base of the metal weapon even more tightly.

“Transmute!” With a flash of white, the weapon’s metal surface bulged for a second, before bursting forward from its tip. The weapon grew thinner and longer, its shape morphing from a vaguely bat-shaped object into a sharpened metal spear, explosively increasing in length. Now unable to block with his hands, Nobelys could only twist his body as the tip of the spear shot past him, but he couldn’t fully dodge the attack. The spear sliced through Nobelys’ robe and the edge of his stomach, splitting the fabric at its seams and drawing blood.

As Nobelys’ face contorted in pain, he stumbled backwards, clutching at the wound with one of his hands. This caused him to release the lock his wind magic had on the spear, and I pulled the newly-refined weapon away from his grasp, preparing for a follow-up strike. Transmute, Tier 1 spell. 15 magic points remaining.

I knew that if I was to deliver the finishing strike, it would have to be now, when Nobelys was still disoriented from the pain. Gripping the spear with both hands, I thrust the weapon towards his chest, but a sudden pain spiked through my left arm. Crying out, my arm contracted against my will, causing the spear to twist upwards and miss its main target. As such, the spear only grazed the top of Nobelys’ left shoulder, though the silky robe above it was shredded to ribbons. Nobelys was already recovering from the strike to his stomach, and as he lunged forwards, I found that I was now the one in the extremely disadvantageous position.

What the hell happened? Watching Nobelys’ arm swing towards me, I tried to scramble for an explanation for what had just occurred, before my eyes darted to the thick streams of blood gushing from my left arm. Damn, of course! Even with my enhanced regeneration, there’s no way my aggressive assault wouldn’t exacerbate that wound from before! I shouldn’t have overexerted it.

Throwing myself onto the ground, I just barely managed to avoid another one of Nobelys’ wind blade attacks as his arm swung over me, and the lethal slash sailed right over my head. Rolling out of the way, I tried to gain some distance between us, before noticing that Nobelys seemed to be readying an unfamiliar attack. Quickly pushing myself off the ground and into an upright position, I watched as his right arm swelled with a purple light. And the moment I saw his outstretched hand facing me, every cell in my body screamed for me to run, and I was filled with a dreadfully nauseating sense of déjà vu. That attack…

With the butt of my spear, I flicked a stray chunk of uprooted cobblestone into Nobelys’ line of attack, just as he twisted his arm. “Disassembly!”

The attack was redirected to the rock that had been flung in front of his arm, and it crunched in on itself as it was pulverized into a fine powder. Scowling, Nobelys held out his other hand, and I felt the air directly beneath my feet begin to shift in a circular fashion. Leaping forward and out of the way, I watched as the air above that area constricted tightly. If I had moved just a second later, I would have been captured and suspended in the air, held fully immobile. But I used this chance, as Nobelys was still in the midst of casting that spell, and darted into close quarters once again to swing and slash with my spear. I was lucky that the weapon I transmuted was one that relied more on finesse, as I was still able to maneuver the spear quite effectively even only using my right arm. My left arm still ached from the wound that had been inflicted from before, and the makeshift bandage that I had wrapped around it had become undone at some point, but I pushed the pain aside to continue furiously attacking.

Nobelys was once again forced into the defensive, blocking my jabs and slashes with hastily conjured barriers. But he had learned from our previous close-range bout, and the next time he inevitably knocked away my spear, I saw him cross his arms in preparation of launching another large gust of wind to blow me away from him. However, he wasn’t the only one to have learned something, as I now knew what was coming. Using all the strength of Iron Arms, I planted my spear deep into the cobblestone, grasping on to the shaft as tightly as I could. Sweeping his arms to his side in the same motion as before, Nobelys unleashed the distancing rush of wind, but because of my grip on the spear I was able to stay in place. Watching his face light up in surprise, I swung my legs around with all my body weight, knocking into Nobelys’ gut and kicking him backwards. His concentration broke and the violent burst of wind ceased, giving me enough time to pull the buried metal spear back out of the ground.

“Enough!” Irritation flared in Nobelys’ eyes, and as he regained his balance he began to rise into the air, hovering up farther than my spear could reach. Now that he was floating in the air, being this close to him would only put me in danger, so I quickly attempted to dart away from where his attacks could easily hit me. The veins in his temple throbbing, Nobelys slashed out blade after blade of translucent wind from his fingertips. Even though these smaller attacks were less destructive than Gale Scythe, Nobelys could fire them at a much faster pace, and I was only barely able to dodge them, even considering my distance from him as well as my work energy-increased agility. The cobblestone and adjacent asphalt were quickly marred with interweaving cuts, and I was ever so slowly being forced backwards, over to edge of the swirling crimson barrier. As my back bumped against the shell of one of the mangled police cars, Nobelys grinned in satisfaction, the air churning around him to keep him afloat. “Now, where will you run to, Conqaide? Gale –”

With a thunderous shout, I strained every muscle in my body and heaved the entirety of the disfigured police car behind me up into the air at Nobelys, like some kind of enormous projectile. In surprise, he swung his arm out on instinct, letting Gale Scythe loose too early. The impact caused the car to burst into several large chunks, while the semi-formed Gale Scythe slammed into the upper section of the magical barrier. Using the chunks as a distracting cover, I grabbed my spear off the ground and leapt up to where Nobelys was floating, fully piercing through his left thigh. Howling in agony, Nobelys’ control over the wind keeping him afloat vanished, and we both came tumbling down to the ground.

I felt the soft sensation of cut grass underneath me, and I knew that we had crashed back down into the artificial plaza area. Luckily for me, the fact that I had activated Static Fortress meant that I had soaked most of the damage from the impact without much of a problem. But Nobelys wasn’t faring quite as well, judging from the way he was barely struggling to his feet. The wound in his side had soaked his robe a darker shade of purple, my makeshift spear was still sticking through his leg, and a few of his bones were probably broken from hitting the ground. Nevertheless, he glared at me defiantly from where he stood a distance away, as if still challenging me to continue.

Kicking off the ground, I jumped in a little closer, before thrusting my right arm out. “Perpetual Shock!”

With a grin, Nobelys summoned the sparkling shield of Crystalline Barrier in front of him, knowing full well that he could block the attack with no problem. But I just kept on running towards him, and I could see the perplexed expression growing on his face.

Not everything needs to act as a trigger word, idiot! Instead, I bolted right up to where he was standing, stamping my palm directly onto the surface of Crystalline Barrier. “Illumination!”

At my command, a harsh light erupted outward from my palm, glowing like a miniature sun. And from Nobelys’ perspective, that same brightness was multiplied many times brighter, due to the light shining directly through the faceted exterior of Crystalline Barrier. As the amplified light seared into Nobelys’ eyes, he shrieked in sudden pain, grasping his eyes with both hands.

Illumination, Tier 1 spell. 10 magic points remaining, which means… As Nobelys blindly careened backwards, I gripped my right hand tightly into a fist, before launching a solid punch aimed at the center of his torso. “Magmatic Impact!”

As my fist sailed through the air, its surface began to brighten and boil, until my entire arm looked like it was made entirely of scorching lava. Tiny dots of magma dripped from my soaring fist, burning the lush grass underneath and immediately hardening, as I twisted my body and shot my arm out with a resounding roar.

The full force of the attack crashed into Nobelys’ torso, ripping its way through his body in a single motion. The collision was strong enough that my punch lifted the entirety of his gaunt body off the ground, and with a swing of my arm Nobelys’ figure went flying into the mess of deformed police cars in the distance, causing thick clouds of dust to rise up into the air. The haze swelled up and covered the asphalt in front of me, and the flowing lava that covered my arm dripped down to the ground, returning the skin on my hand to its normal state. I stood there listening to the sound of cut grass sizzling beneath me, panting deep, labored breaths. Magmatic Impact… Tier 2 spell. No… remaining magic points.

The work energy that I had kept activated for so long finally gave out, and I felt the full effects of the magic fatigue flood into my muscles. It felt like I had aged ten years in the span of a second. Every one of my muscles burned in anaerobic agony, and I instantly dropped to my knees, as my strangled lungs struggled to bring in breath. But I suddenly heard a muffled voice in the distance, and I completely forgot about the aching pains shooting through my body.

“Don!” The voice was a little louder this time, and as I tortuously lifted my head off the ground, I saw that the shimmering veil around Martha was slowly dissipating. The glowing golden crucifix was also flaking away in a similar fashion, before it finally succumbed and shattered into a thousand tiny pieces, which faded into the wind. Martha’s limp body fell out of the air, as she collapsed into a listless pile on the soft grass beneath her. She looked like she wanted to get back up, but her arms shook unsteadily, before she finally fell back down to the ground. Her breathing was just as if not more strained than mine, and the verdant grass underneath her was already being stained red by the blood tricking out from her arms and legs.

“Martha, don’t move! I’ll come to you!” My throat burned like I hadn’t had water for days, but I forced my body to move, pushing off my right arm and lurching forward towards where Martha lay. My legs no longer responded to me, but I continued to drag myself across the grass using what little strength I had left. “Hang in there, I’m almost… almost there!”

Then, all of a sudden, a minute green light shone from within the cloud of dust. It was somewhat muted due to the grit obscuring my view, but it was unmistakably there, and my chest began to fill with a sense of vivid despair. It couldn’t be…

“Revert… Wound.” The light expanded outwards, growing in both size and intensity before quickly fading away. An intense feeling of panic set in and I barely managed to wrestle my body into standing up, heaving myself towards Martha, in a desperate bid to at least reach her. But then a swift blade of wind shot past where I was standing, gouging a narrow fissure in the ground between me and Martha, and I was forced to stop in my tracks.

“So close, Conqaide. So, so close, and yet so far.” With a soft breeze, the thin clouds of dust were pushed aside, revealing the figure of the person I least wanted to see. As he strode towards me, I saw that Nobelys’ right hand was still glowing with a green energy. And although it didn’t look fully healed, the massive wound in his torso had been sealed up, and the smaller cuts on his shoulder and side had been closed up as well. “If you really wanted to take me down, you should have gone for my Manalite crystals.”

I could only stare at him, left completely speechless. Nobelys continued his calm stride towards me, before composedly bending down and pulling my bent spear out from within his leg. Pressing his glowing right hand to the wound, it was only a matter of seconds before it was healed as well, and he then wiped the blood off on his robe.

“Due to my nature as an Adamant, I’ll admit that I’m not very proficient in healing magic at all.” With a fatigued sigh, Nobelys rolled his once-wounded shoulder, and the green energy around his hand faded away. “However, you’re sorely mistaken if you think a slovenly Tier 2 spell like that will be enough to take down a high-leveled magic caster like me. This is your price to pay for underestimating me.”

The air beneath me began to swirl again in that same circular motion, but my legs wouldn’t obey my command to jump out of the way. In the blink of an eye, I was hoisted up into the air, bound by cramped invisible chains. As the spell constricted my body and my lungs were pressed together, I launched into a heavy fit of coughs.

“Leave him alone!” From where she had fallen down Martha was once again trying to force her body back up, but only managed to struggle up to a kneeling position, with one arm crutched over her right leg. Her outcry caught Nobelys’ attention, and from where I was suspended in the air, I could see a scheming look start to light up his face. Extending his right arm, a gust of wind suddenly picked Martha up off the floor, pulling her across the slash in the ground and over to where he was standing.

“Conqaide… you said that you would not feel a pointless anger over that earth Adamant, only because you had long since already accepted her death.” As Martha was dragged to a spot at his feet, bound to the tainted grass with the same invisible tendrils of wind, a vicious glint appeared in Nobelys’ eyes. “Then by that token, your rage will still spike if anything happens to this girl, correct?”

My pupils dilated. “Don’t you dare –”

The cage of wind shifted again, and my threat was cut off by another empty cough. Seeing my reaction, Nobelys gave a satisfied nod. “It seems I was dead on. Because, you still have your strongest ace up your sleeve, don’t you? The trump card that managed to defeat Aberon, the strongest bounty hunter.”

No… I can’t use that. Even in this situation… The scene from back at the Oasis flashed into my mind, along with the terrified expression both Martha and Markus had worn when I had come back to my senses. Anything but that.

“I wonder, why haven’t you revealed it to me yet? Is it because you think I’m just that insignificant, unworthy of even using your true strength?” Nobelys stalked up to where I was hovering, crossing his arms. “I had stated that I wished for this to be a bout of fair, honorable combat. I will not feel satisfied with the outcome of our fight if you aren’t using everything you have.”

“No, you don’t understand! I have no control over myself in that form!” I intensely shook my head left and right. “You say you want my full power? That, thing… it isn’t even me!”
“Looks like a polite request isn’t going to cut it, then.” Looking away from me, Nobelys narrowed his eyes. “I guess I have no choice.”

Slamming his heel down, Nobelys ground the bottom of his shoe on Martha’s already-wounded hand, and she let out a bloodcurdling scream. With every twist of his heel, fresh blood would spring up from the puncture wound in her hand that had never healed, and Martha’s body would twist and convulse in pure agony.

“Don’t you touch her!” Though my body was already fully exhausted of strength, I managed to rip my arms free from the wind magic in a sudden burst of energy, howling at the top of my lungs.

“Now, what will it take? A finger, an arm, a leg?” Nobelys lifted his leg up for a second, the back of his shoe stained with blood, and Martha’s body shuddered with deep choking gasps. “You’ll break eventually, so why bother resisting? You’re only making this girl suffer more.”

I’ll destroy her as well! A voice of reason attempted to speak up in my mind, but its statement was almost completely drowned out by the anger burning through my body, the air around my body almost physically searing with the pure volume of my rage. I can’t!

“You still refuse?” Tilting his head, Nobelys turned his attention back to Martha. “No matter. At this rate, it won’t take long to force it out of you anyway.”

Digging into Martha’s wound once again, the stomach-turning screams began anew, and my vision began to smolder to the point where my sight became blurred. After ten or so more seconds of this, Nobelys stepped off her hand. By this point, Martha’s eyes were fully glazed over in pain, and she didn’t even have the power left to resist.

“It seems as though this isn’t enough to convince you.” Wiping his bloody heel down on the grass, Nobelys began to move over to the other side of Martha’s body. “I didn’t want to do this, but I may have to take more drastic measures.”

The rage was corrupting me further and further, snaking its way through my arms and legs into my chest, and I tried with all my strength to fight it off. No! She’ll get hurt!

“I wonder, how many bones will I have to break?” Lifting his leg, Nobleys rested his shoe on Martha’s overturned elbow.

I’ll hurt her! I’ll kill her! I repeated that over and over in my head, but the destitute sight of Martha bound there only further propelled the rage, forcing it up through my chest and burning its way into my esophagus.

“I’d say that the bones of a magic-deficient woman should be quite brittle. But, that’s just my guess.”

Martha is going get hurt, and it’ll be on me! I know that! I watched Nobelys’ shoe hover over Martha’s arm, as it cast a shadow over her fragile little figure. I know that, but…

“Well? Why don’t we test that theory out, Conqaide?” Nobelys’ sadistic grin stretched over his face, and his shoe slammed downwards. Below him, Martha stared off distantly with a pair of unseeing dull eyes, a thin line of agony-induced tears streaking down her pale face.

At that moment, even though I knew there would be consequences to pay, my heart just couldn’t bear to see her like that for even one second longer.

“Get the hell away from her!”

A barbaric scream erupted from my mouth, and I tore my arms to my sides as the rage fully consumed my body. The fury flooded every last cell of my body, bursting, ripping, flaring up inside me. My vision blurred, I violently thrashed my entire body outwards, and then…

Nothing.