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A stream of flames shot into the sky, erecting a blazing pillar that illuminated the entire withered and barren area. The explosion brought along a tremor. The battle at the foot of the hill ceased for a moment. All the fighters turned towards the fire pillar that towered them all. Instead of a shadow, a blinding radiance was cast over the battlefield.

Uriver had just ripped apart a follower of Mordius with his bare hands when the eruption happened. He, too, was ensnared by the sight. A chill washed over him. A series of doubts plagued his mind. Was this confrontation merely a misdirection? Not a few seconds ago, there was an eerie roar that shook the earth even though it had travelled far. No doubt the roar was from a dragon.

First, they were ambushed by the Skinwalkers. And now, there was an explosion that could only be caused by someone or something with the might of a dragon. As far as Uriver was aware, Dragons were a race that kept to themselves and rarely meddled in the affairs of other races.

Were they here for their abducted sovereign? Uriver wondered. No, he came to such a conclusion. Dragons had no sovereign, at least no one they all unanimously recognised. The Dragon God was the closest thing they had to a king but even then, the Dragon God was treated as an advisor at best. They would not band together to launch a rescue mission.

It couldn’t be the Aeryons either. They were already sparse enough as they were. Even if they caught wind of their grace’s abduction, it was impossible for them to make a move so fast.

“An unfamiliar party with dragons at their disposal,” Uriver concluded. “But who?”

The imposing inferno pillar eventually died down and the battle resumed. Uriver turned his back to the battlefield and rushed up the hill. However, the Skinwalkers were not going to just let him slip away.

With a swing of his fist, Uriver turned three Mordius followers into a flesh pulp. Two tried to get the drop on him. They succeeded but their attempts bore no fruit as their levels were far too low to be of any threat to Uriver.

“Annoying pests,” Uriver scoffed and turned the two into splatters of blood and bits with a kick.

Strange, Uriver thought. For an ambush, it was poorly planned. None of the Skinwalkers were strong enough to oppose him. In fact, they were shocked when they saw him when they realised his level. The flow of the battle shifted in the Rust Faith’s favour immediately. This made Uriver all the more convinced this ambush was a diversion.

Halfway up the hill, Uriver stopped. He turned around with his arm raised in front of his face. A fist, enveloped with violet flames, crashed into his guard. His eyes turned wide. He was amazed by the strength behind that single punch. He would suffer a serious wound if he didn’t defend against that punch.

What amazed him even more was that the punch was thrown by a girl that was around Giri’s age. The girl was a person of the cloth, or at least she was dressed like one.

“An Apostle,” he grunted. He could tell the girl was just like him. Once he had a clearer look, he understood who the girl was. “Aera, was it? The dragon’s companion.”

“Where’s Aedan?” Aera asked. Her voice was shivering but not out of fear. There was only wrath in her eyes and her voice.

“You have to try better than that if you want an answer,” Uriver taunted. In truth, he didn’t know how to answer her. It was very unlikely that Giri and Billy would still have Aedan in their captivity considering the explosion just now.

Aera howled in rage. She threw another haymaker. The winds around her arm whirled and rippled as she swung.

Uriver felt the shivers. Aera’s level was only in the twenties but this haymaker would be more than enough to fatally wound him. He pushed himself off away from her, dodging the haymaker that gouged a few feet deep worth of dirt from the hillside.

Aera chased after him. The flames enveloping her were also propelling her movements. She closed the distance between her and Uriver in seconds. Gripping her fists together, she slammed both of her fists down on him.

He rolled out of the way. The ground shook and sunk where he had stood. Before the dust and smoke settled, he lunged and retaliated with a kick.

Aera took the kick to her face but all it did was stagger her.

Uriver was the one who winced instead. He looked down at his feet and saw a singe on his boot. This girl is dangerous. As someone who excelled in close-quarter combat, Aera was a terrible match-up against him. Moreover, he had only a single arm. It was more difficult to fight with one arm than he would care to admit. Every stance he took, every move he made, the balance would always be off. It was rarely an issue as he would always overwhelm his opponent with the tremendous difference in their levels. However, his current opponent was someone who was engulfed in divinity.

Aera continued her onslaught. There was no rhythm or form to her assault. It was just a series of erratic violence, guided by her enraged instincts and fuelled by her wrath. With every attack that she received, it only served to increase her strength.

“Fuck this bitch!” Uriver screamed as he retracted his fist. His punch had connected with Aera’s jaws, dislocating it. However, he suffered more damage than she did. His knuckles cracked against the fire protecting her. It was as if he had punched through some kind of searing-hot malleable steel. Not only was his knuckles cracked, his hand was scalded.

“Last chance. Where is Aedan?” Aera asked as her jaws snapped back into place by themselves.

Uriver laughed but meekly. “Where else can he be other than the one place you have yet to reach?”

At the top of the hill, the obvious answer finally became clear to Aera.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Go save your friend.”

“No… not yet.” Aera shook her head. “I’m still not done with you. You will suffer for taking him.”

“Oh shite… You’re in love…”

Aera snarled and pounced.

Instead of evading, Uriver stood his ground and received Aera’s punch, which he successfully did so with his bare hand and without being thrown back.

Aera widened her eyes. It was incomprehensible. She had been dominating him in the fight but the tide turned so suddenly.

“You have underestimated me long enough.” Uriver grinned. “Your impudence ends here.”

Aera pulled her hand back but Uriver’s grip was strong.

Darkness began to leak from his stump. It was neither liquid nor gas. It was somewhere in between and this strange matter took the form of a limb but not of a human kind. “Be honoured, lassie. You’re the first one in a long while who is able to force me to draw out my demonic powers. Unfortunately, you won’t get to live to tell the tale of this honour.”

The intimidation fell on deaf ears as Aera slammed her head into Uriver’s. When he went stumbling, Aera pulled her hand back and rammed her shoulder into him. He tumbled to the ground. Before he could find his bearings, he was grabbed by the scruff of his neck and hurled down the hill.

The demonic arm shook and morphed into something grotesque but fitting for his predicament. It allowed him to hang on to the side of the hill and also swing himself back up. He landed in front of Aera. “I will make you pay for this humiliation.”

Aera paid his words no heed and lunged with both of her fists thrust forward.

Uriver blocked the thrust with his demonic arm. The air rippled and bones cracked. To his shock, it was his bones. “How?!”

Aera thrust her fists once more.

The demonic arm quivered and black blood burst from the ruptured veins. Uriver howled in pain and surprise. His demon augmentation was, somehow, bested by a greenhorn girl who only had divinity to her might. “This cannot be!”

Aera grabbed on tightly to the demonic arm.

“Damn you! Let go!”

Instead of letting go, Aera yanked it and she yanked it hard, tearing the demonic arm in half.

Uriver screeched in agony. A pain that he had never thought he would experience again in such a short amount of time. Hatred surged within him. His other arm was blackened, overtaken by the same dark essence. It turned into a gigantic claw clad in spikes. He swung the claw at Aera, screaming.

Aera took the full brunt of the claw’s ferocity. She could have dodged it but her state of mind did not allow her to do so. Her fiery armour lessened the blow but it proved to be more than she could withstand. Her feet left the ground, thrown across the walls of the cliff. She was quick to recover her bearings but Uriver was faster. He was upon her. His claw thrust towards her, twice as big as the one she tore apart.

The bleeding of the torn arm stopped. The wound sealed itself up and a new limb was quick to grow and take form. “Do you see this, foolish girl? This is the power of the divine and darkness moulded together. The divines may be a being of a higher existence but even they shared the same fears as mortals. The fear of the unknown. The fear of what meddling with darkness could yield. Behold!”

Aera wasn’t listening. She was simply flailing and struggling, pushing back against the claws that had her pinned.

“Your struggle is futile. I have so much more than you. I know a whole more than you. Your defeat is inevitable. Your death is certain the moment you decide to confront me. But don’t despair. I will make sure you are reunited with your lover.”

“You will not!” Aera bellowed. The flames raged with her. They grew and spread. They swallowed all that they touched and reduced everything into ashes.

Uriver yowled. The flames did not turn him into ashes but they were slowly charring him into cinders. Forced to let go of Aera, he leapt away to safety.

Aera charged at him. Her fist raised and her arm wound.

“Impossible! How am I losing to a greenhorn like you?!” He clutched his claws together. Much of the flesh had been melted off. Blood trickled incessantly from his burns. His wounds were healing but the heat was slowing the healing process.

Aera didn’t wait for his wounds to heal. Her fist was inches away from Uriver.

The Augur roared indignantly and further invoked the darkness. A dark tendril burst from his chest. It rammed into Aera and knocked her off her path. The tendril turned into a claw. It scooped Aera into its grasp and flung her down the hill. A moment to breathe, Uriver thought, but that was naive thinking.

The violet flames propelled her upwards and plopped her back on where she was flung off from.

“What a joke,” Auriver huffed. “Your abilities are even more absurd than a demon’s.”

The violet flames continued to burn and rage. Aera wasted no breath and charged at Uriver.

The chest tendril claw split into multiple tentacles and darted for Aera. However, they all wilted from the extreme heat the moment they neared Aera. Even the ground she stood on was being charred into cinders.

“Are you trying to burn this whole hill down?!”

Aera was past the point of words. She rushed at Uriver without any thoughts of anything else. All that stood in her path was burned to ashes.

Uriver invoked more of the darkness. A pair of wings sprouted from his back. And just as he was about to take flight, the wings disappeared and so did the claws. In the blink of an eye, he was back to being a human. He was back to being a helpless mortal.

Although it was sudden, Auriver knew what happened.

“Your Grace… why have you abandoned me…?” were his last words before a fist of violet flames reduced him into nothing but ashes.