Thalion surged forward, twisting mid-air to evade Kael’s counterattack while aiming a vicious downward slash at his opponent’s arm. The air around him shimmered with heat, igniting in flickering bursts. Vines erupted from Thalion’s body, lashing toward Kael’s head, heart, and left leg like serpentine whips. His speed now exceeded Kael’s, who was still reeling from both surprise and the dual mental strikes—one from Thalion’s armor, the other from his gaze.

Despite the sudden onslaught, Kael reacted with admirable clarity. His short sword and dagger vanished into thin air, replaced by a gleaming silver medallion that cracked the instant he gripped it. A radiant golden light enveloped his body, forming an ethereal armor that momentarily froze him in place. Thalion didn’t hesitate. He brought his blade down with a roar, activating Red Slash and pouring every ounce of power into it.

The golden light resisted fiercely. Thalion’s strike was deflected just enough to prevent a lethal blow, but not before it sheared off Kael’s ring and pinky fingers. The vines, unable to penetrate the holy aura, instead curled around Kael like a constrictor preparing to crush its prey—but Kael slipped through their grasp the moment the light vanished. In a blink, he disappeared into shadows and reappeared twenty meters away, likely using another teleportation skill.

That medallion had been Kael’s lifeline. Without it, he would’ve lost far more than two fingers—perhaps even his life. Thalion, however, wasn’t disappointed. Swiftly, he stored the severed finger—and more importantly, the spatial ring still attached to it—into his own spatial ring. Now it was time to finish this properly, before Kael could activate a true escape token if he still had one.

“What—” Kael stammered as Thalion materialized directly in front of him, having used Mistform to close the distance.

Playtime was over. Thalion went all in.

His sword danced in his hands, carving glowing red streaks through the air. Each slash exploded on impact, sending bursts of sand into the sky where they struck the ground. Kael dodged with unnatural agility, his body fueled by some kind of boosting skill. He was fast—irritatingly so—and his movements made it difficult for Thalion to land a killing blow.

Crimson Garden wasn’t effective here; it was too slow to catch someone like Kael. Thalion tried launching thorns, aiming to pin him down, but Kael wove between them with infuriating ease. His evasive instincts were sharper than expected. Even worse, whatever protections he carried were resisting the effects of Thalion’s mental attacks. Most foes crumbled beneath his gaze. Kael, though staggered for a moment, had quickly returned to full speed.

At least the Fear Aura from Thalion’s armor still worked. Kael didn’t dare attack, only dodge and retreat.

Then, Kael vanished again—swallowed by a rolling wave of black mist—and reappeared fifty meters away. This time, he retaliated with a devastating Windblade, slicing toward Thalion like a crescent moon of compressed air.

“He’s already infected with the poison. He won’t last much longer!” Kael shouted toward a figure charging across the dunes—Kai, his aura equal to Kael’s own, twin curved blades glowing in his hands.

“And don’t meet his gaze!” Kael barked. “He’s got the same eye skill as those vampires—but stronger. One of my best defensive talismans, which stopped a vampire easily, cracked instantly and it still got to me.”

Finally, Thalion thought, a grin forming beneath his mask. Now it begins.

With a subtle gesture, he signaled the other fighters on the skyships to stay back.

Sylas had joined the fray, hovering in the air with a gleaming green staff. A crystal at its tip pulsed and changed color depending on the element channeled through it—currently, it glowed electric blue. Bolts of lightning cracked from it, arcing toward Thalion, who evaded with a quick dash backward, avoiding both the spell and Kai’s first swing.

Kai was even faster than Kael. More disciplined in close combat, his footwork was sharp, his attacks relentless. Sylas remained airborne, charging another spell as he circled overhead.

Politically, things were turning in Thalion’s favor. Now the onlookers could see for themselves who the real deceivers were. He made sure to hammer that point home.

“Now see who the liars truly are!” Thalion’s voice boomed across the dunes, laced with mana that amplified its power.

As Kai charged again, Thalion activated Mana Wave, blasting him backward with a pulse of raw force to buy himself a second to speak. Kael had taken up a flanking position, charging another arrow, but Thalion skillfully kept Kai between them, preventing a clean shot.

Sylas’s magic was slower than Kael’s arrows, and at this distance, it was still manageable to dodge.

Kai pushed forward, unaffected in spirit, though Thalion noticed the subtle slowing of his pace. The Fear Aura was working. He probably had a talisman of his own, but even those only blunted the effect—they didn’t negate it entirely. Even vampires had shown hesitation under the armor’s presence.

Kael wasn’t far behind, sliding across the sand in a graceful movement skill that kept him mobile and dangerous. His eyes were locked on Thalion, looking for an opening to fire. Meanwhile, Sylas hovered at the far side, charging another wind spell.

As Thalion and Kai clashed again, the ring of steel echoed across the battlefield like a war drum. Each clash sent shockwaves through the sand. The dance of death had begun, and neither side could afford a single misstep.

The air around them shimmered with heat, distorting like a desert mirage as the battlefield trembled beneath the weight of clashing powers. Around Thalion, the very atmosphere ignited—flames rippling from his presence, searing the ground with flickering tongues of fire. These flames posed a serious problem for Kai, who lacked Thalion's immunity to the inferno. If Thalion pushed too hard with the heat, Kai might retreat—leaving Thalion vulnerable to Kael’s arrows or one of Sylas’s devastating spells.

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Kai was a formidable opponent, fast and relentless. His agility slightly outmatched Thalion’s, allowing him to stay in the fight, even as Thalion’s swordsmanship vastly outclassed his. Thalion had sparred with champions far beyond Kai’s caliber. He knew how to dismantle a faster, lighter fighter, especially one wielding dual blades. The trick was to maintain just enough distance. Too close, and Kai's twin swords could overwhelm. But at the right range, Thalion could parry, counter, and punish—turning speed into a liability.

Kai, aware of this, never committed fully. He darted around, kept attacking to force reactions, never allowing Thalion a clean strike. But the moment an opening presented itself, Thalion would pivot, reclaim space, and strike—a calculated swing that forced Kai into evasive maneuvers. Each missed Red Slash was aimed with purpose. If it didn’t hit Kai, it might still catch Kael or Sylas. Kael, true to form, used his gliding movement skill to preserve charged arrows, while Sylas either evaded or summoned a wind wall. The last clash they’d had, Red Slash had torn through Sylas’s spells like paper. Now, his wind barriers withstood them. He had grown stronger, no doubt. But Thalion was only just getting started.

His heart pounded, his blood surged, and his power reservoirs brimmed with energy. His regeneration was near-instantaneous. He could swing with full force again and again, with no concern for depletion.

"Down, Kai!" Kael’s voice sliced through the chaos.

In that instant, Thalion felt a massive threat surge toward him. Kai instinctively leapt aside. Thalion followed his gaze—and saw it. Kael had swapped arrows. This one wasn’t ordinary—it was an explosive-tipped projectile, rocketing toward Thalion’s chest with lethal precision.

Kael’s shout hadn’t been random. It was a code. A pre-practiced warning.

Ducking would’ve been suicide—the blast would drive a man into the earth like a nail. But Thalion had no intention of staying grounded. He launched upward, conjuring a mana barrier beneath his feet to propel himself skyward. As he soared, he fired a Bloodthorn at Sylas, who teleported a meter upward in frustration, then launched an Ice Shard spell at Thalion.

The arrow exploded.

The detonation struck beneath Thalion’s barrier and hurled him higher into the sky, scattering dust and flame below. Kael already had another arrow notched, tracking Thalion mid-air. Electricity sparked violently from Sylas’s staff—he was charging a high-tier lightning spell.

But Thalion had already shifted into Eagly.

Wings beat the air with terrifying power as he arced wide to the right, angling toward Sylas, who now hovered seventy meters above the battlefield. Thalion’s speed was impossible to anticipate. Crackling energy shimmered around his talons, now crystal-like, supercharged with raw elemental force.

"What the hell are those flames?!" Sylas shouted in frustration, conjuring protective wind shields around himself as he fired his lightning spell.

By now, Thalion’s flames had shifted—no longer red, but a fierce, crackling azure blue laced with electricity. He tore through Sylas’s lightning, absorbing the attack without losing momentum.

“Shit!” Sylas cursed, alarmed, just before his body dissolved into wind. He reappeared beside Kai—but not unharmed. Blood ran down his arm. His escape spell hadn’t fully triggered before Thalion’s empowered talons had torn through his wind shields and wind form.

Thalion had to suppress a grin.

He saw Sylas jolt nearly a meter from the electric surge transferred through the strike. With a deft twist, Thalion leaned to the left and fired a lightning beam—quickly charged with help from the crystal embedded in his chest—directly at Kael, who had just readied another explosive arrow. At this range, it was easier to land a hit with a beam than dodge a precision arrow.

Kael’s eyes widened at the blinding twenty-centimeter-wide stream of power. He vanished in a cloud of shadows before it struck, narrowly avoiding the blast. Damn slippery bastard, Thalion thought, turning his flight path to track Kael’s new location, adjusting mid-air for another strike.

Though he missed, the sheer force of the blast rattled the battlefield—and Kael’s composure.

“Do something!” Kai barked at Sylas, who now stood beside him, panting.

“And what, exactly?!” Sylas snapped. “I can’t use fire. Wind and lightning do nothing! Should i try to throw a rock at the bird!”

He wasn’t wrong. Thalion countered Sylas almost completely.

With two of his foes neutralized, Thalion fired another lightning beam at Kael. But Kael was prepared this time, unleashing a rapid barrage of explosive arrows. Thalion, unable to dodge the entire volley, shifted forms just before detonation.

In the blink of an eye, he became the Tidecaller Serpent, conjuring a coiling water shield around him. The explosions consumed the air in smoke and flame. Before the haze could clear, Thalion transitioned once more—now in human form, plummeting toward the ground with Mistform.

He landed with a thunderous Tectonic Slam, the ground exploding and heaving beneath him. Kael was thrown off his feet from the shockwave.

“What the hell is going on with his flames?” Sylas’s voice echoed from the dunes. “They were translucent blue, and now they’re crimson again!”

Thalion didn’t answer. He only smiled—a wide, inhuman grin that revealed twin rows of razor-sharp teeth as his body shifted again, morphing into the form of a Crippled Eclipsari. Power rolled off him in waves as he dashed toward Kai, who still stumbled from the seismic impact.

Now, Thalion was faster. Much faster. It was as if he teleported.

All around him, the flames turned pitch-black. Shadows danced violently in the air. The light itself seemed to bend away from him, distorting the world in a sphere of creeping darkness.