Kael sidestepped as one blade scraped sparks off his vambrace, but the second whistled toward his neck.
He ducked, twisting into a low sweep. Emberstorm’s edge hissed through air, clipping Darrox’s thigh guard.
Sparks erupted as the molten coating absorbed most damage, yet Darrox still grunted. He retaliated with a shoulder charge. Kael hopped back, flipping once, landing on a delivery truck’s hood.
Darrox raised both axes overhead. Runic tattoos along his forearms pulsed crimson as he used his [Seismic Sundering] skill—he slamd both blades into concrete. Shockwaves rippled outward, shredding the roadway and sending cars tumbling. Jagged spikes shot toward the truck.
Kael’s Sense kicked in. He jumped high, spinning while using his [Inferno Splitting Slash] skill.
Emberstorm flared as a half-moon of blazing scarlet shot downward, colliding with the onrushing spikes. Explosion! Super-heated fragnts rained.
Kael landed behind Darrox as smoke billowed. A flicker of surprise crossed the rc’s visor. "Your strength is ridiculous for a 1st-Echelon Rank."
"You look disappointed," Kael quipped.
Darrox exhaled, steam mingling with dust. Mana roared through his core as he activated his trump card.
As he used his [Vulcanic Overdrive] skill, scores of ember runes ignited around him. His Strength spiked, his Agility skyrocketed, heat shimring from his armor like a mirage. Pavent sizzled underfoot.
Kael’s lips curled. ’Good. I need to feel my ceiling.’
He answered by releasing limits on his own stats. Muscles tightened and a fire aura flickered up his arms and along Emberstorm’s fuller. His Mana and Magic surged, fueling the blade’s fla attribute to a white-gold heat.
They collided again.
Axe blades blurred, weaving twin spirals of fiery steel. Kael t them stroke for stroke.
Sparks blossod like miniature suns. Every exchange rattled storefront shutters and blasted shockwaves through empty offices.
Darrox spun, using centrifugal force to cleave vertically. Kael parried with his sword’s spine, but the force still cratered the ground beneath. He slid back half a step, bracing against jarring torque.
"Not enjoying that leisurely pace anymore?" Darrox jeered, axes whirling.
Kael exhaled, a thin smile on his lips. "Leisure’s over."
Kael slid his right foot back, point angled low—anopening stance that looked almost lazy compared with the molten brute in front of him.
Darrox answered with a roar, surging forward, magma splashing from the gaps in his plates. One axe flashed down in a brutal chop.
Kael snapped Emberstorm up with both hands, edge perfectly vertical.
Clang!
Sparks burst like fireworks, but Kael’s wrists barely trembled as he absorbed the force and twisted, slewing Darrox’s blade harmlessly aside.
Before the rcenary could reset, Kael lunged, tip darting for the right armpit joint. Darrox jerked away as the thrust scraped a scarlet groove across heated steel instead of biting flesh.
Even so, molten slag dribbled from the wound. Darrox retaliated with a sweeping backhand—an attack that would decapitate a lesser foe.
Kael bent his knees, torso folding at an impossible angle to let red-hot tal whistle a fingerbreadth above his hair. He sprang up again and carved a shallow crescent across Darrox’s thigh guard, carving off a plate the size of a dinner tray.
Darrox stumbled, boots skidding over liquefying asphalt. Rage flared as he smashed his axe haft into the ground, triggering a localized quake. Chunks of pavent burst upward like land mines.
Kael hop-stepped across the debris, every movent as fluid as running water. He darted in at a diagonal, blade whispering across Darrox’s gauntlet to peel back another layer of lava armor.
"Stand still!"
Darrox bellowed. His free hand punched out, fingers wreathed in magma. Kael slapped the wrist with the flat of his sword.
thwap!
Detouring the blow, then twisted his hips and sent a reverse-grip slash along Darrox’s forearm. Flesh sizzled as runic tattoos fizzled out like dying embers. The axe wavered as tendons half-severed.
Breathing harsh, Darrox staggered and braced the axe with both hands. He pumped mana—embers erupted, forging the weapon into a pole-cleaver twice its length.
He lunged, red blade arcing in a lethal full-moon swing ant to bisect everything in front of him. Kael pivoted clockwise, letting the giant edge skim less than an inch from his chest.
As it passed, he counter-cut—an upward diagonal that sliced through the halberd shaft three feet from the hilt. The severed head spun away, trailing molten droplets.
Wide-eyed disbelief flickered behind Darrox’s visor. Kael didn’t give him ti to regroup. He advanced, unleashing a six-beat flurry.
Each stroke targeted a joint or exposed ligant: left knee, right hip, inside elbow, shoulder seam, and finally the narrow chin guard.
Steel scread as armor shards flew in glowing arcs. Darrox reeled, every plate cracked and leaking scarlet blood mixed with cooling magma.
Desperation kicked in. Darrox slamd both fists together, gathering the last dregs of his mana.
A blazing sphere the size of a cartwheel ford between his palms skill [Core Detonation]. He ant to blow himself up along with Kael. Heat blasted outward, warping air, turning distant street signs to puddles.
Kael exhaled, centering his stance. White-gold aura coalesced along Emberstorm’s edge. He stepped in, ignoring blistering heat, and drove a precise thrust straight through the forming core.
The sword tip punched out Darrox’s back, releasing the unstable mana in a sideways vent rather than an explosion. Fiery energy fountained harmlessly into the sky like a misfired volcano.
Darrox coughed blood, eyes wide in shock. Kael ripped the blade free, reversed his grip, and raised it over one shoulder and used his [Inferno Splitting Slash] skill.
A fla crescent erupted, traveling scarcely a ter before contacting its target. The slash cleaved Darrox diagonally from collarbone to opposite hip.
The upper half of his body slid away, thudding onto the molten street, while the lower half collapsed in a hiss of steam.
System notifications chid in his mind, but Kael rely flicked Emberstorm to clean his sword.
The street hissed beneath cooling tal. He turned, eyes already scanning east where two cowering sources of life energy as the clowns had waited to be killed there.
Elias jogged over and asked. "All finished?"
Kael chuckled as he sheathed his sword with a soft tallic click. "He lasted longer than I thought."
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