Kallen watched the two Second Ascension ascendents battle, noting that Yula was gradually losing ground.
Although he could follow their movents with his Will, it was a little difficult to do so. However, that was only if he wasn’t focused entirely on them... It was a different matter when he concentrated.
At the start, it had seed like nelaus was struggling with his sudden power surge, barely able to control the flood of strength running through him. As a result, he had been steadily losing to Yula.
After all, a sudden burst of power was more of a curse than a blessing when one couldn’t adapt to it. Power without control was a liability.
But nelaus was adapting fast. It was like watching soone go from barely average Second Ascension ascendent to a diocre ascendent blessed with godlike power... and now, rapidly sharpening into an expert.
However, Kallen could tell that Yula was holding back. It was subtle, very subtle but to Kallen who lived and breathed combat, it was glaringly obvious.
He could tell she was stalling until Zephyrus arrived. It was the only plausible solution. He knew with her current strength, she couldn’t kill nelaus, so she was doing only enough to pressure nelaus, putting all his focus on her to protect him, at the sa ti reserving enough energy till Zephyrus arrived.
But what she didn’t realize... was that Zephyrus wouldn’t be coming anyti soon.
Kallen smirked faintly to himself. Zephyrus was too intelligent, and like many over-thinkers, that brilliance ca with a flaw, that even he himself, was not exempt from most of the tis.
And that was the fact that they over thought things through, causing them to take ti in making decisive decisions, or acting on them.
They would never rush into a situation without exhausting all the angles, every variable every outco. There was sothing else, and that was the fact that Zephyrus was greedy.
From the very beginning, he’d shown an obsessive interest in Kallen for a reason even Kallen himself didn’t understand with the situation now, that interest would only skyrocket.
He understood him well enough to know that the orc wouldn’t risk soone else getting their hands on his "treasure." That ant he’d take his ti, covering things up with people, and preparing contingencies, before ever stepping in. Just so he wouldn’t be followed.
After all Kallen wasn’t running anywhere... right?
In essence, Yula’s entire strategy was flawed from the beginning. Even in her movents, it was clear she wasn’t fully utilizing her Will.
With Kallen’s Will now at a third evolution... sothing utterly unheard of for an unawakened in Ares, he could read her second-evolution Will, and even suppress it sowhat.
And yet... he felt like he hadn’t fully glimpsed the depth of who she really was.
However, even knowing he had ti on his hands, he couldn’t afford to stand around and muse, ironically after he’d just called out Zephyrus for doing the sa.
If anyone could hear his thoughts right now, they’d probably choke to death laughing.
He was about to go against Second Ascension ascendents... monsters with attributes ranging from 300 to 500 , while highest stat danced in the high hundreds, but even that wasn’t combat applicable... At least not yet.
But none of that mattered.
’Status.’
[Existential Compendium]
[Na: Kallen Koa Luiz Crimson]
[Age: 9]
[Race: Aresian]
[Species: Aresian Mixed Blood (Human, Elf, Valgorian, Ethereal)]
[Roots: Crimson Family, Dominator’s Bloodline]
[Class: (-) Unascended]
[Level: 0 (Unawakened)]
[Will: Awakened — A Sapling of Defiance]
[Titles: Pathfinder, Slaving Smith, Defiant Worm]
[Traits: Regeneration, Illusion, Essence Plunder]
[Comprehension: (-)]
[Laws: (-)]
[Attributes:]
[Strength — 83 > 99]
[Speed — 80 > 99]
[Constitution — 98 > 130]
[Agility — 90 > 100]
[ntal — 180 > 290 (580)
[Dynamis — (-)]
[Dynisis — 300 > 900]
[Active Effects: {Pathfinder ???}]
[Bound Equipnt:]
[Pressure Suit (Physique-bound gear)
[Thieving Blades (Soul-bound CURSED Artifact)
[Skills:]
[(Passive): Blood Will
[(Active): (-)]
Skimming the display in a breath, Kallen exhaled slowly. His eyes hardened.
His Will blood, blanketing the entire forged. Using the Will technique he’d developed, this ti not to suppress, but to visualize the entire sorrounding. A full 360° spatial map was rendered directly into his mind.
From his seated position, he crouched low and waited, timing his next move.
He moved when like he had expected, Yula stepped in close for a combo.
Blitzing through the forge, he darted across the chamber, reached the far wall, and leapt, his feet tapping twice against the surface like he was running up it.
He grabbed the ordinary spear lined with cracks and affixed into a natural crack in the wall, then yanked it free with a flip, landing fluidly.
He moved without hesitation as a spike tore out of the ground beside him. He didn’t even need to look, like he had eyes everywhere... Which he did.
He accelerated forward, closing the gap between him and nelaus in a breath, spear angled and pushing his whole weight behind it, for a full-force thrust.
Instinctively, he coated the spear in his Will, creating yet another technique on the fly.
nelaus’s gaze twitched toward him, just as Yula’s bladed chain sliced toward his neck.
nelaus slipped backwards from the range of the blade end of the chain, arriving perfectly in Kallen’s attack trajectory.
It was as if he had perfectly just delivered himself up for the strike.
He used his Skill, his Will pulsing like a the breath of a god, attempting to alter the spear, just like he had with the hamr before. It was the sa force that had corroded dozens of Yula’s seemingly unending blades, laying on the floor.
But this ti, it t a resistance, that refused to budge.
nelaus’s pressure hit like a piston slamming down, and blood trickled down Kallen’s nose. However, his grip never loosened. His eyes were locked on one point: the grotesque socket in nelaus’s face.
He could hear Yula shouting behind him, panic in her voice, but Kallen didn’t waver.
Just before nelaus’s massive fist swept toward his ribs, Kallen slid, dodging by a hair’s breadth.
"Hand of the Forge!" Kallen roared out nelaus’ skill... the night where he had drugged nelaus into spilling all his secrets, flashing in his mind.
nelaus froze for just for a second.
Chi!
The spear plunged into his eye socket with a sickening sound, piercing deep into his brain.
nelaus twitched once, twice... then seized.
Kallen shoved the spear deeper, his hand trembling slightly under the weight as he drove the spear deeper and deeper.
Finally, nelaus’s entire weight slumped onto him and he let go, the orc falling head first to the floor.
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