Aries turned toward him, unblinking. “Oh? A monster, you say? In my eyes, you Ascendants… always clawing, killing, stealing… you’re the monsters.” The air thickened. The marble floor cracked beneath Aries’ hooves as the room pulsed with pressure. Something primal screamed through the silence. Then—he vanished. No flash. No sound. Just motionless air left behind.

Vaylan dropped low, instinct, but the horned blur was already behind him. A clawed hand came down like an axe.

CLANG!

Vaylan’s sword caught the strike, but the force sent him flying. He hit the ground hard and skidded across fractured marble, boots grinding against stone. Zara darted forward, daggers gleaming in her reverse grip. Aries twisted, roaring, and slashed with a sweeping kick. She ducked low, slashing for his knees, but he leapt, his hooves crashing down where she’d just been. She flipped backward, landing hard but steady, blood trickling down her cheek.

Vaylan pushed to his feet, swinging his blade out.

[Fire Ball]

A molten sphere formed in his hand and launched toward Aries, illuminating the cracked chamber in a sudden blaze. Aries ducked under it with casual grace, letting it crash into a distant pillar, but that was only cover. Zara was already behind him. Her daggers sliced in a crossing arc. Aries twisted impossibly fast, catching one blade in his claw. The other scored a shallow cut across his bicep. He growled and hurled her away, but she twisted midair, landing in a blur, using a move that resembled [Fleet Foot]. Her stance shifted. She was learning from him. Mirroring his timing. Enhancing it with the silat principles: misdirection, momentum, and flow. She struck again. Reverse grip to the ribs. Step-slide. Spin to the left. Low sweep. Shoulder feint. Double slash. The more she moved, the more it clicked. Her breath steadied. Vision sharpened. Everything finally snapped into place. Her instincts sharpened to a razor point. Everything she had learned, all combined into the birth of a single skill. She wasn’t thinking. She was moving.

[Thief’s Twin Daggers]

With a flash of light, her blades shimmered, trails of energy arcing behind each movement. She crossed them into an X-shaped slash and carved deep into Aries’ chest. Blood sprayed. Aries staggered, genuinely wounded.

Vaylan dashed in, taking advantage of the opening. He struck without finesse, slashing high, spinning, swinging again.

[Fire Ball]

He cast point-blank. Aries raised a forearm and batted it aside, but it detonated, fire enveloping half his form. Smoke curled off his skin. He roared, lashing out blindly. Pierre was next, finally charging in. He didn’t use skills. Just raw reach and precision. His spear stabbed forward in rapid succession: thrusts, sweeps, counter-jabs. He pushed Aries back, cornering him between stone debris and Vaylan’s burning trail. Vaylan slashed again. Zara cut low. Pierre jabbed at the gut.

Aries stumbled—then snapped. With a roar, he stomped the ground. The shockwave shattered the floor, sending the trio flying. Chunks of marble erupted like an explosion. Zara flipped and landed on her feet with a wince. Pierre rolled to absorb impact. Vaylan slammed into a wall, coughed, and stood again. Too slow. Aries was already upon him, one claw extended, his palm glowing, forming an orb of dense energy. The golden sphere shimmered like a compressed sun. It grew larger with every heartbeat. Vaylan’s legs locked up. Not enough time to dodge.

But just as Aries prepared to release it—Zara appeared behind him in a blink. Her blade slashed across his back. The orb fizzled, energy scattering. Aries grunted and spun, enraged. Zara grinned through bloodied teeth. “You’re open.” He kicked, but she vanished again, using [Fleet Foot] to reappear beside Pierre.

Vaylan grit his teeth, raising his palm.

[Fire Ball]

This one connected. A direct hit. Flames exploded over Aries’ chest, searing hair and burning skin. When the fire cleared, he was hunched, breathing hard, blood running down his torso. He looked… damaged. Beat up. Not invincible.

Pierre narrowed his eyes. “This ends now.” He took a slow breath and reached into his satchel. From it, he drew a blue crystal. He pressed it into the base of his spear. The shaft trembled. A glow pulsed down the blade.

Vaylan’s eyes widened. “Ibar…”

Pierre nodded once. He crouched, aimed—and hurled the spear with all his might. It tore through the air like thunder. Blindingly fast. Even Aries’ glowing eyes widened, his body too damaged to react in time.

But at the last second—Aries caught it. Two clawed hands slammed onto the shaft mid-flight. The marble beneath him cracked with the impact. His knees bent. His arms shook. But he didn’t fall. Didn’t scream. Didn’t bleed. He straightened. Grinned. And said nothing. The room was silent. The tip of the Ibar-empowered spear hovered an inch from his throat, held aloft by sheer force.

Pierre exhaled. His hand opened. The spear, still gripped tightly in Aries’s clawed hand, shimmered, and then, like a ghost slipping through the veil, it vanished from Aries’s grasp and reappeared in Pierre’s own.

[Anthibar]

The return echoed with a metallic sound, as if the spear was angry at being held by anyone else. Pierre spun the weapon, feeling its familiar ability. He stepped back, his eyes moving toward Vaylan. “I can only throw one more before I’m out. This has to count. I need you and Zara to give me a clean shot. I don’t care how—just make it happen.”

Vaylan, panting, nodded grimly. Zara didn’t even respond; she just vanished. Vaylan darted in next. Aries’s smile faded. His wounds still bled. His breath was heavier than before. He raised a hand, and the temperature seemed to drop. He didn’t plan to take hits anymore. This time, he moved. And then he disappeared. No sound. No signal. Only wind, bursting in all directions. The only sign of his presence was a blur, a ripple, followed by a shriek of sparks as claws met steel.

CLANG!

Vaylan blocked, barely. Zara swept in from the side, but Aries was no longer there. He reappeared behind her. She ducked low, his claws missing her neck by centimeters. She struck back with a dagger—but it hit nothing. The air where Aries had been twisted like heat rising off stone. He had moved again. And then came the barrage. A storm of motion. Aries moved with impossible speed. For every strike Zara or Vaylan made, three returned. Cuts opened along Vaylan’s shoulders. Zara’s arm bled. They couldn’t even cry out. There wasn’t time. Only survive. React. Counter—maybe.

From Lato’s position, standing frozen near the wall, the fight was no longer human. The room had become a blur of light and steel. Only flashes, like sparks from flint, marked the moments of impact. A glint of red eyes here. A shimmer of silver steel there. Trails of fire from Vaylan. Zigzags of blurred blue and red from Vaylan and Aries. An occasional hint of silver from Zara’s daggers. The three of them, Aries, Vaylan and Zara, were the fastest they had ever been. It was like lightning trapped in a cage.

Pierre remained still. But his eyes never blinked. His pupils tracked every movement, constantly calculating, analyzing, predicting. His legs trembled, not from fear, but from the strain of holding back. His hands clenched the spear. Mana gathered. Slowly. Methodically.

In the midst of that chaos, Zara struck. A perfect arc. The glow of [Thief’s Twin Daggers] blazed behind her as her blades closed in on Aries’s side. He twisted, dodged the first, parried the second, and left her open for a brutal spinning kick to the chest. She flew backward, crashing through a support pillar and tumbling over shattered marble.

Vaylan closed the gap again.

[Fire Ball]

He cast it while running, leaping past the explosion it caused. His blade slashed down. Aries caught it barehanded, then retaliated with an elbow to the jaw that sent Vaylan reeling. But Vaylan gritted his teeth and used [Fleet Foot], moving forward, then pivoting behind Aries. He slashed again. Missed. Cut the air. Then again. And again. Too slow. Aries danced around him.

[The Ram’s Wrath]

His body shimmered golden. His veins pulsed. And then the real blitz began. Now he moved faster. Almost double his previous speed. Vaylan’s sword felt like it was dragging through water. Zara, returning to the fray, tried to flank, but she too was slower now. Her vision couldn’t keep up. Her instincts couldn’t fire fast enough. Each step Aries took left cracks in the marble. Each motion whipped the air into small shockwaves. Vaylan’s eyes could barely follow. Only Pierre could still track it all, waiting for a pattern, a path, a thread of fate.

And then—it happened. A flicker in Aries’s footwork. A faint pull in mana trajectory. Pierre’s heart stopped. He could see it. Vaylan could feel it too. His eyes locked onto the same path Pierre had just foreseen. A line Aries was about to sprint across. A straight, perfect line.

Vaylan’s lips opened, his throat raw from breathing too hard, but he forced the words out: “NOW!”

Pierre didn’t hesitate. He hurled the spear. All the mana he’d gathered. All the strength. All the pressure. The spear didn’t fly—it ripped through space. The air split like a curtain, howling in its wake.

[Ibar]

Time seemed to freeze. Even Aries noticed it late. His eyes widened mid-motion. He was committed, caught in movement. Vaylan saw it. Zara saw it. Even Lato clenched his fists, hope burning in his eyes. The spear was going to land. It was going to end him.

But then—Aries twisted. Midair. His spine bent at an unnatural angle, his body contorting like liquid. He brought up his legs and kicked the spear. It changed course in an instant. The force of the deflection hurled the spear upward. It collided with the ceiling.

BOOOOOOOM!

Marble exploded. Half the upper dome collapsed in a cascade of rubble and dust. Debris slammed into the floor. Columns crumbled. Smoke enveloped the battlefield. The shockwave knocked Zara to one knee. Pierre fell, his mana spent, his lips pale, hands shaking. Zara looked up, vision swimming. She tried to move, her legs didn’t respond. She had nothing left. Her daggers clattered to the floor. “Shit…” she gasped.

Vaylan collapsed onto one knee, his sword trembling in his grip. His chest heaved. Each breath cut like glass. His mana was almost gone. The heat in his blood had turned to ash. The storm had passed. But the monster still stood. Through the dust, Aries stepped forward. Smiling. Always smiling. He blurred—once—twice—and reappeared in front of Vaylan. His claw drew back, ready to sever Vaylan’s head from his body.

He gritted his teeth and shouted. “WAIT—!”

The claw froze inches from his neck. Aries stood still. Breathing. Listening. But the killing blow didn’t land.

"Wait?" Aries repeated. His head tilted, as if he hadn’t heard it right. "Did you seriously just say wait?" he said again, louder this time, his voice laced with disbelief.