In a moment, Leon and Terris exchanged dozens of blows.  Each time their weapons met each other’s, the clash created a deafening shockwave that caused even the misty veil and the clouds above to ripple.

Leon’s surprise in Terris’ weapon dulled as his mind focused on the task at hand: simply staying alive.  Terris was a skilled fighter with a nearly impenetrable defense.  Leon slashed and Terris blocked; Leon stabbed and Terris deflected; Leon conjured lightning and Terris dissipated it with a cloud of ice.  A few times, Leon managed to use his speed to get past the black ice mace, but Terris’ armor prevented any real damage from being inflicted upon him.

In fact, since Terris’ helmet was open-faced, Leon could clearly see how much fun the man was having, as the wide smile that graced his face the moment their duel started never once faltered, even when Iron Pride scraped against the scales of his armor.

“You fight well…” Terris praised as a blast of steam forced Leon back, “… for a beast.  Never have I seen an Ascended Beast fight like a man as proficiently as you are now…”

“Perhaps I am a man,” Leon countered as he raised Iron Pride and let loose with a flurry of lightning bolts.  Terris batted away the first with his black ice mace, and then a burst of ice crystals dissipated the rest.

“A good joke,” Terris responded as water dragons that dwarfed Maia’s usual constructs in size erupted from the fingers of an outstretched hand.  “It surprises me not that a beast wishes to pretend he is a man.  What comforts and glories can be found in the wilds after bearing witness to what mankind has wrought in the universe?  There is a reason why we rule the universe, and not the creatures of fell blood.”

Throughout his short monologue Leon bobbed and weaved amidst the water dragons, attempting to use their size against them, but to no avail; if one dragon blocked another, the first would simply plow through the second, and as both were made of water, neither lost cohesion.  With the strength of the Iron Needle in his blade, however, the lightning that Leon summoned as he dodged boiled the water, eventually causing the dragons to vaporize and join his storm clouds.

“There are countless figures within the Nexus who bear Inherited Bloodlines!” Leon indignantly responded.  “Including the Thunderbird Clan, who ruled the Storm Lands for hundreds of Nexus cycles!”

“And where are they now?!” Terris shouted back as he charged through what remained of his summoned water dragons, his black ice mace bearing down on Leon like a falling comet.  Leon met the mace with Iron Pride, and an explosion of ice and lightning threw him hundreds of feet back whereas Terris was hardly moved.  “They’re all dead!”

Terris charged again, but Leon didn’t meet him head-on this time, choosing instead to dodge the Ocean Despot’s swing and attempting to stab him in the exposed armpit, where the man’s scale armor ended.  Leon’s hopes to pierce the chainmail there were dashed, however, as a spear of black ice erupted from the mace’s pommel, allowing Terris to smoothly block Leon’s strike.

The black ice spear, however, cracked on contact with Iron Pride.  Leon saw the damaged ice for a split second before the ice dissipated, the mace now back in position to block any follow-ups on his part.

Perhaps it was due to this slight weakness in his weapon being revealed, perhaps it wasn’t; regardless, Terris launched a terrible onslaught upon Leon, which Leon could only barely dodge and block.  As he did, however, he bathed the area in his magic senses, watching Terris from every angle, learning how he moved and where any openings might be found.

The Despot moved smoothly and gracefully, flowing like a gentle river even though his every strike came with deadly purpose.  Few gaps were left in his style, and of those that Leon could see, he still had the Despot’s armor to contend with.

Still, he was strong and well-armed, and as Terris smoothly transitioned from one strike to the next, Leon finally made his move, striking out with all the speed of his chosen element, and slammed into the elbow of Terris’ off arm, aiming for a slight gap he thought he’d seen between bicep and elbow scale.

His blow struck true, slicing through the mail beneath the scales and biting deep into the gambeson.  Terris shouted more in irritation than pain, and summoned his shield to cover his arm.  The sudden appearance of the shield threw Leon back, leaving Iron Pride only slightly bloodied.  It seemed that his strike, though it made it past Terris’ armor and weapon, only inflicted a minor injury that the Despot would likely heal in seconds.

Terris bashed Leon with the shield, fiercely rattling him and hurling him through the air.

“Stubborn animal!” he roared as he flew in for another strike with the black ice mace, which Leon dodged.  “I gave you the chance to flee!”  Another strike, which Leon met with Iron Pride.  Another explosion of ice and lightning separated the combatants, though Terris seemed utterly unfazed.  “But you rejected the chance!  What bestial arrogance is this?  That would lead you to your own death, and the deaths of those misguided fools who follow you?!”

“This is our new home,” Leon shot back.  “If we give up our chosen home without resistance, then we will never be allowed to settle anywhere.  We’ll only ever be attacked and run off.”

“So instead of finding a new place where you would be welcome, you have chosen death.  Imbecile.”

Terris raised both mace and shield and advanced not fast enough to be an outright charge, but certainly fast enough to be aggressive.

Leon raised Iron Pride and summoned lightning from both the blade and the clouds.  Lightning streamed from the Adamant weapon like an endless beam, while booming thunder rained down upon Terris, shaking the air with every strike.

However, Terris took the hits—the stream of lightning spread across his shield and dissipated, while an outer shell of ice formed around his armor that did much the same for Leon’s lightning.  Seeing the result only served to enrage Leon, though, and he conjured his anti-water magic gem into his armor’s left gauntlet.

He extended his hand and activated the anti-magic weapon.

Terris initially looked apprehensive about Leon’s action, but after a moment, grinned arrogantly.  Then he shuddered in the sky where he’d been taking Leon’s lightning bolts with hardly a shiver; the ice shell around his armor cracked and several bolts from the clouds finally broke through, hurling Terris downward with lightning burns covering much of his armor.

Leon kept up the pressure, not wanting the stronger mage to recover.  With every pulse of Terris’ aura that he sensed, he activated the anti-magic gauntlet again, hoping to keep his defenses down, or at least weakened, for as long as possible.

For a moment, it seemed like he was making progress.  Then Terris roared in pain and anger and raised the black ice mace.  The spikes on the mace’s head shot out from the weapon and flew into the air, arranging themselves into an ancient rune.

Shield, Leon identified.

Dozens of bolts struck Terris in the second after this move, but none touched his flesh.  Instead, the rolling arcs of lightning slid off of him like water off a duck’s back.  Leon barely had time to realize this was happening before Terris was on him again, aggressively pushing against him with speed and power that Leon hadn’t yet seen.

Leon blocked one hit, but Terris kept the pressure on and struck him in the arm, cracking the bone even with Leon’s thick armor and padding.  Another exchange of a dozen blows followed until Terris landed another hit, this time to Leon’s midsection.  This time, as Leon was thrown back by Terris’ cataclysmic strength, black ice remained encrusted around his armor.  Leon could sense the pseudo-Adamant slowly weakening as ice forced its way through every microcrack and flaw that existed in the metal.

Not wanting his armor to break completely, a burst of lightning cleared the ice from his body, but that left him open to another hit from Terris, who shot in and slammed the mace down on his shoulder.

Leon had to bite his tongue to keep from shouting in pain even as he felt coldness seep in past his defenses, running down his right arm, chest, and back, and crawling up his neck.

[Change tactics!] the Thunderbird shouted from within his soul realm.  [Don’t let it reach your brain!  My power is a poor match!]

A vague thought drifted through his mind of how strange it was that the Thunderbird would admit that her power wasn’t enough, but with everything else flying through Leon’s head, he barely registered the thought.  Instead, he did as he was recommended, especially since it was becoming clear to him as well that the Thunderbird’s lightning wasn’t doing the work he needed it to.

Silver-blue lightning arced through his blood a few more times, then died down in favor of his darker, more dangerous power.  His body slowed slightly, but the cold from the black on his shoulder was banished almost instantly, replaced with the scorching heat of black fire.

Iron Pride, sparkling with silver-blue lightning in the moment before, suddenly erupted in the same black fire, and Terris, who’d been charging after Leon, suddenly halted in mid-air, his eyes wide with surprise, recognition, and terror.

Leon swung Iron Pride once, sending a wave of fire surging up to Terris.  A wave of his black ice mace and a sharp spike in his power saw a barrier of black ice materialize just in time to block the fire, but the barrier began to immediately melt.  Leon swung Iron Pride again as he stabilized himself in the air, throwing another wave of fire at his despotic foe.

Terris flew back into the air as the black fire, with a few licks of red deep within, chased him, forming a dragon’s head with a gaping, toothy maw.  But with another desperate swing of his black ice mace, a shower of black ice rained down into the black fire, causing it to dissipate in the air.

Leon shot up through the last few licks, his confidence surging as Terris retreated.  He rained several blows down on the Ocean Despot, the black ice mace now barely able to stand against Iron Pride, the blade now coated in the most destructive and violent flames in the universe.

“What… are you?!” Terris shouted in panic as he pulled his shield back into his soul realm in favor of using his off hand to conjure a hundred ice dragons to attack Leon from every angle.

Leon remained silent, fending off most of the dragons with more black fire.  However, he couldn’t block them all and keep the pressure on Terris, so trusting in his armor, he left his defenses imperfect.

Taking advantage, one ice dragon clamped down on his waist harder than Leon expected, its teeth darkening as Terris’ power flowed through the black ice mace and into his conjured beast.  Leon’s armor creaked, groaned, and then gave way.  Fangs of black ice sank through the pseudo-Adamant plate, penetrated Leon’s mail and gambeson, and bit into the flesh of his abdomen.

Pain ran through Leon’s mind, overtaking all other thoughts.  He screamed as the dragon carried him away from Terris, and his instincts took over.  His golden eyes darkened to a duller red-orange, and without thought, he rained blows down on the ice dragon as it dug deeper into his body.  Black fire, called forth by his subconscious, exploded from him in all directions, enveloping the ice dragon from without and pushing against its fangs from within.

Between the ice and the fire, the clash was initially indecisive, but after a moment, the ice gave way, and in a couple seconds, Leon was free, though with holes in both his armor and his stomach, holes that weren’t immediately healing as he expected them to.

He didn’t get much of a chance to contemplate this problem as Terris charged in, brandishing his black ice mace.

“A monster like you!” he shouted as he swung again and again, more ice dragons whipping in from where Terris had conjured them.  “Cannot!  Be allowed!  To exist!”

Fire burned all over Leon’s body, and he met the black ice mace with his burning sword every time.  Fire fended off the ice dragons, too, melting them as they sought to sink their fangs in again.

As their weapons met again and again, Terris kept shouting.  “For!  All!  Man!  Kind!”

Finally, their weapons crashed into each other once again, creating an explosion of black fire and ice crystals.  Iron Pride locked against the black ice mace, stuck between the haft and a long spike protruding from the head.

Instead of trying to dislodge his weapon, in Leon’s wrath and pain-addled mind, all he could think to do was attack.  He lunged forward, pushing against Terris with all the strength his injured body could muster.  His wounds tore with his exertion and his blood flowed freely through the holes and cracks in his armor, but the fire of his blade surged closer and closer to Terris’ terrified face.

“Monster!” the Despot screamed as black fire touched flesh, curling and licking in and around the lip of the open-faced helmet.  Terris screamed again, though this time his voice was agonized and his words incoherent.

This wasn’t enough for Leon, though, as his instincts demanded more.  Finally pulling Iron Pride free, he struck Terris, now slowed by agony, again, this time in the shoulder close to the Despot’s neck.  Dark blue scales shattered and turned to dust in the wind around them, the heat and cold of their weapons causing the wind to roar with greater ferocity than it had even in Leon’s conjured storm.  Terris’ blue eyes, wide with terror, turned bloodshot as fire scorched his face, and then a look of determination came over him.

The head of his black ice mace exploded, finally forcing him and Leon apart.  Leon’s wounds were jostled and further torn, and the pain finally started catching up with him.  Terris flew backward as fast as he seemed able, and Leon, bloody and exhausted, initially tried flying after him to finish the job, but his limbs failed him.  His arms felt sluggish and heavy, leaving him barely able to lift Iron Pride, while his mind grew hazier and hazier.

As Terris retreated, Leon’s attention shifted toward the mountains, where Anastasios, Eva, and his wives were watching with fear and concern.  Relying on instinct alone, he started flying in their direction as his arms fell to his side.  It was all he could to keep his fingers locked around his burning sword, and as he squeezed the handle, a tiny bolt of white lightning passed into his fingers, relieving some, but not all, of his pain.

He breathed deeply, sucking down air and pushing down his remaining pain.  He felt the tau pearl’s power enter his body and seek his wounds, but unlike how it usually went, his pain wasn’t immediately lessened.  Instead, his bleeding was barely stanched while the pain continued to burn.

Still, he kept flying toward his people, and with Terris continuing to retreat himself, it became clear to everyone that the duel was over.

This was further confirmed when Terris shouted for all to hear, “Kill them!  Kill them all!  Let none escape!”

The watching mages launched a hail of magic at Leon and his companions, while the watching arks opened up with their Lances.

Anastasios, Eva, and Leon’s family rushed to aid him.  A stone golem tore itself free from the mountains below and leaped into the sky to interpose itself between Leon’s group and the oncoming wave of deadly magic while Eva and Cassandra flew to Leon, their light magic already reaching his body.  He felt no better, however, and he practically collapsed into Valeria and Maia’s arms.

Anzu then shot out of the mist in his griffin form and swept in beneath Leon, taking his weight from his wives, freeing the two to cover their retreat back into the mist.  It was hardly so easy, however, and as they passed over the threshold, Leon, his awareness rapidly dulling, vaguely noticed blood pouring down Anastasios’ face and a shrill shriek of pain from Anzu.

This barely registered within him, anger momentarily flaring within his heart but finding no purchase.  Magic bled from his body as his soul realm instinctively closed itself off, and his fingers finally loosened around Iron Pride; the sword fell into the mist-shrouded mountains, and with it, Leon’s consciousness fled.

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