Sparks flew through the air and illuminated the night as metal ground on metal. Teo and the unknown assassin were embroiled in a heated exchange of blows, which none of them seemed to dominate.
Owing to his small stature, Teo held the natural disadvantage strength-wise, but wielding the longer weapon and empowering himself with Magic, he somehow managed to counter the attacks with almost equal blows.
To his great relief, he did not have to defend himself from repeated assaults of Darkness Magic. In fact, his assailant seemed to be rather untrained in the magical arts even though he possessed some talent.
He only managed to perform a few miserly tricks, which Teo did not fall for. On the other hand, it posed a severe problem to Teo that his opponent could neutralize or dissipate many of his spells with his dark Magic.
He clearly knew how to defend himself and probably even had some experience fighting against other Magic-Users.
Teo tried to limit his mobility with a barrage of Magic Bolts, but he was too fast for him to keep up with. Only after switching to several weaker, but more annoying Mana Whips did he manage to hinder his enemy somewhat.
Slowly the cuts, burns, and abrasions accumulated on the man's body, his dark hood already in tatters, revealing his masked face underneath.
However, Teo took his fair share of beating too. His shirt had been torn to shreds, and many Magic empowered hits even managed to get through his barrier, covering his body in shallow cuts and lacerations.
Right now, he did not feel anything though. He just pounded his sword onto his attacker with all his might, releasing all of the pent up emotions in the process while screaming savagely.
They seemed to be equally matched and quickly exhausted one another.
Not only was Teo's stamina almost depleted, even the pool of Mana he could draw from had been nearly exhausted. Still, it could not look too different on the assassin's side, bringing both of them to their wit's end.
It was no easy task to drain Teo of his Mana since he could use his own, unusually large Mana pool, as well as the naturally occurring Mana flow of his surroundings. Yet
Since Teo also had to make up for their difference in physical strength with his Magic, he had burned himself out much faster than usual.
Teo had long overexerted his temporary strength caused by his outburst of emotions; he was simply tired now and did not feel much of anything else anymore.
His most significant advantage, however, lay in the presence of Goliath, who kept a watchful eye on all of his weak points and corrected minor deviations in his aim with his sword or spells.
The assassin was not as fortunate and soon found himself wound up with an enemy that he could neither take out quickly nor disengage safely.
Eventually, he made a slight blunder due to his exhausted state —assassins were not commonly known for their superior stamina as they tended to focus on short burst attacks and hit and run tactics.
Teo managed to catch him with several Mana tendrils and used the opportunity to chop savagely at the extended arm, which he could reach in time, almost cleaving it in two. He did not manage to sever it entirely, but it was still unlikely that the assassin could use it again anytime soon.
After the assassin distanced himself a few steps, he noticed a violent tornado of Mana circling around Teo and the vicious, bloodthirsty look in the boy's eyes.
'That's not a child. It's a demon!' the masked man thought and quickly decided to flee as fast as he could.
The boy seemed to have much of his reserves left in the tank, yet he had been running on fumes for a while now. He did want to honor the codex, but his life came first. He hurriedly dashed away, climbed an adjacent building with a few steps, and disappeared into the darkness of the night with one last jump, his badly mangled arm hanging limply at his side.
"Haaaa..." Teo let out the air he had squeezed into his lungs with a long sigh and stumbled forward weakly. Unable to grip his sword any longer, it clattered onto the ground noisily, and Teo almost followed it, only catching his balance in the last moment.
Luckily his bluff had worked. He was even more exhausted than the assassin and was only kept going by his trained willpower and his strong determination to survive.
He suffered from a splitting headache caused by the blatant overexertion of his Mana, and all the muscles in his body felt like tearing apart with every minor movement he made. And that was without taking his injuries into account.
Teo continued to catch his breath for a few seconds when he suddenly received a sense of incoming danger from Goliath.
Using the very last drops of Mana that he could squeeze out of himself, he formed a small barrier, barely the size of a shield, and turned around.
*Dang*
A thin stiletto collided with the barrier and was knocked away by the impact. When Teo saw the scrawny man in front of him who had shot Jack, his anger flared up again. Only this time, he had no fuel left to burn.
Before he could even react and move his sluggish body, Teo received a brutal kick against his kneecap, which gave way with a loud cracking noise.
"Ahhhhhh!" he screamed, the pain clouding his senses. He had not expected the sudden assault just when he had considered himself safe. Teo had almost forgotten about the man after knocking him out, something he deeply regretted now.
Without losing any unnecessary words, the man threw himself with outstretched arms at the boy who now lay helplessly on the ground. He was ready to strangle and squeeze the life out of this nuisance.
Teo could not think clearly at this moment, but Goliath was silently calculating their odds with mechanical calmness. In the blink of an eye, he had already materialized the enchanted dagger from inside his storage space right on top of Teo's palm, who instinctively grasped it with all his might as soon as he felt the familiar, ice-cold sensation of metal touching skin.
Without even looking, Teo stabbed the weapon towards the approaching man in a desperate attempt to defend himself.
Yet the expected pain and suffocation did not follow. Instead, it was a soft impact on his whole body and a warm shower of thick liquid that covered his face and chest completely.
When he opened his eyes, he saw the crazed and shocked expression in the man's eyes, a rapid stream of blood gushing from his neck where Teo's dagger was still deeply embedded.
He instantly let go of the weapon and tried to crawl out from under the collapsed man, trembling and crying the whole time.
It did not take long for the hysterical crying of a child to attract the attention of a nearby group of town guards that were investigating the area.