The arrows aim were true, threatening to give Cyrus many injuries he did not wish to sustain.
Forced to use the last of his leg Coils, he avoided the arrows once more. Yet he did not follow the expected path of retreat, however, and instead dove right towards his two opponents in front of him.
Allowing himself to be skewered right through the stomach by the two blades of his opponent, he released his sword and shot out both of his palms that were empowered by his arm Vita Coils.
They were rendered unconscious upon contact, their brains no doubt rattled by the sudden impact as they slumped to the floor with a thud.
Using his left arm once more as a makeshift shield, creating three new holes in said arm as another volley of arrows was blocked with his flesh, he made use of the time to reach into an inner pocket and throw the last of his knives at the archers above: A single one.
Just like the last time, the knife was deflected by an Aero spell which made his futile last-ditch effort fail miserably.
But any thoughts of victory on the part of Cyrus' enemies were quite literally blown away in the next second, as a large explosion went off right where the knife was deflected. If one had been listening carefully, they would have heard a bottle be smashed as the Aero spell violently deflected the knife.
The force of the explosion made even Cyrus' ears ring, who was far below it so the damage it did to the ones directly next to it was surely not small.
Displaying this fact clearly to all, three people, whose figures were concealed completely in a dark cloak and mask that covered the entire face and eyes, plummeted to the ground headfirst.
Three more activations of the Aero domain by the still unseen mage stopped the three just short of splattering the contents of their head across the ground, followed by two figures slowly floating down from the far end of the hall.
These two also had their faces hidden by a mask which covered their entire face, but unlike the others they still wore their uniforms. One tall and thin fellow was wearing a green robe that revealed him as the Aero spellcaster, while the other was a small and extremely rotund person wearing the bright yellow of the Vita domain.
"No wonder I could never detect these two. They had a Vita mage, who is apparently skilled in counter detection" analyzed Cyrus.
He made no move to do anything to the two new arrivals, instead deciding to pick up his sword and focus on stopping the bleeding as best as he could from all his various wounds.
The powerful sense he had spread out around his immediate vicinity picked up the activation of a spell right next to his ear. Acting on reaction he rolled diagonally out of the way, avoiding being rendered unconscious by the spell that created a small invisible explosion right where he was standing previously.
"I felt a pulling force as the spell was activated, he must be altering the air pressure manually then letting it readjust itself. The result, a violent implosion of air expanding rapidly."
Knowing this did not help Cyrus whatsoever, who was being forced to dodge the onslaught of easily predictable attacks, but time was not on his side.
His wounds worsened with each dodge he made. Having no time to heal himself, Cyrus struggled to come up with a plan all the while his other half threatened to make a sudden and deadly move on his two opponents.
Suddenly the attacks stopped, much to Cyrus' surprise, but soon he understood why.
The fallen five who had been knocked out before were suddenly lifted one by one, being picked up by the Aero mage and then retrieved by more conspirators that appeared from around the corner.
"Who are you?" asked Cyrus, hoping to probe for some kind of information.
His enemies were silent, not falling for such a simple trick. Instead they quickly recovered their fallen allies, before resuming to wear Cyrus down.
His wounds now just as bad as when he first sustained them, which caused Cyrus to struggle to retain his clarity. The blood loss was dimming his eyesight, slowing the orders he was giving to his limbs, and messing with his judgement.
"I have given you long enough, they die now" said the dark half from the world within, immediately causing the shadow behind Cyrus to began to tremble and twist…yet no shadow essence was manipulated to cause such an effect.
"Wait…!"cried the bright half within, "It is already over."
"What? Have you gone crazy?" retorted the dark Cyrus.
The bright Cyrus did not have to respond, for reality did so in his stead.
From behind charged Minerva, who had finished dealing with her own six enemies without even sustaining so much as a scratch.
As she ran past Cyrus to meet the final two enemies she said nothing but one word, anguish evident in her voice
"Fool."
Speeding past she ducked and weaved with godly footwork, only requiring a half turn of her foot to avoid all the Aero spells that were thrown at her.
The Vita mage responded by drawing their own weapon, a rapier that excelled in quick deadly thrusts. Such thrusts easily stopped Minerva in her tracks for a few thrusts, as the Vita mage would only attack halfheartedly every time Minerva was in the middle of side stepping the Aero spell. Alas, Minerva quickly adjusted.
Even with the combination attack of the two she still made progress eventually, deflecting the thrusts even with her footwork being disrupted. The experience of the rapier user shone through in a poor light, as they could not come up with any countermeasures and instead continued their futile attacks.
Minerva eventually pushed back the rapier user all the way back to their ally, who responded in turn by thrusting both of his hands forth and bringing them down slowly.
A vast pressure descended on Minerva at the same time, threatening to bring her to her knees and thus spell her doom. But quick witted she was, for she encased her legs in ice and connected them to the floor with several constructed ice supports which allowed her to withstand the pressure.
She then held her sabre with both hands, using her extreme training to resist the force descending upon her and continue to swat away the rapier that was clearly under no such pressure.
The fight reached a stalemate, where the winner would be determined by who had the higher will capacity.
Perhaps not liking to leave things to chance, the pair suddenly broke off and retreated down the hall. Quickly they disappeared and easily they did so as Minerva made no attempt to chase.
Instead she flicked the blood off her sword, from her own original enemies no doubt, and sheathed it while walking back towards Cyrus.
Looking down at him, who was now laying on his back surrounded in a pool of his own blood, she glared at him with various emotions painted all over her face.
"Do you wish to die so badly? That you show such mercy and kindness to those who are not showing any of it back?" demanded Minerva.
Cyrus, who had been entirely focused on healing his wounds, removed some of his attention to respond.
"My other half would say the very same, but what I did was not an act of suicide but instead one of realistic compassion. Although my situation looked dangerous and that I look like a total mess right now, everything was under control. This level of damage can be easily healed with just a little time and effort, and I knew that you would eventually emerge victorious so all I had to do was stall for time towards the end. Not only that, but while you are one I am two. If my plan had somehow failed, which I had utmost faith and trust that they would not, there was always a backup ready to go" explained Cyrus with some difficulty, ending his explanation with a few coughed up mouthfuls of blood.
Minerva was clearly not buying what Cyrus was selling, as her face only turned into a deeper scowl and her gaze intensified.
"To willingly wound yourself so is not compassion, but insanity… Whatever, we will talk more about this later. For now just focus on repairing yourself, there is no need to suffer more than you have to."
After saying such words she sat down next to Cyrus, with her sword across her lap and her senses tuned for any further possible threat.