I can almost see the connection between Azeroth and I, the white energy from Zero flowing thinly through the air between us. I realize what he meant, Azeroth was his champion. While her attention is turned to him, her expression of rage, I charge forward. I slide passed Blankk, drawing some power from him with a slight touch. I push off, using my full momentum to throw a hard punch towards her knee. Her arm suddenly heals, blocking my attack with barely any difficulty. While blocking my fist, she keeps her eyes on Azeroth.
"I couldn't help but hear you talking shit about weak people, but from where I'm standing, seems like you bleed like the rest of us."
She steps towards him, but Nevereth appears beside her and swings his sword. She stops the blade with her bare hand, a little blood coming to the surface. Azeroth swings the scythe towards her, and as she starts to block, I grab her wrist. She stares at the blade as it gets close to her face.
"Fine."
In an instant, she flips sideways, kicking Nevereth in the head. Her foot also pushes her scythe away while in mid flip. She finishes by dropping her heal on my head, then spinning incredibly fast and kicking me through almost the entire forest. I slowly roll to a stop near a ledge, underneath me I see clouds rolling. Panicked, I roll away from the ledge and start scrambling to get back to Nevereth and Azeroth. To my surprise, I see them still standing when I get back. Chunks of the ground are being kicked up as they fight, but I can make out Nevereth trying to reach Azeroth. It seems she doesn't notice, throwing Nevereth towards Azeroth. Nevereth slides passed him, both of them bleeding from small cuts and bruises all over them. I quickly get to them, trying to regroup before attacking again. Nevereth speaks up.
"I'm going to share my magic with you and give you the magical effects you had on earlier."
He says looking to us. He touches our shoulders, and I can feel the magic flowing through me once again. Azeroth stands up and smirks.
"You know, Dante, I think I remember you stealing my spotlight against Grim earlier. Let me show you what I had in mind."
His shadow extends in every direction, covering every tree and every last bit of ground for as far as we can see around us. Arms start extending from the shadows, millions of shadow soldiers raising up.
"Vex told me that he stored an entire army into his shadow with every cast of [Dread Legion]. All those years he was in those dungeons, he used this spell every day to constantly enlarge his army. Even though he isn't here, this was his parting gift to me. AND NOW I CAN USE HIS ACE."
In a flash the shadows leap onto her, but she easily kills them one by one. Each time she kills one, another takes its place. Even Nevereth seems in awe from the army that Ayvex has amassed during her time as Vex. He speaks, almost choked up.
"Even now, even dead, you're still helping me more than I could ever help you."
He quickly puts his hands together and summons two swords. I recognize both of them.
"These aren't much use to the dirt below, maybe you can make better use of them."
Nevereth says, handing me the long sword Hexcalibur, and the great sword Excalibur. I grab them, one in each hand, amazed by their lightness from the combination of gifts I have. I close my eyes, calling all the gifts forth. I channel Grim's flames into the blades. I use Xa'gorthep's precognition to predict her movements. I use Zero's strength to swing harder. I use Ayvex's speed boost and healing. And finally, I use Nevereth's magic to reapply the stat boosts. The system may no longer be around, but the strength increase still has visible use.
I push off the ground, the shadow covered trees across the entire forest shaking. I appear between her and several shadows, mid swing. She's clearly taken by surprise, but not negatively. She smiles, pleasantly surprised by my sudden increase in speed. I slash at her repeatedly, but she manages to deflect my swings while also still killing the shadows around her. I see it, how she'll most likely counter, and try to react before she actually swings. But no matter how hard or fast I swing, it seems she can keep up. I push myself further than ever before, my arms shattering and re-healing with every swing. Tears stream down my cheeks as I break almost every bone in my body with every motion. She laughs, still managing to overpower.
"Excellent! Amazing! To think you could grow so much in a single fight!"
Her focus is fully on me, but she doesn't seem to be struggling. Even while captivated by me, she still easily dispatches of the shadows. I scream, putting everything into my next attack. I swing both swords down as hard as I can. As she raises her scythe to block both swords, Nevereth appears beside me and grabs the blade of her weapon, pushing it to the ground. She still manages to block one of my swords with the handle of her scythe but can't get it free in time to block the other sword. So, she lets go of her scythe with her other hand and blocks it barehanded. My sword cuts deep into her palm, but not enough to make her hand useless. As she starts to laugh, Azeroth appears behind her with his scythe .
He does his move that he's used many times before, putting the scythe blade right in front of her neck and kicking her in the back of her neck as hard as he can. For a moment, I feel excited. I feel as though we can win, but my excitement fades almost instantly. Azeroth's scythe is pressed against her throat, but it isn't cutting. A brief silence causes dread to start setting in.
"Hmm, that was close. I got caught up in the fun, wasn't paying attention. Shame on me."
She mumbles, easily grabbing Azeroth's scythe barehanded. With a flex of her fingers, she snaps the blade. She then grabs the sword she blocked, Excalibur. Again, she snaps it with no difficulty. An explosion of blue rushes passed us as the blade is broken. She rubs her hand, which heals instantly.
"Shit, I thought I wasn't battle hungry, guess war permanently changed me."
We all step back, the shadows jumping forward towards her again. She takes a quick look around, then sighs and speaks up.
"I quit. You win."