The Warrior's anger was too strong to be alleviated from a single strike that didn't even kill his opponent. Although the wind pressure alone created by his powerful strike was enough to kill most opponents, he felt it. The slight shift in pressure against his fist was proof that Fen could see and react to his attack enough to throw himself backwards to reduce the power of his blow. Even if he didn't want to belief it, he wasn't powerful enough to instantly kill the person who left Kara in such as state.
While he let his mind wonder, Hondo rushed over to Kara's limp body while Fen was still recovering from his attack.
"Kara? Kara, I'm here. I'm right here..." By injecting some of his Aura into her body Hondo could check her condition, but what he felt only enlarged his rage. It was a miracle she was still alive; most of the blood around the area was hers. There almost wasn't any blood coming from her wounds, which was terrible considering that she lost an entire limb to that monster. Her her chest barely moved when she rasped through every breath, making a deathly quiet noise. "Don't worry, you're gonna be okay, so just stay with me."
The force was very faint, but he could feel her squeeze his hand- Heaven's knows how she had the strength to even do that much. He gently squeezed back, holding back the emotions straining his throat.
He said, "Just take these, absorb the Vitality inside them. I'll be right back, okay?"
Rushing his words, Hondo quickly pulled out some Vital energy crystals from the pack he carried. The items acted like a sort-of battery for Knights, the higher the crystal's quality, the more Vital energy it carried within. Some of the higher-quality ones were rechargeable and carried massive amounts of Vitality. Though the crystals carried living energy, they weren't considered 'alive' because of the special process used to create them.
Higher-Staged Knights created these items by compressing their Vital energy into a solid form. After undergoing a special process meant to make the Vitality within the crystals accessible to everyone rather than the individual Knight who created them from their special energy, the Vital crystals would be completed.
Hondo didn't carry many of them because the two of them had faith in their own abilities but when they got out of this he swore to himself himself that he'd always carry a supply with him for the rest of their lives.
She gently let go of his hand and grasped onto the crystals, the Vital energy within them reacting to her touch as they dimly glowed. Her blue eyes raised and silently pleaded with him with a message only he could understand.
'Don't go.' But Hondo had no other choice but to refuse her silent pleading.
After making sure that Kara was slowly absorbing the Vitality held within the crystals, he had to go. His enhanced senses were telling him that Fen had already recovered from his attack. He needed to give Kara enough time to recover enough of her injuries so that she wouldn't die while he dealt with the bastard who left her like this.
"Argh..." Meanwhile, the bastard in question clutched at his head from the vibrations rattling his brain; the Warrior's attack rang through his entire body but his Thunderbird helmet finally showed it's usefulness as electrical currents forcible shocked him awake. Parts of the helmet were cracked and other parts of the bone had broken off completely, but as long as it offered some protection it was still worth wearing it.
Fen couldn't care less about why Hondo gave him this small chance to recover. His abrasive tendencies were strengthened after entering the Program and were especially sharp towards people he didn't know or want to know like Hondo and Kara. He didn't even know their names; the only relevant information he cared about was how he was going to kill them inside this Task before they killed him- Er, rather, how the Warrior was going to try and kill him now that the Knight couldn't move anymore.
After getting to his feet he empowered his Vital Skin to the very limit to act as an early-warning for when that overpowered Warrior started approaching him. The Warrior was fast enough to blow through Fen's reaction speed but at this distance there was bound to be enough distance between them for him to react in time.
While he got up he reached to his side and got out patches of white metal from the bag he carried, which had miraculously survived the crash through several trees and was still with him.
[Semi-Living Metal {Class three Variant} ]
[Properties: Created from the scraps of destroyed Class three weapons and equipment, these metal patches, when applied to most Class three equipment and tools, will morph and 'heal' the equipment back to a usable state. This item is good for repairing armor by adding mass and form back to the equipment but it will not return the edge to weapons like swords or axes. To achieve a true repair, see a blacksmith or magical engineer to return your equipment back to it's peak state.]
These patches had cost Fen quite a lot of points and he didn't have any opportunity to test them out given the special circumstances required to use them, so he could only hope for the best when he put them near the holes in his armor.
The strange white material wiggled around for a moment before suddenly shivering, and dissolving into a silvery liquid that patched the hole it was placed near. Although it didn't keep the fancy design of his amour, it got the job done and patched the holes with metal. Ultimately, it didn't matter if it looked pretty or not as long as it gave some resistance to his opponent's attacks.
Fen hurried and applied the rest of the Semi-Living Metal to the rest of his damaged equipment. Thankfully, he didn't need to apply any to his Iberian short sword; he didn't know if it was because of it's superior design or because of the force he put behind his attacks but the weapon didn't suffer as much damage as his other equipment. The edges were just a little blunter, but it was still sharp enough to cut through flesh no matter how toughened.
His efforts finished just in time; Fen sensed a massive shift in the air just ahead of him.
There was more distance between them this time, but Fen could still only see a blur of red energy resembling a person as Hondo explosively leaped towards him, creating deep rifts in the earth every time he took a step.
"Uooooh!" The Warrior roared, raising his axe above his head in an overhead swing.
But Fen was experienced enough to recognize his movements. He knew that he had to push his foot into the ground to convert the kinetic force he generated from running over here into the weapon above his head, and he was ready to take advantage of that one moment in time where the Warrior had to slow down.
Sweeping his body low to the ground Fen stabbed the dirt underneath his feet, increasing the strength he used in his hand. As soon as his sword made contact with the ground he commanded the Vitality within his body to leave and form the Vital constructs that he was most familiar with using; the Vital Spears.
Fen wasn't afraid of pain, and he knew that he could survive another one of this stupidly powerful Warrior's attacks; he'd done it before when his attack was supercharged with Aura, and he could do it again. The only thing it would cost him was the Vitality he used to regenerate his battered body, but he could always just recharge his pool of energy using the ambient energy in the environment around him anyways.
The real reason why he kept his body low to the ground was to increase the amount of time Hondo's axe would need to strike his body. It was impossible for him to dodge an attack from an opponent that outranked him not only in Stage but also in training; Fen should feel grateful that he could even react to his strikes when most ordinary people would die before even realizing what happened to them.
While Hondo's axe just started it's descent downwards towards Fen's lowered body, his Vital Spears finished manifesting. Seven green-glowing 1.5 meter long spears packed full of his Vitality, all pointed directly at the Warrior. He could manifest a lot more of these Vital energy constructs, but through some testing he learned that seven was his limit of control. Any more and his efficiency with controlling them all at the same time would drop significantly.
Realizing what the Opfer in front of him was trying to do, Hondo snarled with derision. 'If he thinks that something as weak as this will kill me, he's delusional.'
But unfortunately for Hondo, Fen was a lot of things but stupid was not one of them. He knew the limits of his power more than anyone and he was confident in what he was about to do.
So, while he was crouched low to the floor Fen expended a sliver of Vitality to use the first technique he ever created with Vital energy; the Vital Dash. But he didn't use it on his legs this time; by focusing his energy on a single part of his body Fen discovered that he could temporarily push his physical body past it's limit at the cost of blowing that body part apart from the overflowing energy. Right now, he was using this technique on his arm with the sole purpose of grabbing onto Hondo's exposed leg in front of him.
The Vital 'Hyper Dash'.
His arm snapped in front of him so fast that it only appeared as a blur of movement even to Hondo's Aura-enhanced senses.
Even while his Vital Spears started violently spinning in the air, Fen's finger connected with Hondo's calf and sent a sliver of magical energy into him, using his Vitality as a bridge between the two of them.
Death's Influence, one of the first complex spellworks Fen had ever learned and mastered. Before, he struggled to keep this spellwork powered while fighting at the same time but now that he had the support of the Vital core, controlling his Vital energy was easier than breathing to him, leaving his brain available to control his magic spellworks.
He didn't use this fighting tactic of using magic against Kara because he didn't see the need to. Fen had to save up as much energy as he could for his fight against the Warrior because he knew just how powerful Stage three beings were and he wasn't at a point where he could waste even a few drops of his energy more than he needed to.
Ever since Fen discovered that he would be fighting a Stage three Warrior, he knew that he'd have to prepare more than just a few strategies for killing him. In the short time that it took him and his Executioner escort to reach the Task room, Fen came up with a couple plans that he could use whenever his 'improvisations' put him in certain situations.
One of these scenarios was if the Warrior put themselves extremely close to him for a long enough period of time.
The instant that the magic spellwork connected and infected his leg Fen immediately leaped away from him using multiple Vital Dashes while his arm exploded into a gory mess of blood and flesh. His armor could protect him from external forces like Hondo's attack pretty well, but it's design had a limited effect against internal forces like Fen's forced Vital Hyper Dash.
After the rampaging Vital energy finished the job, there wasn't much 'left' of his left arm (ha, a pun) except for a few shards of broken bone and some barely connected tendons and muscle tissue. But Fen smiled even while his arm was sizzling with pain because he thought he could win.
Warriors had some of the best physical bodies in the universe when it came to resisting external energy, but the Death's Influence spellwork wasn't some ordinary piece of magic even before he manipulated it's form and improved on it with his growing magical skills.
If before the magic was like a slow cold, then now it was more akin to an artificially designed super-virus that infected everything that came in contact with it. The magic no longer affected just the target's nervous system and now made every living thing it touched start to rot. The only downside to this powerful magic was that it required every ounce of Mana inside Fen to activate, and would drain that energy like a battery to sustain the infectious rot that was currently killing the cells inside Hondo's leg.
"What the fuck did you- urgh, what is this magic?!" Hondo howled with pain as he could feel his leg start to rot even as his Aura fought back against the magic. 'What kind of Knight are you? Fight me with honor, you bastard!"
'If that's what you want, then I'll happily oblige.' Fen needed just a thought to send the seven spinning Vital Spears drilling towards him, ripping at the air like a rampaging beast. A ghastly howl erupted from each of them as the power imbued into them crashed against the Warrior clad in golden armor and drilled into the metal.
Fen roared and drove his legs into the ground, pushing off and shooting towards Hondo with his short sword pointed ahead of him. Even without an arm, his combat power wasn't too badly affected; all he needed to do enhance his strength with even more Vitality.
His cells crackled with energy as the two of them collided, red and green energy fighting for dominance against one another with neither side willing to yield.
Hondo fought with his life on the line for the first time in a long time, his forgotten instincts started to reawaken under Fen's onslaught of vicious strikes and piercing stabs. The Warrior depended solely on his body's natural resistance to protect him after his armor turned into scraps from the seven Vital Spears which continued to pierce through every perceived weakness that Fen himself couldn't get to but even with his bare body he was practically invincible against weaker opponents. To compare, the natural toughness of his body should be around the lower Class four material range. Normal weapons made from Class three materials wouldn't even be able to scratch him.
But Fen's weapons were anything but ordinary after he injected some of his Vitality into them. One handed blows cut flesh off of his opponent every time he managed to land a blow, and two of his Vital Spears were stuck into his body to restrict his movements.
'Maintain just enough Vitality around you to control the Spears, and use the rest of it to enhance your muscles and weapons. Take the attacks you can, and block or dodge the ones you can't. Take full advantage of his tiring body; Warriors rely completely on their own strength to fight and are weaker than Knights in terms of stamina.' Fen inwardly mumbled, his mind's eye slowing down every one of his actions and making mental notes on what he could improve on. 'The rot in his leg is slowing down, but I can see his regeneration speed slowing down at the same time. Even if his leg doesn't fester anymore, he won't be able to heal from a wound like that immediately. There's enough time, just about enough...'
The two of them were exhausting themselves very quickly. Blows rained down like lightning from both of them, and both of their movements showed changes throughout the fight.
If Hondo's every move was calm and rational throughout the fight even though his mind was filled with rage, then Fen's were all vicious and filled with violent intent despite his calm mind. But as the two of them continued to fight, they learned from each other's actions and emulated them, improving themselves unconsciously from their will to kill the other.
Fen's attacks still carried an edge of viciousness but now they were relaxed and didn't waste any more energy than necessary. On the other hand, Hondo's attacks were speeding up and drew much more blood from his opponent.
'I just need to... Endure!' Fen gasped as he narrowly blocked another axe strike with his already destroyed arm, shivering as his bones vibrated from the shock.
The brief moment of shock was all Hondo needed to throw his uninjured leg forward and kick Fen away into a nearby tree.
"Argh, I'll admit it... He's definitely more powerful than any other Stage two Knight I've gone against. But that's it. He won't be able to grow anymore; I'll kill him right here.' Hondo groaned and took the small moment of reprieve to recover his body by circulating his much smaller pool of Aura within himself. The muscle tissues in his leg grew back to a small degree and some of the blood dripping from his body got sucked back in and used to reconstruct his body. 'I felt it. He's out of energy.'
His observation was correct. The difference between Stage two and Stage three was much larger than just a stronger physique. Hondo's pool of energy completely overwhelmed Fen's making their earlier skirmish nothing more than a show.
Fen was just naïve enough to believe that he could overcome the difference in energy.
Without the Vitality to maintain it's form, the seven Vital Spears dissolved into nothingness while Fen looked up at his opponent with hate. The Opfer hoped for nothing else but the power to kill Hondo before he could recover completely but even though his body had the will to move, he lacked the strength. His body was done.
'Fuck! I didn't do all this just to die because of fucking stamina! MOVE!' Fen's body shivered and his hand moved an inch up only to collapse into the destroyed grass just a moment later. But there was something right next to his hand that gave him hope.
'Fine. I'll do as you say, Dey. If I have to become a monster just to survive, then that's exactly what I'm going to do.'
Hondo's head snapped towards his fallen opponent at the sound of ripping flesh. The Warrior's face drained of all blood and his pupils became the size of needles at the sight of his opponent digging his hands into Kara's body, uncaring about the viscera and blood that spurted onto him. Hondo had seen something similar after watching the hyenas back on Earth digging into the prey they caught but seeing such a scene recreated by humans triggered his rage and disgust into a whole new level.
"STOP!" Hondo roared, but his Aura-infused body was too late.
Fen stopped his digging after finding the green glowing object that he was looking for, needing but a moment to firmly clasp his hand onto it.
Klara's body was fully recovered from using the Vitality crystals Hondo gave to her; she regenerated her cut off arm and her body restored itself from before she was battered into pieces. After she completed her recovery, her mind slipped into gentle unconsciousness and wasn't even stirred from Fen's savage digging, leaving the Vitality crystals in her hand
But Fen wasn't interested in the Vitality crystals, his body needed something more powerful. His Vitul senses were activated to the fullest for the second time and were triggered by the massive pool of Vitality hidden deep within Kara's body. His digging through bone and internal organs were just enough to reveal her Vital core to the air.
With a gleeful roar, Fen ripped the Vital core from his fallen opponent's body and crushed it into shards with his hand, letting the foreign Vital energy explode outwards and into his body which devoured the energy like a greedy abyss.