KATHERINE HEARTH'S POV:
My body refused to move, Mike's death replaying over and over again in my mind. My eyes shifted towards the massive hand coming right at me, the force strong enough to make a dent in a mountain.
This was the power of an AA-rank?
It was nothing like the rank before it. A-ranks were certainly powerful, but what was standing before me was overwhelming strength. Just what were AA-rank adventurers capable of? Could they really take this abomination down?
A sudden flash of light filled my vision, the spirit's hand thudding onto the ground. The beast bellowed in anger, realizing that its limb had been sliced through.
A boy stood in between me and the colossal titan, somebody I was supposed to recognize, somebody I had fought alongside for nearly two years now, somebody I had come to trust with all my heart, and yet, he was completely different.
His brown hair had become a crystal white, his turquoise eyes brimming with power that I had never felt before. Was this power even equal to that of an AA-rank adventurer?
The cloak that Darck had worn throughout his travels was now so torn that it resembled a small scarf, the rest had vanished due to his abilities.
His left arm was completely exposed due to the shreds in his shirt, but I couldn't even tell what it was made of. A rough skin covered the limb, or was that... scales? Resembling cracks in a dry desert plain, the scales didn't morph the arm into something monstrous, but it clearly wasn't made out of human skin.
A cyan mark sprawled out across his entire arm, glowing with a light blue aura. A mix of dark blue and purple lightning crackled around him. My eyes shifted towards the back of his left hand, a clear symbol gleaming with energy. My eyes widened, a mix of fear and awe embedding itself within me.
The Royal Dragonkin.
I had read all about them. The most powerful line of warriors, descending from the royal Empress herself, that contained royal blood. They could wipe out battalions, level cities, massacre populations.
So how was Darck, the ally I had come to cherish, apart of that order?
His power suddenly made sense to me. I had seen him manipulate three separate elements, and I wasn't sure that was his limit anymore. I knocked out any dubious thoughts about Darck, focusing solely on the person I knew, the adventurer that I trusted.
I took one final look at the boy, a black dagger grasped in his right hand. He was looking straight ahead of himself, almost like he didn't have to use his eyes to sense and understand everything happening around him. I turned around, grabbing Ava off the floor and helping her to the corner of the room, tending to the wound in her leg that had been caused by the debris.
I chose to believe in my friend, not for what he was, but for who he was.
DARCK'S POV:
I felt my pool of bind open up, connecting, and intertwining with Asthia's. I could sense everything about her, including her current mood and her power. I was amazed at how far she had come, but now was not the time for that.
I could feel Katherine's fear as she hurried back, Ava limping beside her. I had been able to cut the spirit's hand and save their lives, but I wasn't able to deflect the oncoming rocks.
I looked up at the towering giant, my composure calm as electricity I had never felt before flowed through me.
"Let's end this," I said, pointing right at the beast and taunting it. The king of plants understood me, roaring with fury at its new opponent. It had acknowledged me as a threat, and rightfully so.
I was going to wipe it clean off this world.
A sudden spark of electricity flashed as I vanished from my previous location, appearing right beside the treant's head. A massive bolt of dark blue lightning shot out of my hands, hints of purple visible in the current.
I watched as the monster groaned from the impact, losing balance ever so slightly.
We had tried a tactic to destabilize the beast by using the twin's ice combination to lock a leg in place and then knock it down with a massive earth blast, but the ice was never able to sustain the creature's weight.
So what if we swapped the roles of the elements?
I molded the earth, sinking one of the giant feet like branches into the earth. I appeared behind the creature, launching myself at its back and crashing into it at a ridiculous speed.
The spirit roared as it collapsed, its leg ripping as the bottom half remained stuck within the earth. I positioned myself right above the nape of the creature in midair. Its shoulder was not a vital area, and my thunder crash ability had not affected it when I had used it before.
But what if it was targeted at a vital area with ridiculously increased power?
My body disintegrated, becoming a dark violet bolt as I came crashing down on the back of the tree's neck.
BOOM
I stood on top of the beast, the area affected by my blast smoking from the heat. The monster wasn't dead, but the battle was clearly in my favor, and even the king realized another individual was claiming its throne as the most powerful being in this domain.
This thing had taken a life, killed Mike right in front of all of us, shown no mercy whatsoever. The only treatment this monster deserved was pain.
"You will beg for your life," I commanded, my voice echoing as Asthia's voice mixed into mine.
The bark body trembled ever so slightly, the move triggering an immediate reaction in my memory.
Here come the spikes.
I jumped up as small twigs shaped like arrowheads shot out of the treant's back, tracking me midair. I backflipped back onto the ground, some of the missiles slamming into each other from the maneuver.
I had been hit last time from this attack, but my speed was on a different level now. The world around me slowed as I sped up, my body instantly avoiding the projectiles as I launched myself at the monster that was trying to stand back up, its foot already regenerated.
The spirit slammed the ground in anger, a massive shockwave rumbling around it as it traveled outwards.
The party!
I changed course, fixing my sights on the remaining survivors. I created a small hollowed area inside the wall behind them, pushing all of them in and resealing the room.
I gasped as I took the full force of the shockwave, not having been able to save the party and avoid the attack.
I struggled to stand back up, looking at the beast. Both of us weakened, both of us acknowledging the other as the enemy. This was more than a duel for survival, the spirit fighting for its crown, the boy fighting for his people.
This was a duel to determine who was king.