PREVIOUSLY
But, Elm closed the distance so quickly; the Nephalem barely had a chance to react. She sidestepped and swung, while the Nephalem swiped with its good arm. Elm parried it and swung again, but she struck nothing but air.
The Nephalem appeared multiple meters behind her as Elm sighed again. This would be a real pain in the ass. Instead of power, the Nephalem had willed all of his light to be attributed towards speed which kept them in a stalemate since Elm had to sacrifice some of her speed in order to wield something as volatile as the Holy Sword.
"Th-That's right! All I have to do is keep my distance, and attack you when you're least guarded!"
Elm just let out another sigh again. How many times has she done that now? She sensed something coming from her left, and so, without even turning her head, she parried the nails bouncing off her Holy Sword, before he disappeared again in a flurry of sparks.
Parrying another swipe at her back, Elm realized that if she didn't do something drastic, they would be forever locked in this stalemate, or at least until one of them ran out of gas, and a battle of attrition was something Elm really hated.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Bomb," Elm snapped her fingers, and with her in the center, a flashbang exploded right before the Nephalem could make a sneaky swipe at her throat.
"Kuk!" He grunted, quickly dodging the flashbang before it even exploded but he still felt his eyesight wobble a little from the immense flash of light.
Then, as his eyesight recovered under a split-second, he realized something was wrong. Where did the Celestial Hero go?
"Boom."
The Nephalem stumbled backwards out of shock, and that split second gave an opening for Elm to swing the sword downwards onto him, aiming to split him in half and seal him into the Sword along with many of the other unholy creatures she had killed.
But, the Nephalem, at the last second, used the air beside it as a foothold, and kicked to the right fast enough that it dodged the downward swipe, but it was still not fast enough that it could dodge the whole swing.
SHING!
Elm's Holy Sword tasted blood, the Nephalem's unholy blood as it sliced the Nephalem's left chunk of his body, along with his dark wings off of his muddy body, both of which were absorbed by the Holy Sword.
"AUWOAHRH!"
The scream that came out of the Nephalem wasn't natural. It sounded like a hundred children screaming for life as they were being drowned under a pit of lava. The sound made Elm cringe, and so, wanting to put the Nephalem out of his misery, she twisted her body to connect her swing diagonally and end the Nephalem once and for all.
But, of course, the pesky rat wouldn't just sit still.
"ENOUGH!" The Nephalem screamed. A shockwave forced Elm back, as she simply stood on air, watching for the Nephalem's next move, not that she was really interested in the fight anymore.
In her eyes, the Nephalem was no more than a talking corpse.
In a flash of blinding speed, empowered by his own lifeforce, the Nephalem circled around her, limping in a strangely chimp-like way. His face distorted in rage, and with a snarl, he attempted to swipe and cause any form of damage upon Elm, no matter how small or insignificant. That was when Elm realized that the fight with the Nephalem was truly over.
With her senses, Elm could sense that the Nephalem no longer had access to dark energy since she had cut off his dark wings. And, even if she didn't do anything, the sudden loss of half of his energy would result in an imbalance that would eventually kill him under a few minutes, if he didn't find help.
Elm didn't even need to bother parrying the Nehpalem's attacks anymore. It's tentacles tried to beat her down, but Elm's armor burned them before they could even touch her. And when the Nephalem realized he couldn't hurt her with his tentacles like before, he attempted to blow holes inside her body with beams of light but that was just a stupid idea. Desperate even.
"Why? Why doesn't it work?!" The Nephalem cried out. "I-I've reached transcendence! How dare you steal that away from me?!"
"You talk too much," Elm caught a careless swing from the Nephalem. "I'm going to make you bleed."
"You mongre-"
Sucking in a deep breath of air, Elm teleported above the Nephalem, twisting his arm off clean and before he could even scream, Elm grabbed him by the face. . . and proceeded to drive him straight to the ground at the speed of light.
BOOM!
All the Nephalem could do was let out a grunt, as Elm pummeled him straight to the ground but she wasn't done yet. Increasing her grip to the point of squishing out both of his eyes, she ran straight forward, dragging his body across the ground as his one arm and feet waddled uselessly, trying to release himself from her grip.
Screaming, the Nephalem used all of his strength to summon all the light inside his body to basically teleport above in the sky again.
Now, even though his frame hovered above the world, he didn't look as imposing as he did when he first made an impression. His dark wings ripped apart with his remaining wings nearly plucked out of it's feathers from Elm's ruthless attack, his left arm gone with his other arm and feet remaining loosely by his humiliated and weary body, the Nephalem was filled with rage.
But, before the rage, fear came first. His vision blurry from the pain, the Nephalem couldn't believe that he was filled with fear. Fear?! The same feeling he bestowed upon his enemies, and the emotion he thought he would never have to experience?! Fucking fear?!
He was the Nephalem, born of the Goddess Of Light and the 7th Demon Lord, the executioner of both heaven and hell! His power was second only to a selected few for mother's sake!
And, here he was, trembling before a mere mortal?!
Wait. Why did his body feel heavier than usual?
"I'm going to make you bleed."
"Get off m-"
SQUELCH!
Elm stood on top of the Nephalem, with a bloodied dove-like white wing in her hands. Before the Nephalem could even scream, Elm kicked him down enhanced with chi.
To any race that had wings, they would tell you that their wings were something akin to a demon's horns, or a beastkin's tail, or a human's heart. But in terms of sensitivity, ripping apart an angel's wings had the same level of pain of ripping a man's penis out, while squishing his balls flat under your heels.
But, the Nephalem couldn't even scream. Because, light travels faster than sound.
With every step of Elm's feet, she was digging out a chunk of the Nephalem's flesh, and at the speed of light, the pain was unimaginable, especially since while the Nephalem was processing the missing chunk of flesh on his leg, his arm had already suffered the same fate.
So, what could he do?
Nothing. He could do nothing. The might Nephalem could do nothing, not cry, scream nor even beg for mercy because his brain, while of the higher plane of intelligence, only made it worse since he was forced to feel every little scab being torn out before he could even feel the chunks.
There was nothing he could do.
"Die."