The entire time the battle between Rakan and Greymont was taking place, Craig had been preparing for a fight, just in case Greymont lost. An opponent like Rakan was way beyond his ability to fight against. Compared to Morak; the orc who had knocked him out with a single strike, Rakan was a lot stronger. If he couldn't handle a single strike from Morak then how would he fare against Rakan?
The only difference between then and now was the Divine Lotus. Although, the only thing he knew how to do right now was to directly draw on its energy. Since this was the case, then that was exactly what he did.
All along, as the battle took place, he had been drawing on the power of the divine lotus and spreading it throughout his body. Contrary to his expectation of what it would feel like if his body was filled with the lotus's power, he actually felt cold. He felt as if all his body's processes had slowed down. He felt more alert and focused and best of all he felt unusually calm.
As his nervousness faded into nothingness, Rakan approached ruthlessly clawing horizontally with the intention to slice him in two. Craig's expression was no longer bright and easygoing. His face was calm and cold, as if nothing in the world could faze him. He was continually drawing on the power of the divine lotus and the more it spread through his body, the colder his expression became.
Shifting only his pupils to the left he raised his left hand and used that dagger to block Rakan's incoming strike. The block was successful, claw colliding against blade like two pieces of metal, however the force from the strike lifted Craig into the air and sent him flying.
Whoosh!
In midair he rotated his body and rolled into a back flip before landing on his feet in a crouching position, skidding backwards some distance, leaving a trail of dust.
Rakan was surprised, narrowing his eyes as he looked at Craig differently. "It seems I have underestimated you, human." He exclaimed softly. He hadn't expected that Craig would be able to survive his attack, muchless to block it so precisely. "Usually, a human's source energy is so weak that it's not even noticeable. I wonder what makes you so special that you'd have such abundant source energy." He mused. "Hehe, you wouldn't happen to be capable of using magic now would you? I highly doubt that."
As the dust settled, Craig slowly walked towards Rakan, his expression even colder than before. His temperament had completely changed. He now had the disposition of someone who was cold and ruthless, without an iota of friendliness. He kept his gaze fixed on Rakan as he approached him.
Maeli was standing on the opposite side of Rakan looking at the situation. Initially when Rakan had moved to attack Craig she wanted to help him but everything happened so suddenly she barely had time to react. She was relieved that Craig had survived the attack, but now she was stumped by the way he was behaving. She had never seen him looking so cold and distant. It was as if she was looking at a different person.
Only Greymont had partly figured out what was going on with Craig. When he saw Rakan attack him, he felt for certain that Craig was dead. Yet, somehow he managed to block Rakan's attack even if it sent him flying. What caught Greymont's attention was the way Craig had reacted afterward and the sudden frosty aura he was emitting. He guessed that Craig might be using the power within his body that he claimed was spirit medicine. Using his focused sight, Greymont looked at Craig, a feeling of perplexity took over when he saw threads of energy spread all around within Craig's body like veins, with the number slowly increasing. 'What is happening here?'
"Let's see how good you really are." Rakan stated as he lunged forward and attacked again. He raised his claw and dropped it heavily, aiming for Craig's head.
Bang!
Claw and blade collided, sending sparks flying, but this time Craig wasn't knocked away. Using the momentum of the collision he tilted the dagger to offset the impact away from him, quickly separating the dagger from Rakan's claw upon impact.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Rakan launched strike after strike but each one was easily blocked and deflected by Craig.
Then suddenly, Craig countered with a jab towards Rakan's neck that he didn't expect.
Rakan dodged just in the nick of time, only receiving a small cut on the side of his neck.
Tap! Tap!
He jumped backward twice, putting some distance between Craig and himself. He glowered at Craig with unease appearing in his eyes. After a prolonged battle with Greymont, he hadn't received a single scratch and was able to block, dodge and predict all of his attacks. Yet only two bouts into his fight with Craig and he nearly had his neck impaled. This didn't bode well with him. "I'm curious now human. Who are you? Which human power do you hail from?" He asked.
Craig who was just lowering his hand from the positioning of the attack didn't respond right away. He first looked at the blood on the edge off the blade and wiped it away on his lap. Then he looked up at Rakan. "Food does not speak, muchless having the authority to ask questions." He replied coldly, stepping towards Rakan once more after throwing his words back at him.
Rakan scoffed in anger. "Don't get cocky because of a tiny scratch!" He barked, as he began circling around Craig as he did with Greymont. The most proficient skill of a wolf was finding an opening to attack it's prey. Rakan wanted to slowly close in on Craig whilst waiting for a decisive moment to attack.
However, Craig didn't wait for him to play ring of roses with him and suddenly dashed toward him. He was quick, in a flash he had arrived before Rakan with dagger in hand, aiming for his neck once again.
It was as if time had suddenly slowed down as Rakan eyed the approaching dagger wondering how to react. It was a split second decision, opening his jaw he reacted quick enough to catch the dagger between his teeth.
Cling!
Yet who would expect that as he caught the right dagger, the left dagger came speeding towards the side of his face. Unable to react in time a clean cut was made from his ear, down to his nose, injuring his eye in the process.
The pain increased the pressure from his teeth, crushing the dagger between them as he winced and hopped backwards from the attack. Blood dripped from the side his face as he growled in pain, cursing. "My fucking eye! You bastard, I'll tear you to shreds!" Ignoring the injury he just received, Rakan grew frenetic as his anger boiled to the extreme. He rushed onto Craig, launching wild, yet coordinated attacks.
Craig reacted instantly and began defending against the attacks with one hand. With his second dagger destroyed he only had one weapon. Unable to properly counter without a second dagger he could only defend continuously. Also, the enraged Rakan seemed to be even more skilled than when he was calm. His attacks were wild and continuous but didn't give many openings. At the very least, Craig couldn't exploit them with only a single dagger that was steadily on the defensive.
"He's loosing momentum with only a single dagger." Greymont said, looking at Maeli. "You should help him now."
Maeli looked at Greymont who was standing not too far away from her. Even after all this time he was still standing, not bothering with his injuries or the pain. Her eyes fell on his wounds, noticing that his bleeding had stopped and the exposed flesh of his shoulder seemed to be... Healing! If last time was related to Craig, then what would cause him to heal this time? "Your wound... It's healing!" Maeli exclaimed.
Only then did Greymont assess his injuries and realised that, the pain had eased considerably and he was in fact, recovering at a rapid pace. He was shocked and confused. It certainly wasn't Craig that did anything this time around. He didn't recall ever having advanced regenerative abilities. He had been injured many times before and always had to heal over a period of days or weeks. So what was going on with him today? 'Is that spirit medicine still in my system?' He thought as he looked in Craig's direction.
Rakan continued to madly launch attacks at Craig not giving him any opportunity to turn the situation around. After all, Rakan wasn't weak in the slightest. If anyone was weak it would be Craig. He'd only been able to get the best of Rakan due to Rakan's carelessness and of course the improvements from the Divine Lotus. Now that he had a single dagger, he couldn't attack efficiently resulting in Rakan suppressing him.
Greymont snapped out of his reverie and called to Maeli's attention. "His disadvantage is growing, you should focus on him not me."
Maeli snapped back to the matter at hand and dashed toward the battle, taking out one of her daggers to give to Craig. In truth, she was scared. She was terrified by Rakan's power and knew she wasn't a match for him. The best she would be able to do would be to dodge and distract him. But that was good enough, wasn't it? With a distraction he would be less efficient and easier for Craig to defeat.
She skid to a stop and yelled, "Hey ugly! Aren't I attractive to you anymore?! What, you're into men now?!"
Well, that wasn't too bad. Give her an A for effort... or an E, whatever.
Rakan ignored her shouting, but he took note of her presence. While it may seem like he was out of sorts, he was still actually somewhat clear headed. How else would his attacks be able to suppress Craig for so long.
Maeli moved in closer and closer to the battle. In one hand she held a dagger formed from mana and in the other was the regular one. Her intention was to find an opening to hand Craig the dagger and then launch distracting attacks at Rakan to create openings in his defense.
As she drew near, Rakan eased on his attacks against Craig and put some distance between them, stopping his attacks completely. He made a tsk sound through his teeth and said, "Trying to flank me to create openings for him?" His voice was coarse and filled with anger. "I'm not stupid enough to let you have your way. If I divide my attention I'll certainly lose this battle." His tone was filled with reluctance and non-acceptance.
Maeli was no match for him in a one on one confrontation. However, it would be different if she were to team up with Craig in his current state. Rakan would rather admit defeat than take a risk that meant certain death.
Standing opposite of Rakan, Craig was breathing heavily from the intensity of their lengthened confrontation. The hand that held the dagger was slowly beginning to tremble as his body started to feel numb and weak. Looking at his trembling hand Craig narrowed his eyes, feeling concerned. Suddenly the trembling of his hand intensified and the dagger fell to the ground as his grip loosened due to a loss of strength in his fingers.
His knees grew weak and he fell onto them, struggling to keep himself up. Cold sweat appeared, not just on his face, but on his arms as well.
"Not good." Greymont cried to himself as he dashed forward, hoping to intervene before Rakan caught on. Whatever was the reason that he was able to heal through regeneration, he was thankful for it at the moment. Although his injury had yet to fully heal, it had regenerated enough for him to move and fight once again.
At the same time Craig fell to his knees Rakan gave him a suspicious look trying to figure out what trick he was trying to pull. At the same time, the sound of Greymont's rushing footsteps caught his attention. He turned around, confusion appearing in his eyes, "Impossible! How can you run with your shoulder crushed?!" He had finally joined the confusion party.
So many confusing things were happening consecutively to everyone. It wouldn't be fair if he didn't get his fair share of it.