Elder Eudo was already on his knees, had he been standing he surely would have collapsed again. On all fours, he scraped his nails against the smooth stone ground until his hands trembled into fists.
"And if I win?" He asked through clenched teeth.
"Then you retain your position as Elder and we will discuss your bad habits another time." Zegris replied.
After a deep breath, Elder Eudo pushed himself off the floor. He turned his body towards Emile and then, with a wicked grin, taunted him:
"I typically don't fight myself, but for you I'll make an exception!"
"You may release him, Fay." Willow instructed.
The woman holding Emile hostage quickly pulled her blade away and released his arms. Curiosity overcame Emile and he turned around to see what Fay looked like, but she was already gone when he looked.
Instead, the disgusted faces of Elder Eudo's posse stared daggers at Emile, even the girl in chains looked at him like a monster.
In addition to Eudo's people, Emile saw about eleven more people who presumably came with the other Elders. And, similar to their Elders, most of them had indifference captured in their eyes while they looked at Emile.
Emile stood up and rubbed his wrists, taking this opportunity to look around the storage facility. It was mostly empty except for a single row of pallets hugging one wall.
"The bout may commence on my word—" Elder Zegris announced, pulling Emile's attention back to Eudo.
'Please be immune'
'Please be immune'
'Please be immune'
"Begin!"
Emile leaned forward and rabidly charged towards Eudo. As he ran, the Nimbus Charm manifested around his neck. Emile didn't plan on using it from the start, but he wanted it to be ready for anything.
Meanwhile, Eudo spread his legs and lowered his center of gravity. He pulled his arms up into a guard and prepared to receive Emile's strike.
Noticing Eudo's plan to take his first strike head on, Emile slid across the ground to a stop just within reach of Eudo. Pooling his momentum into his arm, Emile swung up with an uppercut and slammed his fist into Eudo's forearms.
Eudo quickly dropped his guard and immediately willed his arms to soar through the air, taking hold of Emile's arm. He pulled Emile's arm into him, giving him enough space to pull a long, thin black needle from his pocket.
Without hesitation, Eudo plunged the needle into Emile's arm and pushed him away. Marveling in his performance, Eudo began to maniacally laugh while Emile stood still, seemingly in some sort of daze.
"See!" Eudo turned his back to Emile and spoke to the other Elders, "This boy is nothing!"
But behind him, Emile quickly gathered himself. The sudden disorientation lasted a single second. It was like Emile was a shell, he could still see, hear, and smell—none of that changed.
What did change was that he couldn't control anything. He couldn't move his body. He couldn't take a deep breath. He was trapped watching life like a movie through his own eyes.
'So the girls are conscious'
Emile didn't let this revelation distract him. He lunged forward again and threw out a right hook, but seemingly out of nowhere Eudo stepped to the side and avoided Emile's punch.
Eudo spun back around, his eyes pushed out of his head in disbelief.
"You can move?!" He yelled while dodging another punch.
Emile was relentless. Jab, jab, uppercut, right hook, jab, side step into roundhouse kick, with an infinite source of stamina Emile never stopped.
On the other hand, Eudo successfully evaded the majority of Emile's attacks and blocked the ones he couldn't avoid. Like this, the two fought in a stalemate.
Emile continued to rain strike after strike on Elder Eudo while the man himself danced around the storage facility trying to get away from Emile. Finally, Emile pushed Eudo against a wall and grabbed his hair.
As he pulled Eudo's head down, Emile exploded his knee upward into Eudo's chest and broke one of his ribs. At the same time, desperation compelled Eudo and he shoved another black needle into Emile's side.
Like before, Emile suddenly entered a paralysis allowing Eudo to duck beneath Emile's arms and flee from being cornered against the wall. Covered in bruises and out of breath, Eudo hunched over in the center of the facility and held his open palm out in the air.
Essence began to wildly flourish around his palm until he pulled a pristine scimitar from the air. He brandished the weapon as he turned back to face Emile, but Emile was already on him.
Emile jumped into the air and added his downward velocity into his strike. His fist plummeted down onto Eudo's cheek, cracking his cheekbone and sending the Elder to the ground.
But Eudo still clutched his sword and with a last attempt at Emile's life, he pushed his scimitar forward as he fell and pierced Emile's stomach. The scimitar easily sliced through Emile's coat and skin and lodged itself deep in Emile's intestines.
Blood burst out of him like a gusher and splattered across Eudo's distorted face. But even in his pitiful state, Eudo's crazed laugh returned.
Emile stumbled back, shock evident on his face, and he collapsed to his knees. He slowly wrapped his fingers around the hilt of the sword as he uncontrollably convulsed back and forth.
"Hahahaha!" Eudo gathered enough strength to stand and confidently approached Emile. He looked down at him and wound his arm back, then crashed his balled fist into Emile's face.
Emile's face hit the ground then Eudo ripped his sword out of Emile's body. Seeing Emile helpless on the floor, blind rage took control of Eudo causing him to kick Emile in the stomach over and over.
"This is what you get trash!" Eudo slammed his foot into Emile, "Worthless—" another kick, "piece of—" another kick, "garbage!"
Eudo, red in the face and covered in sweat, pushed his hair behind his ears as he composed himself. He stepped away from Emile and faced his fellow Elders.
"I told you this was a waste of time!" He angrily glared at Willow.
But neither Willow nor Zegris replied. They mutually continued to observe and maintained a neutral facial expression, like they were uninterested in the duel.
"Don't you have something to say?!" Eudo pointed his scimitar towards Willow.
"Do you ever not have something to say?" Emile's voice broke the silence in the facility.
Eudo quickly spun around only to find Emile casually standing in the center of the room while he massaged his neck. Pushing his arms towards the sky, a drawn out yawn broke through his lips.
"I thought you were at least Perfected, don't you do anything else?" Emile asked.
"Wh—how are you standing?" Disbelief echoed in Eudo's voice.
"Well if that's really it then I got my a** kicked for nothing." Emile dismissed.
Still lost, Eudo did nothing more than stare at Emile. His mouth remained open and he never blinked.
Then, a bright flash of light engulfed the room and Emile's hand flew across the room and connected with Eudo's neck. The force of Emile's acceleration slammed into Eudo's neck and he was instantly pinned to the ground.
Kneeling over him, as he continued to squeeze his neck harder, Emile looked into Elder Eudo's eyes. Out of all the emotions Emile could find in his eyes, the most prominent was definitely fear.
Eudo grabbed Emile's wrist and put all his strength into pushing the boy off of him, but he didn't have the strength left in his body anymore. Audible gurgles soon became the only thing the people in the storage facility could hear.
Emile kept his gaze locked with Eudo's. He very soon noticed the light leaving his eyes—he was going to die any second now.
Emile opened his mouth, he truly wanted Eudo's final moments to be filled with despair so in an attempt to do so, Emile spoke over the gurgles:
"I guess you really are nothing special."