Standing several feet away from the statuesque man in black, his puffy white eyebrows knotted in confusion, proving that the clouds drifting calmly within his sky-blue body did not depict his tumultuos mental state.
"I'm going so fast, and yet, this damn awful thing..." Ikky gritted his teeth, with both his arms held out in front of him as he held onto the sky-man's javelin.
He had caught it, but not before the tip of the weapon had tapped a hole in his shirt and begun biting into his stomach. It was still a win though, since the majority of the force had been stopped. And although the pain was going to be there for a while, the hole on his black shirt soon got closed by his black spiritual essence.
'Huh. It is convenient.' Ikky thought, not oblivious to his clothes repairing itself.
"The speed and strength required to stop my drops must not be as impressive as I thought." The sky-man taunted.
"Oh yeah? Well why don't you give it a try?" Ikky said before hurling the weapon at the sky-man with all his might. But as soon as the weapon got close to the sky-man, it switched places with him, making the javelin appear behind the man.
"Tch!" Ikky clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Letting night mist manifest in the air, the fluid black substance flowed beneath his feet to craft a floating board. As soon as both his feet landed on the board, Ikky suddenly vanished. Or rather, moved so fast, it seemed like he did.
In a single second, the entire gap between them had been closed, with Ikky's fist rushing towards the sky-man and blasting waves of cold wind apart as it flew through the air.
The sky-man's blue eyes opened with surprise, but as soon as the fist got to his face, he disappeared.
"Shoot!" The force from Ikky's punch carried his body forward, rushing him into a tree with pulsing red leaves.
Ikky sunk his fingers into the tree and cursed.
"What gives?" Ikky looked behind, to find the sky-man standing on the same spot he had been a moment ago.
His totem allowed the sky-man such fast moving weapons, plus teleportation. Talk about being blessed.
While Ikky's totem lets him... well, he was saving the more proper use for a surprise counterattack. So for now, he was just using the skills he had copied from the creature in the Kailash— enhance his already Totem enhanced body with night mist.
He had been satisfied with just that for a while now, but his totem couldn't have been that simple, recalling the words of his prophecy.
Without a moment to rest, the sky-man harvested a phantom spear in Ikky's neck and held it to the side as he took a throwing stance.
Ikky looked down at his neck. If that weapon connects to it, he would be down for sure. It didn't matter if his body was nigh-impenetrable, if the spear hit him with enough force, it could knock the breath out of his throat and make breathing harder.
And by enough force, that would just be the regular for the sky-man.
Once again, the surrounding night mist from the black board flowed into his body, this time, not enhancing Ikky's muscles, but accumulating only in his stomach instead—
"What!?" Ikky exclaimed as the mist flowed on its own, making it impossible for him to spread it around his body.
... To his dismay, Ikky had discovered the first fault of Izel's bracelet charm.
'Shoot!'
Black soon began to flow visibly within his icy skin, moving from his stomach up to Ikky's throat.
And just as the sky-man let go of the spear, the mist in Ikky's stomach followed his unspoken order— it shot. Or rather, he vomitted a tunnel of all of his night mist reserves, the recoil from the blast almost knocking his head off his body.
The forest shook as the massive tunnel of black beamed out of Ikky's mouth like the flame breath of a wrathful dragon... or the puke of a bum with the worst hangover.
This tunnel froze everything in its path before the force also disintegrated the frozen matter, leaving only a line of destruction, as matter burst into snow.
The sides of Ikky's mouth were stained with black as the night mist receeded, quickly spreading out the harm it caused on his body.
Ikky held his head in pain.
Although his hard skin spread pain in smaller portions throughout his body, that pain was still going to affect him since it wasn't being dissipated out of his system. So the pain from the night mist burning out of his chest, throat and mouth were going to have to spread throughout those vulnerable parts first.
The good thing though, was that the pain only lasted seconds because of his special body, giving Ikky an edge in recovery over his opponent.
But what wound did his current opponent have to heal from?
None at all. The blast would have had to hit him first.
"I don't want to you to suffer. So close your eyes and pray."
Ikky froze in place, as the stoic voice reached his ears from above.
A rod appeared, passing right through Ikky's head, plunging through his neck and into his stomach, before it vanished.
And there he was, the sky-man squatting right on top of his head. His toes spread over Ikky's pale hair, as he used the tip of the spear to find the center of the amber-eyed man's head.
Ikky was completely out of spiritual essence.
No, he hadn't reached the limit of essence he could utilise from his Mark, but had run out! Not even a tiny white dot of his Mark was on his back as red patches of impact appeared on his skin and the torn parts of his clothes revealed themselves again.
Ikky was in more danger than he'd ever been in this haven, because the sky-man was not joking about wanting to kill him.
Yet, he was not afraid of dying; that fear had been ripped out by the very wraith who was plunging her weapon right into the sky-man's skull.
The sky-man's guard had dropped when all he had to be aware of was the man right beneath his feet. And that moment of security was what the wraith needed for someone as reactive as the sky-man to not sense her shivering presence. What had felt like a cold wind suddenly passing by, was actually Ikky's virtue, moments before her mist scythe sunk into his head.
His blue eyes widened in shock. He could not move. Strangely, even with the thin blade punching in and out of his head, the sky-man was still alive.
"Huh, I'd forgotten about you." Ikky gasped desperately for air before falling on his butt in exhaustion. "Did you find the cryptexes?"
"The cryptexes shouldn't be your first priority." Astrid's voice reached them from afar as her small figure trod closer from the distance.
Unfortunately, with the current state he was in, his own life would always be his least priority.
He had become suicidal, and really would have died, but thank the gods, his wraith was there to watch his back. The wraith caused him suicidal thoughts, but still, she was a saviour...?
The sky-man was confused about the situation as he tried to look at Astrid from the corner of his eye.