Alvarach remotely detonated the fireballs, disorienting Fredrick and giving him enough time to reach Ezra.
Upon doing so…
"Don't you dare forget about me"
A new entrant arrived.
The booming voice was too familiar to be mistaken.
The Emperor had arrived!
A pole of lightning tore through the air aimed at Alvarach.
This forced him to swerve as he sliced Ezra's arm while passing.
"Ack!"
Ezra winced, the upper part of his left arm was sliced off, breaking his stance.
Lifting Skyfall with a single hand shifted his center of balance, defending mythical rank attacks with a single arm was too much even for him.
Alvarach knew this too and came right back at Ezra to cut off the left hand, but…
*Kang*
Ezra blocked it.
Alvarach squinted his eyes for the first time in a while.
With one arm, blocking his attack should be impossible for a grandmaster.
And it was.
Ezra's left arm didn't fall off after being severed, rather, the blood meant to spill out congealed.
A line of black blood connected to the shoulder to the severed hand.
What's more, it pulled it back, and like a lie, the arm was reattached.
'Right' Alvarach realized. 'He has my blood within him'
With his healing ability alone, Ezra would have never pulled that off, instead, it was the demonic blood integrated into his bloodstream that made it possible.
The more they fought, the more Alvarach realized that Ezra was neither human nor demon and seemed to have struck a balance between the two sides.
This was something Alvarach failed to do even after centuries of attempts, suppressing the inevitable corruption while maintaining the power.
He'd taken all the good parts and threw out the bad ones.
His greed to obtain the boy grew a notch higher.
But with his attack blocked, another pole of lightning was onto him, forcing to break away from Ezra's proximity.
'This insect!' the Emperor's persistent interference outraged him, it was unbelievably irritating to say the least.
Moreover, Fredrick was back on his feet, raising even bigger rocks to toss.
Alvarach calmed down, shuffling his priorities.
'These two need to die first'
'Did he kill them?' Alvarach questioned, but cancelled the thought, his subordinates weren't that weak.
He'd managed to outpace them.
The Emperor was able to lose his subordinates, even after Alvarach inflicted such a large cut into his inventory.
Meanwhile…
The Emperor exhaled intermittently looking at Alvarach and then at Ezra.
From all signs, Alvarach was trying to capture Ezra and not kill him.
While the Emperor knew not the reason, it was conclusive that it was better to stop him in his tracks.
Still, the Emperor could only stall him for so long, they needed to get far away before he hit his limit.
The Emperor looked at the palm holding shredder. It had turned purple.
When blocking Alvarach's attack to his shoulder, the nail cut into his palm and poisoned it.
Moreover, he could feel it spreading along through his body right at this moment.
If nothing was done about it soon, his body might go into an irreparable state.
Moreover, cutting off Alvarach's subordinates came at no small cost, blood ran down from a cut on his cheek and his armour had gotten a few more dents.
After a minute of staying stationary, Alvarach vanished.
Andrew's senses tingled, gripping 'He's coming'
Surely…*Krraang!*
Alvarach's attack landed, blocked by shredder.
*Gah!*
The Emperor felt the difference in power as the weight of impact pushed him back.
Worse, the shredder was losing durability and sharpness with each attack.
Coming at him again, Fredrick's intervention gave Andrew breathing space, but he had to keep himself in front of Alvarach to keep him from going after Fredrick.
The future looked bleaker by the minute.
Yet, they could only move forward.
Ezra watched as they fought.
'Zydra-
He shook his head, cutting his thought short.
Without knowing, he'd begun giving Zydrax his options to weigh.
'I need to think for myself' he thought, calming himself.
'I could run away again' he thought, looking at those battling. 'But then they'd surely die'
'And like now, there's nothing saying he won't catch up to me even if I run, and then, they'll be no one to help'
'I need to do something about his speed' he concurred. 'Slow him down long enough to make our escape…but what?'
He was faster than stronger than them, and also-
'No' Ezra shook his head. 'There's got to be something, he has to have a weakness…but what is it?'
Sweat dripped down his forehead as he zoomed in on Alvarach's figure.
The Emperor's attacks were getting weaker and slower, he'd needed to find a breakthrough point for them, else they'd all die.
'Come on, come on' he chanted, eyes darting to find something, anything. 'Where is it? Where is it?'
Then… 'Huh?'
Ezra zoomed out, noticing something peculiar and began watching closer.
'Zydrax, if he's as powerful as you say he is. Why does he dodge?'
[Hmm…] Zydrax thoughtful intoned. [Now that you mention it…it could simply be nothing, but I am surprised that you're still alive…I've found the space mage] Zydrax suddenly said, shocking Ezra.
"Where?"
[Not far] he replied. [But I guess you want to take the others along as well]
Ezra nods, his hands tightened around Skyfall. 'It's just a hunch, but I have to try'
[Do you not learn] Zydrax questioned. [You were only slightly faster than him even with a head start, a half assed attack won't touch him]
'Don't dare tell me to run away'
[I wasn't planning to] he replied. [If you want your blade to do real damage, move like you did before, but faster]
'And how do I do that?'
'Just do what you did the last time, but better'
Ezra popped a vein, 'Seriously?' Zydrax said nothing meaningful.
Another shockwave shook him out of his reverie.
'Tch' clicking his tongue, Ezra closed his eyes, 'Let's do this'
Meanwhile…
"Ah!"
With Fredrick dodging, the droves of fireballs Alvarach shot out incinerated the ground troops instead, hitting ally and enemies alike.
The poor men scrambled like ants, many were burnt never to fully heal, master ranks with missing limbs, it was the worst day for ground troops.
Amongst them were a few who'd managed to get away unscathed.
One of them was a green robed woman.
Elisa exhaled intermittently with her back rested against a wall, the look of dread on her face mirrored insanity.
If even the Emperor felt chills, the presence of a Mythic rank struck fear into their hearts.
Then, the demonic energy he radiated was potent, corrupting the weak minds amongst them to hunt the stronger ones, while the army members affiliated with the demonic path were strengthened.
Ezra had come looking to escape, but Alvarach's presence had brought doom upon the army.
Strengthening the enemy while weakening theirs, they swiftly fell in ranks, added with the balls of fire and large boulders thrown about, the battlefield had become an absolute mess.
No longer were the soldiers looking to win, survival was starting to seem like a luxury at this point.
'Concentrate' thought Ezra, closing his eyelids harder, as he expanded his senses to his elements.
His greatest attack yet was the combined fire lightning and darkness attack he used to destroy the demon's cave.
At that time, he'd simply focused on bringing out as much power as possible, and while the power was indeed tremendous, when carefully studied, Ezra could pick some flaws in it.
'The mana was dispersed'
He practically threw the attack of his sword, so the mana was more dispersed than it should've been.
To achieve an attack higher than that, he had to concentrate the attack to bring out greater effects.
For one, the attack would be faster.
One problem, he wasn't sure if he could use it-a sword attack-with a scythe.
Then, he couldn't say that his other sword would be able to cut past Alvarach's defences.
Unsure, Ezra was not about to waste the chance, so he stuck with Skyfall, one whose abilities Ezra had verified.
Since he was using a scythe, the movement was modified, and easily.
With his eyes still closed, Ezra configured a new ultimate attack.
As he did to accelerate, Ezra put his mana into overdrive, amplifying his entire body, but slower, and this time, he suppressed its outburst, reinforcing the power instead.
The crackles on his body slowly turned black, extending onto Skyfall as well.
Gripping the scythe tight, Ezra polished the mana channelled within, condensing the mana a level higher.
Then, the runes on his body were already active, but to achieve higher speeds, he strained them, pushing in mana to give greater effect.
Since it was carved into his skin, the chances of his breaking were abysmal, but his body heated up as a result.
Even exhaling became difficult as Ezra felt his body was about to burst from how much momentum he was building.
"Hmm?" Alvarach stopped his attack on the Emperor and looked behind him.
His body tingled. Honed instincts rang out.
Ezra was noticed even after suppressing his presence so much, well, with the rank of his opponent, it was expected.
That is why the moment Alvarach met Ezra's gaze, Ezra attacked.
With mana coalesced upon Skyfall, it grew a few inches longer, the lidded mana erupted out of Ezra's body like a puffy cloud and big black lightning bolts crackled atop his physique.
And then…
*VOM!*SHIM!*
The air bellowed loudly as a streak of black lightning crossed Alvarach faster than the Emperor could follow, with the serene sound of a clear slash in the same gap.
The Emperor was momentarily taken aback as Ezra reappeared a few steps apart from him.
Just as he wondered what happened, the unbelievable occurred.
