Chapter 69 - Fury and Loss

As the spears of light shot through the air, Gawayen began shaking. Several of the bones that sat in the myriad piercing spots on his body disintegrated as a hole appeared below his feet. A skeletal hand reached out and grabbed him, pulling him out of sight, just as the spears began touching his skin.

Laurence glanced around. Instinctively, he knew that the Avalonian was looking at him, waiting for him to drop his guard, but he could not see from where. Continuing to rotate slowly, Laurence pulled his hammer close to him and waited. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Yveth and Peter facing off against each other. Clouds of poisonous powder swam around the two of them, slightly obscuring them from Laurence's view and giving him the sense that they were in their own world, divorced entirely from him and Gawayen.

As he mulled over the two of them, he felt the wind whistle behind him and he rolled forward, the shaft of his hammer sliding through his hand while he swung behind him. He turned round and saw Gawayen standing ten meters away. The bone blade thrusting towards Laurence stretched out beyond its actual length. It was still the same length, but the strike itself had compressed the distance between the tip of the blade and the back of Laurence's neck making the blade seem far longer than it truly was. Gawayen's arm pulled back and the space between the two of them crackled as it snapped into place. The hole in space above Gawayen sealed itself shut as he gave Laurence a thin smirk.

"Naughty naughty, you should know better than to lose focus on your opponent when fighting. Distraction leads to destruction, after all.” Pulling his sword back, Gawayen began lightly tracing a shape with the tip of the blade. As he traced, the blade inched forwards while compacting the space between the two of them. There was an odd crunching sound that followed the strike as the space in front of Gawayen compressed, and the space behind stretched out, warping him in front of Laurence. Flicking his wrist, every single bone piercing down his right arm shattered and energy flushed the Avalonian's skin, allowing his blade to move at speeds far beyond he could have performed. Laurence tried to block, but he was rewarded with a thick cut across his shoulder.

As Laurence stumbled back, blood and blue light sputtered out of the injury. He growled, "Where did that come from?"

"I realised that if I didn't fight you with everything I had then I likely would end up losing, so now I will allow you to witness the peak of pure force! My might is so great that not even distance can keep my target from harm." Gawayen slashed again, but this time Laurence was prepared enough to hastily block the strike. He was still knocked away like a ragdoll, but no new wounds opened up.

As he stood up, Laurence licked his lips, "I guess I should show you my cards, seeing as you're showing me yours."

"What?" Gawayen replied, but Laurence simply smirked in response.

Holding his hammer staff-wise in his right hand, his smirk became a smile, "It's time to put the fear of an Immortal into you. Kether." With that he struck the floor with the base of the hammer's handle. Almost immediately the bright blue light that had been bubbling under his skin began spilling out of him uncontrollably. The corona that surrounded Laurence intensified immensely, and within seconds an odd blue sphere had developed with Laurence at the core. With Gawayen left at the edge of his blue realm, Laurence was comfortable switching his grip on his hammer and drawing in as much mana as possible.

When the blue light began spreading out from Laurence, Gawayen took several steps back in order to not be affected. To begin with he showed some trepidation at the sphere of light before him, but he had to work out what was going on. It was the only way that he would be able to reach the altar.

Taking an older, less impressive bone out of his pouch, he threw it into the light and simply watched. To begin with, it flew through the air, top over tail. It rode and dipped through the eddies that populated Laurence’s realm before suddenly sinking into a slightly darker pool of blue light. As it entered it seemed to slow down momentarily before the bone began bubbling. After a moment flesh sprung onto the bone, seemingly from nowhere, wrapping the bone in a thin layer of sinew. The bone sank deeper and deeper into the pool, and in response more and more meat began to be applied. After a certain point, a second bone began to form, locking into place with the first, and the meat that continued to appear. The bone ceased to bubble and the flesh began appearing back on in layers. Before long there was simply a severed forearm spiralling through the viscous pool of light, with a slowly forming hand appearing at one end, twitching away like it was severed mere moments ago. It slipped out of the dark spot and back into the eddies for a moment before diving into an equally oddly coloured pool of light. In this pool the arm began to decay at a rate visible to the eye. Flesh sank, blackened and meat seeped like fluid, flecking off as the bone flew before drying out and turning to dust. The arm continued to twist through the air and rot before melting until there was only bone left. One bone had become two, then six, but as they flew through that thick pool of light, the bones browned, cracked, shattered and became powder. The powder continued to spread, but even that broke down into its requisite components before eventually joining the light that had destroyed it in harmony.

Looking on at what he had just witnessed, Gawayen swallowed, “What in the name of my forefathers was that?”

Unfortunately, Laurence did not respond. He was too focussed on breathing in, breathing out, and compressing the mana that he collected. The tip of his weapon glowed bright, blindingly so, but he continued to draw the mana in. For a while he was a thousand miles away, not even caring about Gawayen’s existence, but eventually he returned. The light of the mana that surrounded the head of his weapon caused even Laurence’s blue light field to dim, and as he levelled it towards Gawayen he could not help but smile. “Astaroth,” he growled, but as he moved his hand forwards he felt a disturbance in the room. He turned and the strike went massively wide, tearing apart the air, and even shattering the wall of the odd space they were in when it collided, spreading cracks that wrapped around the room like spiderwebs.

Both Laurence and Gawayen swore when they saw the green light that encased the altar and the man that stood next to it, raising his arms and smiling at the figure of a woman that was floating within. The second smaller light continued to circulate around them, but it was dwarfed entirely by the energy released from its elder sibling. Smashing his hammer against the ground, Laurence grimaced and watched on. Peter had outsmarted him.


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