(Author's POV)
Arthur unsheathed his sword, a 2-meter long greatsword, which glowed lightly with a bluish aura and sent a chill in all directions, a chill which gives anyone approaching the feeling of death.
The name of the sword was The Draugaar's regret, a famed sword said to have been forged and used by the First king of Manschrod, August Ice, and passed down in the royal family since then. It had a dark blue crystal above the hilt, on the crossguard, which was made from an ancient beast core and could imbue certain abilities to the wielder.
Arthur used a wind spell 'haste' and appeared behind Khulgana in a blink, then pierced right where his heart was. But Draugaar hit metal instead of flesh, Khulgana was able to react to Arthur's speed with ease and used a dagger to stop it in the very last moment.
The dagger had a thin blade compared to its ornate hilt, and the moment it stopped Arthur's sword, it started to freeze over and forced Khulgana to jump back. He then shouted excitedly—
"Ice, huh?.... interesting! It must be fate indeed, that we met!! Your life shall end today, human!!"
He said this and flames erupted from the dagger, instantly converting it to a flame sword, yet it didn't radiate much heat and looked like blue flames trapped inside a glass sword.
Arthur again rushed at Khulgana, but this time he knew sneaking behind won't work and went for a frontal assault, Khulgana was still easily able to follow this and counter.
Arthur felt his shoulder burn, and he realized that the tip of Khulgana's sword moved more like a whip than a blade and applied force and heat independently like a serpent sitting at the tip.
Arthur recognized the power difference and increased the intensity of his 'haste' to the maximum and rushed again. This time however, the clash was much more balanced. They exchanged many hits and feints. The ability of both the blades seemed to be neutralized by the other. They hit each other's blade again, and Arthur spoke among the sparks made by the two shining blue 'swords.'
"hahaha!! This is exhilarating! I've missed it so much that I almost wanna thank you, Khulgana!"
"you fight well for a human! an unexpected surprise in this boring conquest."
The two men clashed swords and yet talked like old friends between the sounds of metal clanging.
"Where do you demons come from? There is nothing but ocean east of here!" this is what Arthur Wanted to know from the moment the Erlik forces attacked them. And this time Khulgana replied happily-
"There is our whole continent with beings and places more mysterious and powerful than your imagination, Straight East of here far beyond the horizon and what you people are capable of traveling to. Some years ago a trader got lost in the sea and discovered a small island, except that the island was on top of a vast waterfall which took water from the sea and spits it out on both sides creating an unsurpassable wall which we believe is the reason why your continent never found us. We never found you except for that specific accident. We then developed methods to cross it, and well, you know the rest."
This revelation shattered Arthur's reality. He immediately let go of his initial plans to enjoy the fight for once in a long time. He jumped back and plunged his sword into the floor, and everything inside the Blood dome immediately froze over, even Khulgana. This was a unique skill of Draugaar's Regret 'Drain field'. It drains everything in an intended area of any kind of energy and keeps doing it.
Khulgana wasn't completely frozen, only everything around him, making him unable to move. Even when he tried to heat everything around him, the energy was immediately absorbed by the sword.
As powerful as this technique was the sword needed to be charged with soul essence for over a year for a 10-minute use. But in those 10 mins, it was absolute, and it will overwhelm the wielder with soul essence made from the stolen energy.
Arthur didn't waste time. He had at his disposal the artifacts he accumulated over the years as the king of the country. Khulgana was alone, fighting with his individual strength, and Arthur also matched it with the same, but knowing there was a whole continent of these beings made him decide to crush his wishes once again and fight for the human continent with the entire power of his country at backing him.
He closed his fist, and his ring shinned, and multiple things appeared in front of him. The first he picked was a golden box, he held it with him both hands and willed soul essence, or mana, into it, and it started glowing. Arthur whispered something to the glowing box, and then the box split itself into many pieces and disappeared.
Then he equipped himself with various articles of armor, rings, and pendants. The 10 mins were almost over, yet Arthur did not rush, even with the fate of the world at stake, he couldn't attack the helpless Khulgana. He was extremely conflicted with his morality and his duty tearing him apart, but he decided to have some decency still even if he couldn't fight entirely fairly. He reminded himself of his duty and calmed his heart with the fragile curtain of morality.
The Ice around Khulgana shattered in a burst of energy as the time was up. He enforced himself with mana this time and went straight for Arthur's Head, yet Arthur, now equipped with artifacts of various magnitude, made him fit to fight an army, and he was able to react to Khulgana and deflect the attack.
"How dare you little human stop me!! You have made me too Angry!! Repent in hell for all of the eternity, human!!"
Before, it seemed like a fair fight, but that was only because Khulgana was barely using any enhancing techniques and mana other than the dagger. But now it was changed, they again seemed even, but this time it was true, both used all the mana and power at their disposal and stood firm against each other.
Khulgana, with his own strength, rivaled the power of Arthur with a country at his back. This was no longer a one on one fight.
Arthur used a variety of spells, all mixed and enhanced to increase the power. He used Ice, lightening, Fire, Wind, and many combined spells with the use of his artifacts and still used the draugaar's regret in melee combat. It was an unbelievable scene inside the dome. It looked like Arthur was fighting with a whole squad of top-notch mages at his back.
Fireballs flew at Khulgana which he negated with his own fireballs, he dodged the lightning strikes, any ice would melt right before it touched him and only the wind spells damaged him, that too only slight bruises. Khulgana mocked Arthur-
"All this complicated magic yet you lack the power to do anything with it! Hahaha!"
Arthur didn't stop and kept up his barrage of attacks, hoping for a single slip up, one slip and Draugaar would pierce Khulgana and channel an enormous amount of mana.
This exchange went on for a while, both getting hurt and emptying their mana reserves in their magic cores, Arthur especially was close to his end. Then it happened, the moment Arthur was waiting for, A wind blade hit the back of the hand Khulgana was holding his dagger with. For a split second, the dagger lost its power and Arthur plunged his blade inside Khulgana's chest.
It was near-fatal, the blade missed his heart. But it was still enough. Arthur felt the surge in his mana and knew it was the moment. He was about to power an extremely delicate and dangerous artifact, and this will blow both of them and delay their armies a lot. He powered the Artifact called 'phoenix heart', and contrary to its name, it didn't revive anyone who used it. Instead, it would suck all their mana dry and create a mighty blast.
Arthur screamed, "For Humanity, I sacrifice my country and my honor!! Die Khulgana" And activated the Artifact.
A blinding flash echoed throughout the capital, even though the blast itself was contained inside the blood dome. The light subsided, Arthur was dead....
Torn apart limb from limb, blood splattered around, and everything was burned. Even Khulgana was fatally wounded, thou not as much as Arthur. Without immediate care he would die. Arthur was indeed successful. The blood dome would stay like this for a week, and Khulgana would die.
What happened next was something Arthur couldn't even imagine, Seikid, who was just sitting at the corner dozing off, got up.
"Awww why did you get hurt Khu... if you'd just woken me up, I would have totally helped you know. Well what's done is done, don't worry I'll get you to our chief medical officer very fast."
She approached the dome and tried to go through it but was repelled out.
"Oh, what's this.... Quite interesting. Hmm..... Ah, I got it!!"
She picked up a stone and crushed it with her hand. And she started to murmur something and a glowing magic circle formed around the dome. The crushed pieces of rock in her palm started to float and cover the whole dome in a thin layer.
"GO!!"
As soon as she said this, the tiny pieces rushed into the dome at unimaginable speed, and each piece targeted components in blood and killed the cells, and the blood barrier popped in a second.
She went in and picked Khulgana up then muttered to herself, "Well it's not my fault even if we're delayed. What can the humans do anyway, hahaha! I'll just say that Khulgana didn't listen to me and acted on his own. I'm such a genius, hahaha!"
She went on laughing, proud at the smart plan, and left the great hall with Khulgana in tow.
