Chapter Forty-Seven

The rain continued to pour as the white around me dimmed. I saw Vital crouched over an excessively burned Tyfuse come into view. He was mourning his dead teammate, which for me meant I had successfully killed another Arch. I then wondered how he managed to survive the massive explosion as I was aware he didn’t have any healing abilities. Not unless he stole some of mine. But, I noticed shards of ice around where he was crouched, meaning he must have thrown up some sort of ice barrier in time. 

Vital stood straight up and glared at me as I tried to match his speed in rising, letting him know I was still ready to end this. We both knew what had to be done. It was just a matter of who was capable of coming out on top. My brother’s death behind my anger and Vital’s teammates' and friends’ deaths behind him. 

We slowly stepped towards each other, keeping our eyes locked on one another and stood a few steps apart. It was a standoff. The tension gradually rose between us without saying or doing anything other than staring. Eventually it boiled to the point where it seemed as if the rain slowed as Vital moved first. I could see the droplets splash against the smooth surface of his cheek as he leapt into the air and spun, attempting to land a roundhouse kick as the first strike. I managed to duck it, as I was aware he still had my powers and it’d be better to dodge than deflect as my arm and leg were still affected by my own stolen powers. 

I knew with the roundhouse, he’d have to land on one leg, so I went for a sweep kick, but with all the strength in that one grounded leg, Vital backflip kicked me in the chin and knocked me on my back, my skin scraping against the gravelly ground. I got to my feet again and wiped the dirt from his shoe off my chin. I needed a plan.

He was better than me at hand-to-hand. He was less proficient with a weapon, but with his own life on the line now, I doubt he’d go back to resorting to an ice blade of any kind. And it’s not like I could goad his fortified mind into doing so. My only advantage was my regeneration. If he connected with more black ice, I knew I wasn’t immediately dead because my regeneration slowed it. Mixed with his given ki manipulation ability, it could be more dangerous. He had better reflexes, but I was physically faster as well, so I could attack faster than him, but he could react to my attacks just as fast. The only option I saw was to keep an onslaught of attacks going until he eventually slipped and I could land a devastating blow. As with having no healing powers himself, he would not survive any super strength blow I could deal. This wasn’t the best plan but with nothing but the rain and ground around us, I didn’t have any options. 

He stood still and waited for me to attack again. Perhaps he was waiting to counterattack because he knew that’s where he excelled as well in this matchup. I took the bait and dashed at him, the rain feeling as if it slowed again as I got close enough to land a punch. He deflected my punch with one hand and countered with a one inch punch to my chest. It was infused with ki and ice and the force from his hit blew the rain around us away for a split second. I didn’t fall this time, but slid across the gravel on the heels of my shoes before halting a few feet away from him. 

I struggled to catch my breath and eventually got to an unstable breathing pattern as whatever that attack was felt as if it shattered the bones in my chest. There was no healing going on, so it wasn’t that, but with that attack being infused with ice, my time to get my powers back was drastically shortened before my own ice killed me. 

Before Tyfuse’s death, this defensive style wasn’t something Vital resorted to. It’s like his partner forced him to be aggressive so Tyfuse himself could be aggressive from afar. Based on his personality, I’m guessing Tyfuse lacked the patience for Vital to ever do anything like this. Even if it meant victory. The impatience to take the time to find me without blowing up the power plant is what got him killed.

Vital stood still again. He knew what my own ice was doing to me, so all he had to do was wait me out. I was the most dangerous one out of my entire team. The reason the Nobles were banded together again in the first place. He probably figured as long as he stayed defensive and let my own powers do their job, he won. And he’d likely block out anything I said about his dead teammates.

I rushed at him again, this time going for a straight kick, but he caught the underside of my leg and let ice seep onto it before going for an elbow to my knee. Before he could try and break it, I hopped with my other foot and went for a kick to the face. I was aware this attack would slam my back into the ground, but anything to avoid unnecessary, excessive damage to my body was worth it in this battle. 

Vital caught my kick with his other hand then twisted my legs, causing me to spin until I hit the ground again anyway. This time, before I could get to my feet again, he stomped on my stomach with a ki-enhanced shoe. The force from the stomp caused me to violently spit out blood. Then he sent his fist into my forehead causing the back of my head to slam against the gravel. He was smart to back away instead of mount and repeatedly punch me in the face as I would have just powered through the pain and put my hands around his neck. 

I got to my feet again, hocking out a chunk of blood before glaring at my enemy. His breathing was slightly staggered as that last attack was not at all defensive. More personal. 

I grunted as I healed from the attacks he just dealt. All except the ice to my leg. It felt increasingly painful to move after each attack because of the ice. It’s like the ice was messing with my regeneration too, even though my regeneration was slowing it. 

I rushed at him again, this time going for an uppercut that he sidestepped. He sent his ki-charged fist into my gut--almost through it--then elbowed the back of my head which sent me directly into an uppercut that knocked me on my back again. I tried to get up again, but he kicked me in the rib while I was down, shattering a few. 

My vision was becoming hazy as I began to see double the small rocks on the ground in front of me. However, I got to my feet again to see him look as calm as ever, waiting for me to attack again. It was at this point I believed it would suck if I didn’t get my powers back once I killed him. 

This time, instead of rushing him, I slowly walked up to him and attempted to punch him. He caught my punch, then flung it aside before attempting a combo on me, beginning with a spinning backfist to my face, then a cross jab into a straight jab. Next, he grabbed the back of my head and brought it down to his knee, breaking my nose. As I appeared dazed and stumbled back from the knee attack, he attempted another spinning roundhouse, but I caught his leg. I finally found my opening. 

I heard a verbal gasp escape from his lips before I picked him up by his leg and slammed him down on the other side of me, his face connecting with the gravel. He scrambled to quickly get up, but I punched directly into his spine, breaking through the flesh and took hold of it. I think at this point he was in too much shock to scream. I thought it was ironic how our bodies allow us to do things like go into shock to protect us from pain, but our brains don’t. Because if they did, Vital would have never made the decision to fight me in the first place. 

In a last ditch effort, Vital tried to freeze the ground around him to get me to back away, but I let the ice hit my feet anyway as I tore his spine out through his back. Sadly his head didn’t come off with it, but I was satisfied. Did he deserve to die in such a horrid way? Probably not, but he did plan to kill me and make everything I had done up to this point pointless. That was enough to get me to kill in very unconventional ways. 

No matter how much rain poured down, it wasn’t gonna be enough to wash the blood off of me or my clothes. And as I looked down at his bloodied corpse, I saw it glow. A ball of light accumulated over it before it returned to my body. The creeping ice fell off my skin as my ice powers had returned to me. My injuries were still completely healing. And as they did, I took a second to mull over the fact that he didn’t even use my powers to their full potential. Not once did the poor fucker try to shoot ice at me during our final fight. He was so focused on waiting me out, he didn’t think to do anything other than add more ice and pain through contact. If he had thought to use my powers fully, it’s possible I would have never come out alive from this. 

At this point though, it didn’t do anything by continuing to think about him. He was probably somewhere in Heaven with Tyfuse and Ardentia's dead selves, watching to see if their remaining friends could beat me. I believed I should at least give ‘em a show, as a portal from Rose opened before me.