Chapter Fifty-Five

“So, your energy turned pitch black. What does that mean for us?” Adriel asked.

“It means you’re fucked.”

Adriel turned to me. “Lotta edge with this one.”

“Focus!” I commanded. I glanced back at the entrance to the Keep building and Lux had disappeared. Only to reappear next to me and punch me down across the face. My face cracked the concrete as I heard Adriel shout “HEY!” and shoot out bolts of lightning at the Arch. I got to my feet to see Lux flicker and gut punch Adriel, dropping him to his knees as black energy burst from his back. Then he disappeared again.

“Can you…” Adriel separated his strained words with violent coughs. “Can you do anything other than punch really hard with that energy of yours?”

Lux reappeared before us. I glared at Adriel. “You had to ask.”

Lux generated pitch black energy around his arm and fist before opening his palm and revealing to us a small black ball of energy. It resembled a black hole. 

“Don’t you dare!” Adriel said, swinging his scythe downward before him, striking the ground and sending bolts of lightning at the Arch. Lux merely sidestepped the bolts and released the ball of energy. It slowly floated through the air mockingly and it gave Adriel more than enough time to split it in half with his scythe. The two halves floated behind us for a second before making contact with the ground. The resulting explosion caused the area surrounding us to be covered in smoke as we were blown back and separated by the force of it. 

“Adriel!” I called out. The smoke would make it easier for the Noble to blend in if he stayed fixed with the black energy. I froze the ground around me in a circle, creating a spiked barricade that would make it less easy for the “hero” to blitz me. This only allowed him to attack from two positions: above and below. 

Above was first and with incredible reaction time, I was able to craft a black ice shield to block his punch. The shield shattered and as soon as I could see through it, he had disappeared again. The black ice should have caused him to begin deteriorating, but I wasn’t even sure if he was the one punching as he could have placed a small energy barrier between himself and the ice. It didn’t seem like death-by-creeping-ice would be my win condition this battle. 

To my surprise, he attacked from above again. And again, I was fast enough to create a black ice shield, this time adding small spikes on the other side of it. However, it didn’t matter as he shattered this like the first. 

I waited for him to attack again, but I could see bright streaks of lightning piercing through the smoke as I assumed Lux was battling Adriel in between trying to attack me. I lowered the temperature around me to an absurd amount. This would help me prepare for his next blitz attack.

I had the reaction time so all I had to do was wait. My opening came as I heard a sharp exhale--due to the cold--come from my right as Lux blasted through my ice barricade. As he did this, I froze his feet from a distance. The second he was thrown off by this, I crafted and flung as many icicles as I could before crafting an ice sword and dashing at him. 

He was able to shoot the icicles out of the air for the most part and as soon as I got close enough to slice him open with my ice sword, he shot the ice at his feet and disappeared again. Fortunately, the smoke cleared and I could see Adriel was fine, frantically looking for another attack from Lux. 

The Arch was able to catch Adriel by surprise as he appeared above him with a giant ball of energy that required him to use both arms to hold it up. It was green this time. I was too late to warn Adriel as the energy ball connected with my ally and temporarily knocked him out of the fight. I looked at his body from a distance and saw excessive amounts of blood and singed marks all over his body. That should have obliterated a normal human. 

Lux flickered before me and spoke through grit teeth. “Your turn.”

“I don’t think so,” I said, crafting a ball of ice and throwing it at him. It froze him upon contact. I covered my arm in a giant ice spike and shoved it through his ice sculpture body. Instead of instantly shattering every part of him, his body dethawed upon contact, but the arm-ice-spike went through his torso. 

He grinned widely and grabbed the icicle spike with both hands. “Gonna take a lot more than that lucky shot to take me out. How could I be number one otherwise?”

With his hands glowing green, he shattered the icicle spike--still leaving a chunk in his body--and uppercutted me into the sky. From above, as I struggled to get upright, I saw his energy turn white on the ground before he switched it back to green and blasted at the ground. The force from his blasts propelled him into the air, allowing him to reach me and punch me with a charged green fist all the way back into the city.

I felt my body crash through solid brick, then a floor, then a window then more brick as I was sent through multiple buildings before being allowed to tumble across the street asphalt, tearing it up in the process. 

People around me screamed and fled the scene as Lux landed before me. The chunk of ice that should have still been in his torso was gone.

I struggled to stand, holding my ribs as they tried to heal before Lux attempted to blitz me again. I caught his green fist and froze it before I countered with a gut punch of my own, sending his body through a line of parked cars that all collectively exploded. 

It took him a second to gather himself this time and I watched him walk free of the fire, removing his flaming red sleeveless hoodie. It was in this brief moment I was able to see his arms without any energy flowing over them. He had glowing black and white tattoos that I guessed changed based on which type of energy he was using. 

I paused and took a second to look at the scene around me. I was taken back to the day it happened. The reason I was facing this hero before me. My brother. With me crashing through the buildings, how many mes were just created?

“Look,” I began. Lux stopped walking and hung on my words. “I know this is unorthodox, but I need your help to save anyone that may have just been injured or trapped from the collateral damage we just caused.”

The hero looked down at the cracked concrete beneath him and pondered my suggestion.