Chapter Fifteen: Duel with a Nightmare!

Zandoris shifted his fighting stance a bit, continuing to glare. He didn't look eager to make the first move, though—his posture was defensive. Richard decided that that was probably to the benefit of the Crimson Tengu Ravens; while he was still intimidated by the thought of fighting the Majin Chevalier —regardless of whether they were doing so offensively or defensively— at least this way he wouldn't have to worry about trying to survive one of those blows he'd seen earlier, at least for the moment.

"Avoid close combat at all costs," he shouted out to the other Ravens. "Ranged attacks, and things that keep him off-balance; don't give him a chance to focus on any one of you!"

"At least you have enough intelligence for tactics, unlike those previous Neanderthals," Zandoris chided, "but how far do you think it will get you swine if you announce it for all to hear?"

Richard grimaced at that being pointed out, but he had had no choice—it wasn't like he could relay information on the Codec with the airwaves jammed, and they hadn't had much of a chance to practice battling as a team. At any rate, the others did as they were told, even Troy: they quickly spread into a ring around the opponent.

Zandoris' red eyes flickered to either side, and Richard figured that was as much of a distraction as he was going to get. Hunching over, he quickly chanted the words to the Geo Shift spell and slammed the ground with one palm. A moment later, Zandoris shifted his gaze to the ground, seeing it begin to ripple about him. Not long after, it suddenly dropped beneath him, shaking his footing a bit, before four slabs of stone burst forth. Due to the local geology, this was far denser and harder material than what Richard had dealt with back in Zaylor, and, like some giant set of pincers, it came in from four directions at once.

It was enough to register surprise on the goliath, but not much more than that. Quickly, Zandoris snapped his arm around, giving a small grunt. To Richard's surprise, not only was he trying to cut through the rocks themselves, but he was performing a vertical slash, not a horizontal one.

It seemed to be counter-intuitive…until the sheer magical power of the slash revealed itself to be great enough to obliterate the pillars with its cast-off, unguided energy alone, and actually send the resulting fragments flying at his opposition as if a powerful explosive had gone off. Richard quickly snapped up his own Aura Edge-imbued sword to slice at one flying for his head, and he needed to use both hands and plant his feet to do so.

To actually shred that initial attack so easily….

He had little time to survey his opponent's strength. While the others evaded or deflected their share of the rubble, the iron giant was going on the offensive, easily closing the distance between himself and Richard in a heartbeat before swinging Carnage Edge.

Luckily, Richard already had his sword up to intercept the blade, his feet dug in and both hands bracing it. Even so, the blow he sustained was on an entirely different level from Steiner's. The force was so violent and powerful he felt a painful, numbing jolt go through his arms to his chest and down to his feet; without Greymont supporting him and Auro Solais, that slash would have just kept on going.

Zandoris didn't stop there; the slash was still ringing in Richard's ears from the collision when he snapped his blade over and around, this time coming in an overhead slice. Realizing it was only a matter of time before his limbs broke from blocking him directly —Greymont or no— he quickly shifted his grip up and parried instead, moving to deflect the blade. He succeeded somehow, but Zandoris had both size and speed; the attack had struck him off-balance, knocking him back and almost making him lose his footing.

No! Focus; use it!

Quickly, Richard concentrated, mentally asking Greymont to focus too, and let the move take him back a ways further before he shifted a foot back and stopped himself, then used that same foot to push back and suddenly dart forward, aiming a stab at Zandoris' knee.

The armored man quickly swung Carnage Edge around, not deflecting the attack, but letting the flat of the blade stop it. Still, Richard took that as a hopeful sign, and quickly advanced, moving his sword up and aiming for the neck next, to stay on the offensive and maybe keep Zandoris from concentrating.

No such luck. Zandoris pulled the sword away, but didn't bother to defend his neck—since his size made it hard for Richard to quickly get into range, he could —and did— respond by simply lashing up with his knee and smashing Richard in the face.

Richard's faceplate was the most heavily armored part of his body, and well-reinforced by Greymont; hence, Richard was rather shocked when not only did his head and torso snap back, but he actually felt a rather large amount of pain flood his skull, knocking him almost senseless. He staggered back again, this time fully off-balance and his head swimming.

Through the pain and dizziness, he saw Zandoris advance on him, putting both hands on his sword and bringing it up: he was aiming the tip for his opponent's heart.

Before the attack went through a hulking figure suddenly slammed into Zandoris' side. He turned to this third combatant, but was powerless to stop them as the arms of the figure wrapped around him and, unbelievably enough, yanked him right off of his feet and slammed him into the rock wall of the cavern. Richard, blinking a few times and regaining his footing, took a moment to glance around.

It seemed the rest of the Marauders hadn't been taking it easy, but that had hardly mattered: Voltaire was lowering his crossbow after shooting one in the back while they were busy with Dan, who had dropped another with his bare hands.

The final Marauder was suspended from the ceiling, impaled on seven different stalactites. For what it was worth, that left only the one opponent…and, as Richard turned to see who had been his unexpected savior, he was more than a little amazed to see it was Troy.

Richard actually gaped a bit beneath his mask: he knew that Troy was tough with that body-modification spell in use, but to sling someone like Zandoris around….

Immediately after smashing him against the wall, actually pounding him into it a bit, Troy snapped back, grinning ear-to-ear as he seized Zandoris by the chest plating. "Hey, Rusty, you know how many big shots like you thought they could just treat me like a pushover my whole life?" he quipped. "You know what I do to smartasses like that? This!"

After pulling his arm back and forming a fist so tight that the knuckles involved cracked, Troy snapped his arm around and gave Zandoris an uppercut so powerful that it sounded as if a bomb had gone off, sending out a thunderous echo through the entire cave network.

Richard by now was getting used to the loud noises, but he still recoiled a bit, actually feeling the air tremble a bit from that hit. Still, he focused on what it did to their opponent; he hoped the answer would be "a lot", since Troy had broken the first rule, and gotten himself in close….

His hopes soon faded, and even Troy looked rather astonished: Zandoris' head had gone up maybe two inches from the blow, and then slowly lowered itself as the eyes burned stronger than ever.

"Far too unfocused," he calmly retorted. "No more use than a heavy, blunt tool is against a refined sword."

In a snap so fast Richard barely saw Zandoris move, the Majin Chevalier's gauntlet snapped out, not in a punch, but extending its first three fingers and jabbing Troy right in a shoulder pressure point. Troy didn't even react to it, actually looking a bit puzzled for a moment, as the iron giant, moving in a blur, struck the same spot again and again.

The big man seemed to weather it for a moment, but his face soon twisted, pain flowing into it, and finally he gave a noise as his whole arm fell limp. His other limb free, Zandoris quickly tightened it into a fist and lashed out, smashing Troy in the face and knocking the Raven off of him.

Not even looking sore, the black 'knight' quickly pulled himself out of the indentation, reached over to snatch up Carnage Edge again, swung it over his head, and then brought it down to split Troy's skull in half. Luckily, Troy wasn't nearly as dazzled as Richard had been, and he quickly backpedaled, but even then he gave a cry of pain as the blade tagged him on the chest and left a deep gash.

A splashing noise was heard as his blood hit the ground, and he staggered, spilling more into his wake. Quickly, the iron giant snapped his sword back, and swung it around to finish him with a follow-up blow…

And, for the first time, Zandoris' red eyes widened in surprise: Troy had brought his hands up in spite of his pain, and actually caught the weapon.

The Majin Chevalier held only a moment before he quickly dug in and put more power into it, pressing the serrated edge of his sword into Troy's hands. While blood soon oozed out as a result, that was just about all it achieved. Troy gritted his teeth, got his feet underneath him, and pushed right back: in spite of the power that Zandoris had displayed before, the Ibis Corps member couldn't overwhelm the Raven. The two were perfectly matched.

As everyone watched Troy holding back the massive sword despite the serrations on the edges cutting into him, Zandoris dispassionately observed, "At the very least, you're a beast well-versed in enduring pain…."

Troy reacted with a crass laugh, then rowdily added, "Like they say: no pain, no gain! I'm no pansy that rolls over with a tap, or even a stab; just gets the blood flowing! No matter who tries to smash me, no one is going to stop me from being the top dog!"

With that, he tightened his muscles, and the sound of iron grinding against stone came from beneath his enemy's feet: to Richard's astonishment, Zandoris was actually being pushed back. The young man was amazed: he had had no idea how strong Troy really was.

Unfortunately, Zandoris noticed this too, and for a brief moment Richard thought he heard a violent hiss from beneath the skull-shaped mask or face —he still wasn't sure which— before the Majin Chevalier snapped his head forward over his sword blade and into Troy's. The blow was even harder and fiercer than Troy's punch, and broke the big man off as blood oozed from his forehead, finally staggering and stunned as well. Once more, the Jinn Cadre member brought his weapon up for a finishing blow.

This time, there was a small thwip, and then something struck his hands. In an instant, an icy mist burst over the black knight, making him pause in surprise, before a coating of thick ice quickly spread across his hands and down his arms, freezing them and his sword in place, and giving Troy the moment he needed to recover and back off. Zandoris turned to look beyond him, and saw a smiling Voltaire reloading his crossbow.

"You're causing quite the mess, friend. Chill out!"

Immediately, Eloy gave a triumphant shout. "Jade Hawk's got him! Hit him now, boys! Fire Bomb!"

Quickly, he snapped up his most recent acquisition: a wand he had received from Richard while they were evaluating Eloy's skill at magic. Richard felt like shouting that he hadn't had time to properly teach him focused techniques or proper spells, but he was still struggling to form words after the blow he had taken himself.

He couldn't even "join in" when Eloy made a series of rather sloppy hand signs —no doubt picked up from observation rather than guided practice— and then flung out what could be recognized as a weak Fireball spell.

Still, it was better than a total amateur move, signifying the innate skills Richard had picked up on—and Zandoris couldn't move before the ball of flame struck him, immediately covering him in flames.

Hooting and hollering cheers of praise for his comrade, Hector quickly snapped up his firearm and began to shoot into the flames; Zach quickly joined in too, firing with his own weapon, as did anyone else who had a firearm. Richard let out a few grunts and groans, still trying to speak; a weak spell like that and a few plasma rounds couldn't possibly do an opponent like this in, although he hoped it was at least putting him into some pain and/or giving him minor wounds. They cut off their attacks a moment later, yelling and shouting as much as last night, while Dan gave a cry of victory.

"Booyah, baby! That's how you fry an—"

His cheer was aborted by a sharp wind that ripped through the air, immediately smothering the flames. As they winked out in an instant, plunging the chamber back into darkness, all of the previously cheering Crimson Tengu Ravens immediately felt their hearts and stomachs sink like stones. Richard himself swallowed: he hadn't expected that to kill him, but he had hoped for at least an injury or two.

He didn't like the sight of a totally-untouched figure, who wasn't even sooty, still holding out Carnage Edge from the move he had used to remove the flames.

"I don't think you all realize the gravity of your situation," Zandoris calmly declared. "You're a more coherent fighting force than I first assumed—but that is all. I don't even feel pain from such minor flames…"

The air suddenly grew more charged…the same way, Richard realized in terror, that it did before Orion unleashed his more powerful magical attacks. A jewel in Zandoris' chestplate —hidden until now— suddenly lit up: obviously his wand.

"…and if you truly think merely keeping your distance will save you from me, think again. Nightmarish Inferno!"

The titan chanted some kind of spell, one so potent Richard could actually feel it radiating through his own mana flow. The spell-words invoked, Zandoris finished by swinging his sword around and smashing it on the ground again.

A fracture and some rumbling followed, but, more importantly, the ground ruptured in several points, sending up columns of fire so intense they burned blue. It completely surrounded Zandoris, sending up such a wave of heat that Richard saw the others quickly yank back in alarm and pain: he seemed somewhat protected, thanks to Greymont.

Unfortunately, not all of the fiery pillars surrounded Zandoris. The one directly in front of him immediately shot out, ripping a smoldering, charred rift through the ground, headed straight for Eloy.

The speed was far too great for the Raven to avoid; he barely had time to even notice it coming. Richard nearly held out his hand and shouted a warning, more out of instinct than anything else; Dan stepped sideways, meaning to shove him out of the way.

Neither of them got beyond that. The flames made contact with Eloy and instantly enveloped him. For a moment, Richard saw the look of surprise on his face, perhaps cursing at what was happening…and then he was gone.

They didn't even see their ally start to burn; Eloy never had time to scream. In one moment, his head and body were enveloped in blue flames…and, no more than a full second later, what was left blew away, nothing more than hot ash.

The fire died as quickly as it had come, but everyone was left transfixed in shock. Richard couldn't believe it; he wasn't sure if Orion, or Steiner, or any of the other Magna Centurions could have killed someone that fast—he had never seen the like before. Eloy had been simply blown out as if he was nothing more than the flames that Zandoris had put out a moment ago. Zandoris hadn't just snuffed out a man's life; he had completely destroyed him…and with so slight a gesture. Richard had barely known the man, compared to Dan, but he was still a comrade; someone he had worked with several times; someone he had spent yesterday training—and now…totally gone. Not even a corpse….

Dan himself stood in midstep for a moment, frozen in shock. His mouth hung wide open; his eyes were as wide as saucers. Even now, as the flames faded, there weren't even enough ashes to tell someone had ever been there. He quivered for a moment; it looked like he might give in to sadness for just a moment.

That subsided quickly. Dan's face and body tightened, his defenses against matters like this taking hold. His fury swelled and his teeth gnashed as he snapped to the black knight and gave him a stare that would have burned a hole through his chest if any look could have. His fists tightened and balled for a second more, and then he took off right at him.

"You son-of-a-bitch! You roasted him to a crisp like he was nothing!"

Zandoris didn't wait for Dan to come; immediately, the iron giant hefted his blade and brought it back, immediately taking off as well, meaning to cut Dan down before he even had a chance to strike back. Dan chanted as he came, morphing his arm again into the Turbo Knuckle, but Zandoris was already on him while he was still transforming. He moved his arm up to cleave him down…

…when a snap of metal rang out; the sound of a chain wrapping and lashing around Carnage Edge. In spite of his strength, it stopped him, being wrapped around the sword's tip and therefore placed with the best leverage possible.

Zandoris snapped his head to the source, and saw Richard had used his Metal Morph spell again, this time to turn his metal arm into a chain. To be honest, it was groaning and straining even now, and the third prince felt it might snap at any second…but it still meant Dan's own crazed, enraged charge had snapped Richard out of his shock. He couldn't let Zandoris shake him up now; they were dead if they made a single misstep at this point.

Zandoris tried to break free, to get his sword around, but the delay cost him: yelling in a mixture of hatred and passion, Dan leapt into the air as he finished morphing his arm into a piston, and swung it full-force into his face, putting both his full power as well as gravity into it.

An even larger boom than before sounded off, sending a resounding clang through the armor, and the force both snapped Zandoris' head back and made him slide back a few feet.

Richard's stomach sank yet again on seeing that that was all. His armor wasn't even dented from a blow that would have shredded a hovercar; a quick neck-crack, and he quickly rose again to counter. Dan, in spite of his anger, was shocked as well: he had never seen an opponent so easily weather that move.

Richard, however, decided to press his own attack before Zandoris could launch one, immediately dashing in with Auro Solais extended in his free hand. Seeing that the young man was taking an opening, Zandoris snapped to him instead, giving a bit of a sneer as he shifted.

Zandoris raised his own blade to meet Richard with its longer reach, but at that moment Richard manipulated the Metal Morph to shorten the chain, and the iron-plated giant's strike was suddenly yanked to one side. The young man quickly vaulted over the slash, not going directly for the black knight, for fear of one of his counters, but instead leapt to the opposite side, using his Greymont-added strength to launch to a nearby rock wall and then bounce off of it, sailing for the man's head.

Zandoris found himself again caught off-guard, and was left with only one option: dodge. As Richard's sword swiped by his head, he did dodge…but also gave out a burst of sparks and steam as the hot, mana-infused blade made contact with his thick armor. Richard touched down a moment later, and quickly backed up and away.

The black knight actually paused at that, his red pupils flickering down to his cheekbone: still smoking was a red-hot cut made into the armor, courtesy of the Aura Edge. If one looked deeper into it, through the shadows to the flesh beneath, one could have seen a few drops of blood that had oozed out of a small crack in the shallow, cauterized scrape beneath.

Before the titan could express any sort of reaction to this, again his hesitation was seized on: another yell sounded, and he spun to the source…but was too late to even try to dodge this time. Dan was already on him, fresh anger igniting his aura as he implemented his second technique, the Jackhammer Grind. He had used the moment to not only "reload" his arm, but to shift both arms into smaller multi-pistons, and now he smashed Zandoris for all he was worth, crying out his fury as he beat away.

The Majin Chevalier's armor held despite the blows, but Richard knew from painful experience that armor alone couldn't keep one safe from that kind of internal trauma. In spite of his size and power, the iron giant's body was snapped around violently, unable to even react at first. Finally, the Jinn Cadre's red pupils narrowed in fury.

He managed to plant his legs and bare his chest, letting his breastplate take the blows just as Dan was winding down. He snapped back his armored fist to strike at Dan…and yet again had no chance to react, for Richard had been using Dan's assault as a chance to prepare a Mana Wave. With a swing of Auro Solais, a burning, focused wave of magical energy dug a trench in the ground as it shot for Zandoris.

Dan flashed a grin as he quickly leapt back, avoiding Zandoris' fist just as it came forward, and the iron giant stared only a moment in puzzlement before turning to the source…then taking it square in the chest. In spite of his size and power, the wave ripped him right off of his feet and sent him flying, actually collapsing his body around the leading edge, before smashing him into, and through, a stone wall of the temple with a tremendous crash. A fresh pile of stone rubble rained down upon him as all but his boots vanished into the indentation.

With the rocks still toppling down on him, Dan snapped his arms back to normal, sweating quite a bit now, but still flipped the figure off. "How do you like that, asshole? Let's see you shrug that off!"

By now, Richard was breathing a bit hard himself. He hadn't slung around this many spells in a while, and the strain was starting to pile up. He took in a deep breath to steady himself before morphing his arm back to its normal state, then holding it out to Dan. "Don't call it over yet; he may not be done."

Troy, who by now had gotten up again and cracked his own joints a bit, and was looking rather sore that he hadn't been able to join in on that last bit, spat on the ground. "Now you're just being paranoid, Requiem. His rib cage's got to look like a cracked egg by now!"

Richard didn't need to answer that: the sound of rocks toppling picked up, redirecting everyone's attention. It wasn't long before they were all swallowing yet again—not even moving a little more slowly, Zandoris was calmly rising out of the hole he had just been put in. When some of the broken rocks impeded him, he merely brushed them aside like cardboard. The only change that had happened to his body was on his chest: it had a red mark across it, shaped vaguely like the Mana Wave. Yet that was all that had been made in it; no damage had been done to the rest of his armor, much less his body.

"I see why the one in the Tengu armor is your leader," he commented, his voice perfectly even. "He's the only one with any semblance of wisdom. Bah—you really are dirty curs if you are so cowardly that you have to attack from the shadows!"

Richard stood his ground as he retorted with a defensive,"You're nothing but a commander of assassins who kill for the highest bidder; you've no right to act like you're the authority on honor!"

Dan shrugged before adding a playful, "The man's got a point—and besides, does this really look like a boxing match to you? It's war, baby, and the only rule is to do what it takes to come out on top! Don't blame us that your goons couldn't throw their weight!"

Zandoris merely got back into a fighting stance. "I suppose it is too much to expect you rabble to amount to anything close to a true warrior…."

"What the hell is this guy!?" Zach suddenly cried, clearly near the breaking point. Most of the others were; they had already seen one of their friends killed without more than a moment of preparation on their foe's part. At this point, Richard figured, only he, Dan, Troy, and maybe Voltaire even had the resolve to keep fighting. This was unbelievable; he had expected at least a few marks to be left on this guy from everything they'd thrown at this moving mountain of iron.

"Guys."

The whisper came from the built-in speakers of Richard's Dragon Lenses; he immediately recognized it as Voltaire's. He nearly turned to face his ally, before realizing that Jade Hawk wasn't talking openly, but taking advantage of the devices' audio optimization capabilities, which cancelled white noise and amplified other quiet sounds. Richard's eyes flicked to one side to find that Voltaire was cupping his hand to his mouth in faux alarm, hiding his lips from moving so that Zandoris couldn't see him speak.

"As top-of-the-line as his armor may be, I doubt any suit you can buy or forge would still be unscratched after all that; my guess is, he's using a shielding charm of a sort—basically, right before anything hits him, it gets slowed like it's plowing through a swimming pool full of tar. He seems to be able to radiate it from his own mana reserves, which means that, unless we can overpower it with a single strike, we won't leave a mark."

Richard exhaled. He was familiar with the trick; his father could pull off something similar, as could several high-ranking Magna Centurions, like his brothers. It meant that there was a threshold to break before anything would even touch him. All he knew they had that could do that was Auro Solais, and he had had to use quite a bit of effort just to scratch him even then…

"Then we'll just have to find a way to pull that off," he finally stated. He then declared, loud enough for Zandoris to hear, "In the name of justice, he dies today, for the sake of all the innocent lives that he has taken!"

He thought he heard a snicker before his opponent jabbed back, amused, "And just when I was starting to think you weren't clowns after all, you spout something as ridiculous as that. You think yourselves agents of justice? Are you fools really trying to pass yourselves off as imitators of the Magna Centurions!? You act like you wish to be paladins, while your attire suggests you are more aligned with the shadows."

Richard snickered as well, before jabbing back with a defensive, "It's to be able to strike from the shadows; to bring swift justice to those that think they are above it. By striking fear into those that lurk in the darkness, some will learn not to prey on the innocent."

Zandoris, disgusted, retorted, "You really think defending the lives of the worthless is true justice? All you're doing is allowing the world to be further infected with filth."

Voltaire chuckled darkly, then added a gibe: "So, I take it you and your cohorts think of yourself as the ultimate authorities on who's worthy to live, eh? Maybe I didn't understand you correctly, but, to be honest, you sound like a raving lunatic…hence, I don't really think I need to hear anything else. Oh well; as they say, no pain, no gain, right? I prefer to fight smarter, not harder…."

Voltaire removed a hand from his tri-bow, then quickly snapped it back, loading a new magic arrow; this one was yellow in color.

"Frantically scheming a solution, are you?" Zandoris asked idly. "And yet all you came up with is more trick arrows…."

Voltaire just chuckled darkly, then snapped up his weapon and fired it, right at one of Zandoris' eyes. A snort emerged from the Jinn as he immediately snapped up his massive blade, striking it in such a way that it should have been sliced in half—but it instantly shattered on contact instead, bursting into a brilliant flash of light so blazing that he actually vanished into it for a moment.

Fortunately for the Crimson Tengu Ravens, the spell was aimed like a camera flash, away from the others, so that the full measure only struck the black knight. Immediately, he let out an angry hiss and shielded his face, swinging the sword in front of him.

Not letting up, Voltaire quickly snapped his hand out and back again, nocking three new arrows; Richard saw that these were icy-blue: he was upping the ante on his Frost Arrow. A moment later, he snapped up his arm and fired again. In spite of being blinded, Zandoris still had enough of his wits to swing out and strike one of the arrows, for all the good that did.

The icy bolt instantly burst and coated his blade, his hands, his wrists, and down to his shoulders in ice; the other two bolts struck him in the torso and legs, not only covering the rest of him but thickening what was already there.

A bit to everyone's amazement, in only a moment Zandoris was a frozen statue.

Voltaire flicked some of his hair back. "Well…that's a start."

The others stared a moment more, before they risked letting their enthusiasm rise again. Dan blinked a few times, then risked a smile. "Nice job, Jade Hawk! He's ready for the morgue freezer after that!"

"Hardly," Richard immediately retorted: he could already feel Zandoris collecting the mana to break out. "This guy walked through flame and his own blue fire; I think it's safe to say he's immune to temperature, and probably seconds from breaking out."

"Think I'm a fool, Requiem? Come on, good man; I know that for this kind of threat you need to go the extra mile!" Voltaire answered as he snapped some toggle on his bow, causing it to collapse back onto his wrist, and then put his empty hands together. "Little trick I learned from a date who was trying to corral some wild animals at a zoo once…."

As his aura blazed, Richard and Dan both couldn't help but give him a puzzled look.

"She had really unusual tastes," he answered as his earring burst into light; he then snapped around and slammed his palm down against the ground, the magic flowing into it in a snap.

The ground rippled beneath him, appearing similar to a Geo Shift at first. However, it quickly differentiated itself: a gray substance seeped out of the ground and rapidly advanced on the frozen Zandoris. It seemed like liquid or water at first, only far shinier.

A moment later, Richard, well-versed in the Metal Morph spell, realized it was liquid iron; this spell was similar to Metal Morph, only, with the way Voltaire moved his hands, he almost seemed to be conducting it like a maestro. It rose forth as if it was a rolling wave on a beach, growing larger and larger, until it towered over Zandoris. A moment later, it crested far over the target's head and raised sword, then came crashing down, making an odd sound reminiscent of metal objects colliding.

Voltaire snapped his right hand around and clenched it. The wave was still in the process of falling when it suddenly reformed, solidifying and pulling in upon itself rapidly. In a moment, it formed a solid metallic block in the shape of a cross. With one last metallic noise, the chamber was silent again.

Richard was rather amazed: Voltaire definitely hadn't been slacking off on his magical innovations. In that area, he might have been better than the prince, for all his practice. As for the rest, they were in total awe.

Voltaire grinned as he blew on his hands like they were weapons. "Like it? I call it the Iron Mud Tomb. Even if he wasn't being smothered right now, that stuff has the consistency of mud. It'll be tough for him to get loose.

"Plus, it's merging with the ice right now, and therefore cooling rapidly; even assuming he can hold his breath forever, he's going to be using everything he's got to keep from dying of hypothermia."

"And here I thought you were just an easygoing playboy." Dan whistled. "That's a sick move; I'd almost hate it, if it was anyone else…."

"Well, I hope you aren't so partial to this guy that you can't take a bit more, because I'm not going to wait and see if he can bust his way out of that, " the red-haired man answered, taking a moment to push up his mask. "Majin Chevalier or not, you still need to breathe as long as you're a living being.

"Let's see how he likes a nice, long, cool drink at the bottom of the ocean…." Quickly, he began to gesture once again, his aura once again blazing forth. In a moment, he began to speak the warp spell. "Inflecto Nectunt, seasho—"

Even as Voltaire began to chant, however, the room lighting dimmed sharply. The mana that Richard had been sensing before suddenly blazed forth; his red-haired friend didn't even have time to abort his spell before the entire iron cross gave a massive shudder and made a snapping sound.

A large fissure raced down the middle of it and what looked like rays of something streamed forth from within—not of light, or any form of energy Richard had ever seen before, though he did know what it looked like: a beam of darkness. It literally seemed to make everything it passed darker as it issued forth.

Quickly, Richard and the others dropped to the ground; the blast was so strong that any stray piece of that metal could take off a limb. Pieces of it then rained down around them, forcing the group to quickly back away.

"What the hell happened!?" Troy yelled.

"He couldn't have gotten out!" Voltaire shouted in protest. "That spell was flawless!"

"What the hell is that noise!?" Dan shouted over all that. Richard looked at him oddly for a moment before he realized what Dan was talking about: as the sound of the blast and falling metal died down, there was another roar beyond it, one even louder and more resounding. Something was coming from the direction of Zandoris. Richard and Dan turned to look, and issued audible gasps.

They were in big trouble.

Zandoris was gone…or, rather, replaced. As the ground shook, a massive creature that somewhat resembled a liger, except for the fact that it was about half the size of a Grizanaught, was advancing on them. Huge, monstrous, and rippling with power…and yet unmistakably Zandoris; somehow, its entire body was clad in the same armor from before.

The formerly humanoid skull had twisted into one of the big creature the rest of his body had become, and now the red eyes were clearly the creature's own, the irises glowing like red coals and the pupils brimming with shadows. Its long, catlike claws extended and scraped the ground as it gave a deep-throated snarl, looking like it was sizing them up to eat.

Richard, his fear surging again, nevertheless forced himself to his feet. "He knows a Beast Metamorphosis technique—probably as good as G—as a Magna Centurion's!"

Zandoris suddenly hunched over, like he was about to pounce, and showed that he could talk as easily in this beast mode as he could before by calmly stating, "Tsk—my magical focus is far greater than those pretenders. Your spells were a passable attempt; too bad you couldn't hold me if my body structure suddenly changed! Your assumption was that I am a human—but now you are going to learn the hard way that the elite Jinn Cadre of the Ibis Corps truly is composed of ruthless demon-warriors, and not mere pretenders!"

Voltaire struggled not to lose his composure completely as he retorted, still clearly disturbed, "Impossible—true demons have only ever been said to have existed in the first age of Marvados, after Mavlos and his brother Zenjyu finished their schism; after that, the dragons were said to have eradicated the demons. Any sighting after that could never be proved to be anything more than a myth, a delusion!"

Zandoris suddenly roared again, then barked back, "Do I look like a delusion, boy? Even if everything isn't precisely like the originals, I can assure you I am a demon of wrath; an entity of carnage!

Roaring a third time, the beast instantly sprang off to one side, showing as much agility as Richard had while bonded to Greymont.

With another quick snarl, Zandoris charged right for his prey. Voltaire tried to aim for his beastly enemy's eyes, but Zandoris suddenly swerved away, ran up to a wall, and swiftly jumped off the rocky surface, aiming to land right on the marksman. Quickly, the red-haired man snapped back, performing a retreating leap just like the ones Richard had used earlier, as the thing smashed down where he had been.

He cried out in pain a second later as the beast revealed possession of a long, armored tail, which it lashed out with, striking him hard enough in the back to flick him aside like chaff. Seeing Voltaire down, Richard quickly took off for the monster himself, leaping as well and brandishing his sword for another slice.

To his shock, the monster snapped around fully to him in a blur-like motion, well before his arrival. He saw the beast glaring at him, its teeth bared, but he also noticed the blue light and waves of heat coming off of Zandoris and realized what the latter two observations meant. While the prince was still shooting at him full-speed, the monster leapt into the air, well over Richard's own slash, and snapped its mouth open, sending a wave of blue fire into his path.

Through what he could only assume was Greymont's intervention, somehow Richard snapped his feet down and halted himself before he could go fully into the blaze, and he simultaneously crossed his arm over his face on instinct.

The blue fire engulfed it; fortunately, the fire itself didn't burn him…but, seeing as it super-heated his own armor, regardless of Greymont in it, he still found himself feeling the limb cooking as it was thrown into the flames. He cried out in agony, stunned, allowing the beast to land again. It quickly extended its claws, and raised its paw to cut him down.

Whether the claws would have rent him or not, Richard didn't know, and he luckily didn't get a chance to find out. In a flash, Dan was in front of him, his limb morphed into a Shield Arm, and swinging back at the same descending claw: sparks resulted, but the attack was deflected.

Roaring angrily, the monster immediately extended its claws on its other arm, and began to madly slash at Dan, trying to cut the man to ribbons. Although he forced the gang leader back, Dan continued to block each and every strike, tightening his jaw and putting everything he had into each block.

Not satisfied with this result, the monster's rage seemed to double, and it reared back, crouching momentarily, before lunging at Dan in a pounce. The gang leader dug his feet in and crossed both arms on his shield, ready to intercept…

…only for a flash of violet and red mana to ripple across the body of the beast, sinews and muscles snapping and squishing, metal twisting and warping, and bones condensing, breaking, and reforming.

Just before it landed on the Raven, the beast was gone…and Zandoris, bringing Carnage Edge around from behind himself, was the one coming down on Dan instead. The man's eyes widened in shock as the blade swung for his head.

Remarkably, the result was a clang.

Dan might have only mastered body modification magic for his limbs, but it had to be top-of-the-line mastery: the Shield Arm held.

However, the man on the other side didn't. He actually cried out in pain: his own body had not been braced for the residual power like Richard's had been. He collapsed down to one knee as Zandoris touched down in front of him. Seeing his opponent still standing, the red eyes of the man blazed. "You really are tenacious. I do enjoy fighting enemies that have some spine—but you should realize your chances of victory are…nonexistent."

The black knight quickly made to lash out at Dan again, and the Crimson Tengu Raven exerted all of his strength to keep the large sword back. Despite how dire things were, he threw off a cocky grin and a swagger-filled, "You can tell me the odds all you like, but they don't mean a damn thing to me! People have been telling me all my life what my odds are, and I've busted through plenty of smug bastards like you to prove myself!"

Zandoris suddenly jumped high in the air with a sinister, "Nevertheless, by the time this is over, you WILL submit to fate!"

Instantly, he brought the sword up and hammered down again…and again after that, much more rapidly, driving Dan down to both knees. He quickly beat downwards again and again, trying to at least break the bones of the softer parts of his opponent. It looked like he might succeed.

Before he got that far, though, he suddenly snapped his other hand onto the sword hilt, and Carnage Edge surged with blood-red light as he swung with both arms at once. This was too strong a blow for Dan's bravado to fend off. With a loud snap, the edge of the Shield Arm was cut clean off.

Now Dan truly did scream. The limb appeared to be pure metal, and yet blood flowed as freely from the end of it as it would from a body part. A moment later, the pain forced Dan to revert it back to into flesh and bone. A large hunk of flesh was still missing from near the elbow, and it bled heavily. The gang leader's face tightened in agony, yet, through it all, as he clutched the limb to his chest and soaked his shirt in blood, he glared hatefully at Zandoris. "Damn you!"

The black knight merely held his sword before himself, not making the move to finish him; on the contrary, a moment later, he snapped back with another nimble leap…just as Richard came forward and swiped his sword through where Zandoris had just been. The young man went a bit wide-eyed, as fresh fear sank into him: Zandoris was starting to learn how they fought; how they only struck when he was able to make his own blow.

The Jinn Cadre member saw Richard's attempt to attack and sneered. "It's always refreshing to see opponents who fight with honor, but there's a thin line between the spirit of a warrior and the spirit of fools who are too stubborn to know their place. Rai-Lance!"

The jewel on Zandoris' chest was gleaming again, and he snapped his arm back and made a gesture, as if he was holding something. A second later, he let forth his spell. This one wasn't quite as abominable as the others he'd used: with a few finger gestures, lightning erupted from the palm of the figure and instantly blazed forth in bright glory, elongating and condensing until it looked as if the iron giant of a warrior was wielding a raw thunderbolt. An instant later, he flung it straight at Richard.

In his panic, the young man thought only of stopping the attack; he snapped his blade out in the hope that the Aura Edge would deflect or negate it. Too late, he realized his mistake: touching the bolt with his blade instantly made it burst into dozens of smaller bolts that snaked everywhere, piercing not only him in ten different places at once, but hitting Dan as well. Greymont might as well have not even been there, given his metallic nature.

The electric surge made Richard's muscles completely stiff and wracked his body with fresh pain. His muscles were so completely seized that he wasn't even able to get a shout of agony out, though it felt like parts of his body he hadn't even known existed were being stabbed; Dan felt much the same, though to a lesser degree. What they didn't realize immediately was that Requiem had taken the brunt of the attack—if he hadn't, Dan probably wouldn't have survived.

When the lightning was finally spent, Dan was already on his knees, but his arms fell to his sides. Richard couldn't support himself at all; his whole body was numb. He immediately fell down to one knee as well. The only reason he didn't collapse entirely was because he had hunched over—he wasn't sure if it was his armor or Greymont that had caused that, but right now his mind was so tangled he couldn't speak to him to ask.

"You're more than the common warrior; perhaps you even have the strength to realistically pursue your vision for so-called 'justice'," the black knight observed as he drew himself into a victorious stance, extending his blade to point at them, "but the Jinn Cadre of the Ibis Corps aren't mere mortals; we're living demons! And I have no patience for lambs who dare the wolf to slaughter them!"

Richard couldn't even get enough strength in his head to look up yet, and his senses were still coming back. He wasn't sure if Zandoris was going in for the finishing blow or not, but when he did finally start to raise his eyes, it was instead his ears that noted the next action: a loud whistle.

"Hey! 'Wolfie'! How about you start begging for your life before I make a rug out of you?"

The black knight stood where he was a moment; Richard thought he heard a quiet noise from under his helmet…a sigh. Zandoris turned his head, but not his body, to the voice: Troy was finally stepping out again. He still looked ripped from the Titan Force spell; for a moment, Richard couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't stepped in earlier…. At any rate, he looked rather smug once again.

Zandoris was unimpressed. "After how useless your strength was against me before, and what you have seen since, you still haven't learned your lesson, vagabond?"

Troy tightened his fists again and snorted. "Go ahead while you can, you smug bastard; keep patting yourself on the back. You think that was my full strength?" He grinned and gave a chuckle. "Why, I've just never been up against a guy who needed more than half—most chumps are dead after that!"

Richard blinked: was he serious? He couldn't look to Dan to find out —he was still too numb— but Troy sure looked like he meant it.

Troy cracked his neck a bit. "It does take a while to bring out, though; you might have got me if you had nailed me while I was still focusing. Luckily, dumbass, you wasted all your time hacking away at Nicholson and Requiem!" Grinning a bit more, he smacked his fist into his palm. "Get ready, bucket-head! Here's where the party really gets started! Titan Force: Full Surge!"

Immediately, he chanted again. Zandoris didn't move: perhaps he doubted him; perhaps he wanted Troy to go ahead and prove himself. Whatever the reason, Troy had time to cast Titan Force again, although he appended something to it this time: a few words to bring out more power.

And, when it took effect, Richard nearly gasped: it was almost as if Troy was going through a bestial transformation spell himself. The sounds of his muscles swelling and enlarging rivaled the noises that Zandoris had made with his own transformation; his veins bulged so much, it looked for a moment that his skin would rip right off his body.

His armor twisted and groaned, actually deforming as his body as he kept getting bigger and more muscular. It wasn't long before he was approaching the size of Zandoris himself—only, instead of armor making up the extra bulk, it was nothing but raw muscle. Richard could feel the air change again, this time with the raw force radiating off of Troy.

The young man forced his upper body up, and finally saw Dan was raising his head as well. He couldn't help but look to him in astonishment. "This is his full power? Is he even human?"

Dan chuckled. "Well…" he weakly answered, "…he's been boasting for ten years that he's the strongest man in the world…and he once threw a whole ship off a building."

Beneath the mask, Richard's jaw smacked his faceplate's bottom. "Like…a rowboat, or a…?"

"Might be a swell idea to keep back for now; he's a berserker like this…." Dan added as he grunted and tried to back away. "In fact, I'd normally say it's suicide for us to even be here, but, well, our-hands-are-tied, and all…."

Zandoris, seeing this change, turned fully away from the two and faced Troy, getting back into a fighting stance. "Gigas magic—who would have thought such a simpleton would have known it…?"

Troy didn't answer…well, not directly. Instead, his growing ceased as he craned his head to the sky and gave a rather bestial roar of his own. His palms smacked his chest, as if he was nothing more than an oversized gorilla…although at this point, a real gorilla wouldn't just back down; it'd flee.

When he glared at Zandoris, Richard could have sworn he almost looked more like a wild animal than a man. When he spoke, his voice was distorted and deeper, having lost the trappings of humanity.

"How do you like that, sucker!? This is the strength of a real man, you poser! You can't hide behind your demon act forever; all those fancy magic tricks mean jack-squat in the face of absolute force! All right, hotshot: ROUND TWO!"

Zandoris hissed in response, snapping his arm up and immediately chanting again. In an instant, a second Rai-Lance was in his arm, as Troy broke into a rather earth-shaking charge for him. The iron giant snapped his arm out and flung it dead at him. The hulking man didn't even bother to counter; he let it strike him dead-center in the chest, immediately exploding into the same shower of lightning bolts as before, only this time striking full-force and in full measure into a single target.

And Troy didn't even slow down. He only grinned more wildly than ever as he slapped his hands together and brought them over his head.

"That itched," he said, before slamming both fists down to the ground.

Richard was overwhelmed by what happened next. The entire cavern gave a violent tremor; the hills were about to come down on them. Dan snapped out his uninjured arm, seized him by the backplate, and dragged him away as the ground was violently dislodged, upheaving stone and soil as a shock-wave traveled through it and straight for Zandoris, fragmenting any boulders in the way. He saw it nearing, and quickly leapt into the air to evade it…

…only for Troy to instantly be in front of him again, having instantly snapped up and leapt. The enormous Raven gave him a wild grin for a split second—before unloading another uppercut into the other giant. This time, Zandoris' body was immediately twisted as his head snapped all the way back, and his entire bulk was sent skyward to crash violently into the ceiling.

The impact was so brutal he cracked the ceiling before crumpling against it and falling back down again, looking too dazed from the blow to brace himself. Troy, letting out a booming laugh, immediately shot to the ground due to the recoil, then leapt again, meeting him midair and again lifting his fists.

A fraction of a second later, he smashed them into the falling Jinn Cadre, this time downwards. A shockwave soon shot through the ground again, this time from Zandoris smashing down into it and creating a shallow crater.

Richard was again grateful for the mask, as he would otherwise have looked rather overwhelmed at this point, a far cry from his "cold" persona. He wondered how in the world Dan could keep such a…a juggernaut in line. Maybe they grew up together…? At any rate, he found himself backing up all the way with Dan to the nearest wall, and then wishing it wasn't there, so he might retreat further.

"How do you like that, freak!?" Troy bellowed as he flexed his muscles. "Feel like calling me stupid now!? Get up, you poser! I'm barely warmed up!"

Richard was honestly wondering what would happen if Zandoris was taken down, only for Troy to prove to be hostile as well; right now, he looked like a wild animal, not a man…yet it seemed that line of thinking was a tad premature. Again, the rocks shifted where the iron giant had been launched, before he slowly picked his way out again.

There was, however, some cause for enthusiasm this time: while he got out normally enough, his armor was dented this time from the blows. Underneath his skull-like facepiece, everyone could hear he was breathing a little harder than before—not nearly as bad as some of the Ravens, but it showed he felt pain from the blows….

"So the ape can hit rather hard. Even harder than me…." Zandoris pondered as he straightened and raised his sword again.

Troy, getting a small ego boost from that, grinned wider. "You think? You're looking at the strongest man in the whole damn world!"

"Don't be so proud of your muscles," the figure answered simply. "The power of a brute, no matter how large, is insignificant next to the power of one who has embraced the depths of the shadow arts. A being as savage as you, barely above a base creature, could never understand true power. Your weak-mindedness is your chain!"

The grin turned to a scowl as Troy tightened his fists again and spat to one side. "After that beating I just gave you, you're still acting like you're so big and bad? Maybe I ought to snap that jaw of yours next, to make you learn some respect…."

Zandoris didn't answer verbally: instead, he suddenly snapped his sword out to one side. Again, the jewel in his chest glowed, and the aura burst to surround him once more as a low chanting rumbled throughout the room.

"As I said before, a blunt instrument can never hope to master one who has been enlightened and shattered the chains that delude base creatures! You will all submit to the will of the darkness. Sinister Feast!"

Richard dreaded greatly what was coming…but was more fearful about the fact that Zandoris wasn't even shaken up. He knew that could only mean one thing: the Majin Chevalier still had more power to spare. The giant snapped his sword around, and drove it forth, straight into the broken ground.

Immediately, his aura poured off of him and into the blade, and he gave it a mighty twist, as if releasing a massive lock. Once again, a red glyph came forth from this; different from the last one, but no less powerful.

In the wake of this one, a black-and-red miasma —matching the colors of the black knight— issued forth as if someone had just snapped a steam vent. This mist billowed forth for but a few moments, then immediately arched and went over to Troy, quickly sweeping around to surround him.

Troy looked about, showing just the slightest hint of tension for a moment, before he grinned again. "Poison? Acid? Heh—either way, it ain't gonna work, punk!"

For a moment, the mist only continued to thicken in response…but then, something began to come from it. At first, it was only a faint sound, and could have been mistaken for anything, but it quickly grew louder, and took on a rather unsettling nature: it sounded like moaning.

Not just one voice, but from numerous sources; all agonized; all despairing. Troy's smile faded again as he looked about, and the others looked fearful as well as they saw the mist quickly fragment and condense into smaller clouds. They shrank further after that, no longer smoke at all, but something solid:

Skulls.

A cloud of black human skulls, each one of them giving wailing, hideous moans of despair. The sounds alone were bad enough, but seeing them swirling around Troy like a swarm of insects, clicking their jaws between moans and looking nearly ravenous…even Troy was frozen with a look of dread for a moment. However, he forced a smile. "Seriously…that's your trick? Flying skulls? This ain't a haunted house, and I ain't five, or—AAAAAH!"

While Troy was still talking, the skulls had suddenly flown forward, two of them opening their mouths wide and latching onto one of his arms, biting hard. Whether they broke the skin or not was unclear, and didn't matter—a moment later, they turned bright red, glowing like lava, and exploded. The explosion wasn't of the fireball variety; nor was it like a shrapnel-spraying grenade, but was instead rather like a water balloon bursting, immediately showering the arm of the big man with black fluid…and then hissing and sizzling noises became audible as it began to melt the skin right off of his body.

The others gaped in horror; Dan swore, too shocked to even be angry for a moment. As for Zandoris, he continued to keep one hand on his blade, but his eyes flickered out to the rest. As Troy continued to bellow in agony, the demonic knight swung his hand out.

"Bring them death."

In a flash, all of the horrible, moaning, black skulls snapped around as if on pivots, and aimed themselves, several to each member of the Crimson Tengu Ravens. Then, giving a loud wail, they shot forward. Immediately, it was every man for himself; everyone broke in all directions, the horrific skulls literally nipping at their heels.

Zach spun around and fired wildly, but the small magic constructs were smart enough to evade the attacks altogether by scattering. Another swarm came in from another side, quickly trying to attack him from another angle while he was still shooting.

In response, Voltaire quickly moved up to him and swept his arm out, his stud blazing and enveloping both in a shield. The skulls struck it, and immediately bounced lightly off. They clicked their jaws a moment…and then dove in, snapping their bony mouths, and started to literally eat their way into the barrier. The red-haired man swallowed, clearly not knowing what else to do.

Hector was half-fleeing, half-flailing as he struggled to get a shield up around him, but he hadn't been as far along as Eloy, and it kept collapsing. Troy continued to bellow as he madly seized a piece of rock and swung it around him. Rocky dashed for cover behind another boulder, two of the skulls hot on his heels and terror in his eyes.

He quickly crossed and lay flat on the side opposite his pursuers, and the skulls flew through the air where he had just been, hitting the boulder instead. They burst just as before, and began to melt away the stone, but that was all. A moment later, Rocky slowly leaned his head up, blinking as he saw what had happened. He smiled and shouted a second later:

"Guys! They can only hit something once! We just have to—"

He never saw the skull smacking into the side of his head, having approached from a blind spot. Over half of his head was immediately engulfed in the black fluid; he only had a chance to begin to realize before he went still. Moments later, his face and the majority of his skull were gone, and his body collapsed to the ground.

Richard and Dan could only dodge, and Dan was still bleeding, struggling to quell the flow. The former leader of the Hammer Wolves glanced about, and saw another of his comrades was gone forever. Zach gave a yell from his side, filled with rage: Rocky had been one of his closest friends. However, he couldn't even shoot at the ones breaking into Voltaire's shields at this point.

After a time, Dan snapped at Richard. "Guy can't be invincible; he's got to have a weakness, right? There's something you can still do…right?"

On hearing this, struggling to avoid the latest barrage himself, Richard realized that even Dan's confidence was beginning to break; the faith the others had held was already gone. They weren't a group anymore, much less any sort of order, of justice or otherwise; they were panicking…scared…losing…and, most importantly, dying. All of their tricks, technology, and techniques had failed, and Zandoris didn't even look winded. They were nothing compared to this opponent—and they were all going to die very soon.

For a brief moment, Richard almost gave in to the despair himself. He was running out of power; the others couldn't even defend themselves…and, in the face of that, he thought how insane this whole thing had been to begin with.

What had he been thinking? That, because he could beat up some street punks, he could do anything? He was helpless before every other Magna Centurion; how could he hope to stop anything happening in his kingdom, much less change anything permanently? What power did he have? What could he do?

Yet, as he thought of that, he refused to believe it; he had come too far already. He had meant what he'd said: his family and his kingdom meant everything to him. To have a world where things like justice and honor mattered; where you didn't always get your way simply because you were the biggest guy in the room and could treat everything weaker than you like they were commodities…that was what he believed in now.

He wanted his kingdom free of corruption. He wanted something good to exist in this world, and for it to actually count for something. Most of all, he wanted to make those who thought their own power, authority, wealth, or status made them 'above' morality feel the same fears and pains that they enjoyed inflicting on others.

He couldn't do that if he lost today; he couldn't do that if he died today. It didn't matter if victory was impossible by any stretch of the imagination; he still had only one choice.

He had to execute justice on this man. He had to win.

Quickly, Richard breathed more power into his Aura Edge, making it blaze brighter than before with renewed power. He hated how it tired him out a bit, but he ignored that as he stepped forward. Holding the sword out, he took in a deep breath and cried out with his Greymont-enhanced voice, as loud as he could:

"ENOUGH!"

The dark being turned his head to Richard at that. Not only did he halt, but the skulls seemed to pause in midair and look at him as well.

"Is this your way of saying you give in?" Zandoris asked after a moment. "That you finally see the inevitability of your consumption by shadow?

"It was 'Requiem', right? I don't know how insane you must be to have launched such a hopeless crusade, but the only 'requiem' you've composed was one for yourself and those stupid enough to be swept up in such nonsense. If you were trying to be the champion of fools, it's only fitting that you have a fool's end. No empty heroics can bring salvation to this rotting world!"

Richard let his anger explode as he snapped out, "And you think, just because you and your comrades are strong, it gives you the right to judge who has the right to live?"

His murderous enemy quickly retorted, "Strength is the only real verification of will; everything else is just to delude the weak into thinking they have more power than they could ever possess! The ones with the power make the rules—that's the cruel reality of this world!"

Richard could no longer stomach the ravings of his demented enemy, and pointed his blade, quivering with fury, right at the towering armored being's face. "Once more, that's just how you see it, Zandoris!

"Call me naive or whatever else you can think of, but these people you judge as 'weak' and 'worthless' don't always choose to have their lives be what they are! Sometimes people have no choice but to survive with whatever few means available to them. Is it 'weak' to hang on even when things seem hopeless?

"I am not going to let your power —or anything else— make me give in to fear! No matter how terrible things get, I'll never stop fighting to bring hope to those suffering from the likes of you! I already told you I'm a demon of vengeance, and that you're a deranged, sadistic psychopath. The only real demon here you need to be worried about is me!"

Zandoris actually paused, silently staring at Requiem with the most incredulous look a skull could give. Richard merely stood there with legs planted and sword out—he had a plan. Finally, a short, dark chuckle came from under the helmet.

"Your determination is appreciable…but your stupidity disgusts me," the Jinn Cadre stated as he waved his hand, causing the skulls to start to advance again. "There is nothing in this world I hate more than the weak boasting of something they can never attain. Still, since you at least have some spine, I will be merciful enough to give you an honorable death!"

At the snap of his wrist, the skulls gave a moan, and then quickly snapped forth in a flood headed straight for Richard, ignoring everyone else.

That, however, was exactly what the young man wanted. Hoping this wasn't suicide, he didn't wait for them to come, but charged straight at his opponent. The first wave of skulls came in from one side, but Richard snapped the sword around in the most powerful slash he could muster. It worked: not only did the skulls burst on contact, but the raw power sent the black fluid that resulted away from him, leaving him in the clear to pick up speed and keep coming.

Zandoris' gaze narrowed, and the next wave swept in on Richard from the other side. Feeling his muscles burning and sweat mounting now, Richard forced the blade the other way, just as powerfully. He felt like he wrenched his arm a bit in doing so, but it worked—the next wave of skulls was likewise destroyed. Richard kept coming.

Having had his armor pierced by Auro Solais once, the black knight wasn't eager for another strike. He snapped out Carnage Edge, and immediately swiped it down at Richard. As tired as he was from the two extra-powered slices he'd blocked already, Richard quickly swung his sword up in a parrying strike.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to deflect the blow; instead, the two blades locked. Greymont immediately locked his friend into position, and Richard dug his own feet in, putting his full force of his body into the clash as the two blades scraped and sparked, holding tight against one another.

By now, Zandoris' eyes were beginning to burn again. A quiet anger was building in him, just as it had with Troy. He glared down at his smaller opponent hatefully for a moment.

"You fool—it's futile!"

Abruptly, the Majin Chevalier snapped back. Richard, having put almost all of his power into that last strike to brace himself, was left stunned and unable to recover for a moment—and that was all Zandoris needed to shoot forward again, swinging his sword upwards in an underhand strike. Richard tried to snap away, but was too slow: even with Greymont fueling him, the tip of Carnage Edge still swung far enough to scrape his breastplate and cut into it.

At once, Richard heard a whine in his head: something bestial and reptilian. Yet that wasn't all: the metal of his breastplate suddenly gave a ripple, and actually peeled away from the area where it had been cut. Beneath his helmet, the young man's face showed his surprise: this man had actually made Greymont separate from him?

He wasn't the only one surprised: Zandoris actually paused in his assault, slamming down on the ground so hard that he knocked up another chunk of rock at an angle to perch upon, and stared at the scrape; one of his brow ridges actually quirked, as if raising an eyebrow. He snapped out of it a moment later, however.

He snapped his blade over his head, and the remaining skulls quickly streamed in and bonded to it; they didn't burst, but rather melted down into their black liquid, coating the blade.

As soon as the last one had done so, the black ooze seemed to literally turn into darkness, enveloping the whole sword in the same black energy that the ray of darkness had shone with when Zandoris had burst from Voltaire's trap earlier…

…but all of this took time.

The assault had merely been a distraction—since unleashing his Aura Edge, Richard had been building mana for another technique. At this point, his mana was growing weak; he knew he had power enough only for one more trump card…and there was only one move he knew of that could even hope to do it.

As the last skull was still sinking into Zandoris' blade, Richard's arm began to transform again, just as it had the night before. In moments, it went from a metal limb into a massive cannon barrel…and all of his power was flowing into it.

In spite of this spell's previously-demonstrated power, though, he couldn't help but feel fear and hesitation.

Troy had almost as much raw physical power as my brothers—and the best he could do is dent the armor. This attack is the biggest thing I have, but if it fails, we're dead. None of us have anything left; I don't know if I can even manage another Aura Edge. Even if it injures him, so long as he's still able to fight, we won't win.

Think; use your head, like Uncle Nathan would…

Richard didn't know what to do: he could aim for his foe's head, but Zandoris had time to put something in front of it. He needed to decide quickly, before Zandoris brought Carnage Edge down, but he had only split seconds…and all he could see or think of was the wrecked and ruined cave, far weaker than anything that they were throwing around….

That's it!

"My will's stronger than you think," Richard boasted as his arm's transformation completed, and he quickly snapped the weapon around and aimed it at the black knight. The end was already glowing with light, and it was making the same sound it had yesterday: it was charging to his full potential, even stronger than before. Zandoris froze, his eyes widening again on seeing this new attack.

Beneath his helmet, Richard smiled as he aimed the weapon down and at the wedge-shaped rock Zandoris was standing on.

"If you don't have any faith in my ability to deliver, Zandoris, then I'll just make you a believer! Flare Buster!"

The Jinn Cadre's red eyes widened even more, realizing what was about to happen.

"You wretched—"

He was drowned out as the cannon erupted with such power that Richard was again snapped back, his Greymont-bracing into the ground nearly breaking clean away from the recoil.

What got hit far worse, though, was the stone on which Zandoris had perched. The force and power alone were enough to make him instantly vanish in light…before, a heartbeat later, the armored giant was turned into a rocket, launched so hard off the ground he immediately smashed into a cavernous rock wall…and straight through it.

The length of three Electro Ball courts worth of stone separated as Zandoris flew from his initial point of contact with the rock wall to the air outside the hill, through a large chunk of sky, and into a rocky wall in the distance. Shortly after that, an explosion roared out.

Richard, on his part, panted and wheezed. Stretching before him now, and still smoldering, was a tunnel leading out towards the island's edge and the hill in the distance where the Flare Buster had exploded. His arm was still smoking, and at the moment he was bracing himself with his sword as a crutch. He had nothing left now.

After pausing to get his breath back for a moment, Richard nearly spoke to ask how Greymont was doing after that slash…but he was cut off by the sounds of shifting stone behind him. Immediately realizing the others were likely in far worse shape, he turned back to them. The group was slowly picking themselves up, all still looking rather sore, but at least alive, and obviously quite relieved.

As everyone saw smoke rising from the aftermath of the Flare Buster, Dan balled a fist and couldn't help but pump out eagerly, "Nice! Even someone as stoked as that can't just tank a blast like that at point-blank range! Requiem owned him; we've got this in the—"

Before he could finish, Voltaire swiftly put up his right hand and interjected tersely, "Let's hold off the boasting till we are sure the madman is dead, yes? Don't jinx us. "

Dan cringed and fell silent. Richard sheathed his blade as he took in the extent of what his blast caused (and a few labored breaths) before he grabbed his transformed arm tightly and muttered, "That was too close; almost didn't make it. I knew I had to fire before he could counter for the Flare Buster to work…. Despite everything, at least I was able to—Huh? No! NO! Impossible!"

Everyone was consumed with dread as they saw the rocks on a hill in the distance —where the Flare Bluster had exploded— start to shift. The pile of rocks proceeded to collapse, and Zandoris staggered out. As Richard, Voltaire and the others used the Dragon Lenses Scanners to zoom in and get a better look of the nightmare unfolding in front of them, the collective terror of the group subsided somewhat, for they all realized that Zandoris had not gone through the attack unscathed: with most of the black knight's right arm and shoulder now completely vaporized, and his masked face and chest being full of red-hot burns and cracks, it was clear that Richard's attack had hit home.

And yet, despite being so wounded that he was forced to lean on his massive sword for support, Zandoris just kept walking forward, like some sort of Jaeger Cog, the sole reason for existence of which was to terminate its targets without pause.

The monstrous enforcer of the Ibis Corps saw his opponents in the distance gazing at him, and chuckled darkly and called back, "I concede that you're a rather devious fighter, Requiem. That power; that passion—it's clear you have the drive to push you through despair. You might be more persistent than I assumed…. Whatever the case, it's clear you're no normal man—not with that aura that surrounds you!

"I haven't been this injured in a duel in quite a long time…to think the likes of you would push me this far…. So be it. This is exhilarating; you have showed me the power of your will—and so I shall respect you by showing you the power of mine!"

Troy had managed to rebound somewhat from his injuries, thanks to the endurance and regeneration that his Titan Force spells gave him, and as he heard Zandoris state this, he spit on the ground and barked out, "C'mon—they call me stubborn, but this is ridiculous! Your arm is busted, jackass; even you can't shrug that off! What are you doing to do, bleed on us?" He then added, in an aside, "I mean, the Flare Buster blasted him to another freaking hill—even he has to realize the fight's over, right!?"

Despite his right arm just barely hanging onto him like a nearly-snapped branch, Zandoris clenched his good hand tightly, then responded sharply, "I suppose my injuries are composed of a bit more than mere flesh wounds. However, I only need one arm to unleash my wrath!"

Zandoris lifted Carnage Edge into the air, and a dark aura began to shimmer around the Ibis Corps enforcer's body. Suddenly, the skull-masked man's eyes began to burn even brighter than before; the ground around him cracked, and some sort of dark essence suddenly began to coalesce and condense into a blood-red orb.

This orb grew bigger by the second, and, as it grew, the entire area around Zandoris seemed to flicker from the sheer heat coming off of the dark magic. Richard saw the intensity in his opponent's eyes and stepped back. "How…how can he just shrug off such an injury? Was that an augmented arm?"

Zandoris narrowed his eyes. "You thought such wounds would cause me to submit? Like your hulking comrade, pain sharpens my drive. Still, you should feel privileged that you made me resort to my most intense magic spell; your deaths will be remembered! Even if you widen the distance between us, it does you little good when I can shatter the entire island you're on with one focused magical assault!

"Velga Coron—Huh?"

Just as it looked like Zandoris was going to unleash the blood-red miniature star, he suddenly froze in place. After remaining motionless for a few seconds, Zandoris turned around and looked into the sky, then cursed in a language Richard didn't understand or recognize.

The skull-faced man then glanced back at the Crimson Tengu Ravens, snarling venomously. "They had to come now, of all times? Bah—it's not timely to engage with the likes of them in such a state…."

Zandoris suddenly thrust Carnage Edge into his magic spell, absorbing the dark, magical orb into his sword. He then glanced at Richard and gave a snicker: "It seems fate smiles on you rabble yet: I don't have time to finish this duel…today."

Zandoris then shocked everyone once more, this time by casually walking off the cliff's edge. Everyone saw the big splash, and, as Voltaire saw that Zandoris did indeed seem to be done fighting, at least for the moment, he took a deep breath. "Well," he muttered, "any fight you can walk away from, I suppose…."

Dan coughed a bit, waving smoke away from his face. "Got to hand it to you, Requiem—my first thought would have been to give that son-of-a-bitch a faceful of…of whatever you shoot out of that thing. Clever thinking."

The praise wasn't as enthusiastic as Dan's normally was, though he forced a weak smile. It faded soon after, when his eyes drifted around, first to the scorch mark that had once been Eloy, and then to Rocky.

Richard himself turned and looked, and it made him feel terrible that he could barely stand to even look at what was left of Rocky. He couldn't imagine what Dan was feeling right now; while he had secretly known of the possibility that some of his new allies could be killed in action, he never expected it would happen so soon…and he greatly feared what this meant.

In the end, Dan looked away: it seemed he was trying to focus on what they still had, not who they had lost. "Is everyone…everyone else okay?"

Zach coughed a bit, and everyone could see in the illumination of what few lights were left a red splatter come out with it. "I've been better, but I think I'll live…."

Troy grasped his arm and grunted. "Dumb Ibis Corps punk thinks he got me?" He spat. "I don't go down so easy. I just…see three of you guys, is all…."

Voltaire looked at his own wounded arm and exhaled. "None of us are exactly in 'fighting form' at the moment. It's safe to say today didn't go well, so it's best we retreat to the safe zone as soon as possible, rather than risk having local officers come in and see what's left of these people and assume we're the ones who did it. Requiem, ready to move out?"

Richard sighed, and began to walk towards the new exit—might as well use it, after all. He wished that that had gone better, but Voltaire was right: they could worry about things after they got out of here and regrouped. He had to think of what they were going to do if they ran into that man again, though….

A noise wafted in through the tunnel, this one definitely the sound of an engine.

The moment it struck Richard's ears, he froze in place: he knew that noise. The others began to move towards the exit, only to see their leader had stopped. They looked back to him, but he didn't move. In fact, whereas in the previous fight he had managed to at least keep a bold face on…they noticed that, for the first time, it seemed as if Requiem was shaking.

Beneath the armor, fresh memories of pain had filled the young man with fresh horror as the sound grew louder: they weren't out of the woods yet—far from it.

"Oh, no…."

Voltaire blinked at this, quirking his brow, and looked through the opening of the cave; the others soon did the same. The noise continued to get louder, until it was unmistakable that the sound was that of an airship engine, one that was coming in for a landing not far from here. After a moment, it swept out of the clouds visible outside: it was indeed an airship…a very big one.

The red-haired man rolled his eyes and let out a long, tired groan. "Oh, hell…."

Dan gave a shrug. "What's the big deal? It's just an airship landing."

"That's not an airship, my good man; it's a warship," Voltaire answered tiredly, and with growing anxiety. "Specifically, an Aurino warship. The markings on its sides; the emblem on the front; I'd know the sound and shape of a Typhoon-Class Surge Zeppelin anywhere."

Richard suddenly snapped up and looked to the others; he lost his façade of Requiem completely, and turned insistent. "We've got to get out of here, right now, any way we can. I know that ship's customizations—there's only one group that uses a Surge Zeppelin of that class customized like that."

"Who?" Zach asked.

A moment later, a booming sound came in through the tunnel: a voice on a loudspeaker…a voice belonging to someone familiar to at least one Crimson Tengu Raven.

"Attention, citizens of Costa Toro! This is the Magna Centurions! We have received an alert while en route to the capitol that there is an uprising occurring in this province! I and three others of my order with me will deploy shortly, and execute our directive to bring justice upon any who cause conflict on the soil of the Aurino Kingdom! You will all stay indoors until we withdraw!"

A pause.

"And if any of you rebel maggots can hear me, you'd best save yourself the trouble and kill yourselves now, because that'll be better than what I'm going to do to you!"

Richard staggered a bit on hearing that, fresh fear flooding him. His worst fears were realized: he hadn't wanted to run into his family again so soon, but there was someone else he feared encountering far more than his brothers or father…

"Bolton Steiner," he found himself saying before he could catch himself.

Dan looked far more dismayed, but for a different reason: "Did that dude just say four Magna Centurions?"

"Out of the frying pan…" Voltaire muttered.

Richard held a second more, then snapped out of it, immediately beckoning to the others as he turned from the tunnel and tried to find a less visible escape route.

"I don't care if you're hurt; everyone move as fast as you can. If we're discovered, you'll wish Zandoris had finished us."

With a quick look at his current surroundings, Richard tried to think of the best way to escape the attention of his former comrades, praying with all his willpower that the night would not end in an ill-timed reunion.