10 Crimson Rage: Part 4

"Don't you run from me!" roared Igor as he threw punches after punches towards Alexio, who kept dodging every attacks while floating backwards. The duo kept clashing in this way throughout the complex, shaking the entire ship. Frustrated by it, Igor drew his plasma sword and swung it in a wide arc. Alexio, anticipating the attack, flipped back and punched his sword as it passed above him, disintegrating it. He still seemed relaxed despite the power difference between the two, listening intently to the song playing. The aura around him seemed to have changed from a raging fire to a calm stream as well. Despite being unable to land a decisive blow, Alexio was countering Igor's every attack almost perfectly, anticipating his every move.

"How's he faster than before? What did he do? I'm sure the power difference between us should have rattled him but now he's even calmer than before."

Igor was perplexed but he wasn't going to lose, not with his entire race resting in the balance. Under ordinary conditions, he would not make such a bet but this called for a more extreme approach since he absolutely must not die here.

"You should try it sometime. Music is really helpful in calming the nerves and clearing the mind. When I couldn't use my powers as delicately as I can now, music helped me in gaining control. I've learned and practiced all my life with it. I may not be as strong as you now but you can't land a blow on me either. You're going to die here."

Even though Alexio was talking tough, he was getting exhausted. The tripled exertion was starting to wear him down and he had barely two minutes left before he's completely depleted. Just then, Igor and Alexio rushed at each other at the same time, bringing their fists back to land a powerful blow.

"Haaaaa!"

"Oraaaa!" The collision of their fists was so tremendous that the surrounding walls began to crumble and Richard had to reluctantly move from his cozy spot. Even after the collision, neither of them retracted their hands but instead began pushing the other back. Sparks flew from the impact point of their fists with their auras struggling against each other in the same way. Alexio tried with all of his strength but was unable to push Igor back, instead was being pushed back himself. Alexio changed the direction of his fist to direct Igor downwards. Unfortunately, Igor regained his balance faster than Alexio thought he would, and landed a kick on his stomach, sending Alexio flying. He crashed against the wall and fell down, spitting out blood. Alexio then said out aloud,

"Shit this ain't good. Even with a times three multiplier, I can't keep up with him. Father, you gonna help or not? Otherwise I'm actually going to die."

"I already declared this as a test of spirit. If you lose here, you won't be able to accept my gift. I doubt I can take him by myself so either way, we're fucked if you don't win."

"Haha! Foolish choice, Richard! I have an entire planet on my side, lending me strength to fight him! Did you really believe he'd win? After this failure of a son, you're next. My troops can surround this place the moment I give them the command."

Richard remained silent, instead returned to the book he had been reading. Alexio looked even more exhausted after that last blow, his aura thinning by the second.

"Whoops. I just remembered, you can't do ranged attacks, can you Alexio? Ha ha! Then take this!"Igor began firing energy blasts towards Alexio, who had no choice but to dodge continuously, expending both time left in his ascended state and stamina. In his anxious state, he failed to notice that Igor wasn't throwing energy blasts randomly but was attempting to corner him. Igor thene threw a giant energy blast which exploded midair into several smaller ones which were harder to dodge. Even with his immense speed, Alexio couldn't dodge all of them and was hit in multiple spots. Tattered and bleeding, he finally noticed his surroundings,

"You have GOT to be kidding me. Wh-When did you set this up?"

Dozens of energy blasts floated around him, cornering him like an injured animal with no means to dodge the next attack.

"Now this ends. DIE!"

Igor brought both of his hands forward and fired a tremendous wave of energy towards Alexio. But then, Alexio fired a wave of energy as well, which shocked Igor who was under the impression that he couldn't do ranged attacks.

"Impressive! But you can't beat me with such a puny attack! Hrrah!"

His energy wave began to grow in both intensity and range as Alexio was beginning to get overwhelmed and ultimately was overpowered by it. The energy wave completely enveloped Alexio and blasted him away towards the wall and he exploded in a blinding light. As the dust began to settle, Igor turned to the spot where Richard was sitting,

"Now then, Richard, time to get back to your cell. I'm afraid I can't kill you yet, since we need something from yo-Wait..Huh?" The spot where Richard was supposed to be, there was merely a book.

���Here, fool."

Igor turned furiously to the spot where Alexio was supposed to be, blasted against the wall. But instead of seeing a burnt body of a young man, he saw Richard against the wall, with his plasma shield up. He was smiling as smug as ever and was barely scathed thanks to his shield.

"What the-What? You were the one who fired the energy wave? When did you-"

Igor was cut off by the sound of someone jumping towards him from behind. He only had the time to look behind as he saw Alexio above him with tendrils conjured in both his hands, with each tendril wrapped around a plasma blade. He swung his new weapon in a wide arc towards Igor, who had no time to even guard as he was sliced by dozens of blades that embedded themselves in his body. The look of fear was apparent on his face as he began to realize that he had lost this fight from the moment he counted Richard out of the fight.

"GG. Take this! God Slicer!"

The blades embedded in his body began to spark furiously as they exploded, sending Igor flying towards the wall. Richard came down from his spot, almost unscathed. He walked up to his son and clapped him on the back, startling Alexio.

"Ow! What was that for?" Alexio was breathing hard and bleeding in multiple places. His ascended form was gone as the overclocker had finally overloaded.

"Brilliantly done! I didn't think you had that much left in you to switch that fast. Well, the dim lighting in this place did help. Still, I'm surprised as to how you knew such an opportunity would come."

Alexio wiped the blood off of his face and spoke,

"I knew he was aware of the battle of spirits when I fought him in Pandira city. My initial plan was to beat him when he bets on everyone lives on this ship and then take control of the ship but to think he'd do something so idiotic. I knew I had no chance to beat him in a one on one fight. That's why I'm so glad you picked up on what I was up to without any kind of signal. Oh and BETA? You can turn off the music now."

"Of course I did. You're my son, after all. So, what's next?"

"Let's go get what you came here for."

Both of them walked up to the place where Igor crashed. He had managed to sit up but was unable to do much else due to blood loss. The aura around him had disappeared and he seemed desperate to get away. As he saw Alexio and his dad approach him, he could only put on a defensive stance with his hands as Alexio grabbed not him but something on his back.

"Y-You said i-it was the battle of s-spirits. Then why..? And h-how did you know a-about the axe..?"

"You fool. I am not one to declare a battle of spirits without proper blessings or audience. And this is a war, not a battle. You desperately clung to the hope that I will let you fight one on one with my son but I never intended to. You were careless to act on incomplete knowledge of our traditions. The moment I came onto the ship, I was hell bent on killing you but I knew I had to bide my time. And now your carelessness has cost you this fight."

Alexio inspected the thing for a moment, looking for some component that seemed different from the others. He noticed the hilt of the blade was made of stone and covered in leather. He broke it off and handed it to Richard, who smiled and stored the hilt in his pocket.

"It did seem unusual to me that you had this on your back the entire time and didn't use it once. It was then that I realized that what my father had set out to find, you had recovered from the ruins already. I was also suspicious of the fact that he got captured by a mere battalion of your tin soldiers by chance."

Alexio turned to his father who was looking on apprehensively,

"You let yourself get captured so that I may eventually come to assist you in finding this thing, didn't you?"

"An Overstatement. I was planning to bust out of here myself once I pinpointed where the hilt was but I felt your energy approaching this floating fortress so I thought I may let things play out."

"You're gonna tell me what this is later. Right now, we have to destroy this boat and get back HQ."

"I assume you have a plan."

Just then, Igor managed to stand up and spoke in a loud and desperate voice on his gauntlet,

"All units! This is the commander speaking! Converge on the prison wards! I have the commander and his son cornered here! Hahahaha! Now what will you do? I have neither admitted defeat nor have I died so my planet shall remain intact. As for you, you're not getting off of this ship."

"That's where you're wrong. Do it now, Haru!"