A little present

Rashik grinned as he started slowly walking in a circle around Noelle, studying her. She had to have grown in strength by a large margin since he last saw her, and Rashik was an extremely catious person. If he wasn't, how would he have survived so long?

"End my life? Well, I'm sure you have plenty of experience ending people's lives. Those two of my guards you killed, those poor soldiers held hostage by my new boss...

Your uncle.

Hell, you basically killed poor little Gabriel. What an innocent boy-"

"You shut your fucking mouth."

Noelle was seething with rage. How dare that horrible bastard even speak about him. After everything he had done to him, what gave him the right to-

"I really don't get why you're so worked up about him, honestly. I mean, you seem to have moved on pretty quickly."

Noelle's eyes narrowed as she glared coldly at the armoured man who sauntered calmly across from her.

"What the hell are you taling about?"

Rashik grinned, then pointed across the battlefield. Noelle followed his finger to see where he was pointing, and felt her mood darken even further.

An eight foot tall figure covered in dark hair. The figure had a white, fur tunic covering their massive body and a ghastly crimson blade in their right hand. Their entire body was engulfed by gray flames, only fuelling to the slaughter of abominations around them. No abomination that wasn't a quarter moon or above could get close enough to deal meaningful damage to the flaming figure.

"Your new boyfriend of course!" Rashik grinned. "Honestly, he wasn't what I expected your rebound to be. Do you have a thing for weak men or something?"

Noelle's eyebrow twitched in anger, her hands turning white as she gripped the hilt of her scimitar.

But Rashik was not done talking.

"Ah, but he's not so weak, is he? He's quite the menace. I didn't expect him, you should have seen how much I was laughing when I saw him dash into that tunnel."

Noelle couldn't help but squint in confusion. Tunnel? What the hell was Rashik going on about?

"But you should have seen him, he slaughtered those abominations without hesitation. He even managed to kill something that was invisible. Hell, I wouldn't be able to do that! How he could see something invisible is beyond me, but I knew that I had to give him a little gift."

Noelle was struggling to hold back her rage. Why was she even listening? It would be oh so easy to just dash forward and shut Rashik up, giving him no room to speak.

So why didn't she?

The answer was simple, and she knew it in her heart. She was curious.

For Rashik to be second-in-command to her uncle, he had to have something that kept him in that position. Rashik wasn't the strongest fighter, nor was he the fastest.

But there was one thing he had in abundance.

Cunning.

He was the most deceitful, cunning and tricky bastard alive. Even more so now that he could litteraly hide in the shadows.

So for him to see something in Kai... Noelle held back her ever growing rage for a few moments and hatefully spat out.

"Go on then, what was the present?"

Rashik grinned darkly.

"Well you know, you were there of course. I happen to have a high position in this so called Moon Legion, so big Demon boss over there let me call all the shots.

The air ambush was my idea of course, a little idea of striking fear into the hearts of your little army.

I have to say though, I underestimated the wolf. I didn't expect that to happen, gobbling up half the raid in an instant."

Rashik chuckled as he twirled his blade, admiring the shiny weapon.

"Of course, I had to something memorable. That first tentacle ball that fell on your boyfriend, my idea. He was too much of a threat after all, and it seems I was right.

I mean, look at him over there. We would have already won if not for that crazy bastard. He's litteraly on fire! What sort of maniac does that?

Ah, it's a shame I failed though. I would have been two for two on killing your lovers..."

Rashik's eyes shone with cruelty as he paused, an idea sparking in his head. He looked as if he was contemplating wether he should say something or not.

His desire to torment Noelle won.

"Actually, it could have been four for four, considering it was me who put that little present in your parents car."

Noelle froze. Her eyes widened in shock as she felt her heart rate pick up.

What the fuck did that bastard just say? He was the one who killed her parents?

All this time, she thought it was her uncle. Even when Sofia revealed the truth about him, how he just had a roundabout way of trying to protect her, Noelle still believed he had killed her parents.

But everything, every fucking thing had been orchestrated by Rashik.

"Ah, once I'm finished with you, I'll go kill your boyfriend."

Rashik smiled maliciously as his eyes turned coldly serious.

"Don't worry though, I'll be nice this time. I'll grant your new lover a quick death, a much nicer fate than your old one-"

"You shut the fuck up!"

Noelle screamed in anger as she gripped her scimitar tightly and charged at Rashik, him responding in kind by readying his own blade.

Noelle wasn't stupid. She knew everything Rashik had said was in an effort to wind her up, to make her angry, to make her lose control.

It worked.

Noelle didn't care anymore, she was going to kill this bastard if it was the last thing she done.

Her mind was consumed by wrath, her heart consumed by rage, her soul consumed by bloodlust. Her entire being was focused on one single goal.

Kill that fucking bastard who ruined her life.

"Sharpen!"

Noelle screamed as she swung at Rashik, her blade glowing for a moment as the armoured general easily dodged the swing.

"Lighten!"

The blade grew lighter in Noelle's shaking hands, giving her more free reign to her movements.

She was on the brink of something, she could feel it. The feeling she had before she dueled Wa'rak was coming back, but she wasn't there yet.

She needed to be tired, to be utterly exhausted, to push her body past the physical limits. Noelle did not care if she destroyed herself in the process as long as she destroyed Rashik along with her.

Noelle swung again, Rashik blocking with his own blade before attacking her with a swing of his own.

Since her blade was lighter in her hands, Noelle had an easier job readjusting its position to block easier.

But she was not done yet.

Noelle had saved this one item all this time just for this occasion. All the way back when the wolf took her and Sofia to the vault, Noelle had her plan in mind when she caught sight of this item.

Noelle took a step back as she summoned the item from her soul.

A small, red bead manifested into her hand. It was completely plain and could fit perfectly into her palm.

Without hesitation, Noelle lifted her hand up and held the bead over her scimitar, the basic weapon glowing with the added might of its temporary enchantments.

It was about to gain another.

Noelle crushed the bead in her hand, then opened it and let the red dust that was left after the beads destruction fall onto the blade.

The crimson dust fell like little bloody snowflakes, the specks coating the blade.

"What-"

Rashik's curiosity was cut short as the scimitar in Noelle's hand started glowing a sinister shade of red. A terrifying aura burst out of the blade that she had prepared for weeks for this moment.

Noelle had three active enchantments on her blade at this point. Lighten, Sharpen and whatever the effect of the red dust was.

She was not done yet.

She was going go all out and absolutely crush Rashik. If he prided himself on strength, then she wolf show him that he was nothing more than a rat for Noelle to crush beneath her boot.

One more command escaped her lips, the word was carried through the air and onto the sharp body of her eerie blade.

"Corrode"

A thin black line appeared on her blade along its edge.

Now that she was prepared, Noelle took a deep breath and attempted to re enter that trance like state.

She felt the wind from the aftershocks of the wolf and Demon's duel breeze around her. She felt the ground tremble beneath her feet from all the massive abominations and beasts stomping as the fought.

None of that mattered.

All that mattered was Noelle and Rashik.

Noelle's blade became an extension of her, an extra limb as she cut off everything external.

It was like she was in a pitch black void, completely alone except for the man standing across from her.

It was just the two of them there, they were the only ones present.

Nothing else mattered in the void. Noelle and Rashik, Rashik and Noelle, nothing else was present.

Rashik couldn't help but grin madly as he thought Noelle had finally lost it, why was she just standing still.

That was why he was a second too late to lift his blade to protect his neck when Noelle moved much faster than she had previously.