A light spar

Alan took a fighting stance, spinning his sword by hilt around. Gelina was reluctant to the idea of sparing for a few moments, but she agreed after Alan pestered her for a while.

"Don't come crying to me, If I somehow killed you accidentally."

Alan rolled his eyes, making a show out of it. It had been a long time since he met someone of the same caliber as him.

The horde of monsters he had to fight was a terrible experience in itself. But, it was life-threatening only because of their sheer numbers. Not a single one of the monsters was capable of taking Alan on single-handedly.

"Don't worry. I already had sent people with whole phases ahead of me to hell, several times if I might add to it."

Due to his job as the most feared assassin of the south, he had already come across several strong people in his lifetime. Some even stronger than himself. But his standing here now was a testament to what had happened to his opponents.

But, fighting a transcendent Griffin. Who was said to have a better grasp of nature and its properties than any human, was going to be a whole new experience for Alan. 

However bleak his chances of winning were, he wanted to at least bring himself to find that last insight. It was the only sure way to ascend to the next phase.

"Let's Start!"

Alan moved forward quickly, stepping just in front of Griffin, and attacking her face out of the blue. 

Gelina stopped the sword from the front claws and threw the sword backward with monstrous strength. She kicked the ground and flew up into the ground to have an aerial advantage.

Alan smiled looking at his trembling hand. When she threw his sword back, Alan felt what kind of calamity he was going against this time.

'Then…I have to go all out too'

Alan looked over to Griffin who was above him in the air, who in turn was looking at him with an amused expression. 

'Let me wipe out that annoying expression of hers.'

He took his sword in both hands and held it at perfectly 90, and chanted a spell in the dark order. His ominous voice echoed throughout the silent forest. 

|Eminence Of Shadow|

Gelina's eyes widened looking down at the ground below her. Alan's shadow extended in every direction, as it engulfed the whole area around him in a veil of shadow. 

Smiling, Alan pointed his sword at the flying Griffin, and a giant tentacle lunged forward out of the veil of darkness in the direction of Griffin.

".…That spell is dangerous. But you have to do more than that to kill me. Which will be impossible for you…."

Gelina looked at the shadow tentacle coming toward her at high speed. She smirked before letting out a howl at the sky. 

In the next moment, a loud sound of thunder could be heard throughout the whole of the forest. As the bolt of lightning fell at the tentacle, tearing it wholly apart. 

"You bet?"

Alan chuckled and hundreds of tentacles lunged forward from every direction. Alan stood at top of one of the tentacles moving toward the flying Griffin.

"I never intended to kill you in the first place. I am just trying to beat you half to death."

Gelina looked at the shadow spell lunging at her from every direction with eyes wide in horror. She howled again and more loudly, summoning a whole lot of thunderclouds over their fighting ground. 

The thunder crackled through the clouds, letting a rumble through the sky. Thunder from the sky fell mercilessly in the whole area. Commencing utter destruction everywhere down in the shadow.

"....That is unbelievable. You shouldn't have this much control over your attributes. Not at the IInd phase"

Alan slides down into the shadow of the forest, hiding his presence completely. He had no way to fight someone so absurdly powerful face-to-face. Someone who can vapourize his strongest move in seconds. That thunder alone was capable enough to turn him to dust. If he hadn't slipped into the shadows at the right time.

Looking at her hovering in the air in search of him. Alan knew he didn't have much time left. And the yellowish tint in her eyes was something to look out for too. He needed a better plan to attack her.

Alan had no way to confirm what it was. But his first and probably the correct guess would be her second attribute. She was already past the third phase, it wasn't strange for her to have more than one attribute.

'Wait...Is she...?'

But, then something strange happened to the towering Griffin in the air. She stood still at her place not moving one bit, her eyes distracted, as though she was looking somewhere else.

Alan quickly dismissed his shadow running straight towards the Griffin. He knew what was going on with the majestic Griffin. And it wasn't great news for him.

'She is about to make a breakthrough.'

It was the last chance for him to attack now that she was in a trance-like state. Seeing how much of a monster she was in the third phase. Alan had no plans to explore the devastation of the fourth phase of her.

In a pure adrenaline rush, Alan dashed towards the Griffin, jumping high up in the air.  Coming up with the strongest attack he could muster in the short while.

|Shadow Blade|

Alan's sword shone with a dark gleam as the shadow moved to cover it completely. Making it capable of extending more than the metal allowed it for. A trump card of Alan's.

Alan willed the shadow to lung forward toward the Griffin. Extending too fast towards her, to even consider dodging the black blade. 

Alan's senses suddenly trembled, warning him, begging him to move, to run away from the danger coming from the left side of him. But it was too late for any reaction. 

Gelina turned suddenly, looking at the man cladded in shadow with surprised eyes. A  tar black sword in his hand burning mercilessly with black fire.

"Found you, Bastard!"

To Alan's complete surprise, Gelina took the straight to her torso or the Griffin equivalent of it. Smiling, she looked at the dark blade moving through her body.

Alan trembled at the sight of her. He already had used most of his cards leaving him with little to no essence. The chances of him winning the bout had already disappeared in thin air.

'I shouldn't have used that kind of spell. It already took a shit load of essence to maintain stealth in the air. Shit! my magic essence is about to completely die too.'

Gelina's eyes turned completely yellow, as she stared at Alan with resentful eyes. Her body emanates wave after wave of the essence in the surroundings.

"Let me show you the new spell of mi….WAIT! NOO!"

|Shimmer|

In between chanting the spell, Gelina's body exploded in bright light. Illuminating the whole area like a little sun. In the next moment, it busted out, turning into arrows-like structures running amok in every direction. 

The arrows of condensed light clashed against the dark blade of Alan, causing it to shatter after several clashes.  Alan looked at Gelina, as she fell down from the air. His eyes were full of horror.

"Fuck! This is the stupidest thing I have ever seen in my life. How the hell she overloaded herself? If She didn't have full control over her aspect yet. What was the need to use that?"

Alan looked at the thousand arrows made up of light coming toward him. His essence was already on the brink of collapse. And thousands of arrows coming his way didn't help much either.

Now that the caster was overloaded, there was no way to stop the spell. Especially a spell catastrophic enough to erase several being together out of existence.

'Shit! What the fuck? Is she really wanted to kill me?'

"Hey, I aimed for your torso this whole time, you know. This is how you repay the kindness I showed."

But Gelina was already on the ground unconscious from the fatigue of the phase change and the overload of her body. It was physically impossible for her to stand up again.

"Shit! She is out cold."

Alan was still in the midair with help of one of his tentacles, He looked around in every direction for any kind of miracle to happen. To save him from the imminent death caused by millions of arrows coming his way. 

And of course, it was never going to happen.

Alan gave up all his hope and let his shadow tentacle and armor disappear. He was at the end of his rope. His essence was nearly dried out, his body was pleading for rest, and his consciousness was fading away.

Alan looked at the thousand arrows coming in his direction with delirium. How his shadows shrank in the presence of light until the shadow completely disappeared for a moment.

'....The light can't pierce through the shadow, it just makes it disappear for some time. Until the shadow appears yet all over again, in absence of light. Shadow and light are complementary to each other.'

Alan's soul tomb trembled. Suddenly his soul got hit by insight, he never knew before existed.

Alan was falling on the ground due to dismissing his tentacle spell. He chuckled at the sight of thousands of twinkling bright arrows of lights coming toward him. His eyes regained their wild vigor again.

"New insight, huh? Let's see what this new spell is capable of doing."