Stalemate

 - The fight goes on for a bit, with Ed outmatched as usual, and Abaddi is now actually regarding him as a threat. and just as Ed is about to get blasted. Hagen saves his ass.

 - [THIS GODDAMN FIGHT HASN'T ENDED YET OMG]

 - 

---

I grunted, and with all of my force, brought down my blade onto him, but what I attempted to slice, was just an afterimage of Abaddi as he instantly teleported behind my back, and drove the blade right through my abdomen.

"Aaaaaarrgh!"

"Compared to a wuss who didn't even raise his sword back at me, good job. I admire you." Abaddi said, a slight hint of respect in his voice, treating me like a man in battle.

I could hear the signature hum of Valeria's sword as she instantly closed the distance to attack Abaddi, and he promptly pulled out his blade from my abdomen, causing a pool of blood to flow out of my stomach, as I tried to clench it and stop the bleeding.

I felt waves of pain radiate throughout me, as I screamed in agony. The waves of the pain seemed to be timed up to my heartbeat, as with each beat, a bout of excruciating pain washed over me, as I struggled to keep my footing.

In the next instant as my knees hit the ground, I found myself transported to the nothingness of my mind again.

"You want it to be over right here?" I could hear the ever-so-familiar voice of the other Ed speaking to me.

"Of course not!" I retaliated, throwing my arms out in protest, as I saw the distinguished gentleman walk towards me, an ever so malicious smile playing on his face.

"Well, at the rate this is going, it will be over soon." He said, sighing and sitting beside me, as he placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Let me take care of this." He said, handing out his hand.

"N-no!" I managed to huff back, flicking his hand away.

He seemed to ponder about it for a bit as he stood up, but now he got back down to my height again, and whispered into my ears,

"All right then, how about this? I will give you the directions, you do it with your physical prowess." He said, his voice dripping with arrogance.

I suddenly came to, and found myself in a pool of blood, taking in shallow breaths. I quickly assessed my surroundings and saw that Valeria, Viktor, and Hagen were taking on Abaddi, and he seemed to have no trouble keeping all of them at bay.

Just then, I could feel the pressure of the air changing around me, as I turned around to see a mage fit in brilliant magenta armor charging up a massive attack, as embers and magic circles formed around her.

"Just how much longer?" Abaddi asked, his tone slightly nervous, and he turned back to look at Selene, who was almost done.

"What the fuck is that?" I mumbled to myself, as I ran my hand through my abdomen, and there was a scar where the attack had landed, and I had healed myself pretty quickly.

"Let's deal with that troublesome mage first." The other Ed's voice in my head rang, as I stood up and faced the mage.

I could feel the pressure of the amount of magic she was producing, and I was able to identify the fact that she was the cause of the two explosions that had brought us over here.

"Inferno." She whispered, and the magic circles disappeared, and a beam of condensed flames charged at them with incredible speed.

"Intercept it. Now!" Perfect Ed screamed as I jumped with all the might I could summon.

Time seemed to slow down as my mind just raced with one thought "intercept it, intercept it!"

Just in the nick of time, my blade made contact. But it wasn't enough. The beam just split into three sections and continued heading their way regardless.

Though just before it hit them, all three of the beams redirected upwards with the same speed, and exploded in a brilliant flash of light. It seemed like Valeria had deflected the beam of infernos using her powers.

"Seems like you've finally understood the wind a bit, Valeria, and Ed." He said, turning to me, as I tightened the grip on my sword.

"It seems like I've severely underestimated you, so I won't be going easy on you at all anymore." He said as he started to take a step towards me.

"A brat like you. You think you can stop me?" I heard an arrogant female voice. It was the mage, who seemed pissed.

I dodged and wove around the flurry of attacks that were being launched by the combined forces of Abaddi and Selene, who had taken a very defensive formation.

Valeria unleashed the power of the wind, sending gusts and slicing air blades towards Abaddi, while Viktor swung his massive axe with all his might, aiming to break through their defenses. Yet, despite our relentless efforts, our strikes were met with Abaddi's lightning-fast reflexes, effortlessly deflecting Valeria's wind attacks, and Selene filled in the gaps by conjuring walls of flames that kept Viktor at bay.

Hagen also soon joined the fray, the caliber of his strikes rivalling that of Abaddi, but he was not able to break through that final barrier.

The entire fight was operating on a tight equilibrium, and each side was just one small slip-up away from total obliteration.

"Is there a way to break this?" I thought to myself as we continuously kept up the heat, not letting Abaddi catch a single moment in between.

All four of us backed off to catch a brief breath of air, and Hagen quickly turned to the others, including me.

"I will press him, fill in the gaps, and feel free to attack at will." He said, his voice slightly ragged from his exhaustion.

---

Just then, a small figure could be seen racing off towards the Imperial Nexus in the distance, donning a skirt.

"Yes, this is it! Finally, Someone with whom I can have a worthy battle!" She screamed as she made her way. It was Lyra Monyet, the genius prodigy no one knew existed.