Burn

Gril staggered backwards holding his nose in pain, in all his life he had never broken his nose, but in a span of less than two months a single person had done it not just once but twice.

His temper was at its peak, if before he wanted to hunt Nathan for the bounty on his head, now he was going to kill him just so he could get rid of him.

"I'll kill you!"

After their previous fight, he had regretted the interference of the king of the mercenaries, causing Nathan to escape. But now more than ever it was clear to him that he wasn't going to let him go once more.

Nathan smiled again, only each time his smile was wider almost full of madness.

"Try it!"

Nathan swung his sword and Gril dodged as he created flames in his hands. After dodging he took the opportunity to attack Nathan, who as quickly as he could raise his sword blocking the attack.

The atmosphere was beginning to heat up because of Gril's fire, and now the fight had attracted the attention of everyone present. Even so, everyone just watched and kept to themselves.

Nathan had counted on that, mainly because all the civilians were from the outskirts, and none of them held the government, and therefore the agents, in high esteem.

In the space of ten seconds, the combat had not developed to any great extent, the only difference being that Gril was on the sidelines instead of Nathan.

This was because Gril had already been fighting calamities for a while and was therefore tired in comparison to Nathan, who was in perfect condition. 

But Nathan couldn't care less if it was a dishonorable way to attack his opponent. For him, winning meant survival and no matter what methods he used, Nathan was determined to succeed.

After those ten seconds, Tana had already recovered from her fall, so she stood up and began to turn the chain around in circles at her side.

Nathan noticed her and immediately lowered his center of gravity.

'Right... let's get on with the plan'

Now with Tana joining the battle for good, things were starting to get complicated for Nathan, but for that very reason, he had prepared himself beforehand.

Reinforcing his legs with essence, Nathan quickly approached Gril, completely ignoring Tana and the knife that was approaching his back.

Gril smiled when he saw Tana's knife reach Nathan, then the invisible blade pierced his back, hitting his heart and thus leading to his death.

Nathan was not looking back, so he had no idea where the knife was going to land, so when he returned, he simply remembered the pain he had felt and nimbly dodged while still quickly approaching Gril.

The young man's expression changed radically.

"Do you have eyes in your back?!"

Gril was forced to deflect the attack, grunting in pain as he felt the blow on his arm. But then he ignored the pain and took advantage of the fact that Nathan was leaving a gap in his defense after he deflected the greatsword, taking the opportunity to attack him head on.

"Die, dammit!"

Nathan smirked again and let go of the greatsword, before turning his torso slightly to catch Gril's arm.

Suddenly, Nathan opened his hand and Gril watched as a strange black helix unfurled to reach his hand. In less than an instant, the helix transformed into a blade more like a fang, then Gril turned pale.

Nathan did not delay and tried to stab him in the chest. Gril was quick enough to react, however, and managed to free his arm from Nathan's grip and turn his body to dodge the stab.

The black fang ended up in his left shoulder, while Nathan's entire shoulder and part of his neck were burned.

Nathan felt the essence flowing behind him and realized that another Tana attack was rapidly approaching him.

The fight continued, Gril and Tana were tired and the fight against Nathan had consumed most of their essences.

Nathan was not unharmed either, he still had plenty of essence left to use, but his body was not free of new burns and cuts, some deeper than others.

Apart from them, during the entire combat everyone was feeling horrible explosions of essence from inside the black doors.

Nathan had not seen Faye, the king of the mercenaries and Mesto enter, but seeing that they were not present, he assumed that somehow the battle that was taking place inside the doors was theirs.

All this time, Lynn had kept out of the way, which was helpful to Nathan. Still, the battle was far from over.

Nathan, Gril and Tana had been stopped by a great wave of essence that had flooded under the door, so Nathan took advantage of the moment of calm to go over to his great sword lying on the floor and pick it up.

Picking it up with his arm again full of cuts, Nathan put the great sword on his shoulder and looked at the two young men in front of him with bated breath.

It was definitely a good idea to catch them off guard and tired, Nathan doubted that he would win if they were in perfect condition like him.

Still, that alone was enough to even things out, but it had come to a stalemate, where the first one to run out of essence won.

Nathan kept the great sword on his shoulder, holding its hilt in his right hand, while in his left hand he held Adan's black fang.

Suddenly Nathan felt the gravity begin to change, and he was not the only one.

Gril and Tana also prepared to turn their bodies and land correctly on the roof... but Nathan was waiting for this moment.

Without thinking twice, he filled his legs to the limit with essence, then, taking advantage of the fact that the gravity was still changing, he propelled himself upwards at the exact second when the gravity changed for good.

His body was propelled towards the ceiling while Gril was still in the air, falling towards the ceiling. Then Nathan was the first to touch the ceiling, propelling himself back towards the young man.

By the time Gril touched the ceiling with his feet, Nathan was already swinging his sword towards him.

Then, as if time had stopped, everything around them suddenly changed.

The corridor of the castle disappeared, the big black doors were no longer in sight.

All the civilians, including those who had fought against the calamities and now rested watching the fight between Nathan and the two agents, were completely paralyzed.

The corridor was dimly lit with a chandelier on the ceiling and several torches in the corridors, but now everything was much brighter than before.

Even the floor had changed completely, then Nathan momentarily looked up at the blue sky that stretched out in complete fullness just above him.

'Huh?'

In the middle of the great crater, nearly seventy survivors who were still inside the realm now found themselves back.

Nathan was completely confused, and Gril was the first to snap out of his shock.

Taking advantage of Nathan's moment of confusion, Gril gathered all the essence he had left in his body, then he approached Nathan and before he knew it, Gril grabbed him by the shoulders.

Nathan gathered his essence to free himself from Gril's grip, then he felt the atmosphere begin to heat up.

In an instant the flames in Gril's hands exploded, completely covering Nathan's body.

And finally, a huge grin appeared on Gril's bloodied face.

"Burn you fucker!"