Equilibrium

Surrounded by the eternal blizzard, Ezekial began to plummet down to the ground. His face was covered in his own blood, only making him look an insane attractive rather than a cute attractive.

His body waved around wildly, getting controlled by the raging winds wrapping around him. His speed got quicker and quicker, combined with the fact that he was still glowing red, he looked like a human comet.

Kai watched coldly from above before letting out a sigh. His entire face was numb, a mixture of the freezing cold and the fact he had just gotten punched in the face close to thirty times. One of his eyes was stinging and closing on itself, but that was the worst of the punch related injuries he had suffered.

Then, he let out another sigh as he deactivated Flight, beginning to pencil dive to the ground.

Unlike Kai, Ezekial had no skill that could allow him to fly, meaning he had no way to control himself as he fell. The snow stung, it was like he was getting shot by dozens of pellet guns every single second.

But that wasn't the worst part, the worst part would be the landing.

Ezekial continued to spin as he fell, the castle below got bigger and bigger as he got closer and closer to the ground.

Until eventually, he was seconds away from hitting it.

Managing at the last second to turn his back to the ground, Ezekial braced for impact and-

Coughed up some blood.

His back bent at an unnatural angle, making a U shape as he impaled himself on one of the spires atop the castle.

He slid down the spire, the size of the hole in his stomach slowly growing until he eventually stopped sliding.

Ezekial blacked out for a second, overwhelmed by the pain of some of his internal organs getting obliterated, but then he caught sight of a flame in the sky slowly getting brighter and brighter.

Biting his lip and drawing even more blood, Ezekial began to punch the part of the spire that was above him. His knuckles banged against it, loud clangs sounding out as his bones reverberated.

Punch after punch, the integrity of the spire weakened, until eventually the tip of it broke off.

Roaring in pain, Ezekial gripped the small bit of steel left above him and pulled himself off the remaining bit of spire.

Falling onto the roof of the castle a few meters below, Ezekial spat out even more blood as he doubled over. He gripped at the hole in his stomach, but luckily all that spilled out was blood. The human body got stronger the higher level one became. Beheading was still nearly guaranteed to kill someone instantly, but losing some internal organs and having a massive hole in your stomach was bound to weaken you. Still, it would heal eventually, although incredibly slowly.

The next moment, the roof of the castle trembled as something else crashed down on top of it. Another wave of dust shrouded the area, stinging Ezekial's eyes as he lifted hand up to cover them.

A few seconds later, when the dust had spread out, Ezekial spotted what had caused that crash.

Kai was stuck in the roof of the castle. His lower half was below the roof, meanwhile his top half was on the same level as Ezekial. His plan had been to build up speed and stomp down on Ezekial with all that built up momentum, but he had sadly missed by about a meter and ended up getting his bottom half stuck in the roof.

Luckily, it didn't actually do that much recoil damage to him as the spot of the roof he landed on was actually rather weak.

Pulling himself out, Kai spotted Ezekial curled over in a pool of his own blood. Curiously, he tilted his head, wondering if that fall had really done that much damage.

It was then that he noticed about two meters of broken steel beside him, and then he noticed that he could spot a section of the roof through a hole in Ezekial's back that went through his stomach.

Kai grimaced at the sight of the injury.

"Donut gang, huh?"

Ezekial groaned as he stood up, some more blood spilling from the hole in his stomach.

"Damn you!"

More blood trickled down his chin, courtesy of the burst lip Kai had given him.

"You should not be able to do any of this! You are insignificant! You are worthless! You are replacable!

Me? I am Sword Saint Ezekial! My name will be cemented in the legends once the next Tournament of Time occurs! So what the fuck gives you the right to fight me like you can even begin to compare to me?"

Kai remained silent for a few moments, deep in thought.

What gives me the right...

A few seconds later, a cheeky grin slowly creeped its way onto his face as he said:

"Because I want to."

Ezekial's expression darkened even more than it already had.

"Because you... want to?"

Kai's grin quickly disappeared from his face when the red aura surrounding Ezekial suddenly intensified, almost becoming physical. Behind the battered man, two red aura arms appeared, their fists slowly clenching as Ezekial stood up.

Watching in awe at the fact Ezekial was still able to fight, Kai had one thought on his mind.

Four... Arms.

"Oh for fuck sake!"

Managing to summon Esurient at the last moment, Kai deflected one of the aura arms before getting socked in the stomach by the other one.

To Kai's horror, his bodysuit didn't lessen the damage at all. It was meant to provide an above average resistance to magical attacks, so that meant that these aura arms were classified as something else entirely. His bodysuit didn't lessen the damage either, meaning they weren't of a magical nature as well.

And yet, Kai couldn't even be upset that Ezekial had pulled another power up out of somewhere. If Kai had done this... he would have been dead, that's why he used all his power ups at the very beginning.

Well, all except one.

The two of them danced along on the roof of the castle, snow continuing to fall all around them. The clanging of Kai's blade filled the air, and the bright lights of Kai's Soul Flame and Ezekial's Disharmony could be spotted from the city.

Whenever Kai got close to the edge of the roof, he would activate Flight and regain some distance, but Ezekial would always close it down soon after.

Kai tried to stay in mid air and throw down balls of Soul Flame at Ezekial, but the red aura surrounding him manifested into a tail and grabbed him by the leg, yanking him down and making him crash into the roof once more.

Managing to roll over just before a red fist would have crushed his skull, Kai quickly got back to his feet as be gripped Esurient with both hands.

There was no use trying to peer into the future, Ezekial was too reckless and aggressive to be accurately predicted.

All his unassigned stat points had been used, so no power up available there.

His Innate Ability was out of the question, and he couldn't even make use of the command aspect of it because of the fact Ezekial was a much higher level than him.

All his skills had either been used or were useless in this situation, meaning Kai couldn't rely on them either.

... Well, all except one skill, but that time hadn't come yet.

After dodging another one of Ezekial's regular punches, Kai got hit in the side by an aura fist.

Gritting his teeth, Kai realised that he was slowly losing. He wasn't sure how long ago it had started, but he started losing strength. It wasn't that his stats were lowering or anything, it was more that his body just couldn't keep up to his soul in terms of power. Maybe that was the problem, and something he would have to look into in the future.

... If he survived.

Kai slashed at Ezekial, who batted the sword away with an aura hand. Then Kai adjusted his body and pulled the sword back, but the blue haired man dodged it easily.

Another punch was landed on Kai's gut.

Doubling over in pain, Kai coughed up some blood and lost his balance. The next thing he knew, Ezekial's hand was gripping his hair, pulling his head up.

Blood stained his teeth, his nose was bent in a strange angle. One of his eyes was closed from swelling.

For the first time since Kai had met him... Ezekial didn't look attractive.

"Not so powerful now, are you?"

Kai grinned, then spat blood in Ezekial's face.

That earned him another punch.

"Ah... that hurts."

Ezekial punched him again.

"Good."

Another punch was thrown.

And another.

And another.

And another.

Soon, only the the dull sound of flesh getting hit was heard above the castle. It was like the bells of a church, going off at set intervals.

Kai's mind started to fade.

Was this really going to be the end of it?

He was punched again.

He didn't even get to use his backup skill, an oppurtunity didn't prevent itself.

He was punched again.

He had done so well. When he saw Ezekial after he impaled himself, Kai actually believed he could have won.

He was punched again.

Oh well, at least Umbra, Cecilia and Remy would get out, that was a good thing.

A small smile made its way onto Kai's face as he was punched again. At this point, the pain didn't matter, he had completed his role to perfection.

He had bought enough time.

So now, he could finally get some res-

Suddenly, the wall of the castle across from them blew open, stone falling down onto the ground below. Ezekial stopped punching Kai, and Kai turned glanced to the side to see what had happened.

And he grinned.

"Put me down you monster!"

The Plague Harbinger had one of its four hands wrapped around Castillian's neck, dangling him out of the castle.

"What, Cowardly King, do you not like heights?"

Ezekial's eyes widened as he instantly dropped Kai.

"Your Majesty!"

The red aura surrounding him instantly evaporated. Ezekial ran to the edge of the roof, ready to jump across. He knew that he would have to use Equilibrium to defeat the beast, so he had to-

Just before he went to jump across the roof, Ezekial froze.

His skill wasn't working.

Confused, Ezekial assumed that Kai must have done something, so he quickly snapped his head around and spat:

"You-"

However, the next moment, Ezekial's eyes widened.

Kai was weakly standing on his feet, somehow having stood up in the few seconds Ezekial had his back turned. His face was covered in blood, that blood having dripped down onto his lustrous silver armour, giving him the image of a demon.

However, Ezekial wasn't focused on the fact that Kai was back on his feet.

No, he was more focused on the fact that the flames of Equilibrium were slowly manifesting behind Kai's back rather than his own.