The Imp Lord

Rhald and the Imp Lord have been exchanging blows for the last ten minutes or so. Each casting magic spells so powerful they reminded Bryce of the S rank Council members during the beast subjugation. It infuriates him that he is still nowhere near this level. After defeating all the knights, he had barely any mana left. From a distance, he could see the twins and right next to them was a resting Althea who was suffering from the feedback of her last spell.

See buffing spells are great in a pinch. It allows you to increase your stats temporarily but this comes at a cost. If you have enough mana, it will use your available mana. But if you don't, the spell will actually cannibalize your cells to draw the energy that is normally reserved for life-functions. Luckily, the magical feedback was minimal and Althea will recover just fine.

Rhald knees the Imp Lord in the face. The Imp Lord fumbles backwards but is mostly unharmed. In retaliation, he charges mana through his body and his golden pharaoh-esque outfit changes into a golden armor. It starts growing and covering his whole body until Rhald could only see his eye and mouth.

The Imp Lord reveals the claws that come with his new armor and he slashes Rhald in the stomach. The gashes were shallow. With his healing abilities, Rhald is able to close the wounds up immediately. However, he could tell that something was wrong.

POISON!

The claws have poison in them! Rhald tries to enervate his body to counteract the poison but it was much harder to do while fighting a near S rank foe whose attacks doesn't let up. The poison seems to be extremely potent and was resistant to passive Healing. Rhald knew he had to end this quickly. The Imp Lord jumped at him again. When Imp Lord was close enough, Rhald punched him in the guts. At the same time, Rhald casts Water slicer. The water inside the Imp Lord's stomach turned into spinning water disks that rend him from the inside. He could feel his organs rip and tear as blood gushes from his mouth.

Rhald wasn't in a better state. In order for him to successfully execute his underhanded plan, he had to get close enough to touch the Imp Lord. This meant that he took a damaging punch to the chest which collapsed one of his lungs. Rhald and the Imp Lord landed 50 meters apart. Both were panting and in pain.

Rhald does a quick Healing spell to keep the poison at bay and reinflate his collapsed lung. Then both fighters lunge at each other. This time, Rhald casts Mist wall and the Imp Lord rebounds after running against an invisible wall. He loses his balance and totters backwards. Rhald takes this split-second opportunity to cast Ice seeds. From within the Imp Lord, giant ice spikes bloom and pierce him. He is now gasping for air but he still has some mana left. He roars and it fills the room with intense magic that seem to prickle and burn the skin.

When Rhald looks up from shielding his eyes, the Imp Lord is now partially healed. The Imp Lord grabs a nearby spear from one of his dead knights and runs towards Rhald. Rhald sucks in air and blows out a strong stream of Acid spray. The spray hits the Imp Lord in the face and neck but remains undeterred. His spear is aimed true at the heart of one green haired boy in front of him. Rhald casts Water bubble, a shield spell. But the Imp Lord breaks through it and his spear pierces the target. As the life slowly drains from the boy's eyes, his friends can be heard screaming in disbelief.

The boy kneeled then slumped lifelessly into the cold marble floor. Tears fell from Althea's frozen face. Lest hid inside Vane's embrace. Bryce devastated from the loss of his rival and, sort of, friend.

The Imp Lord begins to laugh maniacally.