Chapter 17 – Eclipse

With the air at his back Lewis took control of the battle. He forced the wind to turn violent and toss the Rouge around the sky, preventing it from being motionless. The Rouge quickly focused its mana into augmenting its body and attempted to resist the enhanced winds. But Lewis had already predicted its plan and was immediately in front of it. In the blink of an eye, a lightning infused fist planted itself deep into the Rouge's gut and in a blast of sparks the Rouge was launched through the sky. 

Lewis rocketed after the Rouge and crashed into it, dragging it across the city. The Rouge strained against his hold, but Lewis released tendrils of intense lightning that stabbed into the Rouge's body that scorched its clothes and caused its muscles to spasm. With one hand keeping tight hold of its cloak Lewis used the other to beat the Rouges body as the flew through the sky.

Suddenly black blades stabbed out from the insides of its cloak and Lewis quickly let an explosion loose from his hand. He was blown back out of range of the blades and the Rouge was sent plummeting towards the ground in a trail of smoke. 

Hovering above is falling foe, Lewis reached out with the air and attempted to grab hold of the rouge but suddenly spiked, obsidian chains launched from the darkness of its cloak. Like they had a mind of their own they tracked his body and wrapped around his torso and limbs. With a violent pull, the chains ragged Lewis down. He attempted to grab hold of the wind, but the chains were somehow disrupting his mana flow.

"Shit" Lewis grumbled. He was smashed off a nearby roof, the force of his impact creating a crater, without being able to even let out a grunt of pain he was flung back into the air. The chains dragged him into the Rouges grip, its hand tight around his throat. Instinctively he tried to pry off the hand choking him, but it felt like trying to move a mountain. 'These damn chains', they were continuing to disturb his mana flow, preventing him from properly augmenting. The Rouge's grip tightened and the lack of oxygen travelling to his brain became more apparent by the second. His vision began to darken, and his head grew light. Choking him to death didn't seem to be enough for the Rouge as it summoned a black sickle in its free hand. 'What did I do to piss it off this badly?' he then realised it was probably a hired assassin 'Well then who did I piss off?'. Possible answers flooded his mind. 'Stupid question'. An intense nausea overcome him and realised he'd been wasting his last moments pondering over who wanted him dead when the answer was easy. Lots of people.

In a last ditched effort he let his mana run wild. If the chains disrupted his mana control then that was fine. He just wouldn't control it. Like a feral animal trying to escape a cage his mana ran rampant inside him. He didn't have the oxygen in his body to form a spell and instead just continued to let it swell and build in his body. 'This is going to hurt' he sulked. His pupils vanished and his eyes began to glow a powerful white. The Rouge swung its sickle towards his side, but it wasn't fast enough, Lewis exploded.

 A monstrous force erupted from Lewis and the mana was released from his body. The air quaked and the chains and sickle shattered like glass. The forced rammed into the Rouge and swatted it away like it was a fly.

Lewis let out heavy breaths, the symptoms of being choked to death fading as he gave his body the oxygen it desired. It was only when his brain recovered he realised he was falling. He quickly caught himself before crashing into the ground before shooting himself back up.

He instantly analysed his surroundings searching with all his senses for where the Rouge had gone. Bastard was good at hiding his mana signature, better than anyone Lewis knew, but that came with being a Rouge. History's greatest assassin's, and now one was after him. Great. 

Mana spiked behind him. Lewis spun and froze the air creating a shield of ice. Black sickles crashed into the shield. The Rouge stood on the roof it had smashed Lewis into earlier calmy staring up at Lewis. He attempted to summon fire to his palm, but nothing happened. His body still hadn't recovered all the mana it had just released. He needed more time. He managed to calmly float down towards it.

"What? You want to talk now" Lewis asked. He approached cautiously. It had been motionless for a while now and he prepared himself for an overloaded attack. "I didn't think Rouge's were mutes. Nothing like that was ever recorded in the books I read" he continued, slowing his approach so his mana could regenerate. 

As soon as he got eye level it came. An obsidian blade coated in a blazing white-grey aura swung towards his neck. Quickly raising his arm he Infused it with ice and earth mana, coating it in a glistening blue crystal gauntlet. The sword was stopped in its tracks, slightly denting the gauntlet.

"I guess not" Lewis said. The Rouge took a moment clearly shocked at the ineffectiveness of its attack and that moment was all Lewis needed. His mana grew to a comforting level, and he released a burst of mana from his arm shattering the sword into small obsidian shards. Not giving the Rouge time to react his crystal hand reached inside the abyss and even though he couldn't see anything he'd definitely grabbed its head. Spinning on the balls of his feet he flung it into the sky instantly following after it. He grabbed the Rouge and struck in its face, and tried to instantly throw a second punch however it was caught before reaching its target. Without breaking his flow Lewis hit it with a left hook and then an elbow its head. 

"Don't tell me you're done" Lewis said almost sounding disappointed. He punched it in the face again. It attempted to fight back but Lewis quickly shut it down with a strike to its liver. 

"Rouge's where some of the greatest assassins and warriors in history", he kneed it in the abdomen, "So tell me. Are all those stories lies or are you the anomaly". His provocations were effective. The Rouges body trembled his anger sickles appeared its hands and its lashed out throwing them in the air. The sickles began to crack and with a white light and they spun through the air. Suddenly they erupted into small, hand sized portals of whirling grey-white light. An inquisitive smile formed on Lewis face as he leapt back.

Burning black sickles shot out of the portals and travelled through the air straight towards him. They charged at high speeds and Lewis launched himself above them. However, as he cleared their trajectory they curved changing direction and once again darted towards him. Lewis engulfed his fist in flames and punched towards the sickles. Twin flames shot out and moulded into dragon heads. Fiery jaws clamed around the sickles and combusted destroying both spells. 

The Rouge leapt through the smokescreen; the portals it had created trailing close behind along with two new ones. Instantly the portals began spitting out sickles soared through the air towards Lewis. He flung out spells of fire, ice and lightning that ripped apart any sickles that threatened him, all while keeping his distance from the Rouge. The Rouge disappeared into the aftermath of their of spells collisions. Almost as if it had teleported it suddenly tackled Lewis from above. Lewis quickly grabbed onto its arms locking its sickles in place before they could run through him. He sent a burst of mana to his legs and kicked the Rouge away. Immediately the portals started shooting out sickles like a Itarian assault rifle. Combining the wind with explosions of fire Lewis launched himself away at high speeds just before he hit the ground. He skated through the streets keeping his distance from the sickles that hunted him down, his feet hovering above the pavement. He continued to cast more spells of varied elements however, the sickles just kept coming. He had to find a way to destroy them portals. His mind raced as he flew through Elysi and continued to shatter black sickles.

Soon the streets vanished, and he exited into the huge open plaza next to the Great Cathedral. Lewis brought himself to an immediate stop and readied himself as the Rouge approached. Once it got close enough he attempted his plan. He noticed earlier that the portal like its sickles where just constructs of pure mana however, unlike the sickles they weren't solid constructs. Lewis reached out with his own mana injecting it into the portals and forced his own will on the spell forcing it to completely disperse. Just as the Rouge closed in on Lewis its four portals vanished. All the sickles that had been launched seemingly stopped tracking Lewis and travelled in straight line. Using the Rouges confusion on what had happened Lewis dashed infront of it and charged his fist with mana. 

Just as he was about to deliver a devastating blow, distraught and panicked shouts and scream filled the plaza. Glancing back he saw civilians on the opposite side directly in line of the sickles trajectory.

"Shit" Lewis cursed. He vanished from infront on the Rouge and darting across the plaza in moments, but he still wouldn't be fast enough. Suddenly the sickles just dispersed into mana. Baffled, Lewis glanced behind him to see the Rouge with its arm raised. It had cancelled its spell.

'It doesn't want to hurt civilians' Lewis pondered 'It also didn't hurt Ava or anyone at the orphanage'. Lewis shook his head; he could question it himself later. He channelled his mana into lightning and let it charge around his body, placing it first two fingers together he raised his hand concentrating all the lightning to his fingers. With a sharp crackle a thick golden tendril erupted from his fingers and shot across the plaza in the blink of an eye. It crashed into the Rouge and tore across body paralyzing and overloading its nervous system.

Lewis launched himself towards the Rouge and grabbed onto the back of its cloak. The air flooded underneath them and then were flung into the sky, with a second burst Lewis flew them to the top of the cathedral where he had taken Sera. He lashed the Rouge on the spire's peak before landing next to it.

"Up here there is no one but us" Lewis grinned, "If you're still holding back Rouge I'd recommend you stop". How long had it been since he's done this? Lewis activated elements he hadn't used in a long time. On one side of his body dark shadows crawled along his skin and emerged from his right eye. On the left side his veins began to glow, and golden-white light and his eye emitted the same light.

"You can use dark and light" The Rouge spoke catching him off guard. It's voice didn't match its appearance and it sounded like young adolescent man, and Lewis guessed he was a similar age to him.

"So you can speak".

"I knew you to be an elemental, but you've shown more affinities than I thought possible" It stated memorised, "Just how many affinities do you have?".

"All of them" Lewis stated calmly. He couldn't see its face, but he had a strange feeling it was smiling. 

Simultaneously their mana's surged and charged towards each other for one final clash. The Rouge surrounded them in portals instantly started shooting sickles at rapid speeds while summoning two sickles to its hands. Shadows curled into the air from Lewis's right hand and shaped themselves into razor sharp swords. The swords flew through the air like they had a mind of their own and begin tearing sickles apart. A golden-white sword of pure light formed in Lewis left hand a shadow blade in his right. 

They collided, blades of light and dark striking again dragon-bone sickles. They flew around the cathedral spire, every time their weapons connected the air shivered and the city trembled. Lewis controlled the environment and let out spells of every element he'd demonstrated during the battle. The Rouge tried to lock down Lewis with chains while overloading its mana at any chance it got releasing devasting spells.

A grey blazing aura coated the Rouges sickle and it sliced towards Lewis's neck. Tendrils of darkness shot of his arm and grasped onto the blade before instantly curling around the Rouge. Lewis swung his arm, and the Rouge was pulled into the air and thrown off the spire. Lewis charged after it and shot a beam of light that drilled into the Rouge sending it crashing into the roof of the cathedral. Without giving it time to breathe, darkness gathered around his shadow arm, before launching out like a beam into the Rouge sending into crashing into the base of the spire. Any normal wall would've shattered but the Cathedral was no normal building it was coated in ancient magic that made it practically indestructible.

The Rouge slid down the spire and collapsed to its knees, its chest heaving and heavy breaths echoing from its hood. With a flick of his wrist chains of shadows formed from the spire's shadow and locked down the Rouge's arms. Lewis loomed over his opponent whose mana signature was fading by the second. The Rouge was finished. Four blades of light hovered around him and with thought they flew towards the Rouges limbs.

Suddenly the Rogues mana ascended to the highest it'd had ever been. It released a burst of mana like Lewis had done before, the chains snapped, and the blades of light shattered. The Rouge rose to meet Lewis's eyes. Startled he took a step back, quickly summoning a blades of light and dark to his hands. An aura of its grey-white light coated the Rouges body like they were flames feeding on its lifeforce. The Rouge stuck out its hand and the aura began to gather at its palm, forming a large weapon. Lewis charged; blades raised. But he was too late. A sharp burning pain radiated the across his chest and he felt blood shoot up his throat and emerge from his mouth with a painful cough. In less than a second the aura had transformed into a two metre, black, dragon-bone scythe that had torn across Lewis's chest. With newfound life the Rouge stepped to Lewis's side and swung its scythe back across Lewis chest creating a bloody cross. With inhuman grit, Lewis Ignored the burning sensation of the scythe slash was causing him and launched himself away into the air. Most people who'd had their chest cut open would probably panic, retreat, give up, pass out to blood loss, well not Lewis.

A demonic grin was stuck to his face as he looked down upon the Rouge. The Rouge leapt after him swinging its huge scythe towards Lewis, every strike intending to end him. Infusing light into his body to increase his speed and utilising bursts of air Lewis practically teleported around leaving only an afterimage for the Rouge to cut. It tried to augment its body even further in attempt to keep up with Lewis, but it was futile. To his satisfaction the Rouge was clearly getting annoyed, it coated the scythe in a burning aura and spun it above its head. A grey fiery tornado was summoned into the air and launched towards Lewis who was floating down through the air. Holding his fingers like a gun he concentrated light to its tip and fired a golden beam straight through the tornado. The Rouge's scythe sliced towards him, but Lewis countered sending blades of light and dark into the weapon. The Rouge was sent sliding back under the force of Lewis's spells before it managed destroy them with a vicious swipe. Cracks could be seen forming all over its scythe. 'It won't be able to maintain that spell for much longer'. Lewis could probably bombard the Rouge with spells and try to outlast it but he didn't know how long he could ignore his wounds. Also where would the fun be in that. If the Rouge was going to go all out Lewis should show it the same respect.

"I've never successfully completed this before. But I've also found I work best under pressure" Lewis said while gathering darkness and light inside him, "In today's age it's thought that it's impossible to combine the elements of light and darkness. But me and history disagree". He forced the elements to converge in his body. The Rouge charged towards him its scythe raised but Lewis just let out a deep breath and thrusted his arm forward.

"Eclipse" he called out. A pure white force arc that seemed to fade in and out of reality dug into the Rouge. The Scythe shattered into mana and the arc shredded into its torse and bright red blood flew into the air. Lewis landed onto the roof and the Rouge keeled over clutching it chest to try and stop the blood.

"We're even now" Lewis told it as it somehow managed to stand up.

"No" it spoke again.

"Huh?"

"I gave you two" it told him. He couldn't see under the hood, but he had a feeling it was smiling.

"True" Lewis admitted while augmenting his chest even further to control the wound, "I guess I'll have to give you another". They both forced their bodies build up as much mana as they'd allowed and got ready to attack when suddenly an enormous mana signature engulfed to city drowning theirs out. Elysi trembled, the Rouge shuddered, and Lewis let out an annoyed sigh.

"We were getting to the best part" he grumbled. To their right in the air a man appeared, his messy white hair flowing in the air. Alex Athra entered the fight.