A Heart's Catharsis

Shocked to silence were the cultist seeing an unknown man they never accounted for so easily kill one of their members. The man that was facing off against Sinthia quickly blocked an incoming crystal rose with a fireball as he clenched his teeth in anger.

'Who's this guy?! We were supposed to perfectly counter them...'

The situation turned grim quickly for the the two remaining men, especially considering the fact that one was a long range fighter and the other was support, on top of them being outnumbered. He had to do something drastic.

"Move back."

The long ranger spoke before opening his arms wide, aiming them at the group. The sudden panic on Sinthia's otherwise stoic face told of what was coming and it was not pretty. From the couple of clashes she had with him she was able to conclude that the fireballs took less time to form than her crystal roses. She had no time to retaliate as she ran to Pax and Bultear screaming.

"RUN!"

If even for a moment the hesitated a stream of scorching fire would have engulfed them. The massive wave of flames burned the entire room. Like a scene from hell, the entire room was overwhelmed by a searing flame. the walls were charred black, some parts even turning ashy. Sadly for him the people he wanted to see burned the most were not see among the burnt rubble.

"They ran away."

Still, he was not too sad about it, his main aim was to make them flee since them two would definitely have died had he waited even for a moment.

"Let us flee too. To regroup."

"Yes!"

Bultear's group, that had jumped through the hole in the wall made by Milek and his opponent, was now chasing after the two men who have promptly fled after annihilating the area.

"Phew... close shave that was..."

"We have to catch up to them, they probably have the child with them or know where he is."

"Aye, that kid is probably core of the ritual... the problem is, we still don't know what type of ritual this is..."

"That's what's worrying me the most, what is the Oculus See doing?"

Oculus See or just Oculus was the central information network of E.S.O.P. It is a massive network that is able to sense and recognize dangerous Evolver activity ahead of time. Then, depending on the type and location they send out the corresponding evaluation to the closest Evolver division. After that it is up to the division to decide how to act.

"We might have been over reliant on Oculus, to think they were able to trick it into giving us a lower evaluation. We otherwise would not be in this mess, sending out a rookie on such a mission... I hate this."

"Well Pax, this rookie is the reason you're still alive. It ended up saving our asses."

"...Yeah you're right."

"Contact Brock and Sull, tell them if they see the two men to not engage them and come to us."

...

"Come, come! Are you getting tired?" *hahaha*

The battle of the two leaders reached a boiling point when they crashed through the wall and started to fight outside. By doing that Ohomor was bale to evade [Enveloping Ice].

He had less and less nails in his body, the vibrations and his healing had greatly weakened because of it. Fjoroft was not in any better shape with both his [Ice Fist] and [Ice Blade] almost crumbling apart from the repeated clashes and vibrations. Blood was dripping from his mouth more and more. The internal damage becoming hard to avoid.

[Ice Breath]

Dodged with ease. The smile on his face grew maniacal. His body riddled with injuries he could no longer heal, he glowed under the cold light of the ceremony. The ritual was still going, they had not found the child yet.

"...Perfect..."

With the blood cloud above him growling with electricity, the moon was blotted by its squirming fleshy light.

'I have no time!!!!'

The ritual was reaching its end. Fjoroft in an act of desperation used [Enveloping Ice]. Fully coating himself in ice he lunged at Ohomor with desperation.

'When your life is at an end and a shadow covers your eyes. When no moment gives respite and the cold is unbearable, only the heart shall realize its meaning, its reason as it falls along with you into the dark.'

[A heart's Catharsis]

In an instant from his chest emerged a purple nail. The nail like a wind shot towards a wildly lunging Fjoroft. It was so ridiculously fast that Fjoroft's eyes only saw a trail of billowing wind coming at him. He felt a chill run down his back that was not from the ice. That attack would kill him if it lands.

'He was waiting for me to lunge at him whilst throwing caution to the wind so he could go for the killshot.'

'Last time you defeated me so quickly that I had no opportunity to show you my ace card. Now let's see how you get out of this Fjoroft!

Without stopping he released the strongest [Ice Breath] ever hoping to at least dull the nail that was too fast for him.

*Crash*

The purple nail hit him square on the chest where his heart was, the [Ice Breath] had somewhat slowed down the momentum on top of the ice that covered his chest. The nail was still too strong as it penetrated the ice, went through his skin and lodged itself in his muscles just an inch away from his heart.

*blurghhh*

The devastating attack made him vomit blood and his head throbbed but he did not stop running even for a moment through all of that. He drove his [Ice Blade] right through Ohomor's chest with the blade exiting out from his back.

"W- well p-pplayed... T-thiis a draw..."

He plopped down to the ground after mumbling these final words while spitting blood. Fjoroft wanted to immediately run and join his group but he also fell down unable to move. He was shocked to realize that the purple nail was wriggling, still trying to stab his heart, as if it were alive.