Chapter 72

(Zai's POV)

After splitting up, Valin and I headed toward the Castle... our first mission was to make our presence known. So as soon as we reached the troops surrounding the Palace, Valin flicked his wrist, creating a series of lightning rods into their midst,

"Halt, no one is to enter the Palace right now!" The one in charge yelled, after a second his eyes grew wide as if he recognized me,

"Oh... but I have an invitation, let me show you," I said, raising my hand and summoning down large columns of lightning, Valin put up a wall of Earth to block any stray bolts from hitting him as the foes in front of me screamed, I caused a ripple in the ground bouncing them all into the air and none swift enough to escape. This carved a path through the army straight to the castle gate, creating a lovely black road of charred earth in front of us, and I was almost falling over with laughter because this was the first time I didn't need to restrain myself in so long. It feels nice. Once he heard the thundering stop, Valin lowered his wall of protection and created two invisible walls right at the edge of my road, causing anyone who got too close to be pinned to the ground and holding back any elemental attacks. This is his way of reducing casualties because if they come into range I will be the one who handles it. We entered the Palace together, the inside was empty but also falling apart. I didn't expect it to be this badly damaged, I'm surprised it's still standing. "Is he nearby?" I asked, after noticing Valin who was already kneeling to touch the floor and close his eyes.

"He's... about a mile away... he just turned around and started heading this way." Of course, he can't ignore that I'm back... even if he wants to...

(Insinz's POV)

I stood a few blocks away from the palace and was shocked to see the pure carnage Zai inflicted... has he ever heard of overkill??... Regardless I'm sure that's enough to get Vetro out of hiding.

"He's getting closer." Tana's voice whispered. I looked at her clone and saw the fear in her eyes, she was even sweating... I didn't realize clones could be so expressive... maybe it's because it's just one and Tana isn't too far away. 

"There's no need for you to worry," I whispered back, stroking her head, then I caught myself staring at her lips and pulled away. This must be what Tana went through... I admit it is a weird feeling, maybe I should tone down on teasing her so much when my clones fluster her. It was nice to get all the memories from my clone when she returned but... I would have preferred to have been there in person! I missed out! Damn it!

"There you are... Tana..." Vetro's voice made my skin crawl, and Raijian drew his swords immediately and got into a stance ready to face the king in front of us. He was still wearing his royal robe, though it was in tatters from his nonstop battles against me. "I see you brought Zai and my useless son back... did you think that would do you any good? Stop acting foolish and just come back to me. All you have to do is have one abortion... then I'll forgive you. I miss you... I know you feel it too." Tana Flinched then stood behind me, "I realize I can't stand being away from you... so let's just end this game, now, hm?" 

"She doesn't want to talk to you," I answered calmly, pulling out a weapon of my own and summoning 5 clones to join our fight. Raijian struck first, swinging his blade directly at his father's neck, Vetro leaned back and dodged, at the same time summoning an stone pillar below Raijian, striking him in the chest and knocking him 10 feet into the air. Raijian extended his wings to reduce the damage and one of my clones moved in ready to strike Vetro, he sidestepped and even when they all attacked him at once he somehow moved out of the way, as if he was boneless.

"I'm bored." He said, stomping his feet and causing a ripple in the earth which immediately dissipated my clones... I looked down and saw the area around his feet was now covered in purifying minerals. Raijian shot fire down from the air and Vetro raised his hand to catch it, that's when I moved in with my acid Sword and struck him in the waist. He grunted but kept his right hand up to absorb the fire and used his left hand to create a knife and jab at me. I jumped back, getting grazed slightly across my nose, I could tell his blade was poisonous but luckily for me, I'm immune to poison and only felt more revitalized.

"Now!" I shouted, that's when Nelly's clone ran in and extended his hands towards Vetro, Rytem screamed through a nearby clone of Nelly and one of Cera, which caused his usually chaotic sound attack to be aimed precisely at its target. The shockwave Knocked Vetro Yards away. "Let's go," I added, grabbing Tana's hand and pulling her into the Palace, down the pathway Zai and Valin created for us.

"Bastards! I'll kill you! All of you!" As he was screaming this Vetro wrote a symbol in the air... he waited, then he hurriedly rewrote it 3 more times, afterward screaming "Shit!" and running after us. As soon as we were inside Nelly's group ran east while My group ran to the west and met up with Zai's team. Predictably he headed for us first but Cera froze his feet to slow him down. This made Vetro fall down and then turn around to strike Cera but Valin launched a ball of sand from our side, getting the attention back on us. "Fine...." Vetro muttered, as he held his hands together and created a copy of himself which rushed off after Nelly and friends while he came for us. We made sure to allow him to catch up, and just when we were within his range, Valin caused concentrated gravity to hit him, forcing him to crash face-first into the stone floor. It was amusing watching him struggling to get up. We all got inside the throne room and once in, Valin disappeared into the floor, lifted the pressure off Vetro, leaving only me, Zai, Raijian, and the clone behind. Vetro burst into the room huffing, the damage we caused was gone but clearly, his stamina was low now. "Are you done running?! Finally!?" Vetro said while pulling his large black Zweihänder blade from the floor at his feet.

"How about a one-on-one fight now?" Zai announced, pulling out his dagger and gesturing for us all to step back,

"Looks like one of you has some honor," Vetro replied, straightening his stance and looking at Tana again. "You could at least talk to me." He mumbled, as his sentence ended I saw his cheeks tear open and his jaw drop cleanly from his face, a thunderous noise followed and I hadn't seen him move but Zai was now standing in the same spot as earlier, over 20 feet away, and flicking blood from his blade,

"Now isn't the time for flirting!" He shouted mockingly with a wide grin, Vetro caught his jaw and struggled to put it back into place so it could reattach without issues, but was having trouble because of the blood pouring from his head like a faucet. Zai's... gotten faster...

(Snowe's POV)

"How about instead of forcing me to kill all 10 thousand of you... I just challenge your General, if I win, you move your troops to Ocina, the next town over. That sounds fair right?" Markis offered. The General pondered his offer while stroking his chin "I feel like I'm being reasonable, I won't kill you in this duel but if you turn me down I'll make sure to cause as many casualties as possible. You're the commanding officer so your decision can destroy so many lives... do you think they'll respect you after watching their comrades die from your decision?" After this additional reasoning, the General put his hand down and opened the gate to his fortress. Seems like he's agreeing to the terms but Tana and I stayed on guard just in case. All soldiers aside from the General stood 1000 feet away with their hands at their sides, with their leader in the middle, waiting on Markis. Tana and I moved to an empty spot a good distance away, ready to interfere in case things went out of hand. Markis didn't pull out his dagger but got into a fighting stance.

"Let's make this quick," The general shouted and he was first to attack, pulling water from the air and ground below, then launching it at Markis. He let the water hit him and it instantly evaporated into steam, then I somehow lost sight of him, next thing I saw was a pillar of fire appearing in front of the general and him retailiating by attcking that pillar, only to pause when a dagger was pressed against his neck and Markis was behind him.

"Should we stop here or keep going?" The heat from the steam had already caused severe damage to the General's arms and face at this point, and Markis pushed the blade closer making it clear he wouldn't escape...

"I ... concede." Markis's opponent muttered.

"Good boy." Markis replied then put away his weapon returning to us with a smile on his face.