“The assassin is mine…” Omurai said weakly, falling to the ground.
Voyse took no time to act surprised and recollected his weapons. Draven ducked low, nearly being cleaved in two by Asher’s full blade, and rolled to one side to avoid another giant, flying katar from Faux. As Draven came up to his feet, he pulled out the Adept’s Stone in place of his missing knife.
“A shame…I had hoped I didn’t need to use this!” Draven said with a laugh as he swung one arm in front of Asher. The fire adept was instantly throw back against the wall by a wave of neutral energy. Faux and Voyse were also caught by the wave and thrown back as well. Kara threw her spear at Draven as he did so, the weapon barely missing. A burst of light energy erupted from the tip of the spear on impact, knocking the void adept to the ground. Kara drew her own scimitar out and rushed at the rising Draven just as Thalys did as well. Draven blocked Kara’s scimitar with his knife and tapped into the fireball he sucked up from Asher earlier. The Adept’s Stone amplified the blast to create a huge ball of fire that flew towards Kara, who dropped her sword and created a wall of light energy just in time. The fire slammed into the wall of light, pushed it back, and shoved both the wall of light and Kara backwards. Kara tried to rise but found no energy left, for she was still too tired from her transformation. Thalys slashed at Draven, who fell to the ground and rolled away to avoid the attack. Draven leaped to his feet and advanced towards Thalys, who braced himself.
“Cannon fire!” Asher shouted as he spent the rest of his energy in one attack, enveloping himself in fire and punching towards Draven. The void adept’s eyes widened in surprise, and he dove at Thalys, knocking them both to the ground, just to avoid the attack. Asher kept moving, though, and slammed straight through the throne and into the wall behind it, creating a large whole in it. The fire adept stumbled backwards, moved to one side, and fell to the ground, exhausted.
Draven rose to his feet first. Thalys got up and crossed his blades over his head as he did so to block Draven’s knife. Draven retracted his knife and threw it in the air. He kicked up the knife he had dropped earlier off the ground and caught it. Finally he caught his remaining dagger, holding them both in one hand.
“It’s over, kid…” Draven said with a smirk. He held up the Adept’s Stone and prepared to unleash a massive pulse of neutral energy.
Just then, Omurai leaped up from behind Draven, his broken katana held high, and slammed it into Draven’s shoulder, causing the void adept to drop the Adept’s Stone.
“And that one’s for my people…” Omurai mumbled as he fell to the ground, unconscious.
For the first time in his life, Thalys took no time to hesitate. He sheathed his swords and put his hands together, focusing all his energy into one shot. “Omni Blast!” He screamed, throwing a cannon of mixed energy towards Draven.
“W-wha…no!” Draven muttered just before he created a shield of void energy to protect himself. The cannon shoved the void adept through the opening created by Asher, and broke through his shield. Just as the shield broke and Draven was consumed by the blast, he lashed out his living arm brace to wrap around Thalys’ right arm, tugging the nobleman down with him. Just as the Adept’s Stone hit the floor and started rolling, Faux was up to retrieve it, but Voyse was faster, shoving the water adept to the ground and scooping up the stone. Faux leaped to his feet to pursue, but the dark adept was leaping out of the window before he could move. As he reached the window he looked down, but saw no one. The assassin had gotten away.
Thalys drew his swords as he fell, seeing that Draven had survived his attack and was pulling him down faster with his brace. Thinking fast, Thalys slashed the leather binds holding his broken gauntlet together. The gauntlet fell apart, freeing him from the brace’s whip-like grip. With both of his sabers now free to move as he wished, Thalys pointed them both straight down and straightened himself to fall faster down on Draven.
The void adept saw that the two were nearing the ground below, which was the northern bridge, and spun around to face his fall. Just as he reached the last five feet, he let out a burst of void energy that softened his fall. He landed easily and turned to face Thalys, who pulled back his blades and spun to put his feet first. The nobleman landed on Draven’s shoulders, wrapping his legs around the void adept’s head and twisted his body to spin all the way around him. The maneuver threw Thalys several feet away, causing him to land on his right foot and twist his ankle, but it was better than going splat on the ground. Thalys tried to stand up, ignoring the pain in his ankle.
“A daring…move,” Draven said, pulling out the broken katana from his shoulder. “But a wasted effort…Don’t you see? I’ll kill you here, go back up there and kill them, then retrieve the Adept’s Stone!”
“Not unless I kill you here and now…” Thalys snapped, trying to sound confident.
“You? Kill me? Don’t make me laugh, kid. I could beat you any day in melee, not to mention you’re probably out of magic and I’m not!” Draven explained. Thalys lowered his head, knowing it to be true. Slowly, however, he looked back up with a grim expression.
“I’ve still got to try…not much else I can do here, anyways,” Thalys said with a renewed spirit.
Draven rolled his eyes in disgust and leaped forward. The two shared strikes back and forth, neither hitting their mark. Finally, Draven trapped Thalys’ left saber and disarmed it. The blade hit the ground and the void adept kicked it off the bridge. Thalys reached for his sword but couldn’t make it. Draven laughed and threw Thalys backwards with a burst of void energy. Landing on his right foot again, Thalys crumbled to the ground. He slowly tried to stand up, but could only make it to one knee. Draven charged forward eagerly. Purely on instinct, Thalys moved his tired arm to drag his right saber across the ground and up to block, screaming in defiance. In that instant, he saw sparks come up from his sweep and activated the power in his sword to amplify magical energy. As Draven fell over him, an explosion of fire from Thalys sword threw the void adept off the bridge. Thalys could hear Draven’s scream of protest as he fell to his doom, but could not fully comprehend. The nobleman fell on his back, surprised more than tired.
When it finally fell silent, Thalys opened up his eyes and looked up into the sky. “I-I did it…I finally won a big fight!” He shouted happily. He climbed to his feet again, making sure not to step too hard on his right foot, and looked up at the tower behind him. “I did it guys…” he said softly, knowing they couldn’t hear him anyways.