Descent of a God

Betrayal

|Jude|

After a few moments of regaining our energy, the peaceful silence was shattered by the sudden appearance of the three Scythes. My heart raced as I quickly assessed the situation. All my swords had been broken from the previous battle against the mana beasts. I cursed myself for not being better prepared.

Cadell, Dragoth, and Melzri stood before us, their eyes burning with fury. Cadell, as usual, had a cold expression, but it was now twisted with anger. Dragoth, a towering figure with a muscular body and grey beard, looked like he could crush anything in his path. Melzri, a stark contrast to Seris with her silvery-gray skin and thick black horns, appeared to be both fierce and deadly.

I knew we were in for a difficult fight. I quickly used sound magic to communicate with Master Galahad. "I'll take on Cadell and Melzri. You handle Dragoth."

Master Galahad nodded in agreement, and we charged towards our opponents. The three Scythes also charged towards us, and in seconds, we clashed in a fierce battle.

|Third POV|

Jude's swift movements allowed him to dodge Cadell's soulfire-clad fist, which left his armor cracked from a seemingly weak attack. As Melzri gathered mana around her palms, Jude prepared himself for another round of battle.

Cadell conjured up obsidian blades of soulfire and released a barrage of attacks, but Jude effortlessly weaved through them and landed his own attacks on Cadell. "Did you not learn from the last fight?" Jude taunted as he landed a powerful roundhouse kick on Cadell's chest, cracking open his armor. Cadell groaned in pain and took a step back.

Just as Cadell was about to strike again, a mana shield appeared, momentarily stalling his movements and allowing him to scratch Jude. More shields formed, restricting Jude's movements. Irritated, Jude used his power to break the shields more easily.

But then, everything turned dark for him. His body bent down as his blood turned purple. "Dammit, I was poisoned!" Jude thought as he tried to suppress the poison using the aether in his body. Cadell took advantage of the situation and landed a devastating punch on Jude's jaw, sending him flying away with a broken jaw.

Jude yelled in anger and released a powerful black ice that momentarily froze Cadell. As Cadell attacked him again, Jude had already suppressed the poison and managed to deliver a counter-attack. However, just as he was about to land a fatal blow, Melzri cast her poison again, bringing him to his knees.

This allowed Cadell to stab him in the gut before he could suppress the poison again. "I see now," Jude thought as he froze his wound, "Melzri's poison is deadly against weaker opponents, but Scythe-level opponents like me can suppress it. Her mana shields are also strong against lower-level opponents."

Jude's mind went into high gear as he figured out the timing of Melzri's spells. He then readied aether and mana to suppress the poison quickly after it hit him. After several attempts and many broken bones, he was able to predict where mana shields would form and avoid them.

With this new tactic, Jude was able to get the upper hand again. He dodged most of Cadell's blades and landed many hits on him, trying to break the blades so that Cadell would need to conjure them again. Soulfire was unable to break past Jude's flames of destruction, and Cadell was taking many wounds from his attacks.

However, Melzri's decay arts were affecting the inside of Jude's body, weakening him as the fight went on. Jude could not effectively use the vivum of healing and started to accumulate damage.

Suddenly, Dragoth charged at him, hitting him with a red fire-clad fist that rattled his skull. Jude countered by using Dragoth's momentum to spin in the air and use [Black Dragon Cross Strike] through his legs on both Dragoth and Cadell to distance them from him.