TBATE: Let The Truth Be Known {Completed}

Chapter 26: A Cryptic Message

ARTHUR LEYWIN

"What you're made of? I already know what you're made of! You're built of nothing but cowardice, disgusting lesser flesh, and overblown confidence! You truly dare to step to a full-blooded asura while being such a puny mortal?" Kiros shouts after making his superhero landing.

"Wow! How graceful, Kiros! I'm impressed. Yes, absolutely, I'll step to your inferior self. I'm here to send a message, and you're the vessel for that message. I've already informed your city that it won't be here when they come back, so the majority of them have already left. Can we get this over with now? Dragoth just died," I inform.

"You expect me to believe that your underling just slew one of the most powerful beings in all of Alacrya?" he asks.

"I do, yes. It's undeniable fact. I'll have Regis bring his head. Don't worry he won't interfere. He'll just be a spectator. Now draw your weapon," I answer. I activate my Blood Relic armor as the jet-black scales cover me like a wetsuit. The onyx horns curve from above my ears and frame my jawline. "You saw what I did to Cadell. I'm stronger than I was then. Give me a good show."

Kiros draws what appears to be a chained weapon from his dimension artifact. It's some kind of kusarigama-like weapon. A lengthy chain bookended by a scythe-like blade and a dense, spiky metal sphere. The way it flourishes around his silky battle robes makes it apparent that he's proficient.

"This will be interesting," I mumble to myself before dashing off at the horned asura.

He whips the chained scythe around him in an arc, completely denying my entry, or so he thinks. I connect aetheric pathways to within the range of the whipping chain and crouch down. I God Step to Kiros' side while in a three-point stance and conjure an aetheric sword in my free left hand. His eyes narrow in annoyance at my reappearance, but he fails to react in time to my attack. I manage to steal away his foot from just above the ankle as he begins to tumble to the ground.

I quickly God Step to the roof of his five-story manor and gaze down at his pitiful form.

"Full-blooded asura, my ass. I've never seen an asura let their foot get taken like that. I'll wait for you to grow it back, so hurry up," I shout while taking a seat on the ledge of the roof. His face grimaces in pain and then at me for my blatant insult to his character.

"You insolent brat! I'll have your head for your treachery! Do you hear me?!" he yells while seated firmly on his ass, waiting for his foot to heal.

"I hear you loud and clear. That's all I can do since you're such a boring fight. How out of touch can you be? It hasn't been that long since you cowards left Epheotus, has it?" I ask.

It seems I really struck a chord on that one because he immediately hobbles onto his one good and one half-formed foot to confront me. He launches himself at the rooftop ledge with his weapon in hand, he quite skillfully slings the bladed end at my chest while wrapping the rest of the chain around himself so that the other blunt end will make a second arc should I fail to react in time.

Fail to react in time. What a joke.

I choose to confront this idiot head-on. I let the bladed end sink firmly into my hand, locking it in place. After that, I coat my hand in aether and begin to imbue it directly into the kusarigama, sending cracks through the whole chain. Kiros' eyes widen in surprise as the chain holding the blunt, spherical end shatters, sending that half flying over the roof of the house.

"You're boring, Kiros," I grumble before extending my foot from my seated position and pushing off of the ledge, aligning the ball of my foot and his bulbous chin. My foot lands perfectly with his agape mouth, shattering teeth and breaking both halves of his jaw. I let my momentum carry us to the ground where my foot even further bludgeons and smashes the pitiful asura's head. "Still boring, Kiros."