Epiphany

Face-on

"what a mess things turned out to be, the castle half ruined, our enemies standing tall on the very heart of our kingdom, our knights scattered around the city, and this strange demon then the kid" thought Casam.

A few energy blasts came crashing on his body shedding some crystal fragments in the air, he grabbed some of them and threw towards Miervall, who swiped them off as if they were flies with his left arm.

He dangerously approached Casam, who readied his claw and healed as much of his crystalline body as he could.

Miervall morphed his right hand into a huge gorilla fist charging at Casam, he charged back using his claw, he managed to leave a few scratches on Miervall's body, which gave him an impression of physical superiority, since his body was in a way immune to flesh based weapons such a Miervall's.

A feeling which was swiftly crushed under the heavy weight of the Captain's punch, that shattered half of Casam's face.

"Hehe, Who said turtle shells served only for defensive purposes" said Miervall as he proceeded to pound Casam to a pulp.

At the other side of the balcony Berith didn't seem to struggle as much against his two opponents, Feirelvall shooting his sharp feathers and Shiva seizing ever each opportunity to pierce the colossus' flesh using her needle.

Which seemed to not have much effect on Berith, his enhanced muscledom protected his vital organs just fine, and didn't feel much pain since he was smarter than to equip them with nociceptive nerves.

He threw one hand here and one there striving to catch or punch them a few times, but he couldn't manage to get up to their speed and agility, which was slowly turning the situation into a battle of attrition.

Victory to those who can best manage their Nexus at the expense of the others !

Miervall was holding one of Casam's severed arms in his left hand, that after he fractured it with a few punches of his turtle carapaced enforced gorilla fist.

But Casam was nowhere to be seen, the Captain knew his opponent could use his crystalline form in auch a way but not to that extent, becoming fully invisible, what a lethal move.

The only hint at Casam's location was the sound of glass scratching against the other when he moved.

Miervall was simply defenseless against his foe's slashes now despite him not using his claws for the sake of stealth, his crystal nails were nonetheless sharp and able to snithe.

The Captain tried a few times to predict the Assassin's angle of offense, but that was easier said than done seeing Casam's agility and tenacity.

It went on for a few seconds like that until suddenly Miervall was left standing there, no more attacks from Casam, no more attempts, it all went quiet.

Minervall with no second thought took the opportunity to heal his wounds using his Nexus, he then looked left and right thinking that the assassin must be preparing for some lethal strike.

He then morphed two huge birdlike wings off of his back and heavily flapped them conjuring a violent wind current which stirred up all the dust that layed around him as his movement would creat a disturbance in the evenly spread dust particles.

In an attempt to locate his opponent, in vain he propelled himself up to gain a greater field of view for he wouldn't be surprised to know that his opponent retreated from fear.

But alas there he saw the disturbances in current that was looking for, strangely headed towards the girl and the boy at the corner of the spacious balcony.

As soon as he was close enough Casam screamed at Aether, "strike him" pointing at the boy, then turned his Nexus off gaining his human form.

Aether was perplexed "he is gravely injuried".

She now stood defensively on the assassin's way as if to signal not to approach the boy, since for her looked more like a victim than a threat at the moment.

Casam quickly looked behind him after hearing the sound of Miervall's gun shots.

He was shooting him while imminently flying in his direction.

He reactivated his Nexus once again in order to parry the few bullets heading towards him.

That done he turned back to Aether and kicked her not too far from the boy.

"I will immediately take the kid to Master, he surely has a plan involving him" thought Casam to himself.

Minervall understood that he wanted the boy for some reason, he had something to do with the humongous monstrosity that manifested earlier, "it would be too dangerous if the throne got hold of him, they would surely weaponize the poor thing just like they did with her" Miervall was thinking.

Aether's blood began to drool on the boy's knees, he couldn't see what was going on because of the dried state all of his body including his eyes were in, but he coyld smell or rather sense that benevolent energy she once emanated dissipate slowly.

Casam was a few meters away running towards the boy, followed by Miervall chasing him with his right hand first which he morphed in a fierce beast mouth with huge fangs protruding from both jaws.

Suddenly the boy's body began to dematerialize, transforming into some golden filaments which in a blink of an eye flew towards Miervall and began infiltrating his beast-jaw hand.

Casam couldn't locate the boy who was right in front of him a second ago, he stood there confused seeing only Aether's body laying there.

A few seconds passed he violently turned his head back to see a lump of flesh wiggling and twitching there where Miervall should have been.

"God all mighty, what an abomination" mumbled the assassin.