Surrounded by beasts, and Dave, who was arguably more base than even a beast, Nero fought valiantly. He used his cards in clever ways to distract and divert attention from himself, creating openings to attack. Yet by now, the beasts were much smarter about how they fought him. They had the numerical advantage, and they were using it effectively, managing to avoid deadly attacks. Whittling their numbers would be a slow and arduous process.
At the same time, they closed in around the two, probing and testing for weaknesses. The slightest flaws were all they would need. The beasts were shadows given hunger, and none could escape their shadows. Yet Dave seemed omniscient, dodging each and every attack by a hair’s breadth, and Nero was an impenetrable wall, holding off all assaults with his strength and his spear.
They moved in silence broken only by breath and blood, feline forms slinking through the smoke-streaked air, all muscle and murder. The chill and frost created by Nero’s flames no longer impeded them. Rather, they seemed to blend into the cold mist.
The challenge, however, did not cause Nero to flinch.
Spear in hand, cards ever ready, he stood tall where others would have bent. His strikes came not in fury, but with the stillness of one who had mastered both silence and storm. A beast lunged. A mistake, at last.
A flaming snowflake flew towards it, flying the very second its feet left the ground. It tried to turn midair, but only exposed its throat to the icy shuriken. He spun, fluid, already dismissing the thing’s convulsing body. The blow would either kill it or gravely injure it. Yet he could not take the time to finish it off, for the beasts weren’t the only things fighting him.
Drenched in sweat and spite, blade low and eyes high, Dave used that slightest moment of distraction to strike.
Nero’s spear danced around his body, batting off an arrow, slowing down not in the least.
Venom filled Dave’s eyes, openly revealing his thoughts. He wanted Nero to die, needed him to die, yet killing him was much easier said than done. He never relented, though.
Dave was many things, and compared to someone like Nero, he may have seemed inadequate, yet he was a soldier, nonetheless. He moved like an old ghost, silent, deadly, daunting, and with wicked intent. Yet that was merely a facade.
Beneath his recently disfigured face, even Dave was capable of plotting. He had poisoned the others, and while the poison did not immediately kick in, it had not failed him either. Nero was many things, but he was not invincible. Poison would fell him just like any other. So he put up a facade of a desperate struggle, utilizing every opening and opportunity to strike at Nero to seem weak and desperate. It wasn’t hard.
A hiss. A flicker. Dave darted back, weaving through two prowling beasts. One lunged. He turned it into a shield. Its body broke beneath Nero’s next strike, aiming for Dave, but the Initiate dodged that too.
Hatred hummed beneath their breath.
Nero moved like the end of things - deliberate, certain. Each motion bled meaning. Aether coiled around him like a quiet storm, fueling his frigid flame. Dave was a knife in the wind, never where you needed him, always where you didn’t. He slipped beneath Nero’s reach, struck at his side, and disappeared again.
Blades rang. Flesh tore. Time bent around their fury. Somewhere in the madness, Dave’s sword nicked a beast’s shoulder. Somewhere later, Nero’s spear slammed against a beast’s leg, causing a crack. In between, they tried to deal with each other. But neither fell.
Because each time one gained the edge, a beast took it from them. Each time death beckoned, chaos intervened.
It was almost as if Perelith itself did not want an ending. So they fought. And though Nero was the stronger, the sharper, a beast unto itself - Dave endured. For now.
"It seems neither of us can gain an advantage," Dave said through gritted teeth, finding moments between the fight to speak. "How about I offer you a deal, Nero? Work with me. You must realise that I cannot be without a backer. Even if you somehow win the fight, and drag me back, things will not go as you expect."
"A powerful backer? Within the camp? Tell me more about that, why don’t you? It’ll make it easier to find the culprit once we return."
Dave gritted his teeth and looked at Nero angrily. Within, he knew that he was simply burning time, but the sheer confidence in Nero’s voice was grating. It was as if he never entertained the thought that Dave might prove superior at all. He was being looked down at despite being at a higher level, and that burned his ego.
"Surely you realise you can’t turn this situation on your own," Dave continued. "Why kill yourself over a stupid foreigner? Join with me and serve Kolar. I know about your situation, your background. Your parents have many enemies, too. Making some friends would help ease their situation."
Nero did not respond. Instead, he merely gave Dave a stern look.
Within his heart, Dave felt like he found a weakness - something he could focus on. Finally.
"You don’t my backers, Nero. They could help you. Even with a ’not guilty’ sentencing, your visit to the court will mar your record forever. But with the right kind of support, it won’t matter at all. Vanessa is a foreign agent. As long as you can help, we use her to provide great benefits to Kolar. Your merit won’t be overlooked in the matter."
Nero gave Dave an even deeper look, his fury in his eyes perfectly demonstrated in the deep blue flames burning his body.
"Vanessa’s dead. I saw her corpse on the ground."
Elation shot through Dave’s heart as he finally recognized Nero’s weak points. He had called Nero a loverboy sarcastically, but it seemed there was a certain level of truth to those accusations.
"No, no she’s not dead. I have a way of monitoring her condition. She may have collapsed, but she won’t die so easily," Dave said, keeping a close eye on Nero’s condition. He had activated the second poison, and disabled Nero’s gasmask already.
The poison should have already shown its effects, but for some reason it hadn’t worked yet. He harboured a certain fear that Nero had managed to avoid his poisoning altogether, but he didn’t give up hope just yet. He needed to keep Nero distracted.
"She won’t die so easily, but what about the others?" Nero asked, his voice dangerously low. "What about the team I led into Perilith, Dave? Even monsters and curses couldn’t kill them, and yet you entered the Initiate realm and cut them down."
Dave’s innate ability started to tingle his back once more, causing him to leap back, creating greater distance between himself and Nero. Though that increased the pressure of the beasts on him, that was much preferred compared to that freak .
"I was going to lead them all back alive. They were going to recover from their mental block. Everything was going to work out. I was going to bring back every . Single. One ."
The last words Nero spoke through gritted teeth, as if he had to hold back his anger. In truth, he was hiding his condition. The very moment Dave had started to talk, Nero began to suspect something was amiss.
The look he gave Dave earlier wasn’t one of anger, or hate. Instead, he was dissecting Dave’s body language, trying to understand his motives.
In truth, he was not such a good liar. His attempts to convince Nero to join him weren’t sincere, and the offer wasn’t concrete or even believable. He was wasting time. The question was, for what?
Nero’s mind raced, thinking back to everything he had seen, trying to look for clues. Yet he did not need to look for long. He began to feel a certain weakness spreading through his limbs.
The second time he gave Dave a look, it was one filled with the weight of realisation. Without knowing how, Nero had been poisoned. Dave was trying to distract Nero until the poison kicked in. But Nero’s body, which was far stronger than any Neophytes body should have been, put up a great resistance against the poison.
Even so, its effects were slowly spreading through Nero’s body. He needed to think of a way to resolve the situation without letting Dave know.
When he spoke again, his voice dripping with anger, he did not speak each word due to his uncontainable anger. Instead, he was hiding his struggle against the poison.
Something needed to change, and quickly.
An idea flashed through Nero’s mind, and he looked towards the mud wall he erected. He hoped he had bought enough time for Lina to recover. He was going to need her help.
Nero locked eyes with Dave and forced his flames into a fury, making it look like he was going for the final strike.
"Why kill yourself over a few retards? People die in war all the time. Think of your own future. You won’t get far if you continue on like this?" Dave quickly asked even as he dashed back further. He had seen how deadly those snowflakes were. Better put as much distance between himself and Nero as possible.
" Retards ?" Nero repeated, as if thoroughly angered. "You wish you were half the soldier they proved themselves to be. Forget thinking about the future - you won’t live past the hour!"
Nero roared, and readied himself to dash forward. Dave, frightened, ran back even farther. But suddenly his pupils constricted when he saw Nero move.
Instead of rushing towards Dave, Nero threw himself at the mud wall. He couldn’t even run properly! The poison was working!