Chapter 31

Alta…


He stared down the Dragon Wraith as it had both of its arms spread out, its blades fully extended and ready to kill him.

Alta's glared at him in indignation before he flicked his right arm to his side and a sword of ice manifested in his hand. He gripped it with both hands and aimed the point of it at the Dragon Wraith in challenge. It responded by pulling its arms back and lunging forward, its right arm raising to strike him down.

As its blade came down, instead of deflecting it Alta side stepped and swung his sword at its chest. Hoping to blow it away he released a burst of heat into the ice sword and caused another explosion along its blade but it only managed enough force to make it stumble slightly.

"Huh?!" stammered as it swung its left bladed arm at him which he barely managed to deflect away with another explosive burst from his sword.

Do I really need to make explosions just to match its strength now?!

He quickly manifested another sword in his left hand as the Dragon Wraith started swinging wildly at him while getting faster and faster with every strike. He wouldn't last very long if he had to continue making explosions with every swing of his swords. He needed an opening if he wanted to finish it off quickly.

Just as it was about to rush him once again, Malthael's massive claw crashed down upon the mountain face and the force knocked both of them further down the mountain. Thankfully Alta had run to the opposite side of the mountain as this was going on but the force was still powerful enough to affect everything around it. As he was falling he managed to right himself in midair and land on his two feet but the Dragon Wraith crashed down next to him and already it sprung forward to kill him.

Thankfully it was still off balance which gave him the opportunity make an ice sledgehammer and bring it straight down on its head. He shouted at the top of his lungs in effort as he slammed it down and released a burst of heat into the ice hammer causing it to explode once again.

Even with all that force behind his strike, it still wasn't enough to crack its hard skull and was only able to partially bury it into the snow, to which it quickly pulled itself out.

He needed a permanent solution and fast.

He then released a powerful stream of water from his right hand at the Dragon Wraith while freezing it, hoping to completely encase it in ice. He only managed to freeze its left arm solid as it held its left hand to block it before it tried to thrust its right bladed arm at him. 

Alta parried it away before encasing his right foot in ice and kicking it in the face. Without thinking about it he transferred heat into the ice on his foot and it exploded outwards. It hurt, but it wasn't enough to injure him.

If he survives this fight he needs to remember to get some armor so that he doesn't break something when he does that.

Without giving it a moment to recover, Alta grabbed its right arm with his hands encased in ice gauntlets and froze its right arm solid.

As Alta was about to work on freezing the rest of the body solid, Marcus streaked through the air and ripped off Malthael's jaw clean off. The Arch Dragon then writhed in pain and turned towards the face of the mountain opposite of Lunaas as its claws dug into the mountain.

Near where Alta and the Dragon Wraith were right now.

"Oh crap...," he muttered.

Without thinking about it he immediately started running as far away from Malthael as possible, jumping into the air as far and as fast as he was able to with the explosions catapulting him forward. As he was jumping down the face of the mountain he heard the Dragon Wraith's horrible roar as it came falling through the air with its bladed right arm coming for him.

Alta manifested a sword while still falling and turned his body just in time to block the downward slash before it could slice him in two.

The moment right before he was about to be slammed into the ground by the force of the Dragon Wraith's attack, Malthael roared with its head pointed to the sky and black flames exploded outwards from its body releasing a shockwave that slammed into them both sending them flying sideways instead of crashing onto the mountain.

Alta and the Dragon Wraith righted themselves at the same time but he was faster as he let his adrenaline take over and he rocketed forward as he landed a punch to its chest with ice coating the area he struck. He continued whaling on it with blow after blow after blow, not giving it a chance to counter attack and covering more of its body in ice.

Eventually it had so much ice stuck in between its bones and joints that it couldn't move properly but he knew it wasn't enough as he dug his fingers into the sternum of its chest and shouted at the top of his lungs as he fed as much ice through its skeletal frame as he could; the Dragon Wraith struggling helplessly as it was being slowly imprisoned.

Eventually it was so thoroughly frozen solid that it was impossible for it to move at all. Its black flames that had covered its body had been smothered out by the coat of frost.

With it completely trapped all he needed to do now was generate enough heat to blast it to pieces but...he was exhausted. Making fire and water with the talismans is more draining on him than manipulating the transfer of heat. He wasn't sure he had enough energy left to generate the necessary amount of heat to cause an explosion with all that ice.

He knew that the ice wouldn't hold it forever but he had no way to put it down for good.

"What the hell do I do now?"


Marcus...


He looked up at Malthael, staring him in his eyes as the Archdragon bared down on him. His massive claw pressing down on his body to keep him pinned on the ground.

As he felt the surge of energy rising within Malthael he watched as light shone from the back of his throat. However, when he expected flames to burst forth, instead he watched as the air started to swirl around him. Dust and dirt picked up from the suction of the rotating air currents and started to form a tornado around Marcus's body connected to Malthael's jaws.

"What is he...what's he doing...?" he said to himself as a chill started to creep up his spine.

As the rotation of the wind got faster the light shining at the back of Malthael's throat got brighter and he started seeing white hot flames leaking at the edges of his mouth.

"Oh God...," Marcus said in horror as Malthael released a torrent of death in the form of a concentrated plasma beam. Malthael moved his claw out of the way right before the beam reached him and Marcus only had enough time to coat his head with armor once again as he was hit with the full force of it all at once.

As it slammed into him he tried to absorb it but...it was simply too much. There was too much force, too much energy, and too much...it was simply too much for him to bear. The black and white beam of energy washed over him and fractured his armor. Without even trying to absorb it, the energy flooded into his body. He tried to absorb what was being forced into his body into electricity but it was simply too much. His attempt to convert his own body into electricity and stone to keep Malthael from destroying him made his own magic overflow and run out of control.

Soon...he could feel thoughts fade and nothing but white surrounded his vision. It didn't seem to come from the light of Malthael's plasma, but rather...something else. He didn't know what it was but it was as if he was surrounded by a blank white void and standing around him were dark figures that looked almost human but he couldn't see them clearly because they vibrated too fast for him to make out any specific details and some of them even disappeared out right. He looked down at his own body and noticed that he was shining with blue light.

When he looked up at them again all of their heads were now facing him...hungrily.

What the hell are these things? he thought to himself as he could feel their hunger emanating from them. They were practically salivating at the sight of him.

Marcus then felt a rush of energy burst from his left hand and realized that it had started to turn black.

Faster than he could even process, all of the dark figures that were standing over him were now on all fours with their mouths open and hovering over his left arm. He had never felt such an extreme sense of fear for his own life than he did right now. As the black energy began to encroach up the rest of his body he fought to maintain his will to live.

I...will not die, I can't die, he thought to himself in defiance to what he was seeing as he imagined gritting his teeth.

But for some reason he couldn't seem to muster the energy to fight through it. The encroaching death seemed far too certain to him and the feelings of fear only seemed to worsen the situation as the rest of his arm, all the way up to his shoulder turned black and the dark figures grazed their teeth over it.

Just as he was certain that death was about to claim him, he caught the sight of a blade slashing through the dark figures and scattering them away. His eyes barely caught sight of the shape of it as he noticed it looked like a katana.

He leaned his head back to look at who drove the dark figures away and the face of a woman with black hair filled his vision as she was within a hairsbreadth away from his face. She stared down at him with hate and blood lust in her eyes directed at him and he thought that she had only killed those things to get to him.

But then she said, "Of course you can't die. You haven't suffered in this world enough yet."

She then pulled back her arm and shoved it through his torso. The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt before in his life. It was if his heart was being slowly spooned out of his chest. When she ripped her arm back out she pulled out hundreds of small chains wrapped around her hand and crushed them into dust.

"Now...go and do what you do best," she said before she moved her lips next to his ear and said, "Enderman."

Before he could even think about how she knew that name, his hand had already wrapped around her throat and he had started choking her.

"How...do you know that name?" he asked her.

While straining from his grip she smiled and said, "What is there that I don't know about you, Enderman?"

As she smiled and stared down at him, he could feel his anger surging through him. He...he wanted to kill this woman. He didn't know who she was or how she knew him but anyone who knew that name had to die, that much he was certain of. 

"Good luck!" she said with a grin before she faded away and he lost sight of her completely.


He gasped awake as he realized that he had been knocked unconscious from the force of Malthael's flaming breath. He had no way of knowing for how long but now...now he felt a vast emptiness in his well of power, almost as if all the power that had washed over him from Malthael's flames was nothing more than a drop in his well of power. When he tried to focus his energy into repairing his armor, it cracked as he lost control of the flow of energy surging through him and the Malthael's flames poured down on him with even greater weight.

Marcus struggled to roll his body over as the beam pressed down on him but he managed to get on all fours. The energy being absorbed into him reinforced his body with so much strength that even standing up under the pressure of this energy wasn't so difficult.

What is this..., he thought as he stood up straight, under the immense power of Malthael's breath, effortlessly.

But then, just as he thought that it was going to get easier, the beam of energy intensified and more focused. Despite that, he stumbled slightly but refused to fall under its pressure.

With Light Taker still in his right hand, he closed his eyes as he lifted his left fist up into the air and absorbed everything at once. The torrent of energy flowing into his hand and surging throughout his body. With this much force it should have crushed his body into paste without his armor but the energy flowing through every muscle fiver, ever patch of skin, every bone in his body was vibrating with power.

He then wondered...what the hell could have happened to him while he was unconscious...? For some reason he couldn't remember... All he seemed to recall was...a woman's voice calling him 'Enderman'.

Just thinking about the name filled his mind with rage.

As he let the anger take over, he could feel his body turn to stone, but not the same way that it usually did. Something about it was different this time. It felt like his entire well of power that he had before was being released at a constant rate.

When he opened his eyes to see Malthael staring down at him as he continued to breath a torrent of energy and flame, it was Enderman that stared back.


Alta...


As Malthael loosed a stream of fire and death upon the ground, the flames blanketed everything around it until they eventually reached him.

"Hah! I guess luck is on my side today," he said as he held his hand up and pulled in all the heat he could from the flames, simultaneously preventing them from burning him alive and also building up enough thermal energy to destroy the Dragon Wraith that had been hounding after him all this time.

"I wish I could say that its been fun and that I'll miss you or something like that, but really, I just fucking hate you," Alta said through gritted teeth as he struggled to contain the thermal energy contained within his body before he walked over to the Dragon Wraith, gripped its shoulder with his left hand, and punched clean through its chest. The heat released from his fist vaporized it instantly in the explosion but it exhausted him so much that he wasn't able to stop himself from being blown away from the recoil as he was sent flying hundreds of feet away.

When he crashed to the ground, he only managed to say one thing before he lost consciousness.

"Good luck you two..."