Chapter 596: One Final Exchange
Samuel’s severed limb had landed six meters away, still smoking from the impact.
Samuel stood on one leg in the crater.
His sword was planted in the rubble beside him, its blade sunk deep into the broken stone.
His hand was wrapped tightly around the hilt, blood ran down the side of the sword.
Samuel’s grin was gone.
His eyes stayed on Ace.
The physical trauma wasn’t of much concern to him. At this moment, his ego hurt more than any wound on his body. His legs could be healed quickly with his connections, but losing a limb to a person that ascended minutes ago wasn’t something light.
He hadn’t expected to be hit.
His teeth ground together.
"You’re better than I estimated."
Ace’s smile widened slightly, despite the pain visibly running through his own body.
"You’re better than I estimated too."
The two of them stood in their respective craters, both bleeding, aura diminished, but still very much on their feet.
Neither of them had truly won.
Neither of them had truly lost.
But both of them had discovered that the fight had a real outcome available, if they wanted to continue it.
Samuel exhaled slowly.
Samuel’s sword began to lift out of the rubble.
Ace’s dagger rose in parallel.
"If one attack didn’t end it." Samuel’s voice cut across the crater, flat and cold. "Then two will."
His aura surged upward once more. The samurai began to reform behind him, the red-gold flame gathering in the sky above the ruined arena as the powerful skill was cast once more.
Despite missing a leg, Samuel’s posture remained straight and proud, his sword arm steady, planted in in his sword-crutch position.
Ace followed Samuel’s lead as his daggers rose once more.
His body flexed slightly as he tried to channel the same skill he had produced moments earlier, and it became apparent almost immediately that he did not have the same reserves left.
His breathing slowed down, and his aura wavered. The assassin construct began to reform behind him, but the shape was thinner than it had been the first time.
It became apparent to everyone present, that Ace’s reserves were dwindling down.
Despite that, Ace didn’t seem worried.
The dark red aura that had been surrounding his body pulsed outward, and every corpse across the ruined arena responded.
The elites who had died with visible bones above them had already given up what they had. But the fighters whose bones were still hidden inside their storage rings, hadn’t been drained yet. Ace reached across the venue and activated them all at once.
Bones erupted from the storage rings of every dead fighter within a kilometer.
They tore through the storage rings, and emerged into the air above their former owners. Each one began to glow with the same dark crimson aura. Each one connected upward to the assassin construct in a thin thread of concentrated red light.
Tom felt one of the bones inside his own storage ring moved.
His face darkened immediately.
The bone he had recovered from a dark organization elite some time ago, the one he had been studying quietly in secret because he had always suspected there was more to them than the Association had found, was trying to leave his ring on its own.
The activation signal was reaching into every storage device across the venue and calling every fragment upward.
But Tom wasn’t a corpse. His consciousness was still connected to his ring, and the ring’s activation authority still required his permission to release its contents. He released his aura, and the bone inside his ring went still. It couldn’t leave without his approval.
Nobody else’s ring had a living owner nearby to stop it.
Bones rose into the air across the arena.
Not just from the elites.
From the Association fighters who had died today too. From corpses the shockwave had scattered across the ruined venue. The Association had recovered numerous bones over the years, and many of the responders had carried samples with them into the fight for analysis if the opportunity arose. Every one of those samples was now airborne.
The bones began to drain the surrounding bodies.
Dark red aura flooded outward from every corpse. Their flesh started to wither. The connection to Ace’s assassin construct thickened as the harvested energy poured into his technique. Every second, his construct grew denser, sharper, closer to the terrifying form it had held during the first exchange.
Samuel’s face darkened.
"Destroy the bodies! Don’t let him use their energies to complete his attack!" Samuel who had been watching Ace’s earlier transformation, immediately knew the effects of these bones.
He couldn’t stop the phenomenon himself as he was pouring everything into the attack. He could only command Tom, Farid, and Sierra. Even the Surpassers fled the battleground as they could no longer handle it.
All three of the Ascenders hesitated.
Their expressions contorted. Some of the corpses being drained were their own people.
Subordinates they had commanded. Followers who had come here today to protect the venue at their request. Tom’s own subordinates were among the dead. Farid had lost two of his direct disciples during the fight. Sierra had lost some too.
Destroying their bodies felt like a violation of the time they shared and the loyalty they offered till death.
Samuel’s voice rang across the arena again, furious this time.
"What are you doing!! Their bodies are being drained right now! Whether you do it yourselves or not, they’ll be reduced to nothing in seconds! You’re not saving them by hesitating. You’re feeding him to survive!"
Tom moved first.
His golden fire flared and he launched a burst at the closest cluster of drained bones. The attack met the bones, and the bones ate the attacks without changing state. The drain continued.
His fire did nothing to interrupt the connection.
Tom’s face tightened.
The bones themselves were still indestructible.
Which meant the only way to break the drain was to remove the source... The bodies.