The moment Valentine heard Azaron's words, he immediately entered his combat mode, his body primed and ready to react to anything and everything. His perception stretched and expanded unnaturally as the world around him slowed to a crawl, colors dulling and sounds fading into near silence as his senses peaked to their absolute limit.

But before he could even blink, Azaron was already gone from his position. The world that had slowed to a crawl within Valentine's perception seemed utterly incapable of keeping up. His mind screamed in warning, his reaction instantaneous. He raised his short blades to block, expecting the familiar sound of metal clashing against metal, but that sound never came. Instead, there was the sickening, thunderous impact of flesh meeting metal.

Valentine felt a world-ending force slam into his gut as Azaron's fist tore into his breastplate. His back folded forward like paper under impossible pressure, and like a cannonball, he was shot backward with maddening intensity. His body tore through trees in his path, trunks splintering and exploding around him. For the first time since the battle began, Valentine coughed blood, the metallic taste flooding his mouth.

He gritted his teeth as he swallowed the rest of the blood, refusing to let it slow him down. His body twisted midair as he forcibly repositioned himself, his feet slamming into the earth below and carving deep trenches as he struggled to come to a halt. Dirt, soil, sand, and stones blasted backward in violent waves. Valentine's eyes snapped forward as he gazed toward the position he had occupied only moments earlier, but all he saw was an incoming foot, rapidly growing larger with each passing moment.

Valentine attempted to block yet again, but he was still too slow. Azaron's foot tore into his chin with an armageddon-like impact. Valentine's head snapped violently to the side from the sheer force, a tooth flying from his mouth as blood sprayed through the air. The moment his head twisted aside, his body followed, tearing sideways once more as he was sent flying.

But Azaron was anything but done. He appeared behind Valentine yet again, moving as though distance itself meant nothing to him. This time, Valentine reacted just in time, his hand shooting backward as his blade screamed to meet Azaron's incoming fist. Seeing the blade, Azaron recalibrated in real time, altering his strike seamlessly. His target shifted from Valentine's chest to his flank in the span of a heartbeat.

Valentine didn't hesitate. He activated a technique as his body dissolved into shadow, transforming into an amorphous dark form before vanishing from his position entirely. Azaron's fist met nothing but thin air, yet the air itself ballooned outward and then detonated, as though the rapture itself had arrived. An all-consuming shockwave tore outward from his fist, reducing kilometers of terrain to nothing but obliterated earth and churning clouds of dust.

Azaron didn't give chase. He remained where he was for a brief moment, standing amidst the devastation. Then, without another word, he began to walk forward. Each step echoed unnaturally, resounding through the shattered landscape. His destination was clear, Valentine's location.

Valentine couldn't believe what was happening. Although he had suspected earlier that Azaron was holding back, the difference in power between the two of them should not have been this overwhelming. They were both at the peak of their respective paths, yet he was being thrown around like a helpless child.

"I told you… didn't I?" Azaron spoke calmly, his voice carrying effortlessly through the destruction. "The fun will be going one way from now."

Before Valentine could even respond, Azaron was already beside him. His fist tore forward like a comet ripping through the sky. Darkness and shadow bent instinctively to Valentine's thoughts, forming a dense dark barrier in front of him. With a calamity-ridden burst, Azaron's fist collided with the barrier.

The dark barrier shuddered violently, cracks spiderwebbing across its surface almost instantly. Valentine didn't dare remain behind it. He vanished once more, retreating as he shifted into motion, clearly on the run. Yet the moment he moved, Azaron moved as well, their bodies becoming blurs of black and gold as they crossed vast distances in an instant.

This time, Azaron thrust forward with Ender, the soul-bound weapon tearing through space itself. Valentine reacted on pure, animalistic instinct, parrying the strike at the very last second. Even so, massive tremors ran violently through his hands, nearly shattering his grip. He gritted his teeth as his body was sent streaking backward, a single parry having launched him away with terrifying force.

Azaron moved again, Ender already blurring toward Valentine's throat. But Valentine was already gone, his body dissolving into shadow as he vanished once more. Still, Azaron did not relent. With every motion and every strike, he pushed Valentine further and further to the edge, giving him no room to breathe.

Valentine could only curse silently in his mind as he dodged again and again, no longer daring to parry any of the incoming attacks.

'How can the difference between us be this vast?' he thought as he barely dodged to the left, his body escaping by the narrowest of margins.

'How can such a bloodline even exist?' he complained internally as he twisted away from yet another devastating blow.

'What is the Emperor doing?' his thoughts raged. 'He should have wiped out this family of monsters from the beginning. They shouldn't exist, '

His thoughts were cut short as Azaron's knee tore brutally into his chest. A booming sound exploded within his body, the impact reverberating straight through his heart. He felt his armor cave in instantly as the tremors from the strike rippled through his chest and spine.

'Fuck,' he cursed as pain assaulted his mind. His previously calculative expression and cold, composed eyes were gone. In their place was the look of a man standing on his last legs. Yet even so, he was still an assassin. He did not give up until the very end. Besides, he hadn't even used any of his true attack techniques yet.

His body tore through a mountain, ricocheting from one tree to another before finally coming to a stop. This time, Azaron did not give chase. He remained where he was, staring calmly at the rising dust cloud marking the place where Valentine had crashed.

"Azaron Wargrave," Valentine's voice rang out from within the smoke, strained yet resolute. "Do you really intend to push me to the edge? We can both save ourselves from fatal injuries. I'm sure we both have enemies we'd rather not deal with while wounded."

At that moment, Valentine rose to his feet and walked out of the smoke. Though he had been injured and struck repeatedly, he could still move at his top speed, his aura steady, his presence sharp. He was battered, but far from broken.

"Throwing in the towel already?" Azaron replied, an amused tone coloring his voice as he stood completely unbothered. "I only showed you a glimpse of what you claimed was false, just enough to keep you alive. And now you want to end it? I thought assassins fought to the bitter end."

Valentine stood calmly, staring at the monster in human form before him. He knew he couldn't win like this. His gaze hardened, resolve crystallizing.

"Don't say I didn't warn you then," he said quietly, finality lacing every word. "Mutual destruction it is."

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