Fey landed close to Fey. He looked at her with a blank expression. She struggled, pushing herself back to her feet, but her eyes weren't normal anymore, carrying a glow that wasn't there before.

"Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Her voice reverberated as she lunged forward at top speed, her blade slicing straight for Fey's neck, coming within inches of cutting it open, but Fey sidestepped at the last moment and swung a kick at her side. She reacted quickly, twisting her body and lifting her knee to block the attack.

BAM!

The collision forced both of them back.

Fey raised an eyebrow, surprised she managed to keep up with his speed. Shadow landed, skidding back several meters before lunging forward again. She leaped into the air, blade in one hand, the other aimed downward.

"Wind Cannon!"

A compressed blast of wind, powerful enough to flatten an ordinary human, shot downward. Fey leaped back as the wind cannon smashed into the ground, carving out a crater. But she didn't stop. She cast more rapid, consecutive blasts, each one slamming into the earth and tearing it apart.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Explosions rippled across the forest floor as Fey dodged each strike with effortless grace.

"Seems you're more skilled than I thought," Fey said, landing against the trunk of a tree and kicking himself upward.

He moved fast—too fast. But she reacted again, slashing at his neck. Still mid-air, he bent backward, dodging cleanly, and in the same motion pressed his hand to her chest.

She saw it, but far too late.

A bolt of lightning exploded from his palm, vicious and overwhelming. Pain tore through her body as the blast sent her flying through multiple trees, crashing and rolling across the ground.

Raze watched silently from the sidelines, God's Eye active, tracking every spike in Shadow's energy in case something unpredictable happened.

Fey landed and walked toward her. But as he approached, Shadow suddenly launched herself off the ground, moving like she hadn't just been hit by a devastating lightning strike. Her blade pulsed with dark energy.

Fey dodged, but even then, a slash opened across his neck, black blood dripping down before the wound sealed within seconds.

Shadow froze, stunned. That cut, strong enough to bring down a towering monster in seconds, had done nothing.

Fey stared at her. "Seems I've played enough… allowing a mere mortal like you to injure me." He stretched out his hand.

A massive sphere of lightning began to form, condensing, expanding, then condensing again. The force shook the air, bolts shooting into the ground, carving craters and ripping apart trees.

"I will not allow a mere human like you to go scot-free after injuring me," Fey said.

Shadow felt her stomach twist. She knew one hit from that might kill her instantly. She had two choices: escape or stop him.

She had run the last time she tried to kill him and failed. She hated the idea of fleeing again.

Gritting her teeth, she launched forward, but before she even reached striking distance, Fey vanished and reappeared behind her. He slammed the lightning sphere into her back.

BOOM! CRACKLE! BAM!

The explosion ripped through the forest, the shockwave tearing trees out of the ground. Her body shot forward like a broken projectile, bouncing violently across the earth for hundreds of meters before crashing near Raze. Her back was a charred, ruined mess.

Fey walked toward her slowly.

Raze watched her carefully, until Fey suddenly stiffened, feeling a spike in her energy.

Shadow's body convulsed.

Then—

A massive pulse of wind exploded outward in all directions. Each blade of wind was thick enough to decapitate a person.

Raze sensed the spike with God's Eye and teleported instantly, but even then, a deep cut opened across his shoulder, blood spraying out as the wind blade tore through trees and earth.

Neither Fey nor Raze approached.

Shadow staggered to her feet, standing in the center of the raging wind blades. She looked at Raze with cold eyes, then at Fey, before leaping into the air and blasting away using wind magic.

Fey stepped forward, ready to transform and give chase—but Raze raised a hand.

"Don't."

Fey looked at him. "Why? We should kill her now and end it. It won't take me long."

"No. Let her go," Raze said. "I still need to find out who exactly sent her after me."

"And how are you going to do that? You just let your only lead escape."

Raze smiled and pulled out a tiny piece of paper, no bigger than a thumb.

"I implanted something on her. A tracking rune."

"Huh? When did you do that? I didn't even notice."

Raze lifted his shoulder, showing the fresh cut. "The reason her blade touched me was because I teleported forward first to plant the rune on her before teleporting out."

Fey's eyes widened at Raze's quick thinking.

"I already have a premonition about who wants me dead," Raze said. "But I want to be certain before I make any moves."

[....]

Several kilometers away, Shadow could no longer keep herself airborne. Her strength failed, and she plummeted from the sky, crashing through the trees before slamming into the ground.

Boom.

She groaned in pain, struggling to push herself upright, using a tree for support. Dark blood dripped from her wounds. Her face was twisted in agony, her breathing uneven and heavy.

"This is bad," she muttered under her breath.

"You could have just let me take over."

The voice wasn't external. It echoed from deep within her mind.

"You know I can't do that. We had an agreement," Shadow hissed.

Yet you seem to fail every single time, the voice replied. You could have killed the boy already. Hell, you could have killed that stupid count and everyone else who thinks they can control you, if you just let me take control.

Shadow clenched her jaw.

"But no… you're scared of what you're meant to become."

"Stop talking to me," she snapped, fists tightening. "I'll handle it. I'll take the kid out next time. I promise."

Tsk, tsk, tsk…

The voice clicked its tongue.

"You'll keep going until you can't anymore. And when that happens… you'll come back to me."

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