Inside the box floating above, Aren was still there, impaled, but he wasn't crying in pain. He looked completely calm there.

"Tch, I was too relaxed, allowing him to slip behind me like that. This dude is really strong, I can't lie, but still, I should have done better. Now Athena is at risk. I need to get out of here."

Without hesitation, he pulled out the Dagger of Jotnar, with the ability to cut through space. Cutting out of here would surely not be an issue.

He was still impaled now, but all he needed was the flick of his wrist. The dagger rested on his palm. He took a deep breath.

[...]

Outside the box, the group was hard-pressing against this man. Aiden lunged forward with a slash. The man created another crystal sword, parried the attack in an attempt to do the same thing, but Aiden didn't fall for it. He paused, stepped back, and went low, and immediately Raze leaped over him and slashed down extremely fast.

The man dodged back fast. The sword cut into the ground, and the ground cracked for meters, shaking the earth around the man. He forced himself to be stable. He looked up, only to be met with spatial spheres ripping through the air and headed for him.

"Arghhhh!" He growled in anger, creating multiple spikes of crystal that shot into the air, slamming into every attack, explosions ripping through the air.

The man knew that it was a matter of time before someone came here and then the guards came here, so he had to do this and get away fast, but the more he fought, the farther he got from Athena. It seemed that their plan wasn't to take him down, it was to delay and push him, but for what?

As that thought crossed his mind, he suddenly fought blood, and then a loud sound followed.

Crack.

He looked up, and he saw that the cube had cracked.

"They were waiting for him," he said in disbelief.

The box completely cracked, and then multiple tears formed in the space around the box before it completely shattered, and Aren came falling from up there. He landed on his knee, dagger still in hand.

"Thank you for buying some time for me," Aren said, and then put the dagger away, only having his wolf guard equipped. He got on his feet and stared the man down.

"Tell me, who sent you after Athena?" He asked.

"Haha, you expect me to respond to you? You might be a strong kid, but you are ten years too late to be on the level to threaten me," the man said casually. He then glanced at Athena. "Even if not today, even if not by me, she'll be taken away from you.

"But I'd rather it be me so that I can take all the credit for it. After all, they gave me the task first." He said, and then both his hands changed into crystals again.

"I'll not allow you stop me from doing that," he said, and then got ready to attack.

"Guys, back down, keep a safe distance from me," Aren said.

"But Aren," Aiden tried to talk.

"Don't worry about me. I don't plan on winning, just holding him off till the right people get here, and if I land a few good hits in between, then it's all good," Aren said, and then got into a stance. Everyone else backed away.

"Hmmm." The man saw this as disrespectful, but said nothing. He simply thrust both hands forward, and the crystal shot forward, but also began branching out in every direction, creating multiple attack angles that would be near impossible for Aren to block or dodge.

Aren placed one foot behind to get a better stance and then immediately unleashed a barrage of shadow blades. They ripped through the air endlessly like a vortex, cutting into the crystals as they came.

More and more crystals were shattered, more and more shadow blades were formed. It was now an issue of who could outlast who. Sadly, this dude was leagues ahead of Aren in levels, and his crystal ability was refined for many years now.

From the man's back, a crystal protrusion came out and then spread into multiple branches upward, still spreading like a net over Aren. Aren glanced up, and he knew this would be an issue, but he couldn't take his attention away from the crystals that were attacking him.

The crystals above him then started firing attacks from above, raining them down fast, no way to dodge.

"Tch." Aren clicked his tongue. Tendrils rushed out of the ground and started whipping around to block and shatter the crystals, forcing Aren into a difficult spot where he couldn't lose his focus for even a second.

Aren decided he wasn't losing that easily, so he immediately summoned Fang. Fang appeared and immediately backed a few meters away to leave the effective range of attacks from the raining crystals, then lined up his sight with the man, and without hesitation, attacked, shooting a lightning flame blast.

The man was forced into a quick reaction, stopping all attacks instantly and creating a crystal wall. The attack slammed into the wall and obliterated it.

Aren was about to lunge forward to use this to his advantage, but what the man did next completely changed the look of the battle.

"I'm tired of all this. I'll finish it now," he said and pressed his hands against the ground, and immediately the ground started turning to crystals, and so did the walls and every platform that was around them, spreading as far as the others that were standing away.

"Shit, get away!" Aren screamed at the others, but it was too late. Multiple crystal spikes erupted from the ground. The group all did their best to block and ensure they stayed alive, but they were all thrown back, slamming into walls hard, while Athena stood in the center.

A crystal coffin formed and immediately encapsulated Athena there.

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