Chapter 13: Fallen
"What?" Shock was written all over the face of his opponent when he blocked the spear. Although Lucius made it seem easy, the force behind the attack was almost enough to push him back considerably. Almost, but not quite.
Pushing back the spear with the sword made out of ice, Lucius jumped back, intending to analyze his opponent better. The latter, though, didn't give him a single second of breather, immediately rushing in, trying to overpower him with the flurry of attacks that followed.
Lucius was loathe to admit it, but this strategy worked. Small cuts started to appear on his body and although tiny and insignificant, if he allowed them to pile up, then he would be in a world of trouble. He would simply dry himself out with his regeneration.
His opponent didn't stop there either. Seeing that his attacks didn't have the intended effect, he started also sending Light Spears from the sides, trying to breach his defenses. Lucius allowed a smile to surface on his lips, seeing that he wasn't underestimated in the slightest.
'When was the last time I really felt the thrill of battle?' He thought idly, while blocking attacks to the best of his abilities and still failing, as even he found it hard to defend from all sides, 'It was eons ago, I guess... Maybe when I fought against Yahweh?'
Even though he had a short skirmish right when he got out of the seal, the humans proved to be quite weak and unimpressive. Even in his weakened state they proved to be a nuisance at best. The Vampires were a bit more fun in this regard, but they were young and inexperienced, only using their power in the most crude form.
The one in front of him, though, was a real fighter. He could see from the movements and attacks of the Fallen Angel that he honed his skills to the extreme. Although he lacked in raw power, he more than made up for it with his experience, making him a far more formidable enemy than those two Vampires could ever be.
"Why someone like you decided to live in this shabby town? Even though I still know little of the outside world, I doubt you couldn't get more use somewhere else." Lucius decided to ask then, his curiosity overpowering anything there was in its way, while dodging another attack that was aimed at where his heart was.
This time, to his surprise, the attacks ceased and his opponent flapped his wings to create a small distance between them. "You seem ignorant of the world, stranger." He said then, his expression having calmed down considerably.
"I sadly can't state otherwise. Still, with your talent, you would have probably gained a much better position in your hierarchy than ordering some humans." Lucius still lacked quite a bit of knowledge of the inner workings of the organizations, but he doubted that some of the most general rules had changed in the supernatural world.
Strength and talent were always welcome, in any shape or form.
What he didn't expect, though, was a look of ridicule to cross the Fallen's face: "Talent?! If I had talent, I wouldn't be treated like trash by everyone! I believed that hard work can overcome talent, but this shit world slapped me into the face! No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try to overcome my limits, nothing ever works! Even after centuries passed, I still am a two-winged Fallen Angel, the bottom of the bottoms!"
Just as quickly as the outburst started, it was replaced by the expression of calmness, only his eyes showing his previous, intense emotions. "But here, I at least can try to create an empire that will become something I couldn't become. That's the only reason I'm in this shabby town."
With those words, he didn't waste a single breath of time, immediately launching himself into an assault. Lucius blocked the attack once again, this time feeling that the force behind it weakened by a small margin. It was barely noticeable, but it showed that even his opponent had his limits.
"I see." Lucius finally said. Although those emotions of lacking talent were unknown to him, someone who had it in spades, he still acknowledged the effort of this Fallen Angel. He had met such people, who simply lacked talent to accomplish anything and yet still climbed to the belief that anything could be done via hard work. It wasn't entirely wrong, but it also couldn't be a complete truth.
Feeling that words were useless in this situation, Lucius decided to finally use everything he had, because doing otherwise would imply that he mocked the efforts his adversary put into this fight.
Finally, when they clashed once again, they were on an equal ground, with spikes of ice constantly trying to impale the body of the Fallen Angel, while Lucius dodged the Light Weapons that appeared in his blind spots. From this moment onward, it was a simple battle of attrition.
×-×-×
'Why? Why is it never enough?' Hekiel though while trying to dodge another barrage of ice shards. Most of them missed his body, but some still made opened up new wounds on his whole body. It was sadly inevitable, as he still needed to use most of his focus on the sword that tried to pierce his body.
Although so far they had been on equal grounds, Hekiel knew that at some point, he would definitely lose. At first, he overpowered his enemy to a great degree, but the situation quickly changed. As soon as his opponent started using magic to attack from different sides, it already became difficult to cope with the circumstances he found himself in, but it was still tolerable to a certain degree.
But to his dismay, the attacks became more unpredictable, while his were blocked and redirected with certain ease. It made him hopeless, seeing that his adversary was learning so quickly, while he struggled to even follow all the moves. He always had to be on guard, as the deceptive veil of sword feints hid behind it dangerous attacks.
'Is it simply because I lack talent?' He thought depressingly. The mage in front of him definitely didn't have the same problem, seeing that he could learn so much in a few minutes, while he himself struggled to come this far even after centuries passed. It was a sad reality he came to terms with long time ago, but it still pained his heart to admit it once again.
'Then is there even a point?' He blocked another attack that came from above and tried to block the one coming from behind it, only to be violently kicked away, sending him tumbling down the hall. 'Why do I always struggle so much?'
He felt his back against the wall and at this moment he felt so insignificant and little that it was scary. He saw that his spear started to dim, indicating that he was about to run out of energy. Truthfully, not only his mana reserves were low, he also felt that his body could barely hold on, being exhausted through the numerous small cuts that accumulated.
"It seems... I was too arrogant to think I will win this fight..." He then looked at those green eyes that made him look so pitiful. "I lost." He finally said, resigned to his fate. He slowly closed his eyes and he finally felt the exhaustion that permeated his body. It was overpowering and all-consuming, prompting him to finally lose his consciousness.
"Interesting." This was the last word he heard before the world of darkness greeted him.
×-×-×
Lucius looked at the body lying in front of him. To be exact, he looked at the mana that was filling this body and at the erratic changes it made to it. It expanded its reserves, strengthened the body in all aspects and nurtured it to a state from half-dead to an alive one. It was a sight he had seen a few times, but still one he was quite unfamiliar with.
Fallen Angels were different from all other beings he had seen so far. Although a few races also had this kind of all-rounder evolution, like Vampires for example, such cases were still rare. Most individuals got stronger naturally, with small increment in strength that were barely noticeable, but still added up to a greater whole.
He finally sighed in acceptance, 'Magic still has many mysteries.' Nonetheless, this thought didn't make him discouraged; on the contrary, it made him look forward to new discoveries he would make in this field. It was also something that could hold his boredom at bay.
"What should I do with you?" He once again set his sight on the Fallen Angel. Killing him in this state would be easy. Of course he would read his memories before that, but he felt that it was still a loss to simply toss away such a hard-working individual.
When he came here, his first thought was to make him into a Puppet. The Vampire he fought with before showed defiance even in the face of death, so it would simply be troublesome to completely control her, not to mention he didn't really have any extreme hostility or animosity against her.
Now though, he felt it would be a waste to turn this one into a Puppet as well.
"Well, let's see what use do you have." He held out his index finger at the forehead of the Fallen Angel, starting the process of reading memories.
The content did surprise him.
×-×-×
(AN): Sorry for not posting yesterday, I was kinda lazy ;) To make up for this mistake, I will also post one chapter tomorrow, so stay tuned.
Hope you can bless this chapter with a few of your precious Power Stones.
Have a great day!
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