Nymrathis's face twisted to naked rage.
His blazing red eyes, honed to cutting steel, burned with contempt, settled on Ichiro — the old man who had the temerity to command him around like a mere pawn.
"Don't you dare command me," he hissed, his voice silky, deadly, poisonous.
The ground beneath him froze with ice in an instant, as if the world itself recoiled.
With a sweep of his hand, the sky above them shined —
A swarm of ice shards, glinting with cruel, murderous intent, formed in an instant.
They hovered, a sea of frozen death ready to rain down.
Izumi's heart hammered against his ribs.
He looked up, face pale, hands trembling.
"No. no way," his thoughts screamed, "I can't die like this. not now. not like this!"
But beside him, Ichiro didn't so much as flinch.
He simply watched the storm gathering, his expression untouched,
his gentle, near-fatherly smile still on his face.
Then — with a smooth, effortless movement —
he swung his battered blade high into the air, muttering softly under his breath:
"Tenfold."
The world answered him.
The very air itself around him screamed and bent to his will, as some animal might twist and writhe to that of its master.
A single, hidden shockwave burst upwards.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
The sky lit up as the ice fragments dissolved one by one into harmless sparkling snow, dropping harmlessly to the ground.
Izumi stood there in awe.
He had thought they were lost — but Ichiro made it look so effortless.
Nymrathis' snarl grew darker.
In a moment, he burst forward — becoming a blur of speed and unmitigated power.
The distance was erased.
He struck at Ichiro with ferocious, smashing blows — fists and elbows impacting with enough strength to break boulders.
Each blow pushed Ichiro a step back at a time, his boots slipping on the dirt.
Izumi gaped in horror — he couldn't just stand there!
Gripping his teeth, he tore at the frayed ends of his Yin energy.
A little ball of quivering darkness condensed in his palm.
He hurled it toward Nymrathis with a broken scream of defiance.
The energy struck true —
pushing Nymrathis off balance for just a fraction of a second.
But it came at a price.
RRIP!
A tearing sensation ripped through Izumi's body.
He gasped, clutching his chest where the Soul Conduit pulsed violently,
agony flashing through every nerve.
He dropped to one knee, barely able to breathe.
Ichiro, seeing him fall, barked sharply:
"Izumi!"
"Don't use power when your Soul Conduit is open! It'll tear you in two!"
Izumi could barely nod, the pain dissolving the outlines of his vision.
Ichiro took advantage of the brief lag.
He changed his footing, reclaiming the winds once more.
And then, with another wide swing, he breathed:
"Tenfold."
Another devastating burst of wind sheared through the field,
striking Nymrathis across the chest.
SHRRRIP!
A slash ripped across the Monarch's flesh — shallow, not bleeding.
For an instant, there was silence.
Nymrathis glared at the blood on his fingers.
Then he smiled — or scowled— a nasty, sadistic grin.
"So, you can catch a few good ones," he sneered.
"But that is all you have — Humility."
The employment of the last word spat as an insult, as if calling Ichiro 'humble' was the ultimate insult.
Before Ichiro could protest, Nymrathis attacked again.
Blurring in his wake at speeds Izumi's eyes couldn't begin to grasp
Nymrathis called down a colossal ice hammer half-way through its arc.
CRACK!
The hammer brutally crashed into the rear of Ichiro's skull.
The veteran swordsman was flung like a ragdoll through the clearing,
crashing onto the earth with a shuddering boom.
Dust and frost exploded out from impact.
Nymrathis, breathing hard, padded step by step.
A predator stalking in for the kill.
Izumi tried to rise, tried to crawl, tried to do anything —
but his body wouldn't.
Each inch of him screamed.
Each bone in him yelled: Get down.
But his heart yelled something else — louder —
something that refused to quit.
He punched his fist weakly into the ground, dragging himself an inch closer.
"Move.!"
"You can't let it happen like this.!"