A booming thunderclap shook the world... but the bestial roar that tore through the clangor of the battlefield was much more deafening. It rolled across the ravaged land like a physical force, sapping the strength of the warriors and making them sway.
...Sunny, who was very close to the source of that roar, cursed under his breath as he pushed the pain aside and twisted his body to avoid being sliced by the monstrous claws of the rampaging Saint. Dire Fang's hand flew past him, and while Sunny was trying to bring the Sin of Solace down on the creature's monstrous limb, Nephis attacked from the other side, her sword turning the whipping streams of rain into boiling vapor.
The two of them were like hunters fighting against a powerful beast. They circled around him and used their cooperation to make up for the gap in power, acting with the cunning and foresight that made humans so deadly.
Nephis was fighting in a way that would have made all the other Ascended freeze in stunned silence. She was just too fast, too strong, and too destructive. Her incandescent sword was hot and sharp enough to incinerate the world, and her skill and battle sense seemed to transcend the concept of limits.
Sunny was no less frightening. Hidden in the tenebrous embrace of the Shadow Shell, he fought with the ferocious power of a trueborn fiend and used his inhuman physique to move in a way that no human could repeat, and no opponent could predict.
Much more importantly, despite the stark difference between the two of them - one shrouded in burning darkness, the other suffused with beautiful light - they fought and acted as one.
That combination was too lethal for a mere beast to survive.
...However, their enemy was not a beast, no matter how animalistic his form appeared.
Dire Fang's Transformation Ability allowed him to become a strange hybrid between a wolf and a man. His claws, his fangs, his bestial eyes, his thick fur... as well as his inhuman rage, his savage bloodlust, and his primal might - all of it made Sunny feel as though he was fighting a Nightmare Creature.
But the Saint was not a Nightmare Creature. Behind all these monstrous traits hid the cold, calculating mind of a human. And, as a human, he had benefited from the vast legacy of accumulated knowledge and insight that all humans were the inheritors of.
In other words, Dire Fang possessed the body of a powerful abomination, but fought with the sublime skill of a gifted human warrior.
Because of the nature of his Transformation, the Saint was using a strange mix of a hand-to-hand martial art and a knife-fighting technique - only, in his case, sharp claws were playing the role of the knives, and he had twenty of them. He had a maw full of terrifying fangs, as well.
And the level of skill this Transcendent possessed - or any Transcendent, really - was truly stunning. Sunny was not sure if he had ever faced an enemy with such mastery over their weapons of choice. If he did, they could probably be counted on one hand.
In any case, despite the best efforts of Sunny and Nephis, they simply couldn't bring the Saint down.
They couldn't even seriously wound him, really.
They were barely managing to stay alive.
There were several cuts on the massive beast's body, but the two of them had received much more damage than Dire Fang. Both of their armors were battered and dented, and Sunny could taste blood on his tongue.
Feeling a hint of despair crawl its way into his heart, he gritted his teeth and dashed forward to capitalize on the small window of opportunity Nephis had created and deliver a vicious blow.
The attack missed.
'He's... a monster...'
A moment later, his body shook as it was batted away by an unexpected, but perfectly executed elbow strike. The breastplate of the Mantle dented and almost cracked.
Nephis launched into a reckless attack in order to buy him a little time to recover.
She was going to pay for it, without a doubt, but at this point, their battle was not about remaining unscathed.
It was about being a little bit less broken than the enemy at the end of it.
'Argh!'
Dire Fang was powerful, Dire Fang was skilled, and worst of all, Dire Fang was strange. His battle style was too unique, too bizarre, and too deep to be deciphered in a short amount of time. It had been perfectly tailored for his monstrous Transcendent form, with its contradictory physical traits and attributes, which were both human and not.
He displayed a level of essence control so intricate, deliberate, and ingeniously applied that it made Sunny question his own talent... no, it was not a question of talent. It was simply the innate superiority of a higher Rank multiplied by the amount of effort put into integrating essence into a combat style, both by Dire Fang himself and many battle masters of Clan Song.
It was the benefit of being a vassal of a great clan.
...This was possibly the first dedicated essence technique Sunny had a chance to study. He had not even known that such things were possible, or existed.
And if all of that was not enough, Dire Fang's Aspect Abilities were flawlessly blended into his battle style, as well.
It would have been much worse if Sunny had to somehow guess the Saint's Abilities first. Luckily, he had already learned them from Cassie.
Dire Fang's Dormant Ability enhanced all his senses, especially his hearing and the sense of smell. He could even feel the tiny vibrations spreading through the ground... as a result, he had no blind spots. He also seemed to be able to predict the actions of his opponents by observing the tiniest changes in their stances, muscle contractions, eye movements, and other things Sunny had no knowledge of.
His Awakened Ability was a physical augmentation tied to his emotional state. The angrier he got, the more pain he felt, the more powerful he would become... things like that were usually unreliable and impossible to control, sometimes even detrimental, but Dire Fang seemed to possess absolute control over his emotions. He could summon the most murderous rage at will, while remaining perfectly cool-headed and composed.
Dire Fang's Ascended Ability was the debilitating sonic attack, and his Transcendent Ability... well, it was self-evident.
So, with the knowledge of that...
Sunny had to come up with a way to kill him.
A Master killing a Saint... that had never happened in history.
But it had to happen today.
He was going to make it happen.
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