What sets six-star aura users apart from the rest?

  Was it their strength? Their prowess?

  No.

  It was their will to stand for what beliefs and values they held dear.

  That was the answer Max Maystone had reached when he stepped into that domain.

  Max stared at his empty hand before clutching his greatsword. His gaze drifted to Hemlock. Their clash had propelled both sides back several meters, with their men erupting into battle around them. This wasn’t a simple fight, but a brawl of flesh and bone. If both of them were to unleash their full strength, then no one above or below would be safe. That was the risk that came with their rank. Yet, in the eyes of Hemlock, Max didn’t see that concern. The man before him kept his bone-chilling gaze.

  Hemlock focused on Max while drawing a deep breath. He held his sword with both hands and pointed the tip at the captain before him.

  “You bastards never learn, do you?” Hemlock asked. “How could you think that someone like him could ever amount to anything?”

  Max glared at him, but soon laughed. He pointed his lumenite greatsword toward Hemlock with one hand. “What makes you think he isn’t qualified?”

  “He’s weak and arrogant.”

  Max stared at Hemlock in silence with the words hanging in his mind. Then his lips twitched into a smirk as he tilted his head back. Tucker was weak. Weaker than most of the knights that served him, and yet it wasn’t his strength that made them walk alongside him. Such a thing didn’t make an outstanding leader. It made an outstanding soldier.

  Tucker was a man who always stood at the front when it mattered most. Not shouting orders from safety, but standing where a single mistake meant death. When the fighting broke their spirits, he didn’t stay down. Their commander would always rise and carry the weight of every loss on his shoulders.

  Unlike the other strategists, Tucker didn’t treat them like pieces on a board.

  The knights respected him because he fought with a purpose that many others didn’t have. He didn’t chase glory or empty honor. Every decision Tucker made was measured against survival and necessity, and when he had to commit to a cause, he committed fully. His understanding of formations, timing, and restraint went beyond the norm. But most importantly, he understood when that restraint needed to be broken.

  What made them follow him was that determination to face the world.

  And to see Hemlock mock his commander over such a pitiful reason made Max laugh.

  The tiles beneath Max’s metal boots shattered as his body rushed forth. His greatsword cleaved down at Hemlock as their weapons locked in place, grinding against each other. Streaks of golden and violet aura crackled in the air. Both of them were less than a meter away, with their eyes meeting as sparks erupted around them.

  “You’re boring and beyond foolish,” Max said.

  His muscles tensed before releasing a devastating force, with Hemlock getting driven back a step. The Lionheart knight pressed in, completing his first arc as his greatsword tore into the stone tiles. Fragments rose into the air. Before Hemlock could do anything, Max followed through with his attack and spun on his heel, bringing his weapon into a tight crescent arc that spun horizontally toward his opponent’s chest.

  Hemlock gritted his teeth as the full force of the greatsword clashed against his blade. He had barely blocked the strike with his trembling arms, and with all of his strength, he pushed the greatsword into the air before closing the distance.

  There was a slight opening, a gap in Max’s armor exposing the man’s throat. Yet as Hemlock’s blade rushed to exploit the vulnerability, a chill raced through his spine. A shadow loomed over him. His eyes shot up to catch Max’s greatsword, tearing through the air.

  Without wasting a second, Hemlock dove to the side, rolling past the attack that came down. Dust rose like smoke from a volcano, suffocating the surroundings as a powerful golden aura slash surged across the battlefield. Yet through the clouds of dust obscuring his vision, Hemlock could see a distortion through the gray screen.

  Another strike came.

  One that was faster than before. Max rotated his hips, dragging the greatsword back around in a sweeping horizontal cut. But Hemlock wouldn’t fall for it. Not again. He ducked low with his cloak snapping as the massive lumenite blade passed over him. Centimeters away from etching new marks on his armor.

  The Empire’s champion clicked his tongue. From the earlier attack, it was clear that the knight before him was willing to trade his life away for the sake of victory. If he didn’t dodge, then his foe’s greatsword would have severed him in half, even with his longsword wedged into the Lionheart knight’s throat.

  Hemlock yielded ground only to steal it back. He returned a quick thrust aimed at Max’s ribs, but the opposing knight twisted as he brought up the greatsword like a wall. The violet aura rippled against the golden surface. Energy shattered around Captain Maystone. His eyes sharpened, greatsword digging into the tiles.

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  He refused to give a single inch of ground, and with Hemlock desperately pushing forward, Max channeled his aura into the ground. A deafening explosion broke free with him in the center, but Hemlock wouldn’t fall back so easily this time.

  “You don’t have the right to judge me,” Hemlock uttered.

  Max’s expression hardened. “I don’t have the right, but I clearly have the better perspective.”

  A violet ethereal knight rose behind the Empire’s Champion with both of its gauntlets shooting out. Its hands grabbed hold of the rampaging force that sought to drive Hemlock back, pressing inward to contain the force. Yet it wouldn’t be so easy. Another ethereal knight rose from within Max’s soul. It broke free from the containment, dispersing the force that wrapped around the Lionheart knight like chains.

  The violet ethereal’s frame shook as its arms were flung back, and before it could regain its stance, Max’s soul knight leaned forward and drove its fist into its helm. The explosive force broke Hemlock’s stance, with the energy rupturing outwards in waves. Hemlock frowned and rode the momentum as his body was hurled to the far end of the floor. Both of their soul knights vanished once more.

  Max was quick on his feet, not giving Hemlock the chance to steal the rhythm of the battlefield. Each swing of his greatsword denied Hemlock room to breathe. The wide arcs that battered the floor, the walls, and the very space between them forced the Empire’s Champion to react.

  And Hemlock danced to the tune.

  He let the weight of Max’s blows pass with just enough space to survive. His steps were light, hardly making a sound against the cold stone surface. Hemlock’s instincts had taken over. Each strike was met with a deflection. However, Max was already planning his next move.

  The Lionheart knight’s rhythm changed.

  He let the next heavy strike fall short.

  And Hemlock took it.

  The Empire’s Champion lunged in with a thrust meant for the gap in Max’s guard, but Max stepped in. He entered Hemlock’s zone of control shoulder-first, slamming into the Empire’s knight with the force of a charging bull. The longsword skidded across the floor as Max wrenched his greatsword up and across. The spine of the blade crashed into Hemlock’s chest and sent him sprawling.

  Hemlock’s body rolled through the chamber, kicking up a trail of dust as he came up on one knee. He stretched out his hand to his fallen blade, and it answered, soaring into his grasp just in time to catch the next blow. The impact drove him back again, with pain coursing through his arms as he met Max’s gaze.

  “Who the hell do you think you are?!” Hemlock roared. “What could possibly drive you and your men to go so far?!”

  “Is that even a question?” Max drove the entire weight of his body down onto his blade. “What reason does a man need to protect his home?”

  “Even at the cost of your life?”

  At the question, a tide of aura rushed out from Max, pressing down on Hemlock’s body as a golden light shone from Max’s glare. A stream of memories flashed through his head, followed by a ringing silence as the present world bled away.

  It was a time when ash rose above the bastion, as the members of the Twenty-Eighth were betrayed by the Advisors. Luka was standing in front of him with his hand held out.

  “What kind of man is your captain?” Max asked.

  “That’s a difficult question,” Luka replied with a smirk. “But if I were to describe him, it would be that he’s a man who wouldn’t hesitate to do what he believes is right.”

  “Even if it means dying?”

  Luka froze for a moment before nodding with a torn gaze. “If there’s one thing I learned from him, it’s that no one wants to die… but one day you’ll reach a point where you realize there’s something greater to give your life for.”

  “Is that what your captain said?” he softly asked.

  “It’s what my captain’s done.”

  Max quietly sat there as the shadows clung to his frame like shackles, pulling him into despair. Countless men under his command had died, and a piece of him wanted to give up, knowing that they had been betrayed. Yet before him stood a man who still believed that his comrades were alive. That there was a cause worth fighting for. He didn’t know if this would ever come true, but still, he decided to put his faith in the young watchman and grabbed hold of the outstretched hand.

  The gold of the aura rose once more as the cobblestone walls of the sewers vanished. This was more than just a battle. It was an homage to their dear friends who had passed in this war. To the ones who paved the path for the rest to follow.

  He would never be able to return the favor to Luka. Not after he died defending the bastion of their nation. But the least he could do was place the next stone for those after him.

  “You fight for yourself, Hemlock. That’s why you’ll lose,” Max declared, aura pulsing through his veins. “A man fighting for his life has a limit. But a man fighting for the world has none.”

  Their surroundings shattered with a grinding screech. Stone cracked with growing fractures as the wall behind Hemlock split open with the icy spring air rushing in. His eyes widened as the platform the two stood on began to split from the tower’s embrace.

  “You fool! We’ll both die if you don’t back off!” Hemlock screamed.

  Yet Max didn’t listen. He simply increased the pressure exerted on Hemlock’s body and drove the man further into a corner, unable to do anything.

  “You think I’m afraid of dying?” Max questioned with a sharp glint in his eyes. “All of us have resolved ourselves to that fate, knowing there’s no return.”

  Hemlock’s eyes widened in shock as the spring air roared past his ears. The breach in the tower widened with the platform tilting toward the outer edge as if it was getting ripped from the tower’s hold. Bricks collapsed from the structure, with emerald veins desperately pulsing to hold their form. But Max wouldn’t concede.

  In one final desperate attempt to stay within the tower, Hemlock summoned his soul knight with both of its hands latching onto what remained of the walls. The pillars near them gave way, unable to handle the burden of their clashing auras. Then, with a bone-deep rumble, the section of the floor they stood on began sliding at a fifty-degree angle.

  “Sir!” one of the Lionheart knights rushed over to Max, but froze once their captain shook his head.

  “I’ll leave the rest to you,” Max said.

  And with that, the Captain of the Lionheart Knights summoned his ethereal knight, manifesting its heavily armored frame, once more. Its fist came crashing down into Hemlock’s soul knight, breaking its stance as its fingers slid from the reinforced walls.

  For a heartbeat, both of them were free-falling from the platform with hundreds of golems climbing the outer walls of the tower to reach the higher floors. Yet despite the sight, Max’s gaze remained fixed on Hemlock. Their ethereal knights roared as their respective weapons manifested from their souls.

  With one last unyielding push, both knights drove their weapons forward in the middle of the air at the same time. Their weapons and auras clashed with earth-rending force. At the point of impact, a blinding flash erupted, light bursting outward as a violent shockwave tore through the space around them.

  And in the heart of the explosion, both figures vanished, swallowed by the collision they had released.

  Did you enjoy the fight?

  I hope you did, and somehow I have chapters queued into April.

  Book three is taking a lot longer for me to finish than expected.

  And after this chapter, I'll throw up the book 2 stub announcement.

  Hopefully, when book 2 is released, that will improve it a bit.

  Thanks for reading, and I'll see ya in the next one!

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