Welnar and Kali stare down the Collector. He stares them down all the same, silence filling the field. Kali unsheathes her shortsword… The Collector looks down at his newly acquired katana. The Flooding Rain… Capable of summoning rainstorms just by unsheathing it.

  Slowly, the Collector begins to unsheathe the katana. As he does, the clouds above darken, thunder suddenly booming. The further the blade is pulled, the darker the clouds get… Droplets begin to fall. Then more… And once the blade has been fully unsheathed, the drizzle evolves into a downpour. Lightning streaks through the sky, closely followed by another boom of thunder… Beneath his helmet, the Collector smiles.

  “Get ready!” Welnar yells, readying himself. Kali readies herself all the same… The Collector swings through the air in front of him horizontally. As the blade cuts through the rain droplets, they seem to stop mid-air… And as he finishes his swing, the rain is pressurized and sent flying towards Kali in a horizontal wave! She narrowly avoids it by ducking under it, immediately charging forward. Welnar joins her charge, the two closing in at the same time and swinging in tandem! Welnar aims a slash from the left using the scarlet knife, Kali slashing from the right with her shortsword!

  “Invoke: Haste.” The Collector mutters. In the blink of an eye he dashes back out of range of their swings, dashing back in immediately and cutting downwards with the katana upon Welnar. The scarlet spear flies up to meet the swing, blocking with the shaft while in that same moment, Welnar follows up his missed swing with a swift gut check, heavily armoring his own hand with mana to avoid breaking it against the plating… As the blow lands, The Collector momentarily staggers back, Kali landing a cut with her sword but dealing little damage due to the armor. She narrowly parries a slash of the katana, dashing back afterwards… “Aim for the gaps in his armor!” Welnar says.

  The Collector swings for Welnar again, but he is just as quick at using the scarlet spear to defend. Its size makes it rather nice for defense, alongside the scarlet weapons being generally difficult to move around for people other than Welnar. He dashes to the left side of the Collector, spying a gap in the armpit and aiming a stab with the knife!

  Yet instead of finding flesh, the knife only finds open space as a rift in reality opens up where Welnar was stabbing! The rift begins to close and he swiftly yanks his hand back to avoid losing it to the rift. Was that this guy’s magic? He didn’t really get a good look at where that rift went…

  “Invoke: Strength.” The Collector moves with startling speed, catching Welnar off guard as he grabs his knife wielding hand by the wrist. In that same moment he thrusts the katana for Welnar’s gut, but he barely manages to flow a large portion of his mana to the point of impact to solidify it!

  “Interesting…” The Collector says, only to be sent back by a blast of mana from Welnar’s captured hand! He shakes his wrist, already bruising from the iron grip that he had… But Kali wastes no time trying to follow up on Welnar, moving in on The Collector. Her best chance is probably to get him on the ground somehow… But the bastard also probably won’t go down easy, with his sheer size and no doubt superior strength… Maybe they could tire him out?

  Whatever. For now, she should just try and make openings for Welnar! Kali puts on the pressure as she throws a flurry of swings, aiming for weak points where she can but for the most part just swinging to keep his eyes on her… The Collector carefully parries the blows as they come, backing toward the cave as he does.

  Further to the right, in a blindspot created by his helmet, Welnar sprints to get behind the Collector. Kali doesn’t even glance his way, trying to give away as little as possible as she keeps swinging… A few seconds later, Welnar makes it behind the Collector to block his path of escape, then with a wave of his hand the scarlet knife flies forward, stabbing into the back of his knee through the chainmail! The Collector grunts in pain, his right leg buckling immediately and causing him to fall to a knee. Kali instantly capitalizes on the opportunity, swinging for his neck!

  Metal meets metal though, as he raises his arm to his neck, blocking the blow with his gauntlet. “Invoke: Rejuvenate.” As the Collector says this, he seems to be enveloped by a green glow…

  Welnar dashes in, the scarlet knife returning to his hand as he does, ready to aim his own stab for the neck… But before he can, a rift opens below the Collector and he falls in. “Shit!” Welnar yells as his knife hits nothing but air.

  “He got away… Coward.” Kali scoffs.

  {“He’s still around, I’m sure of it. Stay on guard!”} Monarch says. “Stay on guard…” Welnar relays to Kali, and she nods. They slowly pace around, keeping a careful eye out.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  In the pocket dimension, The Collector lets his wound heal, summoning his armory. Theoretically, he could run… Simply leave through this dimension. They wouldn’t be able to stop him. But that man, with the halo… His weapons…

  The Collector wants them. No, he needs them. He needs to kill that man, and take his artifact… That halo is the source of it, he’s certain. He stands up once more, bouncing his right leg a couple times… All healed. As long as he can keep injuries to a minimum, he could easily win just with attrition.

  In the real world, Welnar and Kali now stand back to back… Suddenly, a rift shatters open in front of Kali. “INCOMING!” She yells, and they both dodge to opposite sides, the Collector dashing out and bringing a warhammer crashing down! As it slams the ground, cracks form in a large radius, spikes of earth suddenly jutting outwards in the radius as the ground rumbles, almost knocking Welnar and Kali off their feet… They weren’t expecting another weapon. {“That one is an artifact too! Be careful, he might have a couple gathered!”} Monarch says. “Be careful! He probably has more artifacts!” Welnar relays. The Collector grunts.

  “You are a perceptive one…” He says. Kali tries to move in, but the Collector feints a swing of the warhammer, causing her to pause. Immediately he opens a rift, grabbing a throwing knife and tossing it at Kali! She only narrowly ducks her head to the side, the blade scratching her ear. “Damn it!”

  “Invoke: Haste.” In the blink of an eye the Collector is upon Kali, swinging downwards with the full might of the warhammer artifact, dubbed World Crusher. She grabs her shortsword in a half-sword stance as she raises it to block the slam, but as she blocks it a deafening BOOM resonates through the area, a shockwave being unleashed from the impact that causes Kali’s guard to drop. The Collector raises the hammer once more to bring it down upon her…

  But he is halted by a string of blood wrapping around the shaft the warhammer and holding it in place. The Collector turns to see a rapidly approaching Welnar, scarlet knife in one hand while his other hand is held out, an open wound in his palm being the source of the blood. Despite him closing in, the blood remains pulled tight keeping the hammer firmly locked in place… So the Collector lets go of the hammer, suddenly hitting Kali with a right hook that staggers her. He swiftly turns, opening a rift for the hammer to fall in as Welnar retracts his blood back into his body… Then out of that same rift, the Collector pulls out another weapon; a spear. It looks rather ornate, and the blade is made out of some sort of black metal… An artifact known as Tenebris.

  Welnar lets go of his knife, grabbing the scarlet spear in both hands… He feels rather lucky it’s in the shape of a partisan. Probably his best option in a spear to spear battle. On top of that, he could probably catch the Collector off guard with the fire magic of the spear…

  Welnar is the first to strike, thrusting forward with his spear. The Collector easily deflects it, aiming a thrust of his own that Welnar also blocks… For a few seconds, it’s just a back and forth of stabs and parries. Fine by him if it means it gives Kali time to recover…

  Suddenly, when Welnar thrusts, the Collector seems to disappear in a puff of black smoke… A shadow moves along the ground, behind Welnar. And moments later, the Collector re-emerges in close range, aiming a punch for Welnar. He ducks backwards, thrusting as he does but only hitting the chestplate. Now he’s with Kali, who’s thankfully back up… “Buy me an opening.” Welnar whispers to her. She nods, dashing for the Collector. As she does, he opens a rift, tossing the spear in… Pulling out a greatsword that seems to be made of an orange-ish metal. Copper maybe? No… Welnar can’t exactly place what kind of metal it is.

  Kali swiftly begins her assault, striking blow after blow and making sure the Collector is occupied on parrying her attacks… Welnar hangs back, focusing inwards… Letting his mana become a hypothetical fuel to make flames. Then, he simply “coats” his spear in the fuel… And with a thought, it ignites! Welnar winces prematurely, instinctively expecting it to burn… But it doesn’t.

  “Alright…”

  Welnar raises his spear up, and stabs it into the ground! Beneath the Collector, the ground begins to glow red hot, Kali dashing back as a pillar of flame erupts beneath the Collector! “We got him!” Welnar yells. The rain around the pillar swiftly turns to steam from the flames… And Kali’s guard lowers.

  “Invoke: Haste.” The Collector coughs. In a blur, he dashes through the rising steam, parts of his armor turned to molten slag or warped by the heat… But he lives. Kali isn’t able to react in time.

  A greatsword pierces through her chest. Welnar is left in momentary shock. Kali slowly looks down, raising her hand to the blade… But the Collector rips the sword out of her, shoving her toward Welnar. She stumbles, gasping in agony. “KALI!!” Welnar screams, rushing to her side.

  “Oh please. Don’t tell me you grew attached to a normal.” The Collector scoffs. He plants his greatsword into the ground, placing his hands on the guard… “Invoke: Rejuvenate.” Beneath his armor, his scarred and burnt body begins to heal. He considers himself rather lucky that this boy didn’t immediately attack…

  “Kali… Kali no no NO!” Welnar clutches her hand in his. With his other hand, he grabs hold of the scarlet knife. Maybe… Just maybe he can save her…

  {“The blood manipulation is ineffective on a living being.”} Monarch calmly says. Welnar isn’t listening, trying to harness it to seal her wound, stop the blood, anything. But it doesn’t work.

  “W-Welnar…” Kali weakly says.

  “Y-you’re gonna be okay… We’re going to make it…” Welnar says, mostly to himself.

  “Welnar…” Kali coughs blood. “L-listen…”

  Welnar’s eyes meet hers. Tears stream down her cheeks… The sight causes Welnar’s own eyes to well up with them. “I-I’m… I’m listening.”

  Her hand tightens around Welnar’s, although still quite weak… “Make… Them pay, Welnar…”

  “A-Archons… Sorcerers… All of them.”

  “Make… Them…”

  Kali’s hand loosens. She falls silent, and her eyes glaze over.

  Gone. She’s gone… Kali is dead. Welnar sits there silently… Her final wish was to make them pay.

  Her final wish… It replays in Welnar’s head over and over. Make them pay. Make them pay.

  Make.

  Them.

  Pay.

  Something inside Welnar… Snaps.