May 14, 2020

  The entire battlefield has been eradicated. A deep, wide crater has replaced the once flat plains. Mara, although a few kilometers away from the explosion, still felt the full brunt of the energy. The shockwave soldiers shielded her but they were destroyed in the process. At the very least, they prevented Mara from suffering more damage than she could possibly handle. Mara recalls the entire thing inside of her head. Waldo somehow created a gigantic blue avatar behind him using his powers. The sight of it was incredible. It stood at least 10 times Waldo’s height. Iravin also had something special coming up. His fist was coated with a culmination of energies. Just the amount of energy alone in his hand was enough to cause the air to vibrate. With their two attacks on standby, Waldo and Iravin rushed towards and each other and threw their punch. The instant their fists clashed, there was a devastating explosion that changed the landscape of the plains they were fighting on. The energy could be felt from several kilometers away from the site of the explosion.

  Once the wind and shockwave aftermath subsided, Mara begins to fear that something has happened. Even though her body is exhausted and damaged, she pushes and tries to make her way towards the explosion site. She activates her cursed technique and uses small blasts of air to help her move forward. She’s not moving at a good pace, but it was better than crawling on the ground. Meanwhile, at the site of the explosion, both warriors lay on the ground. Waldo has reverted back into his normal base form. Iravin’s armor is heavily cracked and chunks of it have even come off his body. Silence soon befalls the entire area. Waldo’s hand twitches and his body begins to wiggle around. His upper body slowly begins to rise from its position in the ground. Iravin also starts to get up from his spot. The two warriors soon get back on their feet and face each other from a large distance. Perhaps the battle has concluded with a tie.

  “I… I no longer have any more power to spare, Iravin. I exhausted everything with that final attack.”

  “I’ve done the same. I have not grown tired, but my energy has gotten to low levels. Besides… I think fighting even more than this would be pointless. I do not want to kill such a rare being like yourself.”

  “Likewise. It would be a downer to the world if you were to leave it. It’s better that we end things here.”

  Iravin suddenly gets an idea. The two of them simply parting ways would be too uneventful. There is a lot that could happen here. And so, he proposes something incredulous to Waldo.

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  “How would you like it if we exchanged our powers?”

  Waldo’s eye suddenly stops. He must have heard Iravin wrong, but his senses have never failed him in the past. What he is hearing is real.

  “You want to exchange powers? I apologize, but I am fond of my power and would like to keep it. Your manipulation of biomass is interesting, but it’s not for me.”

  “Oh, let me rephrase my statement. I didn’t mean to say that we’re switching powers with each other. I was thinking we could share some of our abilities. I can give you access to some of my arsenal and you can give me access to your cursed technique in exchange.”

  Waldo takes in what Iravin is saying. What is the purpose for him saying this? Waldo agrees that it would rather plain for them to simply leave after all of this. There’s a good chance that they will meet again in the future. He’s witnessed Iravin’s power first hand and knows what it is capable of. That power would be useful in his hands. It could lead to even more development that would have otherwise been impossible. It could also strengthen a partnership with Iravin. When faced with everything in front of him, how could Waldo possibly refuse such an offer?

  “How do you plan to do it?”

  “For most of it, we can exchange fragments of our souls with each other. The energy that flows naturally inside will be transferred and we’ll soon be able to use it.”

  “Isn’t that an extremely dangerous process? There’s a chance that neither of us will survive this.”

  “You don’t seem like the type of person to be afraid of a few risks.”

  “Well, you got me there.”

  Waldo and Iravin nod their heads. Waldo takes his hand and stabs his own body with it. With as much precision as possible, he takes out a small piece of his core from within his body. As soon as this happens, he can feel a tremendous amount of strength leave his body. His senses have suddenly dulled. When he snaps back to reality, he sees that Iravin also has a fragment of his soul in his hand. The two of them switch fragments with each other and place them on their souls.

  .

  .

  Mara has traveled a great distance from where she started. Waldo and Iravin are in her view now. They’re no longer fighting each other but are instead standing and conversing. They also have small bits of something in the palm of their hands. Before she can question what they are doing, Waldo erects a veil around the two of them. Mara raises her eyebrows and stops moving. Something is happening that they don’t want her to know about. Mara sighs and allows herself to sit on the ground.

  (You know… I’m pretty hungry.)