The Climax of the Fight

Without much time to react, Master Sal smeared the blood on his cheeks with his hand, and dipped his brush into the blood. The initially white brush turned blood red with intricate patterns around it.

"Artifex Family Secret Blood Technique: Blood Minions!" Master Sal sweeps the brush through the air, and three red humanoid shapes appear. Each of them is holding onto a longsword and they each leap towards Gedeon to intercept him.

In a ferocious exchange, Gedeon's flaming sword manages to slice one of the shapes into two, another minion gets punctured by the flying shards, and the last one is sent flying. With a loud laugh, Gedeon continues to sprint forwards.

"Old Man! Is this all you've got! Weak! How is this a secret technique of the Artifex Famil-" His words were suddenly cut off by a sharp force in his abdomen. With a stunned expression on his face, he looks down to see a Longsword sticking through his body. "Wha-" He looks at the one holding the sword, and sees the red humanoid minion he had cut apart into two earlier, was in the midst of glueing itself together.

He then feels another cold blade enter his body, this time behind him. The one sliced apart by his shards had also managed to strike Gedeon. "Puh!" Gedeon spats out a mouthful of blood. "ARHHHH!" He sweeps his right hand, striking the humanoid minion to his right and sending it flying, then spun around and kicked the other one.

Slowly, with two swords stuck in him, Gedeon backs away. He looks at Master Sal, who was looking very pale and gives him a look of hate. "Look what you've done, Old Man. Arhhh." With a pained expression on his face, he grips the sword that entered his right abdomen and, in a spurt of blood, pulls it out. Gedeon's forehead is glistening with sweat from the pain, and grimaces. He stumbles, and collapses onto the floor, huffing and puffing in pain. From his robes, he withdrew a small pill capsule, which he popped open.

Taking a tablet, he attempted to throw it into his mouth… only to get it knocked out of his hands by the last humanoid minion. After knocking the capsules away, the humanoid minion collapses and disappears.

At this time, Master Sal also collapses, kneeling down on one knee, he was gasping for breath. Seeing this, Lia immediately rushes over to him. "Grandpa! Are you alright?" She asks, helping him up. She has a worried look on her face.

Meanwhile, Gedeon secretly pulled out a small red crystal and crushed it with his left hand. The flames on the hand had dimmed out to reveal a very ordinary looking hand normally, and his sword had reformed into its normal shape. As Lia was too preoccupied with Master Sal, she didn't notice this, and neither did Master Sal. However, Lin Ke did, as he was keeping an eye on what other moves Gedeon might pull.

"Master Sal… He crushed a red looking crystal. What does that mean?" Lin Ke suddenly interrupted. This draws all eyes towards him. Gedeon had completely forgotten about the random person who just so happened to get in his way in the beginning. However, now Gedeon stared at Lin Ke with a look of hatred.

Master Sal looks down where Gedeon had dropped. He saw the dust settling under his left hand. Master Sal's eyes widen. "Not good. He's called for backup. We need to leave before his reinforcements arrive." Master Sal struggles to walk and with a hand over Lia's shoulder says.

"Do you really think… I'll let you do that?" Gedeon shakily stands. The longsword that was stuck into his back had disappeared, but it still left a bloody hole. "Haaa. I guess I might need to use that move… Old Man, I'll make you regret opposing me!"

Steam rises off of Gedeon's body as he regains his footing. He slowly exhales. "Flame Speedforge Secret Technique: Body Forge." Dense waves of energy begin to gather around his body. The wounds on his body stopped bleeding and his entire body became wreathed in flames. "Old Man… Be glad you get to witness the full power of the Igantia Family's future heir."

In an instant, he disappears. No, he didn't disappear, but moved too fast for Lin Ke to detect. In the blink of an eye, he was already in front of Master Sal. Without much time to react, he could only quickly push Lia away. With a quick spin, Gedeon's leg made contact with Master Sal's face, sending him flying into the walls.

"Grandpa!" Lia screams as she falls onto the floor.

As the dust clears, Master Sal could be seen lying in the debris, coughing up blood. He barely coughed out. "Lia.. Run… They're after you." With his feet shaking, he slowly gets up. His appearance is extremely haggard, with dust all over his body.

He picks up his brush. "World Canvas: Winged Eagle." A massive eagle appeared in front of Lia. Master Sal turns to Lin Ke. "Lin Ke… I know you don't really have much of a reason to help us, and that this would probably be dangerous for you if you do… but please… Look after my granddaughter…" Master Sal has a pleading expression on his face. "She's… she's all I have left. I don't even need her to take revenge, I just want her to live…"

Lin Ke is dumbfounded by Master Sal's appearance. Unconsciously, Lin Ke nods.

Seeing his nod, Master Sal smiles. "Well then, off you two go then. Don't look back."

Without any time to respond, the eagle scooped up Lin Ke in one arm and hopped over to Lia and scooped her up with the other and began to fly out through the hole in the ceiling. "Grandpa! No!" Lia screams while struggling furiously. There are teardrops in her eyes that she's trying to hold back.

"Like I'll let you get away!" Gedeon roared, leaping up and shooting through the hole. He was rapidly closing in on the eagle. Right before the blade connected, it was stopped by an ethereal shield. As he falls down to the ceiling, Gedeon glances down to see Master Sal brandishing his brush at him.

"I won't let you go after them!" Master Sal shouts. "It's time for you to have a taste of the true power of the Artifex Clan." Suddenly, Master Sal's aura changes. It grows more and more ferocious, sucking in the nearby energy towards him. A blood red glow surrounds him.

Gedeon was shocked by this, and took a step back. "Old Man… You really don't want to live anymore huh? You'll burn your Energy Core just to try and keep me away? I don't see how that'll do anything, Old Man! My uncle will be arriving at any moment!"

Master Sal ignores this however, and continues to burn his Energy Core. Gedeon, feeling the insane amount of energy condensing, slowly backs away. 'Not good. This is enough energy to kill me!' Realizing this, he dashes away quickly.

"Do you really think… This Old Man… will let you go after he burned his ENERGY CORE? I'll be taking you down with me!" Master Sal shoots through the air at breakneck speed, leaving behind a red trail. If one listened closely, and was close enough, one would hear Master Sal's bones creaking in anguish. "Die!" Master Sal roars.

'Crap! I can't escape!' Gedeon thought to himself. He turned around to see Master Sal's blood wreathed body shooting straight at him, and before he knew it, he had been grabbed by the head.

Master Sal grabbed onto Gedeon's head with one charred hand. His skin was peeling off, and blood was flowing from every orifice, but he still persisted.

Lin Ke and Lia, who were helplessly flying away, watched in awe and worry. Lia was silently crying, looking devastated at the sight of her last remaining family member in such a tragic state.

With his free right hand, Master Sal stabs it through Gedeon's heart, piercing it through.

"Gah!" With a shocked and unwilling expression on his face, blood flows out of Gedeon's mouth, and his eyes stare at Master Sal. "Too bad… guh… my uncle… i- is….. Here." He chokes out.

Suddenly, after it felt like Master Sal's victory, the air grew heavy. Master Sal looked up. He had a bad feeling that something was about to arrive. Without a warning, a bright shining beam of light descended from the sky… and struck right through Master Sal, cutting clean through him, before rapidly disappearing. Slowly, slowly, Master Sal's limp body began to fall to the ground.