Talion V.S. Zeal

--Talion's Perspective--

Zeal and I traded blows until we got to the top of the Coliseum, standing even higher than the bleachers were placed. We were on the top borders now, which meant nobody was in our way.

I took out my offhand dagger, one I had made with Lia's help, and I engaged. With only a flimsy sword I took out of a room I came across and this dagger, I had to fight a man with that damn Urumi. Such a deadly weapon, and since he can kill now, it would be over for me if I took even one hit. However, that one hit was much easier to receive, considering his Urumi only had one whip on the edge now.

Swinging over his head, at his stomach, and even at his arms all while defending against the sporadic weapon in his right hand was more than difficult. I've never been so concentrated on taking down an opponent, as I was only a year old with barely any fighting experience.

Zeal's sheer practice and experience overwhelmed me completely, but I had been analyzing him for a year, so I can grasp certain concepts in the way he fights. Right now, with this power he's gained, he's not thinking straight and going for hard, one-hitting attacks that would kill a person instantly. Because of this, I was able to land quick swipes on his clothing.

We got close together, pushing the handles of our weapons off to the side to counter attacks. I even suffered a punch to the face as he continued his onslaught. Then, the abilities came in.

The tendrils lying on his back had perked up and launched themselves at me. In retaliation, I grabbed them as they attacked and used my White Stone ability to enlarge them, as that was the trick I'd been hiding all along. Enlarging them prevented Zeal from moving as fluidly unless he cut them off, so I was able to land a few hits in by holding his weapon back with my dagger and slashing at his chest with the flimsy sword.

He headbutted me, severed the tendril, and shot them all at me at once. Five of them pierced my arms and stomach while I grabbed hold of the sixth one. Holding all of the tendrils in my body and shrinking them all simultaneously forced Zeal to launch toward me, as I pulled him in.

With that, I strained my impaled muscles and landed a clean hit on his face, knocking him to the ground violently. He bounced multiple times, using the tendrils to recuperate after falling.

"You and Xian… both pains in my ass!" Zeal admitted.

So... he did kill Xian...

Zeal ran at me and I did the same, but when I shoved my dagger to his chest to impale it, it stopped after it ripped his clothing.

It took me too long to notice, but while I was being launched in midair, I realized that Zeal had just used Xian's ability against me.

"H-How do you have that?!" I screamed out. Just as I finished speaking, spikes of ice shot up and trapped me in the air.

Before Zeal could close the distance, I shrunk them at ran at him again. I had an idea for countering, but I couldn't manipulate the size of objects for much longer! The cooldown was rapidly approaching, and I was running out of energy.

Zeal absorbed more kinetic energy from my strike and just as he was about to throw it back at me, I put my stone against his, diminishing the damage almost completely. He was surprised and stunned, leaving me available to hit him in the throat with my fist before flipping back to get away.

"What do you know about the System?!" He asked while clutching his throat. It seems he had figured it out as well.

"The System is an object! It was never an assistant! The System…" I paused, tapping on my White Stone, gleaming in the sunlight, "Is this Stone! You can manipulate the force of an ability by changing the size of the System! If I'm right… it shut off for you, didn't it?"

Zeal charged in during a fit of rage and just as he jumped up to slash downwards, his tendrils shot into both of my shoulders. Zeal landed the free hit on me as the whip lacerated my face, throwing my right eye straight onto the ground and leaving my cheekbone shattered into pieces, falling out of my face.

"Let's see you talk shit now!" He told me.

Zeal and I both smiled right after each other, but his smile turned off as soon as mine went on.

"Zeal… what am I the White Stone of? What is my Flaw? You thought a Nomad Stone such as myself hasn't been thinking? Our Flaws don't limit us! The will to break them does! I AM THE WHITE STONE OF BLOOD!" I screamed out.

[SYSTEM ALERT! YOUR SYSTEM HAS BECOME CORRUPT!]

[System Corruption: Level One]

[User Registered: Talion – White Stone of Blood]

My stone burst into an elegant red color and my left eye followed right behind. With my flaw exercised, that meant I was leagues stronger than Zeal… or so I thought.

His stone mimicked my pathway, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"To tell me to not corrupt my system and then do it yourself… you're an insufferable bitch, you know that?" I teased him. Zeal launched tendrils and I grabbed the first one I could see, enlarging it to be the size of the bleacher's ceiling.

It slammed on top, cracking the stone all around its impact point. After that, I swung my sword down, enlarging it to max capacity and causing a strain in my left eye.

The sword's large tip shattered upon impact, but it had severed Zeal's right arm from his body, spraying blood out on his enlarged tendril. The pressure I felt on my muscles right now was far too much! But I couldn't stop at this rate! Sky was in danger… so long as Zeal has the will to fight, I lost!

I ran back in, wielding the dagger to a proficient degree, slashing and swiping, flipping and stabbing, enlarging and shrinking, whatever I could do. This continued for what felt like forever until Zeal's whip lacerated my chest. The lack of blood was making me light-headed, but he was in the same boat. We both had weakened ourselves to such a severe degree that we were losing consciousness in the middle of the fight.

"You're just a weak Stone… Talion. You will NEVER be me! And I'll make sure of that." Zeal told me.

A spike of ice shot through my chest from the ground below me. It held me up, piercing my windpipe and raising me to a height I couldn't climb down from.

"Goodbye Talion. It was nice knowing you... No, never mind, I lied." Zeal said, smiling.