Arc 10.145: Battle of fort Niall part 4

Charles looking at the man who he just saved says, "Your bravery and courage is something you should hold in your heart till the day you die my soldier."

"Your words are too kind for me, even know I want to run away with all my might."

"You did far more than I many would have done in that same situation, the fact that you choose to face someone far stronger than you, shows me you are a warrior who is worth saving. Now go on and help the rest of my men."

Dropping him, Charles turns around and all the compassion he had in his eyes fade leaving nothing but two golden pits on his face that suck in all light like a black hole.

With a smirk, Ronald says, "So this the great hero king? Utterly disappointing. But what can I expect, a pathetic saviour for a pathetic people."

Charles doesn't bother to speak and just stares at him. Annoyed by this Ronald says, "It would be wise to use the last few words you will ever get to speak so you don't regret it when you die."

"I don't find joy engaging in pointless chatter. So hurry up and stop your squealing Dónal Fuinseogs, little brother."

Enraged by that statement, Ronald generates dozens of briars from his whip which he sends towards Charles.

From his waist, Charles pulls out a straight sword composed of the same materials as Guido's bow and waits for Ronald's briars to come towards him.

As they reach Charles, with one hand he moves his sword around and slices the briars to pieces effortlessly. Ronald proceeds to infuse spirit energy into his briars and does this process again with even more briars.

Charles seeing this runs towards the briars then jumps on one, and says, "Four beast battle arts; Sky fang."

At high speed he jumps from one briar to the next, eventually heading high into the sky above them all, and as they chase after him, he falls towards them then with a single slice cuts the briars apart and lands on the ground.

Sending more briars out Ronald says, "It should be impossible to infuse spirit energy into metal without losing some efficiency, and power, but you effortlessly are able to do that, a metal capable of allowing that doesn't exist!"

Cutting through the briars and heading toward Ronald, Charles cuts straight through his armour leaving a bloody gash across his body, which makes him fall to his knees.

"It is arrogant of you to even believe beastkin could know of all the different materials this world has to offer."

Wrapping his briars around his armour to recover from the wound, he says, "You talk a big game but without that sword, you wouldn't be able to reach me."

"The Echoing Hyena. A wonderbeast which has a supreme level of spatial awareness, allowing it to handle multiple things all at once. It's a waste that even with such physical gifts you still need to make up excuses as to why you lost. How pathetic."

Ronald says, "Don't get ahead of yourself!"

From his whip briars poor out and warp around the handle, forming into a pertuisane. Holding this polearm, Ronald says, "I have been going easy on, but that ends now!"

Charles turns around, and says, "Hurry up."

Ronald lunges towards him, and in one motion he already arrives at Charles, then clashes with his spear against Charles's sword.

As they fight, Ronald says, "My spear is organic so is fully capable of perfectly blending with spirit energy just like your sword! Your only advantage is gone."

Holding his spear Ronald says, "Third bloom," and from it, a poison flower sprouts and coats his weapon in it as he tries to stab Charles.

But Charles deflects this blow and kicks Ronald in the stomach, Ronald then comes at Charles again, but before he reaches him, he says, "Second bloom," which causes a cloud of fluffy to emerge from his spear and obscure both of their vision.

At the same time as this, he stops using spirit energy and moves forward with physical strength alone to attack Charles, but when he goes to strike him, he can't make out his position.

Ronald looks around, in the cloud of fluff, but before he can stop Charles he hears, "Four beast battle arts; Stalking fang."

Then across Ronald's right shoulder another gash appears, and the moment that lands Ronald backs away, then says, "First bloom!" Causing a flaming flower to appear on his briars and thrusting his polearm forward the cloud of fluffy ignites making a giant fireball in front of him.

But then he hears from behind, "I thought you stopped holding back."

He moves to hit Charles but is kicked in the waist before he can even turn. Charles then runs forward and says, "Four beast battle arts; Serpents fang."

Both his body and his sword movement patterns start to become hard to keep up with until they resemble the ever-moving body of a snake, which confuses Ronald.

And before he can get a grasp on Charles the serpent has wrapped around his body, leaving a series of gashes in his armour and body.

With his rage building up further, Ronald rushes towards Charles and says, "What the hell are you even doing? This fighting style is not something a human should be able to pull off!"

Charles holds his sword against, Ronald's spear keeping him in place and says, "To hunt a beast you muster understand a beast. Four beast battle arts is a form my allies and I created to best you beastkin. By sharpening our own senses to the point where we develop the same instincts as you animals. It is the reckoning we have made towards all of you."

Charles pushes his sword forward which knocks Ronald off balance, then he says, "Four beast battle arts; Predatory fang!" Then he moves forward at high speed and aims for the spot where Ronald's armour is weakest and where he is the most relaxed, he lets out a single slash that cuts off Ronald's right arm.

Moving back, Charles says in the Heroes song, "Now even the very senses and instincts you beasts pride yourselves on have been given to us."

Holding his missing arm, Ronald stares at his wound.

Φ My arm, it's gone. How could I human do this to me? I can barely keep up with my legacy and spirit energy. It makes no sense how one such as that could ever defeat me, I am a beastkin, a member of the Red branch, a Fuinseog. I am a warrior who was born to stand at the top of the food chain.

I can't lose, I won't lose, no matter what, I have to return to Cillian and Aisling I become a hero amongst the beastkin!"

Φ In one ear-breaking scream, Ronald says, "ADVENT!"

Charles moves back as Ronald's body transforms into a different form. Using the briars that now emanate from every part of his body he makes a false arm out of them.

Then says, "This is the difference that no amount of talent can cross your pest. Now die like the vermin you are."

From Ronald's body, a giant mass of briars moves towards Charles, and he moves towards them cutting them up as he goes, but soon he is overwhelmed and pushed back into his men.

Stuck in this state, Charles takes a few deep breaths looks for the weak point in the mass, and says, "Four beast battle arts; Predatory fang." Then in one violent movement cuts his way up through the mass of briars.

Then on top of the mass he runs and dodges the briars that appear from within the mass over towards him. The briars from the mass move to the top of it and circle around Charles looking for an opportunity to strike him.

As he moves Charles takes note of his surroundings, and through his eyes, he imagines a series of feathers everywhere. Then as the briars start to move close to the feathers, he says, "Four beast battle arts; Condors paradise."

In one quick movement, he strikes everywhere that he sees a feather, completely destroying the briars in one wide-ranging attack, then he dashes forward reaching the other end of the mass of briars.

As he jumps off the mass and looks for Ronald Fuinseog, he sees that there is a ball of briars on the ground from which the rest emanate from. But sensing the spirit energy inside of the ball, he notices the spirit energy is in a humanoid shape.

With a single slice he cuts through the ball, and seeing a humanoid figure inside it, he cuts its head off.

But after taking a moment to stare at it, he sees that the body is just a mass of briars shaped as a human with spirit energy following through it.

Charles quickly moves his head around to search for Ronald, but before he can find him the briars return and strike Charles again, so he cuts them up while running from the mass.

Then he hears, "Fourth bloom."

Looking up, he sees Ronald is in the sky up an elevated platform of moving briars, but Charles is quickly distracted by the petals that emanate from the briars around him.

He tries to move but is then hit with a surge through his body, and Ronald says, "Those are a special type of flower whose scent can cause damage to the nerves of living begins. It can chew away at the nerves of others the longer you're exposed to it."

Charles takes a knee, and Ronald continues, "You can run, but even a little exposure causes one nerve to go crazy causing intense pain throughout the body. Your movement is sealed!"

Sending spears of briars towards Charles, Ronald says, "It's over for you brat."

The briars move towards Charles, and in response to this, he moves forward and cuts all of the briars around him into pieces.

"How, how can you even move?"

With a deadeye expression, Charles says, "After everything you beastkin have done, did you really think that something like this could genuinely even be considered pain to me?"

Ronald sends more briars towards Charles, but he lunges forward and continues to cut them up at he approaches him, but then he generates another huge mass of briars that he sends towards him, and in one powerful slice Charles cuts through all of them.

The very force of his slash is so intense that it cuts through the briars Ronald is standing on. While Ronald's body falls, Charles runs forward and catches Ronald's body with the palm of his hand and slams it into the ground.

Ronald generates more briars to make him back off and stands up facing him.

"You have a legacy, don't you? Otherwise, that last slash would have been impossible to do even with spirit energy. Something so forceful that it can cut things without reaching them, impossible without a legacy."

"I have no such thing."

"Lies!"

Sighing, Charles says, "I do owe the Fuinseogs a favour. So, allow me to educate you. Ronald, where does your power to generate briars come from?"

"My legacy."

"And why does your legacy have said power?"

"Because they are a legendary hero."

"Yet before they came back to our plane of existence beside your soul as a legacy, most of our legendary heroes and gods were simply people who existed at a point in time. Yet normal people can't just make briars appear from their body."

Ronald pauses as the words Charles says start to dawn on him.

"Ronald when someone reaches the maximum potential they can with their spirit energy, their soul starts to take a unique shape and from that shape a Regalia, or as they call it in the east a soul technique is born, a special ability one can manifest using their spirit energy as the fuel.

The Regalia one has along with memories and physical traits are all inherited when they become a legacy. You must manifest a Regalia to become a legacy as it is proof of mastery of one's soul, and your legacy did just that. That's the truth of your powers."