Authors note: Sorry that it took so long, but i had personal reasons to lay this story down for a bit, i try to upload the next chapter sooner.
49. Long awaited sleep
Kamui could feel as his perception changed under the effect of the Golden Sword of Verathagna. The world around him seemed to slow down as all of his senses sharpend to incredible levels. He fell to one knee, overwhelmed by the pain. His feeling intensified , he could feel the blood and sweat beneath his battle suit, they caused him discomfort, but it was nothing compared to the incredible pain he felt from the wounds all over his body.
His eyes had never problems to see in the darkness, but right now he could see every little detail, he could even count every chain link on Thresh´s weapons. That Thresh moved it bothered him not. Kayle´s heavy breathing boomed in his ears, the scream of the enslaved souls pounded him as a terrific quake, their screams pained him deeply. The smell of sweat, blood, even of the earth itself filled his nostrils.
Not only his physical senses sharpened. The feeling of auras returned to him, he could feel the power of Thresh and Kayle, but also the agony of the souls that Thresh used to empower himself, their agony a proof that Kamui had failed his sacred duty, the duty he neglected to not provoke open war with the League of Legends, for the sake of returning him and Xeronos home.
But the biggest boost got Kamui´s clairvoyance ability. It sharpened to that extend that he could see Thresh´s movement before Thresh even know it himself. Only a few seconds, but in combat even this few seconds could decide over stand and fall.
Kayle landed next to him "that´s an incredible weapon, will it be strong enough to defeat Thresh?" "Defeat? No, not in my current condition. But there are other ways to ensure victory than to defeat the enemy", Kamui smirked at her. Kayle raised an eyebrow, confused. "What do you mean?" "You will see soon enough, but i will need your help. Concentrate on attacking, leave the rest to me, let´s beat him, together" "Together" Kayle repeated and both of them fell into battle stance.
After that both of them charged at Thresh. Because of his wounds Kamui was slower than Kayle, so she was the first to strike, but Thresh parried her attack, before he retaliated. His sickle moved towards her, but Kamui had already prepared for this, he knew that this would happen, even before Kayle landed the first blow. Kamui parried Thresh´s attack. The power behind this attack would be able to break trough Kamui´s parry, but Kamui placed his blade in such angle, that the sickle glided alongside his blade, redirected above both of them. Kayle saw this and used the oppurtunity that he had opened to score a clean hit against Thresh. Thresh tumbled backwards, before attacking her with his lantern. But it was again Kamui who protected her. Kamui had barely time to pull her a step backwards out of the lanterns range, before he ducked under the lantern himself. He could feel the air as the lantern rushed past his head. Even his now ampflified clairvoyance ability had limits. He could see a few seconds in the future, but because of his own actions it changed drastically, so he was bombared by all the different possible-future actions, and it was up to him, to decide which one was the most likeliest, a formidable challenge, even for him, something, he only managed with years of experience. The moment the lantern was gone, Thresh turned around himself and accelarated the sickle that moved in a giant circular motion. Kamui used the chance to land a single, but powerful and precise strike against Thresh´s leg. The blow was complety blocked by Thresh´s soul armor, but hurting Thresh was not Kamui´s intention. The moment Delf connected his feedback and Kamui´s Golden Lightning burned Thresh´s mana reserves and the force behind Kamui´s stab threw Thresh offbalance, he had to regain his footing, which in return weakend his attack greatly. But something else happend aswell, a great amount of souls, especially those that were used to block Kamui´s attack, were absorbed inside the edge of Delf. Kamui pulled Kayle downwards, protecting her form the sickle that was coming her way, she then shot her Reckoning against Thresh at point black range, before attacking him with an upward slash. The holy energy that was unleashed as her attack crashed against Thresh´s armor was collected by Kamui through his spell intercept, then he used it to send a weaker version of Reckoning against Thresh. As Thresh was send backwards by the force of her attack, Kamui diverolled to stand in Thresh´s back and attacking him once more, this time with a diagonal slash, which absorbed a tremendous amount of souls from Thresh´s armor. Thresh attacked him with his sickle, but Kamui dodged benath it once more, then slashed at Thresh, before letting go of Delf and catching him with his teeth, then grabbing Thresh´s chain and getting pullend in a circular motion around Thresh, Delf grinding against Thresh the whole time, before Kamui decided to let go of the chain and was send flying in Kayle´s direction, who caught him and both of them landed safely on the ground.
Kamui took Delf into his hand and trusted him into the earth, as he fell to one knee, clutching at his broken arm, panting heavily, but smirking at Thresh. Kayle knelt next to him and began healing his arm, she knew she couldn´t fix it right now, but she could ease his pain. "Thank you" Kamui said, his whole body was still hurting like hell, but he felt much better now. Then Kamui took Delf in his hand again and released the souls that he stole from Thresh, which left his sword, before gathering inside the mooncrystal that was on Kamui´s forehead. "That wasn´t so bad for the beginning, don´t you think?" Kamui asked Kayle with a smirk, she nodded before both of them turned to Thresh again. "You are truly a beast, Godslayer, fighting in this condition. But another thing surprise me even more, even now, you don´t show the slightest bit of fear, do you really value your life that littel?" Thresh shouted to him. "Because i fear nothing, everybody fears me! If you can beat your opponent, there is no reason to fear. If not, fear will not grant you victory, nor will it ensure mercy."
The battle continued like that for a while. Thresh was attacked by Kayle again and again, while she was being protected by Kamui, who took the support role for now, redirecting Thresh´s attacks, pulling Kayle out of his attacks and weaken his offense and defense with precise attacks. Every of Kamui´s attack burned and stole Thresh´s mana ressources, but the most important part was that every attack with the Golden Blade of Verathagna released the souls that Thresh used to empower himself, and this souls were now empowering Kamui, restoring his soul energy, which he used to further enhance his efforts.
Another clash between the three of them ended with a wound across Kamui´s back. He wasn´t fast enough to deflect the attack completly, so he had thrown his body against Kayle, pushing her out of the attack, but also taking the blow for her.
"If this continues like that, we might lose, i don´t know how much longer i can fight." Kamui said to Kayle, while he was thinking, supporting Kayle had turned the tide of the battle in their favor, but he was running out of time, supporting the Golden Blade of Verathagna had burned him of almost all of his divine power. His body was too wounded to enter "Crossbreed", so he couldn´t use the power of his divine parents. With Greydrone´s heart in the current condition every use of dragonic power would shot incredible pain trough his body, pain, he couldn´t handle with his senses at this level. The godly power of his body that he could command right now, was completly used during the battle, his male form had faded completly, and using Astraea´s power while in this condition brought him to the border of getting his soul expelled by his own body. The brotherhood sigil on his back was useless as well. To increase it´s abilities it was closely bound to his rune that was beneath his ripcage, but in his current state it would most likely aborb his soul the moment he tried to drew power from it. He could still use his ki and mana pool that his body provided, but those weren´t able to support the Golden Blade of Verathagna with the divine power it needed, so it would vanish the moment Kamui burned the last bit of his divine power, furthermore his ki and mana were closely bound to his body, so he had to be careful if he would continue the battle with them. Of course he had still ressources that were not bound to his body, namely his blood and soul magic, but he had lost a lot of blood, so that was dangerous right now, but with the amount of soul energy the stole from Thresh his soul magic was the ressource he was using the most at the moment. Kamui sighed, whom he was trying to kidding? If he would drew enough power from his body to even hurt Thresh, his body would rip of his soul.
"Kayle, the next attack i will do alone." "What?" "Listen, i have no time to explain, i am running out of time. I will attack him, and if everything goes as planned, you should be able to finish him soon after. But with you next to me i am not sure that my plan will succed, so please, do as i have told you." "Kamui, what are you planning?" "The lesson i was talking about earlier, i will show it to you in it´s full extent." Kamui smirked at her. With Thresh´s armor thinned out that much he should be able to secure their victory.
Kamui charged at Thresh, who send his sickle against him. Kamui evaded the sickle as he jumped to the side and Thresh threw his lantern against him. Kamui diverolled over it and was now next to Thresh. It was a risky plan, but Kamui needed just one clean hit and they would win, but he was now alone, so Thresh concentrated completly on him, so it was difficult to land this one clear hit. Everytime Kamui tried to get into positon Thresh forced him to dodge an attack, ruining all of his efforts. He could not wait till Thresh made a mistake, Kamui knew that he had only one option and prepared for the pain that would come, with the courage born out of despair he made a grim decision.
Again Kamui tried to postion himself, and again Thresh saw this and attacked him with his sickle, but this time, things went different. "Kamui!" Kayle screamed. "Master!" Kamui inner circle screamed. "I guess it´s over Godslayer." Thresh laughed at him as he joyfully observed the outcome of his attack. Thresh´s sickle forced it´s way right trough Kamui´s abdomen, sticking out of Kamui´s back. Kamui fell to one knee and spit out a huge amount of blood. Then Thresh hold out his lantern next to Kamui, ready to absorb his soul, the soul of the one who would fight till his last breath, and was still breathing. But Kamui smirked at Thresh. "Yes, you are right, Thresh. The fight is over, you have lost." Kamui channeled his soul magic in his right arm, he didn´t need to move anymore, he didn´t need to fight anymore, he was so damn tired, but this last strike had to be decisive.
This close it was difficult to evade an attack, but Thresh managed to evade Kamui´s attack. Kamui´s stab missed him completly. "Haha, you have missed, Godslayer. I guess..." but Kamui´s weak laughter interrupted him "Missed? No, i hit right on the mark." "What do you mean?" Then Threshs´ eyes followed the edge of Kamui´s sword and then he stopped dead in his tracks. Delf´s edge forced it´s way into Thresh´s lantern. The green light slowly turned silver as Kamui released them from Thresh´s grip. Cracks formed alongside it, before the released power tore the lanten apart as the lantern detonated, separating both combatants.
"Kamui!" Kayle screamed as she hurried next to him. Kamui released Haishel and the others from Delf´s now back-to-normal blade and the four began together with Kayle to heal his grivious wounds. Kayle and Kamui´s whole inner circle screamed at him, how stupid, dangerous und utterly reckless his move was, but he simply smiled, all went according to his plan. He had cut of Thresh´s source of power, for Kayle it should be easy to win against him in his weakend state.
"Damn you, Godslayer, do you know what you have done?!" Thresh cursed. Kamui turned to Kayle. "The rest is up to you, my dear. Victory should be easy right now. I will just lay hear, being lazy." She nodded before she took her sword and prepared to finish their enemy. It was as they had expected it. Without the power he drew from the souls that were imprisoned in his lantern, Thresh was an easy enemy for Kayle, her power returned to her, not longer sealed by stolen summoner magic. But she didn´t killed Thresh, just weakened and wounded him, before binding him with holy light.
Then Kayle returned back to Kamui and began healing him again. After using the rest of their magic to heal Kamui, Haishel and the others returned into Delf´s edge, leaving only Kamui and Kayle. Kayle did her best to heal him, but all she could do was to heal his minor wounds and easing his pain, his abdomen and arm were out of her abilities. "I am sorry that i can´t help you more, Kamui." she said sadly, but Kamui smiled at her. "Think nothing of it. This isn´t the first time that i got stabbed or my arm broken. And like everytime before, my wounds will heal." "But, your body." "My male form will return, or does my appearance bother you that much?" He joked and earned a small smile from her. "No, a good friend of mine once taught me, that the appearance is not important, because even inside the shape of a beast, may be a beautiful and charming prince. " "Haha, so you haven´t forgotten." "Of course not."
A last kiss was shared before Kamui was overwhelmed by his exhaustion. Kayle wanted to pick him up and carry him to the infirmary, but Delf stopped her. "Don´t move him. He is to wounded, let him just sleep a bit, his body will regenerate. Haishel and the others are healing him from inside my blade, don´t worry, it is the best for him." Kayle laughed lightly at this. "Now i am taking advice from a sword, you are trully special, Kamui." Delf ignored the fact that she called him a simple sword, before he replied. "Yes, he is special, you have not even the slightest idea how special he really is. Maybe you should rest a bit aswell." Then Kayle layed next to Kamui and covered his wounded body with her wing, shielding from the cold of the night, before surrendering to her own exhaustion and falling asleep next to the man she loved.
