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I descended upon an alley. It was near here that Aurum said Tyrian was seen patrolling. It was down in Mantle and the grime for the mines was already getting in my hair and making it greasy.

I watched a small hotel from the Alley where I was setting up for my stakeout. I pulled my pipe and began to smoke as I watched. The smell was lost in the fumes from the mines. I pushed my hair back up out of my eyes with an open palm.

I was in it for the long haul and I watched people come and go. Hunters, maybe, came in and out of the hotel I was watching.

Neo offered to come with me but I had her infiltrating that Sinovial Bunker dressed as Winter Schnee to see what she could find. It should be fine. If Winter Schnee was anything like her sister she wasn't a talker so I doubted she'd run into trouble.

She just needed to confirm the presence of that maiden then get out. An old woman, Aurum had called her. That was pretty successful for a maiden career. I was willing to bet that, much like hunters, most died young.

So that's what she was doing. I was leaning in an alley, relic of knowledge by my side and my half cape pressed against a wall. I waited with my broadsword over my shoulder.

Eventually I was rewarded. Tyrian came crawling out of the hole. He was looking around warily. Like he could feel a predator's eyes on him. No sense in pretending to try and keep an element of surprise. I pocketed my pipe, I let the high ride over me. He was too wary for a sneak attack.

I stepped up and out into the street.

He saw me and he looked surprised.

"You…"

He stepped opposite me in the cobblestone street. Preparing for the eventual violence that would break out in a moment.

"Me." I agreed. I tried for ominous but I was willing to bet it came off as a touch pretentious.

I could probably have twisted Aurum's arm into making this a favor for him. Serial killers and mad men were bad for business but I wasn't interested. Plus this was personal.

"You're the son of our goddess. My lady told me about you." He crouched down, his tail whipped about over his head slowly. "You didn't bring her the relic," he sneered. "You denied her."

"No I didn't and I'll do it again, too."

"You willfully deny our queen?"

"I certainly hope so. Or else I've been doing it for nothing."

He snarled and brought out his blades. I slowly drew my broadsword and we stared one another down in the middle of the street. I held the comforting weight easily in one hand and put the other in a pocket.

"You still have the relic. It's not too late for you to give in," he murmured.

"Give in."

A voice in my own head beckoned.

"Give in."

"No. I don't think that I will," I retorted, both to him and that insistent voice. "I think I'm going to kill you."

He growled and lunged forward, crossing the gap and opening fire on me as he did.

I let a laugh burst from my lips. The sound was a touch insane and a lot bitter.

I squeezed a dust crystal to glass in my pocket and whipped my hand forward from my pocket.

The bolt of lightning struck him but he crossed his arms to defend himself. I slammed into him a moment later, I flew forward on a pocket of air. The combination left his weapons smoking and my blow rang against his weapons and sent him sliding back. It tore up the street a little at his feet.

A mad giggle of his own left his mouth. He grinned at me. "Good. I was worried this would be too easy."

I activated Limit Breaker, the power strummed throughout my body. It was present in the full otherworldly flames that wreathed me. He stepped back, wary of the power of Limit Breaker. As well he should be. I almost beat him before. This should be a cinch.

I pulled a red dust crystal from my pocket. I cracked it and the power ran up my arm. I threw the fire bolt at him and he stepped to the side. It splashed against a brick building further down the street. He let out another insane laugh.

"Your power. I remember." He tapped his forehead. "But you don't know anything about mine."

"My power grows," I said. "Your semblance doesn't concern me." I was bluffing a little. I was a touch worried about his trump card. I still had my own though. I had power in spades with the glow active.

And it was starting to affect my base state. I was able to fly around without Limit Breaker active now. It was growing. I was growing.

I held on to the limits of my soul. The elevated state made the world slow down around me. He fired his machine gun at me and I twirled my blade before me and blocked the bullets easily. It was better than letting him chip away at my aura.

He came at me low across the ground and I flew right at him. His blades came up and met my sword where I tried to hammer him. He stepped inside and tried to get in my guard. It was transparent to me and I blocked and immediately spent my semblance. I slashed him across the chest and followed it up with a flurry of blows and ended it with one last swung across his stomach.

"Ruh!" I grunted as I slung him to the ground.

The scintillating attack knocked him back and I had time to take in the scars on his chest as I knocked him to the ground. I had my own matching set of marks on mine that he left on me when we'd last crossed blades.

I jumped forward at him and the entire time I was airborn I was just threatening him with a falling aerial. I landed and jumped again and once more I threatened him. As soon as he made anything other than a defensive option. I slung him hard into a wall.

I walked slowly forward at him, sword raised. I smirked down at him. I could win this.

I felt my semblance leave me. The power, the rush, was gone. I'd have to fight him fairly until I got my next charge, which was fucking bullshit. I hated fighting my opponents fairly. That was when they could win. However, I could still get several more Limit Breaks this fight if things went my way.

Our blades met again. And he swept his leg over at my head. I blocked it and he stabbed low with his left hand, then high with his right. Then he cartwheeled at me and brought his stinger at my face which I sidestepped. He jumped and kicked me in the face with both feet.

"Haah!" He called.

I grunted from it. I swept my blade back at him in a wide tilting slash that went shoulder to waist.

He was forced to block and he slid over my blade and jabbed at me with his stinger once, then twice, then three times. His fist glowed purple for a moment and he jabbed it at me but I sunk my sword into his aura for it. And I spun, bringing my blade with me and clotheslined him. He ate cobblestone. I swept my hand by my side and drew out a crystal more of what was becoming one of my favorite types. The energy ones. It was lightning and not fire. The easiest to use raw to greatest effect.

I cast the bolt on him and lightning jumped from me and struck him high. The bolt knocked him back down.

I slid tractionless across the ground and three-sixtied in a sliding forward tilt. My baseball style diagonal swing that I was able to put so much force behind. I whipped him to the ground again. Sliding forward tilt was gross.

"You don't even want to know why I'm here?" He asked. A lilt of laughter still to his voice. He flipped back onto his feet, nice and low.

"It probably has something to do with the relic up here. And the maiden."

"Winter. And it's the staff of creation. They will soon both belong to my queen."

"Good to know. But why you're here won't matter once I've killed you." Steam rose into the air from his hot weapons where the bolt struck him and he'd tried to shield it again.

"You think you'll kill me?" He giggled.

"Depends."

"On what?" The entire time we were talking I was charging my semblance.

"This." I answered. Limit Break activated again. The blue light was back and with it came the familiar chord of power. It was like lightning running down my spine. As much or even more so than using lightning dust was. The flames poured over me and I attacked him with increased vigor.

I swept my sword out and front-flipped bringing the blade down. He blocked but the force bent the cobblestone street downwards.

He grinned right in my face and punched me. He jabbed me with his claw in the stomach and he stabbed at me with his metallic tail. It hit me in the shoulder and I spun with the motion to the side. He kept on me. He kicked at my face and tried to send my aura with his claws again. I blocked and twirled Crocea Mors.

I slashed at his face and he was forced to duck. Then I cut at him lower at the leg and he jumped high over it and came to kick me in the face again. I grabbed his leg and bodily slammed him into the street. Limit still roared in my veins and I picked him like a vegetable, dropped him, and swung Crocea Mors like a baseball bat and caught him across the back.

He bounced down the street and I hovered after him. I backflipped at him, sweeping my sword at him vertically from low to high. He sidestepped. His fist glowed with purple aura once more and where it touched me my aura disintegrated.

I swore and swept my blade upwards and popped him into the air. Then I bench pressed him with a jumping lift of Crocea Mors. Then I brought the sword forward in a giant swing which he barely avoided.

He kicked me in the stomach and I grunted and stepped back. He tried to push his advantage with a snarl. His ponytail whipped about as he pressed forward.

He jabbed at me with his right claw. Then his left connected with my nose, which stung. I reeled backwards but he was on me. I brought my weapon between us and he pressed both claws against it and shoved me backwards. I was off balance and couldn't use my enormous strength. I stumbled back and his tail caught my leg and I started to fall.

I caught myself on air and swept my sword in a circle around me as I readied myself. It caught him in the legs but most importantly it forced him back a little.

He snarled at me. "Sarhh," a sort of half growling noise in frustration.

So far I was beating him. He had shown off his semblance too. Some kind of aura disruptor. And I was making him eat dirt anyways and he couldn't even appropriately capitalize on his advantage state because I was a hovering badass. Limit still coursed through me. I had every advantage.

I hit him with an aerial attack that bounced him off the pavement and spent Limit in a bladebeam that caught his roll.

He roared again. A noise that promised vengeance and violence and I stared him down unafraid as I charged up the next Limit Break.

He rushed me. He was a blitz of claws and tail and kicks. I blocked the first slash and he clipped me with the next when I couldn't react in time without Limit.

I front-flipped away from his next flurry of right legged kicks. I flew back at him and cut twice at chest level horizontally. He was forced back by the massive range my sword offered me. He tried to duck under but he just ate a knee to the face for his troubles.

Soon I would have Limit again. Whether from damage to him or damage to me. I mimed like I was going to aerial him again but he saw through the feint and jumped on me.

He knocked me to the ground for real and straddled me. He went for my neck. His glowing purple hands descended on me and ravaged my aura. In a moment he would cut my vulnerable throat with those sharp blades. My hands dropped my sword and caught his wrists.

That was when his tail came up and around. It stabbed at my face but I craned my neck to the side and it sunk into the cobblestone street.

It reared back and stabbed down again and once more I twisted my head out of the way.

I swept a leg up and wrapped it around his throat. He choked on my calf for an impossible moment and I rolled to my feet, my foot on his neck.

I dived to the side and picked up my sword. I abandoned my advantage to reclaim my weapon. I rolled back to my feet and was met with two boots to the face.

It was like a bell rang as Limit once more flowed through me. He growled again, part howl and backed off firing bullets at me. I blocked them easily enough and glid at him with one arm forward and my sword arm back.

I back-flipped at him after I reversed. And I slung my weapon against his hard enough to knock him back. I landed and swept my own kicks at him. I then brought my weapon around to take his head off and he caught it on both of his. I had Limit and leverage and I forced him back.

I drove my blade forward and rose up into the air before I slammed back down on him. My landing threw up cobble from the street. Our fight was turning the passage into a mess.

But it was nearing its conclusion. His shirt was starting to get torn up by the battle. The straps coming loose. My heart beat faster. I could feel the battle drawing to an end. And I wasn't losing. That dive onto me had been a desperate effort. I was going to kill him.

I slashed two times with a shout. The first he fought but the second landed below his ribs and knocked the wind out of him.

I stepped and pivoted right inside his effective range and swung upwards.

I threw him up into the air with a golf style swing he couldn't block. Then I followed him into the air and I Octa-slashed him. I hovered in the air and went through all eight swings. I slashed vertically twice at the end to finish things off and he was hurled eight feet straight down.

He landed and I brought my blade straight down on his chest. It sunk into his purple crackling aura and then through deep into muscle and cracking bone.

It was more satisfying than sex, watching him cough up blood as he choked out his last.

I just stood over him and began charging my next Limit. I clapped my hands once, slapping one off the other like I finished a hard day's work and pulled my weapon out of his chest.

He leaned up with it and spat up a lot of blood.

I laughed and he died. He laughed a little too which ruined my moment a little.

I got close to activating my next charge. First responders would be here soon and I had better be gone before they arrived. I sheathed my weapon over my shoulder and it folded slightly into the form I used to carry it around in.

I tapped the side of Tyrian's face with my boot and stepped back. I pulled his weapons free and put them in my deep pockets. Our battle had really done a number on the street around us. His bullets had shattered windows and my fire spell had left a building splattered with flames.

Oh well. One down. Three to go. Cinder, Merlot, Hazel.

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-WG