Sayed let the heat flow out from his sword as he faced his opponent. Tanis, the swordsman, had broken through his possession but had only done so to ask Sayed to kill him. Sayed would fulfill that request but would not enjoy it. He took in a deep breath. Even without a blessing, Tanis was a formidable opponent.


    "Line Convergence!"


    Ting. Shing.


    Sayed brought up his gauntlet and deflected the single point of the strike. In part of his mind, he reflected that the technique was excellent, but only if it killed the opponent on the first strike. After that, only striking a single point gave power but was easily parried. Tanis''s sword ran up his gauntlet and past his face.


    "Demon''s Divide." Sayed swung out with his khopesh, and Tanis threw his body backward in an unnatural motion that rang with the cracking of bones.


    Crack.


    Sayed''s slash cut across the swordsman''s chest, but the swordsman was already out of reach. Tanis jumped back from the slash afterward, his back still bent at an odd angle. Sayed stood up straight and held his khopesh at his side as he watched the swordsman.


    Crack.


    "Grah!" Tanis yelled as his body corrected itself straight again.


    "This demon who has possessed you is a crafty creature," Sayed said, holding his sword up. "It is making this fight as hard as it can."


    "Sorry," Tanis said with a cough. "I would control it if I could."


    "I just need a moment," Sayed said. "A single moment where the demon slips, and I can finish this. Can you give me that moment as a swordsman?"


    Tears ran down Tanis''s eyes as he looked directly at Sayed and took on his stance again. His sword pointed out in a straight line, and his body tensed. Sayed did the same, holding his khopesh high and his gauntlet out. They faced each other across the rooftops, and Sayed held his breath.


    "Line thrust!"


    Sayed grunted as he took the hit. The rapier pierced through his lower chest, cutting through his body and out the other side. The pain was indescribable, but Sayed didn''t care. He needed an opening, and this was the one he could use. He just made sure that he presented the right opening that would pierce neither his heart nor his lungs.


    "Demon''s Grip."


    His muscles bulged as he grasped the hilt of Tanis''s sword with his gauntlet. He would not release his grip, no matter what happened now. He would force his opponent to make a mistake if he could not catch his opponent in a mistake.


    Tanis looked up at him, and there was fear in his eyes. However, at the same time, the tears that flowed down his face told Sayed he was ready. Sayed held his sword up high, keeping his eyes locked with his opponent''s own. He would not look away. No matter what happened now, the swordsman deserved the honor of knowing the end of the story.


    "Demon''s Divide."


    He brought his khopesh down, dividing through Tanis''s skull with the strike. Heat sizzled, and light flashed as he bisected Tanis in one move, killing the mask and the swordsman with one solid blow. Sayed let go of Tanis''s hand and let the body fall away and down the roof in a steaming, burning, and bloody mess.


    Ultimately, he stood on the rooftop, holding the rapier through his body as he looked down at the swordsman''s remains.


    "You would have been a great tale and an honorable fight if not for your companions'' machinations," Sayed said. "If we meet again on the Crimson Fields, I will give you the fight that would bring you honor, but you must wait until I reach that place, brother."


    With that said, Sayed removed the rapier from his chest. Heat burned out from his wounds to seal the cut, and he focused the same on the cut to his shoulder. His fight was over, and he had won. Now, he just needed to return to see how the others fared.


    He would need the time to figure out the best way to spin the tale.


    <hr>


    Alex stood up and reached out in his senses. If pipes weren''t going to work, and he couldn''t overpower the brute, he would have to play it smart. In his senses, he could see the buildings around him as he ran from the charging captain.


    "Why couldn''t you have just gone down?" Alex complained as he ran out the door and down the street.


    "PRO—" Captain Hawkins crashed through the stone wall and chased after him, mere seconds behind.


    Alex had tried to bind him down, hoping that being unable to move would be enough, but the captain had just plowed straight through it. Alex had spent a lot of his stamina trying that, and the fact that it hadn''t worked was frustrating.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    He needed another option. Something like a vat of molten metal he could drop down on the captain or just something that he could use to restrain the captain that wouldn''t be broken with a use of ''might.'' Again, Alex had to curse the old man who had taught him his two paths. He would have been so much better off if he had just known about the Path of Breath and learned about it back then.


    He wouldn''t find a vat of molten metal. That would require an active forge, and it was late in the night on an island out in the sticks. Instead, he would need to settle on a different solution. There was plenty of metal in the warehouses around him, and he had an idea.


    "Rock Barrage!"


    Behind Alex, the captain yelled out, and earth and rock were ripped up and out of the ground below in large chunks. Alex only looked back for a moment before he ducked down the nearest alley. Several chunks of cobblestone road flew past where he had been and cracked out against the ground further down the road.


    Every second was costing him, and he needed a plan. He ducked into the nearest building, and in his senses, he could feel something he could use. This one was a forge, and an anvil rested in the center of the room, surrounded by various implements. Alex had an idea, and it was insane.


    "Pro—Might!" the captain yelled from the alley, and the wall near Alex bulged out where the captain hit it.


    He didn''t have long to set up. He positioned himself across the anvil from the wall and guestimated his shot. He began to push on the anvil with his magnetism, and it barely budged. He had expected that the anvil was just too heavy. It had to be at least one hundred and fifty kilograms.


    However, that wasn''t his plan. He kept his magnetism focused on pushing the anvil as more of a guide as the captain hit the wall again.


    Slam. Crash.


    The captain came through the wall in a way that reminded Alex of old commercials for powdered drinks that no one else on Erth would understand. Alex grunted and flexed his muscles as he pushed on the anvil. He would only have one shot.


    "Iron Kick."


    His foot slammed hard into the anvil while his magnetic control pulled up and pushed forward on it. The anvil took off from the force of the blow and followed his strike, shooting up through the air like he had shot it out of a cannon.


    Thump. Crack. Boom.


    "Pro—grah!" the captain yelled out as the anvil caught him in the face.


    He flew back into the wall behind him and cracked the stone from the force of the blow. Alex grunted as he forced himself back to his feet and charged at the captain. He couldn''t stop there, not if he wanted to win. Already, the captain had proven himself to take more than one hit to put down.


    "Step."


    He appeared beside the down captain, placing his hands on the anvil as he grunted one last time.


    "Might."


    He picked up the anvil and slammed it down in two quick movements onto the captain''s head.


    Crack. Squelch.


    Alex stood over the captain''s remains, breathing hard as he fought to keep his stomach under control. He hadn''t needed to see that, but the captain had been too strong to put him down with anything less. After a few minutes, he had his breath steady enough to walk back toward the street.


    It was over. Now, he needed to check on Sayed and Erin.


    <hr>


    Erin pulled out more seeds as figures shambled through the fog behind the doctor. Behind her, Klaus cried out, and the guard gasped. She needed help. She couldn''t beat the doctor alone, and she knew it. She could control the area, but she couldn''t put him down.


    Erin flung out her seeds as the doctor charged, and vines burst around and entangled his limbs. He was getting faster at cutting himself free, so Erin kept throwing more. She focused her power on growing the vines to bind his arms, but he snipped through them with his crustacean claws.


    "Enough of this." The doctor scuttled forward and swiped down hard at her, knocking the air out of her lungs and sending her tumbling to the ground. "Your puny plants cannot stop me. Stay still and die slowly, or I shall find a mask to put on you."


    Erin reached for a dagger, but one pincer came down and pierced into her shoulder. She cried out in pain, but no one was coming to help her. She closed her eyes. The book was in Alex''s hands now. If she died here, she deserved to be left behind.


    Aroo!


    Thump.


    The piercing pain of the claws was ripped from Erin''s shoulder, and she was suddenly free to move. Erin opened her eyes and saw the shadowy form of the wolf that had hounded them earlier in the night, grasping large muscular arms around the doctor and pulling him back. It was closer to a wolfman than an actual wolf, but she didn''t care. She took hold of two more seeds, both yellow and threw them on the ground next to the doctor.


    "Green Whip."


    This was the opportunity she needed. She funneled the power of growth into the two stems, and they curled up from the ground, grabbing for two of the doctor''s arms. They flexed against him and pulled hard on his body.


    Crack. Snap.


    Like pulling off a crab''s arms to eat it, the two vines pulled at the doctor''s claws and tore them from his body. The doctor screamed as they were wrenched from his body, and Erin smiled. She may not have been able to break through his shell, but she could tear if she needed to. Blood spurted out from the doctor''s legs where they had been forcibly wrenched from his body.


    "A second time," Erin whispered, focusing her mind on the two stalks.


    The vines threw away the original arms and grabbed onto the remaining two on the doctor''s back.


    "No, not like this," the doctor said. "I was supposed to be superior. My plan should have worked. I had everything I needed!"


    "Green Whip," Erin said, pulling back on the legs.


    Crack. Snap.


    With a sickening crunch, she pulled off the final two legs. The doctor screamed again as the wolfman brought him down to the ground and held him there. It wrapped its hands around what remained around the doctor''s mouth, cutting off any further words from the doctor. Erin had a feeling that the wolf wouldn''t let go until the doctor was dead.


    It didn''t take long for the doctor to spasm and stop moving underneath the wolve''s muscles. Erin took in a deep breath as the doctor moved no more. In the same instant, the fog around them disappeared as if it had never been there. Erin looked out over the wall of vines that covered the street and saw the masked townspeople still struggling against it.


    The creatures still possessed them, and everything Erin had seen indicated that there was no going back. After being assimilated by the maks, the only thing that remained was a dried dead husk.


    The fight was over, but it also wasn''t over. The doctor was dead, but his damage remained. She turned away from where the doctor lay and made her way over to the guard and Klaus. If nothing else, she would make sure that the two of them made it out of Cragg Hollow.