Moonlight bathed the ruined road in a pale glow, painting the battlefield in silver.
Oliver squared his stance, halberd heavy in his hand, his chest rising and falling as blood streaked down his side.
Across from him, the caped man strode forward, his red cloak trailing behind him like a living flame. The soldiers stood back in a wide circle, their armor glinting faintly, their eyes locked on the duel about to begin.
The commander drew his sword with a deliberate slowness, the steel gleaming wickedly under the moon.
No words passed between them. The silence was their oath, broken only by the wind and the groans of the wounded still dying around them.
Then the fight began.
The man lunged first, sword flashing down. Oliver’s halberd spun up to meet it with a clang that rang through the night. Sparks showered between them, echoing like bells of war.
Oliver shoved forward, twisting his halberd and driving the man back a step. He didn’t let the man have a moment of rest. He surged forward, making sure there wasn’t space between them, and kept swinging hard.
One thing he’d learnt through years of fighting demons was that no matter who your enemy was, once you see a chance, you take it. It was that simple.
His halberd cut arcs through the air, swift and lethal, forcing the caped man to duck, parry, and weave.
For the first exchanges, they seemed evenly matched.
Oliver pushed, his halberd spinning like a whirlpool, every swing backed by his Water and Preservation spells.
When the man’s blade came for his chest, Oliver snapped his fingers, invoking Preservation to halt the steel mid-swing, freezing its momentum before slamming the halberd’s butt into the man’s gut. The commander staggered, cloak flaring, but he did not fall.
Oliver pressed his advantage. A surge of water burst from the ground beneath the man’s feet, slamming into his legs and threatening to sweep him off balance.
He followed with a jab of poison, a thin mist that clung to the commander’s armor. But the man didn’t even seem to notice. Instead, the man raised his hand, a spell formation blooming to life above it.
The Hunger spell erupted.
It spread like a black maw in the air, a void of gnashing force that chewed through Oliver’s water, devoured his poison mist, and bit into the ground beneath them.
Oliver’s eyes widened as he threw Preservation at it, forcing reality to resist the gnawing void.
For a moment, the two spells locked, Preservation and Hunger grinding against each other, the air splitting with violent cracks. Then Hunger surged forward, overwhelming his spell and eating through the remnants of his magic.
Oliver barely leapt aside in time, the void gnawing at the space where he’d stood. His heart hammered. If he’d been an instant too late, he’d have taken heavy damage.
This wasn’t an ordinary mage. He was strong. Experienced. Someone who wasn’t using his full power for fear of being recognized through it. Oliver knew that was the only reason he was still standing on two legs.
"What do you want?" He demanded, voice raw with effort. His halberd circled warily, its edge gleaming. "Why attack us? Who sent you?"
The caped man didn’t answer. His silence was absolute, broken only by the heavy rhythm of his boots as he stepped forward again.
Steel rang as their weapons clashed. Oliver swung, thrust, parried, his halberd’s long reach giving him control of the fight.
He wove Water into his attacks, shaping them into whips and lances to extend his range. Poison coated the halberd’s edge, making every cut a death sentence. Preservation locked the air around them, slowing the man’s movements for brief moments.
Yet the Hunger spell was relentless. Every attack Oliver conjured was swallowed. Water boiled away into nothing. Poison vanished in midair. Preservation cracked under the gnashing void. It was like fighting a beast that consumed the world itself.
The caped man drove his sword low and fast. Oliver blocked, but it was too late. The blade ripped across his left arm. Flesh and bone parted. Blood sprayed. His arm fell uselessly to the dirt.
Oliver staggered back, his face pale, pain like fire coursing through him. But he did not stop. Adjusting his grip on the halberd, he shifted into a one-armed stance. It was awkward, clumsy, but he wouldn’t let this... setback stop him from fighting, even with the agony blazing in his body.
He glanced back, just once, and his heart seemed to calm. Behind him, the translucent dome of jelly still protected Cecilia and Noah.
Within it, her golden eyes burned with focus as her hands carved light into the air. The teleportation circle was nearly complete. Ninety percent complete, maybe more.
Just a little longer.
Oliver bared his teeth and activated his skill, summoning more jelly. It erupted from the ground, from the air, from his blood itself, covering him in translucent layers. He hurled it at the caped man, trying to drown him, to trap him, to stall.
But the Hunger spell shredded it all. Every layer of jelly, every wall, every tendril, chewed away into nothingness.
Oliver’s body trembled. His muscles screamed. His lungs heaved. His veins burned with overdrawn mana. He coughed blood, dark red splattering onto the dirt. He couldn’t keep this up.
Yet he forced himself to continue. His halberd spun, slower now, each swing costing him dearly. His knees buckled, his vision blurred, but he fought. For Cecilia. For Noah.
The caped man carved through the last of his jelly, advancing with a sense of inevitability. Oliver dropped to one knee, halberd quivering in his hand. His breath rattled in his chest.
The commander stood above him, sword rising. Moonlight gleamed along the edge as he poised to strike the killing blow.
Then a scream tore through the night.
"OLIVER!"
Cecilia’s voice, raw with fear, rang across the battlefield. It cut through the soldiers’ silence, through Oliver’s haze of exhaustion, through the pounding of his weakening heart.
He lifted his head, eyes wide, as the blade descended.
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A/N: Apologies for the lack of Noah-centric Chapters lately. All this is to set the stage for the clusterfuck Noah would be waking up to, revealing the ripple effects of the whole event, breathe life into a few side characters, and reveal the extent of the damage done to Noah. Thank you for your patience.