Sillo gritted his teeth. He continued to hammer his skeletal opponent with spell after spell.
"You're too hot-headed. If you were more cautious like your sister, then you'd be more forbiddable," stated Duorda, carving through holy swords and dark sabers with his long, sickly bone sickle.
"Shut up!"
"If I do that, you'll never learn. You don't want your sister outgrowing you, right? You don't want her surpassing you and never needing your help?"
"SHUT UP!"
"Listen! I'm trying to help you."
A web of lightning materialized around them, keeping Sillo at the center and offering Duorda no chance to escape.
"This again?" Duorda sighed.
"You can't--"
"I told you, this is useless! Your mana control is too sloppy to contain me…"
Shaking his head, Duorda began to emit specs of white light, fading in and out of existence. Those tinges of white energy weren't bright but they were easy to spot amidst the black energy forever shrouding the black skeleton.
Whenever the lightning moved to entangle and paralyze the skeleton, it seemingly parted and coursed around Duorda like it momentarily phased out of reality. The electricity was broken down into specs to match the white energy until it passed over Duorda and reconnected on the other side of the skeleton.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" shouted Sillo, refusing to believe his eyes yet again.
"Like I said, you're sloppy…" Duorda sighed, stepping toward Sillo with haste. "Your potential is more than decent yet your trivial perspective of power limits you. How sad…"
Pouring more energy into the web of lightning, Sillo tensed up and shouted at the top of his lungs. His battle cry filled the area as darkness surrounded the entire web of lightning and left the compatants unable to see the other matches. Sillo took one last glance at the flaming cyclone encircling his sister and let himself fade into the shadowy world he created.
Duorda clicked his tongue. "That's all you've got? Your control is getting worse by the second… A poor habit for any cosmician…"
"Shut-"
Effortlessly, Duorda swung his sickle and hurled a wave of energy so black that it stood out within the darkness. It found it's target without trouble, keeping Sillo from finishing his yell and forcibly ending the Mage God's focus.
As blood trickled from Sillo's chest, the shadows began to die down and fade as quickly as they had taken shape.
"Was that all you've got?" questioned Duorda.
"You've no right to defeat me!" Sillo's eyes were bloodshot, refusing to accept the reality of the fight. "You're lv. 90! Even if you could fight me, there's no way you're more powerful than me!"
"Our mana supplies are nearly identical, can't you see that?" Duorda tilted his head to the side in disbelief and disappointment. "Can't you at least do that much?"
"You couldn't--"
"I've been telling you this whole time why this is too easy. Your energy control is atrocious and too wild for practical use. Apart from facing a savage, ignorant beast, I see no other applications for your attacks and style of fighting," explained Duorda. "I told you, allow me to teach you true control. Pull that off, and one day you may beat me yet."
"Enough! I refuse to believe this!"
All five of Sillo's energy types gathered around him in the blink of an eye. Sillo's body was almost contorting out of frustration as his body tensed up over and over. Dark, holy, fire, water, and lightning energy swarmed around him and fought to get closer and closer to their controller's skin. As the energies condensed, energies would occasionally blend together through sheer force.
"That's better, but now you're fully committed to a savage style of control," Duorda admitted with the shake of his skull. "You'll only make this easier…"
"Just die already! DIE!"
Both of Sillo's arms extended forward. One arm contained two swirling energies, dark and holy, spewing the raw energy in a streamlined attack of condensed energy. The other twirled fire, water, and lightning as all three were forced into spheres and littered the area around Duorda before exploding.
The steam explosions were filled with electricity and left little to the imagination as to how much damage they caused. The speedy stream of holy and dark energy carved through the explosions without rest, expending more energy than Sillo bothered to realize while absorbed in rage.
"Really? That's all?"
The smug face of Sillo's face finally quivered, but not even for a second. He saw the vapor disperse and reveal a completely untouched skeleton, unmoved by any of the attacks or explosions.
"The concept of your attack is quite good, but your execution is utter garbage," Duorda lectured. "Throw another explosion and I'll show you properly how to defuse them. Oh, they're done!"
Finally, Duorda showed some excitement, turning to the flaming cyclone not far away.
Sillo glanced as well, understanding what Duorda meant. And the excitement in Duorda's voice caused Sillo's heart to sink.
The flames began to dwindle. They stopped hiding the combatants within, which nearly sent Sillo into a heart attack. Seeing his sister run through by the long white sickle was startling for him. As the white skeleton carefully removed the sword from Sybin's chest, the bone shield vanished and Duorda's white half caught Sybin tenderly. Without a word, the white death knight stored the fresh corpse in his storage and turned to Sillo.
"You want to always be with your sister, right?"
Sillo didn't answer. His jaw was clenched too tightly for Sillo to respond or consider speaking up.
"I can make that happen now. You have my promise," stated the white skeleton. "Now, will consider listening for once? I'd hate to see your potential wasted under Halmut's terrible care and training. He's taught you nothing about the basics…"
"... You…" Sillo managed to barely open his jaw. "You… killed her… You killed… MY LITTLE SISTER!"
"Prove to me that you're worth teaching," the black skeleton added, holding his sickle forward with the large shield in his other hand. Duorda's white half began circling to the other side of Sillo. But he didn't prepare for battle. "One of me is enough for you. Prove to be as capable as your sister and you won't regret it."