Paragon of Mana

"Dawn!" cried Ember.

Wasting no time, he shot forward, unsheathing his blade mid-flight. He bolted straight towards her restraints, channelling all the mana he was capable of into the sabre to cut her free from the chains. However, before he could make his move, he was intercepted midway as a, a dark silhouette shifted through the gloom to swing a flying roundhouse kick into his chest, flinging him back half a dozen metres.

Ember coughed as blazing pain lanced through his chest. In his urgency, he hadn't had time to even enable his protective ward. Nor had he imagined that bastard to be so fast.

"I almost forgot about you," Ezamin said. "It's a bad habit of mine—always turning a blind eye to weak pests."

"Funny you say that," said a voice from behind him. Dawn struggled within the confines of the lightning net, her entire body radiating a golden light as she fought against the restraints. "It has been a recurring problem of mine. It's perhaps why I failed to notice the conniving bastard sneaking up on me."

Ezamin turned immediately. Though he didn't reply to her words, a look of surprise crossed his expression. He hadn't imagined she would regain her strength so quickly. To solve that, he shifted in a streak of shadow to appear beside her, a gleaming dark knife materialising in his palm. Before he could strike, however, Ember charged at him from behind, swinging his tier 6 blade in a violent arc.

Mana radiated through the blade's formation, a shadowy sword-light gleaming as it closed in on the cloaked figure.

Ezamin, to his credit, had enough battle instinct to sense him coming. His dark silhouette vanished from the spot before Ember's sword could land. A split second later, he appeared behind Ember, shadowy tendrils coalescing around his arm to form a blade of his own as he thrust it towards Ember's neck.

Ember's mind cried in alarm. With swift dexterity, he lurched sideways, as the shadow blade missed him by a hair's breadth.