Chapter 75: ACHILLES
Azrael ducked, letting Achilles’s spear pass over him.
The force from the attack rippled outward, carving a deep ravine through the earth behind Azrael.
He pulled back instantly, just in time for Achilles to block his fist with the spear’s shaft.
Achilles drove the flat of his shield into Azrael’s chest.
As if anticipating the attack beforehand, Azrael met the shield with a punch from his free hand.
A tremor tore up his arm, rattling his bones.
Achilles barely budged as he pulled the shield back, the spear slashing forward in tandem.
’Why is he trying to kill me immediately?’ Azrael wondered as he avoided the strike aimed to cleave through his shoulder and chest simultaneously.
The question came from a pattern he had already begun to notice.
Everything Achilles threw at him was designed to end the fight. Nothing was wasted. Nothing was excessive. Every movement was precisely calculated.
’If not for whatever changed in me yesterday, I would have died more than ten times in these last few exchanges,’ he thought.
Before the thought could go further, Achilles accelerated.
He thrust, then transitioned into a horizontal slash mid motion.
Azrael could not track the speed of the change.
But his body moved on its own, phase shift activating before he could consciously issue the command.
As though Achilles had anticipated the skill, he held back.
The spear ignited with what felt like a higher form of energy, something that was clearly not essence.
"He is using that strange energy again," Jasmine remarked from her chair.
She did not feel the need to elaborate.
Azrael’s torso was cleaved open, golden blood spraying into the air as his upper body separated from the lower.
Achilles watched as both halves landed apart from each other.
"Unworthy," he said, drawing his spear cleanly through the air to wipe the golden blood from its tip.
Azrael did not lose consciousness.
But his regeneration could not take hold. Whatever energy Achilles had used was suppressing it entirely.
His blood began to pool together regardless.
His body began to rise.
The upper half descended onto the lower, veins stitching across the split as they fused.
Before the process could complete, Achilles, already returning to his seated position, pivoted and thrust his spear toward Azrael’s head.
Azrael moved quickly, his palms clasping together to catch the spear just short of his face.
The force from the impact made the air roar outward from the point of collision.
Then both of them seemed to speak at once.
Flickers of purple and gold began flashing through the space, coiling and swirling around each other.
In their wake, the earth gave way, parting beneath their combined force.
As if by unspoken agreement, they separated at the same moment, landing cleanly on the broken ground.
The golden glow of essence still clung to Azrael’s frame.
He could feel it. The tremendous amplification his essence now carried.
With the same amount as before, he was achieving roughly ten times the effect.
"This is extraordinary," he muttered, flexing his palm slowly.
"Underestimating your opponent is a mistake no one should make on the battlefield," Achilles said from in front of him.
"Who said I underestimated or forgot about you?" Azrael asked, twisting out of the spear’s path.
Achilles’s side was exposed before him.
Azrael took full advantage, driving his foot into Achilles’s ribs.
It was as though something vast had struck a drum at the center of the world.
The collision sent shockwaves traveling outward through the already fractured earth.
Achilles’s body was hurled back until it collided with the wall of the crater.
Azrael shook his head slowly.
"That cannot do lasting damage, but it buys me time to find a way to target his heel."
That was the only objective in his mind.
But what came next shocked him.
Not just him.
Jasmine nearly lost her footing on the branch she was perched on.
For the first time since she had fought Achilles, he bled.
Blood rolled from the corner of his mouth.
His ribs were visibly displaced.
Achilles raised his hand slowly and touched the warmth on his lips.
His mind went still at the sight of it.
This was a concept that had never applied to him. His body could not be injured. That was not a boast. It was simply fact.
And yet this person had bypassed it entirely.
"What did you do, you vile creature," Achilles said, his voice carrying something it had not carried before.
He lunged again.
This time, none of the measured calm remained. His warrior’s instincts had taken full control.
He drove the spear toward Azrael’s abdomen with everything behind it.
Azrael dropped his elbow into the shaft, snapping it in two from the force of the impact.
Before he could press forward, he felt something tear across his neck.
Achilles had drawn the sword concealed within his shield and slashed in the same motion.
Both actions were executed as one, no gap between them, no distinction in the timing.
Azrael’s head fell to the floor and rolled.
Learning from the last exchange, Achilles pressed his foot down onto it before it could stop moving, grinding it beneath his weight.
"Hey," a voice came from in front of him, entirely unbothered.
Achilles ducked beneath Azrael’s punch as though it were incidental.
His sword sliced upward simultaneously.
Azrael read it, sidestepping just enough to avoid the edge.
"Now this is a real back and forth," Jasmine said with a smile.
She had moved to a tree at the crater’s edge and sat watching from above.
Looking further out, she noticed a new presence moving toward the crater.
Another calamity, outside its prison.
A smile formed on her lips.
"Things just got interesting," she murmured.
She made no move to warn Azrael.
She made no move to intervene.
She only watched.
Though she did pause to consider how the calamity had escaped its seal in the first place.
"Something strange is happening in this realm," she thought.
But strangely, she did not find the thought troubling.
If anything, the prospect of what could unfold filled her with something close to delight.
Below, Azrael and Achilles collided again.
Blade met flesh and for a moment, there was no clear outcome.
Until the world itself began to change.