“You should be more worried about yourself.” Greyshio looks ahead and sees Balthazar wearing a black silk styled jacket that has two buttons at the top right side and the letters “RK” stitched in red on the collar. The outline of red flames is stitched along the sleeve edges and the bottom of the jacket, matching his black silk pants. Balthazar has a gold ring on his middle finger with “RK” engraved on it.
“Balthazar,” Greyshio says with disgust.
“Hey, dipshit. You seem live and well.”
“I don’t have time to play in the mud with whiny children who can’t handle taking a loss.”
“That was not a—! Okay, okay. That was only because I underestimated you. But things will be different this time.” Balthazar walks to the far left side of the room. He grabs a shiny knight’s blade off the wall where other much duller weapons are placed. “This is my sword, Enterprise. It’s a custom weapon designed to resist my heat levels.”
“That long paperclip cannot stand against my Empyrean Blade.”
“Hmph, we’ll see.” As the wind blows through the windows, the two men stare each other down without saying a word. Suddenly, Greyshio lowers his blade and vanishes. Balthazar raises his sword toward his neck and blocks Greyshio’s sword swing. He remains in the air, stunned by his opponent’s reaction speed. “I’ve seen your speed.” He turns his head toward him. “It’s not that impressive.” Balthazar fends him off with his blade.
Balthazar raises his sword above his head and rotates it slowly till a ring of fire appears. He sticks his sword in the middle and releases it at Greyshio. Greyshio blocks it by cutting it in half. Greyshio looks around, unable to see where Balthazar went. His eyes continue darting around the room till he feels heat on his back. He slowly looks behind him. “That took you longer than it should have,” Balthazar says with his back to Greyshio.
Balthazar does a wide backswing with his sword. Greyshio jumps forward, turning around just in time to fend off several speedy attacks from Balthazar. He flips into the air and shoots a light string from his hand. He attaches it to Balthazar’s sword and yanks it out of his hand.
Greyshio begins coming down on him like a missile with his sword raised. When he nears, Balthazar’s battle aura activates and burns his body. He desperately rolls on the floor to put out the flames.
Greyshio slowly lifts his head off the ground. “Greyshio, you are too slow. Even if you could surprise me and manage to get a chance to hit me, you’ll have to be faster than my battle aura. Or you’ll get burned.”
Greyshio stands up grinning. “Then that is what I will do.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll get faster.”
“Oh, that celerity shit? That’s not enough either.”
He chuckles. “No. It’s a technique I developed that’s even faster than celerity.”
_______________ Event between Removed ________________
Down on the third floor, things are starting to heat up. “Faster than celerity?” Balthazar says. He gives him an over confident grin. “Heh, impress me.”
Greyshio takes a deep breath, but doesn’t exhale. He shifts all his weight to the left before vanishing. Balthazar’s eyes open wide in surprise that he can’t trace his movements. He quickly turns his head to the right before a speeding fist hits his head back to the left. He swings his sword and hits nothing but air. Within that short moment, he’s hit again, receiving a large slash wound down his back and another down his left eye.
Balthazar falls to the floor yelling. “Argh, you fucking cunt! You stupid shit! You dare to defile me!? Grrr!” He stands up with his left eye shut. “Eternal aura!”
Blue flames pour from his body before quickly turning orange. Greyshio appears behind him, getting his face burned. Luckily for him, most of the damage is averted by his black scarf. He quickly takes it off and throws it to the side. The scarf turns to ashes, leaving a burn mark on the floor.
Greyshio breathes heavily with first degree burns on his face. He suddenly begins to cough blood as the flaming Balthazar slowly comes his way. “That move. It’s fast. But it looks like it comes with a price. Internal injuries and heavy pressure on the lungs.” He begins to reach for Greyshio slowly, as the wild flames slowly become tame. Greyshio tries to get away, but couldn’t after the stress he put on his body.
Balthazar lifts him from his shirt and into the air. Amazingly, the flames are not burning him. “Don’t fear the flames, boy. They only burn when I tell them to burn. From the looks of your condition, I doubt you will be doing that move anytime soon.” He grins. “I’m gonna burn your face clean off so I can spare the world of your smug looks.” Balthazar opens his mouth wide and orange flames begin to formulate inside.
A second before Balthazar attacks, Greyshio shouts. “Water Defense!” A large sphere of water appears between the two men’s faces to intercept the flames. The sphere slowly begins to shrink as the flames continue to flee from his mouth. After a while, Balthazar’s flames slow to a complete stop once he’s out of breath and the water sphere evaporates.
“You stupid little shit!” Balthazar says as the calm flames become violent.
“Total Water Defense!” Greyshio shouts as his entire body becomes covered in water.
He kicks himself out of Balthazar’s hands, giving himself good distance from his opponent. The water evaporates till it only covers his limbs and his sword. He grips his blade and stands in an on guard stance. He carefully watches the intensity of the flames rise.
“You’re very quiet today, Greyshio. Whatever happened to the cocky guy that I loathe? Has the truth finally sunken in? No, it’s not that. It would seem you have finally taken this fight seriously and dropped the tough guy act.”
Greyshio makes an egotistical grin and stands up straight. “Hmph, not at all. It’s just that I’ve grown so bored of your talking that I’m contemplating should I kill you now or continue to let you think you’re winning. The point is, only the extremely weak continue to yammer on during battle. And correct me if I’m wrong, but when we fight who usually does the most talking and gets the biggest beating?”
Balthazar is quickly angered by his words. “I see you’re gritting your teeth,” Greyshio antagonizes. “Don’t be mad that you’re weak. And I know what you’re thinking. You're thinking, oh, look who’s over talking now? But between you and me, Balthazar. I’m the exception to the rule.”
Balthazar looks at Greyshio with so much anger in his eyes. He clutches his fist tightly as the room’s temperature begins to rise. The flames around him calm and shrink to less than an inch off his body. “That’s it, Greyshio. I can’t stand your fucking mouth any longer. Burning cyclone!” The orange flames burst from his body, creating an expanding tornado of flames.
Greyshio kneels down. “Aqua dome!” The fiery blaze continuously hits the water as heavy steam rises. Suddenly, Balthazar appears high above the dome, coming down with his sword pointed. The firestorm ends with the piercing of the dome.
Like ink in water, reddish-orange blood rises around the blade before the dome collapses. Greyshio’s face has a shocked expression. He slowly looks down and sees the blade has gone through the lower right side of his back and out through his stomach.
Balthazar pulls it out slowly, causing him to kneel before lying on his back holding his side. “You look like a dog who’s asking for a belly rub. I hope you find steel soothing!” Balthazar says as he raises his sword overhead. Without warning, Greyshio spits dozens of needles out of his mouth. Balthazar jumps back. “Damn it, my arm!”
Greyshio stands up and makes the needles vanish. “I hope you liked the stealth needle. You’ll be dead in minutes.”
Balthazar looks up with a stunned face, then smiles while rubbing his wounds. “Nah. After Bonnie treated Coda, she created a set of antibodies that can fight off your holy poison. It was a precaution in case you did something underhanded and sneaky again.”
“What?”
“In other words, everyone in the Righteous Kiras is now immune to your dirty trick.”
Greyshio exhales slowly and gives Balthazar a very serious look. “In the next seven minutes, this match will have a decisive winner. Fight hard, Balthazar. If not, you will be dead in the next two. Fortify!”
“Oh, your gamble move. Well I—”
Balthazar is interrupted in mid-sentence with a direct hit to his face by the powered up Greyshio. He’s sent flying and twirling through the air. Greyshio speeds behind him and swings his broadsword.
Balthazar comes to his senses at the last second and blocks his attack with his blade. The force of Greyshio’s swing sends him flying across the room. Balthazar lands on the wall and remains motionless. He stares at Greyshio and grunts. “This is it!” Balthazar waves his hand over his sword, creating a white blazing flame to envelop his blade. Suddenly, white fire pours from his entire body, heating the air to new heights. The fire from his body is searing the walls and floors. “This is my full power! I will burn you to a crisp just by touching you!” He pulls his sword back. “Prepare! Yeaahh!” Balthazar leaps off the wall toward Greyshio.
Usually, this would freeze a person, Greyshio calmly thinks. But with his heat, this will aid my victory. I’ll use arctic gale with watery grave. I have to end this within five minutes. Cold air begins circling Greyshio’s body. His clothes start soaking itself with water. Steam begins rising from him the closer Balthazar comes.
Greyshio jumps forward to clash swords. The flames try to devour Greyshio, but the constant cold air and water coming from his body greatly reduces the flame’s strength. The cold gust even pushes away the larger flames.
The two warrior’s blade struggle ends with them bypassing each other. As soon as they land on the ground, Greyshio rushes to him doing spinning slash attacks around his opponent. Balthazar blocks each attack with white sparks flying off his blade. He then ducks under Greyshio’s blade and swings at his legs. He hops over it and lands on Balthazar’s sword. The tip hits the ground as Greyshio does a kick to his face. Balthazar stumbles back a couple feet unarmed. Greyshio slams his sword into the ground, making a medium sized rock fly up toward him.
“Incendiary Blast!” Balthazar shouts, shooting a wide range of white, red, and greenish-blue flames, instantly dissolving the boulder.
Greyshio jumps back and tightens his fist. “Wall of Gaia!” Greyshio slams his hand onto the floor to make a tall thick piece of ground rise up and protect him from the flames. Greyshio’s eyes widen as the wall starts to turn orange in the middle. He shoots a light string to the ceiling and retracts himself upward before the center of the wall explodes in flames.
“Don’t run now! You only got a few minutes left!” Balthazar stops and raises his hand up. “Brimstone!” A massive ball of fire appears above him. He aims it at the ceiling and lets it go full speed at Greyshio. His attack completely destroys the ceiling, causing the hovering Demis to scatter while some burn. Greyshio hits the ground with the falling debris covering him.
“Lucky,” Balthazar says with a smirk. “If these rooms overlapped, someone would have fallen through. Right, Greyshio? Come out! Ninety seconds on the clock and counting!” He looks around with no sign of him. “Either you’re already dead or you’re out of tricks.”
The rocks from the ceiling he’s standing on is slowly becoming magma under his heat. Suddenly, Braveheart’s blade emerges, nearly stabbing him. It goes back down and resurfaces to almost clip his foot. Greyshio’s blade pierces through the rubble several more times before submerging for the last time.
The ground shakes for a moment and Greyshio jumps out of the rubble from behind Balthazar. He throws his sword at him while attaching a light string on the handle. Balthazar turns his body to the side and jumps high up as the blade returns to its wielder. Greyshio begins shooting needles out his mouth as Balthazar’s flames become flaming white demon wings.
Balthazar dips low and flies from the attack. “I see you’re getting desperate!” He flies around the room dodging the needles and Braveheart with ease. “Forty seconds! How will you survive!?” Greyshio grunts and catches back his sword. Balthazar lands on the ground and starts running toward him. He jumps up and his flames transform into a giant, charging white bull. “What happened to your water and wind combo!? Hahaha, you're losing power!”
Fifteen, Greyshio says to himself while taking in a deep breath. At that moment, he disappears in the blink of an eye.
Balthazar comes to a sliding stop. “Damn, that move again. Blazing inferno!” The bull erupts, smothering the entire room in fire and forcing the light producing Demis to dive beneath the debris. “No matter how fast you are, if the whole room is in flames you’re toast! You’ll lose, Greyshio! Hahaha!”
Suddenly, Greyshio appears outside above the fallen ceiling looking down into the blazing room. Balthazar looks up and sees Greyshio with his hand raised. “Gale of Silence.” An unbelievable force of wind slams into the room and annihilates all the flames.
Balthazar is lifted and knocked down. “What the hell?” he says in a confused tone.
“Ice Age.”
When the light Demis slowly rise from the debris like fireflies, dozens of massive ice spires begin bursting through the rubble. Balthazar stands up and frantically looks around as he is being blocked in. He lowers his head and clutches his fist in a shaken rage. “GREYSHIO!” he shouts while forming a fireball in his hand.
A sharp ice spire rises up through the back of his hand, lifting him to Greyshio at great speed. Greyshio jumps down with his sword shoulder high. He comes down and pierces clean through Balthazar’s chest, tearing his hand out of the spike and slamming him into the wall.
Both of them are completely still. Balthazar pinned to the wall and Greyshio staring intensely into his face. Balthazar’s face is awfully dazed as blood oozes from his mouth and chest. He looks up at Greyshio slowly, straining his voice to utter his last words. “What… the fuc…” His head drops to one side.
Greyshio hangs from his sword with one hand. He waves his arm and melts the ice. He rips his sword out the wall, dropping Balthazar to the ground. He lands gently and breathes out slowly. “Zero…”
He drops to the ground and starts vomiting blood with visible clots. His Empyrean Blade receives a countless number of cracks within a second. His body shakes uncontrollably as he tries to sit up.
His nose starts to bleed as his left eye shuts down. He frantically digs into his pocket with his shaky hands and unwraps his second to last elixir. He drinks it hastily with some of it streaming down his jaw. He falls back and exhales while grabbing his blade. I didn’t expect to cut it so close, he thinks as his eyes slowly close. Braveheart disappears soon after.