The air in the pool area split with soundless violence as Ruben's fist thundered forward, raw power condensed into a single strike, but it met only empty air. Elijah had already vanished, flickering sideways like a trick of the light, materializing from Ruben's shadow with a whisper of movement.
His curved sword flashed in a tight arc, a quickdraw so fast it caught the eye only after it had already passed. But Ruben moved with instinct, not thought. He twisted mid-air, rolling with the momentum of his failed punch, spinning into a forward somersault. And mid-spin, from the coiling heat in his chest, a dragon unfurled, small and wiry, summoned with a flicker of intent, just large enough to be grasped.
Ruben seized its coiling form like a handle, pivoted, and brought his right leg down with the force of a meteorite.
Elijah took the blow on the shoulder with a grunt and crumpled back into shadow, his blade clattering to the floor with a ringing note that sounded too clean for the chaos around it. But the form that rose again wasn't quite right.
Ruben caught it, too smooth, too quiet. He leaned in, nostrils flaring. No heartbeat. No sweat. The Elijah in front of him was a fake. A shadow.
He ripped it apart with a single punch, scattering the form like ink across the floor. But the real Elijah emerged instantly, smirking as he drove a brutal punch into Ruben's face, staggering him back. The little dragon shrieked and lunged, jaws open to bite, but Elijah's blade snapped back into existence from the shadows like a black serpent and sliced the creature cleanly in half. The halves twitched once and dissolved into shimmering smoke.
They faced each other in a beat of silence, a frozen standoff. Ruben's chest heaved with breath, muscles rippling beneath his torn jumper. Elijah looked untouched, but Ruben could hear how fast his breath was moving, he could hear the effort he was putting in to try and mask how hard he was trying to hide it.
The dragon user squinted. He was tougher. But Elijah was evasive. Always slipping just out of reach, a shadow in human skin.
So Ruben made a decision. Five dragons erupted around him, each one small but bristling with speed and teeth, orbiting him in loose formation. Then he charged.
He slid forward, low to the ground, feet skimming the marble. Elijah jumped over the sweeping kick, as Ruben had predicted, and the moment he did, Ruben twisted onto his stomach, planting his palms. He launched himself upward, upside down, and flung a punch toward Elijah's back. As his sleeve pulled with the motion, another dragon, smaller than the others, snaked out and bit into Elijah's lip.
A scream tore from Elijah's throat as the creature shredded through skin. He landed on his feet, holding his face. Blood dripped between his fingers. The scent hit Ruben immediately, hot copper and shadow, a strange, smoky burn that stung his sinuses. Real blood. He exhaled slowly, almost smiling.
Elijah rose, lips stitched together with black thread that writhed and twitched. He chuckled, his voice low and hoarse. "That was good," he said, wiping blood from his chin. "Really. You caught me slipping. You ready for round two?"
Ruben's stance lowered. One foot forward, hands open, ready to strike or parry.
Elijah melted back into the floor, and Ruben braced. His shadow expanded underfoot, unnatural in its movement. Then… "Crouch."
The word sliced into Ruben's brain like a knife. Not a shout. A command. And it worked. He dropped, knees folding without his consent. Elijah burst out of the shadow, sword raised, aiming to cleave through Ruben's neck.
But the dragon closest to him darted in. Its body wrapped around the blade, stopping the descent with a wrenching crack. Ruben's mind cleared in the instant it took Elijah to hesitate, and he flipped over the blocked blade, using his back leg to land a vicious kick. It connected, but Elijah let go of his sword and merged again with the shadows.
He reappeared along the wall, crawling through it like spilled ink on paper. He leapt down again. This time Ruben was ready. He understood now, Elijah could control people with commands, but only when his shadow connected with theirs.
As Elijah approached, blade angled for a clean thrust, Ruben stepped into the strike. He batted the sword upward with his palm and threw his left hand into Elijah's chest. The impact was brutal, hurling Elijah through the nearby wall. Stone and steel exploded outward in a dusty burst. Ruben chased through, kicking the debris aside.
He caught Elijah by the head, fingers digging into his hair. He hauled him up, slamming him down with the intent to end it. But Elijah's blade flickered back into his grasp. The steel punched into Ruben's armpit, burying it deep. Ruben roared, and Elijah kicked him back, raking fingers across his eye in a wild slash that forced him to retreat.
They stood again, bleeding, panting, sweat and fury leaking off of them like smoke from a fire. Elijah touched his torn lip, then looked up, smiling faintly.
"I didn't think you'd last this long," he said softly. "I mean… you. Some quiet junkie. You're hiding a lot of strength. It's kind of… admirable." His tone was casual, conversational, like they weren't standing in a room painted with their blood.
He raised a hand as if to make a point. "Y'know, I've been thinking a lot about the common man more lately. About why one doesn't kill."
Ruben didn't answer. He was still clutching his side, blood soaking through his jumper.
"I mean, is it because of laws? Some sense of order? Morality?" Elijah shrugged. "Nah. I think it's simpler than that. I think people just don't kill each other because it's inconvenient. Messy. Complicated. There's always a price. Police, guilt, cleanup, losing your job. Relationships. Freedoms. Nobody wants to deal with the fallout, event though someone will deal with it."
Ruben lifted his head, blood in his mouth.
"Shut up," he growled.
Elijah tilted his head, like a curious cat. "I'll make it quick," he said, voice almost tender. "Really, I mean that. No need to prolong this. No hard feelings."
"Shut up!" Ruben roared, slamming a fist into the floor, blood spraying.
And then the building shook.
A thunderous growl tore through the structure, vibrating through the floor, the walls, the bones of the room. The sky outside split in half.
The dragon came.
It rose like a leviathan from myth, light blue fur shimmering, coiling across the air like a living storm, its body massive enough to shadow the entire structure. Ruben stood atop its back, one eye half-closed, sleeves torn, blood matting his side. But his posture was iron. Unshaken. The fury in his gaze glowed like molten silver.
Elijah's eyes narrowed as he looked up at him. "Well." His face was neutral. Not bored, not at all. He was interested in the way things were developing. But he didn't think killing Ruben Rayo would be this hard.
"Things weren't supposed to get this hard. I don't want to leave with too many injuries."
The sky trembled as Elijah dove in a shadow and spiraled upward across the beast's body.
The dragon roared and Elijah was only focused on cutting the head of its summoner.
***
The wind rushed around them, sharp with the scent of blood, smoke, and sky. Corbin crouched low beside Ruben atop the colossal dragon, one boot planted firmly into the creature's thick blue fur for balance, his breath still ragged from his previous fight. His eyes scanned Ruben, noting the blood on his side and the flicker of pain in his stance.
"You good?" he asked, sharp and low, his voice barely cutting through the rush of air and wingbeats.
Ruben didn't flinch. His dreadlocks fluttered behind him like streamers in a storm. "Just a few scratches," he said, jaw tight. "I can still fight."
Corbin gave him a nod, but there was no more time to speak further. A shadow flickered through the air,
"Watch out!" Ruben shouted.
Elijah surged out from a curl of dragonhide like a ghost with form, his blade flashing out of nowhere, aimed directly for Corbin's throat.
But Corbin's palm snapped up fast. The flat of his hand smacked the blade aside with a jarring clang, sparks flying. Elijah's eyes widened slightly, just enough to register that this palm strike had more weight behind it than Ruben's earlier attacks.
Stronger.
He noted it instantly. Strongman Ego, he thought. Muscles as dense as steel and velocity that shouldn't have belonged to someone his size.
Then the shadow from Elijah's feet stretched, reaching out toward Corbin's. Ruben caught it out of the corner of his eye, too familiar now. "He's trying to control you!" he barked. His dragon shifted beneath them at once, arching its body in a tight spiral, the motion pulling Corbin free from the merging shadows.
Corbin adjusted his stance, riding the undulating dragonback with ease, while Ruben kept his eyes on Elijah. "His shadow connects to yours," he explained quickly. "If it does, he can feed commands into your head and then you just feel compelled to follow."
Corbin snorted, amused. "Yeah? Then let's not give him the chance."
The dragon lifted higher into the sky now, circling the jagged remnants of the building they had escaped. Its wings beat slowly, massive gusts crashing downward like waves. Ruben still didn't understand how it had grown to this size, it had burst from him without warning, summoned in a moment of desperation. It didn't matter now.
What mattered was beating Elijah and finding Vincent so that they can get their way out of this place. He still hadn't even caught a glimpse of him.
And Elijah wasn't going to let them search in peace.
The fight resumed before thought could catch up. Elijah darted forward, blade in one hand, palm flat in the other, fingers tensed like claws. Ruben and Corbin moved at the same time, splitting angles… Ruben moved forward, Corbin flanking left. Elijah danced between them, shadows coiling at his heels like living armour.
The blows were relentless. Ruben struck with speed, the kind that blurred his limbs into crimson streaked smears. Elijah barely dodged, flipping back, but Corbin caught him mid-air with a shoulder to the ribs that made him wheeze. Elijah twisted midair, landed on one hand, kicked off and used the dragon's undulating motion to spiral upward.
Ruben followed, moving faster now, faster than he had inside. The open air was a balm to his body. His wounds screamed, but he didn't listen. Elijah seemed surprised by the increase in speed. His blade barely lifted in time to deflect the heel kick from Ruben, and Corbin's follow-up punch landed clean in his side.
Elijah reeled. The rhythm of the fight was shifting.
Ruben tried to summon more dragons, but nothing came. The massive one beneath them was draining him, he realized. Like trying to run multiple programs on a single failing battery. He exhaled and dropped the thought.
Fine. No distractions then.
He threw himself back into close combat.
Elijah lunged again, sword first. The steel arced toward Ruben's throat with surgical precision. Ruben let the blade come close, closer, and then caught Elijah's wrist in his left hand.
His grip was brutal. Elijah's fingers trembled.
Then Ruben raised his right fist and slammed it into Elijah's elbow with a downward drive like a piston.
CRACK.
The bone snapped.
Elijah's arm spasmed and the blade dropped.
That's when Corbin's fist came in like thunder from the right. The impact rocked Elijah sideways like a ragdoll, his body lifted from the dragon's back and flung like a comet.
He tore through the sky, hit a nearby building, and didn't stop. His body punched through floor after floor, glass, steel, stone, until the structure on this side of the building swallowed them whole.
Ruben and Corbin stood panting, the wind tugging at them, blood and sweat mixing on their skin.
Ruben looked down at the streak of destruction. "I still haven't found Vincent."
Corbin cracked his knuckles. "Then we make him talk."
He leapt off the dragon before Ruben could say anything more. The impact of his landing shook the floor.
Ruben followed, stumbling slightly as his leg flared with pain. He jumped, less graceful than Corbin, and landed beside him.
That's where it started.
The ground beneath their feet darkened. Slowly. Like ink soaking through paper.
Shadows began to creep in, crawling from under debris, walls, cracks, stretching like reaching hands.
Then Elijah's voice returned. A low whisper. Calm.
"Trying something new."
He appeared in front of them, no blade in hand, eyes half-lidded and an expression unreadable.
He pressed his hands together aiming down due to his broken right arm before separating them and looking like he was covering something sacred in his palms. A black shadowy and wispy sphere, and then he muttered…
"Darken."
Everything folded in.
Light started to vanish like a candle being snuffed. The dragon outside and above groaned. The very world dimmed. Like pressure in the skull. Like the sound of glass about to shatter.
And then…
CRACK.
Like the world was punched back into motion.
Light surged. Voices followed.
["Gold Rank Paladin's have arrived!]"
Boots hit stone. Dozens of voices filled the air. Elijah froze, just for a fraction of a second, then twisted, vanishing into the shadows without another word.
Ruben lurched forward, eyes wild. "No…!"
But his legs gave out. The adrenaline left him like water wrung from a towel.
He collapsed.
Corbin caught him with both arms, knees dropping with the weight. "Ruben!"
Blood leaked again, faster now. The wound in his side had opened wide, deep red soaking into Corbin's clothes.
"Stay awake!" Corbin shouted, voice cracking.
But Ruben was already slipping into the dark. Unlike earlier,
He couldn't push himself back up.