Alexander was panting, trying to catch his breath while his head felt like a thousand scorching nails were hammered in.
His vision hadn't fully broken, but the fractures still threw off his balance.
The Will Breaker was hurt, yet stood as if he was uninjured.
How can he be so strong?!
The Will Breaker was holding one sickle, while Alexander held the other one.
In their current situations, with their wounds, it could've read as a neutral situation.
But his teleportation… If he can use it at will…
Alexander glanced at Fae.
She seemed completely fine, if not on edge.
It felt weird.
The man wore a mage robe, but fought like an assassin. He had yet to use any offensive magic, beside his teleportation.
There's no point in overthinking.
Alexander traded the sickle he held with Fae's sword, his eyes remaining on the man's movements.
"I've had enough. Time to take your sight."
In an instant, Alexander traded place with him.
The Will Breaker was now next to Fae, while Alexander was meters ahead.
Alexander turned around, both of them clashed swords, but Fae was on the defensive.
Her flowing style stiffened under the man's pressure.
Alexander sprinted forward, focusing on his balance.
Mid-way, he was teleported once more.
This time, however, he was the one next to the Will Breaker, while Fae was the one away.
He clutched the hilt and spun the sword around, aiming at the man's neck.
Without warning, where the man stood appeared Fae.
Fuck!
Alexander tried to slow down, but couldn't stop in time.
Fae moved away from the blade, only scratched by its tip.
They both turned, the Will Breaker was now walking backward, putting distance between them.
He wants to keep one person away, and keep trading places. He's fixing the battlefield, right now.
Alexander's brain was working over time, despite how scrambled it felt.
Fae was the only one able to keep up with the man's movement, and his Witness skill was useless since he couldn't tell where he would end-up facing.
"We need to use the mask," said Alexander.
Fae looked at him, a hand defensively on the mask.
"I don't know what it does, but maybe it's what I need to defeat him."
"Ah, yes, the mask…" said the man.
He had already retreated, spinning his sickle like before—calm, measured.
"It seems that both of you don't know what it does? If you had used it from the start, this fight would've been quite different."
Alexander's expression remained neutral, while Fae's hand slowly reached for the item.
"It's too late. You're already here, I won't let you use it, now."
Fae, in a flash, reached down toward the mask.
Almost instantly, the Will Breaker switched with Alexander.
Fae stopped her motion, raising her hand to block the strike.
Alexander ran toward the both of them, but was traded again with the man, who quickly jumped backward before trading places with him once more, bringing him next to Fae again.
The pattern was impossible to predict, the teleportations happened too quickly.
How can we defeat him?! Unless all three of us are close he can simply teleport with the furthest person.
"Fae! Throw me the mask!" yelled Alexander across the platform.
He drew a sharp breath, and shut his eyes a moment.
The moment he re-opened them, crosses displayed instead of eyes.
Instantly, the torture increased, the mark on his chest ablaze as it kept his brain from imploding.
Fae didn't take her eyes off the man, exchanging blows on the defensive.
In a move she hadn't done before, she dropped to the ground, executing a sweeping leg kick.
Her hand went straight to the mask, and in a blur, she threw it toward Alexander.
The Will Breaker hurled his sickle to intercept it mid-air.
Alexander could see everything.
Every detail, from how the man smiled, to how the sickle spun toward the mask.
Fae also tracked the thrown weapon, taking a short step back.
Concentrating, Alexander's eyes targeted the sickle as it was nearing the mask.
Alexander smiled, his mind focusing on a single spell.
[ Reach Beyond ].
On the sickle appeared a hole that let through a tendril.
It rapidly whipped out, swinging at the mask, throwing it back at Fae.
Alexander's gaze then went back toward Fae.
[ The Gift ].
Her white irises turned into a dark void, before switching into crosses.
In the Will Breaker's gaze appeared the same crosses, but only for a second.
Fae's speed was unlike anything Alexander had seen.
Using the short moment the man was stunned, she ran to the mask.
Low to the ground, in a straight line while her supple clothes trailed behind her.
It all happened in an instant.
The mask thrown, the sickle, the tendril.
The Will Breaker's face showed, for the first time, anger.
The tip of Fae's finger touched the mask, as they traded places.
The moment they did, the man grabbed the sickle still moving through the air.
He then swung around with the blade, his movement barely precise as he blocked Fae's sickle.
She chained attacks quickly, her expression hidden behind the mask she wore.
If it wasn't for the Witness of All Paths, Alexander wouldn't be able to follow her movements.
The way she flowed—graceful, untouchable.
A torrent of blows the man barely blocked, defensively moving back.
Every hit that he sustained blew his hand further away.
He was panicking, rapidly moving his blade forward to block the next hits.
Alexander turned around, fighting for his balance from the fractures he saw.
He could barely tell where anything was, anymore, and tried trusting his body.
He concentrated on the ground underneath him.
The Will Breaker switched with Alexander..
Fae, using the Witness of All Paths, reacted in a flash.
She was already sprinting toward the Will Breaker.
The Will Breaker smiled as he turned toward Alexander again, hoping to continue the back and forth..
Before he could trade places once more, a strike in his back sent him flying forward.
His smile instantly faded.
A tendril burst from the spot Alexander had stood before they traded places, propelling the Will Breaker toward Fae.
Her blade hit through his eye, the hook of the sickle cleanly entering the skull.
The man grabbed onto Fae's arm, holding himself up while stumbling.
"Ah…"
She stood still, as he slowly let go, sliding to the ground in an accumulating puddle of blood.
The last thing Alexander could see was Fae running toward him, in a small corner of his fragmented vision.