Everyone stood before an ancient, half-collapsed stone bridge leading to the city gates… unused by anyone.
It hung suspended over a deep chasm where a once-mighty river had long since dried up. Now, the riverbed was a graveyard of bones, shattered armor, and rusted weapons. Statues of once-praised heroes lined the causeway… many headed, others crumbled beyond recognition.
The wind howled through the cracks, carrying the scent of dust and death.
Above, thunder rumbled, and crows circled like omens.
"No. No… I don't think so," Talia sneered. "You've been boasting about yourselves for years… talk, talk, talk!"
She stepped forward, shadows curling at her heels.
"Maybe it's time we demonstrate what real monsters learn through instinct."
Hizon's eyes glowed crimson as he moved too. He scoffed at Halcyon and Asher, his voice thick with mockery.
"A girl with snowflakes and a mortal swinging his fists like it's still the old age? Pathetic."
Halcyon said nothing… only tightened her gloves, frost crawling up her fingers tips.
Asher cracked his knuckles, dropping into a low stance like a predatory, to pounce.
In that moment… Hizon vanished.
Halcyon and Asher twisted and turned on instinct. As they looked away to Talia, he reappeared behind them.
However, Asher was a bit ready still, he barely turned in time to block their incoming claw strike, parrying with a brutal spinning elbow that cracked against Hizon's shoulder.
Don't give him space!
He continued on the offensive. Spinning around, dashing face to face, his knee rose toward Hizon's chest.
It connected… although most of the force absorbed, from his cross arm block, but not all.
Still, he pressed more, each rising knee strike chipped away at Hizon's guard, until his arm faltered, trembling from the pain.
A final rising knee staggered him… At the same time, Asher launched a dropkick, slamming Hizon his boots scraping, skidding back across the bridge into stone wall.
Hizon stood, shaking his hand, laughing through the pain.
"And what did Talia say about no growth, Asher?!"
As she shouted, crimson sigils lit up around him… An old Sanctum magic spell, fire erupted from his blades in his hand.
Let's see how far your growth goes when I burn it to the ground.
Halcyon frowned, decided to step in. At the same time.
"Frost Spire Eruption!"
Icy spikes shot from the ground into a cone, forcing Hizon to leap backward.
Halcyon followed, wiped her arm… A spiral of ice launched from her palm, grazing his shoulder as he landed.
Hizon's smile faded. "Halcyon. Asher. There will always be a difference between Fiends and Mortals."
He stepped forward, eyes glowing again. "Monsters embrace their darkness. Mortals hide behind virtue."
In that moment his body blurred again…rushing at Asher.
Halcyon stepped gracefully intercepted, again she glided sideways, frost trailing her boots, as she raised her hand.
"Shing!"
A single bolt fired mid-air, the steel tip pierced Hizon's shoulder, he winced as he felt cold. Her bolt tip was covered by ice, that it had a small explosion into a frost enabling it to pierce and freeze his shoulder, stopping his momentum.
Instead of a frown, he had a smirk.
From behind Halcyon, Talia lunged… claws outstretched.
But at that moment a blur slammed into her… Asher, his body radiated raw energy. He crashed his elbow into her jaw, twisting into a knee to her ribs…
Each of his knee strike distorted the air with concussive force.
"Focus on me."
Keep her off Halcyon. She's mine.
Talia snarled, swinging at him… Yet, he caught her wrist, twisted, and launched a brutal energy covered rising knee that sent her flying.
She crashed into a headless statue… It crumbled on impact.
In that moment, from the corner of his eye… his saw movement.
Hizon, shrugged off the frost, disappeared again… He reappeared behind Halcyon, claws slashing… Blood spattered across the bridge.
Halcyon gasped, stumbling back.
At the same time… Talia, regenerated, she suddenly tackled asher from the side. Slamming him spine-first into a pillar that snapped under the force.
"Aghhh!"
Asher roared in pain. Talia gripped his head and slammed it into the stone… once… twice… until spiderwebbed cracks formed across the ancient floor.
Halcyon staggered, clutched her bleeding side. Hizon licked the blood from his claws, his grin widening.
"You bleed just like the rest of them," he hissed.
Not yet… not now… Halcyon's exposed. Move, damn it!
Asher rose quickly, he stretched his body pop coming from his back, lips curled into a snarl.
He'd taken worse. He'd survived worse. His body shook inside, but he stood strong.
When Talia saw, she frowned and lunged with a vicious front kick, his both hand caught her foot mid-swing stopping her.
"Not this time. I've lost too many by hesitating… not again."
He easily hurled her aside, her body slammed into a jagged slab stone shards impaling her flesh.
Nearby, Halcyon gritted her teeth, frost forming around her bleeding wound. Her arm trembled… but she forced her hidden bow up.
"Click. Thunk!"
A point-blank bolt pierced Hizon's knee… freezing it solid from another ice burst .
No reaction time. Good. His neural delay's increasing. Blood loss? Right leg… compromised. Slow him down enough, Asher can deliver the final blow.
Hizon growled, staggering forward. His head snapped up glaring at Halcyon.
With Talia down still. Asher charged forward, fiery orange energy flaring around his arm.
His arm slammed straight into Hizon's jaw a haymaker, sending the them spinning across the bridge coughing up blood mid-air.
"We're not done."
They regrouped… back to back, bruised, bloodied, but unbroken.
The bridge cracked beneath them… Blood swirled in the mist, as thunder rumbled.
Halcyon eyes narrowed.
"Time to end this."
All or nothing. Focus. Lock the angle. No second chances.
Halcyon slammed her palm to the ground…Frost exploded outward, encasing Hizon and Talia's feet mid-charge, trapping them where they stood.
"That's your window! End it now!"
"Now!"
She conjured a floating ice platform in the air. Asher didn't hesitate, his energy flared around him…. He leapt with all his might, his boot crush slamming into the ice frozen platform
In the sky… A sudden frost trailed up his fist and legs, coated them in jagged cryo-enery, his silhouette burned in the sky as a storm formed.
"Perish!"
He came crashing down like a frozen meteor, ice swirling behind him, even the air spilt.
"WHAM!!"
His leg spun, into a arc that sent out a ice energy arc slash, detonating on impact. As he followed up with his fist slammed into them exploded into a ice and energy everywhere.
The bridge shook to its foundations.
Hizon's upper torso shattered like glass, spraying crimson mist, shards of frozen flesh around.
Talia screamed… Her body flash-froze, then crumbled into brittle, icy fragments under the frostquake.
A heavy ice mist swept across the bridge, only silence remained.
Asher landed bleeding, panting, steam rising from his fists still dripping with frost water.
Halcyon limped to his side, clutching her wound, reloading her final bolt just in case.
"You alright?" she asked, her voice was hoarse.
Asher wiped some blood from his lip.
"Yeah. Of course." He let out a slow, ragged breath, steam curling from his lips. "We won."
Behind them, the bridge groand, as the remains of the Hizon and Talia body dissolved into frozen ash, carried off on the wind beneath a cold, moonless sky.