Crimson Arete.
A special skill. A cursed one. A last resort whispered among Amazons like a prayer and a threat.
So long as blood flowed, so long as wounds remained open, its bearer would grow stronger. Faster. More terrifying.
Before Damien could even finish understanding what he was sensing, Karni was already on him.
Her great scimitar crashed down.
Damien raised his dagger to block.
Steel screamed.
Sparks exploded between them as the sheer weight behind her swing forced him downward, boots digging into the dirt as his arms trembled. He held. Barely. His muscles burned, tendons shrieking in protest, until he felt it.
The dagger began to crack.
A heartbeat later, it shattered.
Damien twisted away at the last possible instant. The scimitar obliterated the ground where he had stood, carving a crater into the earth that sent debris flying.
Karni laughed. Loud. Unrestrained.
Damien narrowed his eyes. His remaining blade was gone. His options were gone.
So he stopped pretending.
Black claws slid from his fingers, shadow hardened into talons as he lunged. He went for her right side, the wounded arm. The weakness. His claws raked toward her throat, toward her face.
She reacted instantly.
The flat of her scimitar smashed into his claws, knocking them aside, and her leg followed. The kick struck his stomach like a battering ram.
Damien flew.
The impact ripped the air from his lungs. He skidded across the ground, vision swimming as he clawed at the dirt, gasping in shallow, broken breaths. Pain flooded every part of him. His injuries weighed him down like chains.
"I don't see a path…" he admitted silently.
For the first time, he truly could not see a way forward.
Karni charged again.
The scimitar came down. Damien dodged. Another swing followed. He dodged again. The ground shattered beneath her strikes, each blow stronger than the last.
Then he misstepped.
Karni saw it.
She could not bring her blade around in time, so she used what she had. Her knee rose and came down like a hammer.
It smashed into his head.
Damien hit the ground face first. Blood burst from the gash torn open on his forehead, flooding his eyes, blinding him. He barely heard the scimitar being wrenched free of the earth.
She went for the kill.
Damien rolled at the last instant, the blade piercing the ground where his spine had been. He forced himself upright, swaying, barely conscious.
The world was red.
He could not see her clearly anymore. Only her shape. Her presence. A looming silhouette soaked in blood and fury.
She attacked again.
Then she faltered.
Just for a fraction of a second.
Crimson Arete made her stronger, but it did not erase reality. Blood loss caught up. Muscles screamed. The body rebelled.
That moment was enough.
Damien lunged.
No plan. No finesse. Everything he had left poured into a single reckless charge. He went straight through her wounded side, claws aimed for her neck.
Karni reacted on instinct.
She guided her scimitar forward, driving it into his chest.
Pain exploded as the blade punched through him, bursting out his back, impaling him completely.
Damien did not stop.
His claws tore across her throat.
Both fell.
Silence crashed over the battlefield.
The scimitar remained lodged through Damien's chest as he lay on his back, staring at the sky, breath coming in wet, shallow gasps. His fingers closed around the blade. Slowly. Weakly. He pulled.
Every inch burned.
But he forced it out.
Nearby, Karni clawed at her neck, blood pouring through her fingers. She tried to breathe. She choked. Her body convulsed, then stilled.
She died there, eyes wide, a smile still frozen on her face.
[You have leveled up.]
Power surged through Damien's broken body. Flesh knit. Bones steadied. Blood ceased its flow. The pain dulled, though the exhaustion remained, deep and absolute.
He pushed himself up.
He stood.
"Oh! Are you watching this, people of Orario?" Ganesha's voice finally returned, trembling with disbelief. "Damien Ardent is standing! Even after being pierced through the chest by a great scimitar!"
The screens showed him clearly now. Bloodied. Barely upright. Alive.
"Let me remind you all," Ganesha continued, voice rising, "Damien Ardent is a Level Four! Confirmed just a week ago! And Karni… Karni was a Level Six!"
The crowd erupted.
History was being written in blood.
...
Damien stood still for a moment, the noise of the battlefield fading into a distant echo as he gathered himself. His breath steadied. Then his gaze shifted.
Karni's body lay motionless on the shattered ground.
He walked toward her slowly, boots crunching against broken stone, eyes unreadable. With a thought, his status unfolded before him. Rows of shadowed names. He selected one of his lesser Adventurers and dismissed it, the bond severing like a snapped thread. A space opened.
Damien stopped beside Karni's corpse and spoke quietly.
"Arise."
Nothing happened.
No tremor. No response. Only death.
He closed his eyes, and when he spoke again, his voice carried weight, firm and absolute.
"This was a duel. Between you and me. You lost."
A pause.
"You chose this path. You chose this end."
His eyes opened, glowing faintly as shadows stirred beneath his feet.
"Amazonian warrior Karni. I command you to fight once more. For me."
The shadows answered.
They crawled across the ground like living ink, coiling around her body, seeping into torn flesh and shattered bone. Her form lifted slightly as darkness wrapped around her, reshaping, reforging. Muscles hardened. Armor formed from shadow itself. The past Karni was stripped away piece by piece.
When it ended, she knelt.
Before Damien stood a towering shadow warrior, sculpted and powerful, holding a great scimitar forged of pure darkness. Her presence was heavier than before, colder, disciplined, eternal.
A system message echoed silently through his mind.
[Elite Knight Grade Shadow has been acquired][Grant it a Name]
Damien exhaled once, then spoke.
"Your name shall be the same as one of the strongest Amazonians I have ever known."
He looked down at her kneeling form.
"Diana."
The shadow warrior bowed her head.
Damien turned.
The Apollo Familia stood frozen, faces drained of color, weapons trembling in their hands. Before them stood Damien, wounds gone as if they had never existed, and beside him knelt Diana, Karni reborn as his shadow.
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