The moment the protective boundary vanished, the battlefield erupted. Zayn, channeling his inner anguish into frigid focus, became a machine of brutal efficiency. His left hand, temporarily solidified into the crystalline Silver Ice Bow, was a constant source of destruction, and his right arm was a blur, continuously forming and launching ice arrows that traveled with the speed of light.
His opening barrage was aimed not just to kill, but to cripple the enemy's coordinated assault. The initial volley was devastating: two Tier 9 and three Tier 10 elemental masters—the immediate threats meant to absorb the attack—were instantly struck down. The arrows targeted joint armor, eyes, and vital points, dropping the fodder before they could raise their shields.
Jai, James, and Brokk immediately went on the offensive, their movements focused on creating space and confusion to allow Zayn to continue his relentless ranged assault. They focused on disrupting the two remaining Tier 8 elemental masters and keeping the two main commanders, Zenos (Tier 7) and Lenard (Tier 5), occupied.
On the high ground, behind a rapidly forming rock barrier erected by one of the surviving Tier 8 masters, Zenos watched his lower-ranked soldiers disintegrate under Zayn's relentless archery. His Tier 7 elemental lightning crackled impatiently around his hands, his face a mask of thwarted rage.
"Hey, Lenard! Why are we both waiting?" Zenos demanded, his voice tight with vengeful fury. "We can fight with them right now! They're exhausted!"
Lenard (Tier 5), possessing cold, tactical cunning despite his lower rank, held him back. "If we fight with them now, we might lose the advantage, Zenos. They are desperate. See how they move—they are focused on protecting their archer. We need to allow them to burn their remaining reserves completely. When they are exhausted and weakened, we can easily defeat and kill them with minimal risk to ourselves. Patience is a weapon, Zenos."
They waited, a difficult, agonizing choice, watching as the desperate skirmish unfolded. Jai and James fought with reckless, draining energy. Brokk was a relentless wall, absorbing minor hits and driving enemies back with pure physical force. The remaining Tier 8 Masters struggled against the sheer, unified desperation of Team Jai.
Finally, the low-tier enemy soldiers were eliminated. Only two Tier 8 elemental masters, Zenos (Tier 7), Lenard (Tier 5), and a previously hidden Tier 6 Earth Master who emerged from the reserves, remained. Team Jai was heavily breathing, their armor scorched and scratched, their magical reserves nearly depleted. They were battered but unbroken.
The two sides faced each other for a tense, silent second, recognizing the final, fatal turn of the battle.
The assignments were immediate and necessary—each man selecting a high-cost target:
Jai used his Swift Artifact to target the Tier 8 Fire Elemental Master.
James chose the remaining Tier 8 Ice and Wind Elemental Master.
Zayn took the ultimate challenge: the Tier 7 Wind and Lava Elemental Master (Zenos).
Brokk charged the newly revealed Tier 6 Earth Master.
Winston had to handle the cold tactician: Lenard (Tier 5).
Zayn moved with a speed that belied his internal scars. He wasn't thinking; he was executing the Eliminator's ruthless protocol. Zenos, driven by years of exile and hatred, was the first to strike, unleashing a torrent of high-powered Tier 7 wind elemental blades laced with shimmering, concentrated lava motes.
"You will pay for my father's shame!" Zenos roared, his voice laced with venomous fury.
Zayn raised his Silver Ice Bow, slamming the crystalline structure into the ground. He instantly erected a shimmering Tier 8 Ice Wall. The lava-laced wind blades slammed into the ice, causing a violent cloud of superheated steam and fractured obsidian to explode outwards, momentarily shrouding both fighters.
Zayn didn't wait. He used the steam as cover, darting around the collapsing wall and closing the distance—a tactic Zenos, expecting a ranged duel, was utterly unprepared for. Zayn dropped his bow and materialized twin Ice Daggers, focusing his attack on the enraged cousin's torso.
Zenos, shocked by the shift in distance, reacted with lightning-fast elemental strikes. His movements were powerful, but sloppy, driven by uncontrolled emotion. Zayn, conversely, moved with a cold, surgical precision honed by trauma. He took a painful, deep grazing hit to his left shoulder from a Tier 8 Lightning Bolt, the smell of ozone and burnt flesh filling the air, but in return, he ducked low under Zenos's guard and drove his left ice dagger deep into the Wind Elemental Master's lower abdomen, hitting a vital point just below the armor plating.
Zenos screamed, the elemental power draining from his blades as he clutched the wound. He staggered, his eyes wide with shock and fading hatred. Zayn showed no mercy. He shifted his weight, driving his right knee into Zenos's face, snapping his head back and shattering the elemental concentration. Zenos collapsed, the lava motes around his hands dying out.
Zayn stood over him, the red steam rising from his lightning-scorched shoulder. He raised the ice dagger. "The victim does not survive the bully," Zayn whispered, his golden eyes devoid of pity. One final, swift downward strike ended the Tier 7 Master's life. The Duel of the Cousins was over, but the victory felt hollow.
Jai, relying on the bursts of speed from his Swift Artifact and sheer martial skill, engaged the enormous Tier 8 Fire Elemental Master. The Master was a towering figure, his form shimmering with concentrated solar flame, throwing superheated plasma balls that vaporized the pulverized ground. Jai's goal was not brute force, but calculated, desperate exploitation.
Jai activated the core of his lineage. A thin, searing golden light flared around his form—the activation of the Tier 9 Divine Power of Emperor Dominatrix. This divine aura shielded him momentarily but demanded a terrifying toll on his already exhausted body. He drew his primary weapon, the magnificent Golden Divine Sword, which hummed with celestial energy that seemed to momentarily suppress the Master's raw heat.
He used the artifact's acceleration to become a constant, flickering blur, his movements faster than the eye could follow, allowing him to circle the enemy and avoid the powerful, explosive fire blasts. He endured the scorching heat—even the Divine Power was struggling to counteract the Tier 8 elemental intensity. Jai drove his Golden Divine Sword repeatedly into the Master's elemental armor. The sword, powered by Dominatric's might, sliced deep into the defenses where his mace had only battered.
The Master roared in pain, concentrating his power into a continuous inferno, forcing Jai to rely solely on evasion. Jai's skin beneath his armor was blistering, his lungs seizing from the superheated air and smoke. He was fighting on instinct, his vision narrowing.
He feigned a retreat, drawing the Fire Master forward in a massive, lumbering charge. As the Master lunged, Jai used a shattered piece of rock as a pivot point and launched himself upward. Instead of landing on the shoulders, Jai performed a mid-air rotation, driving the Golden Divine Sword hilt-deep directly into the Master's upper back, severing the connection point for his concentrated elemental power.
The Master bellowed, a sound of agony and failure. Its flames sputtered and turned a sickly green. But even dying, the Master retaliated: it erupted in a final, concentrated Tier 8 Plasma Detonation at close range.
Jai was directly in the blast radius. The Divine Power of Dominatric flared blindingly, absorbing the bulk of the plasma, but the physical force shattered Jai's remaining armor. He was thrown backward, the Golden Divine Sword torn from his hand and spinning away. He slammed into the earth, his body battered, scorched, and smoking. The Master collapsed, its flames finally extinguishing.
Jai lay there, his body twitching. His divine aura had faded, leaving him agonizingly weak. He was conscious, but barely. His body was covered in severe third-degree burns, his eardrums were ringing from the explosion, and his internal organs felt like raw meat. He had won the exchange, but the price was near death. He dragged a single, burned hand toward the spot where his Golden Divine Sword had landed, focusing his entire will on survival. He was barely alive.
James, a formidable Tier 9 Master of Air and Space Magic, faced the other Tier 8 master—a cold, precise warrior utilizing Ice and Wind elements. This was a brutal battle of attrition against a flawless, synchronized defense. James used his raw physical force and twin axes, but the Master expertly kept him pinned with continuous, freezing wind blades that cut deeply into James's armor and skin. The difference in their fighting styles made this exhausting, even for a Tier 9.
James realized he couldn't simply overpower the Tier 8's elemental defense with brute force. He needed to use his spatial advantage. He changed tactics, executing a desperate gamble: he deliberately took a glancing hit from a Tier 8 Ice Spear to his left thigh, sacrificing mobility for a perfect counter position. The spear tore through his armor, causing a deep, debilitating wound.
As the Master briefly focused on the success of the wound, James seized the split second of vulnerability and initiated a devastating, complex attack. He didn't just scream; he launched "Aetheric Resonance," a concentrated Tier 9 Sonic Scream amplified by compressed air magic, overloading the Master's sensitive elemental senses and instantly fracturing the protective ice dome around his head.
The Master staggered, clutching his head in agony. James didn't give him a moment to recover. He used the chaos to initiate his primary offense, shouting the command: "Spatial Collapse: Vacuum Field!"
A pocket of distorted space immediately formed around the Tier 8 Master. The air vanished, and the immense gravitational pressure of the localized vacuum field crushed the Master's elemental defenses inward. The Master retaliated with a desperate, freezing "Wind Wall of Exile," trying to push James away.
James endured the paralyzing cold and the sudden wind resistance, dropping his axes momentarily to fully focus his magic. He extended his hand, channeling his power. "Air Bender's Embrace!"—he pulled the remaining air and pressure away from the Master's lungs and shattered elemental core.
The Master, suffocating and crushed by the spatial field, fought back with a final, desperate Tier 8 Ice Shard Barrage. The shards struck James repeatedly across his chest and arms. James roared, forcing his twin axes back into his hands and delivering two massive, final blows into the spatially compromised core of the Master.
The Master collapsed into a silent, frozen heap. James dropped his axes immediately, his body convulsing. The combined trauma of the Ice Spear to his thigh, the multiple shards to his torso, and the energy drain from maintaining the Spatial Collapse left him critically injured. He leaned heavily on his good knee, the cold seeping into his deep, profusely bleeding thigh wound. He was still conscious, but the internal damage was severe, and his leg was essentially useless. He was barely holding onto consciousness.
Brokk, the team's massive physical tank, moved with overwhelming, protective aggression against the calculating Tier 6 Earth Master. The Earth Master was smart, using minor Tier 6 earth barriers to continuously shift the ground, attempting to keep Brokk off balance and drain his stamina.
The moment the final confrontation began, Brokk drew his signature weapons: two heavy, perfectly balanced Purple Swords. As he activated them, raw, consuming purple flames instantly erupted along the length of the blades—a specialized form of advanced combustion magic designed for sheer destruction.
The Earth Master, seeing the destructive, high-tier flames, focused on summoning thick, compacted rock walls, executing "Earthen Bulwark" to try and cage the dwarf. Brokk, however, didn't stop. He roared, channeling his immense stamina. He met the charging rock walls head-on, executing his named attack, "Infernal Cleave." The Purple Flame Swords tore through the Tier 6 rock formations like a devastating shear, the concentrated purple fire consuming the earth itself. The Master's defenses failed instantly.
The Master screamed and tried to execute "Submerge Defense," sinking into the ground. Brokk anticipated the move. He slammed his foot down, anchoring himself, and unleashed a furious, tight arc of the Purple Flame Swords into the Master's torso. The blades tore through the armor, and the Master's body was instantly engulfed in the intense purple fire.
Brokk let out a guttural scream of pure effort, pushing the blades further until the Master's body was incinerated. The Tier 6 Master collapsed, silenced and consumed. Brokk stood over the remains, the purple flames on his swords dissipating. He was intact physically but was deeply exhausted from channeling the high-tier flame magic and absorbing the relentless Tier 6 earth attacks. He stood rigid for a moment, his great strength taxed to its limit. His reserves were completely depleted, leaving him susceptible to even the smallest threat.
The fight is still going on and the main fight between the king and the commander of the enemy troops is about to started. The fight between king Winston and Lenard is started again.
The big fight is about to started. The fight between King Winston and Lenard is going to change the fate of Jai's team.
The Jai team are all collapsed and unconscious and barely alive now it is Winston turn to make them to take out of the war field alive.