Zephyr’s eyes were fixed on Aiden.

He dared not lose sight of him for even a moment.

"Would you just stand there and stare at me?" Aiden asked, a smirk spreading across his lips.

Zephyr shook his head but did not move either.

Aiden sighed, pulling a staff from a spatial crack that appeared beside him.

Zephyr’s eyes widened, his mouth falling open as he stared at the spot where Aiden had stood just moments ago.

He had vanished.

Zephyr’s head whipped to the side, briefly catching the flash that appeared there.

His sword arced toward the staff.

A tremor ran through his arm, numbing it for a fraction of a second.

Zephyr twisted at the last moment, narrowly avoiding another strike aimed at his head.

He looked toward where the attack had come from.

There was no one.

Zephyr furrowed his brows.

A dome began to expand with him at the center.

It covered a full fifty meters before it stopped growing.

In that space, not even the dust that stirred escaped Zephyr’s awareness.

And beyond that, the speed of everything within was reduced by at least thirty percent.

"A nice skill you have there."

Zephyr twisted, his sword slashing upward.

A tremor swept through the earth, craters forming as both weapons collided.

Aiden smiled lightly as he held Zephyr’s gaze.

Zephyr broke the lock, his body shooting backward.

Aiden did not move from his position. His eyes remained fixed on Zephyr.

The air seemed to gain sentience at that moment.

It gathered around Zephyr, forming hundreds of invisible wind blades around his frame.

At the same time, the wind condensed beneath his feet, creating a frictionless surface.

He lunged, his body moving like a mirage that had temporarily fused with the wind itself.

Aiden raised a brow.

"Good use of skills," he muttered, clearly impressed by Zephyr’s application of his wind manipulation.

But that was all. His expression remained the same.

One arm stayed folded behind his back. The other held his staff.

Zephyr slashed from the side, the wind blades following his movements as they tore toward Aiden’s ribs.

Aiden’s hand moved in a blur, delivering hundreds of clean, masterful strokes in under a second.

With each stroke, a wind blade shattered.

The last stroke caught the sword by its tip.

Zephyr adapted immediately, pulling his sword back and slashing toward Aiden’s neck.

Aiden’s staff followed, catching the sword once again.

Zephyr backflipped, landing softly a few feet away.

Aiden rested the staff on his shoulder.

Zephyr lunged again, this time switching tactics.

Close to Aiden, his body shot into the sky, the wind propelling him faster.

Aiden remained calm, tilting his head upward toward Zephyr.

Zephyr had begun to plummet, head facing down, sword driven forward.

Wind spiralled at the sword tip, rotating until it became a drill.

Aiden sidestepped, the attack piercing the earth cleanly beside him.

The drill dug deep, sending tremors that swept through the tiles until the floor ruptured from the sheer force.

Zephyr was left suspended upside down, hands braced against the sword to keep his balance.

His body twisted from that position, his legs rotating at a speed that defied normal sense.

But Aiden read through the attack like an open book.

He ducked, then drove his staff into the sword’s hilt, knocking it clean out of the earth.

Zephyr’s balance broke completely, his body crashing to the floor.

His eyes snapped shut as the pain tore through his frame.

But they fluttered open almost immediately as his domain alerted him to an incoming attack.

He rolled to the side, pulling his sword free in the same motion.

A second later, Aiden’s staff smashed into the earth, cratering outward until nothing remained beneath it but cracks.

Aiden looked up from where he had struck, then at Zephyr.

"Why don’t we do this. I will bring myself down to your level so we can both enjoy the spar," he proposed.

As he spoke, his aura seemed to shrink, reducing to less than a fraction of its original weight.

Zephyr grinned.

He did not wait for Aiden to settle.

Zephyr lunged, his sword tearing through the air in a deadly whistle.

"You are in quite the hurry to beat me," Aiden remarked, narrowly avoiding the attack as it grazed his shoulder.

Zephyr did not reply.

He let his sword do the talking.

Aiden did not let his guard down either. He dodged every attack masterfully, as if he had lived through the same scene a thousand times and was simply acting it out again.

Zephyr’s attacks were read before they could fully form.

"Although you manipulate wind well, there are things you still need to learn," Aiden said, managing to squeeze the words in between the relentless blows coming his way.

Zephyr ignored him completely.

A few seconds passed and the pace of his attacks began to slow.

Zephyr’s chest heaved chaotically.

It felt like his heart could burst free at any moment.

"You are nearing your last breath," Aiden commented with a smile. "As a parting gift, let me show you the true power of wind."

His leg drove forward into Zephyr’s chest.

Zephyr’s body folded inward, blood and spit flying from his mouth as he tore backward.

He rolled, skidding across the floor until he came to a stop.

Aiden glanced at the body.

A cold exhale through his nose. Then he inhaled.

It was a simple action.

But to the person who felt its effect, it was anything but simple.

Zephyr raised his hand, gasping for breath.

It never came.

Every trace of oxygen in the area had been pulled away by Aiden.

"I wonder why they have such good control over their bloodlines," Aiden could not help but mutter, seeing that Zephyr had still not tapped into the power of his lineage.

According to Aiden’s knowledge, members of the Wrath lineage were prone to madness once pushed past a certain point.

"Well, since it is a good development, I should not think too much about it," he said.

Then, with a snap of his fingers, the oxygen returned.