Grey’s eyes went ice cold. He already knew exactly how to battle Amunet. He wouldn’t be caught off guard again.

His tower shield shrank down to a bracelet once again, his palm opening up to reveal his second fang dagger.

His blood blades crossed in front of his body, the rapier slipped right through as though they didn’t have a form, but Grey reacted like he hadn’t noticed, slashing down.

His eyes reflected a cold crimson. He didn’t even flinch as the blade approached his neck, and just when it seemed it would sever his head from his shoulders, it passed through him.

At the same time, his blades cut across nothing but air.

Grey spun around as Amunet passed through him, his foot stomping out in a front kick that landed solidly on her back.

She stumbled forward.

Grey could have sent her flying again, but he didn’t. He tried to vanish into flickering shadows again. He once again didn’t flinch when the attempt failed.

He slashed down toward her back.

Amunet hit the ground hard and rolled to the side. Tendrils wrapped around her body from the ground below and launched her up into the air.

Grey took a step and moved out of the way of spikes that suddenly erupted from the ground. Every time he tapped a foot, he seemed to leap across several meters at a time as though he was as light as a feather.

Suddenly, he stopped retreating and stomped a foot to the ground. The shadows shook and were disrupted for a moment. He flashed and vanished, appearing behind Amunet.

Unfortunately, she was still high in the air above him.

Fortunately, it hardly mattered.

A Common Grade spear appeared in Grey’s palm and he took a step forward.

BANG.

It shot out of his hand like a cannon. The wind howled around it, the skies peeling back as air exploded in concentric circles following after it in a trailing tail.

In one moment, the spear was in Grey’s hand, and in the next it seemed to have already passed right through Amunet.

Grey had already leapt into the air before the spear even "landed." He jumped so high that he was above Amunet in an instant, slashing down with his sabers from above.

It was too soon for Amunet to slip through it again. He knew that all too well.

Without a choice, she could only raise her rapier, compressing the shadows that lifted her into the air into stronger, thicker roots to support her.

BOOM.

Amunet’s arm shook, her wrist nearly snapping beneath Grey’s attack. What certainly did snap were the tendrils of darkness beneath her.

She hit the earth hard and heavy, the grass deforming into waves as though it had become tsunamis of ocean water, and then it all compressed into a crater.

Amunet coughed, her blood jetting out.

Grey’s eyes flashed and he vanished.

Amunet’s eyes, or rather the crimson slits that formed them, widened. Her arm immediately swiped at the blood as though she already knew what would happen.

Grey appeared right over her, slashing at her arm.

The crimson markings that made up her lips snarled, but her arm passed through his attack, and then the blood right afterward. She was right there but she missed. Just a step too late.

Grey’s other blade caught the blood in the air and it poured into his fang dagger, up through his arm, and into his heart.

BADUM.

Void Gaze.

Amunet vanished from beneath him. But the instant she appeared, it felt like her soul was ripped out of her body and then suddenly slammed back in.

The shadows that shrouded her threatened to snap, discoloring and distorting like static. A flash of her countenance was revealed, but it vanished as she roared.

The rapier in her hand vanished and she brought out a staff that had a head that looked like twisted and distorted black roots. Hovering within their distorted curvature was a violet gem that flickered almost like a flame.

The density of the shadows in the region increased. For a moment, Grey couldn’t even see the spectators. It was like he had been swallowed up by a sea of black.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

The earth was torn up as hands of darkness reaching from the abyss itself rose up and out of the ground.

They slammed down toward Grey with the ferocity of falling meteors.

With a step, Grey dodged them one by one, the cool calmness in his eyes replacing the once smoldering fury.

He landed on the ground again and tried to move once more, only for his ankles to be caught up. He tried to flash away, but the quagmire of darkness disrupted his Shadow Forces once again.

Grey’s jaw set and his blades vanished into his body, his tower shield appearing above him as a palm slammed down.

BOOM.

The ground cratered, the force of wind so strong it blew the shadows that shrouded them apart.

The eyes of the spectators widened.

The shadow arm seemed more and more real with every passing moment. The stench of rot filled the air, and the shadowy blacks were starting to look a lot less like black fog and a lot more like silvery grey, rotted flesh.

Flesh that Grey had been completely crushed beneath.

Amunet huffed for breath. Her shadows faltered, a quarter of her face being revealed to the world as her energy just wasn’t enough to continue.

"No..." she whispered. She pulled, trying to yank the arms back. "... Come back..."

Amunet took a shaky step forward and then fell to a knee.

"No..."

She felt her consciousness fading, but then she snapped her attention back.

"No."

She shrieked, pulling on the depths of whatever she had left to pull the arm back.

It snapped back, vanishing into the earth.

Slight hints of relief appeared on her face and she felt herself fading.

But then she froze in place as a spear slid across the flat of her shoulder from the back, its blade resting against her throat.

"You lose." Grey said coldly.