The illusion of Cardinal Ver Dilen faded as the real Cardinal Ver Dilen's fist impacted against Wilhelm's shield. Wilhelm slid back, his boots struggling to find purchase on the smooth stone, but he maintained his stance, if barely. "What kind of War Monk uses illusions?" he blurted out.
"You aren't going to be fighting War Monks! You aren't going to be sparring! Show me what you got!" Cardinal Ver Dilen laughed and reeled back another fist.
Wilhelm braced.
"Fight, damn it!" The Cardinal shifted his stance a split second, his fist expanding into an open palm strike, hitting at a precise angle, and nearly knocking Wilhelm's shield away. Wilhelm faltered and caught himself against the stalagmites, much to his opponent's increasing disappointment.
'I could say the same to you.' Wilhelm thought as he reoriented himself.
If before Ver Dilen was scornful, now he looked at Wilhelm worse than something he'd stepped in.
'Why should I fight like a hero?'
The Cardinal tilted his head to the side and let a bolt whistle by.
Dag cursed under his breath and went to reload his next shot.
The surroundings went alight with a soft, arcane glow. Standing a few dozen paces away, Merlin's high-pitched voice deepened, his words enhanced by arcane power. A four-layered magic circle slowly took shape.
'A hero is what all you people want,' Wilhelm thought. 'One man who does it all justly and perfectly.' he leapt off the wall and stabbed at the Cardinal, who parried the blade to the side then chopped at Wilhelm's wrist.
Wilhelm's blade clattered to the ground as pain shot through his wrist. He sent a pulse of mana into his left boot and a knife shot out the front, whiffing by a mile.
The Cardinal watched the knife fly by with a perplexed expression. "What was that?" he asked.
"A work and progress," Wilhelm said as he drew a dagger with a slight smile.
Dag held ready within a dozen paces. "Merlin, how much longer?" he asked.
Merlin, surrounded by magic circles, looked back and smiled. "I've actually been done for a while."
"What!?" Dag blurted out. "Cast it already!"
Merlin shook his head. "Not yet."
"Why the hell not?" Dag screamed.
"I want to see what happens," Merlin said. "Besides, the longer we give Sindre to prepare, the better."
The ground suddenly reached out for the Cardinal's foot as he stepped forward. He kicked out and Wilhelm lashed out, ripping through his sleeve an inch away from flesh and bone.
Before Wilhelm could press his advantage, however, a magic circle flashed. One Cardinal Ver Dilen became two.
Dag shot a bolt straight through the left Cardinal Ver Dilen's chest. In the same moment Wilhelm, without hesitation, slashed at the right Cardinal Ver Dilen, who ducked out of the dagger's path.
Wilhelm moved faster as the fight drew on. Sometimes he executed a simple combination attack. Sometimes he threw out complex tactics, relying on Dag's expert marksmanship to make up for the openings that would result.
Cardinal Ver Dilen stood in the face of the hero like an immovable mountain. The single cut on his sleeve remained his only blemish as he slowly, methodically, picked Wilhelm apart.
Wilhelm was thrown into walls. His armor dented. His body ached and bled. He was practically dragged up and down the cavern, yet his smile grew wider, looking like a child with a new favorite toy.
'I always hated my smile. It doesn't look hero-like,' Wilhelm thought. 'But I can't help it. I don't need to talk when I fight. I don't need to act righteous. I don't need to prove anything. So don't look at me like that, Cardinal Ver Dilen. No one asked you what kind of hero you wanted just like how no one asked me if I wanted to be the hero.'
The Cardinal kicked Wilhelm back, his perplexed expression finally mellowing to a sly smile. "That's a bit more like it," he said. He plucked a rock off the ground and chucked it straight at Wilhelm.
Wilhelm raised his shield up, but the rocks whizzed around him, hurtling towards Merlin. "Merlin!" he screamed.
Ver Dilen charged into Wilhelm, who lowered his stance and shoved back, yet he was slowly losing ground. "Still, you are a child," he said.
Dag clicked his tongue. He finished reloading his crossbow with one hand, he drew a throwing knife with the other and launched it.
Dag's knife clacked against the rock and they sailed harmlessly together past Merlin's cheek, settling behind some stalagmites.
Merlin rubbed his cheek and took in a sharp breath, his magic circles momentarily shaking. "Yeah, fuck this. Wilhelm, get out of the-" The hair on the back of his neck rose on end. His attention snapped towards the thrown rock. His silver eyes saw mana leaking out of it in the split second before everything went white.
A stream of curses accompanied the blinding light.
"Delayed magic!" Merlin cried. "He attached it to the rock!"
Heavy footsteps stormed past Wilhelm's right, his smile vanished, and he condensed a white, flaming aura around his eyes. Soul-vision was, after all, more of a sixth sense, however in this moment it contrasted dangerously against his hearing.
Footsteps went right, however soul-vision "saw" Ver Dilen's soul to the right. He swiveled to the right, but he nearly hesitated. While he saw through the Cardinal's trick, soul-vision only gave him a rough location. 'I just need to hold him off,' Wilhelm told himself as he crouched down, braced with his shield, and pounced towards Cardinal Ver Dilen's soul.
Wilhelm felt an impact against the Cardinal's body, but strangely hjs body felt strangely metallic. He ignored it and pushed until he had the Cardinal pinned against the cave wall. He blinked through the white-ness and confirmed it was him with his own eyes.
Cardinal Ver Dilen pushed and struggled against the shield, fingernail-sized wisps of golden life essence barely seeping out from him. He could have easily sent Wilhelm flying away, like brushing away an ant, yet Wilhelm found that he could barely keep him in check.
"Duck!" Dag's voice raced his fired crossbow bolt.
Wilhelm ducked; Cardinal Ver Dilen didn't. The Cardinal smiled as Dag's bolt pierced into his red robe and into his chest, after which a metallic scraping sound grated against the ears of everyone present.
Wilhelm watched on in horror as the crossbow bolt fell out of Cardinal Ver Dilen's robe, bloodless and broken. 'It's not over yet,' he thought.
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