As the Crow Baron took away his ‘wife’, Ronin stood at the empty streets alone with furrowed brows.
Of course, the streets weren’t so empty and he wasn’t so alone after all.
“Come out now.” He said.
There was no response.
“Why so shy? Didn’t you two Blanc D’argents planned to ambush me here?” He sneered.
Sordido’s eyes widened. “How did he—”
Pavone covered his mouth. “No time to worry about that. You go there and let him activate his Mage Focus so you can copy it, then I’ll erase it.”
“But should I really on this form—”
“Just go do it!”
He nodded, getting out of the place where they were hiding….
And the person who appeared like Zeuxis.
Ronin only chuckled at this. “Ah! So you can steal my skill after all, even when I use it on someone else.”
Sordido frowned and spat. “You don’t deserve to be our king if I could replicate your power and my brother can erase yours.”
“Thinking you could fool me by appearing like my brother. Hah.” Ronin cracked his knuckles. “Well, I’m afraid we’re stuck in a stalemate as long as I don’t activate any skill.”
“Not exactly if we force someone else to join the fray.” Pavone’s smug voice resounded.
In his hand was a Communication Crystal and a dagger. He had activated it and on the violet diamond…
There was Zeuxis’ face, busy eating food with Hildas.
“What in the Abyss— Who are you supposed to be?” He raised an eyebrow.
Pavone showed Ronin using the Crystal. “You see your dear brother over there? Two against one, who do you think will win?”
Ronin knew that they must have been able to get it by the Communication Crystal he sent before to all Daemons telling them to wreak havoc and weaken people’s belief in gods.
“Hah! That prune can summon geysers and earthquakes.” He scoffed. “I have nothing to worry about.”
Ronin cursed, as Sordido pretending to be Zeuxis came and took something on his coat…
And threw a bunch of poison darts at him!
Ronin avoided them all, but then he was blocked by a flock of crows that threatened to take his eyes out.
Pavone grinned. “Make that three. That ugly crow bastard has some use to him after all.”
Ronin had bent his knees and skidded past them like someone going under a limbo rack, but they easily flew after him as he ran.
He summoned his own Communication Crystal to warn his elder brother.
“They can copy skills, Zeuxis. And one of them can erase them. ” He said, running past the streets. “So don’t go here—”
Zeuxis’ eyes widened, and stood up from his chair. “I see. Why didn’t you tell me immediately so I can join the fun!?”
“I just told you to not—”
But eventually, large flashes of lightning came into the air and struck the crows, burning them to crisp!
“A copying skill, huh!?” He heard wild laughter come as zaps came, giving the pungent scent of electricity in the air. “I have always wanted to see if I could fight against someone with the same skill!”
He went directly to Sordido, who was wearing his face. “Finally an equal!”
Sordido was unprepared at all, and it took a while for him to literally steal Zeuxis’ thunder and return his attacks.
But Zeuxis was ferocious, shooting lightning upong lightning upon him.
Sordido could only dodge. He was a Scholar, he wasn’t built for battles like Warriors were.
Pavone scoffed, and activated his Erasure Mage Focus from his core, his solar plexus.
But before he could—
Ronin had come up on him and punched his stomach directly!
His hardened flesh and bones from being an Anthracite Coal made it hurt so bad, and he punched again and again on the Obsidian at Pavone’s stomach.
Pavone gritted his teeth and tried to fight back, but it was clear on who was the better hand-to-hand fighter between the two of them.
Ronin had spent many years training Cermin with nothing but ropes to aide him, no Mage Focus at all.
And even before that, he had trained himself to fight without relying on skills that could easily be taken away from him.
“You think you could defeat me just by destroying my Obsidian core!?” Pavone gritted his teeth. “It will still keep on healing again because I’m a Daemon!”
“And who’s blood made you that way?” Ronin punched ferociously….
Until his knuckles bled, and he used that blood to draw something on his palm!
Out came Daemonic Hounds, the usual three coalescing. They were only as tall as medium-sized dogs.
Ronin had felt something he could do to make them bigger.
“Combine.” He draw the rune on his palm, a symbol of two lines crossing on his palm with his blood.
Soon, the three normal sized hounds joined together, their shadowy fingers and dripping blood-red eyes mixing and mixing…..
To form one large dog with three heads, like Cerberus!
This large dog towered at 20 feet over Pavone, and went to bite at his Obsidian Core.
“Ackkk!!! Sordido, steal this skill from him!” He yelled, as the dog heads chased after him.
All three heads were trying to bite through his stomach. One of them managed to rip it off and reveal Pavone’s intestines, but it indeed healed easily because he was a Daemon.
Still, he can’t use his Erasure skill if his Obisidian Core, the source of the dark Gift, were being chewed upon.
Ronin took this opportunity to go to Zeuxis and team up with him in killing these pesky ambushers.
Sordido had managed to caught on now how to use Zeuxis’ skill, but even when he did stole his lightning, Zeuxis just kept on summoning more. His large Dagger Bolt clashed against Sordido’s.
“You need to be quicker on your feet! That’s it! You’re a natural, you could easily replace me, haha!” Zeuxis yelled, clapping his hands.
‘He really is a lunatic.’ Ronin scoffed at this, and simply asked. “Do you need any help? I can finish this off quickly.”
“Let me have some fun first, you prune! I never have my match before, everyone else is so easy to fight when they aren’t as amazing as me!”
Sordido was sweating but putting up a pretty good fight, managing to make Zeuxis be swept off his feet. What he doesn’t understand….
Was that how could Ronin easily tell which of them was Zeuxis and which of them was not!?
They were similar from head to toe, using the same skills.
Yet Ronin knew which side to go nearby and which person to avoid.
The fight was going dizzyingly fast. They have been switching positions back and forth, using their lightning speed and sending smokes and crackles in the air.
But Ronin had easily spotted that it was Sordido who was approaching him, and kicked him in the gut!
“Cough! How do you always know which of us is your brother!?” He cursed, going back to shoot a lightning bolt at him, until Zeuxis intercepted it with his own.
“It’s because we’re family, of course!” Zeuxis answered. “We can easily recognize each other even among 20 copies of ourselves!”
Sordido’s heart ached with this, because earlier……
He had went to try Ronin’s skill while they were hiding in the shadows and watching him and Cermin.
He didn’t need any of the requirements of hair or any biological component to use Fool’s Eye, because he simply stole it already. There was no need to activate it.
He just needed to think of who to disguise as, and as a test….
“Brother, I think I spot someone over there.” He said nervously, very good at acting.
Pavone frowned. “Who— Sordido! Get back here!”
He ran to a bunch of bushes in the dark night, impossible to be seen. From there, he used the skill and….
Out from the bushes came Maellan.
“Pavone.” He said with a frown. “I am very disappointed in you.”
Pavone’s eyes widened, and he shook his head. “Maellan, this isn’t what you—”
“Then what is it like? Are you going to harm my brother?” Maellan furrowed his brows. “I put my trust in you, Pavone. That you are part of this greater plan to bring Commoners and Nobles together.”
“O-Of course I am!” Pavone’s demeanor completely changes around Maellan.
He had always been an authoritative figure, being the former Student Council Head himself. But now he was subservient, not wanting to disappoint him at all.
“You don’t mean that. You’re not agreeing with my cause.”
Pavoen went to his knees. “Maellan, I swear! I pledged my loyalty to you and to the Age of Darkness, the new era of change! Don’t distrust me—”
“Because you told me so, Brother.”
‘Maellan frowned’, changing back into Sordido.
“You said you don’t agree with the cause, that you will counter Maellan.” He gritted his teeth. “Yet the moment you thought he had know your secret—”
Pavone was angered, and threw his fist at him!
“Don’t throw that trick on me ever again! Just do your job properly and not play around, or I will kill you myself!”
Sordido gritted his teeth as he remembered this. His brother did not recognize him. They were family, close since they were kids.
And yet these two could, and from what he knew, they were long estranged. Separated from each other for more than a decade.
So how can they be the better pair of brothers compared to them!?
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