Chapter 199: You Do Not Run

Elias hung in the web, the spike inches from Rhys’s chest, as his body was frozen in place.

While it was true that he had not used all of his abilities or had fought with the intent to kill, the ease by which he had been subdued was embarrassing.

He had underestimated his teachers by a lot, and even though he suspected that they may be at the Amber Exile Stage, it did not mean that he was willing to fail his first trial.

“You taught me,” he said, and his voice was hoarse, barely a whisper. “You both taught me.”

Rhys tilted his head. “What did we teach you?”

“Rhys, you taught me that shadows have weight. That darkness can be a weapon, but it can also be a hiding place, and that the best way to win a fight is to not be there when it starts.”

Rhys smiled, “I told you this when you were a mortal and your eyes could not hide intent. Damn, that memory of yours is something special.”

Elias looked at Lyssa, straining through her web, “You taught me that threads can be cut. That the smallest thing can be the strongest thing, if you know how to use it. That you can make anything from nothing, if you have the patience. I have seen you make masterpieces from rags.”

Lyssa’s hands tightened on the threads. “Elias—”

“You taught me that the only way to lose is to stop.”

While he was talking, Elias had been preparing, and he pulled with all his might.

The threads holding him were so strong that he could barely move, even after exerting all of his strength, but barely moving was enough.

From his arms and legs, tiny sharp barbs appeared that caught the threads that held him. He twisted, and they snapped.

Elias landed with a crouch, the hundreds of tiny cuts in his skin healing in a second. His red hair that had been folded fell free and covered his face, pooling across the ground.

A curved blade, four feet long, purple and gleaming with golden flecks, emerged from his palm with a quiet hiss, and he grabbed it.

Rhys smiled widely, “Oh, I like your fire, Elias. Perhaps we should take this test up a notch.”

With those words, Rhys’s body folded into itself, as he collapsed into the darkness at his feet, vanishing into the space between the dying lights of the cavern.

One moment he was there, solid and real, the next, he was a shadow, and the shadows were everywhere.

In these few moments, Elias had seen different aspects of Rhys’s Shadow Manipulation Talent, and he now knew that Rhys could not just control shadows, he could merge into them, and apparently emerge from anywhere connected to shadows.

Elias did not know how far Rhys could reach through the shadow, and in this cavern lit only by dying fungi, where the light came in patches and the darkness pooled in every crevice, Rhys was not merely present. He was omnipresent.

Lyssa had moved even quicker, threads shot out of her arms and pushed her backward.

Elias did not wait to be struck, nor would he make the mistake of trying to come close to Lyssa again. He moved, heading towards the wall to place his back against it, and a whisper of movement emerged from behind him.

He dropped, rolled, and came up facing… nothing.

A flicker to his left. He slashed, but he was too slow. The shadow he cut dissolved like smoke, and behind it, another shadow rose, and in that shadow, Rhys’s hand emerged, his palm open, his fingers curled, and his fist drove into Elias’s ribs.

Breath rushed out of his lungs as the impact lifted him from his feet. He crashed into the wall, stone exploding behind him. He slid down, gasping, his ribs screaming as all of them were fractured, and a spreading wave of force that seemed to cut through his flesh like tiny razor blades.

Vitality: 2001/ 4551

’Holy hell, that single punch nearly took out half of his life, and it did not even look as if Rhys had used a lot of force.’

Elias struggled to his feet, surprised that he had taken so much damage, yet his body was still functional. He knew this was not just because of his durability, but Rhys’ profound application of force.

“You’re hesitating,” Rhys said. He was standing in the center of the chamber now, his hands loose at his side, “That is foolish. Perhaps you think because you are a fancy Ascendant Candidate, you can now walk over normal Siphons? Time to test you further then.”

Elias pushed himself upright. His entire body was a knot of pain, but nothing was fully broken, just battered. “Test me for what?”

“For the answer to a question,” Rhys said. “Are you ready to fight with restraints, you damned idiot?”

He vanished again, and this time, Elias did not wait, his sight was useless and so he closed his eyes.

He could not see Rhys in the shadows, and his Crimson Vein Dominion could not sense any heat from Lyssa and Rhys, it was as if they had enclosed their bodies with Lumina or used some other unknown technique.

Elias could not depend on any of his previous advantages, he had to lean in on all of his strengths, else another blow would finish him.

With his eyes closed he could feel the displacement of air, the faint whisper of cloth, and the subtle shift of weight on stone.

His Perception reached out, and in the darkness, he found him, a few feet away and Elias slashed his blade through the space where Rhys would be, and Rhys was there, but he did not seem to be surprised or if he did, his speed was so fast he could not react to anything.

He caught Elias’s wrist in one hand, twisted, and used his momentum to pull him forward. Elias turned with it, let the motion carry him, and drove his knee toward Rhys’s stomach.

Rhys blocked with his forearm, the impact jarring, and then he was inside Elias’s guard, his other hand pressing flat against Elias’s chest.

“Too slow,” Rhys breathed.

Shadow erupted from his palm, a pulse of darkness that slammed into Elias and threw him across the chamber. He hit the ground hard, rolled, came up bleeding from a dozen small cuts where the shadows had shredded his skin.

Vitality: 892 / 4551

Elias spat blood as he struggled to his knees. “You’re not holding back, that blow would have killed a Mist Phantom.”

“Yes,” Rhys agreed with a frown. “I am not, I can tell when my strike can kill, and you can take a beating more than anyone I have seen. I wonder how much damage I can do to see your limit.”

Elias rose. His body was failing; he could feel it, the edges of his vision darkening and his limbs growing heavy.

He had been on this trial for what seemed like hours; he could no longer tell.

But he had never known what it was to back down. Not when he was a child, decaying in the streets, his flesh falling from his bones.

Not when he was a hunter, stalking prey that could kill him with a thought. Not when he was a Wisp, thrown into the Fragment, forced to fight for his life against monsters that should have torn him apart.

He had never known what it was like to run away from a challenge.

Fuck all the powers and all the damned mysteries, at this moment, he had seen something tangible that he could grab on to, and at this moment, Elias had never felt so alive!

Without thinking, he charged.

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