[Ouroboros' End]
As Darganth faced his foe, Yldra landed a few hundred meters behind the smuggler, trapping the aura user between them. Though compared to Darganth, the base size of her true form was noticeably smaller, making the lava pool reach up to the underside of her torso and allowing her to hide in it by crouching down.
When this forced the aura user to turn so that he could keep an eye on her, Darganth made his move. With a surge of mana, he took control over the nearby lava and forced it away from him, freeing his limbs from the resistance it offered to any movements and allowing him to surge forward with a single lunge.
In an instant, he was upon the aura user. Faster than the latter could react, he crushed the aura avatar's head between his jaw as he descended upon his foe. With a swing from his right forelimb, he then translated his momentum into an impact upon the construct's form, sending the aura user stumbling back just as the latter's sword broke out of the lava lakes' surface in an upward swing.
Easily pulling his neck out of the weapon's range, Darganth launched himself forward the moment the sharp blade passed by him. Snapping toward the partially reformed head of the aura avatar, he shattered it once more. In the brief moment of disorientation his foe likely experienced as the second perspective from his aura avatar's head vanished, Darganth had already grabbed the construct's sword arm. With a flex of his fingers, the aura avatar's wrist shattered into fragments of mana, briefly taking out the weapon from the equation in the process.
Using that window during which he had little to fear from his foe, Darganth lashed out with both of his forelimbs in a flurry of blows. The first slash tore through the aura avatar's chest, his claws sinking deep enough that it left his foe barely two meters in which his physical body was safe without leaving the construct. The second slash then dug into the aura avatar's belly from below, lifting it up high enough for him to grab one of the legs between his jaws and slam his foe back into the lava lake.
Diving after him, Darganth planted an open claw on his foe's chest to keep him in the lava lake as he unleashed his domain. Immediately, he felt the aura avatar's form weaken beneath his palm. Though not collapsing outright, his claws sank into the aura construct with noticeably greater ease. Even as his opponent's domain unfurled moments later, the aura avatar's resilience didn't return to its full power.
However, Darganth nonetheless didn't push his claws further. Between the constant clash of his own aura that flowed across the claws still digging into the aura avatar and the lava eating away at the construct from all sides, the current situation already drained his opponents' mana reserves well enough without driving him to drastic measures.
And based on the increasing struggles of his foe, Darganth knew he wasn't the only one who realized this. Under the effect of a domain, an aura avatar stopped being an ability that even most mythic ranks could keep active without a noticeable mana drain. However, without it, his opponent would have to somehow swim through tens of meters of lava just to breathe again.
As such, Darganth just had to focus on keeping him pinned beneath the lava. With one claw pressing down on the aura user, he had his other forelimb free to block as his opponent started to struggle by lashing out at random. Letting the strikes from the aura users' empty left hand slam into his scales without effect, he battered the sword swing that followed away with a strike of his left forelimb.
By the third attempt, Yldra also arrived. Stomping down onto the sword just as Darganth batted it away once more, she moved in to loom over the aura user with her maw open. Aiming just above where Darganth's claw rested, she unleashed her dragon's breath as a focused beam. Tearing through the magma, the shockwave of its movement cleared a hole in the lava that was wide enough that Darganth could see the beam punch through the aura avatar's head before tearing into the ground.
In just the short second before Yldra cut the mana flow toward her maw, it tore dozens of meters deep. In its wake, the ground shook as the overflowing energy that had emanated from the beam flowed into the surrounding stone and erupted into a chain of explosions.
By then, Yldra had also torn the aura avatar's sword hand off the rest of the construct, throwing it into the distance, where it had disintegrated into fragments of mana. To Darganth's surprise, however, no new arm formed from the construct's shoulder, briefly making him wonder whether their opponent had already run out of mana.
The answer to this came a moment later when the aura user's mana signature abruptly spiked. Immediately, the lava around him began to vibrate as enough mana emanated from the aura user to physically push it around. Even Darganth wasn't spared its effect as he felt a stinging pain in the claw keeping his foe down, prompting him to quickly retreat.
Despite this, a grin flashed across his lips. Though Yldra had attacked a bit earlier than he would've done in her position, she had caught the moment when their opponent started to become desperate reasonably accurately. But despite the significant amount of mana she had cost him in that short burst of attacks, the aura user still had some reserves. Anything else would've also wondered Darganth, so he watched whatever their foe was doing with calm anticipation.
And though it took a few seconds, soon the aura user broke past the surface of the lava. No longer encased in an aura avatar, his surroundings were nonetheless still pulsing with power as mana radiated off him in waves. Wherever it passed, reality itself seemed to harden, with even air turning into some kind of crystalline structure that slowly started to spread outward from the aura user.
Through the partially transparent surface of this to him unknown material, Darganth saw the aura user reel back for a punch and ducked. This came not a moment too late, as when the aura user's fist struck the crystalized shell around him, massive crystal shards broke off from this structure and were flung forward, cutting through the air above Darganth a fraction of a second later.
Moments later, a second punch from the aura users sent another volley of crystal shards toward Darganth. This time, they were aimed slightly lower, making it impossible to dodge under them and forcing him to dash to the side to evade.
At that moment, Yldra finished closing in on their opponent from behind. With her claw reeled back, she burst out of the lava lake and swung at their foe. However, as his claw slashed down from above, it struck the crystalline structure around the aura user and, rather surprisingly, immediately stopped the swing.
Visibly surprised that her claw didn't even sink a few centimeters into the unknown crystal, Yldra didn't have long to dwell on her mistake in judgment as the aura user immediately exploited it. Before she could so much as start moving back, his open palm struck the crystal as he spun around to face her. With it, a massive section of the crystal structure shattered into fragments that shot out.
Caught out in the open at almost point-blank range, the attack struck Yldra squarely in the chest, causing thousands of javelin-like fragments to shatter against her scales practically simultaneously. Exploding into hundreds of tiny fragments each, these impacts were strong enough to lift her off her feet while battering her scales and literally flaying hundreds of them off her chest.
Yldra's roar echoed out as she was thrown backward and landed in the lava lake on her back. As she struck the surface, molten slag was sent flying in all directions. When she landed on the volcanic stone at the bottom of the lava lake, her pained roar was briefly interrupted as the impact drove the air out of her lungs. A moment later, the lava that the impact had pushed to the side came flowing back, burying Yldra fully beneath lava.
This sudden turnaround took Darganth by surprise. As Yldra was being thrown back, the grin on his lips froze, and he watched with wide eyes as the aura user managed to shatter her scales and push her back.
His foe, meanwhile, didn't let his success distract him. Turning back toward Darganth, the aura user shot forward before Yldra had even completely disappeared beneath the lava. It was only through luck that Darganth still caught his approach in his peripheral vision, pulling him out of his shock and allowing him to react before his opponent launched his attack, even if only barely.
Ducking his head and raising one of his arms to shield it from the side, he managed to block it as the aura user fired the first volley of crystals from barely a dozen meters away. Stumbling slightly to the side from the impact, Darganth had barely caught himself and lowered his arm when his opponent already arrived above. Floating merely forty or so meters above Darganth, his closed fist struck the part of the crystalline structure facing toward Darganth's back.
Watching the resulting volley shoot downward, Darganth hunkered down and fired back. Gritting his teeth and pushing through the hail of crystal shards that struck his upper back, he simultaneously reached out with his mana, causing select parts of the lava lake to surge up.
The moment his opponents' attack stopped, he countered. Columns of lava condensed into massive lances, briefly protruding from the surface before the lake erupted and catapulted them toward the aura user.
When the first of these struck its target, the lance at first pierced into the crystalline structure with ease as the shell it formed around the aura user melted on contact. However, as it bore into the crystal shell, it was exposed to the aura user's mana. Within moments, the lava hardened and slowed down until its tip came to a full stop barely halfway through the crystal shell. From that point on, it took barely a fraction of a second for a chain reaction to shoot through the entire lance, solidifying the lava into volcanic rock.
When the next lance struck half a second later, this had completely filled the hole that the first impact had made. When the next two lances then struck in near unison, the first tried to burn through this exact same spot, yet it failed to make it nearly as far as the first impact. The second meanwhile struck at a slightly different angle, achieving nearly the same effect as the first volley and burning through half of the crystal shell before succumbing to its magic and hardening into volcanic rock.
Before the fourth lance could strike, the aura users shot forward. Dodging the rest of the attack as his form briefly disappeared in a blur of speed, he reappeared to Darganth's right. Once more, he did so with one fist already reeled back.
However, this time Darganth was prepared for his opponent's aggressive fighting style. Instead of letting the attack hit him and countering afterward, he pointed one of his claws in his foe's direction and conjured a barrier between them. Thus, as crystal shards shot out, lava rose from the lake to block it, forming a continuous wall in which the attack vanished as it melted under the intense heat.
By the time Darganth finished gathering an offensive spell in his left claw and swung it, the aura user had already disappeared again. Half a second later, the five energy slashes that erupted from Darganth passed through his former position, arriving noticeably too late to threaten him.
Almost the same moment as they arrived, the aura user slid to a stop. Having circled a third of the way around Darganth and now standing to his left, he once again launched his attack. This time, Darganth swung his left arm in a backhanding motion. Aiming for the surface of the lake, he let it skid over it, causing a spray of lava to shoot up and toward the incoming attack. The moment it washed over the volley, Darganth sent a pulse of mana after the wave, causing the lava to instantly harden into volcanic rock and trapping the crystals within it.
Immediately sensing the aura user's mana reach out toward this rock, the corner of Darganth's mouth curled up into a grin as he leaned forward before opening his maw. From it, his dragon's breath erupted in the shape of a cone. In an instant, it consumed the entire area in front of him, tearing through lava and the volcanic stone alike and causing the lake at its edges to spray up from the sheer force it emitted as it tore through reality.
Around the same moment this torrent of destruction reached the aura user's last position, Darganth sensed the man's mana presence appear just beyond the edge of his attack. Though he could sense the chaotic mana flow around his foe that indicated a rather hectic and close escape, this was still a disappointing development for Darganth.
Though a few moments later, it at least became slightly better as an arrow struck the third or so of his opponent's crystal shield that had apparently still been caught in his dragon's breath and which had been completely destroyed in the process. With the man seemingly having erected no additional defenses beyond this shell, this arrow thus struck the aura user directly, even if not fatally. Instead striking just below his ribs, it sank through enchanted but not with aura-enhanced metal armor with relative ease and embedded itself a hands length deep within the aura user's flesh.
As the aura user was slowed down between recovering from his hastily escape and this sudden wound he suffered, this presented a perfect opportunity for Yldra to rejoin the fight. Having held back her rage at the earlier exchange and the wound she suffered in it, she had stayed low and prowled across the battlefield largely submersed in the lava, allowing her to stay out of their opponent's focus.
When she attacked, it thus took him by surprise. Bursting forth in a shower of lava, she closed in on the aura user within moments. Having learned her lesson, spells layered themselves around her claw as she struck the still weakened area of the crystal shell, which was still in the midst of regrowing. This time, her strike went cleanly through her target's defenses, causing the tip of her claw to strike the man in his left shoulder before she was stopped by the shell.
Quickly pulling her claw back, Yldra applied the second lesson learned from their earlier exchange and followed this up with a swing from her left forelimb. With her claw balled into a fist, she struck the crystal shell, sending the aura user flying backward.
This came not a moment too soon, because while still in the air, another burst of crystal projectiles erupted from the shell. However, instead of being aimed at Yldra, it now missed her by a wide margin.
Still, the large area covered by the attack kept Darganth and Yldra at bay long enough for the aura user to recover. Catching himself on a stone wall he called forth from the bottom of the lake, he briefly clung to its side before launching himself back into the battle.
Aiming for Yldra, he paved himself a path by scattering half a dozen stone pillars in between them and dashing from one to another. Quickly closing in and dodging the two spatial magic spells Yldra sent his way, he launched the next volley of crystal projectiles as he came within a hundred meters of her.
But before these even reached her, Darganth was already upon him. With a swing of his claw, the stone platform shattered a mere moment after the aura user jumped off it. Stone fragments flew after the man as he shot through the air, still giving him enough maneuverability to dodge the spatial spell that followed.
As the silver blade passed him, the aura user turned toward Darganth and was just about to launch another attack when Yldra's dragon breath tore through his crystal shell. Taking the form of a focused beam so as not to hit Darganth, it didn't fully annihilate the defensive structure but instead tore a massive hole that went straight through it and came back out on the other side. In the process, it cut close enough past the aura user to bloody his left leg as the spatial energy emanating from the beam ripped through the steel armor covering it and tore chunks out of the man's leg.
Still, this didn't manage to stop his fist from reaching the crystal shell. Thus, a volley of crystal spears shot toward Darganth, forcing him to interrupt his pursuit before it even started and conjure a spatial barrier to block them.
However, as he dispelled the barrier once it had dragged the projectiles into the spatial realm, Darganth's eyes widened. Whereas before, the crystal shell had always repaired within moments, whether the missing pieces came from being launched as attacks or from destruction caused by him or Yldra, now the aura user's defensive shell had a massive hole gaping in the section that had just been fired at him.
This wasn't an opportunity Darganth was going to miss. Dashing forward, he smirked as he saw the aura user rapidly spin an undamaged side of the shell toward him. With the end of the battle in sight, he no longer held back with the mana he used to counter this, causing a layer of hardened aura to encase him like a cloak. Though not larger than his body like a typical aura avatar, it formed the same all-encompassing protective layer the former created. However, at his massive size, even this lesser form of it rapidly drained his mana reserves.
But that wasn't something Darganth cared about at that moment. Confident in his aura avatar's durability, he let the crystal spears strike it. And while they shattered against his defenses, he reached back with his claw and pushed himself closer to his foe with a beat of his wings.
Then Darganth struck. As he did so, his claw moved fast enough to become a mere blur to even enhanced senses. Before the aura user could even start reacting to it, his strike already impacted the crystal shell and tore through it, with two of Darganth's claws then hitting the aura users as his swing cleanly went through the entire shell.
The effect of this came quickly. Despite having missed the heart, Darganth's strike had cut deep into the aura user's flesh and ripped open one lung and bisected him at the hips. Even with an aura user's physique, these weren't wounds that were survivable, at least not without specialized techniques. Thus, though it took a few seconds as the aura user desperately tried to mobilize his mana to cling to life and extend what little time he had left, the life force soon flowed out of Darganth's foe.
Draining rapidly as it tried, and failed, to sustain and repair the man's damaged body despite his attempts to stop this, the core of it that anchored his soul to his body soon shrank by so much that mana started abandoning the man. And as the damage to his body kept persisting, the aura user's heart started to fail and stop producing new life force. In those last seconds, even the magical effects keeping him floating in the air failed, causing his rapidly dying form to plummet into the lava lake. Whether he died before or after landing in it, Darganth couldn't tell. However, soon after the body pierced the surface, he stopped sensing even remnants of a life force below him, confirming the aura user's death.