CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
Chase and Rider danced between each other's attacks, deflecting and dodging as they saw fit.
But Chase had not been nearly as focused as killing the other as his enemy had been.
As the fought, he carefully charged the ruin surrounding the rooms.
Flames sizzled as the ruin spreading from below the kingdom began to spread into the throne room.
Flames barricaded the doors, windows, and any possible exit of the room.
It was truly Chase and Rider's dance of death.
Their blades met eccentrically, beautifully, and even vibrantly.
Rider's corruption tore through the world around them, breaking everything that the purple haze even came close to.
Chase had to avoid that power at all cost if he wanted the slightest chance at victory.
But that wasn't to say that Chase's new flame hadn't been his own special power either.
His flames were born from the curse that had formed on the day that his mother had birthed him.
Meaning that they slowly decayed the soul of anything they made contact with.
His sword made of cursed flames met the halberd of Rider with terrible force, sending a shockwave of both energies flying into the Eastern wall of the palace.
The only sounds that could echo over the burning of Equus, was the grunts and resounding of their weapons meeting fiercely.
Chase pushed off of the ground with a burst of axis, leaping into the air as he grabbed the very air around him with his free hand.
Pulling ambient energy from the room, he formed a crescent of moonlight, hurling it straight at Rider who only tanked the force like the monster he had truly become...
Chase summoned a fury of flames behind him, rocketing straight down at Rider, slipping underneath the slash of Rider, and ripping into armor that protected the mad king's shin.
Then he sidestepped a downward slash, jabbing into Rider's cracked Chestplate...
Meeting a terrible blow in the face from Rider's halberd, he grit his teeth and lunged forward.
Clashing against the polearm of Rider's weapon, Chase ascended into the air with a violent spray of green flames that shot into every direction below his hovering body.
He pressed down with so much axis energy that it threatened to rip apart the boy's very body.
Yet he persisted.
Pushing Rider down onto his knee, he screamed as he pressed further.
Rider growled, glaring up into Chase's eyes as he lost control of his halberd.
Chase reached up once more, letting the flames cease.
Slamming down onto the halberd, he knocked Rider straight into the ground.
As the entire floor began to shatter, Chase dashed forward slashing at Rider's throat as he did so.
A terrible shockwave quickly caught Chase by surprise, as time froze.
Corruption leaked through his armor, cracking straight through it with ease...
Feeling his life fade from his grasp, Chase's body stopped as he limped back.
Purple glowing cracks ran through his armor, snapping the metal as it went.
His skin followed shortly after, breaking apart as what little blood he had began to spill onto the ground.
'I'm sorry...'
He thought, screaming as energy began to emit from his catalyst.
Green flames overtook the entire room, pushing back the corruption of Rider as they went.
Chase pressed his foot into the ground, as Rider's eyes widened behind the T-shaped gap in his helmet.
Light green energy that wasn't Chase's began to swirl around his being, appealingly locking him into place.
"Kill him!"
Ivy screamed, holding her eyes open wide as she forced her energy into Rider's sight.
Chase had no clue what she was doing to the king of corruption, but he had little time to care.
He shot forward, ripping straight through the air as he rocketed towards Rider.
Turning into a flurry of strikes, his blade drove itself into Rider's armor countless times, becoming his own whirlwind of flaming slashes that ate into Chase's enemy.
Rider tried to move, to resist, but only met the powerful blade of Chase, that continued to tear into the man's weakened state.
Then a terrible force began to eat into Chase's body, ripping it apart even further as his armor ceased to do him any good.
Rider grinned as his helmet exploded into countless jagged pieces.
His eyes glowed with a terrible violet rage.
"Nihilism Cor..."
Chase lifted his blade, not reacting nearly fast enough as a spiral of dark purple energy crashed into his chest, shooting straight through his body.
Being sent flying across the room, landed with crashes and thuds as his body ripped apart the already shattered flooring of the hall.
He dug his blade into ground, stopping him just in time before his body went soaring out of the castle window...
Pushing his body up from all fours, he tried to compare the pain in his body to any of his past experiences but failed to even do such as that.
It was like a thousand bugs were eating him from the inside out as the corruption continued to decay his skin in the short span of time.
Rider launched a purple arc of energy at Ivy, breaking her concentration and sending her flying into the castle wall that had caught aflame.
Gritting his teeth, he spat out the last of his blood.
Chase stood up, breathing heavily as flames entered his lungs.
"Three..."
He lunged across the room, clearing the distance in a single second.
CLANG!
He clashed with Rider's halberd, knocking it upward, but Rider quickly reacted, pulling his blade back down and on top of Chase.
Chase infused his body with axis, reaching his free hand out as he ducked underneath of a strike.
'Trust it... So that it may trust you...'
Then the ground ripped apart, grabbing and slashing at Rider as stone began to act on Chase's mental orders.
The gray energy collided with itself, as orange particles of energy followed.
Flames from the perimeter of the room shot towards Rider, catching him in flames as his body thrashed in pain as his skin began to burn swiftly.
Chase launched another flurry of attacks, even unsheathing the dagger on his shin, and throwing it at Rider between a collection of deflected strikes.
The dagger caught Rider's face, cutting him below his blood lusted eye.
"I will bury you underneath your kingdom..."
Chase muttered, leaping into the air and slashing his flaming blade as after images followed each attack.
Flames continued to eat at Rider as the king of corruptions own energy did the same to Chase.
As their bodies decayed in the span of three minutes, it had truly become a battle of raw attrition...
And Rider now had only two minutes before his full strength was sapped by Chase who would raise hell at the center of Equus...