But he still didn't falter.
Kyle's thoughts raced. 'This isn't a battle of endurance; we'll lose if we drag this out. His body will give way, but not before he takes us down with him.'
He darted a glance at Nuna. She met his eyes, and without speaking, they both understood.
Kyle shifted his stance, sword low, gathering Qi until his blade vibrated. His breathing slowed, focus narrowing to a single point.
Across from him, Nuna's scythe began to hum, arcs of pale light running along the edge as she poured everything she could muster into the weapon.
The assassin charged, black mist roiling like a storm. His body crackled with unstable power, veins nearly bursting under the strain.
Kyle stepped forward. Nuna spun.
Sword and scythe moved together, a convergence of steel and Qi.
The assassin roared and swung down with both arms.
And the world seemed to shatter in the clash.
The ground quaked beneath their clash. Sword and scythe clashed against fists wreathed in black Qi, each strike releasing sparks, shockwaves, and gusts that tore through the trees around them.
The exchange went on for five full minutes, but with no side gaining the upper hand in all that time.
But as the struggle dragged on, Kyle's sharp eyes picked up the signs.
The assassin's movements, while still ferocious, had begun to lose their crispness.
His once fluid lunges turned jagged, overextended.
Veins along his neck and arms swelled unnaturally, writhing like serpents beneath his skin.
His breaths were ragged, and the corrupted Qi around him flickered in unstable pulses.
Kyle's stomach clenched. 'The demonic technique… It's eating him alive.'
He traded a quick glance with Nuna. She had noticed, too, the faint narrowing of her eyes, the way her scythe steadied in her grip said it all. They didn't need words.
Now.
Their tempo shifted instantly.
Kyle lunged first, his sword flashing in a relentless rhythm. Nuna surged beside him, her scythe weaving arcs.
Their strikes poured down in tandem, seamless as a storm: one attack flowed into another, each movement setting up the next, each blow pushing the assassin further onto the back foot.
The corrupted cultivator roared, swinging wildly, but his defense faltered.
Every blocked strike left an opening for the other to strike.
Every parried blow cost him more of his dwindling strength.
Kyle's sword carved shallow lines across his chest and arms. Nuna's scythe bit deep into his thigh, staggering him.
Black Qi burst outward in a furious wave, but it was weak, unstable. Instead of suppressing them, it dissolved like smoke against their Qi.
Kyle pressed harder, muscles burning, his blade a blur. "He's breaking!"
"Don't give him a chance to recover!" Nuna answered, her voice hard as steel.
Together, they became a storm. Sword and scythe whirled with murderous precision, each movement feeding into the other until it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.
The assassin staggered back step after step.
His grotesque form grew more distorted by the second, skin tearing under the strain of his own technique, blood leaking in torrents.
His eyes, those endless pits of black, flickered and dimmed.
But still he fought, like a beast clinging to a final spark of defiance.
Kyle's chest heaved. He knew this was the moment. 'We need one more push. One decisive strike to end it.'
He met Nuna's gaze again in the middle of the chaos. They both nodded, understanding perfectly without a word.
Kyle met that look. No words passed between them. A shared thought: We can't afford hesitation.
Nuna was already in motion. Her scythe whipped in a crescent high and wide.
Kyle's eyes flashed.
He lunged.
The scythe's momentum carried him forward.
His blade tore through a rent in the assassin's qi-shrouded sleeve, skin beneath, pale and slick with sweat, cracked.
The assassin reeled. But even wounded, he was monstrous. Veins pulsed with demonic Qi.
His legs buckled, then he snapped upright, growling like a black wind.
Nuna spanned the space with sweeping arcs, each strike narrowing the assassin's defensive window.
Kyle leapt in with precision, jabs, slashes, and quick feints, his strikes disrupting the assassin's balance.
Every blow they delivered was timely, focused, and cohesive.
The assassin, despite his dark enhancement, flinched under their combined assault.
He responded with desperate force, but Nuna blocked, blade singing, just long enough for Kyle to dart in and deliver a calculated counter.
Then Kyle backed off, dropping low as Nuna swept upward, their motions overlapping like a well-rehearsed dance.
Momentum shifted with each passing moment in Nuna and Kyle's favor.
Breathless, the assassin staggered, stumbling under the relentless precision of their collaboration.
Even with demonic Qi surging through him, he found no gap, no single moment of advantage.
Nuna's strikes were purposeful; Kyle's were piercing.
Together, they dismantled his offense. He collapsed to one knee. They advanced as one.
Bam!
Kyle blocked a heavy strike with the flat side of his sword.
The air splintered.
Kyle inhaled pain. Nuna's scythe cut the silence. The assassin staggered, but landed hard. The Qi cracked and hissed, dissipating like torn silk.
She moved quickly, closing the distance to support Kyle. Dust plumed, petals floated. The momentary silence hung, trembling.
They all took a few seconds to take in all the exchanges that had happened in the last few minutes, all three of them heaving.
Kyle tasted copper. He wiped grime from his lips. Nuna stood rigid, her scythe buried in the dirt, its Qi sputtering like dying flowers. The assassin knelt, a pitiful, terrible mockery of pain.
He was in the worst condition of all three. Pieces of his flesh hung in various areas, cut asunder by Kyle and Nuna's blades.
But those black, pupil-less eyes… they still burned with twisted promise.
He spat black, viscous blood. "This isn't over."
Corrupted mist drifted around him like a living shadow.
With inhuman strength, he ripped himself upright and, to the surprise of Kyle and Nuna, he turned to flee with a speed he had not shown before, leaving footprints scorched in the earth.
Their eyes narrowed, even as they moved to block the assassin's escape.
'He is going to run away, just like that!?'
Kyle was not having it.
Boom!
Activating his movement technique, Kyle's speed doubled, tripled, and quadrupled as he darted ahead of the monstrous assassin.
With a heavy footfall, the beastly man came to a halt a few metres away from Kyle, who was now ahead of him.
Nuna caught up less than a second later, stopping behind, creating a pincer with Kyle.
'Don't give him a chance to recover.'
Kyle moved almost immediately, raising his sword up high, channelling a stream of Qi into his strike.
Just as Kyle got into striking range, two figures suddenly blurred into view on either side of him, two more assassins dropping swiftly between him and his wounded foe.