The man twisted gracefully, the air moving with him. Arrows veered off-course, ice shattered against invisible barriers. He looked almost bored as he countered every move.
Kael growled, firing again. "Hold still, damn you!"
"Kael!" Eira shouted, just as the man flicked his wrist. The wind shifted direction, aiming to slam into Kael like a hammer.
Eira saw it coming, a compressed lance of wind aimed straight for Kael. She moved. Frost exploded beneath her feet as she threw herself between them, summoning a barrier of ice just in time. The blast struck, shattering the shield instantly, the shards slicing across her arm. She hissed in pain but stayed upright.
Kael caught her before she fell. "You're bleeding."
"I'm fine," she said through gritted teeth.
"No, you're not…"
"Focus!"
Their teamwork, once seamless, was faltering. Every time Kael tried to attack, the bastard targeted him. Every time Eira defended him, it broke their rhythm. They were reacting, not fighting.
Darrius rejoined the fray, blood trickling from his nose, his stance shaky but determined. Marcus groaned somewhere in the background, trying to pull himself from the rubble. Eira drew a sharp breath and raised her hands again. Frost crept up her arms.
"Kael! To your left!"
Kael moved instinctively, circling. Eira unleashed another volley of ice spears, this time denser, faster. The air screamed as they cut through it.
The man laughed, spreading his arms. "Persistent, aren't you?"
He spun, and a vortex erupted around him, pulling everything into its orbit. The ice shattered midair, the shards caught and flung outward like shrapnel. One slashed across Eira's cheek, another embedded itself in Kael's shoulder.
"Dammit!" Kael grunted, wrenching it free.
Darrius lunged again, only to be met with a gust so strong it lifted him off his feet and slammed him into the floor.
The bastard's grin turned vicious. "You're not even worth killing."
"So your just going to watch," Eira hissed at Garret
Garret hadn't moved a muscle. He was watching.
While the others fought steel clashing, air howling, ice shattering. He stood a short distance away, sword tip resting lightly against the cracked tiles. His expression was unreadable, his eyes calm to the point of unnerving detachment. He watched.
Every motion. Every breath.
The bastard was powerful, yes, wind answering his every whim, forming invisible barriers, slicing through attacks with surgical precision. But power wasn't perfection. Garret could see the rhythm beneath the chaos, the subtle twitch of muscle before each spell, the half-second lag between his draws of air.
And he watched his allies too.
Eira, fierce but emotional, wasted mana when provoked. Kael, brilliant, but impulsive lost focus when Eira was targeted. Marcus and Darrius, just raw power no finesse.
For a fleeting moment, Garret wondered.
"If this were different, if they turned on me. How would I fight them?"
The thought startled him. He tightened his grip on the Chixiao. The bastard was laughing again, hurling another lance of compressed air toward Eira and Kael. The shockwave splintered the floor, scattering rubble.
Garret's gaze followed the motion.
"He draws wind to his right side before each attack which creates a pressure zone then releases it instantly. There's always a counter flow after the blast, a vacuum. A vacuum that could be filled."
The Shroud stirred across his shoulders, sensing his intent. The next moment, he moved. No roar. No warning. Just a step forward and then another, smooth, silent and precise.
The man noticed too late.
Garret vanished into the blur of motion. The shadows bent around him, dulling his presence. The man turned just in time to see a faint distortion at his flank.
He reacted on instinct, conjuring a wall of air. But instead of deflecting Garret, the barrier collapsed. The darkness devoured it, smothering the movement entirely.
"What—?"
Garret's fist connected with his ribs, sending the man skidding backward. The impact was dull, heavy, as though sound itself had been swallowed.
The man gasped, air stolen from his lungs.
"Wind manipulation,"
Garret murmured, voice calm as ever. "Relies on maintaining a steady flow of mana in a circular pattern. Efficient, until someone corrupts the current."
He stepped forward, shadows curling from his feet. "Darkness eats motion. It nullifies flow. I just… filled the gaps you left open."
The bastard snarled, forcing his arms up. The air exploded outward, blades of pressure cutting through the debris. Garret raised his free hand; the darkness thickened, wrapping around him like smoke. The blades vanished into it, absorbed with a faint hiss.
"Impossible!" the man spat. "You can't—"
Garret appeared behind him, voice low. "Can't I?"
He swung. The Chixiao sword cut through the man's wind barrier like wet paper. Blood spattered across the floor. The bastard staggered, clutching his side, eyes wide with disbelief.
Eira froze mid-motion. Kael lowered his bow. None of them had seen Garret move.
The bastard screamed, terrified. He couldn't believe that someone could overpower him so effortlessly.
"Enough," Garret said softly.
The man stared, chest heaving, disbelief painted on his face. "What are you?"
The man swung wildly, wind forming into jagged claws. Garret sidestepped, caught his arm, and drove his knee into his gut. The air wheezed from his body.
He fell, coughing, struggling to summon another spell. Nothing came. The darkness around him seemed to choke his magic, stifling every attempt.
Garret crouched beside him, studying him with detached curiosity. "Just like you, I also have a manipulation skill and they use a lot of mana. Those impressive wind burst cost you a lot of mana. How does it feel to be helpless?"
The man tried to answer, but no sound came out.
Garret rose, raising his sword one-handed.
Eira finally spoke. "Garret, stop… I know what to do with him"
Garret stopped. Not because of Eira but because the Weave had whispered something worth his attention.
{You have leaned a new skill…You are the first being in your world to gaze onto the secrets of the Darkness element. Darkness manipulation forcibly evolves to level two…You have received a distinction…}