Max shook his head.
"No," he said quietly.
His fingers tightened around the grip of the void blade until his knuckles turned pale beneath the dark veins of mist crawling over his hand. He could tell that the person before him was insanely strong. Far too strong. His earlier strike had not moved him. Not even a little. It had felt like crashing against a mountain covered in sunlight, something ancient, unmoving, and completely beyond the weight of normal power.
Only now, after the black mist spread out from Max on its own, had Arbiter Aurelian finally moved away from him. As if that was the only thing here that could make him cautious.
Max! You must listen to me. If you let your arrogance get ahead of you, you will die!
