The chunk of my blade dropped toward the ground, but if I'd learned anything from Kalia, it was that kataki could only respond to the bearer's intent, but I was sure he didn't know that. I caught the piece with my left hand and reshaped both pieces into daggers.
Using a technique I'd learned a long time ago from Derion, I tore the remaining piece away from his hand, slicing off a finger in the process, then rapidly counterattacking with a quick succession of slashes in an attempt to push him back.
He grunted from the pain of a lost finger, but quickly regenerated it and began to counter my blows, redirecting each one away from him with undeniable precision and accuracy. I could feel my ribs weeping in agony, but I knew I had to press on. With one of his deflected attacks, I mimicked the same move he had and used my momentum to kick him square in the gut, sending him back a decent way.
By the time he recovered, I was already behind him, having reformed my daggers into a long spear and using the techniques I'd learned from Vyra. Quick jabbing movements allowed me to gain some distance, but he was able to dodge or deflect each of those as well.
"Someone's been busy these past few years, but it's not enough to stop me right now," Mideia snickered, but his use of the word stop, not kill told me everything I had been missing during this entire fight.
That means his real body is somewhere else, I realized, but I was still unsure of what that meant for this battle.
I shook the thought from my mind and returned my focus, almost a little too late to the task at hand. A heavy punch that I barely managed to block slammed into the middle of my reformed spear. With one piece longer than the other, I decided a different tactic would be necessary to give me time to devise a proper plan.
I formed the kataki into a bow, breaking the smaller part into arrow shafts, and enveloped them with my scarlet mana. I dashed away, giving myself enough room to fire off an arrow without risking him being able to grab it so quickly. As the first arrow soared, I recalled how Taegin had shown me the arrow moving through the living room of my old house.
Taking that idea into consideration, as well as Eirenne and Haldir's training, I curved the arrow, bending its trajectory to match my intent. The first one nearly struck its mark after he tried to block it with his mana, but being the shrewd warrior he was, he resorted to deflecting them with punches and kicks alone. Arrow after arrow, it was my turn to hit him with a barrage of attacks.
"Petty tricks will only take you so far, Thoma. You'll have to do better than that," he said, deflecting another arrow I'd sent toward the back of his head. "I know," I grinned, immediately vanishing and bringing the arrows back together with the piece I was using with the bow to form a scythe like the one I'd used on Nexis.
Before I could bring the weapon down, however, I noticed a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. He turned more quickly than I could process and grabbed the haft with a single hand. The sudden halt in momentum caused my ribs to protest, but I gritted my teeth and did my best to push the tip of the scythe into his skull.
"It was an impressive fight, Thoma, but this ends here. You, and your little group along with it," he scowled before punching my solar plexus with a mana-infused punch. I crossed the chamber in the blink of an eye, slamming into the wall much the same way as before, but I didn't just lose consciousness.
To say that I died would be an exaggeration, but the feeling I had was much the same as the one when I first tried to step into the fourth stage. My mind was blank. I couldn't hear, see, taste, or smell. There was nothing but a blank void, dark as the deepest night.
I don't know how much time had passed before I felt anything. Yes, I felt something first, quickly followed by the muffled sounds of someone's voice calling out my name. It wasn't a panicked voice; instead, it was soothing, like a mother making cooing noises to calm a baby down.
"There, there. Shhhh, it's alright. There's no need to panic," a soothing, female voice said. While I couldn't attribute it to anyone I knew, it did feel familiar in a way that a warm blanket feels on a cold day. "Welcome back, Thoma," the voice said before I could register what I was looking at.
It was a woman, but she was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Her skin was like freshly polished porcelain, glistening and without so much as a single blemish to be found. Her deep, scarlet eyes swirled with life and held a sense of caring that immediately made me feel at ease.
"W-Where am I?" I asked, my voice sounding distant to my own ears. "My home, or rather, I should say that this is now your home, as well," she said, brushing a lock of deep, scarlet hair behind her ear. "S-Sorry, I'm a little confused," I blinked a few times, trying to clear my vision. "Oh, I don't doubt that at all. You're in the middle of an exciting battle, after all," she chuckled as lightly as a feather landing on my face.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know if I'm going to win this one," I frowned, feeling the memories of the battle flood back into my mind. "Perhaps, but that battle means a lot more than you realize. Not just to you, Mideia, or your family, but to all realms," she said, helping me to sit up.
The bed was soft and warm, making me feel genuinely at home. "Wait a minute, this is…" I trailed off, recognizing the rest of the room. "Indeed. I replicated your room in Myrdin to help you feel more at ease. Besides, what sort of host would I be if I didn't make you feel comfortable?" she asked with a playful tone.
"Oh, I-I see…" I trailed off, rubbing the back of my neck in embarrassment. "There's no need to feel bashful, but there is something I'm going to need you to do for me. Do you think you're up to the challenge?" she asked with a smile. "I-If I can, but I still have to go back at some point, right? I mean, I can't just leave them there like that," I said, guessing at the fact that she knew the whole situation already.
"You're right. You can't. Which is why I'm going to help you, just like I did all those years ago," she said plainly, as if I was supposed to know what she was talking about.
Obviously, I had no clue.