Trace cracked his neck slowly as a shortbow of golden aura materialized in his hand. The weapon gleamed with power, a radiant sigil of the sun etched near the top and a crescent moon glowing at the bottom, pulsing with faint lunar energy.
"What's your name?" he asked slowly, as if trying to stall for time.
"Leon. Leon Holdingwell." The man narrowed his eyes. His light-pink aura shimmered faintly across his skin.
Trace offered a small nod, locking eyes with him. Leon's gaze burned a bright, unnatural gold. His short dark brown hair clung slightly to his forehead, wet from the rain.
Leon's voice cut through the tension. "Was it you that caused all this?"
Trace didn't reply with words but gave a faint smirk; Leon surged forward, his feet cracking the ground beneath him from the force. Trace immediately responded—an aura-forged dagger materialized in his left hand as he intercepted Leon's rapier mid-swing. The clash erupted in a shockwave of heat and pressure, kicking dust and debris outward as both were forced back.
Before either of their feet even touched ground, Trace loosed an arrow from his shortbow at blinding speed.
Leon twisted mid-air—his body coiling into a tight spin that wrapped him around the incoming arrow. His boots hit the ground and he launched forward again, rapier extended like a spear of lightning.
Trace ducked low mid-air and vanished, appearing behind Leon mid-fall. Leon stabbed down with all his weight, his rapier striking the earth with such force that arcs of lightning ruptured the ground, splitting it into jagged shards. The impact conjured a field of raw energy that rose in jagged bolts, trapping them in a jagged cage of crackling lightning as he made contact with the ground.
"Not bad," Trace muttered, notching another arrow before releasing his fingers, sending the arrow flying.
Leon pivoted sharply, steel scraping as his blade deflected the arrow downward—but another came instantly. He barely tilted his head in time, the second arrow tearing past his eye and slicing a thin line across his cheek.
Leon leapt into the air, the arrow thudding into the cracked stone below, and vanished in a blur of light-pink aura. He reappeared a breath later, directly in front of Trace.
The rapier pierced Trace's tunic, the fabric flashed dark green, releasing a blast of poisonous vapor. Trace yanked the tunic free, flung it aside, and with a pulse of his aura, activated [Ascending Mark]. His body rocketed fifty feet skyward, trailing streaks of glowing energy as a toxic cloud billowed below.
Leon rolled back, coughing once, but the moment he caught his breath, Trace was already behind him, another dagger formed in his hand and stabbed forward.
Leon's felt the dagger as it touched Leon's aura. He twisted his body midair, and used his momentum of falling to slam his boot into Trace's arm, flinging it upward violently.
They both crashed down seconds later. Leon landed first, kneeling and panting slightly, his hands still steady on the hilt of his rapier. Trace landed just in front of him, cracking his knuckles, eyes narrowed.
The cage of lightning surged inward. The bolts licked the ground, scorching deep lines into the earth as if branding the arena.
Leon didn't wait.
He spun on his heel and rushed forward, pink aura blazing. His rapier weaved like a serpent, striking five times in under a second—thrust, slash, reverse sweep, stab, thrust—each blow precise, deadly, and fluid.
Trace blocked the first two with his bow, ducked the third, twisted under the fourth, and drew back his bowstring mid-dodge.
He fired at point-blank range.
Leon's eyes widened, the arrow scraping across his collarbone as he narrowly redirected it with his rapier's edge. A ribbon of blood trailed through the air.
The two warriors locked eyes once more—sweat, blood, lightning, and aura dancing around them like wild wraiths.
Leon launched forward without hesitation, his rapier a silver blur as it thrust straight toward Trace's heart. Each step cracked the ground beneath him, lightning lashing from his feet and spiraling up his legs, trailing behind him like storm-fed serpents.
Trace smiled before lifting his bow, clashing with the rapier. The bow illuminated a bright golden color as heat radiated from it, meeting with the crackling lightning—scorching the air until waves of distortion shimmered around them, bending the light like a living mirage.
The lightning cage surged inward again, further limiting the available space. Trace began to worry slightly as the room needed to use his abilities had decreased by more than half since the cage first activated.
Leon glanced at him before raising his rapier. Trace immediately formed three arrows, drew back his bowstring, and fired without hesitation, unwilling to risk losing even a moment of space.
Leon lunged to his left. The arrows shifted in the air and followed him. He sidestepped again, narrowly dodging the first arrow as it struck the lightning cage. The impact destroyed it instantly, frying it until only ash remained.
He tilted his head back just in time, the second arrow grazing his cheek. Trace smirked. That brief contact was enough, Leon's body locked up for half a second. That was all the time needed.
The third and final arrow plunged into Leon's left wrist, piercing clean through and severing his hand completely.
"Arch's Drip," Trace said with a smirk as Leon's eyes widened.
"It's not a poison that can kill; but it can be very deadly, as it causes a small paralysis effect," Trace added. His bow shimmered, shifting into a longbow as a large arrow formed—crafted entirely from dark-green aura. He drew the arrow back along the bowstring, activating [Mother's Venom].
"Well, I'll admit, Leon Holdingwell, for a fight that hasn't even lasted five minutes; you put up quite a good warmup. I expected more, since you're also a Sequence Five... but it's fine. Perhaps you have your own circumstances, which I understand... but none of it matters now." Trace chuckled softly and released the bowstring.
Pressure burst from the release; the wind howled violently, forming a shockwave that crushed the ground beneath them. Cracks split the floor open as if a small earthquake had struck.
Leon felt his senses return since Trace had wasted too much time talking. Leon lifted his rapier and activated [Electric Slash]. The blade glowed dark blue, and the once-light-blue sparks of electricity shifted to a deeper shade. Leon slashed vertically in front of him, cleaving the massive arrow down the middle.
The two pieces surged to his left and right, plunging into the ground and triggering a tremor that briefly shook the land extending all the way to Harland.
"A warmup?" Leon looked up at Trace, then glanced down at his wrist. Electricity flared around the wound, scorching it shut by sheer force.
"I haven't even been using my Seal this entire fight. I've been relying solely on an enchant Echo I gained during a Shattered Sequence."
With a flourish, Leon closed his eyes, traced a glowing electric arc in the air—whip-like and fluid—then snapped his blade into a vertical salute, the tip pointed skyward in front of his face and opened his eyes.
[Seal of Time: Chronomancer]
"This is Sequence Five of the Seal of Time, Chronomancer route."
Leon threw his rapier into the air. Trace immediately fired an arrow, not wanting to find out what came next. As the arrow flew toward Leon, the air around him seemed to slow. Time itself bent.
Leon casually stepped aside, walking around the arrow as if it were suspended in air, then time snapped back into place and the arrow struck the ground behind him.
To Trace, it looked as if Leon had simply taken a step to the left and somehow appeared closer. It wasn't like the lightning from before—then, he could react to it. But this felt like something far stronger than mere lightning.
The sky twisted as a massive clock appeared above the cage. Its hands shifted erratically—an hour forward, then thirty minutes, then four hours, then another two. Before Trace could even process what was happening, he looked down at his hands.
They had aged—withered, lined, and frail like those of an old man.
His vision blurred. He looked up, struggling to focus. Leon's figure was distorted by time, appearing as if he were made of fog. Trace could barely make out Leon catching his rapier. His eyes widened as he felt the blade piercing straight through his chest.
Above them, the clock's hands began spinning backward, accelerating so fast they became a blur, time unraveling too quickly to comprehend.
Suddenly, the world cracked around Trace, and he realized it had all been an illusion, an illusion caused by time itself.
His vision, however, remained blurred as the rapier pierced his heart. He looked down, feeling his flesh being torn open by something sharp, and grunted loudly. His sight began to return just as a surge of electricity exploded within his body. His eyes rolled back as he struggled to resist it.
"AGRH!" he shouted repeatedly before his voice cut off and his body continued to spasm uncontrollably.
Leon stared at him and activated [Flame Enchant], replacing the lightning with flame. Fire erupted from within Trace, burning him from the inside as the lightning cage surged inward once more. It touched Trace's back and, in an instant, his entire body was fried to ash.
"It... was a good warmup," Leon said, repeating the words Trace had spoken earlier.
The lightning cage faded, dispelled by the end of [Electric Enchant]. Leon looked down at his hand and noticed the subtle change—he had aged by a year. It wasn't a drastic difference, but it was the reason he rarely used his Seal.
It always came at the cost of his own lifespan.