Not the Hero, Not the Villain — Just the One Who Wins
Chapter 45: Face Off 2

Chapter 45: Face Off 2

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Thunder cracked across the sky, its voice lost amid the roar of magic and steel. The forest battlefield had been reduced to an elemental cauldron, a blur of light and shadow as the two elite factions clashed with all they had.

Lucielle spun inward, twin blades flashing with charged wind as she ducked under Nyx’s void-laced strike. Sparks rained where steel kissed shadow. Nyx retaliated with a sweeping arc of blackened magic, forcing Lucielle to vault backward into a twisting flip that landed her beside Liora.

"She’s adapting too fast," Lucielle muttered.

Liora didn’t answer. Her hands blazed with glyphs, her focus absolute. Two runes of hard light snapped into place beneath Nyx’s feet, but the void mage jumped moments before they activated. The runes detonated harmlessly.

"She’s not just fast," Liora said grimly. "She’s learning."

From the far side, Rin had rejoined Rayne, the pair moving like mirror storms. Layla and Seraphina cut between them—ice and arrows pairing against wind and water.

Seraphina rolled into a kneel, releasing an arrow laced with disorienting sound. It rang like a bell upon release, the mana thrum rattling through the mist. Rin caught it with a crescent of water, but Layla seized the moment.

She darted forward, her sabers trailing arcs of freezing light, and slashed at his flank. Rin twisted to block, but her follow-up strike pierced his shoulder.

Rayne intervened, his glaive slamming between them with explosive force. Layla was knocked back, skidding across the mud.

Seraphina fired another volley.

Rayne spun, wind wrapping around him like a cyclone, shielding him from the storm of arrows. Each projectile bent, slowed, and eventually shattered before reaching him.

"Keep the pressure on Rin!" Layla called, vaulting back into formation.

Rin slid through a burst of water and emerged beside Seraphina. She gasped as he swept her legs out and pinned her with a wave of water pressure.

Lucielle crashed in, spinning blades forcing Rin off. He flipped, rolled, and landed just in time to block another glowing rune hurled by Liora.

Nyx descended from above, hurling twin spheres of void magic at Liora and Lucielle. Liora countered with a prism shield, but the blast still forced them apart.

Rayne turned to Nyx. "Push the flank. They’re starting to sync."

"Already on it," Nyx said, her voice echoing with layered tones.

She surged forward, her body flowing like a shadow, void tendrils snaking across the ground. One lashed at Lucielle, coiling around her leg. Before she could slice it, Nyx yanked and slammed her into the ground.

Liora blinked to Lucielle’s side with a flash of golden light and cast a scatter glyph that burst Nyx’s tendrils apart.

Meanwhile, Layla and Rayne met again.

This time, it wasn’t elegance. It was desperation.

Frost and wind slammed against each other with primal force. Layla’s sabers clashed against Rayne’s spinning glaive in a series of high-speed exchanges. Every swing was a gamble. Every step carved new trenches into the broken battlefield.

Rayne’s expression darkened. "You never used to be this fast."

Layla grunted, sidestepping his strike. "You never used to hold back."

A flash of white light erupted between them as Seraphina reappeared, having shaken off Rin’s pressure.

Liora reinforced Lucielle with a radiant tether, enhancing her agility. With renewed rhythm, the two re-engaged Nyx, forcing the void mage to stay airborne.

Rin lifted both hands and summoned a massive tidal surge, aiming to split the battlefield. Liora and Layla cast intersecting spells, forming a giant glyph barrier that held the wave back—but only barely.

The resulting detonation flattened the terrain, sending mud and stone flying like shrapnel.

From the smoke, Rin emerged again, steam rising from his shoulders. His eyes met Layla’s, then flicked to Lucielle.

He moved.

But Seraphina was faster.

She slid across the wreckage, arrow notched, and fired. The projectile pierced the air, forcing Rin to abandon his dash.

Nyx spun midair and hurled a void spear straight at Seraphina’s back.

Lucielle leapt in front, her blades crossed.

The spear detonated on contact, hurling both of them backward.

Lucielle coughed as she rolled to a stop, the edges of her coat burning.

"You okay?" Seraphina asked, kneeling.

Lucielle nodded. "Never better."

Layla growled and fired a blast of ice across the battlefield, sealing Rayne’s feet for a moment. Liora activated a light pillar that surged up beneath Nyx, disrupting her hover.

The battle spiraled again into a brutal exchange of bursts and blinks, counterattacks and miracles.

The storm howled.

No side yielded.

No one fell.

Not yet.

Mud splattered as Lucielle flipped over a slanted boulder, meeting Nyx in midair with a blinding clash of steel and void. The impact rocked the canopy above them, scattering birds in frightened flight.

Across the cratered battlefield, everyone moved not as individual warriors—but as synchronized forces. The fight had become something more: a dance of coordination, counters, and pairwise tactics.

Layla and Seraphina took the lead.

Layla swept frost beneath Rayne’s feet, trying to slow him. Seraphina darted between trees, firing cover volleys that pinned Rin’s range.

Rayne burst through a cloud of cold vapor, his glaive spinning like a windmill. Layla blocked the first strike, parried the second, then countered with a twin-cross of sabers that forced Rayne to leap backward.

Seraphina ducked beneath a sweeping torrent of water from Rin and rolled beside Layla. "Switch?"

"On you."

They split.

Seraphina jumped toward Rayne, loosing a specialized arrow encoded with a tracking sigil. The projectile spiraled and homed in as Rayne dodged, forcing him into Layla’s trap: an ice spike leaping from the mud. It scraped his leg.

"Good coordination," he muttered.

"Better aim," Seraphina replied, landing softly.

Meanwhile, Lucielle and Liora harried Nyx like a storm.

Lucielle’s blades struck high, then low, alternating pressure. Liora embedded radiant runes across the terrain, controlling the space like a strategist playing a divine game of chess.

"Keep her in the zone!" Liora called.

Lucielle slammed both blades down toward Nyx’s shoulders, and Nyx caught them in a pulse of shadow. Her grin faltered as light glyphs flared beneath her.

"Now!" Liora shouted.

The runes exploded in a cage of radiance.

Nyx screamed, launching tendrils in every direction. Most were caught by prism barriers.

But one slipped through and hit Lucielle in the side.

She grunted, dropped to a knee, and smiled. "Totally worth it."

Rin launched a spinning whip of water toward Liora from behind.

Seraphina dropped in from above, intercepting with a radiant arrow that split the spell mid-air.

Layla joined her, coating Rin’s feet in frost again. "We’re back in pairs," she said. "Let’s keep it that way."

"Back to back?" Seraphina asked.

Layla nodded. "Always."

They fought in tandem. Seraphina pivoted while firing, using Layla’s ice to ricochet her arrows into unpredictable angles. Layla used the arrow impacts as visual cover to dash and slash with pinpoint precision.

On the far side, Nyx broke free of the radiant trap, spinning in midair to unleash a shockwave of shadow.

Lucielle rolled, covering Liora as the explosion ripped through trees and stone.

"You okay?" she asked.

Liora coughed. "Bright side? My turn."

She summoned a chain of hardlight, wrapped it around her arm, and flung it like a lasso.

It caught Nyx’s ankle and yanked her downward.

Lucielle pounced, slashing across Nyx’s cloak and forcing her to the ground.

"Still think I’m easy to read?" Lucielle asked.

Nyx vanished in a puff of void smoke, reappearing behind her with claws drawn.

But Seraphina fired.

The arrow clipped Nyx’s shoulder.

Then Layla struck her with a frost-charged kick.

Nyx was knocked into the mud again, her void aura flickering.

Rayne, panting, stepped beside Rin. "They’re adapting."

Rin wiped blood from his lip. "So are we."

Together, they surged forward.

Rayne went for Layla. Rin went for Lucielle.

Layla turned into a slide, her blades dragging frost as she redirected Rayne’s glaive. Seraphina landed a shot to his thigh, making him grunt and falter.

Lucielle fought Rin toe-to-toe, each blade strike meeting watery pressure. Liora supported her from a distance, placing glyphs in Rin’s blind spots that detonated when he stepped too far.

Nyx tried to interfere—

But Seraphina was there again, arrows slamming into her path and forcing her to retreat.

No one was falling.

No one was winning.

But the battlefield glowed with effort, skill, and the will to protect.

Thunder clapped again.

And somewhere, watching, Ashen narrowed his eyes.

"It’s time," he whispered.

But he didn’t move.

Not yet.

Not until they understood.

Not until they’d reached the edge.

Only then would he show them what waited beyond it.

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