Isaac's body felt numbed all over, feeling every bit of muscle in his body sting. But it wasn't because of the attacks caused by the Captain, no, rather they were injuries caused by his own overuse of Evernight.
The uppermost limit of using Evernight was merely a few seconds, and extending above that takes a great toll on his body. Well, even if he does make precautions and use it occasionally, it still has adverse effects on him through small corruptions.
As such, having reached more than ten seconds now, Isaac's mind was being greatly affected by forces well above this world.
Yet, as if to show how insanity can be bartered for strength, his prowess skyrocketed as he continued to barrage the Captain with ceaseless blows, with his tendrils and scythe combined, moving in a bizarre and terrifying pattern.
"You're drowning." The Captain said, observing Isaac while they clashed. "Your body can't handle this much abyssal corruption."
With that said, the Captain raised his frost blade high up, still charged with that blue aura, and plunged it down on Isaac.
- Thang!
Isaac's half-sane self managed to block the blade, albeit he still got damaged by it. He staggered to the ground, the earth beneath him cracking, while he still groaned like a beast.
His mind was scattering, and his sense of self was slowly slipping away the longer he maintained his state. Yet he couldn't go back now. He had fell too deep already to save himself.
And in the face of the Captain, his pupils ceaselessly fidgeted.
Then, with a short grunt, his energy condensed for a brief moment before bursting, allowing him to blow the Captain away. Without wasting even a fraction of a second after that, his body shifted and charged towards the Captain with full force.
The black tentacle-like protrusions on his back synergized well with his movement, allowing him to accurately strike the Captain with ease along with his scythe that he handled like a mere feather.
The Captain, meanwhile, blocked off all of his tentacles whole simultaneously deflecting his scythe.
To an ordinary person, such blows from Isaac were devastatingly powerful, enough to shatter a normal vision user with ease. But the Captain was different. He matched with Isaac's speed too easily and even grew faster than him.
This was the gap between them.
The land around them shattered, froze, and even decayed, but still their fight continued undisturbed.
"So this is what all of your conviction leads up to?" In the midst of their fast-paced clash, the Captain spoke to Isaac. "To let loose of yourself without a rational thought?"
Then, gripping his frozen blade harder, he decided to swiftly deflect Isaac's scythe to quickly deliver a precise strike to his body.
The blade, sharp and unblocked, easily pierced through Isaac like a knife to butter, impaling him with ease.
"Is it worth it? To protect something with this much selfishness?"
Isaac groaned with a pained and distorted voice. He couldn't respond to anything the Captain was trying to say right away, and he was dipping more and more into self-destruction.
However, as if to respond to the Captain's question, an intrinsic part of himself allowed him to utter a few words aloud.
His eyes darkened while a black liquid spilled from his mouth, Isaac spoke with a stifling groan. "No... Will... To break..."
"No... Cost... Too great..."
"..."
Hearing those words, the Captain remained silent for a moment before deciding to retract his blade from Isaac's chest before leaping back and making some distance between them.
And Isaac, who had just been stabbed earlier, stood far as new tendrils formed from his own blood and flesh infused with darkness sprouted from his back while healing himself from the darkness.
The silence festered between them for a good moment, with neither the two making a move.
But that delicate silence was soon shattered by the Captain, who soon took off his winter coat.
Following that, while still wielding his frozen blade, he changed his stance to that of a more refined and rigid one, like that of a knight.
He then lowered his blade, and awaited Isaac.
And sure enough, playing right into the fool's stance, Isaac charged ferociously without much of a thought.
His tendrils covered all directions and struck the Captain, but before any of them could touch him, the Captain moved with swift precision, cutting them off one by one.
Without giving Isaac even the chance of groan from the pain, much less grow new tendrils, the Captain charged at him with his new stance.
He lowered his sword, and, with swiftness, he plunged it upward towards Isaac's head.
- Thang!
But before it could do so, it was blocked.
"..."
Isaac's blackened scythe blocked off the attack just in time before it ever could reach him.
The Captain tried again, thrusting from another angle so swiftly that it almost seemed like his afterimages were all thrusting at the same time as him.
Yet despite them all, Isaac continued blocking each and every strike.
The Captain didn't stop and continued using new moves from that same new stance he assumed.
But once more, all of them were methodically blocked by Isaac, almost instinctively, even.
As if he had already dealt with those same blows before.
"...Impressive." The Captain quietly commended under his voice. He then leapt back and spoke to Isaac, "Has your rationality come back?"
"I..."
Isaac's eyes, as compared to before, had reverted back to their usual color somewhat by now. But still, that crazed rattle in them never faded away.
"I don't know... But..."
The darkness in his arms soon began to ripple and extend, retracting from the scythe he had been using.
The heavy scythe fell to the ground, before rapidly decaying into withered plantlife.
At the same time, in Isaac's right hand, the pool of black liquid resting in his arm began to coagulate in his palm. They coalesced before extending and forming a shape reminiscent of that of a long sword or a rapier fused into one.
The hilt was intricately crafted, as if it was forged by a mastercraftsman who poured his soul into it, while the blade itself was as white as a bone. It was cold, pristine, and terrifying in appearance.
When the bone blade manifested in his hand, Isaac felt a strangely strong connection to it. He swung it curiously, and as if it had accompanied him for countless years, it moved with effortless weight, yet the edge made it so that it rippled the air around it.
"That sword..."
Seeing the blade Isaac had manifested in place of his scythe, the Captain momentarily paused as he identified it. His voice carried a hint of uncertainty and confusion upon seeing the sword held by Isaac.
Then, he held his own sword and hummed.
"I never thought I'd see the day I'd cross blades with someone who wields that weapon again."
After saying that, the Captain then tightened his grip on his blade. What followed then was the rapid shattering of ice embedded on it, before revealing the true sword underneath that had been encased in layer upon layers of ice for years.
The metallic sheen of the Captain's blade then reflected Isaac and his sword, before the Captain raised and aimed it at him.
"I don't know how you came to possess that sword..." He said evenly. "But the fact that you have it means you've earned it."
"..."
Isaac, meanwhile, was slowly and painstakingly regaining little of his clarity. He didn't know why, but his clash with the Captain seemed to have temporarily halted Evernight's corruption, allowing him to temporarily take control of his body once more, albeit still with restrictions.
Holding on to the newly formed bone blade in his hand, Isaac looked at it briefly before shifting his sight hack to the Captain.
At that moment, a phantom seemed to have manifested in front of him.
The movements of a faceless knight flashed before him, originating from the same stance that the Captain had currently.
'Am I... Hallucinating...?'
Isaac asked himself. He truly didn't know.
But there's only one thing for sure right now.
He shifted his posture, and, assuming another stance, he wielded his blade above his shoulder.
"Let's continue, Captain."
"Very well."
The Captain agreed, and, while still holding on to his blade, he made an announcement in his deep, stoic voice.
"The swords Mistilteinn and Tyrving... shall now once more clash."
* * *
A/N:
Cooked in the exams. (Ambiguously)
Now we're back to our regular schedule <3