"Aaaugh… oh." Groaning and holding his head, Myles blinked awake to see Clav and Verdure waiting nearby, both watching him expectantly.
Verdure chuckled. "You were out for twenty minutes. Someone needs to work on their punches." She threw Clav a teasing sideways glance.
Myles laughed and pushed himself upright. "No, it was fine—as far as I can tell."
Both of them stared at him, puzzled.
Myles grinned, crossing his arms smugly. "I thought you'd notice, Verdure. At the last second…"
Verdure's eyes narrowed slightly, then widened in realisation. "You put up a barrier." A faint smile touched her lips, tinged with pride. "Well, I'm impressed it held that well."
"Not as much as I'd have liked, though." Myles looked down at his arm, a faint shimmer of energy rippling across his skin. "You're a good teacher. I've been practising every day since then."
Verdure looked surprised; a smile crept across her face, caught somewhere between defeat and unease. She could see it clearly now—his control of Criole was raw and instinctive, like that of a wild animal. She had only ever taught him how to refine it. The thought unsettled her, because pulling off a split-second barrier like that was no small feat.
"We'll continue," she said, turning to Clav with a small, daring smile. "No mercy. He can take it."
Myles's muscles tensed on instinct—and in a blink, Clav's fist slammed into his gut. Myles threw up a barrier mid-punch, yet Clav's strength nearly tore through him. His body vanished beneath the canopy in a blur.
Verdure sat down on the cliff's edge and shuddered. It wasn't a fluke, she thought.
On the forest floor, Myles winced as he struggled to his feet. "At this rate, I'm going to start wishing for death," he muttered, releasing his swords. They hovered, ready and waiting.
A thunderous bang echoed through the forest as Clav's hooves crashed against Myles's forcefield-reinforced blades guarding his face.
Myles widens the distance between them and drops into a defensive stance.
"Brute strength won't do anymore, huh?" Clav smiles, eyes fixed on him.
Myles keeps his composure despite the pain in his fractured bones. He needs to focus to heal them faster. "No."
"Shame. I only recently started walking on two legs." Clav covers his face with his palm. "How am I supposed to fight someone with experience?"
"You seem fine to me." Myles shudders at how elegantly and swiftly Clav moves. "You're rather light on your feet for a bull. What are you, anyway?"
"I am a…" He stops himself. "Wait—why do you care?" He grins as Criole gathers around his arms. Two massive, uneven maces form, their molten-red glow leaving Myles in awe. "Yeah, that's right. You're my master, so I inherited a few things. However, you haven't proved yourself worthy."
Myles barely dodges Clav's sudden swing; the force of the mace sends a shockwave that tears through the surrounding area.
"There's a stage for our dance."
Are you kidding me? Myles thinks, frustrated. He's moving those things as fast as his bare hands—it's like their weight doesn't matter. He's stupidly fast, too.
"Power and speed—impressive." Myles exhales sharply, regaining focus. "You know, when I was a kid, I trained with swords because they looked cool." His composure returns, his stance tightening. "Here's the deal: it didn't end with childhood."
With a sudden burst of flame, he launches forward, discarding one sword and slashing in every direction. Clav freezes, blood seeping from dozens of near-perfect cuts.
Myles's victory is short-lived. The next instant, Clav's mace connects, hurling him sideways with brutal force.
"I can heal, too, you dumbass!" Clav shouts after him.
Myles smiles through the pain. "I was right—he definitely didn't inherit skill."
Before he hits the ground, Myles's body ignites, exploding into flames. The impact lands with a deafening bang. As the dust clears, he stands wielding a single blade—sleek, refined, and far less like Criole energy. Its metallic lustre gleams with impossible brilliance. The flames now burn hotter but remain confined to his shoulders, and his hair flows as if suspended in water.
"Oh?" Verdure tilts her head, watching with quiet intrigue.
"Wow, you look intimidating," Clav grins before surging forward, both maces driving his charge. Myles slips aside in a blur and counters with a sharp kick to Clav's gut. The impact cracks the air—shockwaves ripple through the forest, scattering leaves like startled birds.
Clav coughs blood, wincing as he steadies himself. Then, with a wild smile, he looks up at Myles, who crouches slightly, his own grin fierce and bright.
"That's more like it."
Without hesitation, Clav hurls both maces. They scream through the air like twin jets, but even before they reach him, Myles's form flickers. The weapons phase through his afterimage, detonating the trees behind him—not in two places, but four.
Oh, I see… Clav barely finishes the thought before Myles's sword materialises a breath from his throat.
"This is over," Myles says coldly, his voice steady as steel.
A sharp crack sounds behind him. Verdure steps forward, holding a twig between her fingers and wearing a smile that borders on playful malice.
"It's Christmas," she says sweetly. "My gift came early."
She slashes. Myles barely has time to parry—the clash sends him hurtling backwards, his sword ringing from the force.
Verdure lowers her arm and glances at the twig. It's been cleanly severed in two. Her smile fades as she stares at the broken fragment in disbelief, then at Myles's unconscious body sprawled against the ground.
"Scary," she murmurs.
She looks at Clav; he has also passed out, "both of you."
"Your boyfriend, we all knew he was more than mortal, but we still brought him, did we not?" Kaelen asks her sister Lia, comfortably seated in an orthopaedic couch in Thia's room. The girls are holding a meeting on the subject of the mystery of Myles. Everybody is present but Verdure and Rai.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Lia asks.
"You made that call, on gut feeling no less," Thai interjects.
Lia huffs, "Well, I was right."
"Nobody will argue with that, but that decision is why we decided to tell you later." Thai continues.
"But...."
"You would have told us to stop." Terrene interrupts. "I want to help him, don't you?"
"Yes, of course."
"Then that's that, forget about the necessary betrayal." Kaelen ends.
"So, what have we learnt?" Thia asks.
"Well, at first I thought the specimen was from an experiment, but it turns out the Scientist found it or him by chance." Terrene starts
"Wait, forget about Black D. What about the contents of Black Flame?" Kaelen interjects.
"Well, that one is like a fan book based on a hero or something. It is not clear. The book has been tampered with." Terrene responds.
Thia sighs, "So it's confirmed, the old man knows something."