Feyd stared at Jace with surprise, shocked at the scene in front of him.
Shadow Spikes that had missed by just a hair's breadth, Shadow Spikes that had been blocked, Shadow Spikes that had been broken.
Although he wasn't unharmed he was still standing strong.
The same strange white energy, Ki, was now coating and flowing through Jace's body, acting as an amplifier and protection.
"Ughh... Quick! Attack Him! He's breaking free!"
Ray was so concentrated on the maintaining the Shadow Binds he shouted his word aloud instead of using the telepathic link.
Feyd noticed that many of the Shadow Binds that gripped onto Jace were beginning to tear, either from Jace's physical force or the Ki surrounding him. Although new binds kept arising Jace would soon break free.
He immediately rushed forward, boosting his speed as much as possible by exploding flames behind him while condensing flames on his blade using Fire Infusion.
Just as he was about to bring his blade down for a powerful strike the shadows binding Jace's arm gave way as Ki surged around them.
Jace raised his blade to block the attack with an excited grin on his face, his slit-like eyes smiling.
'Warp.'
"Krgh!"
Jace grunted in pain, immediately turning his head back to see that Feyd's blade had dug into his back. Flames were pouring out in large swats while Feyd seemed to struggle to pull his blade out.
"Why—Is this—So hard to take out—!?"
Ki erupted from Jace, destroying all the Shadow Binds, newly formed and old, and damaging Feyd.
'What is this!? It's damaging my whole body, inside and out.'
Feyd's pained expression darkened as he instinctively warped away, dodging a powerful strike from Jace.
He appeared nearby Ray who was now in Shadow Stealth. Feyd regretfully looked down at his empty hands.
"Tch, teleporting really isn't fair ya know?"
Jace brought his arm up to his back and pulled Feyd's sword out. Trickles of Ki moved up towards the wound and stopped the bleeding.
'He can defend, strengthen himself, attack and heal with that energy!'
(Yeah, Ki really is powerful, however it seems that he is running out of it)
Ki was no longer flowing smoothly from Jace, instead it was coming out in spurts, as if it was being forced out and coated both blades in Jace's hand.
"Thanks for this, I'll be using it to take your head!"
Jace then rushed towards the two.
"Don't think I can't fight without a weapon!"
Feyd moved forwards slightly while Ray got ready to join the fight properly, infusing shadows into his rapier.
Feyd used Blast Burn to attack Jace while generating fireball in the air and bringing them down from Jace's blind spots.
Jace rushed into the Blast Burn without any regard surprising Feyd and emerged infront of Feyd unharmed.
Feyd immediately barely dodged one of the Ki coated attacks. However, just as the saber was passing by him the Ki coating it hit Feyd in the chest, causing him to wince in pain.
The next attack came immediately after. Feyd attempts to Warp away but didn't manage to teleport far enough to escape Jace's attack range.
And just as the third attack came, while he was about to try dodging once more, Feyd heard a whisper in his mind.
(Blast him.)
And so he did.
Feyd gathered flames and blasted it straight at Jace, leaving him no time to even attempt dodging or Warping away.
Jace looked momentarily bewildered before he felt a presence behind him.
'Shadow Shift.'
A powerful rapier strike pierced the same spot Feyd had previously struck, causing it to bleed once more. Not only that, the blade had dug in dangerously deep into Jace.
Crisis flashed in Jace's eyes as he turned mid air and attacked Ray before he could damage him further.
Ray seemed to have already expected that as he had begun to shift away even before Jace had begun turning, managing to dodge without any difficulty.
Rocks from the surroundings immediately began to fly towards Jace due to an unseen force as a shadow dragged Feyd away.
At first Jace was confused as to why or how rocks would be flying towards him, untill he remembered something.
He was about to leap away when he was suddenly pulled down and kept in place.
'!'
A powerful mass of shadows was locking him at place. It was a Shadow Bind.
Multiple explosions resounded, as the Fire Infused rocks exploded at the moment of contact with Jace.
Feyd breathed a sigh of relief as he slowly got up, now next to Ray.
"It really was a smart idea to make a bunch of these fire infused rocks in advance."
"Mmhm, yeah."
Ray nodded in response, still using his telekinesis to send the other.
"Why did you ask me to use a Blast Burn on him?"
Ray made a thoughtful expression as he answered Feyd.
"Hmm, I recently noticed that unless strong individuals allow me to Shadow Shift from their shadows there is some resistance. If the shadow they cast is too small or too dark it might even fail, that's why I hadn't attacked till now."
"Oh, then you made me use that Blast Burn to have his cast a shadow?"
"Bingo."
Ray began to walk to a shaded spot to use Shadow Stealth when he suddenly turned his head towards the cloud of dust where Jace had been.
'Where Jace had been' because he was now racing towards the two of them at breakneck speeds. He wasn't nearly as injured as the two of them had expected, with only his clothes burnt and tattered.
"The hell?"
The words slipped out of Ray's mouth as he attempted to slow down Jace using Shadows and telekinesis both at the same time.
Jace seemed to slow down significantly for a moment before a large amount of Ki burst out from him, allowing him to shrug off whatever was slowing him down.
Feyd had already been preparing to Warp away. The moment Jace swung his saber at Feyd he disappeared.
However what Feyd saw next horrified him. The Ki coating Jace's saber flew out like a projectile, crescent in shape. It was the fastest attack Feyd had ever seen, and it was flying straight towards Ray.
"Hah! Take this!"
Ray's eyes shrunk into pinholes as he raised his arms in panic, attempting to block the attack anyway he could.
He knew intuitively, if the attack hit he would die.
He drew upon the well of Shadow Energy within him and unleashed as much of it as he could at once, letting the reigns go.
[Finally, an opportune time.]
An even deeper sense of despair washed over Ray as he helplessly watched an ancient, dark influence take hold of his Shadows for a brief moment.
They immediately exploded out in immaculate finesse, launching out in a perfect circle.
The shadows were seemingly strengthened to an unbelievable degree while also being compressed to an infinitismal width.
The difference between Ray's Shadows and Eribos' Shadows was like a chasm—seemingly immutably wide.
The Ki slash missed Ray by a centimeter, passing by him and towards the rocky walls.
Ray however did not care, nor notice, that the Ki slash had passed right by him. Instead, he was attempting to wrestle control away from Eribos.
He managed to steer the attack away from Feyd, and subsequently Jace, just in the nick of time, instead hitting the walls surrounding them.
This thin string of Shadows managed to clearly slice straight through the rocks.
'Yes!'
However just as the joy of having saved his best friend began to rise from within Ray's heart he noticed something strange in about the Shadows.
"What's tha–"
All sound was consumed in the area, almost as if it has been overshadowed by something. The light from the setting sun dimmed for a moment as darkness—no shadows enveloped the surroundings.
The Shadows that were about to pass through the rocks and seemingly fly through the sky till they ran out of energy exploded, sending destructive Shadow Energy that invaded the rocky walls causing them to come crashing down towards the three of them.
"Ray what was that!?"
Feyd seemed extremely shocked, Jace too, at the attack that originated from Ray. However just as quickly as they registered the attack and reacted, they had just as quickly blanked out.
The next moment Feyd and Jace both glanced up in horror at the falling rocks.
Ray's heart began to ache from anxiety, fear, worry and regret. However, he did not let that stop him from attempting to save both himself and Feyd.
He no longer had any Shadow Energy to use, thus he attempted to use pure Telekinetic force to stop these rocks.
Feyd realised he did not have the time to Warp both himself and Ray out, thus he began to release all of his Fire Energy upward in an attempt to slow the descend of the rocks.
Jace seemed to have a look of genuine fear and regret in his eyes as he gathered an extremely large amount of Ki around his saber, preparing to attempt slicing through the rocks.
The amount of Ki was so great that both Feyd and Ray were befuddled and surprised for a moment, wondering why Jace hadn't used all of that Ki to immediately take them both out.
However just as he was about to release the Ki attack at the rocks they all stopped falling mid air.
Feyd looked up in confusion, slowly bringing his hands down as the flames gushing out stopped. He slowly turned towards Ray who was just as confused.
"Ray! How did you do that!? When did your Telekinesis get to strong!?"
He can do shocked that he forgot to think his words and instead shouted them aloud.
"I... I didn't do that... I'm just as confused as you are..."
Just as Feyd was about to say something back a voice cut him off.
"Ofcourse he didn't do that Feyd. He isn't nearly strong enough to."
Both Feyd and Ray saw Jace relaxing his body and dissipate the Ki he had been gathering.
"Then did you do it?"
"Me? Hahaha! No way, I neither have the means nor the strength to do that."
Jace chuckled lightly as he tossed the sword he was holding at Feyd.
Feyd carefully caught it before eyeing Jace closely, replying:
"If you didn't do it then who did?"
"Ofcourse it's our lovely captain!"
Both Feyd and Ray looked confused for a moment before the sound of rocks scraping past each other sounded from above.
As they looked up to see the rocks parting and moving towards the ground beside them they heard Jace continue.
"Did you really think I was an Aberrant? Oh Jimmy it's hilarious!"
"The co–captain said that Ray could sense things, probably from shadows, and that I should pretend to be an Aberrant to see how you guys react, it's the final test."
"Not only was your response included, but also all your past activities. You've cleared most suspicions so far, the only mystery remaining is the amnesia but im sure you guys don't have any ideas on that."
Feyd and Ray saw Albert slowly descend from the air as he motioned for the rocks to settle down.
"Although I'm not sure what happened here and why those rocks collapsed, I'm glad I arrived in time."
"Are you two hurt?"
Both Feyd and Ray shook their heads as they stared somewhat blankly at Albert and Jace.
"What about me, captain?"
"You can just heal yourself using your Ki."
"Hehe."
Ki flowed to the wounds on Jace's body and swiftly began to heal them.
Feyd's eyes widened at the scene while Ray kept his gaze locked onto Albert.
"So how did they do? Give me a report when we get back."
"Yes sir!"
All four of them soon began to start floating in the air as they began to fly towards the Capital at a moderate speed.
'The remnant energy in the rubble, it sort of felt like the Dark Elf's Shadows...'
However before Albert could contemplate more his thoughts began to become disjointed. His train of thought soon shifted as he turned to look the two Elves in their eyes.
"It was quite reckless of you two to fight someone without knowing how strong they are."
"Well we didn't expect a vice captain of the military to be this strong. I didn't know people could even get that strong."
Feyd replied with a somewhat lost expression.
"Haha! But it's makes sense. You guys haven't been introduced to the real world yet. Have you heard any stories or fairytales of people moving mountains, creating canyons or destroying forests?"
"Hmmm, yes but aren't they all just–wait, don't tell me..."
"Yep, they're all real! Well they're all atleast possible."
"No way!"
Feyd's eyes widened in shock. He had just been dealt a series of surprises and he felt as though his mind couldn't take it anymore.
"Well now that you know people can be much, much more stronger than you currently are you should be more careful in the future."
"However you shouldn't worry too much, not everyone is as strong as me, nor are they as incredible as hiding their strength like me."
"Anyways you two should rest up now, we'll explain everything properly. I'm sure you two need time to process everything."
Albert dropped them off near their living quarters before taking Jace away with him.
Both Feyd and Ray looked at each other for a moment with a strange look in their eyes.
"The last thirty minutes were a real rollercoaster huh?"
"Yep. They really were."
Ray replied, touching his hair that had a few more black streaks now.