Both combatants took a stance. Blue life essence drifted off their tensed muscles.

Doevm held out his new spear. Strength flowed through him, not all of it his own. His anger, that seething tide that threatened to overwhelm his mind, was still.

Frey had his shield in one hand. His spear rested on the small gap at the top, ready at any moment to strike out. "Just give it up," he said, his face obscured in the dark shadow of his cold, metal helm. "I don't want to hurt you."

Doevm smiled and shifted into an offensive overhand grip: "You can take your pity and your spear and shove them up your ass."

"Don't you worry," Frey's words echoed in the silence of the stone chamber. "I won't hold back this time."

'I can only blame myself for this,' Doevm thought. 'I don't have enough mana to sedate him, nor enough soulmana after the fusion. I just need a little more time to recover.' He inched his way towards Frey, who was as unmoving as the pillars surrounding them. "Are you going to kill me?" He asked, trying to buy as much time as he could.

"Can you even be killed?" Frey said. The grip around his spear tightened. Its target was right at Doevm's stomach. He slowly moved in. His heavy metal boots clanged on the ground as opposed to the light jingle of Doevm's thin armor. Their bladed spearheads were the first to meet.

Doevm tapped Frey's spearhead upwards and swiped. A spurt of blood dripped down Frey's shoulder, and Doevm stepped back.

Frey sneered and began to walk backwards towards the entrance, his spear still pointed at Doevm. "A swipe isn't going to stop me. I don't need to win in a fight. All I need to do is make it outside."

Doevm slowly followed him, scenarios playing out in his head. He could have sworn he saw a smirk through Frey's helm. "You're a pain the ass when you've learned from me, do you know that?" Frey just kept backing away in a series of rhythmic clangs. He was already past most of the pillars, nearly there.

Doevm took aim, coiled his arm, raised his spear overhead, and launched it high over Frey's head and into the ceiling. "Nice try," Frey taunted. "But I know how you like to use distractions too. The second I turn my attention away, you'll charge."

Doevm smirked. The chamber alternated between it being lit up and dim as one by one the already loose light crystals embedded in the shaking ceiling, fell. Doevm held out his hand and his spear appeared in a small burst of flames. A light crystal smashed on Frey's helmet then another on his foot.

Frey held his shield above him like an umbrella in the hail of light crystals. Doevm charged in. Even though Frey had to take several hits from falling light crystals, he moved his shield down just barely in time. The tip of Doevm's spear skidded off the shield in a shower of sparks. Doevm flipped his spear around and smacked the spear out of Frey's hand. The weapon dropped easy, too easy for Frey to have been holding it. No, Frey had been simply resting the spear on his shoulder. With his free hand, he grabbed a light crystal and smashed it into Doevm's face.

Doevm's vision filled with a blinding white light and several piercing pains dug into his nose, just shy of his eyes. The crunching of Frey's boots on the shards of light crystals made Doevm retreat but a force pounded right into his shoulder, flinging him. Several pain-filled objects pierced into his back, the shards of light crystal on the ground. He opened his eyes just as heavy crunching sound approached him.

He had just barely regained a bit of sight to make out the outline of something above him. He rolled to the side and scrambled to his feet. A bit of flesh ripped off his ear at the spot of cracked ground under Frey's foot, a spot his head had been seconds ago. Frey launched his spear. Doevm ducked right under it, grabbed Frey's extended foot and arm, and used the giant's own momentum to knock him into a nearby pillar, which deep cracks formed along. Before Frey could even slide to the ground, Doevm's knee collided with his forehead.

Frey's eyes began to roll back but he forced his unresponsive body into motion, sweeping Doevm's leg from under him. Doevm's world turned sideways before stars burst into his vision. Life essence surged around his arms, which folded across his face and chest as a barrier.

The expected blow never came. Frey lept right over him in a sprint towards the exit. 'You're such a pain,' Doevm thought. As he went to get up, his leg buckled under him. He glanced back at his ankle, which shards of a fallen light crystal had dug into. The pain, delayed by his aching head, put him on the edge of consciousness. He took a breath and yanked the shards out. Life essence formed around the damaged muscle and regenerated the majority back. Doevm hopped to his feet.

Life essence moved to Doevm's eyes as he took aim. His vision flashed red and his arm erupted in a red aura, mixing with the blue life essence to form a dull, pulsing purple. He stepped forward like he had seen Thomas do dozens of times. He launched the spear at Frey, who dodged right under it, just as Doevm thought he would. The spear went past Elero and Thomas's unconscious figures. A crack echoed, originating at the most fragile looking wall in the tunnel. For several seconds, nothing happened. The crunching of Frey's boots continued on without interruption. Then, a violent shaking toppled the ceiling and the cracked walls supporting it. A cloud of dust spread throughout the room, filling their lungs with an vile dryness.

Doevm held out his hand and his spear appeared in it: "Frey, I'll kill Gwen when I get back!"

Frey whipped away from pile of rubble with a fury in his eyes: "I tried to be nice. I tried to run. I tried because I really don't want to have to kill you." The crunching grew louder as he exited the cave, now a white layer around his blue life essence. "But now you threatened me, my family, and my friends." He looked over to the two unconscious companions, just shy of the collapsed rocks.

"Last night, you told me to run so I did. You said you lost to something so I believe that there is someone in your head. Is it that red aura? It's the same thing Gregen had. What was it? A demonic something or whatever. That's why I won't blame you for that remark but something is responsible for what was said. Something is messing with your head. And now…" A white aura flattened against his skin, mixing with the blue life essence. "I'm going to beat it to death."

'Of all the worst possible times for you to use that ability, this is it,' Doevm thought as he dove into his mind. 'Larque, I need more. Give me everything you've got.' Doevm opened his eyes in reality. Red sprouted from his black irises, enveloping them like a sea. A red aura crept from his arm to engulf his entire body. More light crystals smashed on the ground, having been shaken from the collapse. Frey and Doevm didn't hear them breaking. The adrenaline drowned everything out. To them, they were the only ones who mattered.