Lucifer’s eyes blazed as he considered the challenging tilt of the Ghosthound’s head. Lucifer’s own shoulders rose and fell with each heavy desperate breath, struggling to wring just an ounce more potency about his own image. His gaze was locked onto the Ghosthound. If it wasn’t for you…

Everyone had their own reasons for accepting Alana’s invitation to this fight. But for Lucifer… it was because the Ghosthound was strong. Overwhelmingly so. Because there was a strong foe, why was it confusing that he challenged him?

The proof of the Ghosthound’s strength could be seen in their current situation. Of their starting group, three had already been eliminated. Giuliana made Lucifer the most furious, but the biggest loss was probably Stan. Eliminating him early meant that his ability to copy another’s image didn’t have much of a chance to get established. Stan had been a fallback plan, should the fight… well, go as it was currently going.

The most infuriating thing was that Lucifer could clearly sense the Ghosthound’s theoretical limits. The man was mentally exhausted to the point that he basically only released his image when seriously threatened by an attack. And each of those image pulses, though powerful, further decreased his available energy. Even if the Ghosthound had an immense reservoir of Willpower originally, that had been reduced to a dry wasteland with a few intermittent puddles. This was the version of the Ghosthound that was the most mortal.

But even so, he suppressed them with just his monstrous physical stats and high-Level Skills. His image was almost an afterthought. It was humiliating. It was invigorating.

“...no one has anything to say?” The Ghosthound spoke into the tense silence. He pursed his lips. “You just want to attack me randomly with no explanation?”

Again, no one responded. Lucifer was practically grinding his teeth. It was hubris; the Ghosthound now spoke with the arrogance of one who had never looked at the back of another and wished for the power to bridge the gap between them. Or if he had experiences like that, he had now forgotten them.

When Alana had suggested the attack, it had come as a shock to Lucifer. But he believed that all of the participants in the duos tournament, or at least those at the top, wondered the same thing when they pushed themselves to their limits to seize victory and name the world. How far were they from the best Expira had to offer?

How far were they from the power wielded by the Nexus?

Now they faced a truth: combined, they measured up to less than one-third of the Ghosthound’s power. They couldn’t even defeat a single, exhausted one of his images. And perhaps it was truly closer to one third or one-half of his abilities, because he still had the benefits of his powerful Stats, no matter the image. But it was an unsatisfying realization.

We can do better than this, Lucifer hissed to himself.

There was a sharp crack from Alana’s crumpled form and a hiss of pain. Then the woman stood up and brushed herself off. She glanced down at her broken spear, tossed it to the side, and produced another from her interspatial ring. She gripped the shaft with both hands and lowered herself into an offensive stance. Blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth, but orange-gold fire slowly sprang to light along her spear. There wasn’t a single ounce of surrender in her figure, even though she was the only one who had endured a blow from the full power of his image.

Lucifer tilted his saber so he held it horizontally across his body. Your inner light and heat were bright when I first wounded you, Ghosthound… but now they grow dim. You are weakening, even as we are. Yet you dare ask us why…?

“Fine then,” the Grim Chimera said. He was all bone, tendons, and inner fire as he rolled his shoulders and then accelerated toward Dinesh. Alana once more launched herself forward, the first to put her body in the Ghosthound’s path. Lucifer leaned forward and exploded toward the Ghosthound’s exposed back.

Unfortunately, that new right arm of the Ghosthound’s was just too fast. The hand shot out and seized the tip of the spear, the slender fingers belying its immense strength. Again with the slightest twitch, Randidly tossed Alana to the side. Lucifer's fury mixed freely with his image, surging along the length of his saber. Yet his speed wasn’t enough. As he pursued him from behind, the Ghosthound opened up space between them without any apparent effort. As long as he had that speed, his back was never truly exposed

Then Donny was there again, grinning from ear to ear. There was a joy to exhausting this powerful warrior. “Invincible Aegis.”

A dozen immense golden shields sprung up between Donny and the Ghosthound. Each was about two meters tall and was covered in a shimmering array of pictograms depicting their fight against the Ghosthound thus far. It told a gallant story that ended in the defeat of the monster by the band of heroes.

“Invincible?” The Ghosthound’s voice sounded amused. “Man is Proud… But the Chimera Takes.”

The ground beneath his feet cracked and in the same instant the noise of him impacting the largest, central Aegis reached Lucifer’s ears. There was no instant of time that could fit between those two occurrences. Donny was blasted backward, his Skill flashing with golden light as all the shields were forced backward before the power of the Ghosthound. In fact, he continued sliding backward until he settled only a meter in front of Dinesh, who stood in rapt concentration with closed eyes. The central shield cracked.

I need ten more seconds, Dinesh sent out a message to the group. Even though Lucifer was already rushed forward at the Ghosthound’s back, he felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Ten seconds was a long time.

Kayle seemed to materialize next to the Ghosthound, who was raising his spear for another strike at Donny’s weakened Skill, and crossed his long knives. “Slice and Dice.”

Even with his imposing image of a cruelly sharp divide adding an edge to his strikes, each quick slash of his knives only inflicted shallow divots in the Grim Chimera’s impossible sturdy skin. The strikes did have enough of an image to draw a reflexive rise in the Grim Chimera’s power, but it was practically a negligible thing.

But it did stall the Ghosthound out briefly. Huang Shou thrust his palm forward. “Shatter.”

...or perhaps it didn’t slow him down at all. The Ghosthound moved so quickly he vanished, avoiding the strike entirely and appearing behind Huang Shou. Before the aging man could even respond, his head was grabbed and he was tossed to the side.

Paolo had somehow predicted the abrupt change in direction and was close enough to launch a sharp elbow strike at the Ghosthound’s temple. But the Ghosthound’s massive left hand tightened into a fist, flicking sideways and shattering Paolo’s elbow with an audible crack. Just as his slender right hand thrust forward to seize Paolo’s face, Alana shot forward with thin white flames running along her spear.

Her eyes glowed. She let her breath slide out between her lips. “The Fifth Revelation: Want.”

Those flames running along her spear immediately brightened. Their white tips seemed to shimmer.

For an extended second, the Ghosthound seemed struck with indecision as Alana shot at his back and Paolo’s indomitable image blazed even brighter, despite his shattered joint. Yet then the Ghosthound twisted so quickly that Lucifer couldn’t follow the movement. His slid outward, fingers pressed together in a deadly point toward Alana’s chest.

Alana seemed to predict this, releasing her spear and stepping to the side. Then her hand, now bearing those white flames, cut downward and severed the Ghosthound’s tail. His right hand veered sideways and ripped into Alana’s shoulder.

“Haymaker!” Paolo bellowed as he threw his punch. His blazing image spun itself into threads and rushed to his knuckles. The Ghosthound brought his left hand across his body in a backhand and effortlessly knocked the punch away. The image of indomitable triumph was shattered. Then he seized Paolo’s face with his immense talons.

Lucifer caught up, his saber raised. He hated that this was all he had, the move he practiced day after day, seeking to catch up to the distant form of the Ghosthound. But this was what he had poured his last several years into. It bore the weight of all his sweat and blood. It had to be enough. “Lucifer Slash!”

His emotions and memories seemed to burn through his fingers and into the blade as he pulled it sharply downward and aimed at the sundered flesh on the Ghosthound’s chest. He felt instantly that this was the sharpest slash he had even unleashed. Yet he couldn’t help but also notice how quickly the Ghosthound responded.

The Ghosthound’s fingers in Alana’s shoulder sprang open, widening the wound and then he threw her to the side. At the same time, Ghosthound released Paolo. Both hands rushed toward Lucifer at a speed that was at least double his slash-

Paolo’s left hand seized the Ghosthound’s wrist that had just released him. His eyes were blazing, and his image exploded outward over the surrounding area, pressuring even Lucifer. “Don’t you dare think I’d go down so easily. Right Hand of the Challenger!”

Paolo planted his left foot and smashed his right fist against the stunned Ghosthound’s jaw. Lucifer slashed downward and cut open another deep gash across the Ghosthound’s midsection.

Immediately, that strange heat source in the Ghosthound’s core flared to life. There was a frozen moment in Lucifer's Perception as he faced the direct ire of the Grim Chimera. Before that sinister gaze, all of the accumulated effort that went into his Lucifer Slash was crushed and obliterated. The weight of that image smashed Lucifer in the chest. He was sent flying backward, vomiting the contents of his stomach.

Paolo was sent stumbling backward as well, shaken, but somehow still conscious. The Ghosthound swayed and hunched over, his face hidden in shadow. Yet others recognized it was an opportunity.

Bang!

Hank drew his revolver and shot a bullet that cleanly punched through the flesh above the Ghosthound’s right knee. The image of the Grim Chimera flared again, but it was truly drained at this point. The heat wafting off of his body was rapidly decreasing. Donny leapt forward and swung his sword at the Ghosthound’s back, but a much thinner tail stretching from his neck snapped upward, slapping the strike to the side.

Donny landed and hopped backward, resetting his stance. The Ghosthound released a deep breath.

Then everything around them shattered as Dinesh activated the move he had been focusing on for the past minute and they appeared in about a hundred meters off the ground.

The sun was just setting, so the sky around them was stained orange and pink. The clouds began to steadily swirl as the image that Huang Li had been steadily nurturing was able to explode outward and rapidly gain traction in the wide-open sky. That wild wind began to form a maelstrom centered around the slightly stunned Ghosthound.

Directly in the center of those swirling clouds, a massive violet moon seemed to descend. It released a powerful light, staining the surrounding clouds with even more wet and unnatural colors. After a suspended moment of floating, all of the arrayed individuals began to fall down toward the wasteland to the Northeast of Donnyton.

A wasteland that the Ghosthound himself had created when he made his Class.

“Don’t hold anything back,” Alana said, raising her voice to carry above the increasingly tempestuous winds. Her helmet morphed and once more wings of pure white beat above her body. Her limbs were trembling, but her image was clear and bright.

Huang Li raised his sword. The wind was singing along the length of his blade the song of the Ghosthound’s defeat. “Sky Slaying Sword!”