Despite of losing control over fire, he had not even lost a fraction of his strength.

He kicked Saer in mid-section, knocking him down like stack of cards. And the sword which he had faith in moments ago was gone from his possession courteously to the vicious boot. Saer lay on floor, suffering the impact his abdomen had taken. Saer saw Commander Evar holding the sword by its hilt.

Without any warning, he clubbed it towards grounded Saer. Sensing where the sword might land, Saer rolled aside. His calculation was a bit wrong. The sword hit a rock much nearer to him than he had expected.

“I was about to kill you after Lord Wernh’An’s recovery anyways.” Evar held the hilt by both of his hands and began to move it in stabbing motion. Saer staggered, saving himself from the death drop. Somehow he crawled away from the swordsman.

To defend himself he couldn’t look past the rocks lying around him waiting to be picked and scampered. His creativity ended after holding a big stone. Saer aimed for his head and threw it at the direction.

The stone hit Evar direct on his forehead. Though the impact would have spilled brain out of normal being, he took it like being hit by a pillow. He bled but blood was not something Saer could consider as damage done. Instead he had infuriated Evar more due to blood crawling to his eyes.

It gave some time to Saer to utilize. By the time Evar had wiped blood from his eyes, Saer had collected half a dozen of stones. He was not going to shy away from scooping up more of those natural weapons.

“Throw them all.” Evar smirked, spinning the sword in his hand.

“With pleasure.” Saer said, launching all stones in the air.

The rocks didn’t go for Evar but flew over his head and stopped mid-air as their rising motion ended. Only when they took the downward path, Evar realized where the rocks were going.

Commander Evar ran to cover Wernh’An from the rocks raining towards his table. The falling pebbles stone hit Evar hard while covering Wernh’An but he took the pain with pride. Rocks hit on the logs but didn’t make it to Wernh’An.

When Evar spun at Saer’s direction, Saer had another handful of pebbles. Only problem being, Evar had also grasped a falling stone. Evar threw it at Saer. It hit him on forehead too but Saer took it more miserably. Saer’s ears rang and things around him got surrounded by dark smog.

He rubbed his eyes to clear his vision. Then only he understood how deep wound was on his forehead. Saer heard Evar’s tramps. A weakened commander couldn’t maintain silence while walking like he used to do before.

He saw Evar back with his sword when his vision began to clear.

Saer waited for Evar to come close. Saer understood Evar wanted to separate his head from the shoulder. The moment he was close enough, he stabbed him with the escape tool which he had taken out when Evar was covering his lord.

He was able to tell Commander Evar was hurt just by looking at his inflated nostrils and trembling eyes. Evar’s sword slipped out from his hand as the sharp side of the blade touched his intestines. But the hand which had let the sword go refused to be unoccupied and caught Saer’s throat.

Saer felt the pressure on his Adam’s apple. There was something he could do about it.

After a deeper shove of the tool to Evar’s abdomen, he could not hide the agony anymore. There was no more pride in enduring pain for anyone. Regardless of the pain he was persevering, Evar didn’t loosen his grip on Saer’s neck. He instead tightened it till Saer started to choke.

His fingers were sinking in his neck. Saer could push the blade further no more because it was already sunken. Due to the brutal clutch, Saer’s fingers started to become numb. He felt like needles were making his way from underneath the fingernails.

Soon he lost the sensation in his hand as a result of the blood-flow blocking strangulation. Evar now had his grip of both of his hands on Saer’s throat. A sudden squeeze later Saer started to blacken out.

To resist being strangled, he kicked Evar’s knees many times. But his feet became victim of numbness not much later. Commander also kicked the fainting man on his mid section. Saer was numb but not immune to pain. He felt every bit of the pain.

Evar, unsatisfied with the kicks he was hammering on Saer decided to boot him in different parts. He punted him Saer on side of his stomach. Another kick aimed for his kidney landed on his thigh.

Evar felt a crack. Saer, already purple, didn’t react to the cracking. He instead drooled all over Evar’s hands. Saer started to look away when Evar heard leaves rustling. Little did he know it had nothing to do with the wind.

Breeze was nonexistent.