-----V-----

When I accepted his duel, a wave of silence showered the area for a minute.

The soldiers have almost finished off the rest of the swarm, some of them have surrounded Franek and I. The kypseli observers are on their branches, their eyes ever staring. The ground filled with snow muck made squelching sounds as the men walked through it. The trees dripped the kypseli shit on to the ground. It was night time, and the two moons were high and low in the sky.

The muck dripped to the ground as I shook it off of myself when I fell to the floor earlier. My blaster was filled with zettra power, and it thrummed as my program was active. Franek showing no signs of giving up the gem as he held it by his left, his right held his artifact weapon. A sword that also glowed with his program effects. It was short, so he will move fast, but I need to be quicker.

Eyes stared at us, waiting for the dual to begin. No one seemed to notice Ivy as she was hauling Ivona in the distance, who was muffled and bound. She had managed to quickly move into hiding before the soldiers would have noticed, so she was safe. I couldn‘t find Braxton or Amara in the masses of the soldiers. All eyes were looking at their leader, the noble named Franek Quenton, and their enemy and ally of Wilmer Westbrook, Vincent Grey.

I single drop of sweat emerged from my forehead, and soon as it slid and dropped, I took the first action.

I quietly activated my program, Swift, and fired towards Franek. I have only tested it once before, but never actually used it on anyone. The bullets flew with double the normal speed, and Franek acted quickly by deflecting them with his sword with his own haste program. But one stray bullet managed to go through his defenses and scraped his artifact armor.

The Swift program was only good for its speed, but though it was fast, its impact has shrunk. You would expect that the bullet should do more due to its speed, but this is an artifact made by an ancient race. Their weapons, their rules.

Franek started running towards me, deflecting the bullets as they came at him. I brought out the shield and held it firmly in front of me. I still had a normal sword on me, but it is pointless to bring it out. His artifact sword will just break mine as if it was just a stick.

I rolled to the side as he swung at me, his artifact suddenly becoming normal again, and his speed decreased. So I changed my program back as well, and fired at him in almost point-blank range. But he took them with his artifact armor.

All I need is to wear down his armor as much as I can to actually pierce through, it looked like he never even needed to deflect my bullets to begin with. Or maybe he wanted his armor to be unscathed until he was close to me.

As he thrusted his sword at me, I directed his attack with the shield to the side and hit his shoulder with the butt of my blaster. As expected, it didn‘t do shit. Even though I hit him hard, his artifact armor was keeping him safe.

As Franek spun quickly to face me, he lifted his leg and kicked the back of my knee, making me falter. He brought his sword down, which I quickly blocked with the shield. And there I noticed something rather obvious. As he scraped the shield, the shield suddenly seem to be breaking apart and almost letting it go through. The very frame of the shield split and the sword went through and cut my left arm.

„Argh!?! Aren‘t you supposed to be a shield!?! What the hell happened!?“ I yelled at the Shield as if I was yelling at Ethan.

I managed to back away from Franek and glanced at the shield. It started putting itself together, and now it looked exactly as it was supposed to be before.

I think I understood what happened, and I don‘t like it. When using artifact weapons without connecting to one, you could only use it as if it is a normal weapon. But if you connect to one, you could use its programs, but it wouldn‘t allow you to use other artifacts. Artifact armor isn‘t like the artifact weapons, they are just considered as armor. . .

„And the shield apparently isn‘t armor,“ I muttered. Instead of blocking his sword, I am able to direct it somewhere else with the shield.

The blood dripped from my arm, and that got me rather angry. Though it was reckless, I started to run at Franek, and I roared as I fired inaccurate shots with my blaster. I still held the shield, it was still useful. As Franek swung at me, I carefully made sure that he wouldn‘t collide with the shield, but to only scrape it so I could move it away from me. And as that happened, I moved my blaster right at his chest, the barrel touched his armor as it smoked. The trigger was released. And his artifact armor protected him.

I fired a few more rounds before he punched me square in the face and kicked me back. Just before that, I could see his artifact armor starting to shatter. Just a few more and his armor is finished.

„Program!“ Franek yelled. „Bleed!“

His sword glowed red and he aimed for my legs. I tried dodging, but he was able to cut me, it wasn‘t deep so it should have been safe. But by the name of his program, I was already fearing the worst.

The leg suddenly felt cramped, and it hurt like hell. Blood started pouring and I could feel the pain only rising. Strange green liquid was running down from where Franek cut me.

„That‘s not blood! That‘s poison!“ I yelled, thinking why he would name the program Bleed for some reason. He should have named it something that had poison in it, and I was rather sure it was poison.

The pain only rose from the leg, and it was reaching towards the thigh. I quickly unbuckled my belt and fasten it around the upper part of my knee.

My right leg was already starting to feel numb.

„Vincent, that program I used will kill you in moments. Surrender and I will free you from your painful end,“ Franek said.

„So that you will kill me quicker before the poison? Yeah, no.“

„I did not mean. . .“ Franek shook his head. „You don‘t want to die, right? So give up already!“

„You‘re scared,“ I taunted. „You think you will lose to me. And I know that you don‘t want to kill me just yet. I helped kill your sister, so you don‘t want me to die boringly like this.“

Franek scowled. „Forget surrendering, just die a death not worthy enough such as yourself.“

He was letting the poison kill me, and he wasn‘t getting any closer. He wants me to go after him. And that is what I did.

„Program. Explosive shot,“ I said.

Franeks‘ eyes widened. He knew what was coming. He brandished his sword and called his own program.

„Sword Barrier!“

A line of smoke trail flew towards Franek, who made an energy barrier with his sword in front of him. But as my shots collided, his barrier broke and his artifact armor was nearly finished.

My movements were weak. I was in pain. But as the smoke cleared I threw the shield and my energy-less blaster and brought out a knife from within my jacket. The explosion made Franek drop his sword, and he was bewildered as he saw me closing the gap between us. I jumped and thrusted my knife, breaking the shattering barrier, and I felt the blade pierce his skin and scraped bone. But it was his hand that he used to block me from piercing his neck.

He kicked at the leg filled with poison, and I screamed in pain as I crouched down. His fist hit me in the face and I fell. I quickly tried to stand up, but it was hard as he kept kicking me in the stomach.

„That is for what you did to my sister! Elishia Quenton! Remember that name as I send you to hell! Remember that name and resent, then I might allow you to come back!“

I spitted out blood every time he collided with my stomach. The air was running out. What the hell am I doing? I‘m Vincent, I‘m supposed to be the asshole! Did the roles reverse or something?

With that thought, Franek pulled out the blade that was stuck in his hand. He pulled me up with his other while clutching the knife with the bloody drenched hilt.

„Die! You bastard!“

His blade. . . No, my blade was brought towards my own neck. And with the last ounce of strength and breath, I moved my hand to catch his arm. I quickly went and bit hard at his wrist. Franek yelped and dropped the knife, too which I caught and plunged it deep in his thigh.

He screamed and backed away. He held his bleeding thigh and grimaced. I noticed his soldiers coming to his aid.

„Stop! This is our duel!“ He yelled at them.

I was starting to feel the poison rising above the belt, I wouldn‘t have long. And I can‘t see anyone wearing those healing gauntlets. I was going to die, but at least I can bring this noble with me!

I drew out the sword that I hadn‘t used for a while and ran at him with a warcry. But then I noticed my foolish act. Franek was just above his artifact, and he grabbed it and our swords collided. And as expected, my sword was already breaking apart. The blade broke and fell, his blade shone as if brand new, and it was flying right towards me.

It was too quick, I wanted to close my eyes before I would be beheaded. I didn‘t want to see it coming to me. But it was too quick.

Well Ethan, if you are still alive, then you won. Your revenge has been fulfilled. Let‘s see each other again in hell or wherever we go after death.

A ray of light. A smoke trail. A loud boom. Liquid of red. And Franeks‘ face of confusion that said, „what. . . just. . . happened. . ?“.

Franek fell before his sword would have killed me right there and then. The side of his head had a smoking and a bloody hole that went out on the other side. I glanced back towards the smoke trail. An artifact‘s barrel smoked, and its vents started cooling it for the second round. Amara held the smoking sniper rifle and she most likely grinned behind her helmet.

„Am. . . ara?“ I said. I questioned myself why I sounded like a weak man that was about to die. I guess I was, though.

„Vincent! Stop your gawking and get the gem and come to me!“ She yelled.

Franeks‘ soldiers went silent for a moment when their leader fell. Then Ciara the general, rallied her soldiers, as she was most likely the new leader.

„Capture them! Don‘t let them escape!“ She yelled, and her soldiers responded in kind. They most likely wanted to kill us.

I checked the noble‘s pockets and grabbed the gem, and pocketed it. I took his artifact and mine. Then I ran for my life. With a leg filled with poison was not helping at all.

While the fight was going on, the soldiers were surrounding us with quite a distance, and they were coming in all directions. But the Braxton construct tore through the line, giving me an escape route.

Amara grabbed me and ran towards the trees, Braxton was behind, following. Ivy was there hiding with Ivona still bound and muffled.

„Amara! Now!“ Braxton yelled, which was rather unnecessary due to us being so close to each other. It didn‘t sound human anymore, it was like hearing from a speaker that needed repairs, or even a broken record.

„Oh don‘t you worry, Braxton,“ Amara said and pulled something out.

It was some sort of device. It was triangular and antennas shot out from every corner.

„What‘s that?“ I asked. „Nevermind, just do whatever you are going to do!“

Amara activated the gadget, that was in fact an artifact, and we were being surrounded by a bubble of zettra energy. It felt the same as before when Ethan first held the shield and made us appear here.

The soldiers ran with their swords, weapons with energy flew towards us, but the bubble stopped them, even though we were surrounded and their weapons pounded us.

A few seconds we were floating, a bright light was shone around us, completely blinding me. I closed my eyes and felt the same feeling of teleportation.

No sounds of soldiers. No sound of the squelching muck. I opened my eyes carefully, and though it should surprise me, it did not. Buildings surrounded us, and the concrete was below us instead of muck that I was covered after the fight. If it was day, then people would be around selling their wares, or artifact hunters going around with their business.

In front of us was a familiar building, it was the Artifact Hunters guild.

We were back in Dunwich.