After the third round of temporal spells, Gaizeal adapted to the flow of Cypher’s attacks. He prevented Cypher from touching his body at every turn and even returned attacks of his own. Gaizeal’s rage had finally broken, and his more obvious berserker traits began to resurface.
Gaizeal swung his whip rapidly, and Cypher was only just barely able to dodge the blows as he moved backward. Gaizeal continued to advance, his own anger affecting his aim. “DIE! DIE! DIE!” screamed Gaizeal. Cypher jumped up as hard as he could and sailed over Gaizeal.
The man roared and turned to charge at Cypher. With blinding speed, Gaizeal suddenly appeared in front of Cypher and slammed his steel fist down at him. It crashed into the ground as Cypher narrowly dodged it and a cloud of dust rose to obscure Cypher’s vision.
A steel hand reached out through the cloud, made thicker by Gaizeal’s miasma, and managed to grab ahold of Cypher’s head. He struggled and flailed in an attempt to escape, but it was useless. Gaizeal’s iron grip was absolute. The cold steel of his magickal hand pressed against Cypher’s skull like a vice, despite the helmet that protected him.
His thoughts slowed to a crawl as pain washed over him, and his body hung from Gaizeal’s grip. “Now, you die! Weak boy say goodnight!” Gaizeal’s mind had fallen fully into his berserker traits at this point, but impressively, he could still form coherent enough thoughts to speak.
Gaizeal reared back with Cypher’s body in his hand and slammed his head into a nearby wall. The pain was indescribable. Cypher’s vision went white, and his eyes rolled back into their sockets. However, oddly enough, as much as it hurt, he didn’t faint or even die.
“SLAM!”
“SLAM!”
“SLAM!”
Gaizeal laughed with unrestrained glee as he continued to bash Cypher’s head against the crumbling stone wall. Bits of brick and wood scattered about with each impact. Still, somehow Cypher endured. The wall soon fell apart, and Gaizeal resorted to using the ground.
His laughter continued, but soon, it turned to grunts of rage as he realized that Cypher was still alive. Even Cypher was shocked by this when his mind was free of pain enough to think properly. For all intents and purposes, Cypher should be a corpse by now, yet somehow, he still lived.
“WHY YOU NO DIE?!?” Gaizeal tossed Cypher up into the air and caught him by his arms. He then launched his knee between Cypher’s shoulder blades with all of his might. The blow took his breath as pain rocketed through his entire body. Cypher could feel several ribs shatter as the attack made contact.
Gaizeal then threw him across the square, and he hit the ground and rolled with a metallic thud. His vision began to fade as he stared Gaizeal on. “H-heh, heh… I th-thought you were,” began Cypher as he coughed up blood, “g-going to end this?” Cypher struggled to let out a chuckle, knowing full well that his words would only enrage the man further.
He stood up slowly, wobbling a bit. Pain shot from his head to his feet and pulsed in time with his beating heart. However, slowly, his pain began to ebb away, and in only a few seconds, he was feeling like himself again. It was as if his wounds had healed themselves.
In truth they had, however, Cypher took notice of the price that such healing carried. His armor from the waist down was gone, and the rest of it seemed to be fading away as well. He could feel his power slowly dropping back down to its normal limits. His time had expired, and the boost was now fading away.
The armor had essentially carried him through this entire battle, and he cursed his own weakness once again. He hated that once again, he was relying on powers or gifts handed down to him. Where had his resolve to use his own power gone? Had Louis really shaken him that much that he would resort to being supported once again?
He couldn’t say for sure. Something about this seemed different even if someone else might say that it was no different than using his training rooms back home. He was running on borrowed power this entire time. It might have stacked with his own, but it was still not wholly his own strength. Still, he recognized that if he had used his own strength, he would be dead right now.
Some situations required the help of outside forces. Perhaps this counted, perhaps not. Either way, Cypher knew one thing for certain: He couldn’t continue to fight against the Order if he didn’t first get stronger.
Finding his friends, the search for his mother, his crusade against the ones who had ruined his family and threatened the world, all of it would have to wait because if he didn’t get stronger, armor or not, he would die before accomplishing any of those goals.
Cypher grew worried as the armor slowly faded back into the Ark Cradle. It didn’t matter that his wounds had been healed, or that he had resisted death thanks to the armour. Gaizeal would still kill him if he returned to normal now.
However, he kept up the facade of being injured. He could use this to his advantage. No, it wasn’t that he could use it, he had to. The next exchange would determine everything, and Cypher had his sights set squarely on a target of attack. Gaizeal was impossibly strong. There was no way he could win normally, but a memory from years ago pushed its way to the front of his mind, and a weak spot on Gaizeal became obvious.
“Why you no die?” growled Gaizeal.
“Y-your guess is as g-good as m-mine metal head!” replied Cypher. “M-maybe you’re j-just not as powerful as you t-thought.” Gaizeal glared at him and rolled his head in annoyance.
“No! That not possible! Me stronger! Me faster! Me harder! You just lucky! Me end it now!” With that, Gaizeal went to all fours and began charging at Cypher once more. This was it. This was Cypher’s last, best chance. He hated to resort to this tactic, but what else could he do? What else was even possible?
As Gaizeal drew nearer, Cypher readied himself. Every ounce of mental energy flowed to his senses and muscles. His Athenaeum went dark as the lantern went out, and his mental energy dropped to zero. So great was Cypher’s focus that he remained conscious, his sheer will sustaining him as he pulled off his final attack.
It didn’t matter if this might cost him his life or injure him. If Cypher didn’t do this, Gaizeal would kill him anyway. Cypher’s attack was swift, perfectly executed, and accurate as he dodged Gaizeal’s horns, slid beneath him, and plunged the tip of his saber directly into the indentation where Gaizeal had pulled his whip from.
Cypher pushed the pommel of the saber into the ground, and Gaizeal’s own momentum drove the blade deep into his chest. Cypher could hear the blade grinding through Gaizeal’s armor, then his flesh, the bone of Gaizeal’s sternum, and finally, the wet squelch as it pierced his thumping heart.
Gaizeal stumbled and fell, pushing the blade deeper so that it protruded from his back. At this point, Cypher lay on the ground completely exposed. His armor had completely faded, and his Conduction level had returned to normal. It seemed that a fatal blow, or several in Cypher’s case, had ended the transformation into his armor, and now the Ark Cradle was dormant.
As for Gaizeal, he stuttered and struggled to lift himself off the ground. “Gr-ah-gh-ngh-…” he managed to choke out in a spray of blood. It was over.
“Imposs… H-how? How d-did… h-how did yo-u?” he said in his final words, his face twisted in shocked confusion. With a loud peal that sounded of metal striking glass bells, he fell to the ground and stirred no more. The proof of his death was evident as his transformed arms, spikes, and animalistic features vanished.
Relief came over Cypher as he stood up, limped over, and pulled his saber from Gaizeal’s chest. He sat down on a nearby bench that had somehow avoided destruction. Cypher had won just barely. His victory against the Rank-Two Horned Wolf all those years ago flashed in his mind. He had been lucky then, and once again, the same tactic had worked.
He had reasoned that if he couldn’t kill Gaizeal with his own strength, he would borrow Gaizeal’s own power to do so. Cypher’s saber was nigh indestructible, at least, for someone on Gaizeal’s level. Cypher had known that it would be sharp enough and durable enough to be able to pierce the steadfast defenses of the Rank-Four Order Captain. With Gaizeal in the form of a massive Bull, it was only a matter of getting him to charge.
Cypher’s gambit had been successful, but he felt bitter about the victory.
