Flow of Existence

Con hadn't hesitated when he felt the bloodlust, he instantly formed fire and shot it into the direction he had felt it coming from.

What jumped out from behind the wreckage had surprised him a lot more, it was just a teenage kid.

But Con could feel this was no ordinary kid, the bloodlust coming off him was almost palpable. The kid was covered in the blood of his enemies, Con's comrades, and had an intensely mad look on his face. He must have known the woman whose head Con had just been holding.

But the kid wasn't the only one burning with killing intent and bloodlust. Con himself also wanted to do nothing but massacre as many of the filthy villagers as he could.

His right side still ached. There where his arm was supposed to be was now nothing but a bleeding stump of mangled flesh.

His arm had been twisted off very painfully, it would never recover. It had bled profusely and was still doing so. But most of all, it hurt like hell.

He wanted revenge. Revenge on the filthy villagers that had taken his arm from him.

Surprisingly, Con had been one of the more peaceful raiders before the incident. He was willing to spare everyone as long as they calmly surrendered themselves to him and became slaves. But now that was all over.

His arm was not something he could ever regain, it was lost forever. He would probably be demoted after this and forced to retire from his life of combat forever. A one armed man could simply not stack up against the people that still possessed both.

That's why he wanted revenge, needed revenge. And he was willing to take it out on whatever villager was closest to him. In this case it was the ashen haired teenage boy.

'It's not the sand brown haired kid but he will have to do.'

The only one he was still willing to spare was the sand brown haired kid, simply because of the bounty placed on him. Even if he was most likely the son of that hateful woman that had pulled off his arm, the money was worth more to him.

Con roared as he formed more fire, shooting it at the teenage kid.

"Let me take this one, Alone!"

The other people that felt his terrifying pressure got the hint and hurriedly left the area. Some had melancholic looks on their faces. They seemed to feel sorry for the kid, he was simply an outlet for Con's pent up rage.

Nash, meanwhile, was busy dodging the annoying fireballs that kept flying at him.

He couldn't get any closer to the one armed monster, but he was happy he had told the others to stay away. Because of this he might still stand a chance.

He dodged and weaved agilely between the flurry of fire that swept the area, but the distance between them was seemingly insurmountable. Hell, it only seemed to be getting larger.

After a solid minute of dodging Nash realized the ferocity of the attacks was reducing, the one armed monster wasn't shooting as many attacks as he had before.

Nash wondered if it was because he was running low on innate element or if he was intentionally faking it, but he decided to disregard the latter option for now. Even though it would be a gamble to risk it on if he was faking it or not Nash decided he was unlikely to currently be bluffing because of the mental state the one armed man seemed to be in.

The rage could be read on his face, it simply screamed: 'Why isn't this annoying little kid going down already.'

For the first time today Nash felt thankful for still being a young kid, it currently worked to his advantage.

Because the enemy still saw him as a child he couldn't imagine why his accurately formed fire attacks weren't hitting him.

Despite his unstable mental state, Nash seemed to be keeping his cool and analyzing the battle the best out of the two combatants.

But that didn't mean Nash had an advantage now, the one armed man was still stronger than him.

Nash, sensing a opening, jumped into it, he dashed directly towards the one armed man.

Con was mad now, really mad. He dashed backwards, it wasn't worth his time to fight the kid at close range where he would be disadvantaged because of his missing arm.

But he just couldn't shake off the feral child, every time he dashed backwards the annoying little kid would follow. And so he decided to switch up his attack pattern.

He created an immense wall of flames, using up the last bit of innate element he still had within him, and forced the feral child to move in a certain direction.

His strategy worked, he managed to force the kid exactly in the spot he had wanted him to be in and landed a nasty kick to his gut.

Nash flew backwards crashing into the smoldering remains of one of the ruined houses. A piece of broken wood stuck into his back creating a painfully aching wound. He gritted his teeth and quickly got back up as he saw the one armed man once again try to kick him.

He dashed backwards but he still got scraped by the flailing foot. This made him briefly stumble, but he recovered before the one armed man could land a follow up attack.

Now the feral child and the one armed man were once again facing off, looking each other up and down with hate in their eyes in the middle of the ruined village. They were all alone, no one was around to ruin their battle and the only thing on their minds was how to most efficiently kill the person they were facing down.

Nash spat out a bit of blood onto the ground and once again got into fighting stance. Now it was his turn to go on the offensive.

When he looked around he saw the burned down village, he heard the many screams of villagers who were no doubt having fights of their own and thought back to what he had experienced earlier that day. He breathed softly as he calmly took it all in. And then, he flipped the switch, his mind was consumed by nothing but rage, bloodlust and murder. His state an imitation of what it had been earlier when he had torn out the throat of the raider who had mentioned the bounty on his friend's head.

Con felt the air subtly shift as he stared down the child who now truly seemed like a feral beast, the bloodlust coming from him was palpable. Goosebumps seemed to run up his body as he stared down what should just be an inexperienced teenage child.

He roared, seemingly to deny the fear he was feeling from the child in front of him, and took out a knife hidden deep within his robes. He got into position, anticipating the feral child's attack.

Nash did not keep him waiting for long, he pushed his feet off the ground and dashed over at inhuman speed. 

The pressure he was exerting alone was unthinkable for someone of his stature, Con felt like an apex predator had just pounced on his prey.

But that didn't stop the one armed monster from retaliating, he too was a mad and strong predator searching for ways to murder the child in front of him.

Con slashed his knife as Nash weaved out of the way, the blade nicked Nash's shoulder, he let out a wail of pain. But the wail wasn't only one of pain it was also a scream of attack as he slammed his fist into the stump of the one armed man.

Con screeched loudly as pain permeated all throughout his body, the feral child had hit him exactly where it hurt the most. 

He swiftly took a step back, but he had given up too much ground. The feral child pounced him before he could recover, delivering a painful smash into his abdomen.

The impact of the smash made him falter for just a second, he lost his balance. Nash instantaneously capitalized on this fact. Despite the fact he was feral on the outside, and seemed to be only driven by murder, his mind somehow was able to calmly analyze the state of the battle.

He swept Con off his legs with a kick of his own. Con stumbled, his hands weren't free to save him here, he landed on his back.

Nash rapidly tried to pin him to the ground, but Con had the advantage of being an adult male, his leg strength was still a whole lot higher than that of the feral child. He kicked himself off the ground, gaining a little bit of ground for himself.

Because of this he had time, he could make it. His arm, which was still holding the knife moved in one swift strike, it was going to hit straight into the feral child's brain. 

As Nash realized the knife was going to be plunged straight, deep, into his brain, he closed his eyes. Reaching a state of pure focus and concentration mixed with his earlier state of bloodlust.

His mind was unfathomably clear, the world around him seemed to be moving much slower than he was. He couldn't even hear the earlier screams, the burning of the village or anything that was going on around him.

Everything seemed to be insignificant besides the battle he was currently fighting, he had to kill his enemy, he had to survive.

He shifted his focus and his body and managed to do something unimaginable, he formed a streak of ash.

The streak of ash shot out and cleanly severed the wrist of the one armed monster.

Con wailed as his wrist got cut off, but he wouldn't be able to wail for very long. He saw the visage of the feral child, the feral child twisted his body once more and landed atop the one armed monster.

Nash let out an ear deafening scream that resounded all throughout the village while he formed another streak of ash, this one cleanly slicing through Con's throat.

His gray hair was streaked red with the blood of his enemy as he laid down atop the freshly killed corpse, the filthy feeling of euphoria of a fresh kill spreading all throughout his body.