Soul Forging System

The Commander's spear came screaming past Stephan's chest, a streak of violet doom. At the last possible instant, Stephan twisted his body, his boots skidding across cracked obsidian stone as he slipped just beyond the point of annihilation.

But the storm wasn't so easily avoided.

A stray arc of lightning ripped from the Commander's spear as it passed, a jagged whip of purple fire. It tore across Stephan's left side before he could fully evade.

CRACK!

The world detonated in light and pain.

The force hurled him like a ragdoll, smashing him against the jagged wall of the mountain path. Stone shattered outward, a spray of burning gravel and dust exploding around his body as he slammed into it.

For a moment, everything was white noise, lightning burning across his nerves, his ears ringing with the sound of the storm.

Ding!

[Damage Registered: 20%]

Stephan coughed, smoke curling from the blackened fabric of his coat. His left arm trembled violently, scorched from shoulder to wrist. The acrid stench of seared flesh mixed with the ozone crackle of the Commander's lightning.

"Tsk… fuck!" he spat, forcing himself upright, his back pressed against the fractured stone. He flexed his charred arm once, twice, every nerve screamed in protest. Smoke coiled lazily from the burns, like incense from a cursed altar.

His eyes burned with fury, pupils narrowing as they locked back onto the glowing skeletal knight astride its lightning-wreathed mount.

"Seems like I underestimated you," Stephan growled, baring his teeth in something between a grin and a snarl.

Another arc of violet lightning sizzled across the battlefield, illuminating his face in stark, demonic light. He raised his Ossuary Sword, its black edge gleaming with hunger.

"That lightning…" he muttered, voice low, almost to himself. "…is gonna be a pain in the ass."

Then his grin widened, savage and eager. He rolled his shoulder, spat blood onto the cracked stone at his feet, and leveled his sword at the Commander.

"Okay, motherfucker…" Stephan's voice dropped into a growl, his aura beginning to flare with murderous intent.

"…let's dance."

The skeletal Commander sat astride his storm-wreathed mount, spear humming like a thunderous war drum. Purple lightning arced from its tip to the stones, cracking them open like brittle glass. The air itself shuddered beneath the weight of its aura.

Stephan's eyes narrowed, his Ossuary Sword held low at his side, black steel trembling with restrained hunger.

The Commander didn't wait. With a shriek of metal and storm, the mounted knight launched forward again, faster this time. The horse's hooves left streaks of violet fire in the sand, every step detonating like thunderclaps.

He's faster than before!

Stephan's instincts screamed, his body blurring into motion. He sidestepped left, just as the spear tore through where his chest had been a heartbeat earlier. The air pressure alone split the mountain stone behind him into a jagged canyon.

The Commander didn't slow. The horse pivoted unnaturally, hooves grinding sparks, spear lashing out in a wide arc. Stephan ducked under the swing, the lightning discharge clipping his hair and leaving charred strands floating.

Another arc. Another swing.

Each strike came with a storm, ribbons of violet lightning lashing outward, detonating stone, charring the ground black. It wasn't just the spear anymore; the air was alive with death. Every dodge, every sidestep, had to be perfect.

Stephan's heart pounded with exhilaration and fury. One wrong move and his body would be carved open, roasted alive.

He kicked off the ground, flipping backward as the Commander's spear drilled into the earth where he had stood. The ground erupted in a geyser of molten rock and purple flame.

The shockwave lifted him midair, he twisted, landed on a boulder, and immediately sprang away as another lightning arc split the stone in two.

"He's not sloppy like that Captain earlier," Stephan spat, his grin widening. The storm danced across his sword, hungry to answer back.

But he noticed something.

The Commander's movements weren't random. Each thrust, each swipe of the spear, was herding him, subtle but deliberate. The knight was trying to corner him against the cliffside.

"You clever sack of bones," Stephan muttered, sweat dripping down his temple. His grip tightened on the Ossuary Sword.

He couldn't just dodge forever. If he misread even once, he was finished.

The Commander pressed harder, the storm thickening around him. His spear split into afterimages, each thrust carrying arcs of violet death that ripped open the air itself.

Stephan barely managed to parry one strike, the impact shaking his bones. Another came from the side, he ducked, felt the lightning scorch his cheek, the smell of burnt flesh filling his nose.

[Damage Avoided: 5%]

[Warning: Sustained exposure to lightning field will degrade stamina]

"Tch...he's trying to wear me down."

The horse reared, unleashing a wave of crackling energy that spread across the battlefield like a tidal wave. Stephan leapt over it, twisting midair, only for the Commander to launch upward after him, spear a streak of stormfire.

He crossed his sword just in time.

BOOM!

The impact was cataclysmic. Purple lightning exploded outward, slamming Stephan back through the air. He hit the ground, rolled, and shot to his feet again, teeth clenched.

"Not…bad…" He panted, sweat mixing with blood at the corner of his mouth. His whole arm tingled with numbness where he blocked. "One more second late and I would've been roasted."

The Commander gave no pause. He lunged again, horse and rider one storm-forged monster, their speed unnatural.

Stephan sidestepped, sparks exploding under his boots. The spear pierced stone, detonating an entire boulder into shards. Stephan flipped backward, only for another bolt of lightning to chase him midair. He twisted, barely avoiding it, the bolt smashing into the cliff behind him and reducing it to rubble.

"Shit....he's reading me," Stephan growled.

His body was at its limit, every nerve alive with the knowledge that one slip meant death. Yet his grin only widened.

This was no longer just a fight. It was survival against a force of nature.

The Commander raised his spear, lightning condensing into a single blazing point. The horse pawed the ground, sparks flying. The storm above roared louder, as though the mountain itself bent to the knight's will.

Stephan knew.

This next strike… if I don't do something, it'll kill me.

He slid one foot back. His irises darted, tracking the movement of storm and steel, calculating every fraction of a second.

"Alright, bastard," he muttered under his breath, his grin dark and sharp. "No more running."

The Commander lowered his spear, then launched forward, a streak of purple lightning and fury, aiming to split Stephan in half.

The Commander's charge tore through the air like a storm given flesh, his spear blazing with violet lightning, the horse's hooves striking sparks against the stone path. The ground shook beneath their momentum, a living avalanche of thunder barreling toward Stephan.

Stephan planted his feet. His chest rose and fell, steady, then he inhaled deeply, the memory of Grief's technique flooding into his soul.

"Whip Lash."

The blade roared. From its edge burst a torrent of black fire, not flame that danced but fire that coiled, cracking outward like serpents of molten shadow. They writhed, converging into a massive arc that lashed forward just as the Commander's spear descended.

The world erupted. Violet lightning and black fire collided head-on. The sky above split in half, one side blazing with stormlight, the other swallowed in midnight flame. The shockwave hurled dust and stone high into the air. Cracks raced across the mountainside like a spider's web splitting apart, whole slabs of black rock tumbling into the abyss below.

Stephan gritted his teeth as the storm pushed him back, his boots grinding trenches into the stone path. Arcs of lightning leapt off the spear, scorching his arm and chest, burning through his coat. His blade shook in his grip, the black fire resisting, hissing as it clashed against the storm.

The Commander pressed harder, his sockets burning with violet rage. Lightning spread outward from him in waves, shattering boulders and igniting patches of stone with electric fire. His horse screamed, its body half-skeletal, half-flesh, hooves slamming as it poured more storm into its rider's strike.

But Stephan only smiled through the grit of his teeth, eyes gleaming with madness. "That all you've got?!"

His whip lash surged, doubling in size, arcs of black fire striking outward like living chains. They wrapped around the lightning, dragging it inward, devouring it. Each tendril hissed and burned through the storm until violet light began to dim under the weight of pure corruption.

The clash roared louder, shockwaves hammering outward. Arrows of lightning streaked wild into the sky, forming cracks in the clouds. Fire serpents lashed free, igniting whole ridges of the mountain, melting stone to glass where they struck.

Stephan roared, forcing his will into the Ossuary Sword. Black fire howled, a tidal wave in the shape of a whip, tearing through the storm. Slowly, agonizingly, the violet lightning bent backward, pushed against its master.

The Commander thrashed, his horse screaming, both bodies wreathed in sparks. He tried to hold, forcing his spear forward, the storm crackling louder, violet lightning bursting in frantic arcs that scorched the cliffside and shattered spires of black stone.

But the fire was unrelenting.

"Burn," Stephan growled.

The whip lash broke through.

The black fire carved a jagged path through the Commander's lightning, burning away sparks like paper in flame. It slammed into the horse and rider with apocalyptic force. In an instant the storm knight was engulfed, spear, armor, flesh, and bone swallowed in an inferno of midnight.

The horse shrieked, its flesh sizzling away, bones crumbling to ash. The Commander raised his spear one final time before it dissolved in his grip, sockets blazing white in defiance, then his whole frame shattered into cinders, a scream of storm drowned in fire.

The mountain trembled. Where they had clashed, a massive crater stretched wide, molten stone glowing in the cracks. Half the path had collapsed into the abyss. Black fire lingered, licking across shattered rocks, while purple sparks crackled and fizzled, dying out one by one.

Stephan stood at the center, chest heaving, Ossuary Sword smoking in his hand. His coat was shredded, his left arm blackened and trembling from the strain, but his grin split wide across his face.

"Now that…" he exhaled, the fire fading behind him, "…was worth the trouble."

Ding!

[+ 350 Souls Added]

[Elite Commander Soul Secured]

The battlefield was silent, save for the crackle of fading embers. The storm was gone. Only Stephan remained, eyes fixed higher up the mountain, where even greater power surely waited.

He spat blood to the side, rolled his shoulder, and started walking up the path again.