Ian’s gift allowed him to cut anything. If Ian sheathed his blade, he gained the ability to cut one thing perfectly. He normally used this power to cut the air in front of him and cause an explosive and sharp burst of air to rush towards his enemies.

  But his gift wasn’t so limited to being able to cut things solely in the physical world.

  Ian’s gift could cut anything and that meant anything. In the past he had cut through space to enter the domain of the gods, and he had realized just how far beyond the physical realm he could use his gift.

  Within Theo’s frozen world Ian was not conscious, his body had been frozen in the endless stream of Time. But his soul screamed that he would not be vanquished like this, that he could not be vanquished like this.

  Instinctively, his soul changed the target of his one cut from Lillian to Time.

  The blade had not quite left the impromptu sheath of the ground as Theo had frozen time; the bare tip of the blade was still covered in the loamy soil.

  But as Theo approached Ian the blade twitched, and the sword was freed from its sheath. Theo didn’t notice this, the world was stopped, how could he be expected to see something impossible happen?

  The blade was free, Ian’s soul targeted Time and cut.

  The word screamed as Ian’s blade carved a section out of the body of Time. The god was endless and unstoppable, yet a man had ripped a piece of them out. The god screamed, but it was useless. The damage was already done.

  Ian watched as the world around him reverted. Step by step the entire fight that had played out over the past few minutes was undone. Time rewound the clock, undoing all the mistakes and injuries that Ian had taken. The only thing left from this abandoned timeline was Ian’s memories of what the future held.

  An intense moment of vertigo struck at Ian and Joy looked at him and asked, “do you want to play a game?” Ian already knew what to expect, the game would be Blind Man’s Bluff and he would be made blind by the start of the game.

  Ian instantly unsheathed his sword, preparing to cut himself away from the blindness caused by Joy’s game.

  The voice spoke in all their minds, “Roulette. Do any of you need the rules explained to you.” Ian reeled from shock; this fight had already departed from what he knew of the future.

  But none of that stopped Ian from lancing his blade through the air and separating himself from whatever foolishness Joy’s game would cause.

  Behind all three of Ian’s opponents now stood a massive wheel, covered in red and black. A massive roulette wheel that was already spinning, endlessly spinning.

  But none of that mattered to Ian. Now that he could see, he would no longer be caught off guard by these foolish children and he could prevent the dragon from interrupting Prince David.

  Ian knew he had made a mistake in the last attempt at this fight. He had tried too hard to get to the dragon, he needed to remove the threats in front of him instead of overextending himself.

  First, he would take care of the nuisance that almost had gotten him last time. Ian sheathed his sword as Joy and Lillian approached him. Joy’s body had a soft amber glow about it, and he seemed to be moving faster than he had in the previous fight.

  But he wasn’t fast enough. This time Ian knew that Joy was going to close the distance between the two of them to keep the sword from being used properly. So, Ian let Joy close the distance.

  Joy was stronger and faster than any normal human being could be. But Joy was not skillful. He relied on pure luck and his games to win, Ian allowed Joy to close the distance and then began to fistfight him.

  Joy struck out in a flurry of blows, yet Ian blocked them all. Taking advantage of Joy’s augmented speed, Ian kicked his feet out from under him and caused Joy to skid along the ground, away from Ian.

  Lillian and Joy were not working together well, and Lillian had just closed the distance, preparing to tackle Ian to the ground. This was a good idea, better than Joy’s foolish brawling. If Lillian brought Ian to the ground, he would be unable to draw his sword, and his three opponents would be able to destroy him easily.

  But Ian knew one vital thing about Lillian. She had a glaring weakness while fighting him.

  Ian grabbed the hilt of his sword and began drawing it out of his sheath as she approached. Fear filled her eyes as she saw the blade slowly revealed in the light. A moment’s hesitation was all Ian needed from her.

  Ian’s sword flashed in the air in front of him and Lillian curled up, hoping that her armor would be able to take the brunt of the damage from one of Ian’s air blades. But no strike hit her, there was just an eerie silence.

  Lillian moved her arms out from in front of her face and saw an ethereal line hanging in the air in front of Ian.

  Ian let a small smile of pride show on his face as he stepped into the ethereal line and disappeared.

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  Ian desperately needed to take out Theo. He knew that there was some series of events that could occur that would allow Theo to surpass all his personal limits and freeze Time. So, Ian needed to keep that possibility off the field of play no matter what.

  Theo did not expect Ian to appear directly in front of him once he had stepped into that ethereal line. And he expected it even less as Ian’s blade made a horizontal slice in the air, aiming for his neck.

  Theo jerked back instinctively, but his gift could not save him. Ian had attacked a little too far away, and since Theo had jerked back only the tip of the blade could contact Theo at all.

  But that was enough. The blade did not strike Theo’s neck, the sudden movement had changed the point of contact.

  Instead, Ian’s blade carved a red line across Theo’s face, directly across both of his eyes.

  Theo screamed as his world was suddenly thrown into darkness. Frost exuded out of the holes in his face where eyes used to reside. And pain radiated from Theo’s mournful cry.

  Ian was not displeased with what had happened. He had known he needed to fight these people and had been lightly sad that he may have to kill them. But at least he wouldn’t have to kill Theo. He was out of this fight entirely, and it was meaningless to kill him, just wasted effort.

  Ian mused on this before turning his attention back towards the massive dragon, his original target. Unfortunately for him, this turned him away from his greatest source of danger.

  Joy’s strike caused Ian to go flying. He bounced off the ground and felt ribs shatter within his chest from the strike. But Joy was not done yet, no, he was just getting started.

  The glow around Joy was even more intense and the roulette wheel above his head was spinning faster and faster. Joy was physically radiating power.

  Lillian was not using Joy’s game and thus was much slower in approaching Ian but the two of them were running towards Ian together. Joy reached him first, but Ian was ready this time.

  Joy’s flurry of blows was met with skill as Ian ducked and dodged, slowly putting his sword back in his sheath. Joy knew that a big attack was coming, so he redoubled efforts in bringing the sword master down.

  Lillian gritted her teeth and brought herself incredibly close to Ian, keeping him from truly drawing his sword. He flailed out, trying to push her away, but her dream armor kept her safe from his vicious attacks.

  Joy’s swings were getting faster and faster as time went on. The ethereal glow around him grew in intensity until he shone like a star in the night sky.

  But Ian had plans, he was not a fool, he was not easy prey for these younglings to take. He was the wolf, and they were the sheep.

  He had one last trick.

  What was a blade? It is truly a difficult question, the blade is not defined by its sharpness, otherwise all swords with a dull edge would be considered blunt instruments. A blade is something used with the intention to cut. Both kitchen knives and great swords are blades. Ian knew something deep in his soul, everything was a blade put in the correct hands.

  Ian unsheathed his sword the smallest bit, all that Lillian would allow before stomping the sword back into the sheath. But he had enough time with the blade free; he made a shallow cut in his forearm.

  Ian moved with grace unlike any other, therefore it wasn’t surprising that neither Joy nor Lillian noticed him rip off a fingernail. Blood welled and Ian impassively shoved the dirty nail into the small cut he had made on his forearm.

  Space is the most important factor in a fight. It doesn’t matter how strong an opponent is, if they cannot get enough room to pull back their fist and strike, they are as weak as a child. What had made Joy and Lillian’s strategy so devastating was that Ian needed to pull his sword out of his sheath, and that he needed space in front of him to accomplish this.

  Joy and Lillian kept the space tight thus keeping Ian from drawing his sword. However, this space meant that Lillian was directly in front of him as he “unsheathed” the nail from his arm.

  The nail cut directly through Lillian’s dream armor as if it was butter and Ian held a hot knife. An eruption of blood exploded out of the hole that Ian had cut into Lillian and Lillian collapsed to the ground unconscious, her dreamy armor evaporating into the river of reality.

  Ian stood triumphant over the second of his vanquished foes, yet he was as impassive as ever. These were merely roadblocks in getting to his final goal of destroying that stupid dragon.

  Ian cursed as he unsheathed his blade, disregarding everything else and focusing on cutting everything in his path to the dragon and the princess.

  Behind him, a few words were softly spoken, “bet all my strength on 23.” A spin of a wheel, then Ian felt an immense heat erupt behind him.

  All thoughts of attacking the dragon were left behind, he had forgotten that Joy could be more than a nuisance, he played games by his own rules with his own win conditions for fights.

  Just because Ian had destroyed Joy’s support did not mean Joy was out of the fight yet.

  Ian slashed down immediately, guiding his blade down to target the very game that had made Joy so powerful. If he could destroy the game, then Joy would be weak again.

  Two things happened at the same time. Ian’s sword was thrown far into the distance by a kick from Joy that had caused a wave of air to collide with Ian’s falling sword. And the spectral flames of power that surrounded Joy guttered out.

  Both had succeeded, and yet both had failed.

  Neither hesitated, Ian ripped another fingernail off, and Joy leapt on him. They rolled in the remains of the destroyed castle like children in a scuffle. Ian desperately trying to shove a bloody fingernail into the gash in his arm while Joy pummeled him.

  Elbows, fists, knees, and heads cracked from the strikes that Joy laid down upon Ian. The god Wrath laughed as they watched Joy turn in a gibbering madman.

  There was no more happiness, there were no more games, all that was left was blood flying and bone crunching.

  Ian couldn’t get his fingernail anywhere. After the first few strikes, he had fallen unconscious. After the next hundred, his head was little more than a smear against the ground.

  There were no quips. There were no titters of laughter in the air. There was no joy permeating the world, it was just violence of man on man like the gods intended.

  Finally, Joy rose to his feet and saw and saw the princess and her dragon looking sadly down at him. He was covered in blood, and yet they seemed so untouched by it all. They looked at him with pity as Dahlia got on the dragon’s back and flew away.

  “Cowards!” Joy yelled into the sky. He raised his fist to the heavens and screamed.

  “They’re hurt! Why won’t you help them.” Then quietly to himself, “why won’t I?” In a rush he got off the corpse of the once mighty, the now truly Bloody Ian, and ran to what was left of his friends.

  Theo’s gift seemed to have frozen the cut in his face shut, so he wasn’t bleeding horribly. And Lillian too had lost quite a bit of blood, but she seemed stable.

  Both were unconscious, both were helpless, yet what else could Joy do other than start dragging them away from this field of blood?

  Step after step, Joy dragged his friends away from Vena Cava and the tragedy unfolding there.