Teon's body collapses, and he falls to his knees, panting and sweating.

  "I expected more of you. Didn't Lucius tell you you don't have to hold back?"

  The boy groans and tries to get up again.

  "He did!"

  "Then stop holding back. This is getting boring!"

  Teon sighs in frustration and exhaustion, needing to muster all the strength he has left just to stand up. Cain looks over to Kaia, who's sitting at the edge of the mountaintop, watching them.

  "Maybe you should switch, giving him a short break."

  "No, I'm still able to continue."

  He takes a step towards Cain, but in the same instant Cain closes the distance between the two of them. Slamming the palm of his hand under Teon's chin, forcing his head to fall in the back, this is followed up by a strike against Teon's throat. He ends the combo with a fist strike against the boy's solar plexus. The air is knocked out of Teon's lungs, and he loses consciousness for a second, collapsing once more.

  "Take a break and let the lady have her turn."

  While gasping for air, Teon nods and crawls to the side. Kaia slowly stands up and walks towards Cain.

  "I have a question, sir."

  "Ask. And don't call me sir. We're all friends here."

  He smiles provocatively.

  "If you have no soul, how were you able to use a flash step just now?"

  "I didn't. You're confusing your silly little tricks with my natural capabilities."

  After finishing his sentence, Cain spreads his arms and mockingly bows down.

  "Ready?"

  Without giving him an answer, Kaia closes the distance between the two with a flash step and performs the same combo Ain just used against Teon. Surprised, he stumbles backwards. A big smirk spreads over his face.

  "You're learning quickly."

  Teon grits his teeth.

  "At this point she has surpassed me and Kaiby by a mile."

  Cain and Kaia start a wild exchange of blows. They seem pretty even, but after just a few moments it becomes clear that Cain has the clear upper hand.

  "What's going on, little girl? Getting tired already?"

  "No... but..."

  The sentence is cut off by a scream. Kaias hand shot up to her head and grabbed it tight. She screams and stumbles around.

  "LET ME OUT! I WANT TO FIGHT HIM!"

  "No... stop talking!"

  Cain looks at her confused, saying that he didn't say anything. Then his eyes light up.

  "Lucius told me that something is wrong with you. Show it to me."

  "NO!"

  Cain steps closer to her and grabs her by the hair.

  "Show it to me!"

  Teon moves towards them, yelling at Cain to stop.

  "Can't you see how much she's struggling?!"

  Cain ignores him and just shoves him to the ground. Kaias scream becomes louder.

  "Fight it, Kaia; don't let her get out!"

  The air around them starts to heat up. Cain looks confused, and Teon transforms and shields himself with his wings. Cain looks at Kaia, whose eyes are glowing orange now. Then she explodes. After the smoke fades away and the surroundings are visible again, Aziel stands in front of a shocked Cain whose entire skin is burned; the arm he held Kaias hair with is completely gone. Teon's wings are entirely gone, burned away. Aziel sighs satisfied and stretches her back, tail wagging behind her over the ground. Cain's skin regenerates.

  Up above them, sitting in the air, Ragnar watches tensely.

  She says nothing, just opens her maw before a beam of fire engulfs Cain. Suddenly a hand comes out of the beam, grabs her jaw, and forces it shut, stopping the attack.

  "You need more than a little fire to kill me."

  Aziel smirks after Cain lets go of her jaw.

  "I've heard stories of you."

  "You did? I feel flattered."

  She steps closer, only centimeters between them.

  "Lucifer hates you. One of the few humans who truly belong in hell, but he can't get you."

  Cain's cocky grin fades.

  "How do you know Lucifer?"

  Aziel smirks and points at herself.

  "You stand in front of the black sun wyrm, the black sun of hell."

  On the side Teon coughs because of the dust in the air.

  "Do you always introduce yourself like this?"

  "Shut it, brat!"

  Cain's expression turns darker, and his hand slowly moves to the blades on his belt. Aziel laughs at the sight.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  "You want to fight me with this?"

  "Yes!"

  "You have to know, I can see and hear anything the girl does. I know you're only number 3. And last time I got out, it took the man up there..."

  She points up at Ragnar.

  "...to knock me out. So how do you believe that this little thing could even scratch me?"

  "I killed worse."

  She bursts into laughter and asks for an example. Cain responds that he killed the 4 princes of hell while they were still human. Four humans selected by Lucifer himself. Aziel growls, and the gaps between her scales glow brighter. She dashes at him, one clawed hand aimed at Cain's face. He spins to the side, switches the hand holding his knife, and bores it into her back. It sinks all the way to the small guard into her flesh. Cain twists it. Aziel yelps out and steps forward out of the blade.

  Teon is stunned; his mind goes back to their fight against Aziel, where Rumi had problems injuring Aziel. And now Cain did it with a simple counterattack.

  Aziel turns around, inhales at the same time, and spits out flames. Cain slashes through it, splitting the flames. The dragon manages to parry the next attack and counters by ripping a big amount of flesh out of Cain's chest. Cain just smirks as the injury heals in a second. Before Aziel can react, he delivers an uppercut, staggering her, followed up by a slash from her left hip up to her right shoulder, slicing her whole torso open. She screams in frustration.

  "Why aren't my wounds healing?!"

  "That's because of my blade. As long as I'm holding it for longer than 10 seconds, a wound caused by it won't heal, no matter what."

  The orange glowing eyes move from Cain's face to his left hand holding the knife. With speed only, Ragnar was able to truly perceive she holds Cain's ripped-off arm and takes the blade from the hand, throwing it aside. The wounds instantly start to heal.

  "Oh, maybe I shouldn't have revealed that."

  "Maybe."

  She dashes at him, the ground under her feet breaking. He ducks under her, strikes the stomach, and throws her up in the air. She stops herself, rips a scale from her arm, and throws it at him. Cain catches it and looks at it lying in his hand.

  "Pretty."

  The obsidian-colored scales glow and then detonate. The whole upper body of the man is gone; only his legs are still standing. Crashing back down, Aziel lands on both feet.

  "Come on, immortal, that can't be all."

  The body slowly regenerates from his waist upwards. He smirks and runs his hand through his fresh new hair.

  "How much firepower do you have, dragon?"

  Aziel growls in response. The temperature of her body rises, and the glow between her scales gets blindingly bright. The rising heat far surpasses 10,000°C as Aziel opens her mouth and a nearly white beam of fire swallows Cain. After it stops, all that is left is a skeleton whose bones are barely holding together.

  "Not as immortal as you thought."

  Turning to Teon, Aziel says that she had fun and won't kill him because of that.

  "Hey! We're not done yet!"

  Both of them look at Cain's skeleton, with terror in their eyes. Its skull turns to look at them. Aiel takes a step back, trembling slightly.

  "Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm truly immortal. Far stronger people than you have tested it already."

  Slowly muscles and skin return, and Cain looks up at Ragnar.

  "Am I right?"

  Ragnar remains silent, but the look in his eyes doesn't need words to make Teon and Aziel understand that it's true. Cain looks back at Aziel.

  "Want to continue?"

  She pants, smoke coming out of her mouth.

  "No. I've had enough of immortals for now.

  She waves at Cain.

  "Bye-bye."

  The body returns to Kaias's form. She falls forward. Teon jumps up to catch her. She cries quietly.

  "What a spoilsport."

  Cain murmurs with a pout and walks away. After he's gone, Ragnar lands near the two.

  "Why didn't you intervene? She could've died!"

  "Calm down. If she would've been in real danger, I would've stopped it."

  Teon looks not satisfied with the response. Holding the crying Kaia in his arms, he limps wordless towards the edge of the mountain before jumping down. He flies towards the estate, landing on the front porch with unnecessary force, breaking the stone stairs.

  "Someday I'm going to kill the bastard for this!"

  Patreon members:

  Free:

  - HausCheck .

  - ….