Speed Is King

However, Dragon Apostle Golden Fire was no newbie in fights.

He did not spend the past few minutes hunkering under his shield doing nothing.

As soon as his shield lost all structural integrity and before its broken pieces could even disperse, five golden lances burst into life and shot out towards Saint Dul'Akharat!

A split second later, eleven more groups of five lances appeared from eleven other directions around Saint Dul'Akharat, blocking every single easy escape avenue.

BAM!!

Dragon Apostle Deathwing kicked the five lances that appeared near him and sent them hurtling towards Saint Dul'Akharat with great force.

Not only that, his kick had also infused the five golden lances with black tinges gloom that increased their lethality by multiple times.

"Dark Soul Blast!" Dragon Apostle Deathwing rained down even more soul blasts upon Saint Dul'Akharat.

However, Saint Dul'Akharat had erected a powerful shield around his body that easily repelled all of the golden lances and soul blasts.

His attacks might have faced some trouble against the golden shield earlier, but his own shield was absolutely top notch due to the fact that it had within it elements of fate which was able to completely block the Dragon Apostle's Darklight Energy powered attacks.

At the same time as his shield repelled the Dragon Apostle's attacks, he pressed home his own attacks.

His massive greatsword glowed a creepy white glow and slashed downwards at Dragon Apostle Golden Fire at an incredible speed!

Strangely, Dragon Apostle Golden Fire did not react to the massive greatsword that was almost upon him.

Dragon Apostle Deathwing needed only a look at Dragon Apostle Golden Fire and he instantly realized that his golden brother had somehow failed to detect the humongous greatsword slashing down on him.

Saint Dul'Akharat's power over fate had allowed him to completely mask his attack from his target.

What a fearsome skill!

"Blackened Explosion!" Dragon Apostle Deathwing slammed a weak attack that had a powerful repelling force upon the completely oblivious Golden Fire and caught him completely by surprise.

The Blackened Explosion caused him to be thrown violently backwards, and to avoid the massive greatsword by less than a hair's breadth!

"Good coordination. But as you were busy saving your brother from my greatsword, did you not notice the blades I had sent your way? Haha!"

Dragon Apostle Deathwing's eyes widened in alarm as he felt a series of cold blades nick open his flesh at every single critical spot on his body.

His forehead, his neck, his chest, his belly, and even his back suddenly started to spurt out blood!

With a deep chill, Dragon Apostle Deathwing realized that Saint Dul'Akharat's main target had been him all the while!

"Too bad for you, Dragon Apostle Golden Fire merely tried to block my blades with his golden shields. If he had been more aggressive like you and pushed you aside instead, he could have still kept you "alive". Alas, you're out of the fight now." Saint Dul'Akharat said as his body shimmered and split into many clones who immediately shot out towards Dragon Apostle Golden Fire.

With one Dragon Apostle down, Saint Dul'Akharat did not even need to personally fight to take down the other Dragon Apostle!

"Hooo. Interesting! The power of fate truly works in strange and mysterious ways. So the gulf between Primal level and Saint level isn't one that brute force can overcome." Elliot observed.

Dragon Apostle Deathwing smiled bitterly at Saint Dul'Akharat and retracted his aura and his killing intent.

"I have failed you, Master." He said in a calm and slightly embarrassed voice to Elliot.

"Losing a fight to a Saint is no failure, Primal Deathwing." Elliot said in an equally calm voice and pointed to Saint Dul'Akharat's clones. "And the fight isn't over. It looks like your earlier Dark Soul Blasts are making their effects felt."

True enough, Saint Dul'Akharat's clones were all somehow looking extremely ashen faced. Some of them had even faded completely away from existence!

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Dragon Apostle Golden Fire exploded in a ferocious burst of fearsome attack sequence and easily destroyed Saint Dul'Akharat's clones.

"Ugh. Your Dark Soul Blasts are extremely insidious. They are actually corroding my soul from within." Saint Dul'Akharat said as he narrowed his eyes in concentration to deal with the crisis within his soul.

As he did that, the stream of clones leaping away from his original body slowed to a mere clone per second.

However, these were much more powerful clones that were able to slow Dragon Apostle Golden Fire's attacks for slightly over a second each.

That way with his clones, he was able to completely tie up Dragon Apostle Golden Fire and gain some time to deal with his wound!

Dragon Apostle Deathwing smirked at Saint Dul'Akharat.

"I have no idea what made you willing to eat my attacks without even bothering to block it, but the moment you decided to do that, your eventual defeat is set in stone. Nothing can stop the corrosion in your soul except for me." Deathwing said with a deathly smile.

"You overestimate the strength of your attack power, Primal Deathwing." Saint Dul'Akharat said with a laugh. "You may not know this, but anything that takes form has fate. And if it has fate, then I, as a Saint who manipulates fate, can simply…"

Whoosh.

Dragon Apostle Deathwing's smirk froze and then disappeared.

His senses told him that his corrosive energy upon Saint Dul'Akharat's soul had just been obliterated.

Saint Dul'Akharat smiled thinly at Elliot and Deathwing for a quick moment before dashing away to "finish off" Dragon Apostle Golden Fire.

However, before he could travel for more than a few meters, a bright explosion of holy light suddenly erupted in the distance!

"He used it in the end." Dragon Apostle Deathwing sighed deeply.

"Used what?" Elliot asked him in surprise.

"I am not sure if the other Dragon Apostles got it, but I got a unique transformation along with the strange Darklight Energy infusion. Somehow, I resonated extremely well with that Darklight energy, and it unlocked a power from within both itself and my body." Dragon Apostle Deathwing explained.

"Unique transformation? How unique?" Elliot asked.

Dragon Apostle Deathwing simply pointed at the transformed Dragon Apostle Golden Fire in the distance.