The duel was a whirlwind of motion and sound. Kiera was the more skilled fighter, her movements precise and elegant, her blade a silver serpent striking from all angles.
But Silas was a berserker. He fought with a wild, reckless abandon, his corrupted power making him a juggernaut of pure aggression.
He didn't block or parry; he simply endured, his hardened skin deflecting blows that would have crippled a normal man.
For every cut Kiera landed, he would answer with a savage, overpowering counter-attack.
The cavernous hall rang with the clang of Kiera's sword against Silas's claws.
Sparks flew as they exchanged blows, their battle a deadly dance around the fallen forms of the Vanguard soldiers.
Kiera was being forced back, her fluid grace giving way to a desperate defense. Silas was relentless, his attacks growing more ferocious, his eyes burning with a mad light.
The corrupted ChainForce was pushing him beyond his limits, but it was also consuming him.
"You high-clan freaks think you're so much better than us!" Silas roared, smashing a chunk of concrete from a pillar and hurling it at Kiera.
She dodged, but the effort left her momentarily off-balance. It was the opening Silas had been waiting for.
He lunged, not with his claws, but with his shoulder, crashing into her with the force of a freight train.
Kiera was thrown against a pile of rusted machinery, and she cried out in pain as her shoulder impacted the steel.
She slumped to the ground, her sword arm hanging limp.
Silas loomed over her, his claws raised for the final, killing blow.
"Now you know what it feels like to be weak," he snarled.
Ryu watched, his terror momentarily forgotten, replaced by a surge of white-hot adrenaline.
He saw Kiera, his mentor, his protector, about to be murdered.
He saw the triumphant, insane glee on Silas's face.
And in that moment, something inside him shifted. All the training, all the pain, all the lessons from Kiera and Joric, clicked into place.
He didn't think.
He didn't plan.
He just...acted.
He closed his eyes and reached for the 'center' Kiera had taught him to find.
But this time, he didn't just retreat into the calm.
He took hold of the low, humming energy of the ChainForce, and for the first time, he pulled.
He didn't try to shape it or control it.
He just yanked on the thread, pouring all his fear, his desperation, and his will into a single, focused point.
The result was not an explosion.
It was a subtle, but profound, manipulation of the world around him. The air in the ten feet around Silas suddenly grew heavy, thick, as if the gravity in that spot had been multiplied by a hundred.
Silas, his claws raised for the kill, was suddenly forced to his knees, his body groaning under an immense, invisible weight.
He struggled, his muscles straining, his eyes wide with shock and confusion.
"What... is this?" he gasped, his charge broken.
It was only a moment.
Ryu couldn't hold it.
The effort sent a fresh wave of searing pain through his own body, and he collapsed, his nose starting to bleed again.
But a moment was all Kiera needed.
Her eyes, filled with a mixture of pain and astonishment, met Ryu's.
Then, with a warrior's resolve, she pushed herself to her feet, switched her blade to her uninjured hand, and lunged at the immobilized Silas.