Two spheres fought fiercely in the air, one from below and the other from above. Arcs of lightning radiated from the latter and a cool, blue bombardment of rain came from the former.
Both armies were blasted apart, and the hole within the formation cracked further beneath the might of their reverberation. The two felt their arms tremble into a retreat.
Leonel took a step back that shattered the land and nearly caused the foundation of the city walls to crumble.
Talon's hammers nearly flew from his hands and he was forced to flip through the air backward, landing so heavily that the Sea God army was forced into another round of retreat. Neither seemed willing to let this pause last for long. They took a beeline right for one another, one wreathed in lightning and the other dancing with mother nature's tears.
Leonel's halberd arched through the air, his expression unmoved and his gaze ice cold. He looked right into Talon's eyes, and despite the height difference, they seemed to be on equal footing.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Their blows were furious, their arms moving in a blur and their bodies shifting through the space as though it wasn't an obstacle, as though they could bend, twist, and shorten it to their hearts' content. That was until Leonel suddenly did the opposite. His Domain seemed to solidify, and Talon needed twice as much effort to travel just as far.
Talon retaliated, his will expanding and his hammers glowing with the might of a blunt Weapon Force. He shattered much of the strength of Leonel's Domain, rushing in with a rain of lightning. Arcs of gold sparked and danced, turning the ground to ash everywhere it touched.
The world around them seemed like one painted by a master. Bolts cut right through harsh hails of water, and droplets sparkled beneath their luminescence. Leonel felt this the most clearly. His heart thrummed and his halberd hummed. He grasped the imagery and made it his own, and at that moment, his halberd seemed to embody the image.
Storm.
Talon's lightning felt like it was no longer his own. It was stripped from his control and wrapped around Leonel's halberd as though he was the one who wielded Thor's hammer. The skies rippled and flood dragons roared, snaking through the dark cumulonimbus clouds as though swimming through the ocean. The flood dragons grew horns and solidified, becoming mighty eastern dragons that trembled with the movement of Leonel's spear.
The Domain seemed to quickly expand as Leonel's will latched onto more and more. Quickly, Talon found himself on his back foot as Leonel began to overwhelm him. Every strike of his halberd was subtle in its own way, the Universal Force around his body reacting in kind. Sometimes it was fierce, sometimes it lulled, slowing the pace of the battle, and then it might suddenly erupt in a furious barrage.
Leonel's halberd thrust through the air, piercing out dozens of times. It moved so quickly that he seemed to form a net through the skies as inescapable as the droplets of rain. Talon's body was instantly riddled with wounds, and he was forced backward. A mouthful of blood sputtered from his lips, and he looked down at himself as though he was disgusted.
"Who are you?" Talon growled, meeting Leonel's eyes.
Leonel raised his halberd and slammed it into the ground. At that moment, though, for a brief instant, all the rain in the world seemed to freeze.
"I am General Mayweather of the Fleeting Cloud Empire!"
His roar resonated and the human army froze before it roared out. The noise was deafening and at that moment, even the Sea Gods that had only taken this as a casual excursion found their morale dampening.
"Those that seek to harm the citizens of his Imperial Majesty's Empire will suffer beneath my blade. Step forward!"
Leonel's voice echoed louder than even the thunder above. No one noticed that the snaking lightning dragons in the skies suddenly gained a purplish hue in their reflective pupils. At that moment, an oppressive might descended and washed over them all, including Talon.
To Leonel's surprise, Talon immediately looked up in the skies as though he had pinpointed the problem already. A spark of lightning echoed through Leonel's Dreamscape. It quickly connected several memories, starting from how Talon had managed to avoid the trap he sprung on Somnus to Apex's battle style. It all clicked.
'Clairvoyance? Omnipotence? A bastardization of both?'
Leonel's gaze narrowed.
'In that case.'
ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!
The dragons no longer hid themselves. They descended, their bodies sending sparking waves of lightning in all directions. In contrast to their golden bodies, their eyes were like polished sapphire gems. In that moment, Leonel combined his King's Might, aspects of the Luxnix family Force Arts, and his Spear Domain all into one.
The Sea God army collapsed to their knees and Talon felt himself being completely suppressed. Leonel raised his halberd and pointed it at him. The rage bubbling in Talon's heart boiled over. Did this human really think that he was his better? If it wasn't because he couldn't reveal his Barbarian heritage just yet. The fury rose to Talon's head, and he was just about to go all out when a graceful figure appeared.
Sashae's silhouette swayed, and the world trembled. Leonel felt like his dragons might collapse any moment now, but none of that was more shocking than what he saw next. A tablet appeared in Sashae's hand, radiating a golden color. A pulse came from it and Leonel's Domain was directly blown apart. He took a step back and his heart lurched before he suppressed it.
Sashae took a step forward, her aura continuing to grow. With every step, the pressure on Leonel increased further and further until it seemed that he was the one who would be forced to his knees. His thoughts were spinning, trying to understand who this person was and what their relationship to Talon might be, when his mind went entirely blank. This wasn't because of Sashae's strength, but rather because of her first words to him.
"Do you think that I cannot recognize an Envoy of the God Beasts when I see one?"
BOOM!
