Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

The sound of Hal\'s serrated sword edge sawing through San\'s shoulder blades attracted the attention of so many on the scene. 

It was not that the sawing was loud, just that for some reason, the battle became something they all wanted to watch. 

Hal\'s faction, while prepared to continue still paused to watch it all happen, for even after the deep cut in his shoulder and his dominant arm no less, San merely groaned, transferred his saber to his left hand and tried to slash at Hal.

Hal stepped back to avoid the strike and could not help but feel a little resentful for having being denied the opportunity to follow up on the attack.

However, his moving back provided San the breathing room to quickly retrieve a pill from his spatial pouch and swallow it down.

Hal recognized the pill as a Mending pill. Just like the type that he had gotten from the Holger Estate.

Another one of the Master\'s generosities.

As soon as San swallowed the pill, his face that had begun to grow pale from the blood loss, regained color and Hal could see the wound already stitching back together.

The healing was sure to not be completed with that one pill but it had stopped the bleeding and also numbed the pain. Giving San the much-needed clarity to attack.

However, before he did, he took a deep breath with his eyes closed. When he opened them, a terrifying pressure burst out of him and the wind it caused went past the barrier of the dome that surrounded he and Hal and tose outside the felt it as well.

The wind blew back Hal\'s hair but he refused to be fazed by it. Not because of pride but because he knew just how effective this wind could be in causing a distraction and in turn an opening for the Fidwud family head.

And sure enough, once the wind was no longer hindering his eyesight, he noticed San was no longer in front of him.

Quickly, Hal relied on his instinct and raised his sword just in time to intercept San\'s strike as the Peak stager struck down on him.

*Clang*

*Bang!*

Even so, the force of the strike still knocked Hal back and into the Dome array boundary which smacked him back into the ground.

*Bam!*

The other family Heads watched on the outside could not help but applaud San\'s successful attacks.

It never came to the mind of any of them to mock him for being embroiled in combat with a teenager at the Early sarge of the Cosmic Aramament realm.

If there was one thing they all agreed on at that moment, it was that Hal and his faction were not normal. 

From the start, they had lost all those weaker than the Peak stage of the Cosmic Pearl realm and even now, the numbers of those at the peak stage of the Cosmic Pearl realm were reducing the longer this battle went on.

So were the numbers of those at the Cosmic Armament Realm (Early stage).

And even then, Hal\'s side had not recorded any casualties despite being outnumbered from the get-go.

They needed to retreat!

This whole operation was a burst and it was time they left before they suffered even more losses.

"Bastard, I\'ll kill you!" San yelled as Hal escaped another jab of his saber and nicked at his calf.

"You will try" Hal said with a shrug.

Even though he had escaped a lot of strikes, it was not unscathed. There were cuts on his arm and midsection. They were not too deep of course but they were a testament to how tasking it was for him to attempt going toe to for with someone three stages ahead of him without his Bloodline.

It was only thanks to his quick wits that he had avoided more severe injuries thys far but he knew it would not remain that way for too long.

San was no idiot. The longer they fought, the more he was able to map out Hal\'s tactics and moves and as such was able to fairly accurately predict Hal\'s moves.

Hal was studying him as well but San had so many different styles that mapping out his moves and predicting the next was very difficult and would take time. 

Which was something Hal did not have.

His emissaries had already informed him that their mission was a success so he knew this whole battle and incident was close to an end but he did not want to end it with himself on the back foot.

Sam made a sudden feint and when Hal avoided it, he struck in the direction he knew Hal was going to move to.

His saber moved unimpeded and was about to make contact with Hal\'s ribs when a Red fog that suddenly came out of that same side grabbed the saber and used it to pull San closer.

"What the..." San\'s eyes widened as Hal smiled and slammed his palm into the older man\'s chest while blasting with the Cosmic Attack he had condensed.

The slam to the chest had been so strong that the Fidwud Family head failed to notice some feather-light touches to the arm that had been grabbed by the Red fog.

*Bang!*

The sound of the Cosmic Attack was explosive as it tossed San backward and into the Dome barrier.

The curious thing was that Hal was also tossed backward and made contact with the Dome barrier for the second time in the day.

The reason was that the moment San felt Hal\'s palm on his chest, he had let loose a Cosmic attack of his own.

When both of them sat up on the ground, the front of both their clothes was shredded and there were deep lacerations on their chests. 

Hal\'s lacerations were deeper as San\'s Cosmic attack had been stronger and when San noticed this, he smirked to himself.

His could barely qualify as a flesh wound but Hal\'s was very severe. It was even still bleeding profusely.

If only San knew that Hal was mostly using this battle as research material for another opponent. But all that for later.

"Hal" 

Melinda yelled from the outside of the Dome and a Plebeian attempted to make use of her obvious distraction to get in a hit.

*Whoosh*

*Boom*

A flaming arrow making contact with his head and setting his whole body ablaze in seconds chased those thoughts away.

Being dead can do that to you.

Melinda placed her hand on the Dome which despite its swimming runes was see-through.

Hal smiled at her with a thin trail of blood on the corner of his lips and gave her a thumbs up.

At that time San stepped forward and raised his saber as he had done a lot of times that day to finally end Hal\'s life.

Melinda\'s eyes flashed outside of the Dome but when she saw Hal wink at her, she blanked.

Hal turned and grinned at San who had only just noticed that Hal was no longer bleeding.

Did he take a recovery pill when I wasn\'t watching? he asked himself before shaking off those thoughts and stab down at Hal when the younger man chuckled,

"Oh no, you don\'t"

*Snap*

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

Hal snapped his fingers and the runes he had placed on San\'s clothes at the moment he pulled him closer exploded with three consecutive Explosive Bangs.

And just like that, the Fidwud Family head\'s back was slamming into the Domed barrier for the second time that day, marking them in Hal\'s book, even.

The Rune attack did not keep him down for long and he was back to his feet just as soon as Hal was. His frustration and anger were so great that he wanted to keep going.

Reaching into his spatial pouch to retrieve Drawn runes of his own which he prepared to activated when he heard the walk of multiple men.

"There\'s been an attack!" They all announced.

San noticed one of them from the Fidwud family home and was about to ask what the commotion was, even as he felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach when he remembered that he was not done with Hal and was still in the Domed Array that kept him away from the messenger.

Hal cocked his head to the side with a mystified expression as he let the Dome fade away.

San did not bother to ask what Hal was up to and went straight to the messenger even as all the other Family heads were already speaking to Messengers from their own home.

The look Bale and Tod gave him was one of disgust as they ordered their palanquins to return while also calling for the retreat of their forces.

All the other family heads were soon also calling for retreat as the Sieving veils faded. At that point, none of them cared what family they belonged to, as soon as they heard that they should retreat, they immediately turned around.

As they did so, they worried that Hal\'s party would follow after them but no such thing happened.

They simply allowed them passage.

Even Rita did not shoot anyone down and dispersed Essence stealer.

Evian was already talking to the messenger from the Fidwud family home whose clothes and appearance was in disarray when San joined them, 

"What happened?" San asked gruffly.

The messenger bowed, 

"We were attacked" he said.

"You\'ve already said that. I\'m asking who it was" San said impatiently.

The messenger\'s eyes widened and he bowed multiple times while apologizing much to San\'s annoyance, as he felt the young man was simply wasting time, 

"It\'s the Malevolent one, Sir, 

He sent his Emissaries and many are already dead"