Still covering his face, for the most part, he slowly opened his eyes, taking a glimpse of what was happening ahead. 

As soon as his eyes opened, he noticed a Sword made entirely of flames flying towards his neck. The Sword wasn't made of hot red flames. Instead, they were made of chilly blue flames. All the red flames had turned into blue in an instant. 

Still in the middle of the air, he thought about teleporting at the last second, only to remember that he couldn't. He still wasn't outside the building. 

Using his winds, he pushed his body to the side. 

The freezing sword missed his throat but managed to cut a small trail of his hair in the process. The sword turned around, once again, following Arthur. 

Arthur once again tried to avoid the Sword as he moved again. Even this time, he managed to protect his vitals; however, not perfectly. 

A light groan left his lips as the sword sliced his left arm, leaving one inch deep cut on it.

Arthur landed in the back, holding his arm that was hurting. His arm was feeling so cold. He moved his hand aside as he kept moving back, noticing a dark blue wound on his arm. The wound was spreading out, hurting him even more. 

"Freezing poison?"

This wound was like a poison that was extending outwards.

"If I don't stop it, it'll obliterate me."

He diverted his attention in avoiding the freezing sword so as to not get more wounds like this and in trying to find ways to protect his arms. 

Not having any other way, he formed a wind blade and stabbed the knife in his arms deep, and started cutting his skin. He sliced whatever part of his arms was corrupted. 

His arm was already bleeding; however, as he sliced large chunks of his arm, his hand started bleeding even more, so much so that he didn't even know how to stop the bleeding. He was already having a hard time, trying to stay sane even through all this pain. 

Having no healing abilities as good as Lucifer, Arthur found himself in a much worse situation. However, his abilities as a noble provided him with some healing, even if it wasn't as good as the healing of Lucifer. 

His bleeding slowly stopped as his wound started recovering. 

The blue flames still blocked the entrance while Arthur stood on the other end. A beautiful blue sword made purely of freezing flames stood in the middle, blocking the path of Arthur as if challenging him to move if he dared.

"Shall I ask where you're hiding, or are you going to come out on your own?" Arthur asked calmly. "Or are you going to be scared even when you have an edge?"

The freezing blue flames that were blocking the entrance started compressing as if responding to the words of Arthur.

The flames that blocked the entrance compressed into a single figure with a humanoid shape, however still made entirely from fire. 

The Flames slowly started changing color, turning more human. Within a minute, the flame figure became a real human. 

A bald man stood before Arthur. A smirk graced his lips as he licked his lips. "That you're right about. I do have an edge. So I might as well enjoy it."

"Zain, from the Warlock Council. As I expected. So you're the third person who is here. That means Jian is truly alone there."

"Yes. But it's fine. He is strong enough to survive until we finish what we're here to do. And when we're done, the Uprising will be finished. Today shall be the end of this stupid organization that flew too close to the sun," the bald man said, raising his hand towards the floating sword. 

The blue Sword flew towards Zain, landing in his hands. 

"You know, I expected more from this battle. However, I'm pretty disappointed. Without your teleportation, you're nothing. Your winds aren't strong enough to stop my flames, and your healing isn't strong enough to help you survive for long."

Zain continued talking to Arthur in a mocking tone as he looked down at the young noble. 

"In short, you're too weak for me to even take seriously. I don't think I can get any enjoyment out of it, can I?"

"You want enjoyment? Let me step out of this building, and then I'll make sure you get the enjoyment you want and even more." Arthur cracked his knuckles, keeping Zain busy to give his arm some time to heal. 

"I would allow you out if I could; however, I already agreed to kill you inside. I can't go back on my words. But I do know what I can do. Let's make it more fun. Run..."

"What?"

"Run, little rat. Run wherever you can inside this building. I'll chase you, and I'll hunt you. Since you'll be inside the building, I won't be breaking my words. And I can get some enjoyment from it."

Zain burst into laughter, feeling like a predator who was looking at his prey that he could kill anytime. 

Arthur stared back, not running. He knew that running deeper into the building was the worst thing he could do after coming so close to the exit. If he entered, he was truly going to beat prey that had no way out. 

Even if he ran inside, he would have to eventually fight against Zain one way or another to survive. If it was something that was going to happen in any case, he didn't feel comfortable running. It was much better to stay here and fight. 

He looked at his arm, which had almost healed. 

"You aren't going to run?" Zain asked, surprised that Arthur hadn't taken him up on his offer. 

"You scared that I'll catch you too fast? Alright, I'll give you a ten minutes head start. If you run, I don't come after you for ten minutes. You can go anywhere inside, and I won't even see."

Prepared to fight, Arthur suddenly thought of something. He glanced back, noticing the hallway, which had two ways, left and right only. An idea popped up in his head. 

"How would I know if you're seeing or not? There are only two ways inside, left or right. If you see where I went, you'll know where to find me. If you know where I went, it'll be easy for you to locate me. It's not worth it," Arthur said, sighing. 

"The ten minutes head start is nothing if you're going to know where I went."

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