(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

than two paces away, and closing in.
I screamed, and it was a desperate, wheezing sound. Yet my arm fell, dagger
striking true. Blackened flesh and charred bone were brittle, and cracked
beneath the merciless tip of that steel fang. He stared soundlessly at the
blade protruding from his chest.
"We've both learned that the road to power is one of suffering, supplicant,"
I hissed, "But you've become intoxicated by the torment. I've made it my
own."
Black talons clapped at the sides of my head, cauterizing smoldering runnels
into my flesh, "A hair-thin... dissstinction... Massster..."
"Yes..." I growled, "And that hair is the gulf that separates us." I channeled
every last ounce of power into him, forcing veins of frost into his body.
Infernal fury met steel-hard frost. At the confluence brilliant white steam
exploded with the sound of thunder. White, thick vapor choked me, the
force threatened to blow us apart. I struggled to cling to my dagger, not
daring to release until I knew Ignus was dead.
When the tempest finally settled, the aura of flames no longer wreathed his
body. In its place was a snowfall of ash, but some final spark of life still
flickered in him.
His body was stiffening, hard and black as coal. Yet he tilted his head back in
fits and jerks, gazing up at me with eyes like fading embers.
"Massster... forgive me..." he murmured, and some part of him seemed
once again like the same boy that wished to drink in the power of fire, "I
have betrayed your teachingsss..."
He fell to his knees then, body petrified and cold.
I had no more strength to murmur a prayer. The adrenaline had seeped
away, and in its place was a bone-deep exhaustion that cried out for the rest
of the grave. I only knew I needed to finish this, and I dragged my feet
towards that floating crystal. Each movement shifted my blistered skin, and
it was agony. Each breath I took was more difficult than the last. My
regenerative abilities had been stretched to their limit, and I stumbled,
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