Thorne is shaken in fear, seeing Strick stare daggers into his sword-burdened soul. He never could’ve expected to see this side of Strick, with such rage emanating from him, terrifies Thorne. Strick stands up from comforting Silique’s dead body and looms over Thorne. He spouts zero words as he grabs the enchanted sword with as much force as possible. Strick just stares with emotionless eyes as he looks at the ground and then back at Silique’s body. He grows angry and screams before ruthlessly slamming Thorne into the ground. This causes excruciating pain to shoot out throughout his body. Thorne grunts before looking back at Strick’s rage-filled face. His eyes still pierced through the sword itself. He keeps his forceful grip on the sword as he lifts Thorne before slamming him again. It hurts him, but as he is still reeling from the effects of the slam, he recalls what Strick last told him when they separated from that alleyway. He remembers his lack of care, he remembers his carefree attitude, and he remembers that he was given permission. Strick’s last words to him were crystal clear. “Don’t kill too much now, or else I’ll have to show off to stop you.” His words ring out in Thorne’s mind, so much that he doesn’t even realize he isn’t being slammed around anymore. He snaps back into reality to see Strick’s face looking down at him once again. He looks at his piercing eyes to see that some leftover tears are still there. He is still frozen and unsure of what to do before Strick speaks his first words. “I hate you. I hate this; all you’ve done is ruin my life and kill everything around me. You deserve nothing but to rot in hell alongside your little ‘savior’. I can’t kill you, but I will make you feel the pain from every moment you spent happy over your killing of Silique. She didn’t deserve that.” His voice is stricken with quiet calmness, hiding the true rage underneath. Strick’s quiet and calm rage is almost intoxicating as he finally feels that he has true power over Thorne. He looks around him, noticing the town’s previous smell of fresh foods and the loud sounds of festivity are now gone. They were replaced by the smell of blood and the silence. “This place is so much different now, because of us.” That thought makes him remember the good times he had. Before Thorne could react, Strick bashed his bladed face onto the ground, crashing into the rocky area. He kicks the sword lightly before brutally stomping on Thorne’s bladed back. Pain shoots into his entire body, and he screams, his screams muffled by his face into the ground. “How does it feel? Being the one getting attacked for once, being the one who gets to deal with the actions of their consequences, and being the one who deserves to die.” He keeps stomping over and over again until Thorne stops screaming. He is making sure to keep his attacks on Thorne as agonizingly slow as he can so he can torture him. He knows killing him isn’t an option, so he is trying to hurt him so badly that he would wish for death. He moves his foot from on top of Thorne to see his damaged state. Strick is surprised when he turns over, revealing a smile on his battered face. This drives him even more, and he picks him up again, but before he does anything, he looks back at Silique and drops Thorne back to the ground. He walks over to her and kneels to comfort her again. “Please forgive me.” But as Strick continues grieving over her death, a quiet, defiant laugh sounds out from behind him. The laughter is Thorne’s as he comments on Strick’s newfound state.

“Hahaha, looks like you can’t stop going back to that damned girl. Boy, you’re still stuck feeling sad over her. Do you believe you can fix any of this? How quaint, you shouldn’t be this rage-filled anyway. I didn’t even get the opportunity to sacrifice her, as I know Sanguine would’ve loved her. Hahahaha.” Thorne is antagonizing him because he knows Strick can’t kill him or hurt him in any fatal way. He sees that Strick is ignoring his words, but instead of stopping his speech, he thinks of something. He has a realization, and he begins to remember Strick’s lack of care when he saw himself kill others firsthand. Upon realizing this fact, he smiles again before continuing his speech with newfound vigor. “Hahaha, ignore me as much as you want. But do you think you have the right to be the moral hero? HOW DARE YOU TRY TO TELL ME I DESERVE TO DIE? You act all high and mighty, spouting that I’m nothing but a ruthless monster. But YOU are the one who allowed this monster to run around making his sacrifices. YOU’RE SELFISH. You never cared this much about any other person I’ve killed before. You told me yourself that you didn’t care, I know you don’t because that girl isn’t the only person I killed while in your body. And yet the only death you seem to care about is hers. Hahahahaha, you’re a faker trying to have the moral high ground when it was YOU who allowed this to happen.” Thorne weakly walks to where Strick is still comforting Silique and barely manages the strength to laugh in his face. He knows that Strick didn’t ignore his words this time and that it affected him. But instead of being met with a remark, he gets grabbed again by Strick. Strick doesn’t even turn his gaze from SIlique as he grips Thorne tightly on Thorne who is too weak to do anything to stop him. But before Strick can manage to do anything to Thorne, he freezes when he hears a loud, deafening shout rush throughout the now quiet town.

“WHERE IS SHE!?!?” Strick hears arriving footsteps and feels the force they emit across the ground. Once he looks up at where he heard the voice approaching from, he sees Axel in pure disbelief at what he sees. He is holding the same paper he had taken out and stared at briefly in the tavern. Axel looks back down at the paper again before staring at Strick. Instead of a solemn smile, however, his face is that of contempt. Strick wonders what the paper even is, but before he can think to ask, Axel turns the paper so he can see it. It's his wanted poster with the words ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive’ below the picture of him. It’s him while Thorne is possessing his body, smiling against the fiery backdrop of the burned forest. Seeing this angers Strick more, but his anger can’t hold a candle to Axel’s as he tears the poster to pieces. He watches the pieces fall to the ground before stomping on them as he puts his gaze on Strick.

“In that tavern, I knew I recognized you, and when I pulled out that poster, I was proven right. You are a wanted killer, but I believed in you. I was thinking of just bringing you into the Defense Corps right there, but I didn’t want to believe that you were the same killer in that poster. Another reason is that I haven’t seen my niece Silique look that happy in years, so I gave you a chance. I trusted you not to do anything stupid when I left, and I was proven wrong. I go to leave for a mission and wish to visit my friend Jean, but when I get there, all I see is his head chopped off next to his bloodied body. I am angry, but I control myself and begin to think about why I didn’t realize that, of course, Jean was dead. I know for certain he would never let a wanted criminal into this town, so I knew it had to be your doing. I took out that poster again and gave it a good, long look before rushing back over here. I made sure to send out that warning for his death into the town to send it to its lockdown state, you see, currently. Looks like you used it as a way to go around and kill more of the people I sought to protect. Ending your killing spree with my niece when she was the ONLY reason why you are still alive right now. I won’t be sending you in the Defense Corps’ hands so you can be let off easy, no, I plan to kill you for my people of Bristain. So before I avenge my Bristain people’s deaths, move away from her body NOW.” Axel’s anger finally comes out as he stares daggers at Strick, still kneeling and comforting his niece. Strick is still angered by what Thorne said to him, so instead of moving away from Silique, he meets Axel’s anger with annoyance.

“You don’t understand anything about what happened. Just calm down so I can explain it all to you. I am not in the right state of mind for this right now, so please just stop being stupid.” Strick looks back down at Silique and goes back to comforting her. He is still holding Thorne with a forceful grip so tight that he can’t even speak anymore. After Strick called him stupid and went back to comfort the person Axel thinks he killed, this only makes Axel more pissed.

“Boy, I told you, MOVE NOW.” Strick ignores his words as he’s too busy lamenting Silique’s death. He continues to look down at her while still grasping Thorne, but before he can react, Axel’s anger finally takes over him. He rushes Strick and kicks him square in the face, sending him crashing into a building with Thorne still in his hand. Strick is reeling after just one kick from Axel, and Thorne is still in pain from the previous brutal assault from Strick. Strick thinks about the attack from Axel and realizes how drastically outclassed he is.

“Damn that stupid beast of a man, so strong. He sent me that far and did that much damage to me with one single kick. So dumb, all he had to do was stop to listen to me, and now this. I will not be dying today, if I have to get through him, then so be it.” Strick readjusts himself before looking back at Thorne, who is still in his grasp, but he lessens the force of his grip on him. He thinks of ways to combat Axel and thinks of a brilliant idea. “Hey bastard, after what you did, taking over my body. I had an epiphany, if because of our life link, it gives you the ability to take over my body like a vessel, then I should be able to do the same to you as a sword.” Thorne’s eyes widen as he thinks about Strick’s epiphany, and he does not wish to be controlled. But he has no more strength to speak or defend against Strick’s takeover of his body. The last thing he sees is Strick’s crazed face before he loses control and becomes a functioning weapon for Strick. He plans to use this to fight Axel and rushes back to where he was. After he sends Strick far away with his kick, he looks down at his niece and feels immense guilt.

“I am sorry, my sweet Silique, you should’ve never been left to deal with a monster like HIM. I will bring you home and grant you the proper burial.” He picks up her dead body and carries her in his arms. He begins to walk away before he hears Strick running towards him with determination in his yell. He drops Silique instinctively before dodging Strick’s sword swing. He is met with a combination of sword swings and dodges, all of them before kicking Strick back once again, but this time, instead of flying away, he stands his ground. This difference causes Axel to smile, knowing that this battle might be more than he thought before. “You choose to fight me, maybe you aren’t so weak after all. I would much rather face you in an honorable fight to the death than slay you with no opposition. Now I can put out all of my anger on you until you can’t stand anymore. Prepare yourself, Strick, as this will be your final blaze of glory!!” Axel gets in his battle stance while Strick stares at him, growing angrier as time goes by. Axel is happy knowing that he can truly make Strick pay through their battle, while Strick doesn’t care about anything other than his survival. This is a battle between the Beast Slayer, fighting to avenge his people, and a forest hunter, fighting to clear his reputation. Behold the fateful battle of righteous fury against unyielding rage.