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One of the illusions disappeared to a pointless attack from Seyos, and Royo caught a glimpse of the jewel around Seyos’ neck.

The Pendant of Unso. An artifact capable of teleporting the wearer to a set of predetermined locations. Crafted 1,341 years ago by Unso.

Royo understood as well as he could in the split second he had to perceive it. Seyos meant to activate the Box and teleport to safety.

That wasn’t going to happen.

Royo went for the Pendant first but found the Shield of Hamenszoon in the way. That was fine. Royo let go of his pistol, knowing it would be unnecessary at this range, and grabbed the Shield with his gloved hand. He had still yet to examine that glove, but he knew its power well enough.

He put all his strength into his grip, and his fingers dug into the Shield like teeth into flesh. The Shield cracked and snapped in two.

Seyos looked surprised, and Royo took the opening to go straight for the man’s heart. Seyos jolted away from him, though, and then they were struggling at such close range that they were nearly wrestling.

One of the Twin Blades of Boros arose with Seyos’ left hand, and Royo only just managed to twist himself out its path before it could plunge into his own heart. He still received a long gash across his chest, which was most certainly painful but not enough so to make him lose focus.

The Deceiver’s Cloak swirled as Seyos did, obscuring Royo’s vision. Royo sent out another fresh wave of the Sword’s copies and dove to the side. A slash from another Twin Blade vanished one of the illusions, and Royo saw another opening. His glove found Seyos’ left arm and crushed it. One of the Twin Blades dropped from his grip, but the Hun’Sho did not so much as flinch. The other Twin Blade came straight for Royo’s neck and narrowly broke upon the Sword of Hamenszoon--so narrowly, in fact, that Royo felt a shallow cut below his left ear.

Royo shoved himself forward and slammed his body into Seyos, knocking him off balance. The Cloak swirled again, but Royo still roughly knew where the man’s neck was and went for it. Pressing through the Cloak, he found it with his glove.

He crushed it without hesitation.

Seyos staggered back but didn’t fall. He was still moving, though not normally. The one remaining Twin Blade swung vainly at thin air, and Seyos’ molten head sagged grotesquely to one side, apparently too heavy for his broken neck.

The fight was more or less over now, it seemed. There was no point in prolonging things, Royo felt.

He sent one more wave of illusions from the Sword and approached Seyos from the side. He stabbed the man through the chest and then wrenched it open in order to dig into Seyos’ body with his glove.

There it was. The core.

Seyos said something incomprehensible, more wheezing than words.

Royo barely noticed. He crushed the core, too.