Ezra flew straight towards his father. When he caught up to him, La Mort had just pulled himself out of the jagged cliffs.

  Wiping the blood from his mouth, his head rose towards Ezra. In cold, calculated fashion, he uttered the words, “So be it,” toward Ezra — then, in the blink of an eye, he was face-to-face with him.

  He threw a straight right at Ezra, which was easily blocked but pushed him back. When Ezra’s hands dropped from blocking his face, La Mort was no longer in front of him. He looked on stunned and confused until La Mort reappeared behind him, punching him in the back, sending him crashing into the ground.

  As La Mort landed on the ground, Ezra lay indented in the earth. Ezra pushed himself up to his feet and twisted around, throwing a looping overhand right at his father, sending him flying through the air, past Cane and all his men. But Ezra was right behind him; he would not allow his father a moment of peace or the chance to think.

  He flew above his father, cocking back his fist, he drove it into his father’s chest, sending him cannoning into the ground. La Mort bounded back up from the sheer force of the punch, and Ezra grabbed a hold of his father’s ankle, slamming him into the ground. Left. Right. Left. Right. In brutal cohesion before throwing his father through the air once more.

  La Mort, who was flying through the air, finally was able to get control and instantly stopped. His eyes searched for Ezra, darting left and right, up and down, but there was no sign of him until a punch out of nowhere landed across his jaw. Then he was gone again before La Mort was able to react. La Mort tried to calm his mind, slow down his heart enough to hear Ezra coming, but it was no use.

  Thud!

  An uppercut landed, knocking the spit and air out of La Mort’s body. But as Ezra disappeared for the third time, when he came back the blows came in thick and fast, destroying La Mort’s armoured chest plate.

  La Mort was battered and bloody. Ezra finally saw the great La Mort with a twinkle of doubt in his eyes and went for the kill. He charged forward, arm cocked ready to deliver, but as the package got into range to deliver, Ezra let out an agonising scream.

  “Ahhhhhh!” he screamed out, muscles twitching, veins pulsing across his body. But La Mort would offer no mercy here; he shot a straight right into Ezra’s chest plate, sending him catapulting to the ground.

  As he hit the ground, he started skidding across the floor and went crashing through one of what used to be a Zoronion home. La Mort flew down slowly, gracefully touching the ground before he slowly started advancing towards Ezra.

  Ezra got up to his feet gingerly, slightly hunched over as blood dripped from his nose. He had given everything; he saw his chance and took it with open arms, but right at the last moment, when he could taste victory, his freedom from his father’s oppressive ways, victory was snatched right from his clutches. But he refused to give up. He charged at his father, but the speed advantage he had moments ago was gone. He tried to land the straight right again, but this time La Mort simply slipped to the side and watched Ezra’s fist go by in what looked like his son was moving in slow motion.

  La Mort smiled as his fingers curled into a fist. “You deceived me, boy. Finally I thought I met my match and how poetic would it have been for it to come from my loins,” he said. “But you are nothing more than a fraud.”

  Then La Mort hit him with a bone-crunching hook to the stomach. His eyes popped from his head, and blood and spit followed as his mouth was forced open from the sheer force of the blow. His soul had left first, his body soaring through the air until it caught up to it.

  “Hmphh.” La Mort closed his eyes for a brief moment, a smile enveloping his lips, then he exploded through the air in hot pursuit of Ezra’s body that was roaring through the air with no control. It didn’t take long for Ezra to gain control of his body, but he had no chance to think; he ducked, dodging La Mort’s strike, but La Mort circled back, grabbing a hold of Ezra’s body, driving him towards the ground at blinding speed.

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  La Mort suddenly just let go, with the collision course with the Zoronion earth mere seconds away. He drove a punch into Ezra’s gut, then followed up with an uppercut to his jaw, sending him flying towards the clouds. But La Mort would not stop there. As Ezra’s body continued to hurl upwards, La Mort was already ahead of him, grabbing Ezra by the throat and watching him struggle, visibly broken.

  La Mort’s hand wrapped around his throat tighter, smiling at the pain he was inflicting on Ezra. “You are not my equal nor a challenge to me, boy,” said La Mort. “You are merely a child who needs to be put back into line. You came for the king and failed — just as they all did. Admirable, if I do say so myself. Pity, you had so much potential.”

  La Mort cocked his fist back and threw the punch at Ezra, landing squarely on his nose and cracking bones in the process. Ezra went soaring through the clouds, down towards the Zoronion earth in a lifeless state, his body limp and unresponsive, and it hit the ground.

  Most would have called it quits, but somehow Ezra rose again to his feet, barely able to stand, stumbling under the pressure of his own weight and blood pouring from every pore in his face — he was a train wreck — but as he struggled to look up, he saw his father land mere meters in front of him.

  “Ezra, no-no, stay down, you fool,” Cane muttered under his breath. “It’s over, brother, you fought valiantly but it’s over. If you continue, he’s going to kill you. Stay down.”

  But Ezra’s bravery was unrivalled; in the moment he seemed to have more courage than sense.

  He stood tall, in his fighting stance, barely able to keep his fists up as his shoulders screamed out to him to stop, but he charged forward anyway.

  Ezra threw a left and La Mort’s head tilted to the side, a right followed and his head tilted to the opposite side effortlessly. It was as if La Mort knew what punch Ezra was going to throw before he threw it.

  He couldn’t help but admire his son’s will and determination to never surrender even when faced with the jaws of defeat. “You’re more like me than you’d like to admit, boy,” said La Mort. “Bow and pledge your fealty to me and live to fight another day.”

  “No,” Ezra responded bluntly as he spat blood from his mouth. “I will never fight for you, Father — never. So do what you must.”

  La Mort levitated forward, dodging all of Ezra’s strikes until he came level, side on. With a massive swing of his elbow, he drove it into Ezra’s neck, sending him into the Zoronion earth, peeling chunks of it back until he came to a grinding halt.

  La Mort levitated slowly towards Ezra, and as he stood over him, Ezra could barely breathe, his face barely recognisable as he choked on his blood and spit.

  La Mort reached down and grabbed a hold of Ezra by his chest plate. “You want to die for those people? — that doesn’t make you noble,” La Mort said. “It makes you a fool, a warrior willing to throw his life away for a pointless cause.”

  But Ezra did not respond; he simply closed his eyes and welcomed whatever was about to happen next. La Mort punched and punched Ezra, bone crunching on bone as blood splattered across the Zoronion earth.

  “Then die, boy — die. But you will not have a moment’s peace,” said La Mort. “You will leave this world knowing you have failed, and those that counted on you to save them will be close behind.”

  La Mort raised his fist once more to Ezra’s limp body, his fist ready to deliver the telling blow. As he drove it home, he felt it meet a resistance too strong to be Ezra’s in the state he was in.

  As La Mort looked down, his gaze met Cane’s. “Move, boy,” La Mort said as he pushed his fist harder into Cane’s hand.

  “No, Father. He’s our family. You raised me to protect our own, and this is what I’m doing now, Father,” Cane said. “All we have is us. A family united is a family that stands unbreakable, Father.”

  La Mort pulled his hand back, turned on his heel, and walked in the opposite direction of his sons. With his back turned, he uttered his final words to Cane. “You are now your brother’s keeper, boy,” he said. “His defiance, his disobedience will fall on your shoulders. Because, Cane, I will remind you of this moment here on Zoron — the day where you allowed your brother to live — because there will come a time where you will question your decision.”

  La Mort flew off, through the sea of his men, toward his ship. As he came level with his men he stopped. “Load General Kantaos on my ship,” he said, then he continued flying towards his ship.

  Ezra even in defeat would not give up, he simply looked to the sky and spoke. “I will not give up father,” he said rasping, choking on his blood. your mistake was leaving me alive. Then his world went black and cane flung his limp body over his shoulder and flew into the distance.