"Kamna!" Arctus shouted, but no light was following his fingers, he couldn't trace a symbol.
"Children of shared blood," a collection of eight voices boomed from all around and Hazth stopped his advance, "there will be no aid from us, no lending of power."
The first time the Eight were heard in mortal worlds after their launching. Arctus understood what this fight then meant and he leapt to Hazth, closing the distance and slashing his spear at him in a simple downward strike. The Jeddart cup handle caught his spear head and the axe blade descended toward him in a common riposte for the weapon.
The woodsmaster slipped his spear round and caught the axe blade with the rounded end of his spear, attempting a slash at Hazth's face in the same movement. Hazth's Scout weapon was revealed to him then, nobody had ever seen it in action and lived.
The axe blade felt a lot more forceful than it actually had been, a small boom echoing out and sending Arctus reeling back, tightening his grip on his weapon.
"Even you can not stand the might blessed into my axe," Hazth mocked.
"My spear will remove any crutch you may yet have," Arctus rubbed the wards on his boots, divining a future need for them to be active. The rain had soaked his hair and begun to penetrate into his cloth and linens while the wind filled the silence.
Hazth zipped upon him and the Protector of Equestria chose instead to dodge, sliding to his left and duck afterward for his next strike, "haha!" Hazth laughed, "nobody had dodged any of my strikes in decades!"
Arctus zipped his spear up, slashing across his cheek and fanning mana into his spear to jet out an anti-magic supression through Hazth's veins.
A gout of red chased at Hazth with Arctus' left hand and the opposing warrior's leather and armors caught flame. Hazth, while resistant to the burns, knew this meant movement with his gear would be hindered. Arctus followed with a thrust, his spear knocked aside and the extended uncovered handle of Hazth's jeddart slammed into his cheek.
The taste of blood greeted Arctus as he stepped away, flame dying out on Hazth from the rain. The Storm King's puppet master smirked.
The present Scouts of Equestria along with the royalty looked on in awe, protected from the elements by a magic shield. To them, the weapons used were nothing but blurs and standard steel could not hold up in this level of abuse.
"Do you feel that, Hazth?" Arctus' skin prickled all over his body, his heart roaring in his chest, "the curse? The need?" He closed distance, swiping at the same inhuman speeds Luna was defeated by and that Sunset Shimmer had outwitted.
Arctus practiced hard for this day. Hazth's axe met and blocked his spear, riposting only for Arctus to manuever around. The metal between them became a twisting dance and Arctus did not shy from the booms of Hazth's weapon. The two of them exchanging blow after blow and parrying blow after blow.
"They're paragons of combat," Celestia commented to the two present mares.
"No, they're gods of war and ruin," Sunset corrected.
"And we're on a different level of existence than them," Stitch continued, "we won't be able to rise to their ability."
"Not without more ambition," the newest Master smiled.
It was long before Arctus sustained another injury, Hazth's axe blade had sliced with the last inch acrosss his stomach, the boom of his axe sent him flying through the air. The jeddart master sprinted and closed distance while Arctus righted himself in the air, blood dripping across the balcony plaza while his boots stuck him against a building.
A dodge aside and firmly calculated move sunk his spear into the left shoulder of Hazth, tearing apart muscle, tendon and joint.
"Nice trick," Hazth commented, sliding off the spear with no indication of pain while he landed on the plaza.
"Pradingti ant pikiruoti!" Arctus kept his assault as he body vanished and apepared above Hazth as an incredible velocity with his spatha. The axe wielding hindred slammed his jeddart against the small sword with a lot of force behind in mana and his own muscle. The blade shattered into metal shards that properly and sliced Arctus throughly, becomign shrapnel lodged in his face and body.
Arctus was propelled high into the air.
"Akmuo duetas sutrinti!" Hazth shouted to the skies and Arctus heard rumbles in two different directions across Equestria, seeing massive squares of rock cut from mountains sent at him with the intent to crush.
"Laiptelis oro skraidyti," Arctus let out and he quickly propelled with gravity downward, stepping on translucent platforms. He escaped the stone sentence, quickly approaching the ground.
He dared to try something new, "zaibas tapti sau smogti!" Four words was unusual for a spell.
He felt a tingle over himself as lightning shot from the clouds onto him and then zipped him in front of Hazth who was marred by the powerful electricity. Arctus assumed intiative only to have his thigh unprotected in his thrust and hacked deep by the axe with no mana behind it while Hazth sidestepped and attempted to swing at Arctus with his moon hammer that he had held behind him the entirety of the fight, willing his destroyed shoulder on.
The second blow connected as Arctus could not recover a defensive stance quickly enough, but on impact, Hazth's arm dropped the bulbous hammer. The woodsmaster felt the crack in his left forearm in his attempted defense.
"Fortune favors the brave," he slashed with his still somewhat outstretched spear and was rewarded with a slit on the side of Hazth's neck, blood quickly gushing down. He slit open a major artery.
That's it, he had won in the most Scout based attack possible. He struck one of the weaknesses of human anatomy.
Hazth attempted to slash with his jeddart again, but blood was no longer supplying much oxygen to his brain, crippling some of his systems. The woodsmaster, bleeding himself shvoed his spear through Hazth's slow wrist, forcing him to drop his jeddart.
In his bloodlusted rage he thrust his spear forth, stabbing into his chest.
Hazth locked to Arctus' life filled eyes, "seems...my time spent building a kingdom left my combat prowess neglected," he hoarsely managed out, "I recognize you, greatest Scout," despite being a mortal enemy, Hazth held to the values of the Scout order.
Hazth hadn't slumped over onto Arctus' weapon. But in a roar of rage, he finished Hazth's life after debilitating him.
"For the glory of me!"
He spear shove through his chest, under his rib cage and at upward angle, piercing his weakly pumping heart and exiting with lugs out the other side of his torso. Arctus impaled Hazth completely.
He limped to the other side and finished pulling his spear out, giving it a whirl to slake the blood off before holstering his weapon away. Hazth still stood, no longer drawing breath, but his legs did not allow him to fall in death.
Arctus limped back over to his front while the storm billowing about began to clear with the work of magic, the night sky now visible as Luna had joined in observation some time ago. The eight heroes hung in the canvas, watching and continuing to bathe their light over the balcony plaza while Arctus lifted the jeddart axe himself.
Hazth's weapon was raised into the air in front of his dead body, "with this weapon, we reave," he would uphold his promise and his honor as a fellow Scout despite hating the destruction Hazth brought to Equestria.
His slit across his left forearm, broken radius and ulna shifting slightly, "with this blood we conquer," he managed to stab the tip of the axe blade shallowly into the balcony plaza's bricks.
"In this loss, we allay."
He dripped his blood over the jeddart axe, "after the accomplishments, we savor."
"In union, you are free."
The moonlight and starlight had fully revealed the incredible amount of blood splayed over the balcony plaza.
The first loud crack soared across Equestria's skies as the jeddart axe collapsed into large shards, "fight amongst the stars, Master Scout Hazth!" Arctus loudly proclaimed and another shatter followed.
The third came and the weapon was no more than crumbled metal. Eight different collored and flickering lights quickly descended, the dust of the jeddart axe levitating and gathering together around them. Hazth's body, along with most of the blood present on the plaza ground shot up in a fiery blaze into the sky at an incredible velocity.
Another bright white star appeared as the Eight lifted the scraps of the weapon into the sky along with the new star.
Arctus did not smile at the death of Hazth, not out of respect or loss. He smiled out of pride, Hazth was undone and Arctus was the most glorious Aeternian to walk. A loud stamping of hooves rang across Canterlot, countless ponies now present outside along with guard, applauding his accomplishment. Celestia, with Luna and other scouts behind her, rushed to the Protector's side in worry.
"Arctus, we shall continue to watch you."
The Eight Heroes boomed as their stars faded from the night sky.
"Art," Celestia's horn lit, though she knew she couldn't heal most of the wounds he sustained, she repaired his broken bones using the medical knowledge she obtained on him throughout his years present, "don't collapse," Arctus still stood while Celestia opened a pouch on his person with her magic, rifling through and retrieving sutures, adminstering first aid to as many wounds as she could.
"I'll send for the hospital," Luna teleported after her words.
He didn't need praise, not from anypony present, not from the Gods above. Arctus kept silent as did Stitch and Sunset, knowing the ritual behind what Arctus had just performed that night.