The fragment, like anyone would expect it had a different perspective of everything leading up to now and most things in general. Be it plants, insects, wild animals and humans, it saw any living being of a world as nothing more than a parasite feeding on the world's life force. This stemmed from how it saw itself, although it perceived itself as a dragon it also knew it was of a worldly nature.

  "A fellow world ravaged by parasites destined to die, I will sacrifice you to nurture myself. Perhaps when I've grown and you still cling to your existence I will repay this debt. Naturally I will leave some of the parasites to replenish yourself as they continue to die. But whether you reclaim what is yours is up to fate to decide."

  Said the fragment moments after falling onto the continent of rune practitioners. Even though the world had no will the fragment acted as though the former had awareness.

  After this declaration it went on a rampage fighting and killing to decrease the world's population. When it dropped to a satisfactory level, it moved on to plundering the world's life force. Years passed as it plundered the world's life force, completing what it instinctively knew was incomplete, its origin world.

  Fast forward to Hiro's arrival. After a brief exchange it understood Hiro was not of this world. Although it hadn't seen much of the World, the fragment wasn't ignorant to believe humanity existed only on this world, there were many planets spread throughout this World plentiful of life, some of which the fragment's present self wouldn't dare approach.

  (A passing parasite. To traverse the clusters of stars it needs strength, I should be careful. But to think, a parasite would accuse me of being the death of a world. How amusing.)

  The two soon clashed from not reaching a comprise. Fast forward to the present, Hiro had returned and with him the rune practitioners of this world.

  (Leaving this kind of parasite alive was a mistake, it seems to be the kind that leches onto new hosts when its present host is soon to perish.)

  It thought as it continued to battle and then the rune king purged the first clone body of life force. This struck fear into it, the life force was lost never to be reclaimed, neither absorbed by the king or any other person there instead disappearing into nothing. That is when it realised these weren't parasites looking for a new host. This was a virus that killed the host and by extension itself. For the first time the fragment felt hatred and all that hatred was pointed towards the rune king, the first to strike.

  (I must... I will kill...)

  One clone body was taken down of the two they were fighting, then came silence and the second clone body was brought down. But then gravity came, soon after a third clone body and the Rune King, Oldomus, Vazpin and the two masters were thrown into turmoil. But they had great coordination. When one was close to being stomped or was stuck floating, the others would pull or push them to either the ground or pullig them to themselves. Of course they would meet mid way but it was good enough to evade its attacks.

  Pant, pant.

  "This is the fourth clone body and like the third it's targeting his majesty. What should we do?"

  Asked Oldomus, his stamina was nearing its end and it could easily deduced from his heaving and seemingly tired body. He was standing on a rune platform several feet away from the Rune King before coming even closer as the previous rune platform lost the effects of fixation.

  "Perhaps it views me as more of a threat but regardless of the reason I say we make use of this."

  "Your majesty I have to disagree. The battlefield may seem to have shifted in our favor but there's still the core. It would be unwise to take unnecessary risk, I say we retreat or join with another squad. Right now we should start directing our efforts to replenishing our rune tablets, we're almost out healing runes not to mention we've already ran out of stamina runes."

  Interjected Vazpin, not far behind.

  "That is precisely why I must take such a risk. We tire, it does not, but purging a single clone body weakens the core itself. Fighting without risk, who knows how long the battle will go on for. But I understand your worry, I'm also unsettled by its silence. After purging this one of life force, we'll see which of your suggestions to go with."

  The Rune King's comprise was accepted by everyone as someone else also added in. "Vazpin you are too much of a safety net. You don't indulge in plans with less than a sixty percent chance of success, how can a person go through life without taking risks."

  "I'm sure he knows that, it's just his nature and was quite the balancer for his Majesty's youthful days."

  Noted Oldomus, reminiscent of the days he was their rune instructor but the thought quickly vanished from his mind as he prepared for the approaching attacks. From the front and below spikes of metal were launched at them. They were of various sizes, some several times the size of a person while others were so small they came close to being needless.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Vazpin quickly made rune platforms based on each spike's trajectory, all aligned so he could easily deflect and dodge.

  Clang! Clang!

  Sparks flew as his sword collided against them while blocking and deflecting the spikes on his path. Some he quickly evaded jumping onto other platforms as the one he left soon lost form and disappeared or shattered by the spikes. His gaze wandered their battlefield and he could tell the Rune King was already acting as a distraction.

  (Too late, I can only go along with it from now on lest I cause interference. It is up to everyone of us to not waste his Majesty's determination.)

  He thought quickly moving to the clone body's side, unlike before now they weren't on the ground which was an advantage in a way, the fragment could no longer tell their positions without looking at them directly. Vazpin managed to escape the barrage of metal spikes and arrived under its belly.

  (Sigh, as the first to make it this far it now falls on me to deal this clone body.)

  He thought once more after assessing everyone's actions, after he reached its under bell without being discovered the others excluding the Rune King stopped trying to do the same and focused on keeping the clone body occupied.

  But it would too optimistic to think it wouldn't notice his disappearance so he took out a rune tablet. After being infused with life force it became a golem with the exact appearance as Vazpin, something the Rune King had made personally. But as much as they could be mass produced they didn't have as much power as a rune master, at best equaling a rune expert.

  (But for the time I need to finish my task it'll be enough to fool it.)

  He thought before sending the golem out to expose itself before the clone body. It went and attacked the clone body's neck area with a barrage of cold runes, the neck was frozen. To defend the clone body transformed one wing into an additional arm and brought it to fight back against the Vazpin golem.

  Crack!

  While moving its body very quickly the frosted neck cracked from the rigidness and some shrapnel was shot off from it. Seeing this reaction it directly discarded the frozen area while taking in more earth to retain its present size. The golem had completed its role and fell back into the squad.

  (I'm also finished here.)

  Vazpin thought holding the rune he had just drawn in one hand, life expulsion rune. But he wasn't finished, with the time he still had he took on the last layer of precaution. He removed several runes on his robe and replaced them with stealth runes.

  "Runes may be versatile but this reliance on preparation is as much a disadvantage as it is an advantage."

  He noted feeling anxious, it would take more time than he wished to spend to engrave all the runes. But if he rushed it and the runes became crude thus having a chance of sudden deactivation, he would only have himself to blame after being discovered.

  (Risk taking longer or risk using a defective product?)

  He asked himself before coming to the conclusion of mixing well drawn and crude runes. Not long after he was finished engraving them all. He used them and became imperceivable, he could not be seen, heard, felt, smelled nor tasted, even his life force was concealed. In this state if he bumped into or ran across the clone body it would not feel anything, the only downside was that once he used another rune in this state he would be discovered. But right now it was irrelevant, he only needed that one activation to end this fight.

  (Now I just have to watch out for stray attacks, I may be unseen but not invulnerable.)

  A faint smile appeared on his face as thought of how funny it was that he now had to watch out for attacks from his allies rather than the clone body. He resolved himself to not be a joke as he went on a sprint on the clone body's back. He soon reached the base of the neck then switched to climbing, keeping himself steady to not fall as it moved around.

  Eventually he reached the top and stood firmly on it as he tossed the rune and it fell on its forehead. The clone body felt the rune come alive and was about to react when its life force was dispersed and the rock dragon body became inanimate.

  "Wow!"

  He exclaimed when the clone body suddenly shook because it was no longer being supported by gravity and due to its balance it was starting to fall. Vazpin only took a moment before escaping on to a rune platform and watched it as it continued to fall.

  Boom!

  It crashed on the ground and a dust cloud rose.

  "Who knew dust could rise this high when gravity isn't working normally."

  Said one master noting how unnatural the dust looked. It was quite dense and had risen so high that they were within it, barely seeing anything beyond a few feet even with their senses that were enhanced.

  "Forget the dust, now that we've brought down the fourth. Which of Vazpin's proposal do we go with?"

  Asked the second rune master, looking at the king as the dust continued to move around them.

  "Vazpin what are your thoughts?"

  The Rune King turned around asking the silhouette descending in their direction.

  "True as the one who made the suggestions and the one to secure our fourth victory I also think it's right to entrust the decision to him."

  Oldomus expressed, he was confident in which decision Vazpin would make and it was one he also favored presently. Thus he gave full support to the king's words.

  "I think you should die."

  The silhouette finally spoke after being moments away from being in clear sight.

  All were alarmed at this, not just because of the words but the voice, it wasn't Vazpin's. An unfamiliar voice filled with sharp killing intent, that is what they heard.

  They withdrew their weapons to face it but they were a few steps behind. The figure burst with speed lunging towards the king with blade hand, reaching a distance of an arm's length before anyone could do anything. At this proximity they could see it clearly, it was no human but a humanoid earth being.

  It need not be said but this was the fragment's creation, an earth human clone mimicking Vazpin's life force to approach without causing alarm while using the dust to conceal the real Vazpin's life force.

  "Since when could it do this?"

  Exclaimed someone considerably shocked while feeling concerned for the real Vazpin and the king he could only hope would block in time.