Taeyeon had no words for what just happened to her, she had never once thought that she would lose Shinju. She had already lost both her parents because of King, but he still continued to strip the joys away from her. She had no other guardian left, no mentor, no parent which meant only one thing. She would have to defend herself, she was the only one that could do so. She summoned a bright orange shield by her side and charged at King, shield first. The combination of overwhelming emotions from her loss was forcing her to break through her limits and she charged at him with speeds she had never reached before. King was caught off guard by her sudden acceleration and was sent flying through the window. Taeyeon followed him through, this time sword in hand ready to slash him. With a mighty swing, she attempts to slice King’s chest, but his quick movement had just managed to save him. She did manage to leave a few slices in his emerald green suit jacket. “Bloody hell mate, you really are strong. No wonder why those idiots couldn’t handle you.” King laughed. Taeyeon did not respond as all her focus was defeating this murderer in front of her. She summoned her full hero costume to signal that it was time to truly begin the battle. “Getting serious now, are we? Fine, just give me a second.” King begins to remove all his top clothes, unveiling multitudes of solid muscles. He then summoned a pair of emerald green boxing gloves and taunted Taeyeon to come closer.

Without delay Taeyeon rushes him, immediately kicking him on the right side of his torso, but he didn’t seem at all fazed by the impact. Instead, he grabs Taeyeon’s leg and flings her down to the ground. He goes to smash a fist right at Taeyeon’s face as she was on the ground, but she had just managed to roll clear of his fist. Instead, King made a direct impact with the paved floor leaving a crater where his fist had touched. Taeyeon was shocked by his strength, unlike the Wyvern’s, King was actually physically strong and fit. And what made it worse was his powers were enhancing that strength to further peaks. Taeyeon had to use her greatest strength to her advantage, her speed. She pushed herself off of the ground and started running at King once more, he prepared for a big swing as Taeyeon was coming his way. Tae slid under his fist and found him completely open to a strike against his back. His back had a giant tattoo of an emerald green dragon that seemed to glow just like their powers. Distracted by the curious sight, King turned towards her and his fist finally made contact with her, which sent her flying across the open lawn. “Interesting mark isn’t it? It’s the mark of true strength and an ultimate bond with the stone.” King explained. He walked over to Taeyeon who was severely hurt from the direct punch she received from King. She could tell he was getting closer, so she sneakily summoned a dagger into her hand and she waited the perfect time to strike. The closer he got, the more anxious Taeyeon felt. “I got to make this work. I need to at least give him a substantial injury to slow him down a bit.” Taeyeon thought. He continued to approach her, slowly, like he was savoring her broken state.

Once he was finally within reach, Taeyeon jumped up and tried to stab King right in the shoulder, but the dagger shattered into millions of orange pieces on impact. Initially, Taeyeon thought this was simply because her conjures weren’t strong enough yet, but she then noticed emerald green scales completely covered King up to his broad shoulder and down to his fingertips, which were now dark, black talons. King didn’t move, he just stared at Taeyeon, as if he was telling her to continue striking him freely. Taeyeon did just that, she summoned her bow, flipped back away from King and began to rapid fire her vibrant orange arrows at him. King’s arms were invulnerable, none of the arrows were piercing through his arms and they all ended just like the dagger, a vibrant array of orange sparkles. “This is the strongest I’ve ever felt. I swear my conjurations have gotten tougher, but it’s not even leaving a scratch…” Taeyeon sighed under her breath.

“This is the difference between me and you mate. We’re both capable of sustaining conjures endlessly, we can both create deadly conjurations to break down our enemies, but this is what defines the line between a novice like you and a king like me. You can fire all the arrows you want, slash me with all your swords and bash me with all your shields, but none of them will ever leave a mark.” King stated.

“Why!? What do you have that I don’t!!?” Taeyeon ceased fire and stared directly at King with fury burning in her eyes. King held up his dragon like arms and displayed them to Taeyeon. “This… this is what you don’t have Miss Kim. A King Conjuration.”

“A what?” Taeyeon asked.

“When you’ve succeeded in creating a full bond with your stone, you will be gifted a conjuration that only you can perform. Even if someone takes your stone, they won’t be able to perform it while the previous owner is alive. Luckily I killed everyone in that cult so it wasn’t a problem for me. As for yours, you are the first owner in centuries, your stone was hidden away for hundreds of years so you have nothing to worry about. Eventually, you’ll receive yours Kim, but until then let me demonstrate the power it gives.” Without further delay, King ran towards Taeyeon and forced his talons right into her chest. Each individual claw easily pierced through her conjured costume and forced its way deeper into her chest. “Lucky for you, I don’t plan on killing you today. Today was merely me show casing to you our differences in power. This claws can slice through steel like a hot knife through butter. This grip…” As he said this he tensed his grip on Taeyeon’s chest. She screamed from the excruciating agony. “AAHHH PLEASE… STOP.” She wailed.

“This grip can crush titanium into a fine powder and these scales are even more invincible than diamonds. Nothing you can currently conjure will even leave a mark Miss Kim. You have to get stronger, you have to prove to me that you’re worth killing! If I were to kill you now… I would be disgusted with myself.” He threw Taeyeon back onto the grass. She lay perfectly still, praying that he would leave her be. At this moment Taeyeon had not only faced a great loss of a loved one, but a humiliating defeat from her adversary. “I can tell right now you’re broken. I’ve destroyed your hopes of becoming a hero. Well, good riddance to you mate, if you’re not worthy now, you never will be!” King began to walk away, but Taeyeon wouldn’t let that happen and with her last motion, she threw a dagger directly at his back. Of course, King caught the dagger easily, but that wasn’t Taeyeon’s plan. She just wanted him to turn, so she could show him she was still standing and ready to fight.

Her chest was bleeding out, her eyes were going blurry, but she wasn’t going to back down, not to him or anyone. “You… may have won the battle today… King. But… I swear on Shinju's life… I'm going to kick your ing ” Taeyeon stated with her last inches of breath. King did not respond, he simply laughed and approached the black limo at the front of the mansion. He takes one last look at Taeyeon who was still standing, staring him down as he left the property. “This girl has a lot of fight left in her, she’ll be back and next time, I might actually have a proper fight on my hands.” The black limo left Taeyeon’s sight and she crashed onto her knees since she was no longer able to ignore the pain. “OH MY GOD TAE!!” Sunny caught her just as she was about to completely collapse. Taeyeon could still see, but barely. She could tell that Sunny received a few cuts and bruises herself. “You’re… not looking… too good… right now either Sunny.” Tears began rolling in Taeyeon’s eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” Taeyeon confessed.

“What? What for?? Where’s Shinju?” Sunny asked with concern.

“Bringing you into all this bull, getting you hurt. All I ever do is bring pain and suffering to the people who have ever cared for me, like Shinju.” Taeyeon’s tears were not flooding out and she rested her eyes against Sunny’s shoulder. The tears wouldn’t stop, neither did the wailing, Sunny could tell what had happened with Taeyeon so she didn’t speak. Sunny carefully picked the sobbing girl up, carried her over to one of King’s cars and broke into it. Sunny then hot wired it and began the drive to Taeyeon’s apartment, the girl needed rest so