Lachlan's blood splattered across the wall behind him, he fell to his knees and gripped his shoulder tightly, his eyes were squinting from the extreme pain. Looking towards the wound Lachlan saw that it went all the way through, leaving a gashing hole in his shoulder, his arm only being held onto by a thin thread of bone and veins.

"Oh, well aren't you lucky. If you hadn't moved in time it would have gone straight through that heart of yours," Alfredo said as his grin appeared from and more gruesome. Holding out his palm another ice shard began to form.

"You know what? I might take a bit of inspiration from you," Alfredo said as a fire began to form with the ice. It wasn't a clustered flame concentrated in the centre of the shard but rather a flame that spread throughout it.

He began walking towards Lachlan, slowly and menacingly, making sure Lachlan feared every step Alfredo took with more fear than the last.

Lachlan lifted up his hand and slammed it against the ground, the entire surface was swiftly encased by ice, Alfredo's legs were frozen along with it. He quickly disappeared from his spot, appearing next to Alfredo with a fist of blue flames.

"Go to hell," Lachlan smashed Alfredo in the face. This all happened in a second, Alfredo didn't have any time to protect himself. The ice shard was quickly shattered in his hands, causing it to explode on himself. "An arm for an arm you prick!"

Alfredo was on the floor, the force had pushed him across the room and he wasn't able to stop in time because of the ice. His body had smashed against the wall, making it too powerful hits from both sides of his body.

Looking down he noticed his hand was completely gone along with half of his forearm. The rest of his arm and right side of his body was charred heavily. He felt it getting more difficult to breathe, his ribs were broke and it possibly stabbed himself in the lungs.

"Well played," Alfredo remarked. Ice began to form around his right arm before extending and creating another hand. He held it up to his face and clenched his fists. "Control over the elements is such a useful tool yet you humans haven't discovered its full potential yet."

Lachlan could see Alfredo's chest, it was moving ever so slightly, his ribs were fixing themselves. Alfredo took a deep breath. "Kekeke. Well, now that I'm fully healed I suppose I should finish this. Oh yes, I will say though that letting me heal myself was a rather idiotic choice. But I suppose that's what makes you human."

Alfredo appeared next to Lachlan in the blink of the eye, his ice hand had long since changed into a weapon. It was a blade, he swung it towards Lachlan's neck, it whistled as it broke apart the wind.

Lachlan rose his arm and created a shield out of ice, the two forces smashed against each other. Lachlan got swept from his feet and his body smashed against the wall. "Good, I see that you're learning. Too bad you couldn't have done that earlier."

Lachlan took a bit of inspiration from Alfredo, using his missing limb and creating a weapon in its place. He used ice as it was the only strong physical element he can control, both fire and wind wouldn't be able to block anything. But that didn't mean he couldn't use it.

He swung his blade once more, a torrent of flames engulfed the lab as everything was either melted or burnt to a crisp. Alfredo slammed his legs down and created a barrier or iron, frozen by ice. He then leaned forward and pushed against it, along with that came pillars of dirt.

The barrier completely nullified Lachlan's attack, behind Alfredo lay an untouched part of the lab while the area surrounding him was covered in scorch marks, the metal had melted and his barrier was thoroughly melted along with it.

"Kekeke, it seems your control over your elements is getting better; well, at the very least you're being smarter in how you control it," Alfredo complimented in a slightly mocking tone. "Now let's see if you can block this one."

Alfredo slammed his hand against the ground before he gripped firmly, his hand of ice was still being held slightly in the air but it was moving around ever so slightly. He swiftly yanked back, pulling the ground along with him, he shouted as he exerted his strength unto his feet.

The ground began to rupture as it was being pulled out, it was splitting apart and the metal was breaking apart with it. The crack quickly went past Lachlan's feet and Alfredo grinned. He grabbed onto the dirt along with his ice hand and attempted to pull everything apart.

The ground began to split apart, creating a chasm beneath Lachlan's feet. Lachlan swiftly commanded his gravity stone and floated in the air, he suddenly remembered that he should have used the stone much earlier.

Lachlan tossed a medium-ranked stone at Alfredo's feet. '20 times Earth's gravity downwards'

Alfredo's knees collapsed under the sudden pressure, his eyes widened with shock when he realised what was happening. "Well ain't this a surprise, I didn't expect you to have gravity stones. Tsk, if only I had my damn wings."

Lachlan was intrigued by what Alfredo said last, but he failed to notice something raising from the depths of the chasm. It was a vine, climbing up the walls before reaching out and wrapping around Lachlan's leg, it pulled him down with a sudden force that he wasn't expecting.

Alfredo began pushing the Earth together with great difficulty, his face was red from the blood rushing through his veins. His breathing was erratic as sweat poured from his entire body.

The split between the dirt began to close, it closed quickly but Lachlan was able to swiftly create a barrier around him. He made sure to not miss a single spot as he covered his body in compacted ice.

On top, Alfredo had collapsed from exhaustion. 'Well I'll be damned, I didn't expect to be done in so badly by a damn mortal. Ha, suppose that vessel is going to be close to perfection for that one's strength'

Alfredo lost consciousness for a mere moment, but that mere moment was just enough for the other soul inside the body to release itself. Alfredo's black eyes began to brighten as the darkness returned to his pupils.

"Lachlan!" Alfredo swiftly pulled apart the dirt but the remaining strength just wasn't enough to completely free Lachlan. He began to control the vine wrapped around Lachlan's leg and got it to untangle itself. It began climbing up the chasm with Lachlan's body with it, digging apart the dirt with great difficulty as it was almost stone at the level they were at.

When Lachlan got out from there he noticed Alfredo had returned to his normal self. He shattered the ice surrounding him and looked at the situation closely.

Alfredo sighed deeply at Lachlan's caution, he looked around at the laboratory, the bodies of his researchers that have had their skulls broken into the ground. While the others had scorch marks across their body. Some were still breathing, only ever so faintly.

"Lachlan, I don't know how long I'll be able to hold it back so you're going to have to do me a favour," Alfredo clenched onto his arm, the pain from having it cut off just processed in his brain. "I'm going to need you to kill me right now, don't hesitate, don't ask questions. Just kill me while I still have the ability to fight for control."

"We don't need to do that, we can just bring you back to the glass box," Lachlan explained desperately. He had just found someone else like him, he didn't want to see him go so soon. Not when he hasn't actually found out everything he wants to know.

"No!" Alfredo shouted. "I just want to get this over with, I don't want to remain a threat to humanity, I don't want to hurt so many people. And more then ever, I don't want that thing to ever take full control over my body."

Lachlan clenched his fist as he hesitated, but after taking a deep breath he understood what Alfredo was going through. He was scared, completely terrified at what the other half could do should it not be stopped.

"Okay," Lachlan appeared next to Alfredo, his ice hand had changed shape to form a thin blade. "But before that, I want to know one more thing, what will the next tame unlock."

"You'll gain the ability to see every beasts' upgrade paths, getting a beast from normal to good will be as simple as cooking. Now hurry! I can't hold on much longer!" Alfredo shouted with desperation.

Lachlan's hand slashed downwards, it cut through Alfredo's neck like nothing was there, he hadn't put up any resistance, no barriers, just skin and bone. The head dropped to the floor, both gravity stones were still activated.

Lachlan reached to the side and picked up the medium-ranked gravity stone. He swiftly deactivated it before putting it back in his pocket. He held his head high, but his fists were clenched tightly from disappointment. He still had many unanswered questions.

He let out a deep breath before holding his path wide, facing Alfredo's corpse. 'I can't let Alfredo's efforts go to waste, I won't take any chances."

A trail of flames flew out of Lachlan's hands, they encased Alfredo's body and burnt it completely to ash. This time there was no maniacal laugh to follow right after, just silence.

"Lachlan!" Phoebe suddenly appeared from the elevator shaft, the door had been ripped open and the whole group was there. Phoebe ran up to Lachlan and wrapped her arms around her, her breathing erratic as her heartbeat was pacing. "Why didn't you inform us, we could have helped."

"Sigh, if only I had the time to inform you all. Unfortunately, time really was of the essence," Lachlan explained as he hugged back. "I'm sorry I made you worry so much, there just wasn't much I could do. But considering you're all here now I suppose that means you heard the explosion."

"Big Brother! Your arm! What happened to it?" Sarah appeared from behind the ground and ran up to Lachlan. She held onto Lachlan's arm of ice, it was completely transparent yet it functioned completely normal.

The rest of the group finally noticed it as well. From the way Lachlan angled himself it was hard to see. They all ran up to take a look, some of them were amazed by Lachlan's idea while others were worried about Lachlan's health.

"Something I learnt from Alfredo's other half," Lachlan chuckled as he held up his hand, clenching it and moving his fingers around for all the see. "Granted it might take a little while to get used to it."

"Why don't you just use the bananas?" Phoebe asked worriedly as she held onto the hand. "It just might be able to heal it up completely, at the very least it should make it better."

"I suppose I could, but that would be using a life-saving trump card when my life isn't in danger. I would rather use it when I really need to use it. As for now, I can use it perfectly fine how it is. Not to mention I did freeze it not too long after it was wounded so I might just be able to stitch it back on," Lachlan explained. "Of course I don't expect it to work the same after that, but I now have a nice trick to make it work much better."

The ice around his arm changed shape into an axe head before changing into a sword and finally returning to its original shape. "See, it's like I've grown a shapeshifting arm."

Phoebe chuckled slightly. "I really don't know what I should do with you. At the very least you have to promise me to get it stitched up."

"Alright, alright, I can at least promise that much," Lachlan said. He reached out with his other hand and rubbed Sarah's hair. "As for you, we still got a town to explore now don't we?"