Chapter 56: The One You Should Fear: Part Two

“Gotcha!” Yells number three with confidence, pulling his threads, causing the Spiral Tornado to immediately begin closing up on me at an impossible speed.

“Are you sure about that?” I retort internally. The flames and winds that I conjured out circulate vigorously around my body and form under my feet. At that moment, time stops. Or rather, it slows down. No, to be more accurate, my perception of it becomes exceedingly warped.

“To the point that I’m viewing my entire surroundings as if they’re moving at an incredibly slow pace. Odd… I’ve never felt anything like this before. Unlike when I activate my high Ranked Skills that increase my perception speed which also slows down my surroundings a bit, my body is also moving slowly right now, almost as if it’s not moving at all, like it can’t keep up. It’s nothing at all like the sensation of a Special Attack. It feels like an inverse of that. No way… This is…”

An Epiphany.

The moment I realize that, my perception immediately returns to normal and my body is then instantly catapulted higher up than it already was, at a speed even number three failed to keep up with.

The tornado closes up entirely, only I’m not in it anymore.

“Impossible!” Number three yells. “Did you…just create a flight Spell just now!?”

“Is that what this is? I see. Of course… Epiphanies always come when one is about to create a Spell. The same way Enlightenments come when one is about to gain a Special Attack. Never thought this is how I’d get a flight ability though. A Spell that uses fire and wind elements… But I actually really like it. Wings would’ve been a pain to deal with and using purely Mana would’ve lacked in efficiency. With this method, I have something akin to an ignition function, meaning I can probably increase my speed as much as I want. Not to mention the flames and wind circulating around my body act as some sort of protection shield, like the electric Mana of the Hypermove Skill. My flight speed right now is a little over one-hundred and fifty times the speed of sound.”

I fly down head first then fly back up a bit and do a superhero landing.

~Bam!~

“Never has there been better timing to do that than right now.”

“Now then…” I say as I raise my head. “Where were we? Oh, right… I was about to kick your ass.”

I sprint towards him and deliver multiple slashes, each much faster and stronger than the last. Though barely, he holds his own. We’re back to being locked in a close-range battle. The more we lock heads, the faster and stronger my attacks become.

“This is it… Empowerment. I felt it when I got the Special Attack Sunset Slash and the other Special Attacks as well. It’s said that, every time, after a Warrior either creates a Spell or gains a Special Attack, for three minutes, they experience a surge of power within them, growing stronger and stronger the more they use their abilities. Warriors take advantage of this phenomena by either training or going to Dungeons immediately after creating a Spell or getting a Special Attack, and if they’re already in the heat of battle, then all the better… This is the first time I’m using it against another Warrior, let’s see what it amounts to…”

My attacks are strong, heavy and aggressive.

Slash after slash after kick after kick.

I launch them all, not even giving him any room to breathe.

Still, he’s not going down easily. Using his threads for both defense and offense, he holds his own as he fights back with everything he has.

“That pride. I won’t lie, I admire it.”

He then spreads out what seems like all his threads. They cover the whole soccer field, making it difficult for me to move around freely. He then starts controlling them all as they move around as if they have minds of their own, while emitting volts of electricity. He sends them all after me and utters…

“Electric Whiplash Barrage!”

I’m then bombarded by a nigh-uncountable number of threads from every direction around me.

“Though a bit similar, it is in fact different from Hazing Blades. For starters, I can see the threads, but they’re moving incomparably faster than before so it’s hard to parry and dodge them all. Another thing is that there’s a lot more of them this time and lastly…they’re all laced with electricity. I probably should prevent myself from making contact with them at all cost…”

The moment I think that, the unthinkable happens. The threads disappear. My opponent follows.

It’s the mist from before. Covering the entire field. “That insufferable Skill again.” I agonize internally.

“Wait but hold on…” It’s different from before, I can’t see him at all anymore. Almost as if… “He’s become the mist itself!” And it’s not just him, but his threads as well.

He sends them flying at an enormous speed. I respond by circulating my Mana and spreading it outward, covering the same distance as my Treasure Hunt Skill’s radar. This allows me to sense not only the threads, but number three as well, though slightly.

The threads come at me from every direction. I only evade them without parrying to avoid getting electrocuted. It’s not easy, but it’s not undoable.

Noticing that, number three decides to attack me head on. All the while bombarding me with his threads.

A kick from behind, a punch to my face. He constantly emerges from the mist to launch a single attack then immediately disappears. Each time I try to counter by slashing him, my blade simply goes through him as if going through mist.

“At least I can still dodge his threads, this way he won’t be able to electrocute me.” To my shock, literally, I’m electrocuted almost instantly after thinking that. “Karh!”

“What just-“-“Karhh!” My train of thought is interrupted as I’m electrocuted once more.

The threads haven’t touched me in the slightest.

“… It’s the mist!” I notice sparks of electricity appear and disappear all around me. “He’s imbuing the mist with the electricity from the threads, this guy is really checking all the boxes of annoying Skills.”

He keeps going, frying me with electricity multiple times.

“Urk! That’s it!” I shout in a fit of rage.

I use Quadron Element King to conjure out a ball of wind, forming at the tip of my blade. It grows and then finally explodes, blowing away all of the mist that surrounded the field, forcefully revealing my opponent’s whereabouts in the process. He stands but a few metres in front of me, looking a tad perplexed.

I don’t waste any time and immediately dash toward him. He counters with his threads, making sure to keep his distance. I still only dodge his threads without parrying them.

“I’ve already felt the shock of that awful mist. Something tells me those threads are much worse. I should play this safe and keep avoiding them as much as I can.”

Sadly, things don’t easily go my way. I feel myself slightly getting weaker. “Damn it. The shocks from before must’ve taken a hell of a toll. I’m losing my ground.” My movements start to slow down. It’d be hard to notice for a normal person, what with how fast in still moving regardless, but sadly, my opponent is no normal person whatsoever. So catching wind of my diminishing speed, he increases the speed of his threads. I’m still able to dodge them, but barely so. I begin to struggle to keep up, my movements dulling by the second. One of the threads comes at me from my back, I see it clearly, what with Treasure Hunt being active, but I can’t react in time, unfortunately. It moves at an incredible speed, much faster than all the others as it makes contact with my back. I’m immediately struck by what feels like millions of volts of electricity. Enough to instantly kill any ordinary human.

The momentum I had from before dulls indefinitely. Seeing that, number three acts. “Again!” He shouts, sending multiple electric threads at me. They all make contact, wrapping around my body one after the other, constantly electrocuting my body. He doesn’t stop, and just keeps going as I just stand there, lost in thought.

“… I can’t move… I can’t move a single finger. Everything hurts. Head to toe, so much that my body’s slowly going numb, like it’s experiencing a total sensory white-out. I can’t even move my mouth, so I can’t even scream, as agonizing as this is. Even my eyes are burned shut. My very bones feel like they’re burning, while my muscles feel like they’re literally being torn off of them. A deep, agonizing inescapable heat is radiating from my very core. My organs are literally being cooked, like I’m being fried from the inside out. I can feel my own skin tearing apart like weak paper. My consciousness feels like it desperately wants to fade… but I’ll be damned if I let it. Had it been me from the past, I probably would’ve given up by now. Just let it all end, just like that. But that ’me’ is no more.”

[Report! You have Awakened as the Tenacious One. The Aspect of Tenacity is now fully yours to command. You will not truly die as long as Tenacity exists.]

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