Chapter 144 Volume III - 65: Ten Seconds
Chapter 144 Volume III - Chapter 65: Ten Seconds
My mana began to spread wildly into the atmosphere. My access to the Sith's vast reserves of mana was unblocked, and not only that, Sith intentionally purified and concentrated the mana in my own body.
My mana refused to stay in my body because I had used this technique when I was not yet powerful enough. Even though Sith was supporting me with the mana that he could not use on his own, my time was limited.
The King had not finished me off quickly to show his overwhelming power just now, but when he realized the amount and purity of the mana emanating from me, the smile on his face disappeared as quickly as it had come. Without waiting, he lunged at me, realizing the danger, and his huge sword was coming straight at me.
I raised my hand and pulled it to the side in the direction of the sword.
Suddenly, a strong gust of wind caused the king's sword to deflect. The huge sword landed not on me, but next to me, penetrating the ground and sending a shockwave around it. However, the shockwave was not enough to knock me down as I supported myself with the winds.
The king did not bother to pick up his sword, it was a waste of time for him to remove it from the ground and so he let it go, clenched his fist, and charged at me with a fury.
This was what I expected. This was his second phase in the game and each time he would throw the same sequence of punches. I thought it would be the same here, in my reality, because when I first came to Lunerra, Professor Calvin had the same attack sequence.
In the small moment before his attack, our eyes met. He had a look in his icy blue eyes as if he really saw me as a danger.
What he doesn't know is that I'm not such an extreme danger to him. I can stay in this form for fifteen seconds at most and that's... not enough to kill him. The reason he's so afraid of me is because of the pure mana that my body can't handle.
My eyes went specifically to his right hand and what I expected happened. The king threw his left foot back, took support from it, and swung his right fist at me.
It was exactly the same as in the game.
I easily avoided the attack and all his subsequent attacks were just like in my memories. It was hard to pick out his attacks, but everything was just like in my memory.
The King kept swinging his fists at me, and I just dodged. In just five seconds, we had accelerated so much that I could no longer follow his movements even with Absolute Mind.
I kept his focus on me, using my mana and doing things to attract his attention.
Ten seconds.
The king's fist almost smashed my head like a watermelon, but I managed to dodge it.
Nine seconds.
The king didn't punch me this time. The blue glow in his eyes intensified and the ground trembled.
The ground beneath the king's feet began to freeze, and the ice rose up as if out of thin air and shot at me in thin spears.
I created a Mana Barrier with my remaining mana and all of these attacks were blocked by my transparent barrier floating in the air. The barrier shattered after blocking this attack, the attacks were indeed powerful.
Eight seconds.
The metallic taste came to my mouth again, but this time I couldn't even bother to swallow.
As I dealt with the king's punches along with his thin ice attacks, I was pushed back and back. Finally, my back touched the wall. The king was so focused on me that he kept punching me as if he didn't notice, and this time I didn't avoid him straight.
Seven.
I bent down and closed my eyes, focusing on the mana left in my body. The teal glow surrounding my body intensified, so much so that I could see it even through my closed eyes, and a strong wind blew across me.
I strengthened the wind created by the king's fist, giving his attack much more force than usual, and the fist suddenly accelerated. It was so sudden for the king that he couldn't control himself... and his fist smashed the wall.
The snow that had been falling outside the crumbling wall began to come in and the air suddenly became cold and the king hesitated. Only now did he realize that we had reached the wall of the throne room.
Six.
The king looked angrily at me, bent over. He realized I was trapped and an ugly smile formed on his face.
I quickly pulled another button out of my pocket, this one a different color than the others. I had prepared different colored dimensional buttons for food, potions, and stews, but this one was black. It was the only black one among the others.
I broke the button and out came a potion that had cost me a lot of money.
The king didn't notice this.
Five.
The king attacked me at this very moment. This time it wasn't a punch, he tried to catch me and he was extremely fast.
I tried to avoid it, I even tried to make it easier by using my mana, but at this moment... my whole body shook.
Even though I could have stayed in the form I was in for another five seconds, my body started to overstrain, and that led to something unpleasant.
The king managed to catch me with his hands. I felt his cold skin touching me and his huge fingers closed. He couldn't fully encircle my body, but he was big and strong enough to prevent me from moving my arms.
I struggled, I tried to break free, but I couldn't do anything because he was too strong. The king made an expression of amusement. A block of ice rose up from under his feet, began to taper, and move closer to my chest.
Four.
It was clear that struggling was useless. There seemed to be no way out.
I took a deep breath, stopped struggling, and let myself go. When the king realized that I had given up, he slowed down the ice spike that would lead me to my death, as if he was not done with me, as if he enjoyed it. The smile on his face widened.
I gripped the potion in my hand tightly and closed my eyes.
Three.
I focused on all the mana left in my body and dropped the potion on the ground.
A gust of wind, powered by my mana, lifted it up, preventing it from falling to the ground. The sharpened ice was right in front of my heart.
Two.
My eyes opened and I looked directly into the king's eyes. As our eyes met, the first thing I saw in his shimmering icy blue eyes was my own pale reflection. My eyes were not gray, they were a shimmering teal.
The king was surprised for a moment, the smile fell from his face and he realized something was wrong... but it was too late.
The first thing I did was to open the spikes on the bottom of my shoes, which we used to use to cross a cliff and later to climb a mountain, with a simple gesture. The nails came out from under my foot and with it, I kicked the king hard in the stomach.
The king groaned in pain as his grip momentarily loosened.
One.
I quickly freed myself from him, pulled one last dimensional button from my pocket, broke it, and a dagger appeared in the air.
I snatched it from the air as it formed, the teal glow around my body enveloped the dagger and I swung it horizontally into the king's mouth without waiting.
Cracks instantly appeared on the dagger, powered by wild, pure mana, but they did not prevent me from finishing the job.
The king's mouth opened wide in an instant. The blood ran down his neck, then down his chest, soaking his armor, and the king roared in rage, mingled with a scream.
He quickly tried to grab me, but I quickly got behind him, put my fingers in his eyes, and blinded him.
Zero.
I felt my strength slowly leaving my body, but I didn't feel the slightest bit of adrenaline.
I have to hold on a little longer...
Thanks to the Absolute Mind I felt no tension, no urgency, no despair. I was calm, unnecessarily calm. I was all in my battle with the king.
The king struggled even more with the pain he felt and the fact that he was blind. A huge sheet of ice suddenly expanded on the ground beneath his feet and random thorns started shooting up.
Some of them actually found me, my movements were slowed by the two thorns that pierced my shoulder and leg, but if I stopped, I was certain to die.
The dagger in my hand trembled for a moment as if it might explode and without taking any risk, I plunged it into the side of the king's stomach.
I quickly pulled out what was probably my last remaining weapon, another dagger, and grabbed it in midair, widening the wound in the king's mouth even more, so much so that he could never close his mouth, and probably could not even make a proper sound.
The wind, using my mana to hold the potion I had just brewed in the air, carried it swiftly to the king's mouth, which was unable to close, and threw it into it.
I pushed the king against the collapsed wall before throwing myself backward, and as my form began to return to normal, the king staggered and crashed into the wall, making strange noises as he struggled in pain, causing it to break.
I suddenly felt extremely weakened, the teal glow around me faded completely and I involuntarily fell to my knees.
The dagger in the king's belly exploded at this moment, unable to withstand the mana inside. With the impact of the explosion, a small but abnormal gap appeared in the right half of the king's body. With an even more agonized scream, he staggered toward the break in the wall and lost his balance.
Our eyes met for the last time. He looked at me with intense anger. He was so angry at me, the source of his pain, that he didn't seem to care about the hole in the right side of his stomach and his mouth hanging out of place. He tried to approach me... but it was too late.
A faint light suddenly appeared in the king's abdomen. His expression just froze. He wanted to moan but he couldn't even do that, his eyes shifted upward to show his whites and there was a muffled 'boom'.
The pale light in the king's abdomen ceased. Smoke and blood came from his mouth. He took a step backward, trying to keep his balance but his strength gave out as his life slipped from his hands before he fell down from the palace.
With the end of my mana, the influence of the Absolute Mind disappeared. My thoughts entered my head again. At the same time, pain enveloped my whole body.
A notification appeared in front of me, but I couldn't read it, and I didn't need to, it was obvious what the notification was.
My body lost even more strength... and I collapsed.
I turned my head to look at Alex and the last thing I saw was him, bruised and battered, fighting against one last knight.
The silvery glint in his eyes was still there, but at the same time, blood was coming out of them. His skill was straining his eyes so much that there were even bulging veins next to his eyes. Still, Alex couldn't seem to stop.
I hope... that you win, Alex. Otherwise, it won't end well for us...
And just like that, the world went dark.