R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 14

R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 14

Ten minutes into the sparring match and Micheal’s lungs felt like they were on fire. His breathing had long since turned ragged as his arms trembled from repeatedly shrugging off the colossal force behind each one of Gregor’s strikes. His back was covered with sweat, clinging tight to his clothes.

Half of the exhaustion he felt was real and tangible, while the other half was mental.

A duel between highly skilled Masters was one of the most physically intensive and mentally taxing activities one could partake in. Not only did Micheal have to physically react to multiple things in an instant, he had to do this again and again, several times per second, every single second.

A slight shift of a stance here would mean Gregor’s strike would come at a different angle there, which meant Micheal needed to lean his body slightly and shift his back foot back, which Gregor responded to by adjusting the angle of his attack and putting more weight behind it, which Micheal responded to by…

On and on, the numerous tiny, minute actions the two warrior made in-between each impact was another battle in and of itself, a battle that only an extremely experienced Master could handle.

The exhausting spar did, however, also provide two major benefits for Micheal.

After waking up from his mission to save Myla Hannis, Micheal’s body and Soul had experienced explosive growth. This disparity had led to a vague ‘off’ sensation that subtly affected his movements. The feeling had lessened, somewhat, but had still existed before this duel. 

Over the course of his spar with Gregor, that feeling gradually faded as Micheal immersed himself in the sensation of battle. His movements gained a level of natural grace that could only be attained after more than a decade of extreme training.

Even with all of Micheal’s experience, skill, and strength, it still wasn’t enough to stave off the Lord Justiciar. The Farian was like a relentless wrecking ball of destruction and, if not for one critical factor, Micheal would’ve failed to last more than 2 minutes…

And that factor was the Time Bubbles he spawned.

Gregor not only had the advantage of a physique that had undergone intensive Master Class training for dozens of years, but he also had access to his Primordial Giant Bloodline. Micheal was physically unable to withstand even a single direct blow from the Farian…

But none of that mattered if Gregor was unable to land a direct attack in the first place.

Throughout the course of the battle, Micheal constantly spawned in Time Bubbles, one after the other, each adjusting the flow of time at a different rate.

Because his fight with Gregor demanded such an extreme level of focus, Micheal could only manage a single Time Bubble at a time, and each one was limited in scope and power.

However, as he discovered over the course of the spar, his recent growth in his Soul stat meant that even his distracted Time Bubbles were still able to modify the flow of time up to 30% in either direction, an amount that used to be maximum he could safely control when he was completely focused.

Thanks to that, his Time Bubble Ability had reached a new level of usability, something Micheal used to his advantage.

In a battle where Masters had to make constant adjustments each second, Micheal’s Time Bubbles proved to be a huge annoyance.

Every time Gregor charged in, he would be met with a Time Bubble that threw off his focus. One Time Bubble might only slow him down by 5%, while the next one he hit might slow him by 27%. Sometimes they even sped him up by a small amount. It was impossible to predict.

Gregor could destroy the Time Bubbles Micheal spawned by flaring his Aura, but that action took away from his focus and took a small amount of time.

In the beginning of their duel, it hadn’t proven to be too big of an issue. Gregor had been unnerved at first by the unexpected Ability, but had adapted to it by instantly flaring his Aura every single time he attacked. It was taxing, but, in the first place, his stamina was not something Micheal could match.

However, as the duel went on… things began to change.

The Lord Justiciar came to a pause in the same moment Micheal used to catch his breath. Unlike Micheal, the Farian warrior wasn’t even breathing hard. His eyes, however, were glowing dangerously red as he studied Micheal.

‘Hmm… my observations were correct. He’s noticeably improving over the course of our spar.’ The Lord Justiciar’s mind was clear and calm, belying his appearance of a warrior trembling in excitement.

‘How ridiculous.’ Gregor had heard of people evolving under pressure, but never to this extent.

Part of Micheal’s improvements lay in his fine-tuned adjustments of his body, but the main part lay in his gradually increasing skill in manipulation of his Time Bubbles.

Micheal had never had the opportunity to fight a duel against a Master while using his Temporal Bubble Ability. This particular experience was a unique first for him. To adjust, Micheal drew heavily on his years of experience in combat fighting a myriad of various Abilities as well as his own instinctive combat sense.

At first, Micheal’s use of Time Bubbles was somewhat clumsy, at least, from the perspective of a Master. This ended up forcing Micheal to deflect Gregor’s attacks more through the use of pure sword technique.

While Micheal’s Soul stat relegated him to the level of a Master, in his past life, he had achieved the stage of Grandmaster, if just barely. When it came to pure, exquisite sword technique, his knowledge and skill was actually superior to that of the Lord Justiciar.

That didn’t makeup for the huge gap in raw power, but it staved off the Lord Justiciar long enough for Micheal to get a feel for his Temporal Bubble Ability.

As a result, for ten minutes straight now, the Lord Justiciar was unable to land a direct attack.

‘I expected it but… I don’t think I can win.’ Micheal observed, his hands steadying as his pounding heart cooled. His thoughts raced ahead of him as he took everything in.

His body was absorbing the latent energy in the air as fast as it could, his Heartflame Physique replenishing his energy at a rapid pace… but even that 3 Star Physique was unable to keep up with the intensity of a Master Class duel.

Micheal could dodge the Lord Justiciar’s strikes or redirect them when needed, utilizing his Time Bubbles to their utmost limit… but as it stood now, that was his limit.

As the course of their sparring match wore on, several of Micheal’s bones had cracked, just from the remnant force left after deflecting Gregor’s attacks. By the time minute 6 rolled around, Micheal was forced to shatter one of the 3 Life Orbs he had at his disposal after a glancing deflection broke his right arm in 3 spots.

The Lord Justiciar was no doubt aware of the injuries Micheal sustained, but he respected Micheal’s will to keep the spar going, and was also aware of Micheal’s unusual ability to regenerate from injuries to a certain extent.

In a serious battle, if Micheal attempted a suicide attack, he could definitely injure Gregor… but the odds of him actually defeating Gregor were incredibly slim, even with multiple chances.

The difference in raw physical stats was just too much.

‘The Lord Justiciar is definitely on par with the Six Lords, the strongest of the Second Layer. If I had to rate my current self, I’m roughly half a level below them.’ Micheal made a clear judgement of his current self with a slight nod. It was an insane amount of growth for someone who had arrived on the Second Layer just a few weeks ago.

‘If I want to reach their level...' His brow wrinkled.

'Shin and Sophia should have arrived at the Soul King’s Inheritance by now.’ His eyes flashed with a hint of excitement. At this point, there was only one last way he could get stronger in a short period of time… and that was if he finally obtained the Deity Titles System.

‘I hope you two are doing well… I’ll be seeing you two very soon.’

Micheal focused back on the present as he and Gregor exchanged glances.

“I think we can end it here.” Micheal smiled as his breath began to grow even, shattering the 2nd of his 3 Life Orbs to once again heal the cracked and bruised bones that came with forcing Gregor to face him seriously. 

As worthwhile as it was to keep sparring and practicing with his Time Bubbles against a Master, he only had 1 Life Orb remaining. After coming back in time, Micheal had adopted a rather risk-averse mindset. He had survived in the 7 Layers for more than a decade in his first life without any Life Orbs but now… there was far more at stake than just his own life if he died.

Gregor gave Micheal one of his characteristic wide grins as he replied,

“It’s as good a time as any. You’ve blown my expectations away, young warrior. I haven’t had to fight this seriously in years.” The Lord Justiciar’s gaze when he looked at Micheal had subtly changed. If before he looked at Micheal like he would a new acquaintance who had done a heroic deed, now he looked at him like a warrior he respected and was interested in befriending.

Seeing is believing. Micheal was well aware that the psyche of most intelligent creatures holds true to that motto. No matter how much one hears about how great someone is, only when they witness that person’s capabilities first hand will they fully appreciate them.

‘If I can win him over as an ally, everything will be much easier.’ Micheal clenched his fist slightly, a pleasant feeling filling him.

He was growing stronger, he saved Myla Hannis, he would soon reunite with Shin and Sophia and obtain the Titles System… everything was starting to go as he wanted it to. Things were looking up.

“Well, since we still have plenty of time, why don’t we exchange opinions on our match?” Gregor continued.

The Farians had a custom of explaining what their opponent needed to improve on after sparring. The tribal warriors were a supportive, wholesome bunch when it came to working to grow strong, a custom humanity would do good to borrow.

Micheal nodded back, agreeing immediately as he raised his sparring sword up to his shoulder. He definitely needed more practice when it came to using his Time Bubbles at a high level and that-

Micheal’s thought process abruptly cut off as his sixth sense flared.

The instinctual, intuitive backdrop that lurked in the back of Micheal’s mind blasted into existence in a fraction of a second, screaming at Micheal’s body to move.

Without even knowing why, Micheal instantly followed his instincts and jammed his right foot into the ground while simultaneously bringing out his remaining Life Orb and smashing it against his ribs, forcibly shifting his body in an impossible lurch backwards.

Two of his ribs cracked from the jarring impact, but the rapid-fire movement let Micheal jump backwards an entire meter in a fraction of a second.

And… within that same fraction of a second…

Micheal was met with a jarring, impossible sight.

“KKTTTHHHH!”

“Kkktthh!”

“Ktthh…”

“Kttthhhhhss…”

5 Monster Class Morenkai appeared out of thin air surrounding and simultaneously ripping into the space where he had just been standing.

“?!” Shock. Confusion. Disarray. 

If he had not dodged back in that minute moment, he would have died and shattered his final Life Orb.

These Morenkai moved with strength and grace that was a level higher than any Monster Class Morenkai Micheal had heard of, creatures that already stood far above the peak of most on the First Layer.

The Monster Class Morenkai had an appearance that stood out, each one covered with distinct features that Micheal had never seen or heard of before. One of them had gained a layer of scales to cover its skin while another had odd blue markings going up and down its black hide.

The third had-

Before he could even finish recognizing what he was seeing, Micheal’s instincts flared for the second time.

Micheal gave up on thinking and simply reacted, the world around him growing small as he grew incredibly focused. A feeling of cold rage fluctuated in his heart. Blood pounded in his ears as his eyes dilated, his senses expanding as he zeroed in on everything within attacking range.

The only thing that mattered now was survival, Life Orb or not.

Micheal flicked his wrist and hurled the wooden training sword directly behind him. The weapon, imbued with Master Tier Sword Energy, was met with a rumbling Morenkai growl as it smashed into a sixth Monster Class Morenkai that had just appeared behind Micheal.

In the same movement, instead of trying to escape from the attacking Monster Class Morenkai or dodge out of the way…

Micheal took a step forward, moving directly towards the group of monsters that had attacked him first.

He was exhausted from his long sparring match with Gregor, caught off guard and now weaponless, forced to sacrifice his wooden sword to avoid imminent death, left without enough time to sort through his Spatial Ring to grab a new sword…

So Micheal did what he did best.

He improvised.

He adapted.

Roughly 0.5 seconds had passed since the appearance of the first group of Monster Class Morenkai.

At 0.6 seconds, Micheal’s finished his fast step, cutting the distance between him and his attackers in half.

At 0.7 seconds, the five Monster Class Morenkai twisted off the ground and turned, their arms blurring as they began redirecting their attacks to where Micheal was now standing.

At 0.8 seconds, Micheal finished spreading the fingers on each of his hands out, raising both of them out in front of his chest.

At 0.9 seconds, the Monster Class Morenkai arrived from all angles in front of Micheal. Multicoloured Auras spread out and clashed as the creatures struck, the beginnings of several rumbling growls started to echo out.

At 1.0 seconds…

10 distinct lines of golden Sword Energy blazed into existence as Micheal imbued his own fingers as if they were actual real swords.

The ferociously sharp power immediately began to rip his fingers apart, imbued with an energy that flesh could not contain.

In the window of time he had before his hands were destroyed, however…

Micheal flicked both wrists…

And brutally eviscerated all five Monster Class Morenkai in one swift motion.

.