I feel like hitting myself in the head for my arrogant words. I wanted to sound confident about defeating him quickly or easily, but I’m trapped in a terrible situation.
I am already forcing my body slightly beyond its limit to keep up with his strength and speed. I’m not overdoing it too much, small tears form in some muscles with each movement, it wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t have to perform multiple movements per second.
My body is tearing apart every second. So far it hasn’t been a problem, my new body is incredible, these small tears are healing instantly thanks to my life mana.
I had never noticed this peculiarity, I didn’t have the opportunity to push my body to this point since I ranked up.
I lower my head slightly to dodge a death mana arrow, the construct passes so close to me that a bit of my hair is cut. I can only keep up because of my Personal World.
I am not the only one with problems, the Lich is in a similar situation. My close-range constructs are not slow, nor weak, he manages relatively well because he must have some ability to detect danger and constantly keeps several layers of mana around him ready.
My sword points directly at his right leg, the metallic sound echoes throughout the cave. My other sword manages to find a gap in his defense, when I think I’ve landed a clean hit I feel one of his barriers move at high speed to stop my strike at the exact moment.
Another high-speed exchange happens, my twin swords collide against his large sword. In terms of strength I am still slightly behind, that doesn’t mean I am at a disadvantage, the monster keeps retreating due to my swordsmanship.
I prepare a much larger and more powerful construct. I condense all the mana possible to create a Joyeuse at maximum power, it is twice my size. The Lich does not fall behind, he creates a giant orb of death mana.
I take a step back to avoid being caught in the explosion. I launch my construct and the monster does the same, both of us retreat in the short time possible. Our spells collide between us, generating a large explosion.
The environment becomes colder and more electric, I also notice how the death mana becomes agitated around us. A thick layer of mist from the ice clouds our vision even more.
I take advantage of this blind spot to teleport behind the monster. My teleportation feels as smooth as every previous time, my body and brain have memorized it like walking at this point.
My body moves the moment I appear behind the Lich. My sword aims toward his back, he tries to react, but it’s too late, even his mana defenses are overwhelmed.
The monster’s body is sent flying dozens of meters due to the force of the impact. It was a powerful strike, I can feel how I shattered several of his bones with that attack.
Finally I get a moment to breathe from this high-speed battle. I haven’t had time to think about many things, my mind has been focused on not falling behind. Now I can observe more carefully how Glia is doing.
She is not capable of defeating those monsters, but she is not close to losing either. If she continues like this she will be fine, she just needs to focus on buying time and staying on the defensive.
It makes me happy to know she understood the point, she can’t do much against so many grade 4 monsters.
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I stop wasting time, I need to approach the Lich again. The only way to defeat him is by fighting at close range, with powerful point-blank attacks. If this becomes a long-range battle, I will end up losing.
Just before reaching the monster, I feel the environment around me change. The energy shifts, it becomes oppressive, I know that feeling. His pseudo jurisdiction tries to capture me when I am at the perfect distance.
All my Imra, together with my Dominion and my Laws, create a kind of bubble around me. The moment his attempt at Jurisdiction tries to trap me, I release all my stored power to break his prison.
His plan shatters once again. The first time it caught me by surprise, it took me a second to react properly, I almost lost my life because of that small mistake. Now everything is different, he can no longer surprise me.
In a normal situation I wouldn’t be able to break free so easily. I can do it now for two reasons: first, I am now ruby rank and have a Dominion; second, his Jurisdiction is like an empty shell, it lacks consistency.
My quick escape surprises him. I can feel his Imra becoming unstable, unable to understand what is happening.
I take advantage of that moment to push my body further. If I move at the same speed as before, the monster will defend or reduce the damage. It’s time to use one of my secret weapons.
The gravity mana becomes even more powerful. I feel the power swirling around my body, an amount my body will not be able to withstand.
Before ranking up I had already used this technique, but now with my improved body the amount of mana is completely different. This strike will not compare to the previous ones, this one will be far more powerful.
I feel my arm swing at extreme speed, even following the movement within my perception ability becomes difficult. An instant later I feel my arm in terrible condition, at least it didn’t completely disintegrate like before.
The Lich managed to summon a thin layer of mana in that short time, it felt like cutting through paper, there was no resistance at all.
My arm was certainly damaged. My damage compared to the one inflicted on the Lich is nothing, I felt how several of his bones were shattered. The strike was close to his core, the damage must be even deeper than expected.
I don’t step back, I must keep the pressure and take advantage of his weakness. I try to recover my arm while swinging the other, even though my brain can now handle more tasks, I am already at my limit trying to heal as fast as possible.
The second strike doesn’t land in such a dangerous place, since it was a quick attack to keep the momentum, I just aimed at the best possible spot. One of his arms shatters, the blow also slightly hits below his ribs.
The first destroyed arm has not fully recovered, I haven’t had time to return to my peak. I grit my teeth for the next attack, I am prepared for any consequence.
The next strike comes with more power than the previous two, if I’m going to destroy an arm, I will do it properly this time.
The moment my sword connects with his leg, I feel how both of us take heavy damage. My arm disappears from its place, turning into a horrible mass of muscle and blood.
The Lich is sent backward. This strike completely destroys his leg and part of his body, the impact is extremely effective.
My other arm hasn’t fully healed either. This time I won’t use as much mana, I must at least keep one arm functional before recovering the other, my offensive power drops greatly if I cannot hold a sword.
Just as my sword is about to break the bones protecting his core, I hesitate for a moment. The Lich releases an attack toward me, a wave of death mana was his last resource to avoid dying, clearly a desperate move.
I cannot deny it was effective, I was forced to teleport several meters to the side. The moment I feel several spikes of condensed pure mana, alarms scream through my body as they pierce me.
There is no blood falling from the more than fifteen spikes embedded in my body, the death mana is extremely concentrated and wants to devour everything around it. Blood pours from my mouth and I fall to my knees due to the heavy damage, not only deep, his pseudo jurisdiction is causing more destruction than expected.
I use all my willpower and Imra to eliminate the remains of his attack. This time it takes me longer than usual, my body cannot focus on everything at once, I still need to recover one arm and heal the other.
The Lich is in a much worse state, he is missing two limbs, part of his torso, and the area protecting his core is completely destroyed. His recovery is also far from optimal, he used too many resources to push me away.
I slowly stand up with a smile, my body screams in pain, but I ignore it. I won’t let him heal, this damned monster will not have time to recover, today he will meet his end.