Chapter 263: ...end the fight

The entire space around Sia seemed frozen, and from what I could tell, the effect covered a little over ten meters radius. It seemed I might have underestimated her a bit.

I was under the misconception that Kaal was certainly supposed to be the strongest participant in this convergence since it was so according to the novel, but now I was somewhat uncertain.

Could Sia actually be stronger than Kaal? It could be argued that Kaal possessed overwhelming might, but utility types are much more versatile than brute force types, and I myself am a utility type and so was Sia.

I shelved my thoughts for later an focused back on Sia who seemed like she would attack at any moment.

At the same instant, we both charged at each other with explosive motion, but the moment we were around six meters away from each other, Sia literally blipped out of existence, before I felt a force connecting with my solar plexus.

Keuk!

My entire body folded as her foot had sunk into my gut making me feel as if my innards would fly out of my mouth. The impact sent me flying, with my limbs flailing.

’What was that?’ I thought in disbelief as I crashed to the ground. The redhead vanished from both my vision and my senses for a fraction of a second, and then only reappeared when her heel dug into my stomach. It felt as if she had teleported, but I was damn sure Sia couldn’t teleport.

My thoughts were forced to a stop as I rolled to my side a moment before a gleaming scarlet hued sword cleaved the space my head had been as if it was paper.

I kicked towards Sia who had appeared, trying to sweep her legs off the ground, but once again she disappeared.

The next thing I felt was a kick connecting straight to my spine. I rocketed forward, my skin bruising against the ground, as my body tore a wide trench.

"Tsk!" Clicking my tongue I rapidly flipped to my feet. I wasn’t stupid I could tell what was happening. It wasn’t that Sia’s speed was that absurd, granted, it was in a league of its own.

What enabled her to pull off the disappearing act was the fact that I was being slowed down. Her temporal field was probably on full action against me, while simultaneously boosting her own time.

And that, for the first time, made me acknowledge one thing. ’She would beat Kaal’s ass.’

If I didn’t know any better, I would say this girl was the real protagonist, or rather, the actual extra rather than Alistair or myself.

Her abilities were just insane. First her temporal field, then there was this precognition of sorts due to which she certainly couldn’t be ambushed.

It was the reason why I didn’t even try to move any of my reflections through the mirror dimension to ambush her as I did before. That’s because it would be that she had already seen it happening, and would react or be ready for them before they even spawned.

’That’s how you want to play huh?’ I thought before dismissing the reflection powering me, reducing my combat prowess to an all time low.

I was punished for that action almost immediately by a string of combo based punches and kicks before a last fist to the temple threw me backwards. In short, I was smacked around like a ragdoll.

But I wasn’t fazed, I didn’t even let the agony being inflicted on me by my injuries get to me. Instead, even with my consciousness swimming, another reflection, one I had prepared beforehand appeared behind me.

I could see Sia whose eyes were closed narrow slightly, before disappearing from her spot in a violent displacement of air, but it was already too late.

With a flicker of my will, the reflection merged with me. It felt like I was reborn as power flooded my veins. Hazy smoke were released as my injuries healed almost instantly.

CLANG!

I raised my sword to the side at seemingly nothing but air, but a sharp clang rang out the next moment as Sia’s sword already making a beeline for my neck was stopped dead in it’s tracks.

"So you’ve finally decided to go all out." Sia muttered with a graceful smile, but at the same instant deftly pivoted on her feet and kicked at my mid section.

But this time I could comfortably react to her speed. My free hand shot forward, ina body to catch her leg, but it seemed Sia had already seen me doing that.

Her foot stooped shy of my hand, and instead it was her sword that slapped underneath mine and headed for my neck.

I reacted by instantly blurring backwards, making her completely miss me, before I sped back towards her with an overhead slash.

Sia blocked it almost instinctively, but her legs buckled before the strength of the attack as the ground beneath her feet shattered.

Clang! clang! clang! clang!

Our battle switched as our swords repeatedly clashed against each other, sending sonorous sounds screeching through the surroundings. We used no art and no abilities, just pure techniques, or rather, lethal techniques backed by aether reinforcement.

We only aimed for lethal places, head, neck, eyes, heart. The surroundings became utterly unrecognisable from how it was since the fight began.

Most vegetation in the area were cleared by powerful gust of shockwaves released from our clashed.

Sia’s swords cleaved towards my head with ruthless efficiency. My entire body tilted to the side like a puppet under strings, before my sword tore towards Sia’s side.

She weaved underneath the sword and swiftly turned to me while still sucked and cleaved towards my legs, but I had already anticipated that, and kicked towards her face with all the strength I could muster.

As expected, she had already seen that happening, and abandoned her attack, before quickly crossing her arms in an X formation.

Bang!

Sia’s body shot backwards like a rocket, so fast it vanished from my sight, only the dust clod stirred by her figure could I still see.

’Man, do I hate fighting someone who already knows everything I would do.’ I thought bitterly before shooting after her.

In less than a second, I arrived at where Sia seemed to have stopped herself, right in front of a massive body of water, or rather, an ocean.

But Sia was not here to be seen, or so I thought, because the next moment, I felt something rapidly closing in from behind me. I slipped into the mirror dimension almost instinctively, and Sia’s attack passed through me. I turned back the moment she hastily withdrew her sword from my body only for her to sweep me off my feet, and I meant literally, even though she was quite breathtaking while doing it.

I didn’t let her beauty stop me though, my hand shit out fast, so fast that even if I was sure she had seen it, she wouldn’t be able to react to it.

I caught her own leg and swept her off her feet, while at the same time, flipped onto my feet, and then kicked her into the roaring ocean.

Sia’s figure crashed into the water and vanished into it’s depths. I flickered after her, my legs finding ground on the surface of the water due to my speed.

[Fall]

A massive wind blade tore the ocean apart, down to the sea bed, but Sia was nowhere to be seen.

Just then, something burst out of the water a few dozen meters away from me. I pivoted, my feet sending a huge spray of water up into the sky as I sped in her Sia’s direction.

But I was forced to screech to a halt when Sia, who was still flavoring in the air raised her sword in a familiar motion.

[Stillwater severance]

Everything in her line of attack got split in perfect two, including the water, the sea bed, and....me.

Both halves of me fell to either side before they shattered into motes if light. I had managed to swap with a reflection at the last moment. At that time, not even slipping into the mirror dimension was faster than swapping.

Sia finally landed on the water, but she wasn’t sinking, probably because she might have slowed the time it would take for her to sink into the water.

"Tsk, persistent cockroach!" I heard her mutter just as my real self reappeared in the material world.

I didn’t waste any time before exposing towards her, leaving a geyser of water in my wake. I didn’t have any choice, unlike Sia I would sink into the water, if I wasn’t moving.

BOOM!

Sia tanked my sword with hers, and the impact forced out a collapsing force that made the waters beneath our feet erupt upwards with explosive force.

Our figures vanished into streaks of scarlet and silver as we ran across the surface of the ocean while exchanging earth shattering attacks at absurd speed.

The water sprayed like a geysers behind our figures as a testament to our speed, and the air felt like fragile glass, while our bodies were the blade or perhaps hammer.

Sia weaved under my attack and connected a kick to my chest, sending me bouncing across the water.

"TRY HARDER, DAMON!" She grinned.

’Maybe it’s time I end the fight.’ I thought, skating back onto my feet.

***********

Thanks for your support everyone, if you want to read ahead, there are now five advanced privileged Chapters on webnovel, so you are more than welcome.

Your gift is the motivation to my creation! Cheer me up.