R-a - Volume 3 - Chapter 48 (Patreon)

R-a - Chapter 206 (in editing-v6)

Sometimes in the midst of battle, there existed moments where time seemed to stand still.

This was not one of those moments.

Instead, in Micheal’s eyes, the next few seconds seemed to both happen all too quickly and yet also stretch out forever.

The sword he’d brought out was a newly purchased one, a Crystal Millennium Sword that cost him 92,900 Points in the Shop. It was an extremely durable weapon that could not only easily bear the brunt of Advanced Tier Sword Energy, but also even handle spurts of Master Tier Sword Energy for brief periods without breaking.

When the red glow of his Sword Energy swept over it, the crystalline weapon darkened and began to look incredibly threatening. The weapon almost fully absorbed the totality of Micheal’s Sword Energy, allowing him to use it to the fullest extent.

Micheal angled the blade off to the left, holding it out in front of his body as if to slash at all three of the Blue Tailed Monkey users that were charging in at him. He acted like he was unaware of the speed-boosted duo less than a dozen meters behind his back, though that wasn’t too far from the truth.

The mix of a lack of hearing, his strained focus, and an injured body came together to mean he could only barely sense the pair of Great Ape users through their killing intent, mainly because of his powerful Soul.

The trio of Blue Tailed Monkey users had fanned out, cutting in towards Micheal from six different ways. Their weapons didn’t take on the glow of any type of Weapon Energy, the only ones so far that lacked that, but instead became covered in a corrosive-feeling black light.

Micheal didn’t quite recognize exactly what this glow was caused by, but guessed it was from either a Byren Martial Art, based in poison, or an Ability from the Shop. Either way, these attacks were more than enough to rend Micheal’s flesh should they make contact, corrosive or not.

It took only a single second for the trio to reach Micheal, slightly faster than the pair of Great Ape warriors from behind.

In the single second Micheal had left…

He didn’t try to dodge.

He didn’t try to flee.

He didn’t try to deflect their attacks nor did he try to block them.

Instead, he seemed to accept their attacks as he swiveled his own sword back and, oddly enough to his enemies, pointed it directly at himself.

The final second passed.

Everyone attacked.

The Blue Tailed Monkey users continued with their six-pronged attack. Three blades cut towards Micheal’s right side, while three other blades cut towards his left, all at varying heights. Oddly enough, as they attacked, the warriors slowed down ever so slightly.

While Micheal might be pretending to be unaware of the Great Ape users behind him, these three warriors were under no such illusions. As one, all three began to adjust their movements to avoid colliding with the two warriors, all too aware that they could not compete with the mighty Strength stat Great Ape users were famed for.

They still continued with their attack in lieu of activating their Fast Retreat Ability, committing fully to the strike, to avoid giving Micheal any escape opportunities. However, because their speed lessened, even by just a small amount, their attacks didn’t reach Micheal first.

Instead, it was the two Great Ape users that struck first, despite being farther away.

These two warriors were not happy.

As the direct subordinates of Silverback, the Division Leader of the Ape Division, Silver 1 and Silver 2 were the ones in charge of this defense. Any failure of it would reflect directly on them… and it was already an utter disaster. Half of the remaining Squads had been wiped out only a brief period of time after Silverback had left, leaving them with a magnificent mess that could still get worse.

Micheal’s sneaky bomb tactic had caught them completely off guard, but they had no one to blame but themselves. Like Micheal had guessed, the warriors here had assumed, at first, that he was a Gemless Byren, not a human.

Nothing else made sense.

There had never been a traitor within the Beasts of Providence, and though it was still technically possible he was a Wingstruck, what the Farians called those that had lost their wings, the fact that he did not exert any type of Blood Aura as he fought made that extremely unlikely.

Even now, they were still convinced he was a Gemless Byren.

While the ‘dishonorable’ nature of using sneak attacks or tools like bombs hadn’t changed, Shop-created weapons of this nature had rapidly begun to spread among the darker underbelly of Byren society, especially within the territory of the Divine Might and the Silent Sword Sect. Disgraced warriors that fought only in the shadows, just like how a Gemless Byren might, would have no qualms about using such tactics.

It was something they knew he might use, but hadn’t expected to get hit with in their literal first encounter.

Still, thanks to their unnaturally boosted reaction speed, they were able to shield themselves from the brunt of the explosion, leaving them with only minor burns and temporarily shocked minds from weathering a point-blank eruption of Gnomish force.

The main reason, however, that the warriors of the Beasts of Providence were still convinced that Micheal wasn’t a human, even after all of this, centered around a rather simple fact:

He had not used any Abilities, apart from a showing of Advanced Tier Sword Energy, which any member of the Byrium Race might have.

No Type Ability, no Abilities to give his attacks more power, no obvious boosting Abilities. Nothing Micheal had done indicated he was anything other than a dishonorable Gemless Byren, a dog set to guard the Farian hidden research center by some outside force.

His weird martial arts, including the use of metal threads to attack from a distance, smelled even more like a Byren; warriors in a warrior society that worshiped martial arts. While they had never heard of an unorthodox weapon like this, his expert usage of it meant techniques for it must exist. Even his face, which was heavily stained as part of the disguise Micheal had adopted when he first arrived, could be interpreted to be the remnants of someone removing a Byren’s Gem.

This understanding was made quite clear in their actions, where they continued to use a strategy based on assumptions that weren’t quite right.

The last two Great Ape users struck forth with two separate attacks.

The one on Micheal’s right, Silver 1, attacked with a direct stab, using his long spear to get in the first blow. Hammer Energy swarmed over his weapon, giving this strike extremely great weight.

As he attacked, the warrior’s eyes glowed with faint red light. This light seemed to drip out of the warrior’s eyes, falling down almost like tears. When the light particles collided with the rain, the drops of water vaporized into steam.

Micheal couldn’t see this in action, but for a brief instant, could sense a tangible feeling of rage.

It was a feeling he recognized, largely because of how he sensed it. It wasn’t a true Aura of sorts, but a relatively popular Ability known as ‘Asura’s Tears.’ It was an Ability you had to activate, one that transformed its user into the ‘Lesser Asura’ State. With this power active, its user gained a sizable increase in Strength and increased resistances to powers that could distort the mind or Soul, while sizably lowering one’s defensive Endurance.

On the Second Layer, high Endurance had its uses, but was limited in its scope because of the fact that people were unable to progress to the Lord Tier of Ki Cultivation. Lowering one’s Endurance wasn’t ideal, but the negatives weren’t too big of an issue, and wearing strong armor would typically mitigate most of them.

Anything that could break through a set of strong armor, crafted from metal purchased in the Shop or an Artifact outright, was something that would break past basically everyone’s Endurance here on the Second Layer anyway, cutting through even heavily reinforced flesh and bones with ease. 

As for the other aspects of Endurance: the Ability only lowered those parts minimally, such that the loss usually didn't matter.

The biggest factor that kept this Ability from being truly common was the fact that it cost 395,252 Points in the Shop, an extremely high number compared to the Points Wall of 100,000 that gated the First Layer. That hefty price came hand-in-hand with a significant opportunity cost.

This was real life, not a video game.

Obtaining Points was dangerous, even if you farmed them slowly, and getting enough Points to purchase this Ability would require a huge amount of time to safely farm. Even then, obtaining a single powerful Ability might not increase your chances of survival more than, say, three other useful Abilities, or multiple expensive Artifacts. Points were typically correlated with power, but that didn’t mean there couldn’t be powerful or useful Abilities sold for a lesser price.

Still, for a non-Limited Ability that gave a large increase in raw power that could be sustained for decently-long periods, there were few better options here on the Second.

Unsurprisingly, the second Great Ape user, Silver 2, activated the same exact ability as he attacked. Micheal was able to sense the two distinct, but very similar, emanations of rage, picking them out despite the minute differences.

The second warrior, instead of stabbing straight forward, brought his spear smashing down in a brute attack from above. Hammer Energy coated his blow in equally sheer levels, giving his strike enough power to break through Micheal with absolute certainty.

Both of their attacks moved with accelerated speed, their bodies moving in an almost sickening fashion.

It was one thing to see someone move extremely quickly. It was another thing, however, to see them move in a way that shouldn’t be physically possible, where the constraints of gravity and time had been loosened.

A single one of any of these attacks, from the three Blue Tailed Monkey users to the two speed-boosted Great Ape users, was enough to kill Micheal in his current state.

If he just stood there and took them, he would die with certainty.

In fact, no matter what Micheal did here, he was going to die.

Even if he had an Artifact that could teleport him away, like the Returning Ring Director Prime had used to escape from his battle against Micheal, back on the First Layer, it would’ve been pointless. For, in the last moment before these warriors reached him, Micheal noticed something that had managed to hide away from his keen senses until now.

The backlash he’d received from his attack towards the warriors on the roof seemed to contain, hidden deep within it, some type of magic curse. It was likely induced by one the last-ditch Artifacts or Abilities that had been activated, something that struck forth nefariously at the last moment. This curse had seeped into Micheal’s body without him detecting it, and was gradually beginning to poison him to death, starting with his left hand.

He had already lost most of the feeling in it, the arm reduced to responding sluggishly at best. The moment he noticed this, his forehead crinkled ever so slightly.

If nothing else, the warriors of the Beasts of Providence were quite serious about making him die here.

Still…

While he definitely was going to die here…

When and how he would die was still very much a question.

The two warriors behind Micheal were not the only ones that could stretch the chains of time.

Despite not being able to see or hear their attacks, Micheal’s eyes glowed as he activated his Temporal Bubble Ability with unerring accuracy.

He used this power not once, not twice, but three full times, all simultaneously as he took a single, simple step backwards.

As he took that lightning-fast step, he flicked one of the fingers on his right hand, storing his Aura Nullification Necklace, his Cloud Stepping Shoes, the gold bracelet on his arm, and even his Silk Strider Gloves in the same motion that he used to fling his Mid-Tier Spatial Ring off to the side and out of harm's way.

Right after he activated his Ability, with almost jarring suddenness, three Time Bubbles popped into existence.

One appeared where Micheal had just stepped to, while the other two appeared near the speed-boosted warriors.

The spacetime bubble that Micheal had spawned for himself caused the world to distort, time inside it accelerating. He was careful with his efforts, manipulating time to run at roughly 31% faster, the highest amount he felt he could stably maintain without throwing his focus or actions off, given his clouded mind.

He had found, through even more experimentation, that he could ‘flare’ his Time Bubbles in a way. By depending on his Soul stat, he could briefly move time forward at a rate faster than his Soul could normally sustain, a number between 47% and 48% quicker. Doing so, however required a sizable amount of energy and put a significant strain on his Soul, drawing his focus away from other things that might require it…

(Author’s Note for Patreons: I originally wrote Micheal could accelerate time forward by 50%. Upon careful revision and balancing for someone of his current Soul stat, this number has been rewritten to be 47-48%, by ‘flaring’ the power. Previous chapters have been edited.)

Like, for example, the two Time Bubbles Micheal had created right in front of both Silver 1 and Silver 2’s spears.

The main weapon of each of these warriors, alongside their upper arms and shoulders, entered each respective Time Bubble at the same time that Micheal entered his.

And in that moment… not only were their weapons drastically slowed down, so too were the bodies of the Great Ape duo as a whole, returning to a speed that was roughly normal for them.

The Time Bubbles affected them in the same way all Time Bubbles affected Micheal, encompassing them despite the fact that their bodies were not fully enveloped in the original frame of the bubble. As soon as that took place, the slowing effect rose to instant prominence.

Micheal didn’t know how the two fighters did it, but they somehow instantly surmised how to throw off the effects of his Time Bubbles. The two warriors flared their Ki, tossing the full force of their Souls right at Micheal as they tried to shake off his constraints.

That force was promptly bounced back with almost casual ease as Micheal’s Soul stood as steady as a towering castle, entirely unimpressed.

The two warriors instantly tried again, activating their powers with a simple thought. The amount of time it took to do this was almost microscopic, meaning that even though they were a mere fraction of second away from colliding with Micheal, they could sally forth once more to try to resist.

While their Soul stats simply could not be compared to Micheal’s, it wasn’t as if they were weak. On the contrary, they were well above average compared to most humans.

If they were given enough time, Micheal’s stalwart Soul would’ve eventually cracked, letting them escape. Every time they pushed back, it added to the strain on his Soul, making it harder and harder for him to focus. With that said, because of how powerful Micheal’s Soul was, he would still be able to safely tank quite a number of attempts.

Unfortunately for the both Silver 1 and Silver 2, they never got the chance to test that number. By the time their second attempt failed, Micheal had already arrived in front of them.

His back was still facing them, something that he could not change. Even under the effects of time acceleration and the power of his well-trained body, he simply could not move fast enough. This pincer attack had come forward so quickly and with such precise planning, the current him was left unable to respond normally.

Micheal took full advantage of that as he opted to attack in the most non-normal, unexpected way he could conceive.

For the second time in this life, Micheal stabbed himself in the chest with his own sword, practically hurling the blade through his body and effectively committing suicide to surprise his enemy.

Why fix something that wasn’t broken?

His Crystal Millennium Sword cut through his left lung like it was butter, the Advanced Tier Sword Energy ripping through his ribs with ease. Micheal didn’t even feel pain from the horrifyingly sharp attack, only a sense of numbness.

As he launched this final sword strike, Micheal kicked off the ground with his left leg.

The sense of numbness that had formed was extended a thousand-fold and joined by a light-headed feeling as, a moment after he stabbed himself in the chest, Silver 1’s Hammer Energy-boosted spear plowed directly into the right side of Micheal’s back. Micheal’s gaze flickered with energy, as if concentrating on something else the moment this happened.

Micheal’s Time Bubbles had successfully slowed their attacks down, allowing Micheal to seize the initiative, but that didn’t mean he could dodge all, or even any, of the attacks his enemies had unleashed.

He most definitely could not. They weren’t considered elite warriors, chosen by the Vile King, for no reason.

This single strike from Silver 1 obliterated most of Micheal’s chest, causing such a torrent of blood loss that it was an indisputable fact that Micheal would die from that alone in less than 2 seconds.

The lack of pain was a blessing in disguise as Micheal’s body was forcibly twisted over by the blow. His legs jerked upward as his hands fell away to the side, function in both arms lost as his right arm virtually disintegrated while his left arm finally stopped working altogether.

Silver 2’s crushing spear strike from above was, at this point, only a trivial amount of time from hitting Micheal. Because the warrior opted to attack from above, on the off chance that Micheal might somehow try to escape by jumping or flying, his spear was slightly slower than his ally's stab.

Still, this attack was invariably going to finish what Silver 1 had started, aimed directly at the remnants of Micheal’s flailing body. Micheal would soon transform into a corpse before these vaunted warriors, his body literally blasted apart by forces it never stood a chance of surviving.

In this absolute last free moment, in the last shred of time Micheal had before he was killed…

Two things happened.

The sword Micheal had stabbed through his own chest began to cut directly into the chest of Silver 1, the hidden, near-impossible-to-predict surprise attack working with superb effectiveness.

And…

Micheal’s left leg lurched through the air, flying up thanks to the help of a pair of small, blue orbs, hidden from sight under what was left of his green robe.

It seemed, at first, like a rather pointless movement.

His leg was… just a leg, and a barely functioning one at that, even if it was flying forth with extreme speed. Micheal’s spine wasn’t completely ruined, but it wasn’t a stretch to say no one would ever be able to walk with an injury like this, let alone even move their leg. This particular leg was broken in six different spots, faring better than his right leg, which had almost completely shattered.

In fact, Micheal’s body was literally two arms and a leg past the edge of ruin.

Because he’d removed his Cloud Stepping Shoes, his feet were bare, the normal socks he’d worn obliterated by the force of Silver 1’s attack. Somehow, he still had all of his toes, ones that jerked through the air alongside Micheal’s body in one last hurrah.

Finally, thanks to his frenzied efforts, the big toe on Micheal's left foot just barely managed to make contact with something...

It lightly brushed the side of Silver 2's neck.

Right before the elite, enhanced warrior crushed Micheal’s body, destroying what was left of him…

Micheal activated one final Ability.

An Ability he had already activated, just a moment prior, in the exact instant when Silver 1’s Hammer Energy-empowered spear slammed into him.

‘Impact… Absorb…’

“…"

“…”

"…"

‘Impact…'

"…"

"…"

'Release.’

.