["Reath SURGE: Level Ten"]
Summoning forth an amount of energy that shoveled away the snow around him, sending cracks along the thick ice, Asiimov nearly keeled over from the strain placed on his body as blackened blood leaked from his eyes and ears, dripping from his lips.
"This is…?" Noah watched in surprise at the suicidal act.
Asiimov smiled, "...Everything I've got, Noah Grays–'villain to mankind.'"
An unequivocal source of energy spiraled around Asiimov, sending tremors emitted through the region of the Antarctic; glaciers the size of cities began to crack, being pushed, and melting through the inexplicable power being wielded by the man.
["Assess"]
Checking again, as he predicted, Asiimov's status had changed with the usage of ["SURGE"]:
[Asiimov]
[Level: 99]
[Strength: 22000]
[Constitution: 22000]
[Agility: ???]
Before he could react and establish further enhancements of his own, he was taken by surprise as Asiimov took off with a single step. That singular movement caused the entire valley to rumble as the ice was etched with cracks.
A flash of light appeared before his eyes as his hyper-reflexes attempted to catch up to the ludicrous speed honed by the man's last stand, though all Noah could do was raise his arms just as a kick slammed against his forearms.
The impact sent a shock wave equal to a bomb cascading through the valley of frost, breaking through Noah's guard as his the strength behind the unseen, light-speed kick chimed through the marrow of his bones.
"Ghh…!" Noah winced.
It immediately caused Noah's forearms to bruise, swelling up as his bones were no doubt fractured despite his ["Kinetic Absorption"] being overwhelmed.
Assimov's eyes had gone bloodshot from the strain as blood leaked from every pore in his body with each passing second of the self-annihilating power, causing him to immediately follow up with a thrust of his right fist.
This time, Noah's enhanced perception adjusted enough for him to react, using ['Spatial Warp"] to teleport into the sky for a momentary respite to gather himself.
'I didn't expect him to have this kind of trump card,' Noah thought.
–Not even a moment was afforded to him as he looked down, finding Asiimov gone from the ground floor, only listening to the air whistle behind his ear for a fraction of a fraction of a second, realizing the Sentinel was now behind him.
In those brief moments, Noah was outclassed and bewildered.
Just as he began turning around, he witnessed Asiimov, shrouded in light, laced in blade, and lathered in nuclear energy, gritting his teeth as he propelled his jet-fueled boot towards his nose.
Before the kick could land, Noah responded with another ["Spatial Warp"], teleporting directly behind Asiimov and tossing him down to the ground.
It was brief, but he gave himself a moment to prepare now as he invoked more spells for himself:
["Armor Construction: Quicksilver"]
For the first time, he felt as though he needed augmented armor, magically constructing the mystical, silver exoskeleton around himself that had grooves running along its sleek form that gave off chromatic light.
It was specifically made to bolster his reflexes and agility to higher proportions, allowing him to focus primarily on his offensive tools.
["Weapon Construction: Vanta Black"]
Summoned into his other hand, he wielded a copy of his abyssal sword, dual-wielding the malignant blades and crashing downward to try and take the initiative against Asiimov.
It was now a clash of speed beyond human comprehension; amidst a rain of black snow, shock waves emitted repeatedly through the isolated tundra with the two armored system wielders racing at unorthodox levels of agility.
Though their agility was near equal, there was a clear difference in mindsets between the two: Noah knew he'd be able to recover from any received blow, but Asiimov had already forfeited his life.
This mindset that Asiimov held, fighting dearly for something greater than himself, allowed him to enter a zone of focus that made him nearly impossible to land a direct blow on. Asiimov managed to dance around the edge of the dual-wielded Vanta Blacks, though the small lacerations that landed began to build up.
Meanwhile, Asiimov was failing to land a significant blow on Noah, who perceived every action coming his way, drilling through the winds like an unstoppable bullet of light, unleashing rangeless slashes of darkness.
It wasn't as though Noah's abilities were being equaled by Asiimov's, it was that by being pushed by an enemy greater than any other he'd faced, he was exploring new heights of his power, pushing higher and higher with each passing moment.
"Grrgh…!" Asiimov pushed himself further.
Flipping back, the Sentinel briefly stood on his hands, spinning around into an acrobatic kick that slammed against the sturdy torso of Noah's armor, knocking him back with a valley-rippling shock wave.
"Phew…"
Noah was as calm as a still lake, passively activating ["Absolute Recover"] to automatically mend any damage done to his body, minor or major alike, as he caught himself, flipping back to regain his momentum before stomping down and raising both of his abyssal swords.
["Territory Rend"]
Gathering an enormous amount of shadowy mana around the form of his dark blades, he dragged them downward, unleashing a dual-set of slashes that reached up to the clouds and dug into the crust of the Earth, ripping forward towards Asiimov.
The result of the gargantuan slashes carved canyons into the Antarctic, reshaping it permanently, though not reaching Asiimov.
"--!"
Noah looked up, sensing the figure as the bloodshot-eyed defender was diving down towards him with a fist clad in nuclear energy.
Before it could crash into his skull, Noah warped away, witnessing Asiimov's fist crash into the ground before unleashing a physical impact that transmitted deep into the tundra, invoking an earthquake that shaved the snow off mountains into avalanches and split new ravines into the land of frost.
Asiimov moved as a ray of light, distorting his physical appearance amidst his travel, melting the frost in his path before wrapping around Noah, who was only a nanosecond late in his reflexes before the Reath system wielder unleashed a barrage of blows like a rapid fire machine gun.
It was as if natural disasters were being born with every move enacted from either of the two; this led to an unspoken thought process shared by both Asiimov and Noah in that moment as the Antarctic trembled:
"I'll finish this with my next attack."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢