Chapter 144: Malice Rune Realm [ 9 ]
Not far from the ruined castle, Leomaris and Lucius leapt from rubble to rubble, keeping an impressive pace between them.
They exchanged blow after blow, but Leomaris never struck unless forced to. He knew Lucius was strong. Whatever he had up his sleeve, Lucius would always have him beat for sheer brute strength.
But this wasn’t a battle to determine who was the strongest, but rather who got to live.
His reflexes were his best asset, keeping him a hair’s breadth from Lucius’s attacks, and for the ones he couldn’t avoid, redirecting the force before they could connect cleanly.
’I just need to bide my time. After all, physical strength is all he has.’
His knowledge from the novel kept him well informed on Lucius’s ability, Timeless. Null was off the table; the rules governing it wouldn’t allow him to nullify Timeless directly. But he knew its limits well enough.
’Why isn’t he using it? Or does he not have it at all?’
A powerful attack from Lucius was deflected on contact. Leomaris countered with a strike to the ribcage.
Lucius didn’t look fazed in the slightest. He’d taken the full force and was still standing.
Lucius’s sneer turned agitated. He repositioned and drove a kick at Leomaris’s gut. Leomaris sidestepped, putting distance between them in one clean motion.
Lucius sent a massive chunk of concrete his way with a kick. For a moment, Leomaris stood frozen. The chunk was too large to avoid entirely, and it had enough force behind it to reach him even if he tried to run.
He had only one choice left. And he used it.
He punched clean through the concrete, shattering it. But what he’d feared came to haunt him straight away.
Lucius seized the distraction, closing in and delivering a powerful strike that sent Leomaris flying. He closed in again with another attack. Then again.
It went on until Leomaris began to feel as though death would be a mercy. Lucius’s movements were precise and faster than before, and with every strike, every pace, he only got better.
Then Lucius sent Leomaris flying upward, leapt to meet him in the air, and drove a powerful strike into his chest.
The sky did nothing but spin. Leomaris looked below to see where he was heading, and the moment he did, his chest tightened.
Lucius hadn’t launched him up there for nothing. He intended to end it by driving him headlong into the metal below.
Leomaris’s mind went from one thing to the next. The metal below would kill him on contact, that much was certain. He couldn’t allow it.
Using Hyper Boost, he concentrated the muscles in his hands and tightened them. He delivered a powerful slap, a massive gust of wind blooming in its wake. It wasn’t enough to so much as rattle the metal, but it was enough to tilt his body. Enough to avoid death.
The moment he slammed into the ground, he was on his feet, body moving before his mind caught up, already watching for Lucius.
Lucius’s innate ability, Boundless Adaptation, was his biggest threat. Unless Leomaris could kill him in a single strike, his body would adapt automatically. Any attack of equal or lesser force would be useless against him from that point on.
And it wasn’t just the physical. Psychological attacks fell under it too, even attacks on the soul.
This was why he had to be careful. Attack recklessly and he’d be paving the way for every strike he had to be rendered useless against Lucius.
Moreover, this wasn’t his last battle. He hadn’t a clue what Instructor Moon had planned. Exhaust himself against Lucius, burn through his tricks, rack up injuries, and he’d be handing himself a second death sentence.
But he had a plan. Until the conditions were right, he’d have to endure, and if they never came, then going all out was his only other option.
By now Lucius had closed in again, the revenge he’d always wanted written plainly across his face and etched into every strike.
Leomaris respected that, genuinely. He’d have done the same had someone killed those he cared about. But he wasn’t going to die for a sin he hadn’t committed. Not a chance.
A smug smirk pulled at his lips. He redirected Lucius’s attack, feinted for the throat, and sent his fingers driving straight for his eyes.
Lucius jerked his head back, but wasn’t quick enough. The stab connected. He put distance between himself and Leomaris straight away, already tending to his eyes.
’He may not feel pain, but I doubt he would willingly let his eyes bleed out.’
Leomaris’s eyes swept the ground, and he snatched up a sharp piece of wood. He waited for two seconds, then activated his innate ability, Conceal, and closed in on Lucius.
Without a second’s hesitation, he plunged the stick into his heart. He remembered how Lucius had twisted the blade when he’d stabbed him months ago, and he twisted it back, just as brutally.
To be safe, he put distance between himself and Lucius, wary of any frenzied last movements. He watched as Lucius choked on his own blood, hands trembling around the stick.
He let out a sigh.
"It really did take too long."
There was a healing ability, Undo. It could reverse any injury Lucius sustained. But the downside was that it reset his adaptations to zero as well.
It was less traditional healing and more a cooldown on Boundless Adaptation.
This was what he’d been biding his time for. Before, Lucius’s body had been too tough for any blade to threaten, but the moment he used Undo on his eyes, Leomaris had his opening.
...Something was wrong.
Lucius had lost too much blood, by rights, he should have been fading fast, drowsiness pulling him under. Instead, he was wrenching the stick free and forcing himself upright.
His body buckled, forcing a backward step out of him.
’What the heck? I stabbed his heart... how is he still alive?!’
Lucius wrenched the stick out and shook himself off, as though it was nothing at all. He met Leomaris’s gaze with a daunting smirk.
’Is he immortal already?’
