321 For Starters, A Thousand Years (1)
I knew that my memories of this place wouldn't last in the real world, so to bypass my memory, I instead focused on letting my body make the movements.
It's pretty close to muscle memory, but now that I think about it, it's more accurate to label it as procedural memory. Just like how one wouldn't easily forget to ride a bike, I would spend enough time here that my body would move unconsciously to counter each possible move that Noir could make.
*SQUISH!*
As I was lost in thought, Noir's fist landed on my head and smashed it to bits like a watermelon, killing me instantly. The differences in our basic stats are worlds apart, after all.
As soon as I revived, before Noir's clone could manifest, I quickly applied all the buffs that I had learned. With the cast in parallel, my base power jumped by three times at least. It wasn't enough to reach the god-tamer level, but it should be enough to let me react, at least.
As soon as the crystal tentacles were deployed, I quickly clapped my hands, sending a resonating sound wave that matched the natural frequency of the crystals, turning them to dust in seconds.
"I can use this to neutralize the tentacles. That's one question answered."
The only concern now is how to condition my body to reproduce the clap every time a crystal tentacle is made.
"I just need to go with something like a delayed rock-paper-scissors game, using perfect counter moves for each attack he throws!"
*SPLAT!*
A normal tentacle that wasn't crushed by the sound of the clap reached my back and pierced right through. Well, the normal tentacles have different natural frequencies, after all. And unlike crystals, they can't crack from resonance alone. Just like that, unable to move, three more tentacles ravaged my body and ended up killing me.
"... Two."
I'm probably going to get bored along the way, so I'd rather use a part of my mind to count the number of cycles. Well, excluding the deaths I suffered before starting the fight with Noir, though.
Round three. Again, Noir started with the crystallized tentacles, which I neutralized with a single clap. As soon as that happened, he quickly changed to normal tentacles and sent them towards me.
"Now, let's see!"
The normal tentacles weren't really that tough, but they had agility and numbers. With a single swing of a sword, they would easily vanish. However, in this place, I have no sword in hand.
Having no choice since I couldn't use the content of my Spatial Storage, I used Igni's flaming sword skill to arm myself with a weapon, waving it against the incoming tentacles.
"Right, I was using Myriad Phantom Blades, right? Let's add that to muscle memory too..."
As I waved the sword, I prepared a perfect counter for each tentacle coming for me from various angles. After fending off three waves, their numbers suddenly increased by ten times, forcing me to use more force.
"Myriad Phantom Blades, Second Form! [Sword Peacock]!"
A fan-shaped array of flaming swords flew over my head, flying forward and attacking all the incoming tentacles. The display was much more fierce compared to when I used it while my memory was incomplete.
"... I'd better go and improve this technique too. Now, I could see the flaws of it as glaring as daylight."
As soon as the flaming sword peacock faded, the few tentacles that survived quickly approached. However, this time, I was able to dodge them, slicing them before jumping away.
"...!"
At that moment, Noir moved, sending a fist forward. The impact ran through the air, hitting me squarely in the chest.
"Ugh!"
As expected of a god tamer, that hit destabilized both my breathing and heartbeat, temporarily stunning my entire body. Using that chance, a few more tentacles came and turned my body into Swiss cheese.
My vision faded and returned once again.
"That's three... D*mn, his speed really is something else."
Slowly, I was conquering Noir's every move. At the 100th death, I was finally able to reach Noir's side and land a punch in his face. I died right after, though, and practically did no damage or anything.
My body's slowly getting used to the initial pattern, including the randomness of his reaction and how to "lead" him to use certain skills and attacks. Still, my movements are far from reflexive or automatic.
Whenever he used a new skill, I'd die to it dozens of times before I could properly apply countermeasures to it.
"Well, still better than my initial judgment."
The only problem now is that, even though I could reach him, my attacks are basically doing no damage. If I have the rifle here, then I'm sure I could at least wound him...
At my 500th death, nothing much changed. I was still stuck with dodging attacks while predicting the follow-ups. After finding an opening, I could come close, land a hit, and back away. A basic hit-and-run tactic.
"How long had I been here... Roughly eight hours?"
Each death lasted from a few seconds to about a couple of minutes. Given that rough estimation, I should've passed eight hours already. With such a short amount of time passing, I am definitely just starting here.
2,766th death. Roughly a day has passed, and I still haven't been able to land a proper hit that could damage him. I'm slowly getting used to neutralizing his attacks, though, so each round after that lasted longer.
Still, as expected, the number of tricks that a god-tamer can use is practically countless.
After reaching my 5,000th death, to celebrate, I took a rest. Of course, there's no such thing as a true "rest" in this place. I was just passively defending against attacks, keeping my distance, and killing time.
That lasted for roughly a thousand deaths, more or less six hours of rest. After that, I tackled the task with renewed vigor, managing to finally land a solid hit, which left a scratch across Noir's cheeks.
"Ack!"
But still, a small scratch was all I could do before I died from receiving an axe kick down my forehead. Another death, another try.
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