“Why do you keep trying the same thing, can’t you see it’s not working?”
“Well, what do you expect me to do!?” Michael snapped back at the man and stood up, his arm dangling by the side.
The golden haired man sighed and healed him once again, before looking straight at his eyes and casting yet another slow but powerful Sword of Light.
‘5th one is the charm..’ He readied himself and began interweaving the shields while also casting his own Swords of Light, trying to make the mana fluctuate so it could get dispelled.
From what he found out, the spell he was using only becomes deadly once it reaches Michael, until then, it’s a slow sword that was traveling through all of his spells.
But Michael knew that it was impossible to completely make the spell ignore all his shields, at least that’s the conclusion he came to.
The spell approached his shields and he began bombarding it with his very own spells, however, to no one’s surprise, it still went through everything and pierced his body once again.
“It’s been 5 attempts now, you sure you want to continue?” The man walked up with a smile and healed him.
“I would love it if you just told me how it works, you are testing me aren’t you?”
“I won’t and yes, I am testing you”
‘Just what is he doing for it to pass through all of my spells like that?’ Michael could not figure it out no matter how much he tried.
There must be some trace of mana, that kind of spell wouldn’t work without mana.
As he thought about it more and more, his eyes suddenly widened as he turned to the golden haired man “Again.”
The man shrugged and walked backwards before once again casting his slow spell.
However, this time Michael was prepared, he understood that for this spell to function, there must be some kind of a mana signature, wherever it may be.
He began casting a few shields around himself just in case and used his Detection skill to the maximum, covering the entire arena.
The golden haired man seemed to notice this as he raised his eyebrow, making the spell fly a tad bit faster.
All the while, Michael was monitoring the entire arena, his guess was correct as he couldn’t feel any mana coming from the Sword of Light.
Instead, it was located somewhere else.
And that somewhere was right behind him, moving at the same pace as the sword, slowly approaching his body.
Michael grinned and cast a shield directly on that approaching signature of mana.
However, to his surprise, he was still hit, his arm plopping to the ground.
He looked at the golden haired man with with wide eyes “Did you just do that on purpose?”
“You surprised me a little bit, I didn’t expect you to figure it out” The man chuckled and healed Michael again.
“Yeah? So in the moment of surprise, you decided to cut off my arm?”
“Pretty much.”
Michael sighed and stood up, standing a few meters away from the man.
“So now what?”
The golden haired man raised his arm and it looked like it had begun to deteriorate “Fight me.”
With those words, the whole arena was suddenly covered in an array of swords, all aiming towards Michael.
‘Fuck.’
The spells all approached him at a very fast speed, however, once they got in a certain range of him, the speeds suddenly shifted, each one of the Swords now traveling at a speed different than the other.
That meant Michael could not parry them all, he had no choice but to use a Shield to block all of the attacks.
However, his expression turned sour the moment he noticed a few of the swords, they had no mana.
‘Is he crazy?’ Michael cast shields all over the hidden Piercing Light spells, making them fracture and dissipate.
Had this been an actual Piercing Light spell, not one used as a sneak attack while the Sword of Light traveled at him, then he might have lost here.
However, he was lucky the spell was significantly weakened.
A few spells managed to make it through and hit Michael but he still had enough mana to heal himself, as long as the injury didn’t instantly kill him, he could live.
Those thoughts continued as the barrages became even faster, the golden haired man’s hand and at least half of his body was now gone.
But the smile did not leave his face, it looked as if he was proud.
Given the nature of the spells he was being hit with, he had no choice but to defend, any attempt at a counterattack would get him killed.
As the onslaught of spells seemed to nearly overwhelm Michael, the attacks finally stopped.
He turned to the golden haired man and he saw the Halo from before floating right above his head.
“I recommend you use all your heals for this one” He said with a casual tone and sent a wave of mana right out of the Halo.
At first, Michael did not feel anything, he thought that Halo must have malfunctioned or something.
However, as the seconds passed, the surrounding gravity began increasing, it felt incredibly heavy.
Even moving his head began getting difficult.
But the pressure did not cease, instead, it increased, making his bones start cracking, causing him immense pain.
However, due to the increase in gravity, he could not even move his mouth to scream, he could only try to endure it while casting heals on himself, just barely keeping himself upright.
As his eyes began closing, he noticed a golden light expanding outwards, covering the entire arena.
And then, a calm, yet authoritative voice rang out amidst all of the silence “Sanctuary.”
At those words, Michael finally lost consciousness, not able to endure the pain any longer.
—–
Are you still alive?
‘What do you think?’ Michael was sprawled out on the ground, his limbs bent and twisted.
He was not sure for how long he had passed out, however, since his party had not entered yet, it was probably not for long.
‘Where were you?’ He asked the system, a tinge of annoyance present in his tone.
Not sure, it seemed I had been disconnected from you for a couple of moments, only recently did I come back.
‘Nice timing.’ Michael said sarcastically and used the last of his mana to heal himself, just barely having enough.
He stood up and looked around, the entire arena looked.. cleaner.
As if the battle had not just happened, more so, all the blood he had spilled was nowhere to be seen either.
It looked the same as when he had just gotten there.
However, his gaze landed on something that was definitely not there when he first arrived.
And that was the Halo which the golden haired man was wearing, at the start and at the end of the battle.
He went up to it and picked it up, surprisingly, a notification appeared right in front of his eyes.
[+5% Synchronization]
As he was about to show his confusion, another notification came, this one a bit more serious than before.
[20% Synchronization reached, Would you like to enter the Halls of Reflection?]
[Yes/No]
Michael looked confused ‘What is this?’
One of the processes of making you remember your past, you got it a bit earlier than anticipated, however, don’t accept it yet, wait till you are back and have a lot of free time.
‘A lot of free time huh..’ He thought and noticed the massive arena doors opening, he quickly shrunk down the Halo and put it into his pocket, hiding it from his party.
They all looked bewildered upon seeing his appearance, while he was not visibly injured, the dried blood and tattered clothes were a clear indication of a tough battle.
‘Guess I’ll have to bullshit my way out of this…’
