Space Isolation
His objective was me all along...
Theo gritted his teeth in frustration.
He fell for a stupid trap.
Theo was so focused on trying to save the children when the new objective of the enemy turned to him.
Of course the enemy would strike after Theo separates from the group.
He forgot that he was also an important figure on the chessboard.
"Kekeke, I can't wait to tell Lord Gremory about this, when I serve him your head on a platter!"
Theo and Grin were teleported to a white space similar to the sword trial he fought in, but with limited space of two football fields and the ceiling was only four stories tall.
Space isolation is an artifact that literally isolates a certain amount of individuals in a separate space.
It was usually meant to be used nefariously for multiple reasons.
It was especially effective against weaker tier individuals when they lack the mana to break out of Isolation spaces.
And Theo felt that the barrier can only be broken by someone of the Master tier, making it virtually impossible for him to break out.
However, there was also a time limit, but space isolations usually last for two hours before breaking, so he'd probably die before the time ran out, against an Expert tier individual.
There was one more way to break out, it was to kill or force the user to undo the space isolation.
"Didn't know Prince Theo isn't much of a talker. How disappointing.... Well, I'lljust force it out of you! OH HOW BLESSED I AM FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY!"
BANG!
Grin dashed in a blinding speed that Theo barely kept up with.
CRING!*
Theo blocked the two daggers, with Dawn, that were aimed on the side of his shoulders.
"Hoh~ As expected of the Prince of Virtus! Such skill and strength!"
Grin's main weapons were two daggers, both daggers glinted green on the edges, indicating that it was smeared with some kind of poison.
.... Focus Theo.
The Demon worshiper in front of him was an Expert class Assassin, capable of high speed movements and fluid dagger techniques, but it caused him strength, which is typical of the Assassin class, making it lower than the average combat classes.
Grin, once more, swung his daggers, aiming this time for Theo's right thigh.
Whoosh!*
Theo retreated to dodge but Grin persistently chased him, attacking him from every angle, not giving Theo room to breathe.
"Come on! Come on! Come on! Faster! Faster! Faster!"
Ting!* Ting!* Ting!* Ting!*
Grin overwhelmed Theo with a flurry of blows, not giving any chance for Theo to even make a counter attack.
Theo needed an opening and he waited for it to arrive, he didn't know when it'll come but his unyielding patience was of no other, so he bided his time and focused on defense.
He didn't have time to worry about what's going on, on the other side, How the children were faring, how the knights were performing, or potentially if reinforcements have arrived.
He needed to focus on the fight in front of him. Death was not an option.
Grind's body blurred for a split second.
"HAP!"
Grin, out of nowhere, threw a sneaky roundhouse kick that looked like a flexible snake pounced on the side of his head.
Bang!
"Kuh!"
Grins foot slammed on Theo's left shoulder, almost dislocating it in the process luckily he jumped in the direction where the force was heading, barely mitigating the damage.
<Master! Use Sacrifice!> Dawn
<I know!> Theo.
Now that he was pushed back and distanced himself from Grin, Theo used Sacrifice with haste.
"Sacrifice!"
"Hoh~ this power. Pseudo Expert, how interesting"
Grin grinned widely in response, not taking the current situation as seriously, rather he found it quite amusing.
I'm going to have so much fun!!!
Grin thought with euphoria, ready to play with the toy in front of him
It's not everyday that you can play with a Prince!
Grim charged at Theo, once again.
This time Theo could see his movements, but was still too fast for Theo to do any substantial movement than blocking and dodging
His not taking it seriously. Good! Keep doing that! I know a person who also underestimated me, whenever they win once!
Theo did his best not to smile in delight.
"Kekeke still quiet? How about this!?
******
"Lord Windsor, A messenger has arrived. Its from the Prince"
John who was on his desk, writing a development plan for another orphanage town, glanced up at his personal butler
"Send him here, now" John said as he placed his quill down.
"By your will, My Lord" The Butler bowed as he went to fetch the Holy knight.
After a few seconds of waiting, someone knocked on his office door.
"Come in"
The double door opened and revealed an armored imperial holy knight, he bowed with respect and spoke in a grave tone.
"I have received a message recently that the town His imperial highness was staying in" The knight said in a rush.
"Continue" John said with a grave tone in his voice, noticing the desperate voice the knight was spouting.
"About three hours ago, I received a message that, They are being overrun by a master tier dungeon! His imperial highness requested support immea-!"
BOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Before the Knight could finish talking, The room exploded in a blinding blue light, deafening the butler and Holy knight in the process.
Duke John Windsor a Grandmaster in his own right and the second strongest person in the whole empire.
He was given the Title Heaven's Thunder for his indomitable strength and prime minister for his superior intellect.
A man standing as one of the Apex of Humanity.
John Windsor soared above the clouds dying the whole sky blue. John left blue streaks of lighting as he passed through the sky at lightning speed, parting the clouds in the process, because of his immense speed and radiating strength.
Right now he was rushing to apple town, intending to save the child of the Emperor.
The messenger sent by Theo was a Expert tier Holy knight, capable of traversing long distances in a shorter time span than a normal sprinting horse, but it still took the knight six hours to get to the residence of the Duke.
But John Windsor was different, he was a Grandmaster with the Lightning Judge class.
A special class given to the strongest lightning holy knight. With the immense power and an almost unparalleled speed, it'll only take him a few minutes to traverse the six hours that the Expert tier Holy Knight traversed.
Theodore Ignatius! Hold on boy!
However the Duke was too late. It took an hour for the town to evacuate, another hour for the length of time that Theo defended the evacuees at the entrance of the valley, and another hour since Theo got trapped inside the Isolated space.
*****
"GO DOWN ALREADY!"
Grin aggressively attacked Theo with great effort, now intending to kill him unlike before when he was playing around.
Grin's eyes were bloodshot and his vein bulged on his forehead in frustration as he attacked Theo without stopping.
Ting!* Ting!* Ting!* Ting!*
Theo skillfully deflected and dodged the attacks of Grin by a hair's breadth.
This guy.....
Grin, once more, did a roundhouse kick, the same snake-like kick he initiated earlier in their fight.
Theo predicted this and easily dodged it with minimal movement
"WHAT!?" Grin shouted, not believing what he saw with his eyes.
This guy.... he sucks so much....
"How are you dodging and defending everything when you're just an Astute!" Grin as he winds up an attack from above that Theo easily deflected to the side.
Theo realized after time passed that Grin sucked at fighting. He didn't do feints, or any sophisticated techniques, all of his movements were straightforward and predictable, making Theo despite barely seeing Grin's attacks only ended up with small scratches on his clothing, when ten minutes had passed.
He doesn't even have proper dagger technique or visible experience on dealing people at his level.
Theo realized that Grin was far different from the game version, who actually had decent dagger techniques and skill.
He probably only focused on getting stronger and trampling down people far weaker than him. What a fool.
Theo ducked, dodging a cross slash Grin did.
It's time for a counter attack! Even if he is stupid he still has higher stamina and mana than me. A longer fight will disadvantage me.
"Fireball!"
Theo summoned a dozen golden fireballs behind him, launching them all at Grin.
"Fool!"
Grin started dodging everything with ease.
WHOOOSH!
TING!*
"FUTILE-!" Grin said as he blocked an attack from Theo.
BOOM!
A fireball curved and hit the side of Grin, injuring him slightly
"GAH!? How?" Grin said as he glanced at where the fireball hit him.
"Magic control!" Theo said as he threw another slash at Grin.
TING!*
WHOOOSH!
BOOM!
"Sh*t!" Grin exclaimed as he dodged the fireball that almost hit him.
"Let's start round two, Demon worshiper!"