18 Queen VS Spear Boy Part 1

(Cao Cao POV)

Inhaling through my nose and then exhaling is a simple practice that can calm me through many situations. The mere act of breathing helps to keep people grounded and that they are still alive after a traumatic event. I find myself indulging in such a practice to focus my mind and ready my senses. The pure darkness created by the shades blotting out what little light from the moon is received by the land of shadows.

Checking my LP, I had a total of 8,453,400, and since this may be one of the most difficult battles of my life, I decided to hammer in more defenses I may need against this witch. Two specific defenses, with those being soul and curse defense. Each one cost me 800,000 LP, but it was worth it as I felt the curses that had stuck onto me like glue fade away like grime coming off after a good shower.

Speaking of which, I should find a way to take one as while I may not need it, thanks to my cleaning magic, it is nice to do after a long time of training. In terms of what these defenses do, they are yet again self-explanatory as soul defense keeps my soul from being affected by soul-based attacks as well as soul parasites or possession attempts. In contrast, curse defense defends me against all curses at my level and slightly above my level.

Seeing that I had 6,853,400 LP left, I decided toad on to my knowledge of the spear by buying a new set of techniques from the story Second Coming Of Gluttony, which cost me 2,000,000 LP for the basic skills of thrust, strike, and cut but with training, more shall reveal itself with time. Oddly enough, the skill seemed to react to spear arts mastery from Everyone Else Is A Returnee and slightly increased the skill level from B to B+.

New knowledge then flooded my mind on various spear techniques to which I decided to buy three new skills to aid me in a battle against a superior opponent, with those three being a physical upgrade in the form of the demon brain from baki, mental acceleration from Tensura and mental partitioning from Fate.

The effects were immediate as my mind began to take in the new information rapidly, and with the martial arts-based mind of a Hanma, I began to make sense of the esoteric spear arts of two very powerful spearmen from fiction.

Yu Ilhan was a man who learned every spear art on the planet to spend time not focusing on the fact that he was alone, while Seol Jihu was a man who sought only to fight alone and focused on perfecting simple techniques to their maximum potential.

The cost in terms of LP totaled up to 680,000 LP for all three skills, but they were worth it as, by focusing my mind, I could fight opponents based on the movements of their stance. The power that Baki used to fight imaginary enemies like a grasshopper and a dinosaur with only his mind and have his body learn and improve from mental training.

The reason I bought mental acceleration and mental partitioning is to focus my mental faculties while also being able to divvy them up more effectively, in addition to the fact that mental acceleration and partitioning allow me to use my spells much more quickly.

At the end of the series, Rimuru Tempest was able to use mental acceleration to increase the speed of his thoughts by over 1,000 times to even 100 million times. Mental partitioning, on the other hand, exists to have my now accelerated thought processes focus on multiple streams of thoughts at a time. While I am aware that thought acceleration exists in the Fate universe, the thought acceleration from the tensura universe is definitely superior.

Now, as I opened my eyes and stared at the witch who had not stopped staring at me since I arrived, our eyes met, and I saw a history of endless conflict and endless bloodshed as her eyes truly represented the amount of blood she spilled. But as I admittedly admired her form, I took in every detail and used mental acceleration at my strongest, which for now was only ten times my normal with demon brain and blank working to improve it by the second.

Yet even at my accelerated speed of thought, she still moved at normal speed as she walked around me like Darth Maul, waiting for Qui Gonn to enter the battlefield in the Phantom Menace. But instead of a man seething in anger, all I see from her is nothing.

Every person I had met and fought always showed some modicum of emotion, with the men who tried to sell me showing irritation and fear and Goddess Artemis's utter and complete confidence.

But this woman walked around with complete and utter nothingness in her eyes. I would be a liar if I admitted to not being afraid to fight her, as I'd only been training in this world for three months and a week. If you had told me I would be in the same position before, I would have asked for any extracurricular substances you were taking for research purposes, of course.

"I can see fear in your eyes, child. No matter how much you try to hide it, I can sense it, and I do not blame you as many are afraid in the presence of death, but how will you meet yours, I wonder?"

Scathach said as she spun her spear in her hands with the read lance glowing in that same red light. It does make sense that she can sense my emotions as my information defense is only ultimate class at best, and she is a Satan Class being or at least peak ultimate class at base.

Currently, the time that was once three months is now ten minutes. I asked the woman, "Is it not a sin to be afraid of possibly impending death?"

The queen then slightly stopped as she said, "It is not a sin to be afraid of death, nor is it a sin to be afraid of a superior opponent, but again, it is how one meets such a threat or such an end that determines their true mettle. Many in your position would have already pissed themselves in fear. I do commend all the training you have done. It has shown dedication and will. And the fact that you have been respectful adds some points as well."

After saying that, she began to create a circle around us as she dragged the tip of her spear along the ground, creating a perfect circle. Somehow, while she could have used runes to create a barrier, she did not; maybe out of an assumption that I could learn her runes mid-fight, but it may just be me overthinking again.

(Focus Cao Cao, you will not receive another chance as everything you have been training for has built up to this moment. All of us are watching, even "them.") While the "them" is a bit ominous, I can see Celestine holding a sign that says, "Try not to become the queen's personal Swiss cheese."

Truly, having these two in my mind has been a blessing in disguise.

A small smile forms on my face as Scathach asks with a bit of mirth in her voice, "Have you already gone mad with fear? Your smile is a bit unnerving, you know." My smile is unnerving. Really, I need to get some sunlight and actual social communication. Although I maybe should spend some points in creating a type of charisma skill or charming presence, I am somewhat hesitant to create a skill that may affect someone mentally.

It doesn't mean I most likely won't end up doing it, but it will definitely leave a bad taste in my mouth. Regardless, I continue to stare at her as I study her every move using mental acceleration and observational haki as I get a read on her life and energy signature using my mana sense and chakra sensing.

However, the last one was definitely a trip, as her presence was quite literally an endless void oozing blood and darkness with two shining eyes staring right through me.

Even with her looks, the things I see are definitely nightmare fuel for the future. But possible mental scarring aside, as I observe her, I am improving by the second as I get up from my meditative position and begin to walk around the circle directly opposite of her.

Desiring to learn some of the rules, I asked, "So, are there any stipulations to this fight and anything I should avoid doing?"

The woman then seems to think for a moment as she says, "The Only Rule is that there are no rules to use any weapon and any technique you desire. The only other stipulation is that you do not leave the circle as whoever steps out of the circle loses as I do not want to gather an audience by extending this fight outside of the center of the Land of Shadows."

Nodding in agreement, I take out the spear of Longinus, and it seems to have taken to the spear I got from the soul of cinder, well as the spear that once looked like a normal weapon now has begun to coil in on itself and form two points instead of one. In all honesty, it looks similar to the Longinus from Evangelion but is also cracking with fiery sparks and electricity.

The queen of Shadows observes the spear form and gives a very slight smile that is almost imperceptible to most others other than me as she says, "Your triumphs have definitely shown I have yet to see that spear look like that before. You truly are full of surprises. I wonder if you will show me more in this fight."

"I cannot claim to be able to surprise you, but I will give it my best." I mention as she nods and replies, "That is good, and it's also good that you dodged the amount of experience I have as mentioning a woman's age is a very easy way to get killed, young man."

Slightly sweating at that comment, I stop as she does as well. The ten minutes are up.

All that can be heard are the groans of the shades circling around us, and as I activate my haki and mana skin in combination with mental acceleration, I make the first move. I attempted to thrust dead center, to which she dodged with such grace you think that she was simply floating and kicked me into the ground.

The force of the blow felt like a cannonball hitting my left side, and as she stood there, she held out her arms in a welcoming gesture and said.

"Come on, child, if you wish to show me what you had, then show me." Standing back up, I tried again and managed to use my observational haki to gauge where she would dodge, and as she did, when I tried to take a wide swipe, I immediately used an earth-style jutsu to make the ground she tried to doge into very deep mud, and as she stepped into it, she began to sink and then proceeded to look at me and shake her head.

And with Once downward stabbing motion, she created a large crater in the ground, thus getting rid of the mud to which I was already above here, ready to impale her head first, but she simply parried the strike, and as I was flung through the air I repositioned myself and landed right before the edge of the boundary.

Scathach, then seeming a bit annoyed, rushed me, and it took all I had to doge her thrust and subsequent slash, but it did manage to slash my left side slightly.

Thankfully, while her spear does have access to instant death as well as anti-healing properties, it can only be used during its main attack or noble phantasm.

Unlike Gae Derg, who has innate anti-healing and anti-divine properties, my thought process was interrupted as she tried to slash at my arm, to which I blocked the strike, and the impact left my arms shaking as the area behind me was blasted away by the pure air pressure created by the strike,

Her attacks were relentless. She then tried to trip me, to which I placed the butt of my spear to the ground blocking the blow. Using this failed attack, I tried to swipe at a wide arc and use a blast of holy flame to ward her off, and as the wave of fire approached her, she simply swung her spear, dispersing the flames and standing there unburnt.

She then lifted up her arm and, motioning with her left hand, gave me a small come over here gesture, obliging her. I used my shadow clones to rush her from multiple angles as I created some smoke around me and used hiding like a mole jutsu. I sunk into the ground and, following the signature of her energy, tried to dig my under her.

While doing this, using mental partitioning, I focused the efforts of my clones as the five I summoned rushed at her from all angles. One tried to use holy lighting in the form of a blast from his spear, while another sent a wave of holy flames.

The woman then proceeded to somehow catch the lightning and toss it back at the Clone and, upon hitting him, burst into a cloud of smoke while in terms of the fire, she simply walked through it and stabbed the other Clone with the other three attempting to stab her through her back.

As if sensing this, she avoided the slashes by jumping into the air and throwing her spear. She impaled all the clones in one throw as the spear zigged and zagged through the air and landed back in her hand.

Upon landing back on the ground, I summoned a couple more clones above me, and as she landed, I grabbed her legs while the two other clones used a great fireball jutsu.

As the attack approached, I could feel her become somewhat excited as she grabbed my left arm, tore me from the ground, and threw me into the blast. I was able to disable it, but not before she slammed her fist into my back.

The impact left me seeing back spots, and as I got back up and readied myself, she was already behind me. I was able to turn around, but the look in her eyes screamed danger but also pure and utter excitement. I can definitely understand why Cu was so afraid of this woman as the battle continued to rage on.

The impacts of our blows sent shockwaves through the whole plane, with all of the monsters that approached disintegrating before they even made it near us.

But this woman just kept going as she then tried to slam her spear into my stomach, to which I grabbed the spear and tried to slam her into the ground, but as I lifted her into the air, she jumped onto her spear and kicked me in the face.

The impact of the strike on my face caused me to let go of the spear, and as she landed, I gathered myself.

As I was able to look back up, I could see that she was still full of energy, and I knew this fight was going to be a long one. I dared not use conqueror's haki against her as even with this small but, I knew who was superior, but it was only a matter of time.