Chapter 31

What do I do?

This isn't an opponent I can just defeat by punching and kicking. His technique he uses to warp infinite space takes a lot of my energy to negate it and that is after the gloves katarina gave me reduced the burden.

If I have to start healing myself whenever he tore off my limbs, I wouldn't have enough to last.

Should I use that? Or not?

"You're quite tough." I looked at the Reaper and spotted a faint drop of sweat. One so faint that unless you were a superhuman like me, I doubt you would be able to spot it.

No doubt about it. His time stopping and space folding puts a lot of strain on him.

I let out a breath and focused on the situation at hand.

The gloves Katarina gave me reduced the consumption of my healing magic but it won't be enough if I get my body torn apart in each and every encounter.

If I use that, I could probably win but there's no guarantee that he doesn't have a hidden card of his own.

If there's a condition for winning, it's whether my fiancée can find a counter for his time stop before I run out of energy.

"How much longer...?" I murmured and breathed in as my focus sharpened.

I tensed up my muscles and raced at the Reaper and launched a new round of blows at his body.

Head, arms legs, torso. In a split second, I pushed my attack force to its limits and blasted fist shaped holes in to his body, some even ripping off my targets. 

White light shone out in the room and the Reaper was as good as new with the exception of a little something; he seemed a little more tired.

"Why can't I use it?" I heard him murmur faintly under his breath and though I didn't know what was going on, I knew there was something he couldn't do.

And that was enough for my.

"Lifebound arts, core punch." I planted my feet in the ground and redirected the energy in my body through my core and released it through my fist and watched as the attack made contact with the Reapers barrier.

"Time stop." As soon as those words left this lips, I found a three inch deep slash in my neck.

Covering my wound with my hand, I retreated and my auto heal activated and healed the wound.

But that didn't mean the situation was favourable for me.

After all, he managed to cut through my neck even through my neck this time. Next, it might be my entire head.

"Tch." I clicked my tongue and charged at him.

I shot forward and my fists turned into afterimages as I punched at him repeatedly ignoring the damage from the slashes he inflicted on me.

Occasionally, he would stop time but I just pressed on forward and rammed my hand into his stomach after shattering his defence.

I felt my head become light and whether it was because of blood loss or mana usage, I didn't know.

But the world seemed to have slowed down and I took advantage of that fact to press on the offence, disregarding my own body.

I don't remember how many times I've attached my legs and arms. How many times I've healed my injuries and at some point, my mind became numb to the pain and I just went through the process of attack and healing.

...

"What's up with this kid?" Reaper aka Cedric muttered as he looked at the kid in front of him.

Even in stopped time, the boys neck was too tough to cut even with a spatial slash and due to that injury, he couldn't maintain that state for long.

'And that girl is meddling with this dimension.'

He thought back to the bastard daughter of that man and his mood worsened.

Fifty years ago, he took on a mission to assassinate a certain man and his companions.

And he suffered a humiliating defeat and ran away like a beaten dog.

To this day, he still hadn't forgotten about the incident and flames of revenge burned inside as if to cover the other emotion inside him. Fear.

And right now, the daughter of that despicable man was in front of him and thanks to the idiot that just refused to die, he couldn't take his time searching for her.

'And she's interfering with my magic too.'

He could have instantly used one of his many spatial magic or time magic to kill the boy but had to divert some of his attention to keeping his control over the dimension they were in.

'And that girl has even modified the settings of this dimension to limit my power.' as things were, it was likely she would nullify his magic completely so he had no choice but to use his trump card.

He placed a palm against his chest and felt out the damage that the man gave to him. One that even reversing time couldn't heal.

One that struck at his soul itself and took away some of his magic.

'Today is the day I get my revenge.'

He couldn't challenge the man himself, so he would take out his frustrations on his daughter.

"Seal, open."

...

Uh-oh.

I snapped form my battle trance as soon as he said those words and noticed my clothes had been ripped to shreds with only the area around my crotch being intact.

But that wasn't important and I turned my attention to the current battle.

In the films from my past life, I know things are starting to get serious whenever they open a seal or unleash something.

Their power would surge multifold and the protagonist would be pushed to the brink of defeat.

There are two things that may happen.

One, a mysterious and powerful teacher would appear and save him or her.

Two, the protagonist would awaken to a mysterious power and turn the tides.

Unfortunately, this was real life. No teacher would appear to save us and we can't depend on an awakening.

I put my hands into the air and took in a deep breath.

"Lifebound arts..." No matter what would come, I just needed to defeat it with my strength.

"... Furu-" 

"Die!" I felt my vision turning over as it faded to black.

Sounds became distant and I thought I heard a voice somewhere but my mind was too hazy to do anything.

And it was like that that I died.