B1: Chapter 12.5

Adam wore a smile that was not a smile and prepared his open yet stable stance.

The opponent and he both took sizable breaths before and after they took a step toward each other. They mirrored each other movements up until they both vanished...to anyone other than each other.

Modern science would have a way to explain their magical outburst of inhuman speed, mainly because it wasn't a hard thing to understand once the information becomes known.

The most simple or primitive way to understand it would have to start with the foundation of "Magic". Magic is the ability to shape matter into whatever the caster, witch, magician, or anyone else wants. The people of the simulated world see magic as a symbiotic thing, a force, or a living being that gives power to expand its own.

To Adam, Magic is just one of the things he could potentially be capable of once enough research is put into the ability to manipulate matter at will. I.e, the REBIRTH research that lucky, Zed, and the rest of the units were told to put on hold.

[If you haven't noticed by now that real "Magic" is a nonexistent joke that people in fairy tales believe in, you really aren't worth my time. My story is quite simple, our story is even simpler, so listen carefully because you will have to explain this to someone else one day...]

Other than the baseline for Magic being a manipulation of preexisting matter, the effects or result are just a series of not so complex and interconnected changes.

In this instance, Both men used their "magic skill" to redirect the flow of oxygen, the Light around them, and the physical matter of everything within their surroundings.

Other gasses, fluids, energy resources, and waste product alike would follow the "magic" and condense into a completely different thing, which would flow along the veins, arteries, and other parts of the body.

And so, this "magic" would then be used to super compress and restructure all selected material in the surroundings a sub atomic level. They would either be enhanced or turned into something else entirely. The next step would alter the size, elasticity, and strength of the lungs as well as the body, secondarily. This would only be possible because of the super enriched blood and powerful energy that each cell would be able to utilize.

Passively, the magic would facilitate the body in becoming more reactive and stronger as an aftereffect of each use.

The following step involved flooding the brain with a variation of the same enriched fluid running through the veins. A process that would seep into and replace the cerebral fluid and disseminate through the body to improve the nervous system alongside the empowered blood. It would effectively make reaction times faster and actions more accurate, as well as the five senses more intense.

After that small pockets of wind would fill the marrow and travel along the veins throughout the body to combat overheating temperatures and facilitate the movement of the various enhanced fluids (as it's no longer good enough to just say blood) and muscles.

A series of a dozen or so other "magical" abilities would then be used to modify, amplify, and control other bodily modifications in a delicate balance until everything reached a equilibrium. Statistically, millions, if not hundreds of millions of people lost their lives to research the effects and create this one "magic". Logically, not a single "real" person lost their life because the entire game was a simulation and it only took, if you look at the real world time, a few months to discover the magic.

Externally, a handful of "magics" were used to collect and drain the air around the two of them. Another was used to make sure that the area around the two became a heatless void, effectively creating a dome with zero air resistance at the same time.

Localizing said cooling void onto a single person was something that could not be done yet, so both men recieved the speed boost and body chilling help.

The combination of hundreds of magics culminated into the "magic" that was called <Void Walker>. The Pinnacle all of wind type movement magics.

Using said "magic", both men reached speeds that would have been enough to reach the cusp of breaking the sound barrier. The fight that ensued within the first 1.5 seconds maintained that speed.

To them however, it was just a regular fight at fairly average fighting speed.

Adam flashed his blade just outside of its sheath and caught the paralyzing edge of the woodsmans sword as it pierced towards his heart. He used the rebound to step away and slash with his sheathed weapon. Like an expert swordsman, Adam caught the edge of the woodsmans dagger with the tip of his own.

A rebound forced threw them both of them back this time.

The woodsman however recieved a heavier portion of the collision and was thrown into a tree. He landed with his feet and jumped back to the ground to engage once more: the tree heavily splintered but did not break... not yet at least

He flew parallel to the ground and attacked Adam like a wild tornado. Adam stood there, uncaring with his blade resting on his shoulder. The broken sheathe was on full view behind his head.

The woodsman flicked his dagger and produced blades of pressurized wind that flew out with each swing.

Leaves would have flown up if they were not soundlessly obliterated from the raging winds. Sadly, each one either just barely missed Adam or dispersed before it could even completely leave the woodsmans weapon..

Adam dodged a viscous strike to his neck with a slight movement of his foot and a twisting of his waist. He fell into his evasion and in the middle of his top-like spin, his knee grazed a leaf on the floor while his hand traced his blade to the handle. He brought his weapon down and released it from its confines, he even found time to throw the sheath at the woodsman.

The bark sheath erupted into confetti upon impacting the woodsmans Sword and wind. The impact, resulted in a millionth of a second where he lost eye contact with Adam.

Adam, who held his blade with two hands now, drew an immaculate curve with trailing wind. The strike, which would have cleanly bisected the woodsman was blocked.

Amazingly, the man managed to raised his dagger to defend just in time. He recieved no damage but once again he flew out a dozen meters.

Adam too, allowed himself to fly back in recoil. He stylishly landed with a twirling spin but mid flip, he grazed his finger tips across a tree and recreated his sheath. His feet soundlessly landed on the ground and at the same time as he put his weapon away. One again, he adopted a careless and open stance.

The woodsman pushed his speed even further for a full second and did a beautiful but extremely simple set of flips to regain his balance. He rushed at Adam once again and repeated the same attacks.

This time, the woodsman threw his now broken dagger in an unavoidable way, in between a ruthless stab of his sword, and preyed upon Adam's defensive evasions and deflections.

This clash, Adam was the one that would have lost track of his opponent if not for his ability to see the entire domed area a few hundred times over. Even though Adam moved before he could get trapped, he could not escape the second woodsman who was right next to him. The one who charged him, a <Trick of the Wind>.

The woodsman stuck to him like glue and put Adam put into a sticky situation.

A sidways cleave, a downward chop, a frontal stab, two of each, four more layered, six...

Dozens of strikes followed one after the other like flowing water or more accurately the attacks of a well trained pack of wolves. Adam did not imagine it, a pack of wolves that were made of wind attacked him from every direction other than the one that the Woodsman occupied. The very wind that created those wolves originated from the hand that used to be occupied by a dagger.

Adam narrowed his eyes, pressed for a reaction. His weapon was longer and less suited for how close the woodsman was.

Adam decided to fix the situation and thrusted his blade forward in what seemed like a desperate but logical attempt to create space. The woodsman received it with confidence and used his wind covered hand to break the spine of the blade. He was entirely ready to react to anything...

Anything but Adam actually letting him break the weapon. In that stunned fraction of a moment, Adam used two hands to spin his broken weapon and unravel the sword beneath the sheath in an attempt to cut the woodsman with a backhanded strike. It was a good thing that the woodsman retreated before he lost his hand.

Adam kicked up some leaves beneath the snow and recreated his sheath and hid his blade away like he had always done.

It was at this moment, for a half a second, that the woodsman pushed his speed to the max and soundlessly ( because of the artificial void they were in) broke the sound barrier.

He crashed into Adam with a speed that almost approached the divine for a human body to move. He held his sword parallel to his eyes and shot straight out like an arrow.

He locked onto Adam like a primal beast and struck out...

Literally...

He missed...

He legitimately struck out...

Adam, who barely evaded his attacks when he reached his second level of speed, ended up next to him. Adam's sword stretched the entire length of his waist and the sheath stopped millimeters from his leg.

The woodsman looked down and saw that his body would have been cut in half if he move just a bit forward. He realized that he had fallen under Adam's tricks from the very beginning and his own follies. He calculated said mistakes with closed eyes.

The woodsman made a fair assumtion, and believed that Adam's broken blade couldn't be reforged and only the sheathe could. That assumtion was only reinforced by the third clash when the sheathed weapon was noticeably shorter than the two other times it was re- sheathed, as if to account for the broken blade's shorter size.

He came to the false conclusion that Adam sacrificed the length of his blade to rid himself of a dangerously powerful magic. He also assumed that the sacrifice served as a way to make him wary of the edged side of the blade and lower his guard against the other.

And then his own nature as a human, to find patterns where they don't exsist allowed him to make a grevious mistake. He allowed himself to fall into Adam's rythme, and let him actions be dictated by repitituon. Adam only sheathed his blade after every major clash and waited to respond. This meant that he would not attack, and his previous struggles would mean that he would not be able to match up to his maximum speed.

The woodsman then threw everything onto a final attack and almost paid the ultimate price. Confidence lost him this battle.

He opened his eyes and looked back up at Adam's face, which had not changed the entire fight. He smiled a bit and moved away before he fell unto and killed himself on Adam's blade.

"So you used and the impact to completely break your sword and dislodge a metal fragment big enough to cut me. You have definately started to use your head you shitty prince. Did you copy everything?", Adam referred to his own sword tip.

The woodsman grabbed it after he broke Adam's sword and in their final clash, he threw it. Unfortunately, the swordsman was faster than the fragment so he got caught before Adam would get get hit.

"Yes Master"

"Can you make an assault type combat style now?"

"We will try Master. The Synthesis units should have enough data to analyze and compile"

"Try to work on something for fights as well. You know, spars"

"Yes Master"

"This shitty prince is like a roach"

The woodsman fell to his knees with a sickening and deafening pop. His face was a festival lights as he fainted.

"Is the atmosphere coming back?"

"Yes and the world seed unit has a request regarding the issues Master"

"What?"

"'Allow the descruction that is about to happen', is the requst"

Adam wore a grim display of disappointment

"Are you serious?"

"We have been asked formally Master"

He touched his cheek and, for a moment, felt his blood dribble out before it turned to smoke.

"Is it because he beat me and shows promise now?"

"That is not the reason stated"

"But it is the main one isn't it?"

"Yes Master"

"Shitty prince looks like you win", Adam said to himself

"..."

"You better not mess up again. I don't care if you are were shitty prince or will be king, so do your best"

He lifted the woodsman by his furry cloak. He opened a circular portal of smoke, and then reappeared next to Elena's floating body. He looked down and sighed. He fell from the sky once more.

"That's enough right?"

"Master, The world seed unit is satisfied with the result and can now work on the next part of the story. We would also like to report that the estimated time frame is three hundred years until the next main story event"

"Okay. Look up how to hog tie someone"

"Unit.... Already knows how. We are retrieving the information now"

"I'm going to need some rope'

"Yes master"