A New Challenger Approaches A Spear Boy

(Cao Cao POV)

"Did either of you have families before you both activated the spear?" I asked Cato and Celestine, to which Cato was the first to respond ( Well, I did, but they died soon after from a curse. I watched as my son and my wife were burned to a crisp in those golden flames over and over again. I will never forget their faces or their screams.)

"I am sorry if that brought back painful memories." Cato mentally sighed and continued ( It was my own fault, and while I may never forgive myself for what happened, I can't go on suffering under the pain forever as there are people in the future that would require guidance. I will never admit to being a perfect man. Just one that followed orders.)

Celestine then, with a softer tone, added ( Well, I activated the spear when I was young and used it during the Crusades, but my family at the time was the other nuns at the convent I stayed at in France. When I married and had a daughter, the hunters of Artemis found me and asked for me to join, but when I refused, Artemis slayed my family as I watched. She was the reason I died, as they caught me off guard when I was rusty. I want to see her suffer, but no one could ever cause the goddess permanent damage.)

"It seems that you may get what you want, Celestine, as the gods will not leave us alone when they find that we learned from her," I said mentally as Celestine then, with some acceptance, said (We may have to fight the Greek deities as well as many others but I have a feeling things will be different this time, especially with all the weird techniques you seem to pull out of your ass.)

"I did not know a former nun could be so crass ." Celestine chuckled and said (You believe that is surprising. I know a couple of nuns that could swear like a sailor but seemed like the purest of beings. No one can remain perfect or pious forever. We all need to vent sometimes.)

"Do you want me to kill Artemis permanently?" Celestine simply said quietly (Don't give me that hope, young one. Simply live. That is all we could ever want. Our grudges are long since redundant at this point, and besides, I do not want to lose my favorite sparring partner.) 

Cato then added (You should focus on continuing your training as we are not her student just yet. Although you have made astounding progress, you are most certainly Peak High class or near it, and only after eleven weeks of training. Be proud, Cao Cao.)

Shaking my head, I stood back up to continue my training as I said, "High class is not nearly enough. As both of you have said yourselves multiple times, there may be Gods waiting for us when we leave this place, and they will not be playing games." I could feel the two's nervousness as I said, "At my current pace, I may have enough strength to fight them, but I must keep going. None in this world seems to allow for my existence, but I will not be denied. I wish I could complain on the unfairness of it all, but it shall fall on deaf ears."

Grasping at the spear I was given, I summoned multiple clones, activated the mirror dimension, and saw as the world seemed to fold in on itself. I began to train against my clones. As I summoned three of them, one rushed me with haki while the other two used mystic binds to keep me in place, but I simply ported myself behind him, cutting off the binds and swiping at the caster, to which he poofed and turned into a block, of wood.

The other two then proved themselves and appeared right behind me, both taking swipes at me, to which I infused my haki into the spear and slammed into the ground, creating a shock wave that threw all three of them back. 

Still, they all caught themselves in mid-air and split themselves into many more clones. All of them then wrapped me with mystic binds to which I used mana skin and haki to pull all of them to me, and using observational haki, I determined which of the dozens of clones were the real three.

Stabbing at the three, all the clones broke apart like shattering glass, and the three used their opportunity to stab towards me. Still, using my future sight, I parried all their strikes, and jumping into the air, I used my holy flames to send a blast of fire into the ground. 

As the fire plumed outwards, they all avoided it by porting into the air, which I expected them to do, and taking advantage of this knowledge, I grabbed one and tossed him into the other two.

Using geppo in combination with soru, I blinked in front of all of them, to which they then smiled as they disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and sensing deadly intent, I dodged a blast of holy magic from behind and redirected the energy back at them. 

The wave of energy was then absorbed by one who then used it and shot it at me, but not before sending it through multiple portals to gain speed and momentum as the portals were random, it was hard to keep track, but then I flew towards the one using it, and then it went right through him as it was too fast to dodge.

The other two immediately began to use their spears to duel me, and with every thrust and swipe, I parried and absorbed every mistake as every cut and bruise was another means to improve. My healing factor made it so such injuries were only temporary. 

But I knew that there were weapons and types of energy out there that could bypass healing factors, so I did not grow complacent, and as one swiped wide, I gripped the spear tightly and infused it with armament haki. I blocked the strike.

The third Clone then tried to stab me, and I used a portal to redirect the strike right into the second Clone. The Clone that was stabbed simply closed at sized and poofed out of existence as the third Clone stared me down. We both smirked as the Clone said, "We've gotten better, and our power has doubled since the last time we arrived."

Nodding in agreement, I said, "Yet remember twice the pride double the fall. We cannot allow ourselves to believe ourselves invincible, at least not yet." Looking at one another, we both said five words and continued the spar.

"It's only a matter of time."

Such a statement could not be more true as, based on the time limit, there remained only two weeks before the witch shall judge whether I am worthy of being trained and if I guess how she will wish to fight me. 

And with the possible threats on the horizon, I eyed my skill, which has shown definite improvement. As most are now within an A to A- rank, which should be equivalent to the ultimate class, I still lack experience, and even after fighting waves of shades and my clones, I have yet to fight evenly with another.

I am in peak high class and maybe even low ultimate class after only two months and three weeks. I would say that is impressive, but it's not enough. It's never truly enough in worlds like this. 

So after defeating my last Clone by using my telekinesis to redirect his strike, thus causing him to become less balanced in his stance and using that to my advantage, I struck through his heart, and he poofed away. 

Taking a small respite while meditating, I looked at my store of LP, which had risen to 12,515,200, and using 500,000 LP, I upgraded my LP generation skill to C Rank, which made my LP per second rise from two per second to four per second and saw that the next rank would require fifty million points I was satisfied with doubling my point gain. Seeing that I still had twelve million points, I used 800,000 points to buy a paradox resistance perk.

The skill rose to an A rank immediately as it is based on my power level at a minimum, so now I am more resistant to being erased from the timeline. To follow up, I used another 800,000 points to buy a destiny defense skill in order to make sure my fate was my own. 

While trace defense works on precognition, it doesn't directly stop others from messing with me based on probability, so if a god in control of luck or fate was fighting me, they could manipulate my luck and fate to their advantage.

Based on the strength of the skill, it would take multiple gods to even mess with my fate at this point as my resistance is exponential in strength, with each one stacking more with each one. Looking to keep the streak going, I used another 800,000 points to buy an environmental resistance skill. 

This resistance skill is a bit different as it simply allows me to survive more things the higher level it goes, and since it's already A rank, I can now safely breathe underwater and can hold my breath for a week. But I will need some time before I can survive the heat of the sun or breathe in space.

Now that I was down to 9,615,200 LP, I decided to buy a rather expensive skill, that being the ability to gain zenkai boosts when I was injured enough. It cost five million points, and I almost heard my bank break as my stores fell to 4,615,200 LP. 

But I knew that it would be a good investment as while I may learn less from Scathach than I would have liked, she will kick my ass on the daily. So, I thought it would be a good idea to summon my inner masochistic cultivator and gain strength from the pain like that one guy from The Strongest System.

I believe his name was Lin Fan or something, but it does not matter. After buying the skill, I felt a bit more, if that makes any sense like a chain had been loosened in a way. It was a strange feeling, but it felt somewhat liberating in a way as now, with my regen and Zenkai boosts, I can gain strength from getting beaten up. 

"Even in my own head, that sounds pathetic," I think to myself as I can feel the confusion from Celes and Cato. While they can read my mind, they can only read any thought I send to them. But I digress as I exited the mirror dimension and then feel the land of shadows begin to quake again as if a bit angry at something.

The land of shadows seemed to be alive in some way, as I could feel its hate and rage, even my lack of knowledge of senjutsu. 

Looking off into the distance, I saw the shades beginning to coalesce into a single being that then began to light ablaze in a dim orange light, and as it began to form a bit more physically, I saw that the once bright moon began to darken in the sky. And as if the sky began to bleed, a trail began to fall from the now darkened moon as the figure had formed completely, and its flames bellowed outwards in a challenge.

The flames were so hot that they melted everything, and even I felt the heat from the blaze as I began to sweat. Every sense of mine was telling me to run as it then looked at me and pointed its glowing coiled sword at me. Grasping my spear, I began to walk towards the figure as it began to glow brighter and brighter, and all that left my mouth was a small phrase from a long-forgotten age.

"May the light shine upon this Lord Of Cinder." I hefted my spear and took my stance as we charged at one another. But I could almost feel another burning gaze as we charged at each other.