I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated (LN) - Volume 17 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Battles with Greats

“AND WE ARE back with the semifinals! The hero of the Black Cat tribe has emerged victorious in every round so far! Can she do it again?! Black Lightning Princess Fran!”

Fran slowly entered the arena as the commentator’s voice coaxed the crowd into uproarious applause.

And all she’d done so far was walk slowly into view.

“She may be small, but she’ll have no trouble blowing your lights out! Let’s see how she’ll fight today!”

The voltage of the audience was peaking with the coming of the quarterfinals. Their cheers shook the earth.

“In the opposite corner we have the red mercenary, Sibyl! This newcomer has proven herself by demolishing powerful opponents to get here!”

But the two were deaf to the roar of the crowd.

Fran and Sibyl stared each other down from their sides of the arena.

“We meet again.”

“Hm.”

“I watched you fight Biscott. That’s not all you have, is it?”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

“Heh heh. Right you are!”

“The dark horse of yesteryear versus the dark horse of this year! Who will emerge victorious?!”

That was the truth—it really was a battle between dark horses.

Fran unleashed her powers before the match started.

“Flashing Thunderclap!”

“Oooh. So, you really are an evolved Black Cat.”

Sibyl smiled happily as black lightning sparked around Fran. She had looked her up beforehand. Given how famous Fran was, it should have been easy enough to find out.

She probably had a decent guess on how strong Fran was, too.

“Now, show me what an elite adventurer is made of!”

“Sure.”

The two readied their swords, waiting for the match to start.

“Begin!”

“Cheeeya!”

“Hm!”

Sibyl stepped forward.

This was unexpected. So far, she had started every match by watching and waiting. But it seemed she was finally getting serious.

She rushed in at great speed, pointing her sword at Fran’s neck.

As unexpected as this was, we hadn’t discounted with the possibility altogether.

Multilayered Air Shield!

I was also starting out at full power. I set up multiple wind barriers to throw off Sibyl’s attack.

“No Cast?!”

“Hmph!”

Fran swung her sword into Sibyl’s exposed side, slicing deep into her—

“Ku ha ha ha! That was nothing!”

“Hrm.”

But she didn’t even leave a cut on her skin. Sibyl hadn’t put up a barrier. Instead, it just felt like I was hitting a big tire with a steel pipe. I felt…blunt.

The black lightning imbued into the attack didn’t hurt Sibyl, either.

Teacher.

I can’t tell yet!

Sibyl’s damage was being reduced by some kind of Skill. Physical Resistance and Thunder Resistance, maybe? Was it possible that she had the perfect combination of resistances to withstand Fran’s attacks?

“Draah!”

Instead of making an opening for us to press our offensive, Sibyl started swinging at us. Fast, but not sharp enough to catch Fran.

Fran dodged her slash using as little movement as possible and launched a low kick into Sibyl’s inner thigh.

But she still wasn’t flinching.

Then I’ll look for her weakness!

“Hm!”

An intense clash of swords and metal erupted. But Fran and Sibyl came out of it unharmed. Fran dodged everything while Sibyl had simply not taken any damage.

No, despite Fran peppering her with attacks from her head down to her toes, Sibyl shed not a single drop of blood. We even went for her eyes but to no avail.

Fiend Crusher Revelation, Venomfang, all of the Elemental Blades. None of them worked.

“Decent aim, but it’s useless!”

Then how about magic?!

I let Fran do the dodging as I unleashed a hail of spells at Sibyl, still relentless in her offense.

Flame, storm, land, water, thunder, frost, steel, sand, poison, dark, light, timespace. I cast every spell I had that would do damage.

I even used every elemental control Skill I had that wasn’t strictly magical. Flame control, water control, ground control, poison control, wind control, all of it.

But Sibyl didn’t even bother dodging them. She took all of them head on and emerged unharmed. There was a high likelihood that we were dealing with a damage reduction Skill instead of resistances. I found it hard to believe that she would have resistances for everything that I threw at her.

“You’ll have to do better than that to hurt me!”

“How about this!”

Sibyl kept on advancing as attacks bounced off her body.

Fran crouched under a horizontal swing and shifted me to the side of her waist. She used herself as a fulcrum, loading her sheath with wind before releasing me at Sibyl’s neck.

Ordinarily, this Pressurized Quickdraw would be enough to end the match. But Sibyl was anything but ordinary.

I’d thought she had above-average damage reduction. I wasn’t expecting the attack to be nullified completely.

Physical Immunity? But why didn’t black lightning work?

Not to mention, Colbert actually did a pretty good job at hurting her. His ultimate attack, especially.

There was no way that Pressurized Quickdraw was lacking in damage. In fact, it should have been doing more damage because I had more attack power than before.

But why wasn’t Sibyl taking damage?

How is she doing this?!

“Good, that was a good attack! But not enough to beat me! Anyway, I hope you’re ready because I’m finally warmed up!” Sibyl shouted. Her pressure immediately intensified as red mana burst out of her body. The pressure she emanated rivaled that of powerful foes we had encountered in the past.

As if to prove that her overwhelming mana wasn’t just for show, Sibyl’s speed increased by several factors.

“Shaaah!”

“Urgh…!”

Sibyl had gotten used to Fran’s movement, but hesitation was slowing Fran down.

She started pressuring Fran, who was still faster than her. Was there no way to defeat her? Fran’s dodges were getting slower as she lost confidence in her own offense.

It was a matter of time before she ate a big hit.

Fran, we have to attack. Just dodging her won’t get us out of this stalemate.

…All right.

Sibyl saw Fran put some distance between her using Air Hop and stopped. She knew that we were about to use our trump card.

“Ku ha ha ha! You’re no longer hesitating! Good! I’ll take whatever you can dish out! Come on!”

She was still laughing despite the circumstances. We’d put a stop to that laughter soon enough!

“Huff…”

If Sibyl was going to wait for us, we would gladly take advantage of it.

Fran started concentrating harder than ever before. She focused on circulating her mana to unite herself and myself before unleashing a powerful attack.

It felt strange; like I was an extension of her body. As a sword, it was euphoric; like I was the most powerful sword ever forged. I was shaking with elation even before she swung me.

I knew this feeling. It was how I felt when Fran used me in Sword God Form.

“Haaa…”

As Fran held me overhead, all the force of her mana behind her, Sibyl only gave an animalistic smile and braced for impact.

She wanted to feel the absolute force of it with nothing in the way.

Fran stepped forward and quietly closed the gap between them.

“Huff…”

“Eh!”

Sibyl didn’t react. Either because she couldn’t or didn’t want to. She only looked at Fran.

“Skycutter.”

She brought her sword down on Sibyl, so fast as to leave sound behind.

“Hm!”

What?!

“Amazing! But you’re not even close!”

That’s impossible! How is Sibyl still in one piece?!

I had left a mark on her, however. A ten-centimeter-long cut across her shoulder. She was drawing blood for the first time.

But…was that it? Was that all that Fran’s fully charged, Flashing Thunderclap-enhanced Skycutter could do?

There was a bit of divine element in that attack, too!

Really?

Fran hadn’t noticed it herself. But having acquired Divine Manipulation, I felt it.

Beyond Skycutter was Sword God Form. It wasn’t out of the question that Fran could now imbue her Skycutter with divine element if she tried hard enough.

But Sibyl looked unperturbed. Not only that…the divine element-imbued cut was already beginning to heal.

Impenetrable defense combined with instantaneous regeneration. As if these two weren’t enough to make Sibyl an absolute menace, she didn’t flinch despite Fran’s high-speed attack. Surely the impact should’ve pushed her a couple inches?

Yet Sibyl remained unmoved from her spot. I could only assume that she had perfectly absorbed even the force of Fran’s attack.

But I had seen this stance before. Fran herself had been like this when she used Physical Immunity last year.

Is it Physical Immunity, after all?

But divine element would have the power to penetrate ordinary Skills. Physical Immunity shouldn’t grant you divine immunity. So why was the cut so shallow? Would it not have cut at all if not for divine element?

And even if she did have resistance Skills, it still didn’t explain how she nullified all of our spells.

Teacher, can you draw out divine element?

…Are you sure?

It sucks, but I need your power.

You got it! I’ll give it a shot.

Fran had also conceded that cracking through Sibyl’s defenses was going to be difficult on her own. Divine element would be key here.

I used Divine Manipulation to convert my mana into divine element. It was difficult, but I wasn’t about to give up.

I thought I should be able to do it. I just needed to remember what Sword God Form felt like. What that earlier Skycutter felt like.

Suddenly, an overwhelming presence came over me, spilling over into great power. The divine element. My entire body was now covered with a thin layer of it.

Got it…! It’s nowhere near Sword God Form, though.

It’ll do.

Fran made her move again. She held me high in the air and inserted me into her pressurized sheath.

“Teyaaa!”

Pressurized Quickdraw this time. But the amount of mana put into it rivaled Skycutter.

“Bwa ha ha! Still too soft!”

She cut Sibyl’s cheek, though much shallower than Skycutter. Sibyl couldn’t perfectly defend against divine element.

“Taaaah!”

Fran continued her attack. Though not with her sword.

She launched her fist into Sibyl’s body. But her fist was now wrapped with my strap.

“Urgh…”

Huh?

Sibyl was visibly hurt by Fran’s fist, though its damage was much lower than her sword. Her lung collapsed. She started coughing up blood and put a hand to her chest. She probably wasn’t hurt as much as inconvenienced by the sudden shift in her organs.

“Knew it. Fists work better than swords on you.”

“Heh…so you’ve finally noticed.”

Sibyl’s defenses weren’t evenly distributed between types of attack. She was nearly invincible when faced with swords, but strikes were a different story. Was that why she took so much damage when fighting Colbert? Maybe she was weak to piercing damage, too.

It didn’t make Sibyl any less tough, but at least we now knew she wasn’t invincible.

Both slashes and strikes were also made more effective with divine element.

Then we’ll cut, strike, and beat her down.

Hm!

I’ll focus on keeping divine element up.

Thanks.

Sword God Form would only be used as a last resort. We would be at a severe disadvantage if we couldn’t finish Sibyl off even after using it.

Sibyl seemed genuinely pleased that we were finally able to hurt her.

“Ha ha ha ha! NOW it’s a real fight!”

“Hm!”

A battle to the death commenced. Fran and Sibyl’s exchange of blows intensified.

“Taaah!”

“Oraaah!”

Fran sped around Sibyl with Flashing Thunderclap, putting her entire strength into every strike, cutting Sibyl open and sending shockwaves into her organs.

Sibyl showed no signs of slowing down, swinging her sword as her flesh regenerated. If anything, she seemed to be getting faster because of her excitement.

The audience had fallen silent. Reduced to gasping as they watched the high-speed battle unfold. They couldn’t tell what was going on, but they knew how intense it was.

But despite the intensity, neither side had taken significant damage. Our deep cuts into Sibyl soon regenerated. Fran managed to chop off one of her fingers after relentless hacking and slashing, but it soon grew back. An instant regeneration ability, for sure.

Meanwhile, Fran was dodging all of Sibyl’s attacks. We tried turning on Physical Immunity but the cost was too great. Spells that enabled attacks to phase through her like Dimension Shift were more efficient. Most of the damage Fran had taken was from being in Flashing Thunderclap. Fortunately, Life Magic—an ability we’d picked up in Belioth—was mitigating most of it.

Both sides used telekinesis, but the clashes didn’t amount to much.

We seemed to be at a stalemate, but we were on the losing side. Our resources were being drained while Sibyl didn’t seem to need that much mana to sustain her strange abilities. The longer this battle went on, the worse off we would be.

We needed to end this, fast.

But there was a reason why we were still engaged in this scrap. We were going for Sibyl’s eyes. An attack shrouded in divine element should be able to penetrate her eyes. From there, Fran could drive her sword right into her brain. I don’t care how tough you are, you still die from that.

Seeming to have noticed this, Sibyl only dodged attacks aimed at her face. Her animalistic instincts gave her an acute sense of danger.

We need to stop her in her tracks!

Thread form?

She’s formidable. I don’t think my thread form can hold her down.

The mana lost when we took a hit from her with Physical Immunity running was considerable. In fact, it was more than what we’d lost when Colbert hit us with his ultimate attack last year. And that was just from a stray hit.

Sibyl’s sword was focused on durability, not attack power. The brutal strength that she brought to the table was all her own. I didn’t think that my threads could hold down a woman of such strength.

So what now?

It’s time for the ambush we’ve been setting up for.

I see.

Fran pulled her arm to her side as if she was preparing herself for another thrust.

Sibyl, taking it as a sign that she was preparing another big attack, grinned. Fran had her complete attention.

But Sibyl really needed to watch her step.

Now, Jet!

“Grooooar!”

“Wha?!”

Jet had been ready for an ambush since the match started. Very few people could actually avoid this on their first try. Sibyl reacted before Jet clamped his jaws on her feet, but she couldn’t pull away in time.

“Why is it so big?!”

She probably learned of Jet’s existence, but she had only seen him in his shrunken form. He didn’t walk through town at his maximum size; no outings with him being any bigger, either. I’d hoped that she wouldn’t learn about his size-changing trick, and I was pleased to be right.

Jet’s head alone was currently over five meters long, and Sibyl’s legs had been caught in the edge of his maw. Despite this, his fangs didn’t seem to hurt her, either.

But with both legs locked tight in his mouth, Sibyl could no longer move.

“You little—!”

“Black Lightning Strike!”

Sibyl was about to get Jet off of her, but Fran was faster. She warped in front of her eyes and delivered a thrust charged with black lightning.

“Kuoooh!”

Sibyl struggled, shifting my tip from her eye into her mouth. But that was good enough.

We’ll fry her right from the inside! And have a little poison on the side! And Mordred’s magma, too!

But it seemed I celebrated too early.

“Mgaah!”

“Hm!”

Fran’s eyes widened. As did mine.

Sibyl bit into my tip, stopping the stab in its tracks. She basically performed a sword catch with her teeth. Her reaction speed and determination were impressive, to say nothing of her jaw strength.

But the real surprise was yet to come.

CLANG!

Whaaa?

“Hrm!”

Sibyl bit into my blade and broke it to pieces. This wasn’t a matter of having strong teeth. She shouldn’t have been able to just bite into my mana-conducting blade. It was impossible.

But the reality of my broken blade, the bit of my blade left in Sibyl’s teeth, was impossible to deny.

Crunch!

And she didn’t just stop at biting it off.

“Munch, munch. That’s pretty good. That’s a tasty sword you’ve got there. Mm. Does it have poison powers, too?”

She was chewing on me, eating me, and the poison, too.

Sibyl was crunching on my blade like it was a piece of hard candy and swallowing the filings. It definitely wasn’t a performance.

“Ha ha ha! Enchanted swords really do taste different!”

Sibyl was recovering her mana, no doubt from eating me. Meanwhile, the poison (a drop of which was enough to kill a grown man) had no effect on her.

“Now, get off me!”

“Arf!”

Sibyl leaned into Jet’s nose and bit into it, ripping chunks of flesh off of him and swallowing them.

“You’re tasty, too! And strong! You’ve got delicious dark mana in you!” she shouted, her mana growing every time she ate. I hadn’t known she had this kind of ability.

“Shall I eat you whole?”

“Ruff…”

Jet, back off!

Jet howled with fear. The sight of Sibyl eating his flesh before his eyes scared him. His tail was tucked between his legs.

It was all too understandable. The sight of a beautiful woman using her teeth to rip into live flesh was awful. Fran, Jet, and I were all stunned at Sibyl’s grotesque appetite.

She’s…crazy. She ate me and Jet! Who does that kind of thing?!

Are you okay?

I’ve healed and there’s nothing wrong with me… But I still can’t believe it.

I’d never expected anyone could just snack on me like that.

“What about you, Jet?”

“Arf…”

Jet and I were mostly all right thanks to our regeneration. But the psychological damage was immense. Jet was still pawing his nose, the feeling of having it ripped off still fresh on his mind.

What are her powers? It can’t just be Strange Food. Does it have something to do with her defenses?

Analysis of Sibyl complete.

P.A.! You’re done?

Yes.

P.A. in the nick of time! It sounded like she had caught something with her ever-observant eye.

My analysis indicates that Sibyl seems to possess twenty-seven resistance Skills.

Twenty-seven resistance Skills? Are you serious?

Yes. All of them are high level. She also possesses Agony Immunity and Regeneration. These make up her defensive abilities.

Who knew that the first theory I threw away would end up being the right one?

So it wasn’t that she had a single powerful damage reduction skill. It was that she had a ridiculous number of individual resistances.

Was that even possible? The people of this world had shown me how to acquire resistance Skills. It was not pretty.

Simply put, you had to take a lot of the related damage for a prolonged period of time. Still, no one actually had that many resistance Skills all at once and at high levels; even among high rank adventurers.

The reason was simple. No one wanted to put themselves through that much pain. To increase a resistance’s skill level, you need to be hit with ever more powerful attacks.

So how much time and pain did Sibyl have to go through to get her resistance levels so high?

She would have had to endure decades of torture, unending from morning to night. Was that even possible? I guess the only thing that would happen was that offensive Skills would become more difficult to acquire the higher her resistances got.

The only thing we need to figure out now is how to break through it.

I listened to P.A.’s explanation as Fran and Sibyl resumed their battle.

Her resistance toward striking attacks is lower than her other resistances. Attacks imbued with divine element also reduce her other resistances.

Do we just keep attacking her until her mana runs out and she can’t keep her resistances up?

Resistance Skills were passive Skills, but they consumed a lot of mana if the user took a huge hit. If we kept up our offense, our attacks would eventually drain Sibyl of her mana.

But P.A. shot that tactic down.

No. Something is cutting down her mana expenditure every time her resistances trigger. Sibyl also seems to possess some kind of manatek within her body.

Manatek.

Details unknown. Perhaps the manatek inside her is the source of her immense mana. It may be enabling her to use powerful Skills in succession.

Like the way Fran uses me for mana.

Yes. If the current situation persists, there is a 59% chance of us running out of mana first.

Those were not good odds…

What do you think we should do?

There are four possible ways of dealing with the situation.

Four?

Good job, P.A.! She’s so reliable!

First, a full-powered attack using everything at our disposal. Unleash Potential, Sword God Form, Divine Manipulation, Mage. An attack using all of these should be able to defeat Sibyl even with her resistance Skills. 88% chance of success.

I’d…really rather not use Unleash Potential.

Even if we won, we would advance to the semifinals in shambles. We might even die.

Would the Cradle of Time cancel that out? No, it would prioritize Sibyl and Fran wouldn’t get her time reverted. It was too much of a risk.

Second, teleport Sibyl somewhere far away. Due to the events of last year, the rules of the tournament have been modified so that staying outside of the barrier for more than three minutes would get you disqualified.

And we had Fran teleporting out of the arena to thank for that rule change. If we warped Sibyl outside of town, she probably wouldn’t be able to make it back in three minutes.

But still…

Fran wouldn’t be satisfied with that victory. And neither would the spectators. We’d get booed out of the arena even if we won. An honest loss would be preferable.

The three-minute rule made it difficult to, say, flood the entirety of the arena or suck all of the air out of it while we remained outside. Three minutes probably wasn’t enough to suffocate Sibyl. The strategy might backfire, and we could end up getting disqualified instead.

I didn’t think Mordred’s lava would be effective against Sibyl’s abnormal resistances, either.

Third, level up abilities which could go through her resistances. Though we do not know what her resistances are precisely, we do have 52 EP to spare.

What do you suggest?

Elements which we have yet to unlock attack abilities for. For example, Sibyl does not have moonlight and necromancy resistances. We could also exploit her lower-leveled resistances.

Straightforward but clumsy… It was pretty much a dice roll since we didn’t know what her precise Skill make-up was.

But at least it was simple.

What’s our last option?

Fourth, use Chaos God’s Grace.

Uhh… Doesn’t that just give you resistance to chaos or something? I was never clear on what it did…

I feel the presence of chaos within Sibyl. It must be one of her sources of power.

Seriously? So she’s related to the dungeon somehow? Or does she just have something that’s related to Chaos God’s Grace?

Details unknown. However, channeling the power of Chaos God’s Grace offensively might be key to depleting her energy.

Is that even possible?

Yes. Grace is not a fixed ability, but one that holds great potential depending on the user. First, bring the grace to mind.

I focused my mind on Chaos God’s Grace. I still didn’t know what I was looking for, though.

…Hrm.

Deeper. Focus on your very core.

Deeper…

I tried going deeper into myself.

It was scary.

There were things inside of me. Fenrir, the Evil One. Memories of me losing my mind back in the Beastman Nation. I didn’t know if it was because of Mad Ogre Form, but something bad might happen again if I unleashed the things sealed inside me.

But P.A. was there to reassure me with a calming voice.

Worry not. I am with you.

Despite sounding as monotone as ever, there was a strange kindness to it.

Right…

Her voice led me deeper into myself. Deeper and deeper…until I happened upon a warmth inside me.

Is this it…?

Yes.

This felt very similar to the power the Goddess of Chaos emitted. This must have been her grace.

It was so soft and warm that I couldn’t imagine the Goddess of Chaos as its source.

I brought the power forth with my mind, and immediately I felt a surge of power.

Ugh!

I shall help you maintain control. Visualize how you wish to transfer this power to Fran.

…How?

Use this grace and change it to an attack that can kill chaos.

I unleashed the Chaos God’s Grace, enveloping myself in its power. I was doing my best to keep it from overwhelming me.

“Teacher?”

I’m back, Fran.

Fran looked confused at the sudden surge of divine element, but that confusion soon gave way to confidence. She knew that a new power had awakened in me. Meanwhile, a slight grimace was forming on Sibyl’s face.

“Hah! What’s that? You got really powerful all of a sudden!”

Instincts as sharp as ever, she recognized in me a new threat and backed away ever so slightly.

It was slight, but this might have been the first time that Sibyl was going on the defensive. She noticed this, too, and was furious because of it. She started glaring at Fran.

Use this power to cut her up.

“Hm. I’m taking you down.”

“Hah hah! I’d like to see you try!” Sibyl shouted as she smiled. It felt like we were facing down a dragon.

Let’s go, Teacher.

Yeah!

Fran stepped forward, not flinching at the pressure which felt like it could cut through skin.

She readied me, sheathed with chaos killing power, and charged at Sibyl.

“Haaa!”

“Come on!”

She lowered herself, making it look like she was going for Sibyl’s legs, before changing the trajectory of her swing toward her face.

Fran’s speed and sharpness hadn’t changed. But I had.

I released the terrible power of the grace, planting myself into Sibyl’s head, but I didn’t slice through her.

“Tch!”

Sibyl shifted her weight to avoid me. She hadn’t shown such evasive capabilities before, but she was full of surprises.

But my blade found itself cutting through her left shoulder.

Before, this attack would have ended with a shallow cut.

But things were different now.

“Impossible!”

“Yes!”

Yeah!

Sibyl’s left arm flew to the air, blood gushing out of her stump. It was the first time she had been badly hurt in this tournament.

Her bloody shoulder was already starting to regenerate another arm for her, but it was much slower this time.

“What…is that sword?!”

Keep going!

“Hm! Taaah!”

“Damn it!”

Sibyl was on the run for the first time in the match. She stopped attacking. Her evasive maneuvers were animalistic, dodging our attacks by a hair. She didn’t look like she was in pain, so her movements remained sharp despite accumulating damage.

But even she couldn’t avoid our attacks now that Fran and I were moving at top speed.

There!

“Ssh!”

“What? Teleportation!”

We finally started teleporting, dealing more and more damage to Sibyl. A single powerful hit was no longer needed, only more unrecoverable wounds. It was finally time to put on the pressure!

How about this!

“And these spells…!”

I visualized putting Chaos God’s Grace into my magic and fired a thunder spell. It didn’t do much damage, but it wasn’t completely ineffective. It disrupted Sibyl’s movements just enough for Fran to cut across her body.

Would we be able to take her down now?

Fran made a huge leap forward.

And it was the right choice.

“Raaaaah!”

Sibyl roared as red mana poured out of her. No, it wasn’t just mana. It was her blood combined with mana.

The blood and mana mixture shone brightly as it gushed out. It looked almost divine as it sparkled in the air, but danger sense warned me not to go near the spectacle.

Sibyl’s body was changing. Her muscles ballooned in size, her teeth turning to fangs and fingernails to claws. Her eyes looked almost reptilian.

She looked familiar…like a drake halfling. Was she not a pureblood human, after all?

In any case, it didn’t look good.

“Chase!” Sibyl shouted, sending her writhing blood after Fran. Her blood looked alive, squirming like an amoeba. It was not something we wanted to touch.

Fran, don’t get hit by that!

“Hm!”

Fran dodged her first attack, letting Sibyl’s blood splatter on the arena floor. Bits of it started melting like it was being digested by a slime.

Did only Sibyl’s blood have this property?

Now, it snapped at Fran, extending toward her like a whip. Fortunately, my divine-element-imbued self could cut through it just fine.

But my durability took a huge hit. We couldn’t keep this up for long.

Just when I thought we had won, Sibyl had pulled out her trump card!

We have to finish this, Fran. We’re not going to last if we keep clashing with this weird attack of hers.

Got it.

Fran nodded and made a huge swing with me. I used Dimension Shift and Physical Immunity to give her time to prepare.

Sibyl stopped, but she hadn’t given up. She gathered her spilled blood around her to form a barrier. She knew that Fran wanted to end this match and readied herself accordingly for a counterattack.

“…”

“…”

Fran and Sibyl stared at each other in silence, both knowing that the end was near. The audience sat in silence and watched the two combatants.

The coliseum was silent. So silent that we could hear the faint hustle and bustle of the outside world.

Within that strange silence, Fran and I made our move. She lowered her body as if preparing herself to lunge. It was a feint.

Teacher.

You got it!

I readied an illusion spell, one to make a noise in the distance. That was it.

A plain and honest feint. A specialist like Dias would consider this the cheapest of all illusions.

But Sibyl reacted to our trick.

She was distracted, if only for a moment. But that single moment, lasting less than a second, was all we needed.

We exploited that small hesitation and teleported.

Sibyl immediately reacted as we warped in behind her. Her reflexes were inhuman.

She sent the blood over Fran, drowning her.

But the teleportation was also a feint.

“Black Lightning Strike!”

“Wha!”

After teleporting behind her, Fran used Black Lightning Strike to teleport over Sibyl’s head.

We’d finally outrun Sibyl’s reflexes!

But she still managed to react in the nick of time!

Blood poured over her head, shielding her from what was to come.

But we were still faster!

“Taaah!”

Doryaaa!

Fran unleashed Skycutter, cutting Sibyl in half. She managed to pull her head away in time, but she was still cut down from her left shoulder, down to her heart, down to her groin.

“Gaah…”

Sibyl had lost control of her blood, and it splashed down on the arena. She fell into the pool soon after.

Did we win?

Fran was still on high alert. The Cradle of Time had yet to activate. Sibyl was still alive.

“Aargh…”

Sibyl was trying to pull something. Her left arm moved despite being detached from her head. She was using her blood to move it.

Was she still planning to fight?

Fran!

“Hm!”

Fran and I moved as Sibyl’s left hand was about to unleash her mana—

“Tch.”

But she stopped.

She returned to her human form and groaned with frustration.

“You got me…”

Cradle of Time activated, enveloping Sibyl with its light.