I stood before Legris with yet another smile on my face.
Beneath my facade was the rage that I had suppressed for the sake of my task, but that didn't mean I didn't enjoy—albeit slightly—seeing Legris make certain expressions.
Right now, he had a conflicted reaction to my resurgence.
And it was pleasant to see.
'The Constellations lost so easily because they do not have any real combat experience, but also because they were unwilling and unable to take major risks in fighting.'
However, I wasn't like that.
'The only way to really win is through close-up combat.'
I would have to gather dense amounts of Aether—both from myself and throughout the Aether Tree—using Spellcraft to damage Legris.
But that couldn't be all.
'His regeneration is insanely quick, so I have to take account of that as well.'
That meant I had to pummel him as many times as necessary so as to damage him more than he could recover.
'The solution seems pretty simple, at least in theory.'
The problem was how to translate it into practical context.
Legris was stronger and faster than I was.
His reserves of power far outweighed mine too. I was practically running on fumes at this point, and the only reason I could damage him even the slightest bit was Spellcraft.
'I'm basically sucking Aether from the Aether Tree while also using my Boundless Aether at the same time, and it's barely making a dent.'
How long could I keep this up? I could only try and find out.
~WHOOOOOSSSHHH!!~
In a swift blur that defied the logic of space-time, I rushed towards Legris, who was now waving a dense surge of his weird powers toward me.
I knew he was trying to ward me away, but this 'End' Magic of his was not going to stop me.
I displaced my position with the tiny fragment of energy that I positioned close to him during our just concluded scuffle.
~POW!~
A strike of mine landed on his face, causing him to falter back in response.
I doubled down on this and sent my knee straight towards his face.
He tried to back away, but my hands appeared behind him before he could even think of escaping my clutches.
The results were simple.
~SQUELCH!~
And painful.
~BOOOOOMMMM!!!~
"Keuk!" I could see spurts of dark liquid rush from his face as he once again created a massive wave of darkness to surround himself and ward me away.
If he was successful, he would eliminate all forms of Aether—or anything else— around himself.
It was practically the ultimate defense, and using it would prevent me from getting close to me.
… At least, that was what I presumed to be his rationale.
'But, you made a fatal error…'
~WHOOOOOSSSSHHHH!!!~
I coated my body with phenomenally bountiful Aether and traversed the barrier.
The moment we came into contact, I felt my shell of Aether instantly get ripped away from my body, and the darkness creeping into every crevice of my being.
I was going to cease existing pretty soon.
'So why not make it count!' I grinned, clenching my fist as I filled it with Magic.
'[Grand Spell: Universal Push]'
Using Martial Arts in conjunction with Magic—that is, utilizing my force, and also a Spell, to achieve my objective, I launched my fist at him.
"How are you even—?!"
Before he could conclude his speech, my blow landed on him, causing him to instantly break out of his own layer of darkness.
Of course, my body disintegrated soon after, but so what?
I made a new one entirely independent of the last one and appeared behind the groaning Legris.
He was still struggling to regain his senses when I slapped his face with a whiplash generated from my kick.
"Gurgh!" He groaned, flying away from me thanks to the impact.
Unfortunately for him, another projection—or avatar, as I could call it—of mine was right behind him.
~POW!~
Yet another strike of mine landed on him, and I felt the impact on my skin.
Legris swiftly recovered after the second hit, just as my two selves closed in on him at the same time.
"Tch!" He took a stance and glared at both representations of myself.
I figured he had given up on his initial tactic of getting rid of me through erasing me from existence since he was getting ready to throw hands with me.
'Interesting…' I grinned within myself.
I had always wondered how a Martial Arts fight between the two of us would go.
'Let's find out!'
I rushed at him—both representations of myself—having ferocity and the force of worlds behind me.
~WHOOOOMMM!~
Legris raised his fist at at me, coiling his body as he dodged my initial strike.
Space trembled, and even shattered, as my blow missed its mark, and his attack also missed.
The second me charged forth, but Legris was much faster and twisted his body to dodge the attack while using his power to erase me from existence.
As soon as he did that, a third fist came from beneath him, nearly hitting his jaw, but he swiftly stepped back and evaded the assault, head-butting me at that very instant.
Another me approached him from behind, and also from the side, but she swirled in midair and kicked both versions in the blink of an eye.
Finally, we all rushed at him, but by rapidly moving his fist and turning his body in rapid succession, he was able to avoid all our attacks while dealing counters.
'At this rate, he'll have me on a tightrope.' I thought, rushing forward once again.
"It's pointless—!"
~BOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!~
An invisible blow hit him, causing him to stumble backwards.
He tried to lunge his hand towards me to halt my approach, but the same invisible blow sent that hand flying, allowing me to near him.
He sent his second hand, flooding it with 'End' properties, but I already predicted he would do that, so I evaded his attacks pretty easily.
As I did so, I noticed his knee nearing my face.
It seemed he predicted I would take the course of action that I did.n)/1n
Unfortunately for Legris, though…
~BOOOOOMM!!!~
… I predicted his moves a long time ago.
