Theodore began with a slash of his sword, sending a stream of energy across the space between them in the form of a crescent moon of silvery power. Jonathan crossed his arms and summoned the Void before them, before activating his armor’s skill, bolstering his defenses. The incoming attack pushed him backwards, almost knocking him off his feet. However, he opened his arms with all of his strength, breaking apart the attack into two halves which raced off into the distance.
With a grimace, he charged, building up speed. Stamina ran up and down his limbs like liquid fire, and with a boom, he shot forwards, at his true top speed. The realm around him did not change, the white surface that he was running on remaining exactly the same. That was his first clue that this was somewhat of a mental construction. There was no doubt that the damage suffered here would be real, but it was likely to be less than normal.
Theodore flicked his rapier to the side, and then up as Jonathan approached. The weapon glistened in the air, and remained as steady as a rock. If he continued on his path, he would skewer himself on it. With a roar, he clapped his hands together, expelling the raw power of the Void. The strike surprised Theodore, and he was blasted away by a wave of purple fire. The man was not at the same level of power as before, battered and weakened by Jonathan’s previous attacks. In addition, his mind was weakened, perhaps the most important thing of all. No self respecting fighter would expect to struggle against someone who was forty levels below them. It would be a disgrace to anyone with a modicum of pride in their fighting style and power.
As Jonathan skidded to a halt, he raised both hands to his chest level, and used his runic power to augment his projectile skill, creating the skill array that would allow him to summon a black hole to the world. Above both hands, a swirling mote of utter darkness appearbed, causing the air to howl in pain as it was dragged down into its stygian depths. Then he thrust them forwards, sending them hurtling towards his enemy. Theodore salvaged his momentum by digging his sword into the ground, manipulating the realm somewhat to allow him to do so. Clearly the challenge that the realm was meant to provide was not for him.
The rapier skimmed through the air like a comet slicing patterns across Jonathan’s vision. The black holes were diced apart in the blink of an eye, spawning hundreds of smaller gravitational wells that continued on their way. Theodore’s eye twitched, and he dove out of the way. Like a cannonade, the disjointed wave of black holes struck the ground, imploding with a sudden blast of power. Theodore was sent flying, and Jonathan followed the man, burning yet more of his stamina to keep up.
“Enough of this mockery!” Theodore spat as he fell. “You will not make a fool of me here!”
He raised his blade and then did something unexpected. He stabbed the rapier down into his own heart. Rather than piercing his flesh, the weapon instead seemed to meld with it, sinking into his breastbone.
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A silvery glow spread from the sword, and across his body, turning his skin to what looked like burnished steel. Like a meteor, he dropped from the sky, landing heavily. A shockwave rippled forth. Whatever that transformation had done to him, a massive increase in weight was the most obvious effect.
A grating noise, like the sound of gears grinding against one another, erupted from his mouth, assaulting Jonathan’s ears. Theodore flicked out his right hand, and each finger turned into a meter long sword. The weapons hummed through the air, sharpened to a razor point. With another howl, he raked the weapons across the firmament of the sub realm, and sent a rippling battery of slashes towards Jonathan.
Jonathan gritted his teeth and pressed his hands together. Dragging out almost half of his available Void reserves, he sent them all into Maw of the Void. A howling orb of pure consumption was birthed between his fingers, invisible, but still intensely present. The air around it warped and bent, and when he released it, tiny purple cracks spread across the pure white floor of the realm. The attack streaked forwards, and impacted the line of energy waves. There was an explosion as the two techniques warred for dominance, and a moment later, the Void continued onwards, eating through the shards of Domain energy and impacting Theodore.
However, one singular blade of wind remained, and the stored momentum from fighting against the Maw of the Void empowered its speed to ridiculous heights. One moment Jonathan was standing there, and the next, he was lying a hundred feet away, his torso in ruins. For the first time, his armor had failed.
His entire rib cage had been turned into a minefield of bone shards, and every time he breathed, he felt rippling agony race across his bones. His organs had been reduced to tattered flesh, and only his thresholds were keeping him alive. Barely conscious, he slammed his will down on his free stat points and slammed 99 into both Constitution and Resilience. Then he placed the remaining sixty points into Constitution, fully bottoming out his reserves.
His body began to patch itself together at a noticeable rate, but all of his attention was on Theodore. The man had been struck by the orb of Void energy, and was being carried across the realm, his flesh tearing apart before it. Whatever transformation he had used dramatically increased his durability, but the Void would not be denied. In any case, all Jonathan could do was lie there for the moment, waiting to heal.
It was perhaps the worst injury he had ever suffered, with every major organ perforated, or in the case of his brain, battered. Blood leaked out of him like the tide, soaking his armor and the ground around him. He could sense his System enhanced body fighting to replenish the blood being lost, creating an endless font of regeneration.Well, at least it seemed endless. If the wounds did not close, he would eventually bleed to death, no matter how much strength he possessed. His body was still that of a normal human, even if he had been upgraded to far beyond his humble origins.