The very moment those words left his mouth, a vision of Laplace slicing through my entire body with his scythe sprung to my mind. I jumped, allowing the scythe to cut the air beneath my feet, before landing quickly and taking a big step back.

There had been several metres of distance between us, and yet he closed it faster than the eye could see. If not for my foresight, he’d have cleaved me in half.

Not content with just one attack, Laplace continued to pressure me. One swing, then a second, then a third, he pressed me more as I was unable to do anything but dodge. After a heavy swing, I foresaw several fast attacks from the same direction, and a breath later I saw exactly why: he had used the angular momentum of his heavy swing to spin his entire body in a circle several times, moving toward me and cutting air like a whirlwind.

I knew that remaining on the defensive would eventually lose me the fight, so I used this risky attack of his as springboard to launch a counterattack.

Timing my jump perfectly, I landed one foot on his scythe on the third spin and leaped off of it, aiming for his throat with my rapier.

He took a step back and attempted to swat me away like a fly, but I predicted that too and averted my stab, instead aiming for the hand approaching me.

I thought I had caught him out, but no contact came to the end of my sword. Instead, he grabbed my legs out of midair, taking me completely off guard and launching me across the arena.

“Mai!”

I heard Shin call out as I sailed across the air and landed hard on my back. I wasn’t sure what stung more: the possibility of disappointing those I loved, or the skin that had been scraped off my back in the hard landing.

In retrospect, it was probably the latter.

“Shit, that hurt…” I slowly got to my feet, Laplace not approaching despite my sorry state. He could have ended the fight then and there, but he chose to wait and let me get to my feet.

He wanted to push me to my limits.

Looking back on what had happened, I realised that Laplace was able to foresee an attack that I would have missed. His foresight was half a beat faster. In other words, I was outmatched both physically and magically.

I spat some blood on the floor and raised my rapier arm again. I had a feeling the beating would only get worse from here. He was right: the only way I could conceivably beat him was with my third stage. I would have to endure until I awoke to it, or I would be completely and utterly outmatched.

This time, I decided to take the initiative and attack first. I feigned a stab up towards his chin, before redirecting my blade and attacking towards his abdomen instead. He effortlessly dodged the attacks and attempted to smack me away with the same hand he had thrown me with, but my foresight kicked in early enough and I ducked the arm as it approached. His overcommitment gave me an opportunity to land a stab on his arm, but as I retook my stance to stab I saw a vision of the other arm cleaving me in two with the scythe, and I was forced to dodge the opposite direction.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The scythe skimmed past my face; had my dodge been a hair later, it would have cut me wide open.

Now at his side, I slashed up at the underside of his shoulder, only for him to attempt to backhand me away with his unarmed hand. I jumped over the large hand as it passed by me, but landed no counterattack as Laplace retreated the moment he saw my intention.

There was just enough distance between us for me to have a moment to think.

Though his was certainly slightly faster than mine, his foresight was not fast enough for him to predict my dodges. We could only foresee one another’s attacks, hence why we both seemed unable to land a single strike. It was becoming a battle of attrition, and it was one I would eventually lose.

Using my analysis ability found no weaknesses. There were no mistakes in his technique. His endurance was almost undoubtedly greater than my own. A miracle would be the only thing that could save me from total defeat.

I needed a switch up in strategy, at least.

I retook a defensive stance and waited for him to make the first move. A scythe is a large and unwieldy weapon, I could take advantage of that fact.

He swept his scythe at me, looking to chop me clean in half with a horizontal cut. I lowered my entire body underneath it, then sought to deflect it upwards at the last possible moment with my sword. My guess was correct: he was unable to predict it as it wasn’t an attack, just a counter.

As Laplace was thrown off balance by the sudden redirecting of his weapon, I stabbed into his side with my rapier, the edge penetrating deep into his body.

He let out a guttural wail, leaping backwards and putting distance between us, my sword further cutting his body on the way.

“Your speed and skill and greater than I expected,” he said, covering the bleeding hole with his hand. “Very well. I see little reason to hold back any further.”

Death grazed me by an inch. With speed so great even foresight could hardly predict it, Laplace re-closed the distance and attacked me with a vertical slice that cut the edge of my nose, drawing blood and causing a searing pain to shoot through my face. I had dodged with a hundredth of second to spare, just barely avoiding an abrupt end by the splitting of my head.

He then used the scythe stuck in the ground as pivot, swinging himself with great force and aiming a flying kick at my face. Once again, I narrowly dodged before foreseeing a follow up swing with the scythe. I leaned back as the scythe grazed my chin, handspringing backwards and just missing his head with my feet.

His continued advance was relentless. Strike after strike, swing after swing, he berated me with attacks, all with lethal intent. The intensity had picked up by a staggering degree. Despite the stab wound slowing him down, his speed was more than I could possibly keep up with. No matter how far ahead I could see, my body had limits.

I dodged two more consecutive slices with the scythe, ducking the latter one at the last possible moment. It was a movement that slowed me down, a mistake I paid for almost immediately as a boot larger than my head sent me careening across the arena.

“No!” As I slid across the ground, I saw Shin attempt to run towards me, only to be held back by Saki. I came to a halt and ripped my gaze away from the sidelines to refocus back on my opponent, but I was already at every disadvantage.

I had failed them. I had failed him. The fight was my loss.

“You fought well, hero of Earth, but without unlocking the full extent of your power, this was never a fight to begin with. Fare thee well.” Laplace brought his scythe above his head, ready to bring it down upon me. In that moment, I accepted the death that was coming to me, but lamented that I couldn’t save the people I loved.

Then, before I even noticed it myself, I dodged the strike on the ground and countered perfectly.