“Ladies and gentlemen!” Said the commentator as I entered the arena. The entire stadium was full and clearly not on my side as most of the people sitting down held flags with the number one’s face on it. He was their last hope if they didn’t want Korea to be influenced by an outside power. The first battle of the tournament was between me and the number one adventurer. Our two parties would fight each other one on one, each member fighting another one from the other party. “The first ever tournament for hegemony over Seoul is about to begin! First to enter the arena is the conqueror of Korea and the enemy of silent peace. You know him, you probably cautiously hate him, Sir Ian!” The crowd booed me the instant he finished. If it weren’t for the barrier, they’d probably be throwing rotten food at me.
“Come on Robot! Ignore these lowly humans and show them why you’re the strongest!” Said the Demoness as she cheered me on from the entrance of the arena.
“On the other side. The saviour of the weak, maintainer of peace, and Korea’s greatest champion, our very own Jae Il-Seong.'' Said the announcer as Jae Il-Seong entered the arena from the other side. His outfit still hasn’t changed at all. He was still wearing the same coat. By his side was a plain rapier that wasn’t decorated at all. “And whenever our two titans feel ready, they can begin clashing.” We both looked at each other with enough tension to fill an ocean as it seemed to envelope the arena like a thick smog. We stared at each other, and he blinked first.
He rushed ahead, stabbing me before I could react. The small hole expanded by itself, eating a good chunk of my body using dark energy. I jumped back into the wall, and then over him before unleashing a barrage of automatic fire. He summoned a portal over himself and one where I would land. The bullets hit me, but did minimal damage thanks to only two of them exploding. I readied several fistfuls of bullets to thunderclaps him with, only to get electrocuted the minute I stepped into the portal. The nano-chatte quickly began adding the super conductor layer while spreading its nano-machines out so they could eat the sandy floor of the arena and destabilise Jae Il-Seong to buy us some time.
He moved his hand up and lifted the both of us using some form of aeromancy, which stopped the nano-chatte from absorbing matter to regenerate me with. He pushed himself forward and stabbed me, only for his rapier to bend as I activated the aura of un-change. His magic completely stopped working on me as my aura nullified his magic. I let the nano–chatte store up matter while we backed off, and then switched to my aura of change. I shot as many shotgun volleys as I could into the air and activated my ‘Bullet Hell’ ability to keep them there until I distracted him enough that he wouldn’t notice them flying at him.
He immediately grabbed them telekinetically and forced me to split my focus on stopping him from moving the bullets while still battling him. I started letting the nano-chatte use its predictive algorithms to help me fight, even if they were painfully predictable. Every ‘perfect’ attack had an already documented counter, and Jae Il-Seong was smart enough to remember and execute it. Jae Il-Seong was either a genius of combat, or a time traveller. There was no other explanation to how he could’ve adapted to me so easily.
My wings extended again as we moved to close quarters combat. He sliced my many arms off in one precise move. I made the nano-chatte shoot off flexible strings to catch the arms, and thrusted forward to use the arms as maces. He stopped using telekinesis on the volleys I shot off and grabbed my arms with it before stabbing me several times. I flew back with my one wing and absorbed more sand to regenerate while releasing millions of tiny drones he couldn’t even see. My former arms rushed forward to strike me, but I simply liquified my chest to absorb them back while using the new matter I got from the sand to fire volley after volley of homing missiles. They rushed at him from all sides, and I combined my ability to slow a person down when focusing the Coming Quiet’s aura on a single person with the aura of un-change, which I reactivated, to further amplify the powers of both auras thanks to them synchronising. Before the rockets could strike him, I could hear two words. Two damnable words.
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“Self destruct.” He exploded, and the explosion spread to the missles. The wall of projectiles entirely disappeared and absorbed the light of the stadium for a good second. “Reverse time for the self.” He reformed himself perfectly after pulling a card of their pocket that turns to ash after being used. I quickly ordered the tiny drones to rush at Jae Il-Seong in a vain attempt to damage him. He held up his hand and stopped all of them with his telekinesis. After pressing the sand grains against each other, all my nano-machines were destroyed. He summoned a portal beneath him and beside me. I ignored the obvious decoy and looked up to see him. I flew up with my robotic wings and watched as his rapier bended again and again against my skin, and then I collapsed.
I awoke in a–
“No dammit! Stop using the aura.” The nano-chatte shocked me awake and took over my mind to deactivate the aura of un-change. I was still on the ground and got stepped on before I could get up.
“And that, people of Korea, is how you defend yourself from foreigners.” He stabbed me through the chest and forced my hand up, officially making me give up.
“What?! That’s bullshit! He’s still alive and awake! He could’ve gotten up if this was a real fight!” The demoness said while rushing into the arena. She jumped at Jae Il-Seong, but I pulled myself up to stop her.
“I lost. It’s fine. You can win for me.” The crowd erupted in cheers as the commentator said something. I couldn’t hear anything as the effects of the shock were wearing off. I was in a half conscious state, and in no position to do anything until the nano-chatte healed itself and then me.
“What the fuck do you mean you can’t do anything!?” The demoness told the healer that came to heal Ian. Ian was fully unconscious after the battle, which was clearly some sabotage. She had seen Ian lose half of his body, regenerate even after using his forms for too long, and then walk it off like nothing happened. There was something painfully wrong with how Jae Il-Seong fought. It was as if he was in a game and was following a walkthrough. There was no reaction, no adaptation, only pre-picked moves.
“Calm down ma’am. We can’t heal robots.” Said the healer. Christian was fighting someone right now, which would normally excite the demoness, but she was distracted as her heart finally felt a pain she didn’t like. She had felt emotional pain before, but never felt the true aching of having someone you care about be in danger. Losing such a great fighting partner would’ve been devastating.
“Get a robot healer then!” Said the demoness as she looked down at Ian. The healer shrugged and pretended to call someone to come down just to appease the demoness. The demoness quickly headed to the arena’s entrance afterwards. She would need to learn everything about that damned Korean if she wanted to humiliate him for daring to hurt her greatest punching bag.
Jae Il-Seong reread his diary one last time before throwing it away. He managed to take down the second biggest threat in his last lifetimes, and now only the demoness remained. She had defeated him two times before, and he wasn’t about to allow her to win yet again. This was his last regression, and he’d make it count. Who was there to stop him after he destroyed the strongest people on earth? The cultist? The fat British man? No. They weren’t even going to be challenging. He would make Korea into the capital of the world. It was his god given mission to do so. He had to take revenge on the Japanese and their unpaid crimes. Korea would be reborn, and wouldn’t be the little brother of either the dragon or the rising sun.