As he pulled the sword away from his throat, the realm of darkness shrank around him. Both statues now stood 10 paces away. He lifted his blade and smiled.

“I choose neither.” As the last syllable left his mouth. Fissures appeared on the statues. Small stone shards slowly piled away. Revealing Inky blackness akin to the void around him. The statues with the macomb texture of stone and blackness moved.

He took a deep breath in, preparing for the challenge when time froze.

*Clap, clap, clap*

He tried to move his head, but he was unable to even move the pupils of his eyes.

"Well, aren't you an interesting one.”

It was, of course, the same voice as earlier. the one that forced him to choose. That voice was so familiar yet alien.

He heard footsteps as the figure walked closer. The noise stopped, and he felt its breath on the back of his throat.

“You've got some balls to deny both paths," he tried to respond but, of course, was unable to.

“Oh, my bad. I am sorry. Let me fix that for you. The voice snapped its fingers. There better. You should at least be able to move your mouth now, we can have a conversation.

“So you chose neither, why.”

“Why should I tell you, bastard?”

“Bastard me hee funny, but seriously, why?" His answer tore itself from his throat.

“I refuse to be either. He tried to bite down on his tongue, but the little fucker just kept moving. “I refuse to be a beast governed by rage. but I also refuse to be a hollow man.”

"Humm, well, isn't that interesting? Oh, I see you're surprised by the compulsion spell. Well, don't be; it's pretty common once. Well, I supposed you wouldn't understand that, would you…”

“Understand what?”

“Questions, questions, questions. I'm sorry, I'm not going to be answering any of those for you. Cough. All right, play times over. I'll keep an eye on you. Don't worry about that. You're probably more worried about those statue, aren't you? This will help.

A long sword with a round pummel, and a straight cost Guard appeared in his left hand. .

“What is this?”

“That bad boy is your new best friend; don't lose it well; it's not like you can. Anyway, it was nice seeing you. I'm curious how you'll develop, toodles." Just as quickly as it appeared, the voice vanished.

The voice left a lot of questions, but the biggest one was “Who the hell uses toodles in the Modern Age?” He could not ponder on the voice's strange vernacular because the shadow creatures were moving again.

The shadow with two swords rushed forward. Lightning pulsed through its body, and it accelerated. He quickly raised his blades to block his opponent. The blades clashed together, but no sound was produced within the space. The shadow swung its left sword towards his spleen. He parried and then launched forward. The shadow blocked, sending his sword away with a burst of flame. The shadow leaped backward and incharged the shadowy figure with the shield.

He tried to dart around the shadow with the shield, but to his frustration, it moved to block him every time. His skin prickled with anticipation, and he activated kinetic absorption. A fireball hurdled towards him. Simultaneously, the shield bearer charged. Using the shield charge to his advantage, he braced his legs. Using the shield as a kickboard, he launched himself into the air.

His escape wasn't fast enough to completely avoid the force generated by the explosion but he was able to escape the blast radius. Luckily, with kinetic absorption, he didn’t take damage. He took a breath. Pushing the recently acquired kinetic charge through his feet, he pushed off the air. and rocketed towards the shield bearer. He coded his blades with an astral edge and sliced downwards.

To his chagrin, the massive Tower Shield blocked the way. He once again felt another surge of Mana around him. He had no time to get out of the way. Lightning struck, searing his back, and slammed him into the shield bearer.

Fortunately, the lightning stunned his opponent as well. He reacted quicker. Standing up, he rushed towards the shadowy figure casting magic. Praying that his plan would work, he coded his right sword in an astral edge. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the astral edge off the blade. As the Mana projectile flew through the air, it sputtered.

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He clenched his teeth. He hoped that he would be able to reach the spellcaster before the shield bearer interrupted him. But there was one major flaw within his plan. The spellcaster was not passive. It rushed forward, lightning and flames crackling around its twin swords as it once again clashed with Emmanuel. As he stood there in a deadlock with the spellcaster, He knew he had only a few seconds before the shield bearer would return. He kicked out with his right foot, hoping to catch the shadow unaware. It blocked in a practice smooth motion. Before viciously lashing out at him. He parried, Not letting the opening go to waste, he struck.

His swords sank an inch deep into the shadow's flesh before it backpedaled like a caged animal. To his growing horror, the wound that had resulted in their exchange was visibly regenerating. He backpedaled. Feeling the Mana around him, he felt a disturbance behind him. Going with his gut instinct, he flipped backward over the shield shadow. Not expecting this maneuver, The Shadow was unable to bring up its shield in time. Coating both of his swords in an astral edge, he chopped off it’s head.

As the head fell off the defender, it dissipated into the ground, only leaving a few stony fragments. That meant if the blow was instantly lethal, the shadow would not regenerate. He prayed it wouldn't be coming back from the grave.

This left Emmanuel with only one shadow. Unfortunately, it was significantly harder to deal with. The defender was rigid and relied on forms too much. After just one exchange, he had been able to identify its rhythm.

The other one had the opposite issue. It was too chaotic; it left too many openings. The problem was its magic. Unlike him, it had significantly solid range options. Additionally, the versatility and chaoticness that magic provided made it hard to land a blow.

He couldn't ponder any more tactics because he felt the Mana above his head change. It was recognizable. The pattern was the lightning bolt. Hoping that his maneuver from when he challenged the deer wouldn't backfire nearly as badly, he began to prepare to be struck. Within a millisecond, three things happened. The first was he activated kinetic absorption. The second was when the lightning bolt struck. The third was him pushing that lightning and spreading it throughout his body.

His cells greedily accepted the energy, and his sword hummed. Keeping tight concentration, he moved forward. He let out a breath, and he swung. He pushed the lightning into his sword, a bolt leaped from it and landed on the shadow, blasting it backward.

He did not squander the opportunity. In the intervening moment, he was able to close the distance between him and the shadow. He was not fast enough. The shadow brought up its swords, it coded them with astral edges, and plunged them toward him. Ducking underneath the blows, he tried to skewer it through the lower jaw with his left sword. While simultaneously attempting to sweep the legs with his right.

His left sword was deflected, and to his bafflement, his right sword clinged off as if it hit a metal balustrade. The shadow capitalized on his vulnerability. Plunging its flaming blades down toward his skull. He rolled out of the way, but wasn't fast enough. A long, hot gash gouged through his lower back.

“Fuck that hurts." He stood up and raised his guard. The shadow did not wait for an invitation and rushed towards him. He met the shadow’s whirlwind of attacks. If there was sound within the space, it would be like an orchestra in full bloom. The metal clanged at a pace impossible to achieve by pre-system humans. But to him, it was like a symphony.

He settled into the rhythm. The shadow's chaotic nature challenged and pushed him. The lack of a pattern left so many exploitable weaknesses. It was just capitalizing on the moment. In a vicious attack, the shadow pierced both of its swords towards his unarmed chest. With the flexibility gained from his stats, he leaned backward and darted through the shadow's leg. slashing his swords against them. To his disappointment, the wounds immediately began to regenerate. All the successful blows that he had managed to make were now either fully regenerated or, by this point, close to being fully sealed. In contrast, he was burned, bruised, and fucking tired. He needed to end the fight. The shadow was too chaotic to go for a headshot and too fast to cut off one of its limbs. Praying that his idea worked, he mimicked the shadows technique.

After several exchanges with the shadow, he had a good feel for what it was doing with its swords. It was effectively pumping Mana into them like a splitting strike. Then almost twisting it, turning it into an elemental effect. The first step was easy; he had plenty of practice with spring strike already. The second part was difficult. He slipped, several times, but eventually, he felt something. It was like a voice—no, not quite. It was like a candle in a dark room, and he grabbed it.

His blades burst into flames. Hoping that the Flames would be enough, he charged forward. His opponent met him with an expression carved from stone. Their blades locked in place, their feet set, and both of their wills were unbreakable. Then Emmanual felt it once again. The lightning coalesced above his head.

He had a second of that before it would strike. Throughout the fight, he had been relying on forms to counteract the shadow's chaoticness. Now he needed to spice things up. tilting to the side, he dropped his left blade. In that millisecond where his opponent was knocked off balance, he struck. He thrust his right sword through its heart and pushed it to the ground.

The shadow raised its swords to end him, but he refused to yield. Grabbing the sword with a second hand, he pushed more Mana in and twisted. Flames burst out from underneath the tangle of man and shadow, and the resistance faded away, leaving him alone. He collapsed to the floor, panting and smiling like a loon.

Alexander sat in the infinite Dark Void. He conjured a rather comfortable armchair and was eating an oversized bucket of popcorn. He wasn't fully sure how he ended up in a temporal anomaly, but it was certainly entertaining. Sure, he had given the boy a bit of a nudge in the right direction. But other than that, the boy had done it on his own. He cemented his path. Alexander was certainly going to keep an eye on him. When the integration was completed, the boy was let back on his planet. Alexander would have to contact all the administrators for the humans and figure out which planet the boy hailed from. Who knows, maybe he'd be interested in joining his faction. Alexander took another handful and munched loudly on his popcorn.

"Man, this shit needs butter!.”