"Oh, you're... Akir, right? What a coincidence for us to meet again," the man continued speaking, his tone changing from a genuinely curious one into an amused one in an instant.

'We've met before? Don't tell me... he's Adam,' I thought.

Even after my realization, I stayed quiet and took a couple of steps back, increasing the distance between us to thirty meters or so.

"Hey, why are you stepping back? We're comrades, aren't we?" Adam said with an insulted tone and stood up, starting to walk towards me.

'Why now?' I snarled inwardly.

I was already exhausted from the illusions and using the armor, and now I had to deal with this person?

I could feel that something wasn't right with this person. Hell, I could see it. The man's hair was white, and his eyes were almost completely red. Even if I ignored his irregular mannerisms, I would still assume the man was insane.

Well, to be honest, I didn't think I looked much better.

I backed away further as the man approached, and I couldn't help but feel the familiarity in the situation. I had also pressured him the second time we met. I said horrible things and even threatened him.

'Wouldn't it only be right for me to die here?'

"Well, I guess you leave me no choice," Adam said, summoning his weapon, which was awfully similar to mine in color.

"No, wait," I said, stopping myself from going further back against the wall behind me and putting my hand forward with my palms facing Adam.

"Hmm, what is it?" Adam spoke sharply.

"I want to team up," I answered, hastily following up before Adam cut in. "I lost my partner in the last ruin. I don't know if I'd have survived without him, so I think we need each other," I spoke with no thoughts about Calvin or what happened in the ruin before.

Even though it felt bad, I simply said what I thought would enable me to survive.

"Okay," Adam acknowledged my answer, but before relief washed over me, he shattered my hopes. "Now, let me tell you what I want. I want to make it out of this place as soon as possible, and I think it won't be much longer until I can do so. I don't care about you or what you want, so how about I try to kill you, and you try to survive? That way, I'll see if you're of any help, and if not, I'll just kill you and make myself more powerful. If I'm not able to kill you, though, you get to be my partner and live a little longer."

"Can I go all out? What if I injure you?"

"Haha, you can try."

'Is he really Adam?' I thought before seeing that the battle had started and preparing myself.

Adam, with his weapon being on a chain, obviously had a massive reach advantage and capitalized on it straight off the bat, spinning his weapon around before throwing it straight at me.

In an instant, the blade part of his unusual weapon was already too close for comfort, and I sidestepped hurriedly. The blade flew past me, but I knew that more was going to come fast, so I summoned my dagger to deflect the next attack that came from behind, as Adam pulled his weapon straight back, the blade was aimed at the left side of my waist. The deflection was successful, and the blade flew past me after scraping against my dagger.

However, I didn't expect what Adam would do next.

Instead of catching his weapon back, he rotated to let the blade pass himself and spun, drawing a half circle with his blade and bringing it back to me at an unprecedented velocity. I leapt backwards after the first attack and didn't think it would come so far, but Adam had unnoticeably let a little more of the chain loose, lengthening its reach.

As soon as I realized it, the blade was coming my way, and I moved my head back, but because the built-up speed of the blade was too much, I ended up getting cut on the tip of my nose. The cut started bleeding in just a couple of moments, but the bleeding quickly died down, as the wound started healing.

"Oh, regeneration," Adam noted out loud, raising his eyebrows and eyelids slightly. "I probably should've figured that out earlier due to your lack of scars, though," he said, scratching his head.

My expression grew angry as I prepared to rush in, now that I had an idea of how Adam fought and could somewhat read his movements.

Adam had his weapon back in his hand already, so it wasn't like he was in a bad position. Me rushing at him was just to get me into a better one. He knew this and wasn't going to let me close so easily.

Adam breathed out and seemed to relax a little before the red parts of his weapon began glowing, and he adopted a completely different kind of aura. One of absolute focus.

The next thing I knew, the blade of his weapon was flying at me at even higher speeds than before, which made me wonder how he could even control the weapon properly when it was moving so fast.

'His ability must have something to do with enhancement of the senses,' I noted as I did my best to avoid all strikes while approaching.

Even though I could somewhat predict the trajectory of the weapon, receiving some damage was inevitable. I accepted this reality and continued my approach even when my skin was being torn apart all over.

Eventually, I reached him, and though I was prepared to give chase, Adam didn't run. He just pulled on the chain, and his weapon came flying back into his hand.

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Did he think he could beat me in close combat?

'This is good. Injure him badly. You need rest, or else you'll die, in the next ruin. So you have to do it. Make him bleed even if you lose an arm or a leg,' I thought, firming myself and preparing for pain.

Then our blades made contact. He didn't even budge, but I felt the impact in my bones. It made sense. He was at full power, while I was exhausted.

I proceeded to angle my weapon so that it slid past Adam's blade and aimed it at his torso while ducking and keeping my left arm ready to defend any possible attacks.

As expected, Adam didn't take the opportunity to trade and backed away. My dagger hit the air before I threw it at Adam's leg. He turned his leg quickly, but it still managed to cut him.

He had underestimated me and paid for it. It wasn't nearly enough, though.

I exploded forward, and Adam gritted his teeth before throwing his blade at me again. It was a straight-forward attack and easy to predict, so I decided to time it, taking a bit of a risk. It was worth it, though, as I got a hold of the handle of the weapon right before it hit me.

I went to grab the chain, but the weapon was pulled, and my hand was so close to the blade that trying to hold on would have meant risking losing half of my hand, so I let go and pulled my hand away quickly.

I summoned my dagger again and continued my attack, once again darting towards Adam, who had gotten his weapon back into his hand just now.

I had received multiple cuts, but Adam only had one, and I didn't have much energy left. This meant that in the next exchange, I would have to make sure to prove my point.

I didn't need to win. I just needed to make sure he knew that fighting me would mean getting hurt so badly that he wouldn't be able to heal enough that he would be at full strength in the next ruin, meaning that his death would be likely.

When I managed to get close, I noticed that Adam was much less comfortable. As a result, I was much more comfortable and swung at him recklessly, aiming to cut him from shoulder to waist diagonally. He blocked with his own weapon, of course, and I went to grab his arm.

I succeeded, and Adam threw his weapon to his left hand, threatening to attack from my exposed right side. I released his arm from my grip and grabbed it with my right hand after also throwing my dagger into my left hand, which became free in the process and threatened his exposed side.

If he had attacked at the moment when he was a little ahead of me, I would have done the same slightly after, and it would have been mutually assured destruction.

He knew this and didn't attack, instead, ripping his free hand from my grip and pushing me away. But in the split second he was distracted by the threat of my dagger, I grabbed his left hand and threatened to sever it with my dagger, forcing him to pull his hand away as quickly as possible, inevitably leaving his weapon behind in the process.

He summoned his weapon straight after it found itself in my hands. I had a few seconds on my hands, but it was enough.

I threw my dagger at Adam's chest and bolted at him right after. Adam trusted his senses and went to grab the flying dagger, but I summoned it right at the moment he was going to grab it and followed up with merciless hand-to-hand combat.

I grabbed his left arm, which he intended to catch my dagger with, and aimed my right fist at his face. He slipped to the right, but I had predicted it and was already itching to throw a right knee to his face. The knee landed perfectly, and while Adam was recovering, I withdrew my right fist, let go of his arm with my left hand, and elbowed him straight on the side of his head.

Adam had predicted that my next attack would come from his right and turned his head to the left, managing to mitigate the damage the elbow caused. And as he would soon be able to get his weapon back, I decided to end the exchange after one more attack.

My left elbow strike carried my momentum to the right, and I followed it, turning my hips and delivering a spinning back kick to Adam's chest with my right foot.

Adam managed to block with his arms, but it surely still hurt. And with that, our battle was over. My point had been proven.

"Give it up. You won't be able to defeat me without taking damage that will lead to your death in the next ruin," I said to Adam, who seemed pretty roughed up already.

"Hahaha, fine. I'll get to live for now," Adam said with a carefree smile while shaking off the hits I had landed.

He wasn't even fazed, yet I already felt much more at ease. I turned, going to grab some clothes, that I had been in need of since my last ones were ripped apart by the armor, and headed into the shower.

Before closing the door behind me, I said, "You try to attack me while I'm in here, and we'll fight to the death."

Adam rolled his eyes at my paranoid behavior as if it wasn't completely justified.

I then closed the door, turned on the shower, and proceeded to lay on the cold floor with my underwear still on before closing my eyes in exhaustion.

'Maybe I'll be able to avoid that death as well,' I thought, the ends of my lips curving up a little.