POV: Adam

I grit my teeth as I looked down at my right leg. That bastard had stabbed it over 20 times.

I was relieved later, though, as I heard his body hitting the ground loudly.

'That's enough of him,' I thought as I walked to the edge of the statue's shoulder and looked down to inspect what I presumed to be Akir's corpse lying on the ground.

He was badly injured to begin with and probably couldn't land well due to his lack of sight, so it would have been surprising for him to have survived after taking a fall that was probably just a little short of a hundred meters.

And as expected, Akir's body was lying motionlessly on his back with a pool of blood beneath his body with most of the blood around his head.

"Haaah," I breathed a sigh of relief as I unsummoned my weapon and turned before walking down the statue's arms, making my way down gradually.

I wasn't quite comfortable straight-forwardly jumping down, especially now that my leg was injured. Also, there should've been about 10 minutes left, so it was fine to not rush it.

'This is it, huh?' I thought, feeling kind of empty now that really all the content in my life was taken away.

It was all over so quickly. It felt like yesterday when I was summoned to the Ruins, and now I was here all alone at the end of it all.

'What now?' I asked myself for the first time while I was in the Ruins.

I had always just accepted that there would be another ruin after the one I was in and concentrated on keeping all the people relying on me alive. But now I was going to be free, and I had nobody to worry about.

'What am I going to do when I get out? Just live in nature and enjoy the peace? Can I do that, or will I drift into conflict and end up soaked in blood once again? Will my powers disappear? Will I survive? What kind of world am I even in right now? Will the people here accept me or try hunting me down?' A stream of thoughts flowed through my head.

I just scratched my head at the countless questions and said, 'Eh, whatever. I'll figure...'

My eyes opened wide. "For real?"

The corpse was gone. There weren't even bloody footsteps leading away from the pool of blood, as Akir had taken his shoes off and sneaked off, only leaving behind some droplets of blood.

Then, with my eyes still wide, I gritted my teeth as I came to a realization, 'He evolved!'

I tracked the droplets of blood and sprinted after them despite the bad condition of my right leg. I couldn't give Akir even another second to heal.

I quickly found him hiding behind one of the pillars and immediately attacked while he still hadn't turned to face me. However, he managed to sense me somehow and blocked me with his dagger, which now had symbols similar to those on my weapon. Then he turned and showed me his one fully healed gray eye, which was now surrounded by a glowing, crimson outline.

'How did he heal it so quick?' I thought in the split second we gazed at each other.

Surely, the eyes are one of the most complicated body parts to heal, yet he had managed to do it while also healing all his other body parts, especially his legs, which must have taken the brunt of the fall damage since he was still alive.

It didn't take long for me to realize the explanation, however, as I looked at Akir for a moment longer.

His other eye was still severely damaged, and the cuts around his eyes were still there, even though they wouldn't have taken long to heal. His mouth and lip were still bleeding profusely, too.

The explanation was clear as day. He was now in full control of his healing abilities.

I had noticed something similar about my abilities on my break. I was in control of how enhanced any one of my senses became when I used my abilities. I was finally able to get rid of the extra pain the ability came with.

I should've figured out his new ability instantly, but I guess I was a little too caught up at the moment to connect the dots.

Once I did manage to connect them, the third round of our battle had already begun. I was the aggressor as always and was swinging wildly trying to break down Akir's defense, but he wasn't making a single incorrect move.

Out of all the opponents I had faced in the Ruins, he was the most annoying and incomprehensible. His movements were slower than mine, but he was somehow almost always one step ahead. I was lucky if I managed to cut him slightly, let alone land a proper hit.

How was he reading my movements so accurately? How did he see through my feints? And how was he doing all of it so calmly? Just how many encounters with life and death battles did one need to face a stronger opponent with such coolness?

I watched Akir heal his arms and legs while disregarding the wounds on his face completely. Just what I expected of him. The best strategic decision was always made, no matter how painful or uncomfortable.

I had gotten used to most kinds of pain, but I imagined the pain from his unhealed eye, his destroyed teeth, and his sliced-through gums to be agonizing. Breathing while having blood try to flow down your throat surely wasn't the best feeling, either. Still, he didn't seem to care as long as he got his bodily function back as quickly as possible.

'Who are you?' I repeated a question I had once asked in fear. However, now the question was out of a sense of curiosity.

I ramped up the aggression to a risky degree as I realized just how impossible it would be to win if he healed completely. I leaped in, exposing multiple openings in the process, but getting a good look at Akir's throat. I was almost widened my eyes in surprise when I managed to slice his throat open.

I smiled as I thought, 'I see.'

His defense was so good, I almost forgot how much an advantage in speed meant. Thus far, I had fought carefully while being aware that he could regenerate while I could not, so I hadn't realized the value that unpredictable, risky attacks held. By attacking spontaneously in an almost idiotic way, I could nullify his ability to read my movements and put him more on edge.

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Akir jumped back hurriedly with one hand on his throat, putting pressure on the wound, and started maneuvering his way around the statue of two men walking beside each other so that he could properly focus all of his healing on the wound on his throat that could lead to his death if not healed quickly enough.

However, I didn't let him go and started using my weapon to its fullest extent, doing my best to swing it around without getting it tangled up in the statues and pillars.

I smiled, and Akir grunted after I managed to cut his Achilles tendon, and he fell due to a failed movement, barely managing to slow his fall by thrusting his dagger into the statue. I was quick to reach him and started attacking as I usually did, but mixed in some unpredictable and awkward attacks this time.

'Let's see if you can adapt to this.'

Even more deep cuts started to fill Akir's body, but unfortunately, they weren't in very important places. Somehow, he was able to always save a body part by offering up another. He couldn't do it for long, though, as he would eventually suffer too much blood loss.

I approached him even further and swung my blade three times, managing to land two of the swings, and followed up by instantly getting on the ground and swinging at his uninjured back leg by switching from holding my weapon's handle to holding the chain.

However, just as I hit the ground, Akir had already jumped on me, aiming his dagger straight at my heart.

'He adapted already?!'

While I had no idea how he could have predicted such an unorthodox move, I didn't have time to think about it, as I had to focus on his dagger.

I unsummoned my weapon and grabbed Akir's wrists. He was holding his dagger with both hands and could also use his body weight in addition, so it was a losing match for me, who could only rely on the muscles in my arms and chest.

I stopped resisting and rolled out of the way. The dagger cracked the stone ground, and I jumped to my feet. I struggled to gain my balance for a split second because of the shape my right foot was in, but it didn't slow me down too much, and I was able to kick Akir in the head right after.

Being the crafty bastard he was, however, he managed to soften the hit with his left hand and kick my other leg from under me right after receiving the impact.

I fell onto my buttocks and was quickly shoved down onto my back by Akir who jumped on me in an instant. I summoned my weapon, only to have my right hand restricted and the weapon knocked out of my hand.

Of course, he wanted to fight on the ground. He hadn't even bothered to heal his Achilles. The wound on his throat was already healed, so he could focus on the battle properly now.

I ripped my right wrist free from his grasp and tried getting up while shaving him off of me, but my chin was grabbed and the back of my head was slammed on the ground.

My mind grew foggy after I received the hit, which had much more power than expected. 'Ah shit.'

What followed was a barrage of attacks, many of which went through my guard and hit my face. Why wasn't Akir summoning his weapon? I didn't know. I just did my best to try to get up, protect myself, and set up an attack with my weapon.

None of it worked, though. A battle on the ground seemed to be the best possible situation for Akir and the worst for me. And with each hit I received, my consciousness faded more and more.

I probably should have fought from a distance and avoided situations that could have led to this, but I was too eager to end the fight before he managed to heal.

'Am I going to lose? Am I... going to die?'

It was so unfair.

Akir had been the bad guy for all this time, and he was going to win? And he was even going to do so while being the good guy? I was supposed to be the good guy!

No... I wasn't. I wasn't a good person by any means. I had even felt good while getting to beat down someone who I thought of as a worse person than myself, but truthfully, I wasn't any better than him.

My father once again appeared in my thoughts. Right, of course I could never be the good guy. I was much like him, after all.

I had always wanted to ask my father why he lived the way he did. Why was he such a cold person who cared about no one but himself? What did he live for? Why was he a monster? But now I had the answer to all those questions. It was simply because it was in his blood to be that way. And it was in my blood to be that way as well.

I had no choice in the matter. I was born to such parents and inherited such traits. And now those traits had led me to be killed by this piece of human garbage who idiotically thought he could defy his own blood.

Surely, he would live miserably even after getting out of this place. The thought of that led me to smile. The smile disappeared soon after, though, and my eyes narrowed as I felt another emotion overtake my mind.

'If this was all determined from the moment I took my first breath, I would rather never have been born,' I thought as anger seethed in me. The thought that this was all life really had to offer me was nothing but cruel. Had I really been created just to suffer all my life and get killed by this person? Such cruelty made me explode. "I'm not gonna die!"

I summoned my weapon and shoved it through Akir's stomach. He showed little to no reaction, and my head was again slammed to the ground, and a punch followed that was harder than all the ones before and caught me completely off guard.

I was in such a pitiful state that I couldn't really even perceive the weight being lifted off of me as Akir stood up and removed the blade from his stomach.

He had healed every other part of his body already, so healing his stomach didn't take long.

"You don't get it," Akir's voice rang out in my head.

I tried focusing my foggy gaze. "Huh?"

"I'm not gonna kill you. There will be no sacrifice," Akir said before delivering one final kick that made my consciousness fade away.