The man with stitches proceeded to run towards Scepticus at speeds which Scepticus couldn’t even comprehend and began running around him before chanting, “Skill: Slicing Tornado,”. Scepticus then felt himself being lifted into the air in almost an instant before he saw a cage of string surround and attack him. The man then muttered to himself, “I can’t believe I had to use a skill to kill that kid,”. The man with stitches heard stumbling behind him before he felt a blade at his back trying to slash against the string covering his body. The man let out a sigh. “DO YOU REALLY THINK I’M S-RANK FOR NO REASON?” he said before sending another string towards Scepticus. “So he has a really good defence as well. What am I supposed to do now?” Scepticus thought to himself. “Do you think you’re the MC of some anime? I TOLD YOU TO STOP ZONING OUT,” he said before noticing Scepticus had dodged the attack.
“I actually have to thank you,” Scepticus said, “For giving me something which I couldn’t even obtain in my past life. Time,”. The man with stitches was confused by the other sentence before noticing Scepticus was 10 metres behind him. Scepticus then shot a fireball of Hell’s Pyre at the man before using ‘Blitz’. “At last I can utilise this skill properly,”. Suddenly the fireball from being slow blitzed straight towards the man with stitches. It exploded as the man then removed the strings covering his body. “Shit. I wasn’t expecting that,” he said, “BUT DON’T EXPECT THE SAME TRICK TO WORK TWICE,” he said before appearing behind Scepticus once again and kicking him into a tree. “So you were all speed and strings? That makes things a little easier for me,”. The man then appeared behind Scepticus again punching him again before moving to Scepticus’ trajectory and then punching him again essentially turning him into a ping pong ball.
After about 100 strikes, which all happened in about 5 seconds, the man stopped moving and began panting. “He’s not dead is he?” the man with stitches said whilst feeling an aura of death looming from over his shoulder and a piercing blue gaze was looking down at him before the sword sliced the man in half. Scepticus’ then bathed in the man’s blood. “He was S-rank? Well he definitely didn’t feel like it. He was probably peak A-tier at best,” Scepticus said. Then a voice in his head began shouting in his head. “KILL. KILL. KILL. KILL. KILL. KILL,”. “Ah shit, the side effects are beginning,” he said before his eyes turned from cyan into red, along with the single tuft of hair on his head. He then rammed through everything like a bull destroying almost all the tents in the area and killed everyone he laid his eyes on. “KILL. KILL. KILL,” the voice in his head constantly echoed. Before long, Scepticus was completely and utterly exhausted as he began to take a rest next to a tree… “Sleep…” he muttered before his eyes shut.
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Scepticus woke up about 10 minutes later, feeling better but not completely rested. Then Scepticus realised that he couldn’t move his hands, as a rush of pain rushed towards his hands and the regenerated. He then saw the knight in shining armour as he put his spear up to Scepticus’ chin. “Where’s Vindsall?” he said. “Where do you think he is,” Scepticus said whilst pointing behind him. “Huh. Behind you?” the knight asked back. Scepticus then grabbed the spear with his bare hand and then flung the knight in armour away. Scepticus then grabbed the man with stitches’ soul and showed it towards the man in shining armour. He then heard screams as Scepticus began prodding at a very specific and sensitive part of the man’s body. “YOU BASTARD, WHAT DID YOU DO TO VINDSALL,” the knight said as he slashed his sword and a slash of pressurised air was sent flying just skimming Scepticus’ hair. Scepticus then said the words, “I killed him. What else?”.
The man in shining armour after hearing these words was in disbelief for a few seconds. Scepticus used this moment to chant ‘Breath of the Wind’ before appearing beside the man and attempting to cut his head off. The man instantly reacted, in fact it almost felt in advance by blocking with his hand. His gold armour sparkled in the light blinding Scepticus as he disappeared, quickly reappearing behind Scepticus and then stabbing him through the stomach. “Your faith is already set in stone. You are… already dead,” he said before Scepticus’ soul left his body. Scepticus tried moving again but his body wouldn’t move and it was in front of him. He then looked at himself and noticed his body was slightly translucent before seeing the man in shining armour in front of him. He was also slightly translucent.
“Welcome to The Middle Life,” the man said before charging at Scepticus who attempted to dodge. All being completely unable to react. His hand was chopped as he felt pain rush to his hand. “This much pain is nothing,” he said whilst waiting for his hand to regenerate. The man in shining armour charged towards him again before saying, “THAT’S GOOD SINCE I WON’T GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT,”. Scepticus' hand was regenerating much slower than usual as he was left puzzled and he lost more and more blood from his hand. He attempted to use Hell’s Pyre on the knight in shining armour but it didn’t activate at all. Scepticus was confused. What was this ability? The knight in shining armour then began to essentially teleport around Scepticus while giving him punches, before kicking him away. The knight in shining armour then summoned his spear and stabbed Scepticus’ back before unimpaling it. He then turned away from Scepticus gave him a look back and then started walking away into the distance. Scepticus was lying on the floor in a puddle of translucent blood when suddenly he snapped back to reality.