*Fwoosh*

Unexpectedly, or expectedly, I was teleported somewhere. Seemingly the place looked exquisite and marvelously detailed, as if it's a mansion from a rich and powerful person.

"Ah, m-"

I felt presence other than me and I quickly made my presence vanished, while slowly switching my clothes to a dress, may as I will get caught as a commoner if I don't wear the black dress Leon was wearing, I copied it, remember.

2 minutes later…

I made my presence reappear in front of her as I grabbed her hand lightly.

"Nice to see you."

I just said as I smiled gently.

"Ahh master… why are you-..."

I hid my presence once more as a door opened.

"Hey, Chrome! Have you seen the assassin? I felt a presence…"

The one who said that, looked around the room, and not seen anything other than Chrome. they become annoyed due to the fact that there wasn't an assassin here, and not saying anything else, they closed the door and left.

"... Good thing master, that one is just a guard, if-"

Paying no heed to what's she is saying, I quickly opened the window just to my left and jumped off, feeling that I need to do somewhere, I changed to being a High angel and fly forwards, to an unknown place, yet knowing I have to be there.

3 hours later…

"Oh, well would you look at that? Overheating wings… hahahahaha… never felt that for a while."

I summoned Emelas and made my wings freeze for a bit. Should take at least 20 seconds to unfreeze.

–... So why are we here?

Well, it's because I felt someone call me. And that someone needs to be killed, by me, and not everyone else.

I looked around, and suddenly, I felt a presence, bigger than I was by 4 times appear, in front of me. Oh, see? It's a god.

"Hahahahaha… false god, I mean."

It did not say anything, it just swung a sword that appeared in its hand to attack me, which I blocked by quickly summoning Obliteius and Oatheus, making a barrier using both of the swords to block its attack.

"... Say, does this count as an anomaly that is 100 times stronger than me, but something that I can defeat easily?"

I asked both Lea and Angel.

–Is it? False things aren't an anomaly, it's just an eyesore.

_Eh, maybe it can help me with some research, but I don't need this one. It can't talk, so I don't need it._

So, I guess I have free reign to kill it… do I have to do a set up once more? This one probably doesn't have attribute weaknesses, so I would just… ah, yes, I know.

I summoned Heat gazer.

"Just like the flying being you are, let's make some fried bird."

I switched my race to being a cat beastman and immediately dodged a vertical sword slash, I summoned Cheating machinations and made it form the common X pattern gears + sword spinning quickly like a propeller behinds me as I summoned the 6 replica artifacts.

"... 40% of my concentration should do the trick for a mystic art."

–What?... No way, you would do that? You would do a mystic art?!

I can, and all it requires it at least me doing a combo. Good thing that a mystic art, as compared to a normal attack on a combo, scales better the more hits you deal in a combo.

–It caps on 100 hits while dealing 200% damage… Wait, you will do a 100 hit combo?

I have gears, it should be possible.

I rushed to the big being, did a slash, and luckily, it wasn't blocked, but it ignored it as it seems to be that I'm only doing chip damage…

{A tier 2 mystic art should take 80% of my concentration… I should be able to do that as long as I keep the combo until 100 hits to be under 20% usage of my concentration.}

I did a stab and did teleported above it and did a long descent slash, I then quickly did a horizontal slash while avoiding one of its magic attack by using the artifacts to thrust me backwards… I'm only doing chip damage, how do I… ah, right…

I combined Obliteius and Oatheus, making it Obliteius Oath and did a spin slash, this time, it actually shook a little, in which I immediately, like I always do against statues that can move, I immediately did an up slash to carry it into the air, which was somehow possible to me and I immediately used the gears to spin quickly and hit it, causing it to be hit, probably 40 times, and I restrained it into the air with the gears, I then hover in the air using the replica artifacts as I immediately did 4 consecutive spin slashes, ending it with a diagonal slash and I immediately switched Obliteius Oath to being two swords and did a slash in a pattern of X using both of the sword, the trail kept it in the air for 0.5 seconds as the gears made it back to me, I then did 4 slashes using both of the sword before dropping to the ground, and as if almost touched the ground, it got hit by 6 lasers, keeping it in stun as I summoned 20 wind blades, and pierced it with the wind blades, I then followed that by doing 6 consecutive stabs with the sword that was in my right hand, followed by another 6 quick stabs with the sword in my left hand, I then ended that with an X slash, but I started to go upwards, I then followed that with a rising slash, and then the final descent slash, followed by restraining it in the air with gears for at least a couple of seconds…

"Tier 2 mystic art: Thousands slashes!!"

My body immediately changed into Angel mode, or a copy of it and I immediately did 1 slashes, before 24 gears restrained it, before it got hit by a thousand fragments of dark and light wings I have, I then got through it while doing an accelerated slash, and I switched Oatheus and Obliteius with Angel and he opened his eyes, as I did 2 slashes and then just, quickly… did 1000 slashes in under 1/60th of a second, meaning a frame.

But it isn't over yet. I did three rising slashes in succession, followed by 1000 lasers from thousands of artifacts, followed by 1000 wind blades made by me, I then ended it by covering Angel with a large amount of mana…

"Fragmentation slash!"

Then I did a slash as the mana coating broke, making thousands of fragments, hitting it a thousand times before I did a horizontal slash to end it all.

"Uggh…"

…

…

My head felt painful, and I looked around…

–... It's been 2 hours since you fought the thing, unexpectedly, you somehow did a Mystic art that is tier 2, which is weird knowing that you almost lose all of your concentration, and doing that in the first place is quite hard, and to be fair, you also did more than a thousand slash.

… Eh, it's just naming, for some reason, mystic arts doesn't work if you don't say the name… it just doesn't work, and I definitely wasted too much concentration there, doing a fragmentation slash and all…

–... Wait, isn't a fragmentation slash supposed to be hard to do as it requires you to deliberately break a thick mana coating on a sword, while doing a slash, which means… you did a hard trick like that easily?

Well, I just destroyed a mana coating on purpose, it isn't that hard, you know? And to be fair, I can only do that with mystic arts, if I can do it normally, then maybe I can do a tier 3 mystic art.

–Please don't, it'll be a real waste of concentration.

But it deals stupid amounts of damage, and all of the attacks in there are scaled 400% minimally compared to normal damage you deal, so if you do the right combo which is basically just a 100 or 100+ hits combo, it would be technically 4 × 2 damage meaning 8 times the normal damage, minimum, maximum would been 12 times. So it isn't a waste, it's just a situational move that requires a lot of concentration to be used or a good combo to be used. 4 to 6 times is the power of most tier 2 mystic arts, and tier 1 mystic arts are 2 to 4. It's simple really, but mystic arts are better, the higher the rank.

… Anyway, explanation over, I should go back to the-...

I turned around and grabbed a sword and put it into one of my rings. Eh, how did this statue had a legendary sword embedded inside it?... I won't question it.

–Hmm… Lea, teleport.

*Fwoosh*

"... Where the hell am I?"

I asked, not really knowing, but feeling a sense of danger, I immediately side stepped to dodge an attack that almost pierced my heart.

"*Sigh* I'm getting bad at aiming. I guess for now-"

Lea?... Can… not here… can I use concentration… I can…

I stopped time.

"... It's a dream space."

A space that is possible only in dreams, but I was just awaked earlier, I shouldn't be here.

"You think stopping-"

I immediately summoned a normal sword and coated it with a large amount of mana not possible normally…

"Fragmentation-"

I didn't bother to do that and instead, I merely parried his attack lightly before stabbing him in the stomach with the sword.

"... Sorry, I never will know your name. But give me the name of your sword so that I can leave this place."

I asked, not feeling any compassion for any other tests that tests my combat skills for a hundred times.

"... Fine, you win. Destroyer of Darkness. It isn't from an Angel nor is it a Devil sword, I wonder what it is?"

He said in riddles as he disappeared.

"Hahahahahahaha… it's just a legendary sword. No more, no less."

And I returned back to real life. And I spent a second changing back to my scholar outfit, not my uniform for reasons that will be known later.

{... This feeling of danger… I guess I'm being targeted now by gods… they would target the academy next as I'm there and it's all cause I stole a sword that they embedded on a statue. Spiteful bastards.}

I concealed my thoughts to myself as I quickly teleported to the roof of campus.

"..."

I don't know what to do now though. Should I just read some books to pass time?

–... Why not visit Reid?

Eh, sounds doable… Lea…

*Tzzt*

_… I'm not your transporter. And you only get to be there for 4 minutes._

{... Well, sorry…}

"... But I don't know where I am, just like always."

It's a plain, there are ruins here and there, and somehow, it feels like there's space fluctuations below me…

{This sense of danger…}

–Block.

I drew the sword at my waist and easily blocked off an attack coming from someone who specializes in daggers and teleportation.

*Clang*

"Hello, Reid, nice to see you."

I said nonchalantly while looking at him with a gaze of just wanting to fight him. His gaze towards me is different though, a mixed feeling of anticipation, and relief.

"... You've made me wait for too long, you goddamn Cat beastman, now then, since the mansion was destroyed, let's rock and see who gets to win for our reunion?"

I dashed at him quickly and did a horizontal slash, and just like it being a normal slash, it was parried with his daggers, and immediately, a dangerous amounts of daggers surrounded me, but I already knew this would happen even before 2 seconds of it happening. I made a barrier around me blocked off the attack, I then tried to grab him, but he teleported away.

"... Sorry, but I learned that getting hit by you would result in me getting too much damage, but I guess the same applies to you, huh?"

He teleported behind me, in which I made a barrier as anticipation, and as I faintly expected, he changed locations to where he will above me and I did a small back hop to avoid him, I then tried to attack him with the sword, but since I already knew he would teleport away, I teleported to where he might teleport, only to found out that he didn't and just made me distance myself away from him…

I immediately made 20 wind blades and aimed one of them at him, I shot one of the wind blades and he easily dodged that, but I shot 2 more as I dashed at him, however, he teleported away, and knowing he maybe was, I made one blade aimed behind me while another in front of, as I felt him behind me, I immediately did a short hop to propell me forward, as I hit him with the wind blade, I then immediately turned around and tried to slash him, but only to found out that I was being greeted by 20 daggers and knowing that, I made a barrier to protect me from all of them.

"Really, are you into set plays now, huh?"

I asked while continuously dodging and blocking more daggers flying at me with extreme speeds.

"Eh, not really, it's just when I'm dealing with you. It's the only one strategy that I thought would work."

He just said so while doing a short laugh afterwards… How many minutes are left?

–3 minutes.

… How many seconds are left?

–Hmm… 209 seconds.

{So 3 minutes and 29 seconds, huh. An ample amount of time, considering I don't want to actively make this a stall fight.}