Chapter 243: The Strongest Rose (6)

Perseus POV

The fight went by about another 40 minutes now, and despite managing to halve his mana, heck, I depleted over half of his energy, both mana and stamina, but...I don't think I can go on any longer, my head hurts, I need to speed this up somehow.

I'm playing well, I still have 60% of my strength to go, but my mental self can't keep up, I might just kill myself if I continue.

So I then dive into the shadows and switch to my Satan form, 2 seconds to transform quickly, a new tactic, hit and run, I can switch between my forms whenever I dive into the shadow realm, and when I jump out, one move and jump back in.

I then jumped out of the shadow and he didn't expect me to stop following my tactic, so he couldn't respond fast enough even though I'm not using my Lucifer's light speed acceleration, I dealt an uppercut right into his chin and I broke his helmet, and I heard quite a loud crack as he flew and hit the barrier walls and since he's far away, I dive back into the shadows.

He recovered quickly and he then saw that all my clones disappeared, so he came back to the ground and waited for me to jump out. But I then triggered all the guns that were dropped on the ground to self-destruct, it shoot dust and debris at Finn, but not enough to injure him.

At least it helped me set a smoke screen. I transformed into my regular self and used my light speed to jump out and cut him with my sword, I now start my hit and run, every time I got close, I dash by and deliver one slash and run far away to escape any attack.

I did that several times, and sometimes, he moved so slowly in my eyes that I delivered several slashes at him before I ran away and escaped all of his attacks. He now no longer has a barrier on himself, but he still has his regular armor underneath the thin layer of air magic around his body.

I cut it many times, but he put the most magic in that thin layer of magic, it recovered just as fast as I ran, despite turning myself into light particles and running at light speed, it seems that the essence of magic itself is faster once someone put their all in it.

But at least, it was draining his mana faster than ever before, I continued to do it for about 10 minutes, I ran rings around him, his mana is almost at its end, and...thanks to my sword, I chipped through his armor and weakened it greatly. I cut through his own flesh and no matter how strong his magic was, the energy of the black rose that clad my sword rivaled the speed of his healing.

Just as I was going for the finishing blow...

"Got you." he proclaimed as his sword connected with mine and knocked me back with his fullest strength.

I flew and hit the barrier and broke my back in receiving just that attack, I think the back of my skull cracked as well, I then used magic to cast a quick healing magic spell on myself while witnessing something slightly awesome in front of me.

In a blink of an eye, he transformed as well, his armor is now made of fully golden light that later dimmed down and just appear as bright armor of gold color, that power of his also reconstructed a helmet made of the same metal. His wings glowed with white light and appeared somewhat metallic.

He then shot a ball of light into the sky that was so bright that it eliminated every shadow in the arena, that transformation of his also eliminated every pollen of the black rose in the air, so he can now breathe regular air again.

I'm not gonna give up such an advantage, so I cast it again and he cast that thin layer of air around his body, but he now went on the offensive faster than ever before, he almost matched my speed, and his strength was much stronger than before.

I was cornered and had to intercept his attack in my form as Lucifer, and he overwhelmed me, my sword flew away and his sword then cut hit my arm and went through half my forearm, he bypassed my armor and the plating I put on my forearm, the gear I got made from the Dawn blessed asteroid.

I pulled my hand off and healed it quickly in less than one second, I blast pure mana into his chest to blow him away, it gave me enough distance for me to transform right into my Satan form.

He charged at me with a fierce determination I braced myself and met him head-on, using my fists to defend myself against his deadly blade, he slowed down to match along with me, but his attacks were heavier. He swung his sword in a wide arc, aiming for my head. I ducked under the blade and delivered a swift punch to his stomach, causing him to stagger back for a moment.

He regained his footing and lunged at me again, this time with a swift thrust of his sword. I sidestepped the attack and responded with a series of quick jabs and kicks that landed solidly on his armor.

We continued our duel, the sound of my metal gauntlet clashing against his blade was ringing in the air. Even clad with the power of the 2 roses, I can only match this guy's strength.

I would dodge or fight using the fancy dance move I learned, but all those moves got one flaw, they are to take your opponent by surprise or build up some velocity to deal a super fast and deadly blow, but in this situation, to match his strength, I had to lose my speed and he's now faster than me, I can't build up speed in my moves without getting cut down.

The good news though, he has now lost all his mana, and he now has to fight me throughout all this while holding his breath, I just need to last about 7 minutes more, just need to last 7 minutes.

Just..7...minutes...my head hurts, my joints hurt, and everything hurts, I don't think I can last that long.