Their Second Encounter

Hours had passed, and the number of times the two of them had fought during that period was so high that Velios stopped bothering to count. Each time, he would get severely injured, and even when he tried to use magic, Bhautik's body was so naturally durable that most basic magic attacks weren't effective. Even if Velios were to cover his body in mana, Bhautik would still be able to sever Velios' limbs from just a single strike, and both of them had grown massively. There was no telling when the two were going to stop. As soon as Bhautik died, Velios continuously summoned him again without a second's delay to continue. Bhautik had regrown all of his strength every time he was revived, but Velios had been continuously fighting against him for hours on end. That wasn't even counting the fact that Bhautik's skill occasionally activated, basically bringing him on equal footing with Velios, if not even stronger.

"I'll kill you!" Bhautik kept swinging the giant sword as if it weighed nothing, landing several hits that completely cut through Velios' body, leaving him with only split seconds to manually heal them before continuing to dodge. It was a game of reaction, and the one who had the faster reaction time had the bigger advantage. Velios found himself heavily experimenting with different attacks and magical attacks on Bhautik because of his high durability, which made the testing even better. Some had no effect, while some straight up killed him. Bhautik basically teleported, suddenly appearing before Velios, giving him no way of actually dodging. The only options Velios had were to try and block the attack or tank the hit and try to heal.

"This is it!" Velios reached out his hand, pointing towards Bhautik. A sphere of rippling and intense mana had instantly been created, giving his opponent no time to react.

The sphere of destructive mana was rapidly sent flying towards Bhautik, headed straight towards him, easily towering over himself, fast enough to give him no way of escaping. The sphere of mana was much more than just a sphere created by mana. It was rapidly spinning around in different parts, meaning that it wasn't a huge object, but instead a combination of deadly, spinning blades of mana, so small that a normal person wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and a flat surface. In a significantly small fraction of a second, Bhautik, everything around him, and behind him were reduced to complete nothingness. Every bit of rock, tree, ground, and even what remained of the mountain from before now had a cylindrical hole stretching as far as the eye could see. Velios had released it with so much force that it had been sent flying and hadn't even slowed down a little from its surroundings. It didn't matter if it was Bhautik, the mountain, or trees; it kept the same velocity until it eventually started slowing down before completely ceasing.

Velios fell backwards to the ground, laying down in the massive trench that had been created. Might have overused my magic again. I don't even know if it had properly recovered from that nuke from before. Well, I guess Bhautik still is the strongest out of the monsters I can control. There were times when I genuinely thought I was going to die, but I'm glad that I still have that survival instinct from years ago. Although, I tend to go overboard when that happens... Velios looked around, turning his head only slightly while still being able to see everything around him thanks to his sixth sense skill. Multiple body parts, limbs, and such were spread across the entire area because of their intense fighting. Velios had intentionally gone away from the city such that no one from there would be able to get there, even with hours of walking or even running.

Velios continued laying there, not being able to move his body despite not feeling tired. I guess it was a while since I felt this tired... At least I've become even stronger. Still, I don't think my habit of constantly controlling everything in my surrounding to train my magic control is that good while fighting someone of Bhautik's quality. I don't think either Freya or Shiva could defeat him simply because of the difference in physical strength and speed. But, Bhautik would still not be able to actually kill Shiva just because he doesn't possess holy magic. Wait, if I could imbue my holy magic into a weapon and give it to Bhautik, wouldn't he be able to kill Shiva? I'll have to try that after I get Bhautik on my good side. I could just use force, but it'd be trouble trying to bring him along anywhere if he were to try and kill other humans when I'm not close. But, I'm feeling a little dizzy-

Velios suddenly passed out. His physical body was completely burnt out without his mind having realized it. To be able to even keep up, he had to break through the mental limit to use more of his strength and speed, despite being severely damaged because of it. There was no sign of when he was going to wake up, and it was not the best decision to fall unconscious in the middle of all the surrounding destruction. Most of the rocks, trees, ground had been completely flattened out or completely decimated as a result of their fighting. The few mountains further away had been severely destroyed, and one of them had disappeared completely because of Velios' attack with only the trench caused by his last attack leading towards it. Velios looked peaceful as he was laying there unconscious. His muscles were twitching slightly, but his face had a calm look. Velios' eyes always looked tired and cold, but with them closed, he looked like any other person his age.

Slow and careful steps were echoing throughout the destroyed landscape. There was no intent of hiding them, and Velios was still laying there unconscious. It didn't look like the person had noticed Velios as they were shocked by the massive amount of destruction. "T-this isn't the site of the mission... What the hell happened here? ...I was here just yesterday." The voice sounded stern yet nervous at the same time. The person was slowly walking around, walking over trees and other debris that had been spread out as a result of their battle. They kept on walking around before seeing the mountains in the distance. "T-those! What happened?!" The voice had a faint hint of nervousness, and it was more than obvious that the person was scared, even to some slight degree. They had no idea what could have caused it, and if it was the case that a monster had attacked, there was still a possibility that the monster was close.

"Who's that-" They stopped their sentence as soon as they stepped even slightly too close to the person laying on the ground. It was clear that something or someone was laying there on the ground, but the person that had approached had no idea what it was. A daunting feeling riddled over them; they felt genuinely scared as they felt a terrifying amount of murderous intent coming from the one on the ground. The mana that Velios wasn't able to constrain because of being unconscious was doing whatever it pleased, and that aura was nothing short of terrifying. The mana was being constantly released and flowed freely in the air around Velios without constraint, but even so, it was incredibly dense. It felt as if gravity had increased by several times, and it was hard to even stand as it was.

The person decided to try and pass through the mana being emitted, despite the strength of it. The aura being constantly emitted had a dark red color mixed in with a hint of black, as if to show the darkness and evil of the person behind it. Despite their initial fear, they suddenly rushed towards the person or the thing responsible for the mana, dagger in hand, having shut off their emotions to completely rely on their natural talent for killing. The speed at which they ran was much faster than any above-average individual, and the position at which the dagger was going to hit was so precise to the point that it was a sure kill on anyone. What the person hadn't accounted for was that the person they were attacking wasn't any normal person either.

The sound of a clash echoed throughout the destroyed landscape, and the sound of a gut-wrenching scream followed up, louder than any previous sound from either of them. The screaming got even louder as the person who had attacked Velios had opened their eyes, seeing the injury that had unfolded. "Ah... sorry, miss." As soon as Velios had properly regained consciousness, he knew exactly who it was that had tried to attack him. It was the girl from before, the assassin who had killed all of those knights from before. Velios had woken up as a response to the danger that had approached and unknowingly countered with an attack of his own. "AAAAHH!" The sound of screaming could be heard once more, coming from the exact same place as before, but it was not from Velios. "M-m-my... My arm!" She couldn't stop thinking the same thought.

Her right arm had been cleanly sliced off, and the dagger she had been holding previously was lying down on the ground a few meters away from her. Despite the adrenaline, she could still feel the pain, but what was causing her to scream at all was the shock from her arm suddenly sliding off. She hadn't been able to see Velios at all, and she still didn't know that the person which she had attacked was the boy from before. "Why did you attack me?" Velios was more confused than anything, having suddenly been attacked with an intent to kill. Velios tried to approach her, but her hearing him trying to walk towards him made her scared. Normally, she would have kept composure, but her still being confused and extremely shocked, her mind not being able to wrap around the current situation. "S-stay away! You monster!"