10/11 2:51 (Autumn, Day, Midrar)
Mark stepped back, breathing heavily, his hands opening and closing to work through their pain while he mentally thanked his Contracted Spirit, Joules, for helping him to create and maintain the Spirit Gate and also to deal with a great majority of the backlash involved, recieving back a tired feeling of acceptance of his gratitude.
The Human calmed his breathing at once, his eyes returning to scan the dust cloud made by the explosion of lightning that they caused by ripping a short-lived hole right to the Plane of Roars, his sister's sure-kill Spiritual Spell that he was only able to work out how to fully reproduce with their current level of power last Time, once Luna was already well beyond his reach.
Even so, the blonde was way too experienced when it comes to his enemy to lower his guard any, his blue eyes focused on finding any trace of his opponent's current location, already assuming that she survived his blow and trying to figure out her condition and position.
His Joules started paying attention towards the World around them, their attention no longer being occupied by preparing for their previous attack, now being able to bring to bear their full support for their Contractee.
The Human dropped down, dodging the pale fist that would have caved in his skull otherwise, his right leg rising immediately to block the low kick launched by the Lunarian before he struck back at Luna's still elongated arm, causing a twich in it before she ruthlessly slammed down, forcing him to retreat.
A second dust cloud covered the Vampiric one as her arm smashed on the ground with immense force, the blue eyes of Mark narrowing in focus before Joules interfered, launching an immediate lightning bolt that was deflected away by an exact mirror-copy sent by the white-haired one hidden within the fading cloud.
Mark prepared to join his Spirit only for his eyes to widen in alarm, noting how the Lunarian was dark not because of the shade or an armor but because it was a copy of her made entirely by Black Blood, the ground beneath his feet trembling before a pale hand erupted from it, grabbing his ankle firmly.
Without waiting a second, Mark activated his Unique Skill, time in his perspective slowing down to a complete stop, the World dulling to a grayscale, his Magic and even his Joules stilling completely and leaving him completely isolated, at least at this Rank.
The Human concentrated before bending down, launching as many blows as possible to the hand currently holding him in place, taking full advantage of it to land as many Aura-covered attacks as he possibly could on her in the three seconds that his Unique Skill, "Time Walker", allowed him to activate while still at C-Rank.
Finally after a whole three seconds of fists raining down upon the hand, he sighed, breathing hard briefly before calming down, the Time Stop ending as all the damage he would have inflicted upon the hand happened all at once.
The hand holding his ankle exploded in a mess of Black Blood at once, his blue eyes moving immediately to the ground before him, seeing Luna rise and trying to attack him with long and sharp tendrils intent on carving their way in his body.
The Human jumped back, his eyes scanning her immediately, noticing first her right hand, the substitute being made roughly of Black Blood taking the place of the hand he destroyed and subsequently seeing the way her body trembled in a mix of pain and shock.
The blonde jumped back towards the white-haired one, intent on taking advantage of her wounded state to land even more attacks on her, his fists covered in both Lightning-Attribute Mana and Aura closing in towards both his opponent's face and chest while his Joules started to launch their own lightning bolts independently from his own actions.
Luna, however, did not hesitate in her actions despite the pain that she should have felt, her own Aura rising explosively and mixing with her Black Blood and Vital Mana together, flipping to the Lightning-Attribute and neutralizing the incoming Lightning-Attribute Spiritual Magic Spell altogether, while she herself flowed in between his punches, already fully accustomed to the way he fought.
Frustration threatened to swell within the Human's heart at seeing his attacks being brushed away like nothing before he forcefully calmed down, well aware that if he lost control he would simply die as, even with his immense amount of experience, he was unable to fight at the fullest while under the influence of overwhelming emotions.
Another proof of his lack of talent despite the more than fifty years experience fighting, especially when he held himself in comparison to the monster before him.
Even with the efforts of Joules joining his own and the Lunarian not using or even actively healing her right hand, he was barely able to hold off the Lunarian, being not only forced to retreat constantly but even recieving some, thankfully minimized, wounds.
As he breathed in and out, his eyes narrowed in harsh focus, his Aura joining under his Spirit's guidance, understanding at once that this would be the most impactful way for him to progress in the fight against the Lunarian, at least when it comes to this stage.
Thankfully for their efforts however, while he could not bring Joules back with him from the future, Spirits not only possessed immutable memories but they could also share in the memories of their Contracted ones.
This was the only reason behind Mark's own continued survival as thanks to their accumulated memories and the Spirit's own alien Senses, the Roaring Spirit twisting one of their lightning bolts to move back towards the Human himself, striking him and sending him flying back, dodging the Black Blood spikes that would have impaled his feet to the ground otherwise.
The blonde twisted in mid-air, being unsurprised by the blow, as Lightning- and a small amount of Light-Attribute condensed in a single point in his hand, erupting in a thin line that crossed the distance to the Lunarian at near-light-speed, an attack that the Spirit could only use thanks to his barely-relevant Light-Attribute Affinity, his Aura and the memories, both of his past life and previous World and those belonging to the previous regressions he lived through, that he freely shared with the Spirit.
Mark landed, his eyes immediately moving to the effect of his attack, noting with a scowl the almost perfect circle that he burned into his enemy's shoulder instead of her heart.
He knew well that she was not fast enough to dodge his attack and once again he lamented his own lack of talent; after all, she did not dodge his attack but him, turning a debilitating wound into nothing serious.
But he could remain disappointed only briefly, dropping down to dodge the clawed hand that would have severed his neck apart at once, crossing his arms before himself to block the knee strike that would have broken his nose otherwise, bending back to deflect the force away from himself.
His arms separated themselves immediately before closing down on the leg that tried to kick him, his own legs trying yet failing to make the Lunarian stumble as she simply used a small layer of Black Blood to support her body in mid-air, the Human soon finding himself being slammed in the ground because of a kick.
Mark barely rolled away, a second axe-kick destroying the ground where his head just was, rising to his feet in an instant before he widened his eyes at seeing the fist less than 10 centimeters to his face.
Thankfully however, the six seconds of Cooldown were over.
Time immediately stopped, Mark breathing in deeply once in relief before hurrying to dodge her attack.
Or at least that was the plan.
He briefly flailed around upon feeling his feet being stuck to the ground, turning his attention there and finally noticing the extremely fragile masses of crystalized Black Blood shaped like small bands that surrounded his ankles completely, bands that normally he would have broken without even noticing.
Bands that he was unable to break.
A second did yet did not pass.
A terrible feeling filled the Human at once as he confirmed that his enemy figured out one of his most important limitations reguarding his Unique Skill, his inability to actually damage things while in his Time Stop as the damage is applied only once it was shut down and all at once at that.
He hurriedly applied enough force to break the shackles, already aware that he wasted a considerable amount of his very limited time in his surprised state, punching his opponent's extended fist once before stopping, noticing the barrier that covered her body and understanding that further hits would be meaningless.
With a sigh, at the two second mark, the Human deactivated his Unique Skill.
A punch continued in its trajectory, mostly missing the target that despite everything was able to slightly move in the previous split-second, the barrier around the Lunarian and the bands stuck to the Human, both made explicitly fragile from the very start, shattered in the same instant because of the force that struck all of them simultaneously.
The blue eyes of the Human met the glowing red eyes of the Lunarian, old hate rekindling anew once more.
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