Silence.
No living being within a one hundred meter radius could make any noise. Not even the wind blew through the trees.
No insects, no birds, not the enemy or even myself.
It was deafening. Not the silence. It was the pain I felt. The ringing in my ear while I laid on the ground.
The embarrassment of getting owned by the shadow with the giant sword that stood above me while I was on the ground. It felt awful.
Now the shadowy monster, as I referred to it, was prepping to swing its sword at me. A finishing move.
But how did I loose the fight? I know he's strong and all, but he isn't as strong as the hero I fought a few months ago. Not only that, but its also a one on one. So logically, the fight should have been in my favor.
I knew what the problem was, but it felt too unrealistic for me to completely believe it.
Now, as my life is about to end, all I could think of was what made me do all of this. I went from a simple high schooler, to a murderer, to committing mass genocide, to wanting to become a god.
When did I even get such ideas? Why? None of it sounded like something I would do.
"Master!"
Uzzaran? She's running over here... Not good.
Her arm stretched, grabbing the shadow by the back in her large palm.
"I know what you are now. That means I could end this quick..."
She was stun locked after the shadow's limbs came of its body, and the head turned around, facing her.
Both its hands tightly held on the sword and dropped it through her arm, sticking through the ground. Then, before she could react, an invisible came out of the sword, slicing her arm in two, and eventually, her body sliced in half and both parts fell on the ground.
The enemy freed himself, and before his limbs could come back, I struck his torso with my fist, or at least, I thought I did.
His arms used the sword to block the attack, but the force was still enough to send him flying. Now was my chance.
I didn't give him a chance to rest, hitting him again and again while we flew in the air. Attacks so fast that they were barely visible and only looked like blurs. The plan was working. He couldn't reattach his limbs early enough.
But this would be a pointless effort if she was still there. Esther.
Even though she has made no moves in this fight, she's the one keeping it the way it is. She needed to go.
While still attacking him, I looked over to her, trying to figure out where she is and how to attack her. The first step was easy.
In the mean time, I didn't notice her walking to the side. Must've been because of how slowly she did it, and how slightly.
From her front, a large wall of spikes made from earth magic forcefully approached her, but it missed, passing where she stood previously.
My only thought at that moment was for her to stop proving that I was right. But then, I remembered something.
I lost focus and got smacked into the ground by him, hitting the land like a meteor. Then he landed on me, making the crater even bigger.
His limbs were attached again. He didn't want to loose that opportunity to finish me off with his sword, but he had to jump back because of the bright explosion that happened right underneath his feet.
The bright white light from the blast suddenly got sucked back to the source. Me
I emerged from the ground without the eye patch for my right eye. I finally decided to use my skill, which I almost completely forgot about.
Cursed petrification.
It opened, shining a brighter pink than ever before. I activated it fully, turning everything that I looked at into stone. Even trees.
My enemy placed his giant sword on the ground and stretched his hand. When the wall of spiked earth, which formed due to the strength of my skill reached him, it got destroyed by a small barrier which was right in front of his hand.
I thought barriers aren't working here. Guess its an enemy advantage maybe? At least now the fight will be more fair.
He emerged from the rock and jumped to me, but I blocked his foot with my hand. Even though I didn't expect the foot that I grabbed to be detached, and for him to swing his fist at my ribcage after I had his foot, I was still able to block that as well.
At this point, the fight uncontrollably became more physical, which I noticed but had no problem with it. While strong punches and kicks flew from him, similar attacks came from me as well, with a touch of magic attacks hitting his blind spots.
I was overpowering him, the way the fight was meant to be. And I could tell that he was struggling.
Esther. Like I mentioned earlier, the fight had only drag for so long because of her. And I knew the reason why.
It was because of her signature skill. Foresight.
The first time I met her, my appraisal magic detected a powerful skill on her. A skill that gave her the ability to see the future.
It sounded like a great skill to have, until I learned of its limitations and came to the conclusion that it's practically useless.
That was until now.
She somehow found a way to by pass the limitations of the skill, making her able to see every single possible future, or at least more than one. Not only that, but it seemed like she could use it again and again.
I learnt about this when the enemy and I first faced off. He knew every single one of my attacks, a way to dodge them and a way to counter them.
Why didn't I just think that he was the one with the skill? Because my appraisal ability still worked. And the way she dodged the attack from earlier proved it.
They must've somehow been communicating with each other. Telepathically, maybe.
The reason why I came to the conclusion that she can see multiple futures was because she knew about every single one of my moves.
If she could only see the future once, that means that she couldn't see the effects of her actions in the present. If she found a way to block each one of my attacks, it should be from seeing the future more than once, because I changed my attack patterns after each failure.
But none of this matters anymore as I just won the fight.
My enemy fell to the ground, marking the end of the fight.
Then I appeared in front of Esther, who's facial expressions hadn't even changed after the fight was over. But I had a hunch that she was still there.
I looked at her for a while, wondering what she could be thinking at that moment.
Instant decimation.
One of my most powerful skills yet. Even if she could see the future, now she didn't have the power to counter it.
Her body slowly turned to ash. Not just hers. Every other shadow left did the same. I could see them in the distance since the fog wasn't there anymore.
She didn't even react the entire time until she disappeared into the air.
"Uzzaran, will you be alright?"
She was still on the ground and in two. Conscious and in her right state of mind.
"Yeah. I just need a minute. You should rest."
"Sounds like a good idea." I said while putting my eye patch back on. While I did so, I stared at my hand for a minute.
It's been a long time since I used that skill. I didn't expect my mana to just explode like that. Will it do that every time I use it from now on?
"But it isn't." That wasn't any of us. It was Black death, who appeared out of nowhere. It spooked me a little.
"Where have you been? And where are we? What's happening? What do you mean by it being not a good idea?"
"Whoa there. That's a lot of questions and I'm sure you have more. I promise to answer all of them later. For now..."
I heard loud thunder echoing. There were dark clouds in the distant horizon.
"Please tell me you see that." Uzzaran said.
The clouds had loads of lightning, shining light all over. That was when I saw something. Someone's shadow. A female. The shadow was large enough to be seen from a distance, but I doubted that it represented the actual size.
"How did I not notice that before now?"
"Hahahaha... Nerezza Vingar. I was meant to mention this before our separation."
His laugh was unsettling.
"What?"
"... Welcome, to the first heavenly trial, of becoming a Deity."
My heart began to beat faster. I didn't expect it to just start like that.
What will happen next?