Reaper's Resurgence - Book 6 - Chapter 7 (Patreon)

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Alexia

Out of nowhere, the Quantum Balancer suddenly manifests a blade made out of quantum energy and moves almost faster than my eyes can track straight at me. Swinging said manifested blade in an attempt to cut me in half. And, while I barely manage to block his strike with my scythe, the sheer force in his strike sends me flying even if I don’t take any damage.

He doesn’t end it there either as he chases after me, repeatedly swinging his blade and trying to cut me to shreds in his rather clear anger.

I manage to block each of his strikes, but they don’t really give me any openings to attack myself.

If his attacks were just a regular sword, I’d probably be fine thanks to my physical immunity. But his blade is a manifested one made out of energy.

That means it would hurt if I got hit.

Badly.

I move as quickly as I can to block his attacks before occasionally teleporting and striking back at him with quantum energy. Both through quantum lightning and quantum breath.

But my attacks don’t deal all that much damage against the Quantum Balancer. Probably because he himself has a much higher base level in power. If I were to quantify a Quantum Being with a System level, that is.

It’s fine though. As long as I can keep dodging his attacks.

Or it should be fine.

Until I finally end up being too slow to block him and end up with a leg cut off.

I grit my teeth so hard I hear grinding in my mouth. But I immediately revert the damage through Quantum Stasis Copy. Using up a large amount of energy to completely restore my leg before teleporting behind the Quantum Balancer and taking my own swipe at him now that he’s distracted by his own success.

A faint grin spreads across my face this time as I create a relatively large gash across the Quantum Balancer’s back. And while my attack didn’t deal anywhere near as much damage as his own did, damage is damage.

The thing I’m most surprised about in this battle is that the Quantum Balancer isn’t healing at all. But that might actually be from my soul damage. Since my attacks directly cut the soul in my True Form.

We continue our little back and forth, with me blocking most of the Quantum Balancer’s attacks and only landing an attack whenever I counterattack one of his strikes that manage to hit me. But since my attacks deal significantly less damage than his attacks, I’m stuck reversing time on my body every time I get hit. While also making absolutely sure that his attacks don’t strike a vital point.

Eventually, I run out of energy to reverse time anymore. But thanks to Energy Restoration, I bring myself back up to full capacity in an instant before continuing the battle.

And this process repeats itself over and over again.

I find my energy tank being emptied out before I refill it, all while the Quantum Balancer gradually gets covered in more and more gashes as what looks like quantum energy leaks out of his wounds.

This is a battle of endurance at this point.

Also, maybe I should wait a little while before challenging the next Quantum Being trial. Considering how hard it is to actually deal solid damage to the Quantum Balancer despite him not being purely combat focused.

I can’t imagine how hard it would be to fight against the Quantum Vanguard.

Either way, I continue with this pattern for hours upon hours. Just chipping away at the Quantum Balancer while occasionally using Quantum Collapse just to see if it’ll work.

But when the Quantum Balancer finally begins to show exhaustion and slows down, he suddenly does something unexpected.

Instead of rushing to attack me again, he moves far back. Away from me. Then he raises his energy blade into the air and makes everything around us go haywire.

The air, the energy in it, the rifts in space, the mana currents, everything.

It all goes wild.

Goes berserk.

My eyes widen at the sight of it all. Air flowing in weird directions, energy forming vortexes that tear apart everything that enters them.

And a massive sphere of gathering energy that looks like it’s probably going to explode.

My eyes widen at the sight of it before I immediately activate my new defensive skills. Charybdis Shell and Ancient Barrier.

And thanks to both of them activating and creating barriers around me, the blast that comes only barely reaches me. Yet, even that small amount of the blast that reaches me almost kills me, leaving me with burns all over my body and even a few chunks of my flesh missing.

When the explosion clears, though, I find a rather unexpected surprise waiting for me.

Specifically in the form of the Quantum Balancer being charred to a crisp.

Huh?

Wait, was that a suicidal attack?

Hmm. Now that I think about it, he didn’t exactly have any barriers to defend against it.

I just kinda assumed his own attack wouldn’t harm him. But I guess that’s not the case.

After a brief pause, I go ahead and use Quantum Collapse on him.

And it works.

That said, instinct tells me it didn’t actually erase him from existence like it did the previous targets. Probably because he’s a Quantum Being with a role or something.

Finally. On the last try.

Right as I’m letting out a sigh of relief, though, everything begins to explode around me. Making my eyes go wide with horror.

But mere seconds before the explosions are about to hit me, I find myself being teleported out of the trial and back to the mausoleum.

So his suicidal attack wasn’t over yet…

I’m so glad I used Quantum Collapse first…

I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if I didn’t. Or rather, I can imagine it, because I would be dead.

A chill runs through my spine at the thought before I focus on the messages sent to me by the System for completing the trial.