Kallen vs. Kaizer

At the announcements, Kaizer instantly activated her skill.

     "⌈Dichotomisierung - Wind Blades⌋!"

Reginn realized that she was acting far more carefully this time around. Instead of closing the gap, she chose a ranged option even when it cost more mana to activate. While she had a large mana reserve, this could still be dangerous as she only had her own mana to work with and not the Pronus's. If she ran out of mana, the possession would automatically be cancelled as well.

Kallen dodged the blasts, not taking any chance with blocking them. From the Pronus's and the sword's aura, he could see that he was up against a formidable opponent. However, he could not continue to play safe and closed the gap. Kaizer reacted by swinging her greatsword, but Kallen ducked under and landed three consecutive hits before being kicked away. From just this exchange of blows, he confirmed that it was immune to stun and sleep, but not brittle. Brittle was a status effect that slowly lowered the target's defence by a certain percentage. However, its only weakness was that it had to be reapplied and stacked again and again to make a significant dent in the defence. While he could experiment with more status effects, he decided that this was good enough. Kaizer realized this but knew that she had a counter. She would lead him to think that he had an upper hand, making him relax and hit him with her skill at an opportunistic moment.

The battle continued and Kaizer let Kallen hit her multiple times. Soon, Kallen decided that it was the perfect moment to deal the final true blow. This time, he would not lace his blow with a status effect, rather, he would infuse his fist with a large chunk of his mana, increasing the momentum and force behind it. However, when he saw the confidence leak out of Kaizer's expression, it made his mind falter a little.

At the moment, Kaizer tracked that 99% of her defence was reduced, but if it went according to plan, her opponent would be the one to fall. The moment she saw Kallen's fist start to move, she activated her skill.

     "⌈Meta-Dichotomisierung⌋"

This skill was the same as her usual, but instead of swinging at the opponent, she seemingly sliced herself. She knew that if she swung at Kallen, he would just dodge it. However, no apparent damage was dealt, instead, her brittle status was reduced from 99% to 49.5%. This was the full extent of her talent, not only did she have the ability to divide physical objects in half, but she could also divide metaphysical concepts in half as well such as HP, mana storage and status. Those were concepts that were seemingly calculated and managed in another realm, just connected to the Plane of Existence; The Abstract. She did not know this, but her ability had the power to travel through space-time and affect other realms as well. This plane, in particular, was a sub-realm of the Existence that was made of pure information and calculation, which were then 'reflected' or 'cast a shadow' onto the Existence. Only a few could ever hope to affect this realm and even knowing about it was a sign that you were a higher being. Only Reginn, the first hero, Goddess and the other gods knew this realm though only the Goddess and the gods could visit there. This impressed Reginn, if she knew more about what her talent could do, she could become one of the strongest warriors, though she would still be weaker than him, of course. He could see that she used up most of her mana on that single reduction of status and the cost of mana was probably proportionate on the importance, or on which layer of The Abstract the status was. He estimated that perhaps the highest she could ever go was the stats such as HP and mana which would permanently affect the opponent, though things like Life-Condition or Divinity were probably unchangeable.

Kallen was shocked by this action but still followed through on his punch without checking the status condition. To his surprise, his blow did much less damage than he anticipated, and Kaizer stood there confidently, though it was evident that she had little mana left. When Kallen tried to back away, Kaizer grabbed his wrist, there was no escape now.

     "⌈Dichotomisierung⌋"

With this skill, Kallen could feel intense pain in his abdomen. This vivid pain reduced his vision and made him nauseous, causing him to vomit. Kaizer had bypassed Kallen's body and hit him directly in the kidney to prevent killing him. He rolled up into a fetal position and suffered internal bleeding.

     "You'll be fine. You can live with just one anywa-"

Midsentence, Kaizer puked out a large amount of blue blood. Pronuses had blue blood because liquid mana flowed in their veins. Mana in a solid or liquid form was a semitransparent blue substance that was a bit glowing in the dark. In these higher concentrations, it would be fatal for most lifeforms to touch it as they were like small Imaginary Spaces, chaotic and unstoppable. Though when exposed to matter, the energy would quickly dissipate and these spaces would disperse into the atmosphere. As such, the blood did not fall to the ground but rather evaporated away.

     "Wha- How- w"

Kaizer struggled to speak as the blood continued to pour out. Her skin then began to turn into a charcoal-like substance. Even in his immense pain, Kallen managed to speak.

     "That's Semi-Instant Death's Door for you..."

It turned out that when he threw his punch, he changed his mind at the last moment, infusing it with Instant Death's Door, however, since he lacked the mana nor HP to do so, the result was a Semi-Instant Death's Door. He was just too suspicious of his opponent's confidence and made sure to make it a draw.

The Pronus completed its transformation into a mound of charcoal, which crumbled beneath its own weight. The greatsword was dropped to the ground with a thud, and its mana flow was very weak but pulsing. Reginn learned that Kaizer effectively had 2 lives as long as the opponent didn't directly kill the claymore first which hosted Kaizer's soul. Reginn was excited at this revelation, perhaps he could create the perfect warrior, worthy of his mantle as an apprentice. Of course, Kallen had done well as well, so he'd be allowed to cooperate.

Reginn walked toward the greatsword to pick it up, then tended to Kallen. He used some basic healing magic, but it'd take a while before his kidney completely healed.

     "I kind of wished I could keep that Pronus... Oh well"

Reginn was ultimately satisfied. At the end of the day, he recruited another hero as well as learned more about Kaizer's potential. Now, this was getting really interesting.

...

The first face to greet Kallen when he woke up was Reginn's. They were at the school infirmary with the excuse that Kallen 'fell down really hard'. It was surprising how they even got to stay here, but that probably had to do something with Reginn's intimidating aura.

     "So, you've woken up!"

     "God, I didn't know heroes could be this weak! Passing out from kidney puncture?" said a mysterious girl next to Reginn

Kallen knew that it definitely was not just a kidney puncture, rather, it felt like his whole kidney was chopped in half. Though he was more confused about who this girl was.

     "Oh yeah, forgot to introduce her. Go ahead, introduce yourself to your new comrade"

     "...My name is Kaizer. I'm the one who could've killed you if I wanted to during that battle. Nice to meet you I guess"

     "..."

     "Well, she's actually the sword she has on her back. It's cursed or something"

     "It's not cursed! Great mages across the land had to work together to transfer my consciousness into this greatsword you know!"

While Kallen was confused, he was still able to piece things together. He had fought a possessed Pronus, not a real Pronus. It all made sense to him now, she was able to survive the Death's Door because the Pronus died in her place, but he still had one question.

     "...Then whose body is she possessing now?"

     "Huh? Oh, you mean this? Heheh, I learnt this from the Goddess, ⌈Perfect Puppet Creation⌋, it's like a lesser version of ⌈Life Creation⌋ but greater than ⌈Puppet Creation⌋. This should act as a vessel for her, though I get just a tiny bit of control over her"

     "What do you mean tiny bit?! Thi-"

Kaizer's mouth suddenly shut itself shut and she was struggling to speak. Reginn was much more powerful and potent than Kallen had imagined. He began to reminisce about his past and how he thought he was truly strong. Perhaps if he was just a bit stronger, perhaps if he was more like Reginn...

     "Good job"

     "Huh?"

     "Good job on your battle, you are one of the strongest heroes I've seen," said Reginn, patting him on his shoulder, "keep going and you'll be strong enough for whatever you're trying to achieve"

     "..."

     "I can't believe you said something like a quote from a book, that's so embarrassi-"

Kaizer's mouth zipped up once again.

Kallen felt a strange emotion swell up in his chest. Gratefulness, sadness, pride, he did not know how to feel but it was assuring to hear the strongest guy he knew call him strong. He sensed that he had earned his respect and Reginn's attitude toward him warmed up, it was almost like he was a different person. Tears began to flow out of Kallen's eyes not out of pain, but of feeling his doubts wash away. Noticing this, Reginn and Kaizer left the room to give him some time for himself. It had been a long day for all of them (except Reginn).

     "Meet me at the entrance of the school tomorrow!" shouted Reginn just before closing the door.

There was no reply but Reginn knew that Kallen heard him. Kallen looked out to see the sunset, just how long had he been out for? And they stayed next to him all that time. He felt nostalgic, having comrades once again. He searched his mind and imagined all his friends' faces back in his era. He hoped that he could meet some of their descendants if possible. Kallen looked at his fist. He was confident that he could avenge them and the people he failed eventually, no matter whatever form that would take.

     "...Just see! I'll atone for my sins this time!"