Monster’s Reprieve - Live Another Day

As their fist collided with the barrier, it shattered explosively, sending the blue eyed lady back from the shockwave of the barrier breaking.

Recovering and staring up at her, she kept a small smile. Blue entrapping eyes, she wiped her mouth and sent out dozens of weak slashing projectiles with her hand. They were nothing special whatsoever, something even the most amatuer magician could do, unable to break even the skin of a child.

Waving the slashes aside, mercenary frowned. This lady… was engimatic. She couldn't tell what she was using. Then again, not that it mattered.

The mercenary raised a hand to the sky, a black orb in the sky formed, constrasting the endless white which filled the sky.

Thousands of spikes formed from the black orb. Combining and spreading, endlessly shooting out.

This domain was a common ultimate technique amongst all those who pursued the dao. Within it, one was essentially their own big god. Bending her knees and placing both hands on the ground, she looked forward and got into a sprinters starting position.

There was no time between that and her passing them. Struck by an instant impact to the head, it forced their head to rear back. Tanking the hit and immediately recovering, they seemed to have taken zero damage.

It was odd. Nothing like pure durability, but it didn't seem to be any sort of magic or qi reinforcement she knew of. She could tell though, whatever it was wasn't limitless.

Catching the next nearly instant blow, they were then blasted with a kick to the sternum. As they were blown away by the force of the impact, the mercenary appeared behind them and sent them rocketing back in the other direction.

A red crack formed in her skin, then chipped away, her face looked like it was… breaking? Half her face broke off, to reveal half of a same face underneath.

She guessed it was some sort of magic outershell?

Didn't feel quite like mana though… soul release?

With these thoughts of the mercenary unbeknownst to the witch, she began her move. Red fire erupted from her. Enveloping the area, their blue eyes had a purple tint due to the crimson hue of the light. It was pure raw energy.

———

Meanwhile, on the outside…

The reincarnate wasn't amused by everything going on. Striking the head of the monster, they were completely unaffected. 

"Your soul! Why is it like that?" The monster grinned maniacally.

Blocking a strike to the head, Lucks felt his arms nearly shatter.

Clinging to the branch of a tree as he was sent back, he scratched his head. What did they mean?

"It's abnormal! Immune even. My existence allows me to bring decay to the heart- to the essence of what means to be alive! Erosion of the soul. Yet you! Some unknown pathetic weakling in the middle of nowhere is the one to be immune? I can see it, your soul is abnorma-", the man went silent.

This seemed odd to the reincarnate, it was unsettling since they talked… a lot.

"Ahhhhh. I get it now. You're a reincarnator."

!?

"That explains everything. Well. That makes me even more curious now." Their tone was so much calmer, it was deeply unsettling to the reincarnate. They could feel the dripping bloodlust. "You've been holding back. Revenant huh? Come on. Don't hold back."

The reincarnate really did not wanna do that. He didn't think he could win or even hope to damage the monster. Maybe if this was his past life it'd be an almost even easy fight, but now? Nearly zero chance.

He looked at the barrier of the domain behind them.

"…" He stared at the man.

Creating a metal sword in his hands, he decided he'd go for the kill.

It was killing intent of which Mortimer had felt like no other he'd met before. Enough to knock out even somewhat experienced warriors, it would be suffocating to just about anyone.

Mortimer smiled and went to stab through their heart with his hand. Cleaving through his hand and stopping at the wrist, the reincarnate manifested another sword, and swiftly slashed their eyes out.

Letting go of the sword in he embedded into their hand, he jumped backwards and took a quick breath, keeping his guard up.

"Nice moves." Smiling, the man's blood began to flow back into their body, as their split hand closed up and eyes recovered.

Seriously? The reincarnate licked his lips. Damn it. If he'd known they could heal from that, they have slashed through their neck and stabbed their heart out.

Creating a shield, he covered himself behind it, getting ready to brace.

"My, what a very useful soul release. Creation huh?"

It was something like that, but not quite. The reincarnate shook his head.

The monster just smiled. "Whatever." As soon as those words left his mouth, the reincarnate saw the distance between them close. It was too fast for him to avoid, and sloppily, this time he didn't predict it beforehand.

Piercing through the shield, his fingers dug through their abdomen. Enduring the pain, the reincarnate cut into their neck, before being halted at bone. They were unbelievably tough.

Letting go of the sword and shield, he kicked them to create space. Hitting the shield, the monster man didn't move at all, so he used the force to step back

Crossbow. Aiming it towards the man he fired it and they caught the arrow soon as it left. His eyes widened and he quickly spun around to try and catch him with a hook kick. He kicked nothing.

"I've noticed. You've good reflexes, but your attacks are slow as all hell. How… how are you didging my attacks? I wonder… is it future sight?"

The reincarnate could feel beads of sweat forming on his face as the man placed their hand on his shoulder.

"Hmmm. Whatever."

Throwing the reincarnate away he laughed maniacally. "Come on! Entertain me! Show it to me! A reincarnate like you probably isn't unfamiliar to second and third release! Blow me away with your blaze."

Flailing through the air he landed on the side of a tree. Hopping down with a quick breath he calmed himself. He needed to reach the lady. Spear.

Utilizing a created spear thrower, he chucked it towards the malevolent spirit. Slapping the spear away, he once again instantly closed the distance. It was unbearably stressful having an enemy who could close the distance and basically kill him at any moment.

Sword. Bringing the blade forth he brought down a vertical slash.

Zero damage. It felt like they were even tougher than before, this time he wasn't even able to cut through their head.

One strike, and he was blown away. "One tree. Two trees. Three trees. Oh! Four trees! Man, woulda been much more of a spectacle if there was a boulder."

Crashing through four trees and stopping at the fifth, he could feel his consciousness fading as he sat against the tree. He looked up at the monster walking towards him and the monsters eyes widened as the reincarnates mouth opened.

Only for them to not say anything, closing their mouth as they decided against speaking.

"Aww man, what a disappointment." His eyes widened again as someone interesting happened.

White flames poured from the reincarnate. The tree behind him was ignited, bellowing with hot orange flames, before being turned to ash from the heat coming off the reincarnate.

"Woah! Isn't this too much power for an underdog!?" The man grinned excitedly, amazed at the output of the weakling.

Staring forward blankly with his gaze pointed towards the floor, the reincarnate's massive release of flames slowly began reducing.

"Hmm?" The man focused his eyes.

Then, the reincarnate disappeared, leaving a trail of flaming white footprints behind.

Feeling an arm in his gut, the monster grinned maniacally as the boy had bore his hand straight through his torso, "Magnificent!"

Their eyes glowed white as the flames of sacrifice enveloped them both.

The Flickering Star. It was an technique that burned the qi in one's body to gather surging power. It was a technique that could reduce the user to ash if done incorrectly.

When he had initially activated it, he'd spent a solid half minute simply trying to contain the amount of power spewing out, resulting in the blazing white aura that burned everything around him.

This wasn't too good, he could feel his qi channels burning up. Regardless, this was no time to stop.

As the two were enveloped in white fire, a majority of the monster's flesh was burned away, leaving a sum of tissue remaining stuck to their skeleton, as he grabbed onto their rib.

Somehow continuously regenerating, the man slowly began to regain his full form.

Their eyes widened as the man smiled, "Try harder!"

Scowling in response, they amped up the heat of their fire and smashed him away.

As the flames spread, the trees around them lit ablaze.

Digging his fingers into the bark of a burning tree, he threw a section of the tree into the man. Exploding into ash, they were covered in soot and then flung away by the force of a punch to the skull.

Towards the domain, they went. Catching up with the flung man, he met him with a drop kick. "You're amazing!"

Landing on the ground, the guy seemed to have decided to do something. Blocking a punch, his durability only seemed to have increased. Reincarnate pushed on. Cross! Cross! Uppercut!

Catching the third punch, they were sweeped from underneath, and stomped into the ground. A massive plume of flames was made as half their face was burned away.

Tougher and tougher they became. It seemed like as the seconds went by they were acclimating to the force and heat. They grabbed the reincarnates leg and recovered their smiling face.

Raising his leg, he swung it, kicking the man off. With a massive release of white fire, he collapsed a little. It felt like strength was seeping out of his body. Gasping and composing himself, he went in for the attack.

Exchanging blows, the two bounced around wrecking everything in their path. Ducking a hit to the skull, the reincarnate elbowed them in the side of their head. It shook them, but it didn't stop them. Taking the full brunt of the strike, they reared up to release devastating punch.

And then they brought it forth.

Creating a blade, he cleaved straight through their arm.

"Oh wow what?!" As their arm split down the middle, they regenerated it, and grabbed him by the neck.

Cutting the arm off, the warriors reincarnation stepped back.

Nothing was going all too well. He was running at nearly maximum focus. He didn't have much time left for his technique, but at the same time, he had to use a second to compose himself else he'd mess something up badly.

A string of blood connected to his lobbed off arm and pulled it back, reattaching it. "Woah. Your blade's even sharper now. Even cut through my joints. Won't happen again, but still, impressive."

Breathing in and out, the warrior halted the technique and the blazing white aura faded as he dropped his sword.

"Oh. Have you reached your limit?"

His eyelids drooped for a second. Not yet.

A quick breath and once more, flames enveloped him, even more intensely than before.

"There we go!"

Kicking the monster, he streaked past them and stabbed them with a dozen swords. Flaring with blazing white aura, the fire condensed and enveloping him in a ball of heat, before exploding.

Collapsing to the ground, the warrior began gasping for air. Stumbling up, he looked as the smoke subsided and a skeleton stood.

Their black and red eyeballs rolled around and met him with their pupils. "Nice try."

Their flesh reformed. Sinew and veins wrapping around his bones as his body regenerated.

Wihout waiting any longer, the warrior threw a punch and sent the monster flying away. He began using another technique. Unlike the Flickering Star, it's name was a lot more direct and basic. The sacrificial technique.

He'd chosen to use the Flickering Star due to it's burning capabilities, believing that to be much more effective for a recovery monster, but he ran out of qi.

It granted the user an insane amount of strengh, allowing a normal person to be able to fight monsters. This came at the drawback of completely destroying their bodies and at normally at the cost of their lives. Currently, he was using a revised version which granted less power for not killing him, instead only rendering him immobile.

This was getting troublesome.