Lusian moved first.
Like a shadow cutting through flashes of light.
Noceron launched the first burst.
Lusian was already gone.
The second came from a different angle.
He leaned aside.
The third swept across the ground.
He jumped.
Each attack passed mere inches from his body.
He did not need to think about every movement.
Erwin's memories were there, engraved after countless battles.
He had seen those attacks hundreds of times.
He knew the patterns.
The timing.
The small tells that preceded each movement.
His body simply followed them.
Even so...
the mistake from before was still present in his mind.
He had known this battle thousands of times.
But he had never felt the heat of the light graze his skin.
He had never heard Noceron's roar make the ground tremble.
And, above all, he had never had only one life.
I can't let my guard down.
Noceron attacked again.
Lusian pivoted on one foot.
A burst passed beside his face.
The heat burned his cheek.
He gritted his teeth.
There is no restart button here.
The beast spread its wings.
A blinding radiance covered the valley.
Lusian narrowed his eyes.
The luminous armor formed around Noceron once again.
It was enormous.
Dense.
And consumed an absurd amount of mana.
Lusian watched it for a moment.
He would not try to break through it directly.
Not yet.
Then let's do this my way.
He waited.
Noceron attacked.
He dodged.
Another attack.
He dodged again.
And when he found an opening...
he slashed.
Dainslein cut through the light.
The contact produced a strange sound.
It was not an explosion.
It was a hiss.
As if two opposing forces had just collided.
The darkness surrounding the blade spread across the surface of the armor for an instant.
The light recoiled.
Lusian's eyes widened slightly.
What...?
The sensation disappeared before he could understand it.
"It doesn't matter."
He immediately pulled back.
Noceron roared.
The armor lit up again.
But it was no longer the same.
It had lost some of its intensity.
Lusian noticed.
It works.
He did not need to destroy the defense.
He only needed to force Noceron to reconstruct it over and over.
Each reconstruction would consume mana.
And Lusian knew exactly what that meant.
Again.
The next attack came.
Lusian dodged it.
Another.
He dodged.
Then he moved in again.
Slash.
The sword struck the armor.
This time, the light went out for a fraction of a second around the point of impact.
Lusian felt the vibration travel through his arm.
"About four hundred..."
He did not have an exact measurement.
But he knew the game well enough to make an estimate.
The damage was small.
It did not matter.
He did not need to kill it yet.
He needed to control how much damage he dealt.
And, above all, how much mana he forced Noceron to spend.
The creature launched another burst.
Lusian slid underneath it.
The wave of light destroyed the trees behind him.
Again.
He moved in.
Slashed.
Pulled back.
The second impact was weaker.
"Two hundred and twenty... approximately."
The armor flickered again.
Lusian stopped smiling.
It's losing stability.
Then he remembered something.
Deidara.
The heroine of darkness.
For years, she had been one of his favorite characters.
Erwin had played with her countless times.
He knew her attacks.
Her timing.
Her mana consumption.
He even remembered how much damage she could deal against Noceron during this phase.
Deidara needed several more attacks before reaching this point.
Lusian looked at the armor again.
It was flickering.
More than it should have been.
He frowned slightly.
Already?
Noceron roared and raised its wings.
A storm of light descended upon the valley.
Lusian ran.
Jumped.
Twisted.
Ducked.
A burst passed over his head.
Another destroyed the ground beneath his feet.
The third nearly caught him.
For an instant, Lusian lost his balance.
Shit!
He regained his footing at the last second.
Fear struck him again.
This was not a game.
It did not matter how many times he had watched Noceron die on a screen.
Here, one mistake meant death.
Lusian took a deep breath.
Focus.
He looked at the monster again.
Noceron's movements were slightly slower.
Its breathing was heavier.
The luminous armor took longer to reconstruct.
And the bursts of light had lost some of their intensity.
Lusian narrowed his eyes.
Wait...
Something was wrong.
The battle was not following the fight he remembered exactly.
It was progressing faster.
Much faster.
His gaze dropped toward Dainslein.
The darkness was still slowly flowing across the blade.
Am I dealing more damage?
He had no time to find out.
Noceron lunged at him again.
Lusian disappeared into the shadows.
Noceron turned.
Too late.
Dainslein pierced the armor again.
This time, the impact was different.
The darkness spread across the surface of the light like a black crack.
The light around the blade seemed to go out.
Noceron roared.
Lusian felt an unnatural ease in the movement.
As if the sword...
was responding better than before.
He frowned.
Since when...?
He had no time to think about it.
The beast swung its tail.
Lusian moved aside by mere inches.
The force of the impact tore part of his cloak away.
He attacked again.
Four hundred and ten.
The vibration traveled through his entire arm.
Lusian's eyes widened slightly.
That's more than it should be.
The armor flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
And then he understood.
He was not fighting like Deidara.
He did not have Deidara's stats.
He had been using the game's numbers as a reference ever since the battle began.
But those numbers belonged to another character.
Another body.
Another damage output.
I'm dealing more damage than she did.
The thought had barely formed when Noceron took a step backward.
The armor trembled again.
Lusian watched it.
It was no longer merely losing stability.
It was on the verge of collapse.
Then my calculations are ahead of schedule.
Noceron was not losing because it lacked strength.
It was losing because its defense could no longer hold.
Every time the light collided with Dainslein's darkness, something within that light seemed to go out a little more.
And every time Noceron rebuilt its armor...
it spent more mana.
Perfect.
Lusian accelerated.
Slash.
Dodge.
Slash.
Retreat.
Another burst.
Jump.
Slash.
Noceron roared.
The armor began to fracture.
Small luminous cracks appeared across its body.
The beast tried to reconstruct them.
It couldn't.
The light flickered again.
One last time.
And then...
it collapsed.
The armor disintegrated into thousands of glowing fragments.
The valley was illuminated for an instant.
Lusian remained motionless.
He did not attack.
He waited.
He knew this moment.
The next phase was about to begin.
But something was bothering him.
This happened earlier than I remember.
Noceron took a deep breath.
Once.
Twice.
Its enormous wings slowly rose.
Light began gathering around its body.
Lusian tightened his grip on Dainslein.
There it is.
There was no surprise on his face.
Only concentration.
It had reached its limit.
The final attack.
Noceron opened its jaws.
Mana began to accumulate.
But something was wrong.
The light trembled.
It was too intense.
Too unstable.
Lusian immediately understood.
Noceron was gathering practically all the mana it had left.
This was not a normal attack.
It was all or nothing.
After this, it'll be out of mana.
Lusian took one step back.
Then another.
He did not take his eyes off Noceron.
And then a doubt appeared.
Wait.
He remembered the battle from the game.
He remembered Deidara.
He remembered how much damage he had needed to deal before Noceron entered this phase.
The numbers began racing through his mind.
It shouldn't be here yet.
His expression changed.
No...
He looked at Dainslein.
Then at Noceron.
It is.
He had calculated it wrong.
He had been using Deidara's damage as a reference.
But he was dealing more damage.
Much more.
Then... how much earlier did I reach this phase?
The light continued to gather.
The air began to vibrate.
Lusian felt a chill.
I don't have time to calculate it.
Noceron raised its head.
Lusian gritted his teeth.
Three...
The energy continued to condense.
Two...
The entire valley seemed to hold its breath.
One.
Noceron fired.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
A column of light tore through the valley.
It did not move like a mere burst.
It was a gigantic mass of energy that devoured everything in its path.
Trees.
Rocks.
Earth.
Everything disappeared.
Lusian had already moved.
He threw himself to the side just before the light reached his position.
The column passed beside him.
Far too close.
The heat pierced through his clothes.
The Ætherion Armor absorbed part of the energy.
The rest struck the air around his body with such force that Lusian was sent flying.
He rolled across the ground.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
He drove Dainslein into the earth to stop himself.
"Ah!"
Pain shot through his entire body.
But he was alive.
Lusian raised his head.
A few meters away, the column of light was still advancing.
The valley had disappeared behind it.
A massive, burning scar stretched across the earth until it vanished into the distance.
Lusian breathed heavily.
He looked at the place where he had been only a moment before.
If I hadn't known when it would happen...
His fingers tightened around the sword.
If I had waited even one second...
He did not need to finish the thought.
He would have died.
He had come within a hair's breadth of making a fatal mistake.
Not because he did not know the battle.
But precisely because he thought he knew it too well.
He had relied on Deidara's calculations.
On the numbers he remembered from the game.
On the exact moment when Noceron was supposed to unleash its final attack.
But those numbers were no longer his.
My damage output is different.
Lusian swallowed.
"That was too close..."
Then the light began to disappear.
The column weakened.
It grew smaller.
Until it finally vanished completely.
Silence.
Lusian slowly raised his gaze.
Noceron was still standing.
Barely.
Its enormous body trembled.
The scales had lost almost all their brilliance.
Its wings hung limp.
And the light that normally coursed through its body was gone.
Lusian narrowed his eyes.
It's out of mana.
Noceron tried to move.
One of its legs gave out.
It fell to its knees.
The monster roared.
But this time, there was no light.
No burst.
No armor.
Nothing.
Lusian exhaled.
A small smile appeared on his face.
"Now it's over."
He stood up.
Darkness began to envelop his legs.
Then his arms.
Finally, Dainslein.
The blade was covered by a layer of dense, deep darkness.
Lusian felt mana flowing into it with strange ease.
Too natural.
Too fluid.
For an instant, he had the sensation that the sword had been waiting for this.
How strange...
He had no time to think about it.
Noceron raised its head.
Its white eyes still held a faint glow.
It tried to spread its wings.
It couldn't.
Lusian disappeared.
He crossed the valley like a black arrow.
Noceron opened its jaws.
It tried to gather light.
Nothing happened.
Its mana was exhausted.
Lusian appeared before it.
"It's over."
Dainslein descended.
CRASH!
The sword pierced Noceron's chest.
The creature went completely still.
All the remaining light began to escape from its body.
Lusian held the sword with both hands.
Noceron tried to roar.
Only a weak sound escaped its jaws.
The light slowly faded from its eyes.
Its enormous wings began to fall.
And finally...
Noceron's body collapsed.
BOOM!
The impact shook the valley.
Lusian stood before the corpse.
He was breathing heavily.
The sword was still in his hand.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
He had won.
But he could not stop thinking about the final attack.
He had known the exact moment it would happen.
He had known what was coming.
And yet he had almost died.
Lusian lowered his gaze toward Dainslein.
Darkness was still slowly flowing across the blade.
Throughout the battle, he had felt something strange.
The darkness had responded too well.
Noceron's light...
had yielded far too easily.
Lusian frowned.
"What the hell was that...?"
There was no answer.
Only the silence of the valley.
Lusian stared at the sword for a few more seconds.
Then he exhaled.
"Whatever."
He sheathed Dainslein.
It was probably the affinity.
And he moved on.