Shit… What kinda Topological Matrix is that?! He was already quite the worthy combatant before, so what of now? I feel that everything he did in this duel was a deliberate action to gauge my arsenal, perhaps?
No… Actually… Was he using me as a tool to teach? I see no reason why he would not use both Overrides and Thaumitonic Shielding at the start of the duel if he had known about them…
What's wrong with him? What the fuck? Who does that?
So that means… wow holy shit… he was using me to form his Matrix in some sense. And with that, this duel is nearing the end; he's planning to use all that he knows about me to go all out.
Tsk… Not only that… He used my own Water Concordee to block Lizzy's breath. A shame, Rexy is more efficient at direct clashes than I am.
Hah… Martyr played, but was reckless on his part.
Zadial winced internally; it was one of the first times that one of his dear Concordees was taken out of battle rather violently by a person who was treating this duel as feeble training.
Okay... I can reconcord Rexy later.
That was the first time someone went for him first. But why? Would it not be more efficient to target me instead?
It's more entertaining this way. More personal? Definitely. In a way. I get to test the adaptability of this monster myself.
Zadial begins walking towards the crazed Isaac and vice versa, adjusting each stride without thought. The air is still swirling from Isaac's previous Clause-Constructs. Zadial calmed his beating heart, but his thoughts could not.
Something beneath his clarity kept twitching at the edge of his attention.
Why do I feel this way?
I hate this feeling… Have I ever felt this vulnerability? When was the last time I stood on the unfamiliar ground of a duel?
But another part.
Is this what it feels like to meet someone who doesn't need to fear, to be equivocal regardless of my status?
I've only met people better or worse than me. If Isaac is that person… Someone I can clash with, fail with… and perhaps, even grow alongside?
…
Sheesh~ What are you thinking, dude?
Ridiculous.
I know for a fact that Isaac is scared. No way he has the balls to just do that…I'm not sure what he will do next… I usually know, though.
But.
Oddly… I don't mind that.
C'mon.
"Let's end this for real."
Nod.
The final stretch begins with rapid-fire shots on Zadial's Part.
"T.W.L.I.P..."
Multiple rocks from the ground began propelling like bullets straight for Isaac. Alongside this were grass blades, vines, and miniature fireballs from his Concordees. Clearly, Zadial was aiming for a never-before-seen bombardment of pressure, dwarfing the likes of his earlier attempts.
Isaac knew this.
"A.M.C.P."
But not in any direction that makes sense. He fired it straight downward into the floor. The explosion lifts him not forward, not even upward, but off-axis at an entropic, jittering, unstable flight with his limbs flailing for effect.
Like he had lost control, but even so, the sight of infinities rising and following all around him as those green wormholes stayed locked on Zadial made him shake.
Midair, Isaac twists and generates rotational torque across his lower torso. He utilized his own spine as a gyroscope, with his lead foot snapping outward, dragging a swirl of compressed air behind it like a whip crack.
The column of compressed air flew past Zadial's face.
Is his Matrix making him drunk? Or wait shit… Is he already in SOS?
Should I ask? I mean, the death of a student is more important than a win.
"Catch."
Isaac fires another one, speaking as though he read Zadial's concerns.
Alright… What a creep.
"A.L.C.E.F." Zadial stomps a pillar to rise and hits Isaac mid-fall like before.
Similarly, Isaac stabilises himself and kicks off the pillar. Landing right into a puddle of condensation from earlier. He acts like he's disoriented and plays the fool.
"A.M.V.P." Isaac chants.
If one were tracking, that would be the final remnants of his mental capacity to exhibit Thaumitons.
He performs the earlier A.M.V.P. reversal.
What?!
This guy is mental?!
He knows it won't work, and I expect it… So what the hell is his deal?!
False.
One thing he could not expect, one thing he overlooked.
Isaac began to motion for Aerokinesis.
…pop…
Shit!
Zadial whips around, expecting an attack that he had not foreseen. Knowing the way Isaac plays, he loved to use Clause-Constructs in order to hide other Clause-Constructs. Maybe how the A.M.A. was to hide the previous A.M.V.P.; this one was to hide a separate trap, one set up earlier.
But nothing occurred.
???
That simple pop was enough to warrant an emergency.
Because the goal all this while was to distract Zadial for another minuscule fraction of a second, even before unlocking his Matrix and Shielding, this was Isaac's original plan being manifested. To defeat who was considered the strongest duelist of his year without Noësis, even without Magic.
But to defeat the duelist with himself, and this one final factor.
.
.
.
Everything is so slow.My brain is high.I feel like I'm on drugs.It's like super fentanyl.But the good type. Oh my God. I got so much time to think about all of this."No way he just used Aerokinesis, right?How?An Apprentice-Class Wave Binder, let alone knowing how to, but wasting his thaumitons to barely graze my neck.There's no fucking way."
Those are the thoughts racing in his head, right?
Phew… Calm down…
Isaac was on cloud nine. These thoughts, as he put it, were racing faster and faster than they had ever had before. With the one simple goal prevailing over all of them, the initial goal he had wanted to perform even before the duel began.
The urge to mimic something impressive one has witnessed.
Mirroring.
Especially present in individuals who believe themselves so superior to others.
Isaac wanted to mimic Caelum and Darius.
To give Zadial a scientific spectacle that ended far from the start.
The battlefield still breathes, as every Clause Construct used leaves echoes that alter the surrounding space. From the obvious giant pillar of the arena Zadial left, to the pressure differentials and vortices Isaac purposefully lingered. Using A.V.M.P. to catch a previous vortex's outer rim left by the indiscriminate gyroscopic shooting—the one behind Zadial.
The resulting collapse folds in on itself, causing aeroinstability to form where stored air pressure, having orbited, now releases in a single pop. Isaac, who studied the Clause-Constructs in that short span during Caelum and Darius' duel, moved his hands in the same way a Wave Binder would have if they attempted 'Aerokinesis'.
All for his own pride of deception, to make Zadial second-guess himself, and give the final stroke's opening.
Isaac pushes off the erected arena and falls into a dying tunnel of air: the leftover wake of the last 'A.M.C.P.'s rebound. The residual swirl spins just enough to form a decaying low-pressure chute, one out of science and therefore invisible, with no QCD Colors.
If he had merely turned right, he would have seen some drifting leaves flow towards him at an unnatural speed.
But haha… I guess he's too hellbent on me!
To Isaac, this frail, malnourished boy, it became a semi-railgun only he could own and use. With no 'A.L.C.E.F Field' to protect him, his already horrible, injured body was subjected to more damage.
Stamina: 37% |
Still, momentum takes him.
He took a large, deep breath.
The final part of Isaac's plan needed a huge exhale. Paired with a fast-moving body, the Bernoulli effect would be achieved. The pressure inside him rises as the pressure around him drops as the air collapses inward.
Artificially, Isaac created a spiraled vacuum-burst made from nothing but C's motion and his timing; if more kinetic energy forward was needed, he would just kick off the ground. The pain around his left knee was getting quite intense.
Isaac couldn't care less. He acted as the low-pressure eye of a micro cyclone.
At its end, the two combatants were both at interpersonal distances. Zadial's line of sight was severed, as Isaac's breath cooled him. The saturated and dispersed steam transfers heat faster. His skin becomes a sensor; the fog's drag from the steam explosion gives away motion.
Zadial's brow furrows. His Fire Concordee stands down, for Isaac was past the point of distance where collateral damage would be highly probable.
Isaac pivots once more.
Stamina: 20% |
Thirty-one degrees off his line-of-sight axis.Should be predictable to him. Your math can follow this; I don't doubt your intellect. But right now… I wonder just how many conflicting thoughts are running through your head.
Can you really compute right now?
The wind behind Isaac twists by lingering turbulence from the vortex past. He lands directly at the edge of the training grounds. Directly behind Zadial's right hand, which he grabs to break his guard. Freeing a specific section of his body for the taking. Against the direction of the force, Isaac runs 3 steps to cancel out the initial momentum.
Stamina: 15% |
I saw you shadowboxing in a Southpaw stance. Are you confident enough to switch off from Southpaw into Orthodox to hit me? Hell… You still gotta pull your arm back to your face. Give or take, you only have a 0.2 millisecond window to do anything.
You. Are. FUCKED ZADIAL!
Why?
To beat someone utterly.
To prove their humanity in the most human way possible.
Because this isn't Magic anymore.
It's MY Physics corrupting YOUR Thaumitonic Physics!
It's MY Mathematics usurping your Computations!
It is the product of MY labour on Earth.
It's me!
ME!!
Isaac, with no mental capacity for Thaumitons left, no Clause-Constructs to rely on. Not even any Magic in belief left. Assumes his boxing stance, leans right to coil. He could have very well thrown a jab to the face and won this duel. But to him, it would put him below those of this world.
He would end it in a KO.
Firing a rear hook straight for Zadial's liver. His fist tightened; the mastery, conviction, and will to overcome all odds were coiled into one singular act. A primitive act for Isaac's standards in a 'Magical World'.
To strike!
A punch!
His winning performance!
To be HUMAN!
Stamina: 9% |
…
And Zadial thought the same, to be exact, and acted the same.