Author's Reincarnation in a Fantasy Setting - Chapter 370: Collision [2]

“That’s it!” Akumi grumbled, breathing intensely. “I am going to end you now!” he declared, looking at Zero in a way a hungry animal would look at its prey.

He held the Excalibur with both his hands and pointed it toward Zero

“Gluttony of the King!” he said and supplied the Excalibur with his mana.

“With this, you are finally going to—”

Stopping him mid-sentence Zero dashed forward and attacked with a barrage of slashes. “Sorry, but I’m not going to just stand here and listen to your monologue,” Zero said as he continued his attack.

Akumi defended with his blade, blocking the Requiem sword with his Excalibur. In between the spar, he switched his stance and began to attack, forcing Zero into a defensive position.

Placing his foot firmly upon the ground, Akumi elevated his sword, executing a swift descent within a mere second. In a prompt and adept counteraction, Zero adeptly wielded the Requiem sword with both hands, effectively intercepting the trajectory of Akumi’s attack and concurrently fending off the impending strike of Excalibur.

“Dark Edge!” he said, releasing an arc of dark energy toward Akumi that forced him to back off and dodge the attack.

Right after that, he dashed forward. “Maelstrom: Blue!” he said, launching a big ball of blue flames toward him.

Akumi held his sword up to slash the fireball in two just like he’d done before. However, just a second after the moment of action he realized that it would be a wrong move and that he had been put into a tough situation.

The fireball was a feint meant to distract him. Once he uses the Excalibur to destroy the fireball, Zero—who is just behind and ready to attack—will jump at him when he’s not ready.

He tried to move away from his location but noticed that his feet were again frozen to the ground, making him unable to move. And at the same time, he was feeling weak for some reason, as if someone had sucked a certain amount of mana from him.

He was in a desperate situation. There was barely a second left for him to think and decide what he was going to do. If he decides to repel or destroy the fireball then Zero will attack him from behind and if he decides to defend against Zero then the fireball will damage him first.

Left with no other choice Akumi decided to use the last and most powerful card left in his arsenal.

“Magiken! Second form: Speed King,” he said, activating the second level of his magiken.

His entire body emitted a bright golden aura along with his sword, and the next moment he simply vanished from where he was standing.

The fireball hit the ground, scattering blue flames all over the place and causing an explosion. Zero himself landed on the ground and tried to look for Akumi, he was also a bit surprised to see him vanish so quickly like that.

As he was standing there looking around Zero suddenly sensed a presence behind himself. He was going to turn around and defend himself, however, before he could do that he was kicked in the back and hurled forward.

Zero flipped over in mid-air to land on his legs and avoid crashing down, but just as he was about to move himself Akumi again appeared before him. He struck down Zero with his sword at a time when he wasn’t able to defend properly, sending him flying backward.

He crashed down on the ground and rolled over a few times before stopping himself. He quickly got up and looked for Akumi and this time he found him standing at a distance.

However that changed soon with a flash of bright light, and the next thing Zero saw was him standing only a few steps ahead of him.

Zero raised his sword in defense but before he could do anything else Akumi appeared on his side and delivered a slash right after that. Zero somehow managed to block the attack in time however he was late and ended up getting pushed back.

It wasn’t that Zero was starting to grow weak or that Akumi’s strength had suddenly increased. It was just that Akumi’s speed was simply too much for Zero to keep track of him with his eyes.

To counter this Zero activated his [Foresight] skill which along with showing possible future attacks also made his vision a little clearer.

Akumi again appeared in front of him and raised his sword. Though this time with the help of Foresight Zero was more or less able to see him and was able to barely defend himself in time.

However, his posture wasn’t current which made Zero take an enormous amount of recoil, making him shift in his position and take a step back.

“It’s over,” Akumi said. “You have no chance of winning against me. You never did.”

“I see,” Zero replied as he stood straight, gaining his balance back. “So is the your most powerful form or something?” he asked.

“Yeah, you got that right,” Akumi said. “It’s the second form of Excalibur’s magiken. With that right now I am the Speed King. Now, of course, I won’t be telling you what that means or how it works. I’m not an idiot after all.”

Zero didn’t say anything for a second and kept looking down at the ground, and then he looked up. There was a devious smile on his face, similar to that of a spider who had successfully trapped its prey into its web.

“Idiot? Yeah, you’re right. You are not an idiot,” Zero said. “I mean, you are even more stupid than an idiot!” saying that Zero broke out into a sarcastic laugh.

Seeing that made Akumi even more frustrated. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, staring at Zero with bloodshot eyes.

“It doesn’t matter what you say, since you are going to die. Laugh all you want, since I’m going to make you go silent forever,” Akumi grumbled.

“We’ll see,” Zero replied, looking at him with that same devious smile.

That crossed the line for Akumi. He again moved forward, dashing toward Zero at an insane speed. He was just as fast as before, Zero didn’t have the time to properly defend himself. And this attack was targeted toward his neck so if the defense failed he was surely going to die.

However, even though Zero did not have the time to defend himself with his sword. He did have the time to utter a single word.

“Eclipse,” he said.