Charles's POV
Dharmendra screams, "I'll kill you. I'll become fire itself in the process! ONE WITH FIRE!!"
Everytime you use an ability, your attack power is consumed. Just like reality where the longer you fight, the weaker you are. In this world Mana and attack power are one and the same. Makes things more complicated or more simple depending on what you prefer. Personally, it makes things easier. I have fought thousands of battles in duel mode. I have also fought thousands of battles outside duel mode. I have never lost to anyone before and I don't plan on losing now. My health is currently at 50%. One with lightning takes 80% of your remaining hit points so I'll lbs left with just half of what Dharmendra has at the end of my usage of one with lightning. As of now, Dharmendra is faster than me and stronger than me while being one with fire. I have only one choice. I whisper, "One with lightning."
Lightning is faster and more precise than fire. So while I am lightning, I may not be as strong as my enemy but I am much faster than him. I can choose what stat among strength and agility increases by how much when I use any such skill. All of my skills are set such that all the ones that increase a stat increase only my speed. Right now, when I use, One With Lightning, I get 71.5% attack power, since my affinity rose by 2. Thus my agility increases by 71.5%. I don't know Dharmendra's starts right now and I honestly don't care. My agility is currently 4042. That right there is high level Maharathi speed.
Dharmendra used his skill exactly 1 second earlier than I did. At the end of his skill, he will be left 20% health. Maybe twice of mine. But I will have the window of one second to strike him down. Fire and Lightning can't strike each other. Fire is hot and made of plasma. Lightning is very hot and made of ions. Not very different from fire. If I were fighting someone who had Earth or water as their element, I could have destroyed them. If I were fighting wind, I would be destroyed since air is an insulator. But I am facing fire. They are almost neutral to each other. My health is currently 8173 while Dharmendra's is 16345. My lightning stab can deal as much as both our healths combined. So I just have to out run and outlive him for the next 999 seconds and put him down in the thousandth second. If there weren't any Gods then I would have called myself Lightning God when in this mode. The last time I used this, I was so focused on killing others that I didn't really stop to understand the feeling of this skill. So here when I am facing only one man who is also in the same mode and starting each other down, I stop to feel the lightning. Out of this, I always felt lightning cording through my veins, but now, my lightning is my veins. This is something I can't explain with just plain words. The clock is ticking, albeit very slowly. I hear Dharmendra's slow voice, "You think that will save you?" It's obvious he only increases his strength in times like this. There are 994 seconds remaining. I say, "Exactly 990 seconds from now, I will destroy you" As I say that, there are exactly 990 seconds remaining. I charge at him at full speed. But I don't charge in the true sense. It was like I was moving ahead, resting and continuing. One cycle took no more than about one hundred microseconds[1 microsecond = (1/1000000) of 1 second] approximately 0.0001 second. I am travelling about 25 metres in that time frame. When lightning falls down to earth, it travels 30 metres every fifty microseconds or 60 metres in the same time span where I travel 25 metres. When lightning falls down, there is a huge potential difference which is absent so it is harder for me to move around freely. Dharmendra is 75 meters away from me so I reach him in just 300 microseconds. He doesn't even see me coming. He flinches upon being rammed by me but otherwise there is no effect. I go through him as though he is non existent. I stop around 1500 microseconds later. It is very hard to stop in this mode. I am about 300 meters away from Dharmendra right now.
I look back at him and the path behind me. He is slowly turning to look at me. The ground is completely separated along my path. I don't know how I was able to fight so well the last time in this mode. Perhaps it is because the others weren't in it.
Dharmendra says, "Why are you running away like a coward? Fight like a man you jerk!"
He comes running at me to hit me again. I can't help but feel different because I am basically moving like the frames of a motion picture.
I run around Dharmendra in a circle. Dharmendra turns around to follow my movements. The more I go around in a circle the faster I am able to move around. A small smile covers my face. Slowly but surely I am reaching the speed of lightning. I start spiraling towards Dharmendra. He clutches his mace so as to beat me up. He moves in front to confront new and swings his mace at me. At least in his vision. I am already behind him. All he sees are my afterimages at this point. I reach the final point and I use my skill Lightning fist at him. My first makes contact with his head as he is pushed a little but no more. I pass through him again.
This is becoming bad. I have 847 seconds remaining with nothing to do other than weakening him slowly by non existent shots at his face and body. The same goes for him. He has nothing to do either. So I continue assaulting his body going through it every time I do so. He does the same thing as me. I lose health slower than him because I am faster than him. Now it's just a race to see who can dish or more damage in a fist battle.
[ Mythological Titbits: Last time we left off the Mahabharata when Pandu was cursed that he and his partner would for if they became physical. Before that, Pandu was married to Kunti, the foster daughter of king Kuntibhoj and Madri, princess of Madra Kingdom. Once a sage had come to the palace of Kuntibhoj and Kunti had served him very well due to which he gave her a boon that she could get a child from a god upon chanting a mantra that he gave her. Kunti did not believe this at first so to test it out, she prayed to the sun god Surya to give her a child with the mantra she was given. Surya appeared and gave her the boon she wished for. But she was not ready for the responsibility yet so she pleaded to Surya to protect the child as she would be unable to do so. Surya understood what she wished for and blessed the newborn baby with an armor and a pair of ear rings that would grow with him which would protect him from all forms of attacks. Kunti put the boy into a basket and floated him down the river. This boy would be found by a couple of the Shudra caste which was the lowest caste. He would become Karna.
Dhritharasthra was married to Gandhari of Gandhar. Gandhari was a princess who was so afraid of the dark that she would always have bright lamps lit in her chambers even while sleeping. Dhritharasthra was a blind man. Since Gandhari was to be married to him, she took an oath that she would wear a cloth covering her eyes for the rest of her life so she could be like him. Her brother Shakuni was very angry that his sister who was so afraid of the dark was being forced to live her life in it. Shakuni and his father attacked Hastinapura with their army but they were defeated and put in a cellar where each soldier was given just one grain of time per day. All the people have their grain to Shakuni as he was the most clever among them. He vowed revenge on Dhritharasthra on that day. He made a pair of dice from the bones of his dead father which would roll exactly the number that he wished for.
I suppose this much is enough for this chapter. This story shall continue in the next chapter. See you all later.]