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—
"HUPP!"
/BAM!/
'The battle continued, mighty blows were exchanged every minute, but it soon became clear who had the upper hand.'
'Despite its clear continuous regeneration rendering its foe's strikes useless, the Swamp King saw itself unable to completely melt down the annoying fly constantly buzzing around and hurting it every moment it scraped by.'
'The insect constantly zipped around, evading critical strikes while also regenerating and reconstructing its body, seemingly unaffected by its poison and corrosion.'
/Shatter.../
'Meanwhile… After several minutes had passed outside of the Spring, the Swamp King's regenerative proprieties… Began to take a turn for the worse.'
/SLASH!/
/BREAK!/
'As the injuries in its body began to accumulate, the little fly grew bolder and bolder, taking deeper, longer cuts throughout the extent of its body. Ripping apart its scales and teeth, slashing its eyes and nose. Playing with its senses, toying with its size.'
'Without it knowing, the battle dragged on so much that now… They arrived at the edge of the Swamp, the furthest point from the Source of the Spring of Life.'
'The Swamp King noticed this change, as its connection to the Spring was still there.'
'Its body sustained itself by absorbing the Vitality contained in the shallow rivers and ponds on the ground, but now, here, away from the caustic swamp, the Swamp King saw itself… Stranded.'
'The ground was dry and desolate.'
/SLASH!/
/ROAARRR!/
'The moment it realized something was off, Silver acted. Or better put, that was how he fought all this time.'
'Whenever the beast felt something was wrong, Silver struck with a mighty attack, pouring his Plasmids to the utmost power, diverting the attention of the snake towards him as he knew that the moment it realized what he was doing, it would immediately turn tail and flee to the center of the Swamp once more.'
'All it would take for the snake to render his efforts futile would be a singular jump, like a spring, back to the pond it called home.'
'The Swamp King may be large, but it was much faster than the ordinary eye could perceive; its wide and clumsy movements may be predictable to him, but they all broke the sound barrier, its speed and might unmatched in these lands.'
'Before he leveled up, Silver lifted a portion of Ishtar's tower with his telekinesis, but for such a gargantuan monster, even with his current Level, he was on the fence on whether he could stop it from going where it wanted to or not.'
'So before it could do anything, Silver swung his hand down as it began to transform.'
/SLICE!/
'The air momentarily shook, vibrating under the push of a strange force…'
/Splatter!/
'Light seemed to twist as something violently cut through the flesh and bones of the beast, unlodging a massive portion of the Monster's tail straight from its body!'
/BOOOOOOOOM!/
'Simultaneously, a powerful explosion rang underneath its body! Shatering much of its protective barrier.'
/ROAAARRR!/
'The Swamp King roared in agony as the entire tip of its tail was suddenly cut from its flesh!'
'Blood poured like rivers from its wound, the remaining healing power from the Spring too insignificant to heal the wound on time, only stopping the blood loss after a few seconds.'
'However, even if the beast was within the Spring, would it still heal the wound?'
/SLAM!/
/SPLATTER!/
'Before the Swamp King had any chance to process the pain, Silver concentrated the remaining of his Magic Power onto his right fist, delivering a crushing blow straight onto the back of the Monster's head, pushing it straight onto a large stone spike he raised while it was distracted!'
/Crush!/
'Silver didn't stop, immediately falling onto the beast's head, stomping it further onto the spike, albeit the stone underneath the Swamp King had long given out due to the sturdiness of its body.'
'Even so, the injury intensified, and so did its pain.'
/CRACK!/
/RAMPAGE!!/
"ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!"
'The Swamp King squirmed, its giant body dancing on the edge of the Swamp, razing everything around it to dust and splinters.'
'Its sudden movement jolted Silver straight onto the clouds, where he calmly began assessing the situation as he burst through the rainclouds like a torpedo.'
/Thunder.../
'The starry sky now above him, he looked at the world bellow as rumbling thunder echoed around him.'
"..."
'He looked at the distance, noticing how Belthane was now flaring with lights, some of them fast approaching through the forest…'
It seems they've woken up. Those lights are probably the city soldiers moving on with those two, maybe even…
'But he discarded those thoughts, focusing on his battle instead.'
/Gulp…/
'He quickly drank a Mind potion as he flew in the air, his headache intensifying by the second even as he tried to recover.'
'He threw the empty bottle inside his pocket space before exhaling out loud, cracking his neck as he cleaned some sweat from his forehead.'
Arg, my head…
No matter how much I strain myself, I never grow out of this darned sensation.
What I wouldn't give for... Sigh. It doesn't matter.
... Then again, I tried something a little too complex this time.
'Space and time, complex subjects often at the center of lengthy discussions, their nature and composition, forms and shapes, beginning and end, beyond our understanding.'
'Was time real or an illusion from the Human mind? What was space, and what was the fabric that reality was built upon like? Was there even such a thing, or was it merely a conceptual idealization for our feeble minds to grasp and understand the world they were contained in?'
'After all, the Human mind can only understand what it can think about; concepts and ideas beyond its limits of visualization are often discarded or thrown away to preserve its fragile integrity.'
'Silver spent a long time researching both subjects… He and many others, of course.'
'He, as much as he was a product of hard work, was a result of the efforts of many, even if those who helped him were only able to do so because he gave them the chance to shine and pursue their dreams and goals.'
'Even so, he had no definite answer to any of those questions, mind you. But he deeply understood many of the particles in this immaculate tapestry that was our universe.'
'At least… He believed he did. How far he actually knew only went as far as the answers he arrived at. Many questions remained locked away at the corners of his mind as he drew his final breaths in that ludicrous world…'
'And awakened here, where Gods walked freely.'
'Anyhow, teleporting around, himself or others, was far beyond what his Plasmids could do. He just couldn't influence the world further due to the changes in their fundamentals.'
'Now, after so much struggle, he was finally able to perform some of the feats of his past life, even if in a smaller, more controlled environment.'
'Silver couldn't shatter space to see what lay beyond it, but he could still do many things with it.'
'To stretch and contort its fabric... Even if at the expense of his mental fortitude…'
/ROAARR!/
"You're not helping." He said as he touched his head, still freefalling from the sky.'
'Silver shook his head as he cleared his ears, took a deep breath, and turned to face the Swamp King on the ground.'
"!"
/SHUA!/
'At that moment, he saw with horror as the large snake suddenly bolted back to the Swamp's center, and he immediately tensed his muscles as he clenched his teeth.'
That's bad!
'At that angle, the Swamp King would completely trample over the fast-approaching team, piercing through the forest, and if by any chance the priestess was with them, then their backup plan would be crushed into mush.'
'Even if she weren't there, although he believed those soldiers were stupid for leaving the safety of the city's walls, it would still leave a bad taste in his mouth for letting them die like that.'
'So he vanished from his position, leaving behind a faint ripple in the air as he reappeared hundreds of meters away, directly before the slithering beast.'
...
"Stop right there!" He exclaimed with anger as he raised both of his hands, using his telekinesis to push the beast away
/SLITHER!/
"!"
/BLAST!/
'But like an unstoppable train, the Swamp King burst through Silver's telekinesis, causing magical power to rampage through the surroundings as he was blasted out of its path.'
/Shuuaaa.../
/Splatter!/
'His right hand burst apart as the recoil from the Magical Power raged through his veins, but it was quickly suppressed as his hand morphed once more, releasing steam into the atmosphere as it grew red momentarily.'
"Dammit!"
/Crunch.../
'Silver invoked greater changes in his body, and the environment replied in kind.'
'From his shoulder down to his arms, his skin transformed as stone-like protrusions rose from his bones, piercing his skin and reacting with the air, causing them to shatter and float around him like discs around a planet.'
/RISE!/
/CRACKLE!/
'Dozens of stone spikes rose from the ground on the snake's path, forcing it to either slam onto or evade them.'
/BLAST!/
/BOOM!/
/CRASH!/
'But without hesitation, the Swamp King slammed its heavy body against most of the spikes, sustaining little damage; however, it did evade a few of the larger spikes.'
'And even if little, when these obstacles accumulated, they slowed it down considerably. Giving Silver enough opportunity to reappear before it and hold onto its chin…'
"HUPP!"
/SHAAAAA!!/
'He only uttered a weak grunt as he mustered his physical strength to its maximum potential, shoving his feet onto the earth, leaving behind a lengthy trail.'
/KICK!/
/SLAM!/
'With a mix of his Plasmids and physical strength, Silver kicked the Swamp King's head above the ground!'
*Teleport!*
'Silver teleported once more, reappearing before the Swamp King's head as it flew in the air.'
/BLAST!/
/CRUSH!/
'A powerful explosion rang in the sky beside the Swamp King's body, and its head was soon seen crashing back onto the earth, where it slid off for a few dozen meters more before it stopped.'
/Vanish!/
'Silver teleported again, reappearing before the beast's rear end.'
/Crunch…/
'The ground around the Swamp King cracked as Silver's Plasmids began to get a hold of it.'
"Urg… Come on… HUPP!"
'His entire body was tensed to such a degree his veins were about to pop all over, but Silver performed his craziest feet of strength yet.'
/Raise…/
/BOOOOOOOOOM!/
'He pulled the entirety of the Swamp King's body with his telekinesis and slammed it against the ground behind him!'
"FALL DOWN!!" He exclaimed as his hands twisted
/Crash!!/
'The beast fell with a meteoric crash, and this time, it did not recover as quickly as before.'
'The Spring's power was slowly wearing off... That much was obvious due to its weakening disposition and the very Swamp they stood on.'
/Shine.../
'It wasn't clear to notice from the Swamp King's poison, but the Spring of Life was already showing signs of purification.'
'The beast now outside of the source, the Spring's endless vitality began working its magic, purifying much of the land every second, returning the lake to its previous immaculate translucent appearance.'
'But even so, the Swamp King was far from done…'
/Open…/
"?!"
'The Swamp King's body suddenly began to twist unnaturally, and amidst its rolls and coils, the beast quickly moved its body, revealing its open jaw directly to Silver.'
'Power began to gather within the depths of its throat as he felt a strange surge of energy come from deep within its body.'
'He was ready to evade it, but then, he noticed what would happen…'
'Behind him, he heard the echoes of footsteps in the damp ground amidst the rain and, further back, the echoes of worry and fear of the people of Belthane.'
'Amidst the chaotic fight, the Swamp King pushed him into a corner.'
'Evade, and everything you were fighting to protect would vanish.'
'Stay, and become dust!'
'Even if this was but a prank from fate… Silver had to face it.'
'Belthane was right behind, and the Swamp King was about to release its strongest attack.'
'But if he stayed…'
/JET!/
'In that split second of hesitation, purple light covered the horizon…'
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Notes