After the clash, Tobey raised his head slowly. He was looking at the ground before for some reason. Probably, he looked down at the last second by instinct, afraid of the result of his bold actions. He was happy for still having his head attached to his neck, for feeling his heart throbbing wildly inside his chest, and also feeling his legs.
'Okay, I am not beheaded, nor crippled, and my heart is still here. I am still seeing my arm, which is in the right place,' he thought.
[Man! I thought that we were going to die a while ago! I like this craziness of yours but, please, hold yourself when you are going to do this kind of sh*t, or at least warn me first. Don't try to just look cool, okay? There is not a woman anywhere here to see your courageous acting.] Mask said, both relieved for still having his body and angry for the freak.
Tobey was going to answer that, but couldn't follow up with a rational line of thought as he felt an incredible amount of pain in his sides.
That pain was enough to break his stance. He moved his hand towards his left side and pressed against it slightly, feeling that a serious wound was there. A profound cut was made by that powerful blow; he felt that even his ribs got broken, such was the power behind it.
The demon bent forward slightly as the pain made him lose all the air he had in his lungs. His legs were trembling as they got weak, and he needed to fight the urge to fall on his knees and rest them. He felt like vomiting as well as that unbearable feeling got him nauseous.
'I never had a wound on this level before... It's so painful that I think I would prefer to have been beheaded. Maybe like this, I wouldn't feel this way.'
Tobey gritted his teeth as he firmly planted his feet on the ground, turning around to look at Roger who was standing in the same position as when he finished the attack. In a startle, he began to move again. That was a point that Tobey made sure to note as it probably would be useful afterward.
'Judging by the amount of time I spent wincing in overwhelming pain, he spent nearly one minute in complete idleness. The reason for this? I still need to discover, but I have a guess.'
[It's very obvious from my point of view, but I will let you struggle with it for the time being,] Mask said, chuckling. [Now that I am sure you won't die immediately, I can joke around a little bit, right? Anyway, it's worth noting that you are bleeding a lot. I shall emphasize that this wound is still enough to give you trouble, despite you being in Demon Form.]
'Am I really bleeding this much? It is hurting a lot, so I can't even feel the blood running. And I am so nauseous that I can't even look directly at the wound for too much time.'
[Yeah, I bet you can't feel it through your palm as well, even though you are pressing it against the wound. You are really messed up due to the pain. Such a softy...]
'I shall remember you that I was a twenty-three-year-old man that lived as a normal human, Mask! This kind of wound you would only get by, I don't know, getting hit by a car or something?'
Roger stood in a more relaxed position. He was panting slightly, but already recovering his breathing. He was still holding the spear firmly, wearing a complicated expression.
"H-How could you...?"
"Did you really think that I was going to wait on the same spot for nothing? Did you think that I would give up so easily? C'mon, Roger, you know me better than anyone else. You should suppose that it was a trap of some sort. You underestimated me just because I still am not a high-graded demon, nor have much experience with this stuff."
After talking so much, Tobey winced in pain again, letting his dagger fall unwillingly. Before it even fell to the ground, 1/3 of the blade got separated from the rest, shattering completely.
"You deliberately made me hit the tip of your dagger, so I wouldn't shatter this Soul Mirror entirely and my attack would change directions slightly, just by some degrees...", Roger's face darkened as he noticed how masterful Tobey's actions were.
However, the surprises didn't end there.
"I think you should stop looking at my Soul Mirror and pay attention to yours, instead," Tobey said as he crouched carefully on the ground to took his broken dagger from the ground.
Roger diverted his look towards the leaf-shaped blade of Caelum, only to see that it had a crack on it. With a slight movement, a little shard popped out from the tip of the blade, and Roger watched it fall in slow motion until it hit the ground and seemed to produce a sound louder than their previous clash.
Of course, that scene was caused by his shocked mind, though the fragment really fell to the ground.
"This... This should be impossible. I am an A-grade paladin. My power is far superior to yours! Way, way superior, a galaxy of distance! How could you even scratch my Soul Mirror?"
As Tobey took his dagger and got up slowly, panting hard due to the blood loss and the pain he was feeling, he explained with a smile on his face.
"Isn't it easy to figure out?"
He showed the dagger to Roger.
"That's the ability of this dagger. I will call it Mirror Shattering, just to have a cool name for some demonic thing I make. I have been trying to figure out how to do it, and I think I more or less got the hang of it!"
Roger instinctively took a step back, and his eyes widened.
"What? How come? Such a powerful Curse, as if it was precisely made to kill paladins or even demons... What kind of creature you are?"
"Well, I don't know either, but I was born with it, so it has nothing to do with me."
Roger was flabbergasted at that new information. He had heard other paladins commenting about certain events that happened during the very first chase of Tobey. They said that his dagger was capable of shattering Soul Mirrors that were stronger than his. However, some others denied it after fighting against him and seeing that it was not that harmful.
'He wasn't hiding his strength at all. Tobey doesn't know anything about his own powers, that's all. The truth is that he learned recently how to pull up this trump, and that's what he did right now. However, for such a strong Curse to work, he needs a condition, an effect, and a countereffect.
'Just what is this condition and how much does he need to pay to have such a strong and impressive effect?' he thought, gritting his teeth.
"Are you really trying to start a contest here over who can shatter the other's Soul Mirror first? Isn't it very reckless considering how much you harmed my blade and how much harm yours received?" Roger asked, after taking a fighting stance again.
"Yes. You got it! Wanna bet who's gonna do it first?" Tobey said, though his voice was failing so it didn't sound too cool. "Why are you hesitating right at the good part, Roger!?"
After saying that, Tobey charged forward. Roger wasn't expecting that, so he changed his fighting stance in a start, taking a step backward and dodging one of Tobey's swings. However, the demon's assault continued as he slashed and pierced the air with his dagger, making the man back away for a moment.
When Roger noticed his intentions, he attacked Tobey with a quick lunge. Caelum's blade couldn't even be seen with the human eye, such was the speed of the attack.
Surprisingly, Tobey dashed to the side, avoiding the blade by inches, yet getting scratched on the temple.
'Damn it! I let my Soul Mirror open to receive attacks! I won't be fast enough to pull it before he attacks the blade again!'
Roger was sure that Tobey would use that opportunity to attack his Soul Mirror again and get a clean hit there. Nonetheless, he was mistaken.
Instead of following what Roger predicted, the demon continued pressing forward.
'W-What!?'
With a strong thrust, he stuck the dagger on Roger's belly, in an opening between his metal plates.
Roger roared with anger and spun his body, not only causing the dagger to leave his flesh, but also using the momentum to deliver a kick on Tobey's right side that sent him rolling on the ground for some meters.
As Tobey got up, Roger looked at the wound he left on his belly with a frustrated expression. He thought he would leave that battle unscathed, but the various surprises of that battle were hindering his progression.
'I didn't want to be that relentless with him. I thought that I could end it with one blow. However, even though I will make him suffer a lot, I think that's the only way,' Roger thought as he frowned hard and pressed the wound in his belly, his wrath increasing bit by bit.