Being a Special Category Calamity did not mean that he was stronger than the previous three categories, it was just a special name for his unique abilities.
For example, the boy 6 years ago was a special category, but his level was on par with a first-rank second category calamity.
However, considering the strength of the recent shot of the tribal calamity in front of him, Nathan guessed that he must be a second-rank first category calamity.
Nathan thought of a name for the special category calamity, the flautist who continued to watch him in silence.
A few seconds later, he lowered his stance and ran towards Nathan with his arms outstretched.
Nathan did not dare to face the calamity's attacks directly, he had learned from Boreas' attacks that it was suicide to face a being stronger than himself directly. The good thing was that Nathan could die an infinite number of times to learn his opponent's moves.
But even that did not give him an advantage over his opponent.
As soon as the flautist brought both arms down in an attempt to cut Nathan, Nathan stepped back and blocked another incoming attack.
For a few moments, Nathan seemed to be on the defensive, he had suffered no wounds, but his hands felt numb from the force behind the calamity attacks.
But the flautist gave him no time to rest. The calamity knew it had the advantage over the human in front of it, and it was not going to give him any room to recover.
Nathan kept thinking about how he could find a way to hit him and use his technique, but even though the flautist kept leaving open spaces for him to attack, Nathan was unable to take advantage of them.
Their speeds were almost equal, but if Nathan tried to attack, he would leave his side defenseless.
They fought for almost a minute, but with each passing second Nathan realized that his chances of winning were nil if he continued as he was.
He fought off an attack and quickly backed away as he sighed.
'I need to be more aggressive'
Nathan hadn't died once in this fight, but he was going to change that.
He shifted his stance, holding the katana in one hand while leaving the other free. The flautist was unperturbed by Nathan's change of stance and continued to attack.
The calamity attacked Nathan's free arm, who only counter-attacked while waiting for the calamity's next attack.
The flautist launched a vertical attack with his other sword, Nathan dodged dangerously close to him on the right, only to see the calamity's other sword come at his head, cutting his neck in a single stroke.
A few seconds later, Nathan dodged again the calamity's vertical attack, but this time he already knew about the other attack, so he feinted and successfully dodged the flautist second attack, which left an opening in his defense that Nathan took advantage of.
Sliding the edge of his sword along the left side of the calamity's torso, Nathan inflicted a flesh wound.
He realized that not only was the calamity's strength superior to his, but its endurance was on a different level. Nathan's attack had only penetrated a few centimeters, but it had succeeded.
Nathan watched as the flautist looked at his wound for a few seconds before attacking him again, this time a little more desperately.
Nathan smiled at the fact that his method had worked, but he had a bigger problem, and that was that he was getting tired as time went on.
He didn't know how much longer he could keep fighting, and the flautist didn't give him a chance to check on his teammates.
Maybe they were already dead, or maybe they had finished fighting the other calamities and would come to his aid.
But Nathan wasn't going to rely on the help of the others, he didn't know if he would be victorious or not, but he would do everything in his power to put an end to the calamity in front of him or die knowing that he was outmatched.
Breathing a little harder, Nathan returned to the fight against the calamity.
Indeed, the flautist attacks were more erratic and haphazard, as he tried to finish off his opponent more quickly. While blocking an attack, Nathan noticed that there was more power behind each blow than before, as if the calamity wanted to finish him off faster, at the cost of tiring faster.
This was both good and bad for Nathan. On the one hand, the flautist would leave more openings for him to exploit, but on the other, he would have to be more wary of attacks that he could not block and that would overwhelm him.
The fight continued, Nathan using his premonition to find openings in the Calamity's defenses, while the calamity began to feel an unfamiliar pressure inside him.
Nathan's breathing was already heavy, there were several cuts on his body from attacks he had been unable to dodge, his legs ached from all the movement, but his opponent had wounds as well.
The calamity was still standing on its two legs, but there were almost a dozen cuts all over its body. It seemed that his strength had only diminished a little, but Nathan had noticed that with each new wound, his strength was slowly diminishing.
Nathan smiled slightly from behind his mask.
'Ahh... it work'
The flautist looked a little confused and his attacks occasionally stalled. For the first time, Nathan saw how his attacks managed to induce the terrifying state to a calamity.
He would laugh if he were in a position to do so, but the battle was not yet over and even if the flautist was feeling fear, his objective had not changed.
Nathan braced himself, knowing that the next few minutes would determine the outcome of the battle, and tightened his grip on his sword.
The flautist growled slightly and ran towards Nathan again, looking for more opportunities to attack and cause more fear.
A minute later, the wounds on both their bodies had doubled. Nathan's entire left arm was numb, and he could only use his right.
Meanwhile, the flautist had a slightly lame leg and one of his bone swords had been destroyed.
The calamity looked increasingly worried and, above all, terrified at Nathan. Its attacks were much weaker than they had been in the beginning, and now it was just fighting to survive.
Nathan took advantage of this weakness, and for the first time since the battle began, it was he who ran to attack calamity.
The flautist defended himself against Nathan's attack and with his free arm he caught Nathan's neck, the calamity smiled as he saw that he had caught his prey. He tightened his grip, but his remaining strength was not enough to break the human's neck, so he lowered his sword again to cut it.
Nathan waited for this moment, and with all his remaining strength he pushed his legs backwards. The muscles in his calves swelled like never before and his face behind his mask was red from the effort.
Thanks to the calamity's state of fear, it was not thinking properly as before, so although the neck of its target was still in its hand, the target of its sword was now not Nathan's head but his own arm, but by the time it realized this it was too late.
The calamity sliced off its own arm, screaming in pain, while Nathan ignored the pain in his neck and the loss of air he felt before turning the flautist around and driving his sword into the calamity's chest with all the strength he had left.
For a few seconds, they both remained still and silent, before the body of the Calamity fell to the ground, sinking slightly into the water of the swamp.
Nathan stood still as he staggered slightly, looked at the corpse of calamity and then picked up his sword before turning to support his team, but his legs failed him and his eyes began to lose their sparkle.
But Nathan bit his lips hard and regained some vision.
'I can't faint now...'
He lifted his head slightly to check on the state of his group, only to see the few remaining calamities being wiped out by Maya's fists and the soldier's attacks.
Nathan sighed with the knowledge that they had won this battle and turned back to the flautist body.
Crouching in front of him, Nathan dipped his hand into the water and dug for a few seconds before pulling out a wooden flute.
'This is my reward'