The first thought that entered Paul's head was. 'A shapeshifter!'
There were humanoid demonic beasts in the world, Paul already read about them in the comic books that his mom bought for him and his sister when they were younger, but none of the weaker ones had such intelligence in their eyes.
In the comic books, a demonic beast only gains intelligence after becoming a Demon, awakening the demonic power to command a legion of its own.
In that moving image that flashed in his head through his foresight, staring into the intelligent eyes of that humanoid beast, Paul had no delusions that it was a Demon ranked beast coming after him, this was a human!
This was the only reason why he survived.
It was just 5 days but in 5 days, Paul had fought against so many awakened warriors who fought with the blade that he already had a good grasp of the easiest moves for a blade-wielding awakened to kill him.
Technically, the claws of a beast could not be classified as a blade but when this beast was a humanoid one, things were a bit different.
And in the image showed by his foresight, the beast went for his head.
This was why he could tell immediately what angle the claws of the monster were slashing from, and at what speed and force they would hit him at to behead him with the greatest efficiency.
Paul had less than a second after his foresight triggered to arrive at all these conclusions, but thankfully, his exhausted brain was just coming right out of the most intense and elongated battle of his life.
The adrenaline may have left, but his brain was still drunk in the frenzy of murder, this was why he could switch back so easily.
Moving his head to the side just slightly, Paul felt it.
Bam!
For a brief moment after the collision, he felt his world turn dark.
Only two of the deadly claws of this beast managed to catch him by the neck, penetrating and drawing blood but it was enough to leave him dizzy. Yet thankfully, the claws did not cut his throat, the only reason why he was still alive.
At this moment, Paul was under the golden rays of the sun, exactly what he needed as immediately, a golden brilliance shone near his neck.
He was already using his healing God power to heal.
Whoosh!
Paul felt the air flow change, the enemy was coming back!
In one smooth motion, he retrieved his Stilettos from their sheath in his brown leather armor before blocking towards the right.
BAM!
Crckkk!!!
The loud sound of metal scratching against metal reverberated as Paul saw slight cracks appear in the surface of his Stilettos for the first time.
Seeing those cracks, his eyes narrowed, turning cold.
Stilettos were not meant to be used as blocking weapons. They were thin, fragile, and were weapons meant for stabbing, any rough and rigorous use could easily end up with them cracking.
Paul knew all these, after all, he had been practicing with his teacher's book for over 5 days, yet he was forced to block with the Stilettos.
This was because, he could not see his enemy.
For some reason, his enemy was an invisible one.
Yet, at that moment, Paul already entered the clarity of combat again. This was why even without seeing his opponent, he retreated from where his senses told him that his general direction was.
Whoosh!
The air flow changed again, the invisible enemy was already moving again!
Badump! Badump!
Paul could feel his heart beating rapidly on his chest again.
'What is this?' He gritted his teeth. 'This phobia…, I was not feeling this even when I went up against 20 assassins, why am I feeling this fear against him?'
'Is it because he is invisible?'
Yes.
A visible enemy you could fight, a visible enemy you could predict and create counters against, but against an invisible enemy? All your prior knowledge of combat becomes void if you've never fought one before.
How do you even begin to track the movement of an invisible enemy?
Through the airflow? Too unreliable.
Through his footsteps? This invisible enemy was an absolute master of his craft, he was like a ghost, leaving no trace, no footsteps, no sound.
He was the perfect assassination machine.
Bam!
The invisible enemy attacked again but not helped by his foresight this time, despite reacting to block and dodge, there was only so little Paul could do as the claws of his enemy finally clawed deep into his shoulders, clawing away a sizeable chunk of flesh with it.
"Ugh!" Groaning, Paul rolled backward rapidly to generate distance.
This was the wrong move. He barely rolled when something sharp, something not claws slashed across his back with ruthless intent, leaving a gaping wound across his back.
"…!" Paul opened his mouth and gasped in pain.
He looked, yet he found nothing. He grimaced; even this invisible enemy's weapons were invisible too!
'F*ck!' Paul cursed, managing to stay calm.
With his Stilettos in his hand after getting back to his feet, he stood still, observing his surroundings with absolute focus.
Bam!
Paul winced as another invisible weapon cut the back of his ankle.
'Don't look!' He thought but instinctively, he looked at his bleeding leg only to feel the air flow again.
BAM!
This time, the lethal sharp claws got him square on the face, almost ripping his whole face off if he didn't raise one of his Stilettos to block in time.
Crack!
That Stiletto shattered from the force.
Watching his trusted weapon shatter in countless shards, Paul winced in pain, more pain than the physical pain his body endured.
Physical pain was already normal to him.
"Show yourself!" He growled before lunging wildly with his last surviving Stiletto, unleashing a deadly stab forward but he could only stab empty space.
In retaliation, another invisible weapon cut his abdomen.
'It's a dagger'. Paul thought.
At this moment, Paul badly wanted to take a moment off and think to analyze his current situation, his enemy, and his powers but his enemy was not giving him the chance as he stacked on his advantage.
He knew that invisibility was his advantage, and he took advantage of it to devastating effect, dealing countless injuries to Paul in just a few seconds.
Paul barely recovered from the injuries of fighting against over 20 assassins who were of a higher rank than him, now, he faced this, an enigma that caused him even more fear and damage than those assassins.
Paul followed his instincts, trying all he could, yet he could not damage his invisible enemy once, only catching strays as this enemy designed his body with his invisible weapons.
And that was when he thought. 'F*ck it, I need to think'.
Paul stood still, abandoning defense as he forcefully removed the phobia of his enemy from his mind and simply activated his God power of healing, letting it run on overdrive as he burned his God essence rapidly like it was running through a sieve.
This would buy him a few seconds to think.
He needed to think.