Currently, the two were in such a state that they were incredibly sensitive to time's movements.
Their perception was amplified greatly, and a single second stretched...
Their spirits were powerful, so one second was already perceived much differently compared to normal humans.
And now, when they were at the climax of battle...
Currently, it was as if time had come to a halt, the rays of sunlight cascading down the skies were usually unseen by the mortal eyes but now they appeared like golden stairways to ascend heaven.
The two groups of blood, one group, just coughed up into the space before him, another, coughed onto Nickyle some seconds ago, now suddenly seemed to resonate with each other.
The two mouthfuls became one and bubbled like a pot of boiling water.
Immediately, Nickyle's subconsciousness, previously dormant, blasted awake, sending warning signals to his brain akin to a bank's alarm coming to life when there was a robbery.
It was instinctive.
Showcasing a speed of reaction beyond anything capable by mortals, and simultaneously, a level of flexibility inhuman in nature, Nickyle twisted his body mid-air, evading a just crystalized blood spear.
But the blood spear that whizzed past him just stopped abruptly, as if it held no momentum in the first place.
The spear's head switched places as it darted towards Nickyle once again.
Nickyle's spirit worked on overdrive as he burnt away at the power within what he had extracted from his principle.
As gravity worked its wonders, pulling at his body from the air, he showed the world a set of bizarre twists and turns, spinning his body in ghostly ways, without any footing whatsoever, he evaded an oddly agile and lightning quick blood spear.
As if reaching a limit, cracks began appearing on the blood spear, not long after it appeared.
A proper second hadn't even passed, and yet it seemed to have run out of fuel.
Before Nickyle's relieved eyes, the blood spear fragmented into dozens of shards, falling to the ground.
But his eyes had just shown relief when they widened in terror.
These shards!...
They burst forth with even greater speeds and darted towards Nickyle.
Puk! Puk! Puk! Puk!
As Nickyle's feet landed on the earth once more, the shards of blood ruthlessly tore apart his body and traversed unimpeded through his worldly form, before they then embedded themselves into the earth below his feet.
"Damn!"
Nickyle cursed aloud, some distance away.
Unexpectedly, he had revealed his full strength.
At the same time, Seth landed onto the ground, circling Nickyle's figure, the one to have been pierced.
Before his eyes, this body began fading away, as if being rubbed off the face of the world by an erasure.
Seth nodded his head and laughed out loud.
"Haha, interesting. Nickyle, good, good," He couldn't help but commend such an ability.
Speed related principles, like any other principle, had many differences with each other.
After all, even if it was the same fundamental principle, it couldn't be the exact same.
From the initial stage of power that one could extract from a speed related principle, two individuals could achieve two differing things.
Nickyle, well, he was able to form afterimages.
'In that timeframe where one's life flashes before their eyes, Nickyle's speed drastically increases, causing an afterimage to form.' Seth mused inwardly.
With his afterimage fading to transparency, a moment of silence descended with the two staring at each other.
They were only thirty or so meters away.
"Oh boy, you hit hard." Seth grinned.
Though it wasn't nowhere near the degree of Anon's Inevitable End, speed related principles had placed so much into speed that it nurtured the other stats, allowing Nickyle's strength and durability to be enough, at least to prevent his body from breaking down under his tremendous speeds.
"And you can take a beating," Nickyle arrogantly asked, "Tell me, who's the weak one?"
"After all, your little blood manipulation has run dry now."
"Hmm…"
Seth squinted his eyes in doubt, and pinched his jaw, raising his head and looking at the sun.
Shifting his gaze from the skies, he blinked a couple of times, mumbling aloud, "This kind of technology has its flaws, but its decent."
"Hahaha…"
Seth ignored Nickyle whilst laughing out loud.
Clasping his hands behind his back, he bent said back and looked closely at the ground.
"There aren't any dogs in this fake world...?"
Nickyle observed Seth silently.
Right now, his heart still thumped from that previous battle.
Though he didn't reveal it, he was really worried about his life at times.
Especially in the end where he revealed his true speed, that was very, very scary.
Acting as if one would be indifferent in the face of death is one's own fantasy, a sick delusion that'd be exposed when one truly entered a life and death event.
Seth raised his head, shifting his gaze from the ground and towards Nickyle.
He slapped himself and snickered, "I'm so stupid, look, the dog's right there."
Right after Seth voiced this, there was an odd silence that subtly began permeating the air.
"You…?"
Nickyle was caught off guard, his brain failing to absorb Seth's words on its first try.
"Is the dog unable to understand my words?" Seth sighed.
He shook his head and continued, "That's a pity, I don't know dog language. How are we to communicate now?!"
Nickyle's eyelid twitched with rage.
Clearly this fellow was simply too confident.
Didn't he just get a beat down?
In fact, some of his bones should be shattered or fractured, and he's really chosen to act through the pain?
What, to keep face?
Fool… Fool!
Nickyle's right foot stretched forward.
In his eyes, the world seemed to be slowing down.
Things usually hidden, unseen, currently revealed themselves.
Time…
The flow of time slowed.
To the untrained eye, it may seem like his single footstep curbed space itself, but he was walking normally, approaching Seth leisurely.
He held no control over time either, just, his principle, even with whatever he could extract, made it appear as if time was plasticine, stretching out infinitely.
Before his eyes, Seth was still stuck in his previous actions.
But that was when it happened.
In this state, where the world seemed slowed down to the extreme, only he should be capable of normal thought, or more accurately, when moving at such speed, only he should be capable of perceiving and thinking at such speed.
Yet, as his eyes met with Seth's seemingly dazed eyes, these dazed eyes grasped clarity.
Those crimson orbs that were previously unmoving, moved.
Seth's eyes smiled at Nickyle.
For Nickyle, in that moment, time truly seemed to come to a halt.
It was a moment that filled him with genuine fear, wherein, he could not move an inch as a spine-tingling chill trickled down his back.
A bubbling sound entered his left ears as the blood that had stained his clothes, neck, and face, suddenly transformed into long, thick, and robust needles.
How many?
Many!
A dozen and a half, or maybe two dozen that stabbed into Nickyle's skin.
Seeping into his body, they melded with his bloodstream, and when that happened, he felt a sudden headache that attempted to explode his mind.
Through his nose, from his ears, seeping out of his pores, and his lips, blood leaked like a flowing river.
Nickyle dropped to his knees as strength escaped his body like air escaping a balloon.
Seth approached Nickyle.
Standing before him, he first glanced at the instructors.
Whether it was Parkinson or Rolan, both stood atop the small mountain with expressionless faces.
Then to the students.
Melissa had turned away whilst Andrew seemed slightly pale.
On the other hand, Catharina was frowning, but her eyes could not hide the disbelief that she felt.
Finally, Anon.
Seth's gaze paused on this boy.
The boy in question was clenching his jaw tightly.
'Angry?'
Seth knitted his brows, confused.
Anon really couldn't help it.
Yawning, his mouth opened so largely that he could've swallowed an apple in its entirety.
Chuckling, Seth's gaze homed in on Nickyle.
Stooping, he placed his palms on the boy's cheeks.
Seth then mouthed something.
Snickering, he said, "I said bark."
Yet, Nickyle couldn't muster the strength to make a whimper, much less bark. His body was trembling without control.
Seth frowned, slapping Nickyle in his face.
Pa! Pa! Pa!
Three consecutive slaps rang out before he stood up and turned his back as if to walk away.
But coming to a halt, he looked over his shoulder before sending out a back heel that landed on the boy's sternum.
A crunching sound echoed into his vicinity.
Still, Nickyle couldn't move his body, nor voice his pain.
Instead, his eyes seemed to have become slightly wet.
Seth tittered at this.
"Separating us is a chasm. This chasm, it isn't something that you can understand."