Book 3: Chapter 12 (6/12)

Thinking so, Arthur teleported out of his planet then casted [Isolation] spell to isolated black-hair Kain and himself. Black-hair Kain had been preparing for this moment and it didn’t surprise him when he was isolated from Toria Continents for the second time.

Kain saw Arthur created the environment to be just like before, he laughed and said, “History won’t repeat itself. Why don’t you change the environment to be something you can gain an advantage of?”

Arthur squeezed his eyes brown and asked, “You are full of confidence despite being killed by me in here before, aren’t you? Is there a reason for that?”

“We are humans, yeah? Humans have the ability to learn from their mistakes. I made a mistake before that was why I was killed. Like I have said, history won’t repeat itself.”

“You won’t be able to defeat me inside my [Isolation], Kain.”

“Ignorant weakling, not only I will defeat you, but you will die by my spear.”

Kain took the Diamond Ice Spear out of his Magical Storage Ring then pointed it at Arthur and asked, “Shall we start now? Or you would like to bitch some more?”

Arthur also activated his secret codes and his Soul-bound Black Armor, Black Shield, and Black Sword to appear on him. Arthur raised his shield up while activating [Darkness Flood] and said, “Prepare to die again, Kain.”

Arthur thought Kain would be charging toward him but that wasn’t the case. Kain was just staring at Arthur while his spear continued pointing at him. In confusion, Arthur asked, “Aren’t you going to attack?”

“Why should I? You want to defeat me right? Then grow some balls and be the attacker instead. I have wasted too much stamina attacking you in our last battle inside this f*cking stupid isolation world. I won’t make that same mistake again.”

“Kain, staying defensive wouldn’t change anything. Can't you understand that?”

"Yeah yeah..."

Arthur released [Darkness Flood] then activated [Syphon Strike] ability to siphoned Kain toward him while having [Living Shadows] ability ready to be activated. Kain smiled and allowed himself to be pulled toward Arthur as he made the striking stance appear to look like Kain was using the siphoning force created by [Syphon Strike] to help him gain much faster spear striking speed. Arthur thought he knew what Kain was planning and activated [Black Wall] ability then immediately activated [Living Shadows] right after that.

“Huh?” Arthur quickly noticed Kain’s spear striking stance had changed. “Isn’t he supposed to use [Sun Flash] to weaken my [Darkness Flood] and [Living Shadows] then use that opportunity to attack me? Why is he switching to a defensive stance again?”

Regardless of having questions, Arthur continued having his [Living Shadows] attack Kain while having his [Black Wall] ability up just in case Kain had some kind of wicked strategy to backstab him. But that didn’t happen, Kain was a hundred percent focused on blocking instead of attacking. Approximately twenty minutes later, Arthur deactivated his [Black Wall] ability to reserve his stamina then started attacking Kain along with his [Living Shadows]. Kain saw Arthur start attacking him, but he continued to stay defensive instead of countering any attack.

Their physical fight went on for nearly another hour before one of Arthur’s living shadows could successfully slash a cleaver on Kain’s back. Ignored the pain, Kain continued to block and parry attacks instead of aggressively countering as he would normally do.

Over three hours later, Kain had received many injuries but none were life-threatening while Arthur still hasn’t received a single injury yet. Arthur couldn’t understand why Kain was playing defense because that would put him at a bigger disadvantage in the long fight. If Kain was just defending himself for several minutes to find a good opportunity to strike back, then it would be understandable. But that wasn’t the case at all.

Arthur thought to himself, “It has been over four hours and thirty minutes, what is Kain planning? Why didn’t he counter even once? If this keeps going, Kain will bleed to death. And because magic is prohibited so there is no way he could use magic spells such as [Second Life] to revive himself.”

Two more hours have passed. Both Kain and Arthur were extremely tired. Arthur still hasn’t received any injury while Kain received countless minor injuries and two major injuries that could be considered life-threatening. Arthur gave up on thinking about what Kain was planning and decided to finish this battle sooner. Arthur was already very tired, it would be riskier for him to continue attacking while keeping his defense up at the same time because it would cost him more stamina to do so. Kain on the other hand was badly injured, but his stamina seems to be a little higher compared to Arthur because Kain didn’t use any special abilities since the battle started.

Arthur thought, “I see now. Kain wanted to outlast me. That was why he was focusing on reserving stamina despite it would put him at a disadvantage. Because I was too careful by not putting all effort into attacking and kept on raising my defense up furthermore cost me more stamina. At this rate, Kain will outlast and eventually defeat me if this keeps on going longer. Even though he is badly injured at this moment, those injuries can easily be healed as soon as he defeats me and escapes from [Isolation]. Because I thought that Kain had much bigger plans and overlooked such a simple tactic, Kain had fortunately deceived me. There is still time for me to finish this battle as the victor.”

Arthur put all of his remaining stamina into [Darkness Flood] ability and that move helped him raise the strength of all [Living Shadows] to attack harder. Arthur chanted for the secret words for his Soul-bound Black Shield to fly back inside his Magical Storage Ring and started attacking Kain strongly using both hands. In just three minutes, Kain received two more major wounds on his stomach that caused heavy bleeding. Kain’s eyes turned sharper as he fiercely struck his Diamond Ice Spear toward Arthur despite there being many living shadows attacking Kain from behind.

Arthur was happy to see that, he smiled and said, “You finally fight back, but it is too late!”

Even if Kain could overpower Arthur and land an attack on him, it wouldn’t be powerful enough for a fatal attack since Arthur was still having his Soul-bound Black Armor. If Kain was still having a full stamina pool, he could have used it to break through Arthur's Soul-bound Black Armor and then deliver a fatal strike. However, that wouldn't be the case since Kain was extremely exhausted just like Arthur. Just several more successful attacks from the living shadows behind Kain and that would be enough to take his life. Arthur thought of nothing else as he put all of his stamina into that last attack toward Kain to secure Kain's death better. Kain suddenly changed from attacking Arthur into parrying attacks of the living shadows by turning around, exposing his back toward him.