Chapter 61: Unbelievable Victory

Chapter 61: Chapter 61: Unbelievable Victory

Mira leaned in close to Victor. "How’d we figure out the gap?"

"We lucky guess," he muttered, eyes still on the D–Rankers.

"Lucky guess?" Her eyes widened. ’In a life or death battle?’

Victor understood her worry. But he could not help it. At heart, he was still a gamer, and this was how they did things.

Test the waters until something clicks right.

"We just need to make him use it again. And again." Victor was already turning back toward the D-Rankers. "Just keep your right hand open for me."

She frowned, confused, but didn’t argue, already diving back toward Cleaver.

Mira moved like a blur around the old man, a punch here, a feint there, testing him, probing for the rhythm of his limitations.

He was fast for his age, faster than he had any right to be with one arm.

Then again, these men were most likely of the first generation of Rankers. Even though they had not been in gates for a long time, the brutal battles they fought back then had not left their muscle memory.

Fortunately, Mira was faster still, closing distance and pulling back before he could land anything clean with the pole.

Then she saw her opening. A clean shot, fingers stiffened, aimed to drive straight into his chest.

Bam. The hit made contact.

Cleaver leaped back, creating distance to buy some time.

And just as he grabbed his chest in pain, he activated it again.

The world around him froze, then rippled back.

Three seconds gone.

Things went back to the way they were three seconds ago, before her hand moved.

Victor caught it from the corner of his eye even mid-fight, he was trying to track the pattern. Yes, it was straining on his mind because Berserker was active, but then again, he had a gamer’s mind.

Straining the mind was kind of like their thing.

That was three seconds again. Is it a fixed number of seconds or... no. If it were fixed, they wouldn’t have wasted time before. Also, he looks to be sweating more than before.

A punch landed on Victor’s face, causing him to stagger backwards. Fortunately, Berserker came with pain resistance.

"It seems we are not beating you enough. You even allow your attention slip from us." Tommy stated.

But Victor did not mind their nagging. Cleaver was the most important element in this fight. Besides, he had aces he was yet to use.

He looked towards Mira. From the continous fighting, it seemed her body had fully woken up from the Dreamer, and that was why she was giving this old Veteran tough time.

And just like that, another opportunity presented itself.

This time around, she gave a round house kick to the side without an arm.

Clever gritted his teeth, but the sharp angle she attacked from, blocking was not possible.

’I’ll just take the hit and use it again.’ He concluded. Just as he did, he leaped backwards again.

Two seconds.

Victor caught it. But on his side something happened.

The other D-Ranker in front of him, threw a heavy swing Victor had to admit he had not seen coming.

It was not like the last one. This one could knock him out of the fight. Victor sensed it before it landed.

His hand flared gray, and his Stoneskin blessing flared up his forearm just in time.

But he did not just absorb the blow, but turned it back. The man’s knuckles CRACKED audibly against the stone-hard skin.

Victor grinned. So I can also use it to attack? And here I thought Stoneskin was just for defending.

He had been surpressing the passive function of the blessing during the battle, simply to take them by surprise. And also because of the limitations it had.

With the hand still hardened, he swung back, catching the man’s jaw with the same fist.

CRACK.

The guy staggered back, jaw hanging loose and broken.

Cleaver saw this and activated his ability again.

And this time, Victor fully understood.

So the longer the rewind, the longer the cooldown that followed. Meaning a full four or five seconds of rewind time will cost him real recovery time. But a short burst, one second, or maybe one and a half, could probably be chained back-to-back almost immediately.

Victor clearly saw that just as he guessed, the skill wasn’t limitless.

It scaled with use, and worse, it needed Cleaver’s attention locked onto whatever he was rewinding, which meant right now his focus was split between two fights at once.

That was the gap.

Victor grinned. And then he screamed.

"RIGHT HAND!"

Mira spun on instinct, hand already open.

Victor’s fingers waved in the air, as his double-edge axe was pulled from his inventory. He flung it, and it landed perfectly in her palm.

She didn’t hesitate. In one fluid motion she stepped behind Cleaver and swung low, severing one leg at the knee in a single clean arc.

Cleaver’s eyes went wide. He reached for his ability, desperately.

Of course, it worked.

But just as he tried to create distance again, Victor’s voice came.

"Don’t let him!"

Mira followed, her eyes betraying her excitement.

The axe came down again. Cleaving his leg a second time.

And at the same time, Victor went low, a kick powered by Stoneskin, kicking Tommy’s knee, breaking it in an unusual angle.

"Tommy!" Cleaver called.

"You should worry more about yourself." Mira advised, severing the second leg.

Cleaver tried his ability again. Instead, he coughed a mouthful of blood.

’Damn it. I can’t use it on me or Tommy. There is no cooldown to draw from.’

He crumpled to the ground, legs gone, blood pooling fast beneath him.

"BOSS!" the remaining D-Ranker screamed.

Too late. Victor was already on him.

Stoneskin and Berserker were both still active, and all it took was one punch caving in a rib, and a follow-up strike that dislocated an arm. The man dropped, joining the others on the concrete.

All three lay bleeding, and defeated.

Victor let Berserker fade, and as the strength drained out of his limbs all at once, exhaustion crashed down in its place.

It felt slightly worse than usual.

This was because every time Cleaver had rewound time around Victor, it had dragged him backward too, stealing seconds that quietly stacked up against his own cooldown.

Still, with the numbers and the odds stacked against them, they somehow won.

(Author’s note: My brain hurt thinking up this scene. But I am glad it came out good. Remember to continue with the encouragement. And thank you for your love and time.)