Chapter 368: He was… doing the same thing…

BOOOOOOM

Lucian’s body was thrown downwards.

"Ah... fuck."

He cursed out loud as he continued falling. Then, just as he was about to hit the ground, he used telekinesis to push himself up.

Only this time, because he was under a time constraint, he once again used more force than necessary.

His body jerked upward and as if he was already expecting it, Neroth was waiting, with an unbelievable amount of Energy of Suffering gathered around his fists.

The Archdemon punched down again, Lucian raised a barrier, but he was too late.

The punch appeared before the barrier could form and...

"NO—"

Before Lucian could do anything, it hit Lucian’s face and this time—

BOOOOOOM

Lucian’s head exploded into bits and pieces.

Neroth then kicked the rest of his body back, thinking it was over.

It wasn’t.

THUMP THUMP THUMP

Even when his body was falling back after Neroth kicked him, Lucian’s heart started beating unnaturally fast. Neroth’s face turned grave as suddenly, he noticed Lucian’s neck reforming, then a skull, then his very brain reappearing and rearranging itself right in front of his very eyes.

A cruel look appeared on the Archdemon’s face as he gathered more energy to continue attacking.

He formed another dark sphere and sent it down towards him, wanting to hit him before he could regenerate, only this time, Lucian’s body moved and... it dodged the attack.

That made the Archdemon frown.

How was that...?

Soon, he realised it, Lucian’s brain had reformed.

"YOU FILTHY BASTARD!!!"

Neroth screamed as he gathered more and more energy, then he sent dozens of spheres towards Lucian, wanting to end this.

At this point, Lucian’s head had regenerated.

"Holy..."

His eyes widened the moment they reformed.

This was... an entirely new experience.

He felt like he had just died and returned from death, he felt strangely refreshed, like he had been given something tens of thousands of times stronger than coffee. He wanted to understand what he was currently feeling, just that...

As he looked at the sight in front of him, covered with dozens of black spheres that could make his limbs disappear with the slightest contact—

He needed to move.

So Lucian moved.

He dodged every single attack, or at least he tried to, but even with his new movement, the sheer amount of spheres overwhelmed him.

Not to mention...

Neroth seemed to have changed his strategy as well, now, his attacks were based on his new movement technique, he still managed to dodge, but his attacks came in a way that gave him the least time possible to react.

And when he had less time, Lucian lost control over his energy. The Archdemon’s attacks waited for that specific moment, and every time Lucian lost control and moved somewhere he shouldn’t—

There was a sphere waiting for him.

BOOOOOOM

’So this is an Archdemon, huh...’

Lucian couldn’t help but think inwardly.

He wasn’t this surprised when Neroth’s attacks targeted his weakness before, his weakness was glaringly obvious, almost anyone with common sense would have used that.

But this time...

This time, his weakness wasn’t obvious, if anything, considering how strangely his body was moving, it was much, much tougher to pinpoint his exact weakness.

Even Lucian himself couldn’t pinpoint his weakness in order to fix it, he just knew it was there and Neroth was taking advantage of it in the best way he could.

That was the difference between a child who was good at fighting and an Archdemon with thousands of years of battle experience.

Even in a body that was nowhere near ideal, the Archdemon was giving him far more trouble than most of the opponents he had faced so far.

In terms of pure battle skills, the advantage Neroth had couldn’t be more obvious.

’This... is bad.’

Lucian thought inwardly as he kept dodging the incoming attacks, he was getting better, his dodges were getting more and more precise.

If before, every fifth or sixth attack hit him, now, he had suddenly dodged ten spheres successfully.

’Wait.’

That was when Lucian realised it.

’Where is he?’

His expression changed as he looked around, just then Neroth appeared behind him. Lucian turned, the Archdemon was already expecting that.

He punched again, only this time, he aimed for the Heart.

The Archdemon realised it, getting his head wouldn’t matter, he needed to crush Lucian’s Heart. Lucian instinctively knew that as well.

He needed to protect the Heart.

His very body moved, barely avoiding the punch, even then, because everything happened so suddenly, Neroth’s fist managed to graze his shoulder, essentially erasing the entire arm.

"...fuck!"

Lucian cursed, his body spun from the impact and during that moment, Lucian realised it.

He couldn’t win.

Not like this, he could not fight like a blind man anymore, he needed his eyes.

So Lucian did what he didn’t dare to do before—

He expanded his senses.

In an instant, his world expanded to a ridiculous degree, thousands of sounds crashed into him, screams, explosions, footsteps, cries, heartbeats, blood, breathing, structures breaking. The same happened with scent and all his other senses, thousands of different things attacked him at the same time.

Lucian’s mind was overwhelmed, only this time, he didn’t let it continue. He forced his senses to shorten the radius.

It somehow worked.

The Estate around him disappeared, but Lucian wasn’t satisfied, he forced it down even further, then again, then again, and again, until there were only two things left.

Neroth and the small battlefield around him.

He noticed his breathing, it was fast, irregular. Because of the ridiculous amount of energy Neroth was using, Varek’s body, which should have been able to survive for more than fifteen hours, was already starting to deteriorate.

Lucian kept his senses on him, noticing the movement of muscles beneath his skin, the Suffering Energy gathering near his fists, the faint vibration caused when he shifted his weight.

Lucian could see a lot more than what he could before and this time, so much so that Lucian could tell how much force he was using and where he would move considering he used that specific amount of force.

It was no different from predicting the future, just that... Lucian wasn’t very good at it.

’Should this even be possible...?’

He couldn’t believe it.

Then, he realised something.

’He was... doing the same thing...’