Chapter 189: Times Up

Cassian’s eyes narrowed as the arrow closed in.

?[Gate]!

?Space distorted around him, and his figure vanished a fraction of a second before the projectile hit.

?BOOOOOOM!

?The arrow struck the bedrock behind him, producing a deafening explosion that rained shattered stone across the cavern.

?Cassian reappeared several meters away, his gaze locked onto the Centaur.

?What exactly are you?

?He activated [Soul Gaze].

?The moment his vision shifted, his expression changed slightly. Surrounding the Centaur was a phenomenon he hadn’t noticed before—a strange, void-like shimmer that warped the space surrounding its upper torso.

?Cassian’s eyes narrowed. "A Space-type..."

?He barely finished the thought before another arrow tore toward him.

?TWANG!

?Cassian immediately triggered [Gate].

?The projectile blew through his residual image and slammed into the adjacent wall, triggering another subterranean blast.

?He reappeared, his expression deeply analytical.

?So that’s how it works.

?Now the earlier clash made complete sense.

?His [Aura Slash] hadn’t been erased or dispelled. The Centaur possessed a passive spatial barrier that automatically redirected incoming attacks into a pocket dimensional tear.

?In short, his attack had been displaced into another coordinate before it could touch its hide.

?That’s troublesome.

?Cassian inspected the creature’s perimeter.

?The spatial distortion remained active, forming an invisible, impenetrable shield around its body. Any direct attack thrown at it would simply be swallowed and redirected.

?Even heavy physical blows reinforced by his shadow rings wouldn’t necessarily land. The problem wasn’t the raw durability of the Centaur’s body, but the warped space isolating it from its opponents.

?He needed a different tactic.

?TWANG!

?Another arrow shot toward him at point-blank speed.

?Cassian twisted his body and activated [Gate], letting the projectile pass before reappearing further down the passage.

?I can keep dodging, but that gets me nowhere.

?He studied the Centaur.

?Its expression remained smugly confident, and its rhythm showed zero signs of fatigue. It continued drawing and releasing explosive arrows with mechanical precision, forcing Cassian to burn mana and loop [Gate] continuously.

?However, Cassian soon arrived at a fundamental truth.

?Spatial manipulation could not be maintained indefinitely.

?Even if the Centaur possessed a monstrous affinity for Space mana, there had to be a strict limit to how long its spatial barrier could sustain continuous impacts.

?More importantly, redirecting high-tier physical and elemental attacks inevitably consumed internal mana.

?If that was the case, the solution was glaringly simple.

?Overwhelm it.

?Cassian’s lips gradually curled into a sharp grin.

?He didn’t need to unravel its spatial defense or find a clever loophole. He simply needed to unleash enough raw firepower to drain every drop of mana sustaining its barrier.

?The Centaur loosed another arrow.

?Cassian dodged.

?Then another.

?He dodged that one as well.

?With every evasion, he tracked the creature’s micro-movements, monitoring its internal mana fluctuations and the subtle ripples in the spatial distortion surrounding its frame.

?Let’s see who burns out first—you or me.

?Massive amounts of mana began coiling around Cassian’s right arm.

?A brilliant, oversized cerulean blade materialized, its razor-sharp edge vibrating with violently compressed energy.

?The Centaur’s violet eyes narrowed in suspicion as it raised its war bow once again.

?Cassian smiled.

?"Let’s see how many of these you can redirect."

?He whipped his arm forward.

?[Aura Slash]!

?The cerulean blade tore through the cavern, hurtling straight toward the Centaur.

?And the battle of attrition officially began.

....

This was the first battle in which Cassian had used [Aura Slash] more than a hundred times.

?He had certainly spammed the skill before. Back in the Umbral Wood, immediately after acquiring it, he had thrown [Aura Slash] at practically everything that moved.

However, those battles had been entirely different. He had used the skill once or twice against an opponent before moving on to the next target.

?This time, he had crossed the hundred-mark against a single enemy.

?Even Morghanna, with all her absurd physical durability, hadn’t managed to take thirty consecutive [Aura Slashes].

?Yet this damned horse-faced monster had endured more than a hundred.

?Well, "endured" wasn’t entirely accurate.

?It wasn’t as though the Centaur were standing there taking the attacks head-on.

Its spatial ability redirected every incoming [Aura Slash], swallowing the strikes into an unknown pocket dimension before they could touch its hide.

?Still, the practical result remained the same.

?Cassian raised his hand once more.

?[Aura Slash]!

?A crescent of cerulean light tore through the subterranean chamber, hurtling toward the Centaur.

?The familiar spatial distortion shimmered around the monster’s silhouette, and the cerulean blade vanished without leaving behind a single scratch.

?Cassian slowly lowered his hand and let out a long breath.

?He was actually beginning to feel physical fatigue.

?His mana might be infinite, but his physical stamina certainly wasn’t. Constantly slashing his arm, calculating the Centaur’s micro-movements, and timing his [Gate] teleportations had taken a noticeable toll on his muscles.

?And unlike his mana reserves, his mental concentration wasn’t inexhaustible either.

?A single lapse in focus could cost him his life.

?The Centaur had also been adapting throughout the attrition war. Initially, it had simply fired at Cassian’s previous coordinates whenever he vanished.

But as the fight dragged on, the beast began anticipating where his spatial rift would open.

?Several explosive arrows had come dangerously close to catching him mid-emergence.

One particularly tight shot had forced him to trigger [Burst] the exact millisecond he stepped out of [Gate], barely dodging a point-blank detonation that would have shredded his frame.

?It was a deeply irritating opponent.

?Cassian could technically survive dying by triggering [Regression], but he had zero intention of relying on his absolute safety net for a random rift beast.

?Besides, after everything he had accomplished over the past three days, regressing back to the start was the absolute last thing he wanted.

?He had far too much to lose.

?Fortunately, he wasn’t the only one wearing down.

?Cassian raised his eyes toward the Guard Centaur.

?The beast was still standing proudly, holding its massive war bow high. However, its physical movements had become noticeably sluggish.

Its fingers trembled as it strained to pull the bowstring back, and the spatial distortion protecting its torso flickered erratically.

?There it was.

?The exact crack in the armor he had been waiting for.

?’So your spatial barrier does have limits after all.’

?Cassian’s lips gradually curled into a cold grin.

?He had spent the entire fight systematically testing the Centaur’s spatial defense, forcing it to redirect attack after attack.

Every single [Aura Slash] demanded an immediate response, and every response drained its finite core.

?The Centaur had relied on its overwhelming offensive power to end the fight early.

Unfortunately for the beast, Cassian possessed the ultimate counter for prolonged battles.

?Infinite Mana.

?And now, its absolute defense was crumbling to dust.

?Cassian rolled his aching shoulders, straightened his posture, and raised his hand once more.

?The Centaur’s trembling fingers tightened weakly around its bowstring.

?Cassian smiled.

?"Your time is up, horse-face."