A battle where both sides gave everything they had.
But neither side could land a decisive blow.
I couldn't break through Arava's high defense and recovery.
Arava couldn't land a single hit thanks to my evasion.
It wasn't that neither of us had a winning card. We both did.
My trump card was my thread.
If Arava got caught in it, even they would need time to escape.
And while they were stuck, I could pummel them with enough magic to finish them off.
But Arava had become extremely wary of my threads after the fight so far.
They understood one thing: they must not get caught.
So whenever I launched a thread-wrapped attack, they approached with extreme caution.
With Arava shifting into a purely defensive posture, landing a thread on them was nearly impossible.
As for Arava's trump card, it was their maximum-scale breath attack.
A breath attack at full power from Arava boasted even greater destructive force than the blow that had once annihilated my home.
If I took that head-on, no matter who I was, I'd be obliterated.
Even with Pain Reduction active, once I got hit, they'd keep blasting me with breath until I eventually ran out of strength.
But Arava couldn't use it.
They'd already taken counterattacks from me twice because of breath attacks.
Thanks to that, Arava couldn't afford to use long-duration breaths.
After being burned by the same trick twice, Arava had switched to using only single-burst breaths.
Single-burst breaths weren't terrible.
But the attack range was inevitably narrower, and the power dropped too.
I dodged all of them, and even the ones that hit were nowhere near fatal.
We both held cards that could be decisive, yet neither of us could use them effectively.
That's how the battle naturally dragged on.
Both sides mixed feints with occasional real attacks, neither letting the other seize the initiative, each waiting for an opening.
The battle situation tilted slightly against me.
My attacks weren't doing anything.
They were connecting.
But the damage wasn't sticking.
Even when I dealt damage, it healed immediately.
Even when I managed to land several hits in a row, Arava would either pull back to buy recovery time or press forward aggressively to interrupt my attacks.
In the end, despite all that fighting, my total damage dealt was zero.
Worse yet, Arava's resistances had increased.
Their Dark Resistance, which started at Level 4, had risen to Level 5.
If this kept up, the already meager damage I was dealing would dwindle even further.
On the other hand, Arava's attacks, when they connected, hit me hard.
A single hit couldn't wipe out all my HP and MP.
But Arava's strikes were devastating.
One of those would send my tiny body flying easily.
And if that happened, follow-up attacks would almost certainly follow.
That would be game over.
The margin between us was too vast.
As someone who specialized in evasion, one accident could mean a sudden and total reversal.
Of course, I had no intention of going down that easily.
But it wasn't impossible.
My tension kept rising naturally.
My senses sharpened.
I focused, making sure not to miss any prediction visions.
Inside the slow-motion world of Thought Acceleration, I honed every sense to catch the faintest detail.
《Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill 'Thought Acceleration LV9' has become 'Thought Acceleration LV10'》 《Conditions met. Skill 'Thought Acceleration LV10' has evolved into Skill 'Thought Super-Acceleration LV1'》 《Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill 'Foresight LV9' has become 'Foresight LV10'》 《Conditions met. Skill 'Foresight LV10' has evolved into Skill 'Future Sight LV1'》 Skill evolution at a time like this.
What a blessing.
The already-slow world became even slower.
The prediction visions, which had appeared only sporadically, became visible at all times.
I could see it.
What Arava was going to do next.
And beyond that—their follow-up movements too, predicted within the frozen world of Thought Super-Acceleration.
Like an endgame puzzle.
The claw, fang, and tail combo that Arava had unleashed with killing intent— I dodged every last strike with ease.
I'm incredible.
At this point, wouldn't someone need to move at speeds beyond my perception to even land a hit on me?
This feels amazing.
Really amazing.
Bring it on.
Right now, I felt like no attack could touch me.
Dodge.
Dodge.
Dodge.
Evade.
Evade.
Evade.
And in the gaps between, I kept firing off counterattacks.
Arava's HP began to chip down.
With this sudden jump in my evasion, Arava started to panic.
Even that emotion was crystal clear in the midst of Thought Super-Acceleration.
And I wasn't kind enough to let that opening in their heart slip by.
Heterodox Magic — Phantom Pain.
A heterodox magic that inflicted phantom agony.
Arava was stunned.
Well, obviously.
For a being like Arava who possessed Pain Reduction at a high level, this was probably the most intense pain they had felt in ages.
Phantom pain from Heterodox Magic couldn't be lessened by Pain Reduction.
I knew that from firsthand experience when Detection had tormented me.
So how was it?
How did it feel to experience pain after so long?
Arava gritted their teeth against the agony.
Heterodox Magic was easier to slip past defenses when there was an opening in the mind.
A monster with Arava's mental fortitude would likely shake off the effect almost immediately.
But even a moment was enough.
The instant Arava's attention turned toward the pain, my thread lashed onto their body.
Thread after thread wrapped around Arava as they struggled to break free.
Multiple layers of thread coiled around Arava's body, halting their movements.
Yes!
It looked like I could settle this before the poison even kicked in.