We stared each other down as time slowly passed.
Arava was waiting for his MP to recover.
I was waiting for my poison to take effect.
Whichever of us had more time on their side would gain the advantage.
The problem was, my poison worked slower than Arava's MP recovery.
Arava made his move.
But he didn't use his breath attack.
Arava understood that just like before, his breath wouldn't reach me.
Arava took off running.
Along the top of the wall.
The wall surface began to be engulfed in flames once more.
High above, Arava reached all the way to my level.
A wall of earth wreathed in fire rose vertically from the wall's surface.
That earthen wall extended all the way to the opposite wall, forming a bridge in midair.
Arava raced back and forth along the walls, building bridge after bridge.
As if to eliminate every possible escape route I had.
The sky was being painted over with a burning landscape.
The sight of it was eerily similar to a spider's web.
I never expected the enemy to do something so similar to what I would do.
Arava blazed across the countless burning bridges at tremendous speed.
I was applying gravity with my Repelling Evil Eye, yet there was no sign of him slowing down.
He sprinted across a bridge and leapt.
Claws bearing down on me.
In the narrowing sky, I dodged those claws.
Arava landed soundlessly on another bridge.
He ran again.
Launched himself at me from yet another angle.
I dodged.
He landed, and the moment he spotted that his MP had recovered, he added even more bridges.
At this rate, my escape routes would gradually shrink until I was cornered and starved out.
I'd been trying to destroy the bridges with Dark Shots ever since.
Dark Shots had more destructive power than Dark Spears.
The true strength of the Dark Spear was its continuous damage while embedded in a target.
That made it effective against living creatures, but for destroying objects, Dark Shots were better.
But every time I tried to destroy a bridge, Arava would interfere.
That alone would've been fine.
The problem was that Arava attacked me the instant I fired a Dark Shot, exploiting the momentary opening.
I hastily switched my target to Arava to suppress him.
And dodged simultaneously.
Arava could rebuild bridges faster than I could destroy them.
One Dark Shot couldn't even take down a bridge — that hurt.
I wished I had a more powerful spell.
《Proficiency has reached a certain threshold. Skill "Dark Magic LV3" has become "Dark Magic LV4"》 As if the universe had heard my wish, my Dark Magic Skill Level went up.
I immediately constructed the newly added spell.
The Dark Magic spell struck the bridge head-on and destroyed it.
It sliced right through.
Dark Magic Level 4 spell — Dark Blade.
...Nope. This is useless.
Cutting it didn't even make it collapse, so what was the point?
And Arava could just repair it right away anyway.
I put away the Dark Blade and went back to using Dark Shots to destroy the bridges.
But I couldn't keep up.
Actually, no — my available escape space had already shrunk considerably.
Arava leaped.
My Foresight showed the claws bearing down on me, and beyond them, a tail waiting in ambush.
Even if I tried to dodge within the tiny space I had left, there was no way.
Ugh.
Fine.
I dodged Arava's attack broadly and landed on one of the burning bridges.
Hot!!
I immediately disengaged.
Using Potion Synthesis, I created a medicinal solution and extinguished the flames on my body.
At the same time, the potion's effect restored my HP.
Ha! Did you think I'd just let my HP keep draining from that poison forever?
I learned something just now — landing on a bridge, even if just for an instant, didn't drain my HP nearly as badly as I'd feared.
If I used Potion Synthesis to handle both extinguishing and recovery, the damage was nearly negligible.
The question was whether Arava would let me pull off that same sequence of moves next time.
Arava charged again.
This time, I couldn't avoid him without taking some damage.
I dodged Arava's attack and landed on a bridge.
The instant I did, Arava hit the bridge itself with his breath attack.
I dodged.
Behind me, I heard the bridge shatter.
But I couldn't afford to worry about that.
The flames were mercilessly burning my body.
Even with my rapid regeneration, my HP was dropping at an alarming rate.
I wanted to put the fire out immediately, but Arava pressed his attack relentlessly.
While dodging Arava's follow-up, I tried to activate Potion Synthesis — but Arava attacked again.
This is bad.
I'm panicking.
Potion Synthesis — no good.
I was barely managing to dodge Arava's attacks; I had no room to use Potion Synthesis.
And there was no way I could activate Transfer in this situation either.
This is really bad.
My HP dropped.
My Satiation stock ran out.
And Arava's assault still hadn't stopped.
My HP hit zero.
Endurance activated.
My MP slowly began to drain.
Because Endurance activated, both my HP Rapid Regeneration and my Pinnacle of Magic MP recovery effect worked to reduce the damage.
Even so, my MP was still gradually decreasing.
This is bad.
But — just barely — I made it.
Arava's movements rapidly deteriorated.
The enhancement Skills he had been wreathed in began to unravel.
The momentum he'd had moments ago was gone, and he came to a feeble halt.
My poison had finally delivered checkmate to Arava's life.
My poison — that was Sloth.
"Sloth: n% of the power to reach God. Greatly increases the rate at which all systemic numerical values in the vicinity decrease, excluding oneself. Also transcends the W System and grants the right to interfere with the MA Domain."
In other words, every entity besides me had been experiencing dramatically increased drain on their HP, MP, and SP.
HP and MP had natural regeneration.
But SP didn't.
The more Arava fought me, the more he pushed himself to his limits, the faster his SP drained.
If he was constantly consuming SP through his Fighting God's Technique, he was the perfect feast for Sloth.
Without Appraisal, Arava had no way of noticing what was happening to him.
By the time he finally realized he was being devoured from within by starvation, it was far too late.
Arava's SP was almost completely depleted now.
The battle was over.