Abyssal Awakening-Chapter 978: Selen Vs The King

"Your guardian knight cannot fight no more. Your guarantor lost and withered by the sands of time. Tell me, what hope do you have left? What secrets did my friend tell you that ignite such futility in your heart?" The King spat out in annoyance.

Selen didn’t have the benefit of her Second Resonance anymore.

What was she seeing that he was not?

But Selen didn’t respond. Instead, she focused her mind and exhaled through her nose.

The gap between them was slowly closing.

There was also the issue of how the King managed to survive Caera’s last attack.

In that moment, her attack definitely hit.

But the King had ’erased’ the present to avoid the damage.

She needed to figure out the secret behind this power.

Until she did so, even with perception manipulation, it would be hard to tear victory from the jaws of defeat.

Selen jumped up slightly.

Time seemed to slow down.

She stared the King in the eyes while he stared back.

The eyes that saw past, present, and future. He could see what she was about to do.

The instant Selen’s foot touched the ground, she dropped her center of gravity.

Her body exploded forward.

*CLANG!!!

"!!!" The King widened his eyes. The contact came much faster than expected.

Steel screamed as Selen’s lance crashed against the King’s artifact.

Sparks burst as an arc of grey energy shot out from the King’s finger, looking to cut her in half.

Selen twisted her body, slashing her guardless blade upwards, equalizing the flow of time to negate the King’s attack. Exactly the same as what Miralith had done at the start.

The King stepped forward, slamming his foot into the ground and shattering the earth below them. His broken blade hooked against the lance, dragging Selen forward. A disdainful light shimmered in his eyes.

Selen let go of her lance mid-pull, her fist pulled back.

’An uppercut.’ The King’s eyes flashed and saw the future.

BANG!!!

Her fist slammed into his jaw as his head recoiled from the impact.

Once again, his predictions were false.

Why?

WHY!?

Kicking her back, the King adjusted his grip on his blade as Selen’s silhouette manifested in front of him. A phantom of her past.

The world was distorting.

Selen clicked her tongue.

Letting go of her blade, she twisted her body in midair and kicked the pommel, shooting it towards the King.

*CLANG!!!

Their blades clashed. Her past was safe.

Selen flickered behind her blade.

Just as the King was about to predict her actions, she disappeared.

"!?!?!" His eyes darted, looking for where she had run off to.

In the distance, six pillars of energy surrounded her!

How? When?! How did she have the time to prepare such a strike?!

Energy converged into a maelstrom around them as the earth shattered.

Dirt froze mid-air while Miralith’s power surged out.

She was trying to halt and kill whatever was inside the zone!

Veins bulged on his neck.

There were several anomalies in this fight.

His predictions weren’t wrong. It was simply a matter of pacing. Why? Did she also have the ability to erase the present?

The future played out exactly how he perceived it to be. Yet his movements were lagging behind.

Did she slow down his time? How did she bring the future forward?

Selen fired her attack as the King flicked his blade downward.

In that instant, the world began to glitch. The realm distorted and the present was paused-

"!!!"

Something was wrong. He immediately cancelled his ability.

Without hesitation, the King snapped his fingers and created an orb of energy before slamming it into his own chest.

As Selen’s attack washed over him, the flow of time was equalized and he managed to avoid it.

Selen’s smile twitched.

The King was starting to realize the key behind her ability.

What she wanted him to do was focus on using abilities that targeted a singular moment.

But if he simply equalized the flow of time, he would no doubt notice the sudden jump.

Say he was at one-times speed and intended to double it. If she messed with his perception, he would notice the sudden shift.

’I’ll have to use it carefully.’ Selen thought to herself with a sigh.

She had been faking her speed with sporadic jumps using perception manipulation. In terms of raw physical stats, she couldn’t keep up at all.

Only through this trick could she bridge the gap.

In which case, she had to finish it before he understood the gimmick.

Selen tightened her grip around the lance and threw it towards the King before rushing forward with her blade.

Seeing this, the King rolled his eyes.

This move again.

Punching the ground, he gathered energy into a single orb beneath his palm.

*BANG!!!

Selen’s kick came flying in, striking the King across the face while her blade pierced the orb, cancelling out the flow of time.

"!!!"

How did she cross that gap?

He snapped around, preparing for another strike.

*CRACK!!!

Selen appeared behind him, slamming the lance into his back, forcing him to stumble forward.

He whipped around, unleashing an arc of grey energy, but Selen had already disappeared.

He anticipated a strike from behind. Since she would be a little earlier than his predictions, he adjusted for the shift!

His head whipped backwards as Selen attacked from below! A kick aimed at his jaw, sending him into the air.

She changed the future!

Was his prediction wrong?

Stabilizing himself in the air, the King twisted his body and slashed with his artifact! A cut to split the time within this zone.

*RUMBLE!!!

An array manifested in the blink of an eye, perfectly countering his strike.

Could it be? That she was also seeing the future?

Impossible. He didn’t sense that kind of energy from her. She was still perceiving in real time.

Had she seen the future, her movements would reflect that.

But the way her eyes were darting around, she was reacting to the things happening in real time.

So why?

How was she making these adjustments?

From his left, Selen suddenly appeared as she drove her knee into his ribs, followed by a one-two punch from the right.

Was she accelerating her body?

The King flooded his own body with energy and almost managed to grab her.

Selen seemed shocked before increasing her flurry of attacks.

He frowned. Her acceleration wasn’t enough to be making these kinds of movements.

She wasn’t seeing the future. She wasn’t fast. She was changing the outcomes in real time.

So was it similar to him? Power over the present? That was incorrect either.

Her flow of energy was too weak for that level of manipulation.

Then it was something else.

A lance struck at him from above. He gritted his teeth, grabbing the tip of the weapon.

Since she was being hard to pin down, he would simply attack all possibilities of the future.

Golden lines lit up across his body as his view split into two.

One showed the present. The other overlapped the future.

No matter what move she made, several phantoms would move ahead of her.

Predictions of her actions.

He snapped his fingers. From above, countless grey arrows shot down rapidly.

Selen widened her eyes as she focused all of her power on acceleration.

Her form started to blink across the battlefield, evading arrows from all directions while future possibilities were erased before being replaced by new predictions.

The King frowned.

She wasn’t changing the future. He simply wasn’t seeing far enough into it.

Her actions were still following a path forward. There were skips in time where his arrows weren’t where they should be in the moment, but instead several meters ahead.

Something was happening to skip time forward.

Selen wanted to attack, but she couldn’t.

The sheer volume of attacks made it impossible. No matter how she tried to react at the last second, during even the slightest lapse in concentration, more arrows would appear in front of her.

He was starting to see further into the future and cutting off her options.

The fight was quickly spiraling out of control.

Selen inhaled sharply.

She injected energy into her own veins as the target of her perception manipulation became herself.

If she could drag out the instant between thought and action, she could speed it up.

Acceleration completely focused on her thoughts.

Multitasking. Multi-cast.

Selen’s eyes turned bloodshot as her view of the world distorted.

Blood flowed from her nose from the influx of information, but she didn’t care.

Think. Keep thinking. Faster than ever. React to the countless possibilities that stretched out before her.

Create gaps using her perception manipulation.

Vary time. Speed up. Slow down. Halt. Rapid acceleration.

Every tool at her disposal had to be used to cross the gap between her and the King.

*BANG!!!

Selen rushed forward, the guardless blade in hand slashing against the countless arrows trying to stop her movement.

Her form flickered, dancing across the battlefield.

Not enough... she needed more.

Gritting her teeth, she focused her power specifically on movement—to cross as much distance as possible the moment a gap was formed.

Twisting her body, Selen slashed an arrow in half while three more appeared behind it.

She teleported, unleashing attacks that almost mimicked a blossoming flower.

Skipping through time once more, she appeared above the King.

Her slash was inches away from cutting him as she activated her skill for the last time.

*RUMBLE!!!

A ripple of energy burst forth.

Selen’s movements halted.

"So that’s how it is..." he mumbled before tilting his head back with a loud laugh.

"To think you would lay a hand on this King’s perception rather than time."

Selen widened her eyes.

Her trick had been discovered.