Divinity

--- [Luna’s perspective]

“Looks like the others have already started…” – Sun

“Yet our ‘fight’ will be over before theirs.” – Luna

“Yup!” – Sun

Sun cracks his knuckles, then his neck.

I do the same.

“I just want to let you know; I don’t plan on holding back.” – Sun

“Good. It wouldn’t be any fun if someone weaker than me was holding back.” – Luna

Sun smiles.

I make the first move by charging in.

The second he’s within my range, I throw a regular punch.

He grabs my fist, stopping the attack completely.

I throw a left hook, but he manages to stop that too.

He throws me back, but I land on my feet.

“Come on! I saw that you could transform earlier, why are you only throwing regular punches?” – Sun

“Because I don’t need anything more to beat you.” – Luna

“Pretty pleeeeease!!” – Sun

“Do you have a death wish or something…?” – Luna

“Like a wise woman once said: ‘It wouldn’t be any fun if someone weaker than me was holding back.’ Don’t you agree?” – Sun

Heh.

“Fine. No holding back.” – Luna

“Well then! Let’s get started for real this time!” – Sun

I yet again charge at him.

I transform my right arm into a gigantic metal drill.

I try to slam it into his side, but his staff suddenly becomes much wider, and it blocks the attack.

He hops on top of his staff, then jumps high into the air.

Seems like there is no ceiling in this arena, only walls.

He extends his arm, and the staff comes flying up towards him.

As soon as it reaches him, he grabs it and changes its form back to normal.

Without any time to lose, he points the staff at me and extends it as fast as he can.

It shoots towards me at a speed that most E-rankers would not be able to deal with.

But…

I’m not ‘most E-rankers’…

I jump away before it hits me, completely avoiding his attack.

“Don’t tell me that is all you can do…” – Luna

“It’s not!” – Sun

He shrinks the staff a little, aims it at me, then extends it again.

It’s a relentless barrage of ranged attacks, but I dodge each and every one of them.

His staff can be used for both defense and offense.

It works just as well at long range combat as it does in close range.

That’s annoying…

But annoying isn’t enough.

The moment he starts falling, he stops attacking, puts the staff between him and the ground, then jumps off it again.

He can effectively fly.

“You sweating?” – Sun

“Not at all.” – Luna

Him being high into the air won’t stop me.

I don’t have any attacks with as much range as that staff of his…

That just means I’ll have to get close the distance between us!

I turn my legs into springs and jump straight up towards him.

He quickly shrinks his staff, then extends it again towards me.

He’s probably thinking that since I’m in the air I can’t move around…

And he would be right…

But, dodging the staff isn’t my only option.

Right before the staff hits me, I extend my right arm and I turn it into a shield.

His attack is deflected, and he has no way to stop me from reaching him!

As I get closer, I undo the shield transformation.

I then transform both may arms into a singular large hammer.

“HEAVY HAMMER!!!!!!!!” – Luna

He stretches out his arms and legs to try and block the attack, but it’s pointless.

He’s slammed into the wall, and I clearly hear the sound of bone being crushed.

He falls to the ground, landing face down.

“Sigh… I told you that our fight would be over quickly…” – Luna

Anyways, I want to go test something out.

I want to see if it’s possible to destroy the walls.

If it is, then I can go help the others.

It’s worth a shot at least.

I jump out towards the nearest arena-

…

“Ouch…” – Luna

Huh?!

Weren’t the invisible walls supposed to disappear when we killed our opponent?

Did those little shits lie?!

“Hey! Not so fast. It’ll take more than that to beat me…” – Sun

His arms are crushed and he’s coughing up blood.

It looks like he’s just barely able to even stand.

“That wasn’t enough for you? You want to be beaten up even more?” – Luna

“You’re the one- GAH!” – Sun

Does he really think he can fight in his condition?

He should have just stayed down and pretended to be dead.

He couldn’t even finish his sentence without being interrupted by his own body coughing up blood.

“…That’ll go down!” – Sun

“Well then… I hope you’re ready die, monkey.” – Luna

--- [Alex’s perspective]

I have a theory, but I’ll have to test something out to confirm it…

I stretch both my arms out to the side, leaving me open to attacks.

He doesn’t miss the opportunity and dashes right towards me at that same mind-blowing speed he showed earlier.

It’s just as I thought…!

It wasn’t just his expression, but his posture, and the way he moves too.

It’s like his whole personality changes.

I move my arms back to stop his attack, but he’s too fast.

He instantly strikes me countless times, and I fly back into the wall.

But…!

It didn’t damage me at all!

I mean it hurt, but that’s all.

It’s totally different from that earlier attack.

I’ve figured it out!

The secret behind his insane strength, durability, and speed is that he has three ‘modes’.

He has an attack mode, a defense mode, and a speed mode.

Whenever he switches mode, his entire personality also changes.

The personality switch happens slightly before his stats change.

Taking advantage of that short lag when he switches modes is the key to victory!

I just have to pay careful attention to which mode he enters, then adapt to whichever one it is…

Other than the corresponding stat that his ‘mode’ increases, he seems quite weak.

An easy way to put this would be to say that my speed, durability, and attack are all five out of ten.

All his stats are two out of ten, except for the stat that is boosted by the mode he is currently in.

That stat is a ten out of ten…

If he’s in attack mode, I need to dodge.

If he’s in speed mode, I can block or take the hits, then try to counterattack.

If he’s in defense mode, then I can get some free hits in on him.

I think the reason why he didn’t switch over to attack mode when he hit me just now, was that he knew I would be able to block if he lost his speed.

If I use my brain, and get the timing right, I can win!