novelraw Chapter 306: Game Over
Chapter 306: Game Over
Stanley was almost dead, but he was not dead yet. He may only have 5% health remaining, but that still meant he could continue to fight.
And while his health was down, the blue bar had row reached full.
’I need to fight,’ he thought. ’I need to win!’
Stanley got back up and immediately activated his skill with the sword.
His body acted on its own, blitzing toward the shrunken dark figure. He cut through him, the unfurled red cloth wrapping around him. He jumped, pulling the figure into the air with him before cutting him several times.
The amount of cuts on the dark figure’s body slowly reduced his health lowering from nearly half to less than 30% by the time Stanley was done with his skill.
The man fell on his back while Stanley landed on his legs. He realized the man hadn’t begun enlarging just yet, so he rushed toward him and began swinging his sword all around, cutting wherever he could.
The figure’s health dropped more and more.
Stanley had dropped his health by another 5% when the figure enlarged once again. He moved back, quickly getting out of the fog to see the figure’s attacks.
He waited.
3 attacks. That was what he had to get through. With his health, a single attack was enough to kill him.
3 attacks.
Stanley saw the scythe move and jumped right in time. The scythe passed below him as he easily dodged. He waited and the scythe came back the other way around, which he dodged as well.
He had gotten used to the timing of the scythes based on the figure’s movement. Then the scythe came down for the final one.
Stanley remembered this attack. He had dodged the last attack and had jumped and yet the figure had still cut through him. It had attacked further above than regular.
In that case...
Stanley ducked.
The scythe passed right above him, not touching him at all. His risky move paid off and he lived. The figure shrunk once more and he got back to fighting.
The figure could do nothing against Stanley’s onslaught. All it could do was stand and wait as it was attacked over and over. Stanley cut through the figure quickly. Without only 25% of its health remaining, he was sure he could defeat it in just this time.
He cut and cut and cut, and then the figure began swelling again.
"No!" Stanley shouted. He was so close. Just a sliver of its health remained. Just one attack. Just...
He quickly got back out, ready to dodge once again. As long as he dodged, he could—
Stanley’s eyes widened as he saw the figure high in the air raise its scythe. And instead of the scythe coming down for him, it glowed dark green.
Stanley’s face fell as the scythe activated. He hadn’t noticed it just yet, but the dark figure’s blue bar had reached full. All the attacks he had done, getting the health down to nearly 1% had filled its blue bar once again.
And before Stanley could deal the final blow, it had activated its skill. The illusory scythe appeared on top of his head, ready to strike down.
He could not stop it. He could not do anything against it. All he could do was wait for the scythe to come down on him and kill him.
He had lost this match.
"No!" Stanley said in a grunt as he pulled out a last-ditch effort to save himself.
Each time the figure grew, the body flew up. The fog came out of the body. The fog was not the body.
At some part in the back of his mind, something told him that the body of the figure was in the air, a tiny thing hidden beneath all the dark fog.
Stanley acted on instinct at that moment. He reverse gripped his sword, and like a javelin, he threw it into the air even as the green scythe came down on him.
He stumbled forward by the force he had exerted and caught himself before looking ahead.
The dark figure had gone. The scythe above his head was gone. Even his blue and green bars were gone. Everything was gone.
The game was over.
Had he... won?
Suddenly the world erupted into cheers and the disembodied voice shouted at once.
"CONGRATULATIONS ON WINNING THE GAME!"
Confetti erupted everywhere, showing him fake plastic and paper.
Stanley took a deep breath. He had won. HE HAD WON!
"YES!" he shouted out in cheer. Finally, after two bad games in a row. He had won.
"You have won all 10 matches for the game ’Till Death Will I Fight’. You will now receive the greatest reward that can be given to you."
Stanley waited and the reward came to him.
It must’ve been a reward specific to each person as Stanley could not imagine how he could have gotten such a reward in any other way.
The punishments were personal, so it should have been no surprise to him that the rewards were personal as well. But even so, the appearance of the new power was surprising to him.
It was called Retrocognition. The ability to see into the past of things and people, and learn of their history. The power to understand the origin of everything.
It was a power that he would’ve likely not gained for a long time while he let the Soul energy fester within him. But this game he played had given him that.
He had received 2 punishments and 1 reward.
He was not being able to actively use his future sight for the next 3 hours and had to kill 100 different people before being able to slow down time again. But, he had also received the power of retrocognition.
It was a good thing that he hadn’t been punished for all 3 games. Stanley wondered how he would’ve done had he known about the games from the beginning.
"You are done here now. Goodbye."
The voice was followed by a flash of light and Stanley arrived back outside.