“Wow, what is this……the 10th time? You really are lethal with that gift of yours.” No.1 said, placing his head back on his neck.

  Once he did, the skin morphed and melded to restore it to it’s original state. It had only been about five minutes, but I’ve already dealt a variety of lethal blows to him that have had no effect.

  I cut off his head, stabbed his heart, did both at the same time, cut off his limbs, and even exploded my energy inside of him. He recovered from all of them like they were nothing, regenerating his limbs and heart instantly. His head didn’t regenerate, but he could just put it back on once it fell off.

  “Haaah…..haaah…”

  “Oh? Are you tired already? I’m sure using your gift is taking a lot out of you, maybe you should give up? You may have killed me a couple of times but if we’re talking about damage, I think I’m winning the battle.” He said, counting on his fingers.

  “Do…..you ever shut up?”

  He put his fingers to his mouth and pretended to zip it up with a smile. Transitioning to his open-palm stance, he charged at me with renewed vigor.

  “Tch!”

  He clenched two fingers and aimed for my sternum, which is precisely where he has been aiming this entire fight, and why I was so short of breath. I leaned backwards to avoid it, and rebounded forward using the force to slice his right forearm off.

  The hand blade I had created using my energy manipulation was very useful, the only problem was that it was draining me the longer I kept it active.

  No.1 jumped back and spun, delivering a kick to his detached arm before it could hit the ground. I couldn’t react fast enough to avoid it, and the palm opened up and grabbed my neck.

  “You-!”

  Without missing a beat, he quickly regenerated his arm and snapped it forward delivering a heavy blow to my sternum.

  “Gah….!”

  I created spikes along my neck to pry the hand off of me, while No.1 moved forward to deliver another punch. I grabbed his arm, elbowing him in the nose right before he delivered a strong left punch to my temple.

  I staggered backward, struggling to keep my focus while he continued to press the attack. With my vision blurry, I sliced forward, but using his palms he redirected my attack to the left and stomped on my foot as I was stepping back.

  He tightened his hand like a knife and hit me right in my neck.

  “.....!”

  The breath was completely knocked out of me as I grabbed my neck, receding my hand blade in the process. He smiled and went for my temple again, but I saw his left leg shift forward unnaturally.

  He pulled back at the last second and aimed a kick at my calf, I used my other leg to kick it to the side as I released my hands from my neck.

  “Oh…?”

  I kicked his left leg with such force that he stumbled and lost balance. While he was off-balance, I resummoned my handblade and drove it straight into his brain.

  This is the closest thing to a weakness that he has, he can’t regenerate if his brain is hurt.

  I ripped the blade out of his brain, and his body went limp as he fell toward the ground. However, in a split-second his body flared to life once more as he grabbed both sides of my head.

  “Boo!” He screamed, his mouth open with his tongue sticking out.

  He drove his head into mine, rattling my skull to the core.

  “GRAGH!”

  I willed myself to focus, and summoned a blade on the tip of my foot and drove it up, slicing him in half. It didn’t faze him however, as while his left side fell to the ground, his right side instantly regenerated the other half of his body, as if he was shedding skin.

  He clenched his arm as he went for an uppercut, and I crossed both of my arms out in front, barely managing to block it. When I lowered my guard, his mouth was gushing with blood as he had a manic smile.

  Did he bite off his own tongue?!

  He spit the blood in my eyes, blinding me for a brief second as I lifted my guard up instinctively. Attempting to recover, I felt another strong blow to my sternum, with far greater force than before.

  “A…..gh!”

  When I opened my eyes, his arm was red and blood was gushing out of every pore. Giving me no time to react, he ran forward and jumped. I watched in real time as his left leg turned red a couple inches away from my sternum.

  With intense desperation, I drew all of the particles around me. I then used disruption with maximum output, causing the particles to clash and explode.

  “What is….?”

  In a violent explosion radiating from my body, No.1 was blown backwards with so much force that he ruptured the tree that stopped his flight.

  “Haah…..haaah…..”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  After that attack, I expected to feel weak but it was quite the opposite. Many particles were dancing around me in a vibrant frenzy, I felt like my senses had been heightened. I was having an odd feeling besides that as well. I felt light on my feet. But after a couple seconds, some of the pain from earlier rushed back into me.

  Did that disruption also dismiss No.9’s gift?! I’ll have to push through the pain while I can in this heightened state.

  When the dust finally cleared, No.1 was sitting on the base of the tree, with his left leg completely removed from his body. What was even more curious……was that his regeneration was extremely slow. Even he looked confused as he clenched his teeth trying to regenerate his leg.

  That’s when I saw it. Beforehand, there were no particles around him at all. Not in his body, nor outside it, but I could see it now. There was one, only one particle. It was residing in his heart, and it was at a microscopic size. It was churning violently as if it was struggling to retain it’s form. I can only assume that my heightened senses allowed me to see it.

  Without wasting time, I charged forward. I felt much faster than before and noticed that sparks of lightning were coating my legs. Using my vision, I was able to see particles colliding and bursting inside of my body, as if they were exploding my power and speed.

  I neared him and held my hand out to form a hand blade, but nothing came out.

  What?!

  Reacting fast, I clenched my fist and went for a full force punch for his heart. No.1’s expression betrayed what he was really feeling in this moment. Fear. He could instinctively tell that I found his weakness. He clenched his teeth and his expression changed to determination, putting both hands in front of his heart.

  “GRAAGH!”

  I drove the fist into his hands, but he held firm. The tendons on his hands were tearing from my punch, as particles were swirling all throughout my fist.

  “URAAAAAGH!” He screamed in defiance, his hands slightly buckling. He narrowed his eyes, and his nose began bleeding. With an expression I’ve never seen from him before, he roared with utmost rage, somehow pushing back against me.

  “Just….go down already!” I shouted, astonished at how he was matching me.

  “Ha….haa! You’re….not the…..only one…..who can risk it all in desperation!” He retorted, his eyes glowing a sickly green.

  “What are you….?!”

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” He wretched in pain, his back lurching forward. Out of nowhere, four whips made of bone sprung out and closed in on me.

  “How the–?!”

  I immediately pulled back as all four of them spiraled toward me in a line. I dove to the right, but they spiraled and spread out the second I ducked. I rolled backward, and used my hand to propel myself upward to a standing position, their onslaught finally ending. They receded back into No.1’s body, and his regeneration returned in full force, his leg restoring instantly.

  “Haaa….haaaa…..that was a close one.” He said as he stood up. “You were two inches from actually killing me, 963! That’s the second time i’ve ever felt pain before! I thought I was really gonna die!”

  “How…? How did you do that? This makes no sense.” I asked, stunned in disbelief.

  He shrugged and tapped his head with a smile.

  “It was a gamble but I accelerated my neural activity to come up with a plan. You already know if immense damage is done to my brain, my regeneration is slowed. I can control any part of my body individually, including my brain. By pushing it to it’s limits, I essentially almost overheated and imploded my brain, which would have resulted in you killing me with that weird punch of yours. However, I’m glad I took that gamble because now I’ve achieved…..a second awakening.”

  He held his hand out and a sharp bone sprung out from his palm. He looked at it for a moment before making it recede back into his hand. Yet, once he did that he seemed listless. No.1 looked up and stared at me in silence, with no expression shown on his face. It was impossible to know what he was thinking.

  “Tell me one more thing......what’s your name? Your old one.” He asked, closing his eyes and standing up.

  “Lazarus Shael.” I stated bluntly, seeing no reason to hide my past name.

  Right as I said that, a large sound tore through both of our ears as a violent wind swept through the forest we were standing in. I turned around and saw a large fiery explosion over where I could only assume Dawn and Zagra were.

  “Dawn….!”

  “It seems like the time for talk is over.”

  As he said that, bones sprung from his figure and wrapped around his body like a skin-tight suit. It covered everything and stopped at a mask that covered up to his nose.

  “You want to get back to your little girlfriend don’t you? This fight will come to a close sooner than later based on both of our conditions. This is the first time I’ve felt tired since fighting Zagra way back when. So let’s end it……we both have things we need to get to.” He said coldly, narrowing his eyes.

  I attempted to summon an energy weapon, but I still couldn’t. I could see the particles moving my direction, but they were bouncing off my skin.

  Must be a side effect from that explosion attack. Although…..energy is radiating from my skin. Could I be supercharged? If that’s the case……I know what I need to do to win.

  No.1 extended his arms and sharp bones shot from his knuckles in a spread-shot fashion. I quickly ducked and charged toward him, avoiding the impromptu attack. From my feet, I could feel the ground stirring beneath me, and quickly jumped to the left as sharp bones rose from the ground in an attempt to skewer me.

  “From your feet?!” I yelled in shock.

  “I’m full of surprises, 963!”

  I saw the bones from his knuckles begin to retract, and I ducked once again to dodge the rebound. When I looked up he was significantly closer to me, with a kick aimed at my chin. I quickly rolled backward as his gloves turned into claws, and extended out toward me in an attempt to pin me to the ground.

  With them reaching toward me, I quickly grabbed two of the fingers and broke them apart. They fell to the ground, as I stood up and took a quick step forward.

  “You can break bones with your bare hands?! Seems like you’re full of surprises too!” He yelled, punching the ground.

  From the ground, a bone skewered through my calf, but I was undeterred. Purple energy radiated from my fist as I delivered a heavy punch to his chest, right where his heart was. The bones started to crack, as blood dripped from my knuckles.

  He swung his arm to the left with a blade extended from his wrist in an attempt to decapitate me, but I ducked and swung the leg that the bone was skewering up. Freeing myself, and hitting him in the chin in the process. The force was so heavy that he flew straight up for a moment, and I lined another punch up.

  “Disruption!!”

  I landed another punch to his heart, and the bones cracked even further. He flew backwards, but extended his arm out at the same time. Before I could even react, three small bullets hit my stomach, left arm, and right thigh.

  “Tch!”

  They ripped through my flesh leaving small holes in each location. I’m not sure if it was due to the extra energy radiating from me, but it didn’t hurt that much. My movement was slightly impaired, but not as much as it should’ve been with these wounds.

  "You're looking a bit hopeless, 963. Wanna throw in the towel yet?" He said, with me feeling the smirk underneath his mask.

  "In your fucking dreams." I seethed, energy crackling from my body as I bent my legs.

  There is no more defense. I have to kill him before his armor regenerates. I have to break his core, even if it costs me every limb in my body!