After I left Sogha's room, I kept remembering what happened earlier. The silent hallway stretched out before me, but my thoughts were entirely consumed by the vivid recollections of the intense battle. Every single moment of that confrontation replayed in my mind with perfect clarity, refusing to fade as I walked away. The memory was incredibly strong, forcing me to relive each second of the encounter in precise detail. I could still feel the lingering adrenaline pumping through my veins, and the echoes of the destructive events continuously occupied my thoughts as I moved further down the corridor. My mind completely focused on the exact sequence of everything that had occurred during that fierce struggle.
The recollection began at the exact moment the initial phase of the conflict had concluded. After I knocked out Sogha, a sudden and profound stillness had settled over the entire area. He lay completely motionless on the ground, appearing entirely unconscious after the force of my initial attack. I stood over him, my chest heaving as I tried to recover my breath, keeping my eyes fixed directly on his unmoving form. One second passed in absolute silence. Then two seconds passed, with no movement from him at all. Three seconds, four seconds, five seconds ticked away slowly in my head. The quietness of the surrounding space felt incredibly heavy and tense. Six seconds, seven seconds, eight seconds went by as I remained completely stationary, waiting for any potential sign of recovery. Nine seconds, ten seconds, eleven seconds passed, and the stillness persisted without a single change. I maintained my defensive stance, refusing to let my guard down even for a moment. Twelve seconds, thirteen seconds, fourteen seconds elapsed, the anticipation growing stronger within me. Fifteen seconds, sixteen seconds, seventeen seconds passed, and the absolute silence of the room began to feel deeply deceptive. Eighteen seconds, nineteen seconds went by. Exactly twenty seconds later, the entire situation changed instantly. Twenty seconds later, he stood up. He did not rise slowly or show any signs of pain or physical distress from being knocked out. He simply returned to his feet with total ease, standing completely upright before me. Once he was on his feet, he just laughed. The sound of his laughter was sharp, loud, and deeply mocking, filling the entire space and echoing off the remaining structures. He raised his hand, pointed his finger directly at me, and fired a blast.
The energy erupted from his pointed finger with instantaneous, overwhelming power, traveling across the short distance between us in a fraction of a millisecond. The force of the blast was so immensely destructive that it completely destroyed the entire mansion we were on. The sheer magnitude of the explosion tore through the solid walls, shattered the heavy ceilings, and utterly pulverized the massive foundations of the building. In an instant, the grand structure vanished completely, replaced by a massive cloud of thick dust, flying debris, and falling pieces of stone. The entire mansion was reduced to absolute ruin, leaving nothing but a barren, leveled landscape beneath our feet where the large building had stood just moments before. The devastating power of the attack completely altered the terrain, leaving us standing amidst the smoking remnants of the completely demolished structure.
Amidst the falling debris and the massive cloud of dust caused by the complete destruction of the building, I forced my body to react immediately. I dashed forward, pushing off the ruined ground with all the speed and intensity I could possibly muster, closing the gap between us in a desperate attempt to strike before he could follow up his devastating blast. I swung my sword with all my strength, directing a powerful, rapid slash straight at him. However, my weapon failed to make any contact. He dodged my swing with perfect, effortless agility, shifting his body out of the path of the oncoming blade with absolute precision. Before I could even attempt to recover my balance or pull my weapon back into a proper defensive position, he counterattacked instantly. He kicked me into the floor with immense physical force. The brutal impact of his foot striking my body sent me hurtling downward at incredible speed. I crashed heavily against the solid ground, the violent landing causing the fractured floor beneath me to shatter further under the weight of the impact.
I had absolutely no time to recover from the severe impact of the landing. As I lay flat on the fractured floor, he immediately pressed his advantage and started attacking with barrages of relentless strikes. The blows came in an incredibly fast, continuous succession, a furious storm of attacks that gave me absolutely no opportunity to breathe, defend myself, or escape. Each individual punch and kick landed with staggering power, rattling my bones and tearing completely through my remaining physical defenses. The sheer intensity and trauma of the continuous assault quickly overwhelmed my body's capacity to endure the immense damage. The unrelenting force of the barrages made me cough out blood. A deep crimson fluid spilled from my lips, splattering across the broken ground beneath me as the overwhelming onslaught finally ceased for a brief moment. I struggled to maintain my consciousness through the throbbing pain that enveloped my entire being. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, dragging it across my bloody lips to clear the fluid away, completely refusing to let the physical injuries break my inner resolve or stop me from continuing the fight.
Realizing that standard attacks and ordinary physical efforts were completely useless against his overwhelming strength, I decided to risk absolutely everything on a single, massive strike. I focused entirely on my internal energy reserves, drawing out every single ounce of power I possessed from the very depths of my being. I used one hundred percent of my mana output, pushing my internal energy system to its absolute maximum limit. I concentrated this entire massive, overwhelming reservoir of power and deliberately puts it on my sword, channeling the immense energy directly into the blade until the weapon hummed violently with the absolute entirety of my force. With everything riding on this single, definitive action, I swung at Sogha, launching the fully charged sword forward in a massive, sweeping motion intended to pierce through his defenses and end the conflict once and for all.
The strike was executed with the absolute maximum of my power, but the outcome was completely different from what I had anticipated. He just held my sword like cardboard. His hand closed tightly around the reinforced edge of the blade, stopping the full force of my one hundred percent mana output instantly and effortlessly, treating the heavily charged weapon as if it were nothing more than a piece of flimsy, weak paper. The shocking ease with which he completely neutralized my ultimate attack left me entirely stunned and completely defenseless. Seizing the immediate opening created by my total vulnerability, he punched me hard in the torso. The immense impact sent a violent wave of agonizing pain directly through my body. Immediately following that devastating strike, he punched me again, the second blow hitting with equal ferocity, completely driving the remaining air from my lungs and sending me staggering backward across the ruined floor.
He did not cease his aggressive offensive pressure for even a single second after landing those two heavy punches. He reached down into the surrounding wreckage, grabbed a massive piece of shattered stone, and threw a huge boulder at me. The giant rock flew through the dusty air with terrifying speed, a massive projectile aimed directly at my position. I forced my aching, trembling arms to move, raising my weapon with the last of my immediate strength to defend myself, and I cut it. The sword sliced cleanly through the massive stone, dividing the huge boulder into two separate pieces that crashed loudly to the ground on either side of me.
Following the complete destruction of the massive boulder, the confrontation did not slow down in the slightest degree, escalating instead into a prolonged and incredibly brutal war of attrition between us in the center of the ruins. Every single passing moment demanded the absolute peak of my physical endurance as the fierce exchange of blows continued without any intermission amidst the rising clouds of heavy dust. I completely refused to back down or give up, pouring every remaining ounce of my internal energy into the weapon to maintain the desperate offensive and withstand the heavy pressure against his overwhelming strength. The intense, exhausting clash dragged on continuously, completely draining my physical body and testing the absolute limits of my human willpower while the broken environment all around us crumbled further into complete and utter ruin. This relentless, unchanging cycle of attacking and defending persisted through an incredibly grueling, nonstop sequence of direct physical exchanges between us two combatants. I fought him for 5 minutes using 100% of my mana and while he kept toying with me before he stood up and just looked at me shocked.