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[Raven\'s POV]

"I caught you."

I mischievously said to Alec while he\'s under my right foot and lying on the ground.

And looking at his face, I can pretty much guess he\'s shocked and confused at what happened to him.

Well, I\'ll be like that too if I\'m in his situation where the technique I\'m working hard on was countered by someone who saw it for the first time.

\'Though, I was just able to counter it because I have a fitting skill against it, and I already know pretty much everything about spatial barrage.\'

But the surprising thing is, Alec was supposed to invent [Spatial Barrage] during the second major event in the novel.

And right now, the first event just ended.

\'Did I cause it too, or the Higher Beings?\'

I asked inwardly.

\'Did his motivation to train skyrocketed after knowing he has another competition?\'

That resulted for Alec to improvised a technique much earlier than in the novel?

\'Well, whatever.\'

I\'ll just assume my conclusion is right, after all, the change that happened is a good thing.

And I already gauged Alec\'s strength, he\'s definitely stronger than the \'him\' in the novel in this time.

And he\'s definitely much much stronger than me...

The only reason why I seem to have the upper hand in this fight despite Alec stronger than me...

Is because I know all of Alec\'s skill.

Not just that, I know his techniques, I know his attack patterns, and I know his weaknesses.

While on the other hand, Alec is clueless about me.

He doesn\'t know my strength, my fighting style, my skills, my techniques.

Alec isn\'t even sure about what rank I am as he doesn\'t have an appraisal skill yet.

Also, Alec isn\'t using all of his power as he always save energy to prepare for long term battles.

While I\'m using my stats to the fullest, not caring about my stamina!

\'If I suddenly pass out due to exhaustion in this battle, I wouldn\'t die, so there\'s no point in saving my energy.\'

I thought.

And unlike me, Alec never really studied or practiced hand-to-hand combat.

\'He just throw punches and kicks on a whim.\'

If he did learned a proper hand-to-hand combat style.

Then I\'m sure our situation would be reversed.

I\'m gonna be the one on the ground with Alec\'s superior stats, and he\'s gonna be the one who would be looking down on me.

\'I\'m sure that after this, Alec will practice even more and he would even learn a proper hand-to-hand combat techniques.\'

So with all of that, I raised my right foot up.

Swoo-

And attempted to stomp at Alec\'s chest!

Shaa-

Bam-!

But he suddenly disappeared!

So the sole of my foot crushed the ground instead of Alec\'s sternums.

(Sternums are the breastbones.)

\'He\'s probably gonna use spatial barrage again.\'

I concluded inside my head.

\'It\'s not gonna work on me though.\'

I thought.

\'<Thought Acceleration>\'

Then I activated that skill of mine!

And this time, I didn\'t reduce the output of the skill usage!

Swish-

Time slowed down for me to the point that no one seems to be moving.

Though, I\'m so slow too that it\'s like I can\'t move my body.

And after a few seconds of waiting.

I felt a presence on my left side!

The presence was gradually getting stronger, and it feels familiar.

It was from Alec!

\'So that\'s where you plan to attack next huh.\'

I thought.

Swoosh-

Then I mixed my lightning and wind attribute to my mana, and started I circulating it all over my body!

I reinforced every muscle and cell of my body!

And after doing so...

I was finally able to move in this slow world I\'m seeing.

My movements are as slow as a turtle if I might say, but the others are moving like they\'re snails.

And with all of that, I forced my whole body to face left...

And that\'s when I saw Alec\'s figure slowly getting more and more visible, few inches away me.

\'Man, even in this slow world, I\'m just slightly faster than Alec...\'

I thought as I already see a fist coming at me.

\'If I\'m a turtle, and the others are snails... Then Alec is a sloth.\'

I stated in my mind as I slowly raised by right fist.

And after that...

Swoosh-

I punched as fast and as strong as I could to where Alec\'s head will materialize!

(Raven predicted it using his skill, <Insight>.)

And after launching a punch...

I turned off my skill, <Thought Acceleration>.

Fwish-

BAAM!!

And as soon as I did, my fist hit something!

And I saw Alec being flung away for several meters away me!

But even with all of that, I can\'t celebrate.

"Grrgh..."

I let out a pained groaned then I immediately grabbed my head as I try my best not to fall on my knees.

My body hurt as fuck!

But it\'s nothing compared to what my brain is feeling!

It feels like someone broke my head open and they\'re squeezing my brain again and again as hard as they could with their bare hands!

\'Fuck, even though <Thought Acceleration> is a good skill, I can\'t fully utilize it yet.\'

Using it would put a heavy strain on my body and brain, so I decided not to use it as much as I could.

But right now, I\'m in a practice match to test my abilities.

\'So there\'s no need to hold back!\'

And if I don\'t use this skill, then I\'ll just fucking lose against Alec\'s [Spatial Barrage]!

So with that in mind, I boosted the effect of my trait, <Calm Thinker>, to at least lessen the burden to my brain.

Then after that, I looked where I saw Alec was sent flying.

There I saw a pretty big dust cloud, hiding Alec\'s whole body.

"Grrrhh..."

But I can hear him groaning inside of the dust cloud.

And when it faded, and Alec\'s figure is fully revealed.

I was finally able to see him looking at me with a determined face.

\'Man, he\'s really tough huh.\'

I thought with a smile.

"The let\'s see who\'s gonna last longer between us."

I then mumbled and took a my fighting stance again!