I turned and asked what he was on about.

"W-well, I think I may or may not have seen… several ce-centipedes emerge from the inside of your body and reconnect it."

"What?"

"Do you have some kind of immortality that does this?" He questioned, a sickly look appearing on his face.

"Well, now that I recall…"

Could this be the effect of Krehviirdov? I lost my previous immortality and in its place came this. Is it what just saved me there?

Wait, if I remember, my former immortality skill was sacrificed and I was given this instead after passing the Trial of the Fallen. Could this thing also be the source of my sudden boost in stamina?

A few weeks ago, every time I would regenerate, my stamina would be instantly consumed at the cost of regeneration. Now I don\'t even feel a sense of fatigue.

I guess I should be a little thankful but now is not the time. The man standing in front of me just chopped me in half a few seconds ago. Though something feels strange.

His face was pale as if he had seen a ghost. If my memory is right, he stuttered on the word centipede a while ago. Could he really be…? No… that would be stupid for someone like him.

Well, there is only one way to find out.

I charged towards him and prepared an obviously telegraphed swing. As I expected, Brigen swiftly slashed both my arms off, both of them falling to the ground while wielding my sword.

Now then…

With my will, two centipedes suddenly sprouted from my arms and reconnected with my hands. I swiftly took a look in Brigen\'s direction and I saw him flinch, backing away from me.

"Gah! D-disgusting!"

Ahh, so he does have a fear of bugs.

Huh, I thought fighting this guy would be hard but now that his weakness is in full view, this\'ll be easy. I\'ll admit, this form of regeneration is grotesque, but I\'ve seen worse.

After my arms finished attaching, I chased after Brigen, increasing my speed with Cursed White, and thrust my sword forward, impaling his chest.

Brigen tried to escape but I swept him off his feet and pinned him to the ground. I charged mana into my hands before slamming him with my bare fists.

With each hit, I broke a piece of his Altima\'s armor. He tried to fight back, but he was stunned with every punch.

"What\'s wrong? Can\'t fight back?" I taunted as I continued to bash his head in.

"Y-you…!"

He growled, his voice trembling. Brigen\'s body began to glow and the shards of his armor that I had broken off shaped into blades. Instantly, I was bombarded with several dozen blades.

I jumped back, quickly forcing the blades out of my body. This gave Brigen the chance to recover and as he got up, he roared at me before charging with his sword, my blade still stuck in his chest.

I extended my hand and my blade forced itself out of his body, causing him to stumble. With my sword returned to my hand, I dashed forward and aimed for his neck. My sword struck his neck but it bounced off his armor. I stumbled back and Brigen sent his sword towards me, aiming for my chest but I managed to deflect it with my sword.

As I backed away from him, his sword returned to his hand.

I see, so he makes it up for his slow speed with defense. He can also control his sword freely like it has a mind of its own.

He rushed towards me. I lifted my arm and fired a Piercing Red, hitting his left leg.

Well, even if he does have armor, it\'s nothing to Piercing Red.

As he stumbled to the ground, I appeared behind him and prepared to stab him in the heart. From what I could see, he has been trying his best to avoid any major injuries. He must not be able to heal.

However, Brigen was fast and knocked my sword out of my hand, impaling me with his sword instead.

He quickly slid away from me as I pulled his sword out of my chest, the wound being mended by the centipedes in my body. The feeling was strange, having bugs move around your body to close up wounds but I could get used to it.

"I… Is that all? I didn\'t… feel a thing." Brigen muttered, clutching his chest as he took heavy breaths.

"Why don\'t you just give up? You seem tired. I\'ll be merciful for once and let you go."

"So I could abandon such a vigorous fight? No thanks. I will fight till this battle has an end."

Hmph, he\'s quite enthusiastic for someone that\'s about to die. I guess I\'ll just go easy on him now. He wasn\'t much than I had expected.

"Then let\'s do hand-to-hand combat," I proposed, "No swords, no spells, nothing. Just us, fighting with our bare fists."

"Heh… that sounds like a wonderful proposal."

He extended his hand, his sword which was in my grasp flew to him. He then tossed it away and got into a fighting stance.

I took a fighting stance as well and Brigen took the first move.

He threw a right cross, targeting my face but I slipped the cross and slammed my fist against his stomach, breaking a part of his armor.

He didn\'t flinch and took ahold of my arm. He tried to break it but it was no use. I quickly swept him off his feet and kicked him up into the air. I flew up behind him and slammed him towards the ground, trailing behind him and grappled his ankle, speeding him towards the ground faster.

Brigen swiftly got back onto his feet and roared, punching me across the face in an instant.

I flew back, hitting and sliding across the floor as Brigen followed me with fast, heavy footsteps. He attempted to smash me into the ground with the weight of his body but I avoided him, kicking up from the ground and slipping behind him where I got him in a chokehold. He managed to escape by elbowing my ribs which caused me to let go.

He turned and delivered a kick to my head but I stood my ground, returning the same kick but to his arms. I heard a crack as he fell to the ground, crying in pain, resulting in him exiting out of his Altima.

"Gah! Fuck!" He groaned as he tried to stand up.

Brigen tried to throw another punch at me but was too slow. I easily dodged as he stumbled onto the floor.

…this is pathetic.

As he tried to stand up again, I told him to give up.

"This fight is over. You are in no condition to fight back. You disappoint me. I expected more from an Enigma."

I turned around and prepared to leave. Brigen immediately started trying to convince me to fight him more.

"No! You can\'t abandon a fight like that! Where is your honor!?"

"Honor? That\'s only something humans would care about. Besides, who said we were fighting for honor? You came to challenge me which already meant that you had lost. You may have landed a major blow on me, but that is that. Now go, before you meet a fate worse than your brother."

With that, I and kicked off from the ground, heading in the direction that I was heading minutes ago.

"N...no... you can\'t leave... not like this! H-how dare you... You can\'t just leave... not until we settle the winner... You get back here... GET BACK HERE!!"

I heard Brigen yell at me and when I turned around, a swarm of giant blades were headed towards my direction.

"You... I gave you a chance and you threw it away! Obsessed with your honor and pride... it pisses me off. You really are like your brother. This is the end for you... YOU DUMBASS!!"

A powerful beam of distorted energy discharged from my palm. The beam instantly dismantled the swarm of blades and shot towards Brigen. Before he had the time to react, he was engulfed by the twisted energy.

Seconds later, there was a giant crater where Brigen once stood. Not a trace of him was left. There was only his sword, stuck in the ground.

"Idiot."

I then resumed my original goal which was to leave this country and come back when the heat dies down. I\'ve become a public enemy so even though they don\'t know my face, they\'ll find other ways to spot me. One being my energy signal.

I left a lot of evidence back at the capital but it\'ll take them a while to find me. I\'ll just hide and wait for a few weeks.

Now then, I\'m gonna have to get use to this new immortality of mine. The last one was alright since it wasn\'t so flamboyant. Regular healing would\'ve been enough but I guess I\'ll just deal with what I have.

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