A single attack would decide everything. The fate of our world or the outcome of this battle. Even the simple thought of life and death alone was enough to make my blood boil in excitement. I was a battle junky, so things like that happened from time to time.

There was no need for unnecessary focus in our final attacks. If you held back, you’d lose, so we both had to give everything we had. We didn’t talk, we didn’t even look at each other. We stood about fifty metres apart and prepared our devastating attacks.

I didn’t come up with any special idea. I would just throw all my mana at him when the time came. I hoped to win that way. I wasn’t sure, nor was I able to predict the outcome. It was one of a few moments, were I didn’t think about it any further and just listened to my instincts.

I was immersed in gathering as much mana as possible. I made sure to be able to fire at any given time, but as long as I had time, I put even more mana into my attack.

…

Quite some time passed without any of us doing anything else. Without a sign, we both fired. I don’t know why, but it felt like the right moment to me. And it seemed like I wasn’t the only one with that thought.

“Haaaaaa!” (Me)

With a roar and all my might I threw all the gathered mana at Daniel. My attack seemed similar to a ball, while his was more like a concentrated ray. Both flew at the same pace and clashed with each other in the middle.

Boom.

The collision released a loud sound and the ground started vibrating heavily as well. Both of us knew that we couldn’t lose concentration and had to consequently use force to keep pressing our own attack forward.

My arms started to feel heavy and the pressure kept increasing permanently. Luckily, I trained my body in all sorts of resistances, which allowed me to endure almost everything.

I wasn’t pushed back, nor did I make any progress. Our attacks made slight movements, but overall, they stayed at the same place and wreaked havoc on the surroundings, while the earthquakes worsened.

I never dared to slack off even a little. It was the opposite, if the force on my body got bigger, I just had to increase his pressure as well. I knew that Daniel was more exhausted than me, so if it came to a fight of endurance I was sure that he was the one to fall first.

“Haaaa!” (Me)

With another roar, I increased the pressure once again. My feet were already buried a few centimetres into the ground. Both arms felt like they’d break at any time and my whole body was aching.

I didn’t know about Daniels situation, but I knew I would soon reach my limits. I didn’t have a method to check on him. I couldn’t look past our attacks and the vibrating earth was too loud to hear anything.

The pressure increased again. I closed my eyes and grit my teeth, so I was able to endure the pain. On top of the physical pain I felt from the force on my body, I started to feel mental pain from exhaustion as well. It was the worst.

Parts of the island started to rip apart and water started to flow into the cracks. As soon as it came close, the sea water evaporated though. If it was seen from afar, it would seem like a natural disaster.

Both of us were left with only a small part of land to stand on. The rest of our surroundings were already destroyed. There was the possibility to fly, but there was no spare mana to do so. At least I didn’t have it.

My pain kept increasing and my thoughts started to get hazy. I thought about things which would happen if I lose. I made a major mistake and lost concentration for a moment.

With fate playing against me as well, the ground beneath me cracked open. I lost my footing, couldn’t keep my balance and fell backwards. For a single second, my attack lost its source of power and was easily penetrated by Daniel’s ray.

With my attack gone, I was left defenceless. I couldn’t dodge, because I was still in the air and was barely able to stay conscious. I couldn’t put up any resistance as well. There wasn’t even a single droplet of mana left.

I faced his attack head on and even though my body was already sore, I could still feel the impact when it hit me. I closed my eyes and hoped it would end fast. It was the moment when I knew, I had lost.

…

Time started to flow slower and slower. My body became numb to the pain. Unfortunately, I couldn’t move my body anymore. I couldn’t even open my eyes again. Random pictures started flowing into my mind. At first, they were blurry, but some of them slowly became clearer.

I finally realised, those were memories of my past. Even with my eyes closed, it felt like I could see them. They flew by fast and I recognized some of the events. My childhood on our little island was there, I saw some pictures of my parents, my brother as well as my sister.

I remembered the first village, how I met Kylie and how she died. My memories showed me pictures from the times when I met the other gods as well as good and bad things we experienced together. The events of the tournament.

I remembered the dark continent and everything I left behind after I trained in seclusion. Unfortunately, I was reminded of some cruel training methods I came up with and I remembered the pain I felt then.

During the last few pictures, I saw Arthur’s dead body, Daniel’s expression when we first met and the battle started. When the last picture flew past me, darkness engulfed me and I felt as if I’d disappear.

I know what that meant; I have reached my end.

I have died.