The certain individual was ahead of times, equipped with inhumane knowledge.

Ray stood and pulled Elaine up by the hand. Normally, he wouldn’t help Elaine like this, but the situation demanded that he did. The leader of monster worshippers—whose right arm had transformed into a monstrous form—was glaring at them with his sharp, ellipse eyes.

They exchanged stares through the heavy rain.

‘…’

***

Clang!

At the time, right after Elaine had leapt toward the sky, Ray had swung his sword at the leader of the monster worshippers—only to have it blocked. His opponent’s right arm had gradually seeped a blackened shade and had a metal-like hardness that he couldn’t cut. His lower right arm had stopped his sword effortlessly.

His eyes, which had been that of a deformed circle, had slowly taken on an ellipse shape.

His words cut through the rain, ‘Out of my way.’

The leader deflected his sword, throwing Ray off balance, and he unleashed a straight with his partially transformed right arm.

Ray swayed his upper body backward.

Swish! The attack hadn’t enough range to connect, but Ray’s face felt the foul wind from the blow. Even the raindrops shied away from the fist right after it was thrown. Receiving that hit without any defense would undoubtably be fatal.

Ray stepped back, gaining distance.

His sword had more reach compared to his opponent’s arm. At a favorable distance the reach advantage would be leaning toward him.

However, the leader stepped in and stayed close.

He unleashed a barrage of rights. Each attack, Ray had to dodge with all his might. He hardly was given the leisure to breathe; slipping in a counter was simply still out of the question. The missed blows exerted its impact, affecting the air surrounding, causing the raindrops to steer away from their fight.

Pressured by the attacks, Ray kept stepping back and attempting to shake his opponent off. His attempts had—thus far failed, and he then found his back pressed against a wall of a building, leaving him with no room to step backwards.

‘!!’ Ray was in trouble.

The leader of the monster worshippers, meanwhile, didn’t fail to capitalize on this situation. He sunk his weight on his left front foot, spun his torso with strength, and swung his right arm. Ray saw the attack coming toward him, his opponent’s most powerful straight.

Bam!

The straight hit—the wall.

Ray had tilted his head; the attack had missed.

His opponent’s fist had plummeted into the wall. An opportunity had finally arisen for Ray to deliver a counter. He raised his sword diagonally from below, aiming toward the body.

He did not realize.

Having only known that the straight had hit the wall behind, Ray did not see the growing cracks that the attack had caused. Before his slash could connect, the leader had unstuck himself and pulled back his arm. The wall, losing support, came crashing down almost immediately.

In that brief second, by reflex, Ray chose to abort his slash and to prioritize on getting out of harm’s way. He stepped to the side; away from the fall, avoided most of the debris, and escaped the ruin with minimal damage.

The evasion had left him in a vulnerable state. Ray had expected for the leader to pounce on this weakness, but, contrary to his expectations, nothing had happened. Noticing the oddity, he turned his head to search for his opponent, but he couldn’t find him.

The leader had disappeared.

***

Just as Ray had thought: the leader had chased Elaine, and here they were.

Ray noticed that his opponent’s right arm had fully transformed: its size had increased, spikes were jutting out, and it seemed to have its own heartbeat. If a partial transformation had gotten Ray into trouble, then this full transformation of his right arm could only mean worse than trouble.

There must be a drawback to that, Ray thought.

Checking the facts, if his opponent had that transformation move from the beginning, then why didn’t he use it on their first encounter?

Costs and restrictions. For any magic, there would be new costs and restrictions. Transmutation, though vague, is still classified as magic, and there must be costs and restrictions to it. Ones that had prevented him from using it.

If Ray could figure out what the costs and restrictions were, he could have an upper hand.

He stared into his opponent’s ellipse eyes; his was that of a wild beast.

Could it be…

The leader of the monster worshipper, the now partial monster, leapt toward Ray and Elaine. Though his massive right arm seemed heavy, the weight didn’t seem to affect his balance or speed. He raised his arm high. Ray lightly pushed Elaine’s shoulder, telling her to dodge the other way and separate.

They both jumped sideways, each to a different direction, and avoided that hammering right arm.

Grashk!

The arm hit the flooded ground, destroying the pathway, and shattering the foundation to flying pieces. Ray perceived the damage; any attempts to block that attack seemed like a suicidal move. More importantly, Ray saw—something else.

That attack had damage, he determined, but it lacked a strategy.

The leader of the monster worshippers had struck Ray as a man capable of using strategies to his advantage. The fact that the attack was void of strategy—For, why vertical and not horizontal swing? The latter would have been a better attack that could hit both Ray and Elaine—only portrayed the costs and restrictions.

This full transformation is his last resort, something that Elaine had forcefully made him use. I do not know the exact costs and restrictions, but he’s losing his wits for strategy.

There was, of course, the possibility that the leader was feigning his peculiar, wild behavior to catch them off guard. However, the chance of that was very slim, and Ray very much doubted it. All for the simple reasoning: If there were no costs or restrictions, he would have used his transformed right arm right from the start.

I don’t have to suspect underlying tricks in this battle.

Having dodged the attack and seeing that his opponent hadn’t pulled out his arm from the ground, Ray went toward him. The handle of his sword tightly gripped with both hands. He imbued the blade with Wind Elemental Magic to increase its sharpness, made a sharp step in, and swung his sword diagonally from below toward his opponent’s torso.

His opponent hadn’t detected the attack with his eyes; however, the arm had moved on its own, protecting his human body.

Clang!!

The blade hit the arm’s spikes. Didn’t even make a scratch.

The leader’s ellipse eyes trailed toward Ray, like a predator chasing prey, and was locked on him. His opponent was about to pounce toward him and, again, his arm moved on its own. His sights clearly hadn’t seen Elaine’s attack, but the arm guarded his back from Elaine’s sphere of fire.

Vwoosh!

The fire dissipated, causing no obvious damage.

A new sense that could detect attacks, or separate consciousness, or both, Ray analyzed his observation. None of us can harm his arm, but his human body is an obvious weakness that needs protection.

If I can time my attack with Elaine’s, he can only guard against an attack, and one of them is bound to connect.

Ray and Elaine both circled the leader of monster worshippers. As Ray adjusted his attack timings to Elaine’s attacks, he was getting closer and closer to execute a simultaneous attack. Until, finally, a chance presented itself: his opponent had just blocked Elaine’s Water Elemental Magic attack, and Ray was at a distance where he could step in, swing his sword, and the slash would connect.

Thus, he pressed on the flooded ground with his left feet and closed the dist—

Deg!

Ray’s heart skipped a beat. Nosebleed trickled over his lips. Before he was able to swing his sword, he found out that his body was unable to move as he willed.

This is…

A shroud of creeping darkness crept at the peripherals of his vision.

Through that black vignette, a certain subject remained in focus: An ellipse, monstrous eye, which had noticed his weakened state, and an opponent who would pounce for the kill.