The bloodlust blanketing their surroundings became thicker. Tim’s attacks were continuously aimed at Zich—the force he created with his strong and elastic muscles was powerful, and his sharp claws moved faster. Zich counterattacked with Windur but Tim’s attacks pushed him back. Tim seemed to have lost his mind, but Zich remained cold and calm. Although an opponent who was enraged from head to toe was dangerous, they also had many openings.
Crash!
After blocking Tim’s large swing, Zich wavered while Tim’s eyes shone. His beast-like instincts didn’t miss Zich’s openings.
Growl!
Tim pushed his face forward with his mouth wide open. He planned to bite into Zich’s neck; his vision narrowed in his excitement, and he didn’t realize which direction Zich’s feet was moving toward.
Punch!
Rather than forcefully trying to straighten his body up, Zich used those movements to aim a kick at Tim. By coincidence or purpose, Zich kicked Tim right in the groin.
Urgh! Tim’s mouth opened wide and closed in an instant. Although fur and leather shielded him, he was attacked in an important and very sensitive area. After getting kicked by a foot filled with mana there, Tim lost all strength in his body. Zich didn’t miss this chance to swing his sword.
Crash!
Tim’s body flew away. After plowing through two storage rooms, he fell onto the floor. A long, deep wound formed on his chest and made him spurt out blood. Yet, he had no time to lay peacefully on the ground. As his eyes faced the sky above him, he saw Zich fall towards him. Windur’s blades sparkled under the moonlight as it faced him. Tim hurriedly rolled away.
Baaaam!
Windur’s blades easily dug into the surface. If Tim had been hit by such an attack, he would have received a critical injury. He raised his body up; his injuries were already healing themselves, but Zich rushed towards him again as if he couldn’t miss the opportunity.
Crash!
After receiving a huge blow, it seemed like Tim had regained some of his senses again and his movements appeared more sophisticated. Of course, Zich couldn’t let that be.
“How pitiful! If I gave the kick just a little bit more power, you would have been castrated!”
“Shut up!” Humiliation stirred his rage, and Tim’s attacks became dull and messy again. After flicking all the claws coming his way and counter attacking with kicks, Zich evaded Tim’s gnashing. Even in this dangerous situation where his body could be shredded at any moment, Zich felt sentimental.
‘This immaturity—it’s been a long time.’
Before the regression and long before Zich died under Glen’s hands, Tim underwent thorough training under Zich after he joined the team as Zich’s subordinate. Although Tim’s basic physical abilities were astounding, he had many beast-like qualities that Zich had to help train to make up for some of their drawbacks. After that, Werewolf Tim Platt became renowned as one of Demon Lord Zich’s subordinates. Currently, Tim’s movements resembled the ones he had when he first began Zich’s training before he polished his skills.
‘He should fix this.’ Zich struck down Tim’s unnecessarily wide arm movements with Windur.
‘He has to widen his peripheral vision.’ Seeing Tim aim for his neck, Zich arched his neck slightly and tricked Tim’s eyes.
‘If he makes steps like that, his feet will get tangled up.’ Zich tapped Tim’s feet, which looked a bit unbalanced, and made him stumble.
‘I…’ Zich pointed the ends of Windur’s blades at Tim. ‘Told you not to fling your arms however you want when you are surprised!’
Puuuunch! The ends of Windur’s blades pierced into Tim’s body. They clearly penetrated Tim’s chest wound which hadn’t healed yet and roughly twirled into his organs.
“Kuh!”
As if the attack this time had been critical, Tim vomited blood.
Splurt! Windur came back out, soaked in blood. Tim backed a couple of steps away while clutching onto his wound.
“You…!” His bright yellow eyes glared at Zich. “You bastaaaaaaard!”
After stretching out both hands, Tim rushed towards Zich. Zich did the same.
Crash! Zich coiled up his body to the left and bounced off Tim’s right hand with all he had. Tim bent his left hand and aimed for Zich’s face. Zich quickly changed Windur’s direction and aimed for Tim’s arm. However, Tim didn’t concern himself with that; he thought Zich’s sword wasn’t instilled with enough mana and power to pierce through his fur and leather.
Slice!
Contrary to his expectations, the sword sliced lightly through his arms.
“What…!” Tim shouted in shock. However, Zich didn’t slow down his attack. He dived right in and swung Windur again.
Slice!
“Ahh!” Windur struck the same wounded area, and Tim screamed. The regenerating injury grew bigger. Tim folded his arms as if he was planning to hug Zich. Yet, Zich arched his body, escaped out of reach, and sliced Tim’s sides.
Slice! Blood spilled out again.
“Ah, damn it! Fuck!” Tim felt like he was going crazy, but he also felt confused. His fur and leather which had managed to deflect most attacks were getting mercilessly sliced now.
‘How did this happen!’
If this happened from the beginning, he wouldn’t be so confused; however, his fur and leather had been good at blocking Zich’s swords until now. If Zich didn’t apply a lot of power into his strikes, it would have failed to inflict much damage on him.
‘Was he hiding his strength all along?’ However, that didn’t seem to be the case, and while he thought this, the injuries on his body increased even more.
Yet, this only made Zich certain of his predictions. ‘As expected, he doesn’t know.’
Tim had a weakness even Zich discovered much later before the regression. Whenever he received a critical wound, his defense abilities temporarily dropped. According to Tim’s words before the regression, they guessed that as Tim’s body focused on healing his critical wound, his defenses decreased significantly as a side effect.
‘When he first found this out, he told me that he was so startled that he almost died.’
The reason why Tim hadn’t known about his weakness for such a long time was simple; it was because he had never received a serious injury until that moment. It was an anecdote that clearly showed how great Tim’s abilities were even from the very beginning. Moreover, Zich was able to personally verify that while fighting the current Tim.
However, since this was Tim’s first time finding out about his weakness: if he received a critical hit, his defense capabilities would greatly decrease. Tim was unable to showcase his full abilities. It hadn’t been an exaggeration when the past Tim told Zich that he almost died when he first found out about his weakness.
Pierce! Windur pierced Tim’s left forearm; Zich’s attack pushed through Tim’s arm this time, and Zich was able to cut half of Tim’s forearm.
“Ugh!” Tim’s hand drooped—his cut forearm could no longer properly move.
This was an opportunity. Zich immediately moved his body towards the area where Tim was injured. He planned to unleash his attacks on Tim’s left arm, which seemed to have lost its proper fighting capabilities.
“W-wait!” Tim desperately shouted, “I lost! I’ll do as you say!”
Zich halted his attack. “…You’ll do as I say?”
“Yep! I’ll do kind acts or whatever the hell you want me to do! So stop now!” Tim showed his right palm, which still functioned properly, and asked Zich to stop.
“So you’re telling me you’re going to do kind acts?”
“Damn it! I’m telling you I’ll do kind acts or whatever fuckery you want me to do!” Tim spoke with agitation as if he’d given up on everything.
Zich stared at Tim for a bit, and then put Windur back in. “You should have done that from the very beginning,” Zich said, like an adult talking to a child. However, there was no hostility in his words.
Tim’s eyes shined. ‘He fell for it!’ Tim had no intentions to do kind acts. He just lied to escape from danger since he didn’t think that he’d be able to beat Zich right now.
‘As soon as I regenerate, I’m going to escape!’
Zich showed a gap in his stance. “Follow me. We have to first clean up this commotion.” Zich turned his back.
‘This is an opportunity!’ It was a different story now; it was extremely easy to kill an opponent who turned their back and lowered their guard.
‘Stupid punk!’ Tim mocked Zich inside his mind and raised the nails of his right arm. Even though he hadn’t fully regenerated yet, a perfect chance like this might never appear again. Tim ignored his injuries and moved.
Zich continued to talk while his back was to Tim. “You don’t have to worry about the people you killed. I will definitely…”
‘I don’t give a shit about things like that!’ Tim pierced his nails into Zich’s back—no, it seemed like he would. Tim thought he saw a glimpse of something like a comet flying towards him.
Splash! Blood spurted out. Did his nails make a hole on Zich’s back? However, Zich’s back was completely fine.
‘Why…’ Tim was filled with questions. ‘Why is he getting further away?’
Unable to even think about the answer, shock erupted from his back. He was no longer able to see Zich. He could only see an enormous, bright full moon in the night sky.
“Wh…kuak!” Metallic blood seeped out of his throat. Tim spit out a clump of blood; at the same time, a burning pain came out from his heart.
“Ugh!” Tim moved his head and assessed his condition. Before he knew it, he had collapsed and was lying flat on the ground. Blood flowed out like a fountain from the hole in his left chest.
“W-what, how…”
“It’s simple.”
Tim could hear Zich’s voice; he moved his head to the side. Zich put Windur on his shoulder and looked down at Tim.
“I pierced a hole into your heart. No matter how great your regenerative capabilities are, it’s impossible for you to continue living if I crush your heart.”
Cutting off his neck and this method were the only two methods to kill Tim with his extraordinary regenerative ability. However, Tim still couldn’t understand his current situation. Surely he had ambushed Zich while Zich had lowered his guard. Their current situation should have been completely flipped.
As if he was showing his concern for Tim, Zich crouched down and squatted next to Tim. “Your declaration of surrender—I didn’t believe it at all.”
“What…!”
“You happily ambushed me seeing that I lowered my guard, but I purposely revealed that opening. You fell for my plan, so I just needed to ambush you and grab my victory. Should I tell you something good?”
Zich calmly let out a secret that he had been keeping to himself. “When you lie, your right thumb slightly twitches.”
Tim’s eyes widened. While looking at Tim’s face, Zich continued, “That’s why I didn’t believe your surrender and used that to my advantage instead. That’s also the reason why I found out about your conspiracy. I always knew when and what you were lying about.”
“H-how…!” Tim became speechless. How did another person who hadn’t even known him for long know a habit of his that even he didn’t know about?
“Tim, I know you very well. Not just your habit. Didn’t you wonder about how I was able to suddenly start cutting through your defenses? It’s because your defensive abilities go down when you receive a critical hit. You didn’t know, because you probably never received a serious injury after gaining that ability.”
Tim got the answers to the multiple questions he had while fighting Zich. However, he wasn’t happy at all. Instead, he thought of a question that was bigger than all his questions combined.
“…Who…are you?”
Sadness dyed Zich’s eyes, but his voice was calm as he replied, “I used to be your future master.”