As the hammer swung, time seemingly slowed down for Long Transformation.
Thousands of thoughts shot through her head.
She was very close to the wall, and if Kyle went all out with his strike, the kinetic forces generated by the impact would severely injure her.
However, the second improved speck would certainly kill Kyle.
But what if it didn't?
Was Kyle just charging forward blindly, fully intending to give his life just to injure her?
She knew Kyle, and she knew that he would be able to find some kind of way to save his life.
The pain in Long Transformation's mind made it difficult for her to focus.
She had been focused on unlocking her eleventh Cluster, just like Kyle.
Kyle was good at dealing with pain, and his fighting style didn't overly rely on focusing his mind.
It was different for Long Transformation.
The constant pain had been a constant bother.
Without it, her attacks would have been more varied.
Without the pain, she could focus enough to create another defense.
A choice was put in front of her.
She could stop the unlocking of her eleventh Cluster, wasting several centuries of pain and effort, but she could also just gamble.
If she got rid of the pain, she was sure that she would win.
Her mind was fast, but the tiny moment before the impact wasn't long enough to make a conscious decision.
Long Transformation acted on instinct, something she rarely did.
Two specks gathered all of the scattered power.
One in front of Kyle's hammer and one in front of his chest.
Kyle's hammer struck one of the specks.
BANG! BANG!
Long Transformation's bones broke as an immense impact reached her from both specks.
Kyle's arms exploded as two hammers shot into the distance.
Two hammers?
Just before Kyle's strike had hit the speck, his left hand had let go of it before summoning a second, weaker hammer.
The first hammer was slow and was launched with the biggest power he could muster.
The second hammer was fast and used all of Kyle's insights when it came to improving his attack's speed.
Finally, when the hammers had hit their respective specks, Kyle detonated his arms to disperse the majority of the kinetic force.
The kinetic force still injured his body all over, but his Center and mind were still in one piece.
However, since his power had been split across two hammers, the specks still retained big parts of their power.
The first speck missed Kyle since it had been strengthened to stop his hammer. The second speck hit Kyle's chest.
CRK!
His chest caved in, and his Center received a huge crack.
But there was no hole!
A fully powered attack would have torn him to pieces, but his body was powerful enough to resist a weakened attack.
Just barely.
Long Transformation watched as Kyle got past her last defenses.
She wanted to summon one last defense…
But the pain of her unlocking eleventh Cluster made that impossible.
Yes, her instinctual decision had been to continue unlocking her eleventh Cluster.
She didn't know why she had decided to do that.
It had been fully instinctual.
It was stupid.
It had been a stupid mistake.
She should have sacrificed a couple of centuries to survive.
Kyle's bloodshot eyes looked into hers as he reached her.
His recovered arms extended towards her head in aggression and desperation.
Kyle's hand enlarged and wrapped around her head.
Then, he clenched his-
Nothing.
Long Transformation believed that she was dead.
And yet, she wasn't.
'No, fuck this!' Kyle thought as he saw Long Transformation's head in his hand. 'I'm not doing it!'
The next moment, Long Transformation felt her body being rapidly moved through space.
Seconds passed during which she wasn't sure about what was happening.
"Ah, what a coincidence," she heard Kyle say. "Seems like we both left the arena at the same time. Guess it's a draw."
Then, Kyle let go of Long Transformation and just looked at her with a big grin.
Long Transformation's mind was thrown into chaos.
She was alive?
They had left the arena?
She looked down and noticed the great distance between them and the Planet.
Then, she looked with shock and confusion at Kyle.
Was he crazy?
This would anger the Array of Stars!
He was ruining his future!
Why would he do something so stupid?!
But then, Long Transformation realized something.
Something stupid?
Hadn't she done the same thing earlier?
As she thought back to her instinctual decision, she realized something.
It would have been the correct decision to stop the unlocking of her eleventh Cluster…
But that wasn't what she wanted.
She had simply reacted instinctually, and instincts followed emotions, not logic.
It had been a difficult decision.
80% chance of survival, but wasting 400 years of progress, or 50% chance of survival without wasting anything.
In a vacuum, this decision was not easy.
However, the correct decision would be to waste some progress for a good survival chance.
But it would be a close decision.
Yet, when decisions were so close to each other, just a tiny bit could tip the scales.
In this case…
'I didn't want to kill him,' Long Transformation realized.
When she had seen Kyle again and realized that he would be her opponent, she hadn't felt good.
Kyle had freed her from a perceived eternity of being stuck in the Tertiary World.
She was immensely grateful to him.
She really didn't want to kill him.
But what was she supposed to do? She had already agreed to the fight, and she couldn't back out now.
Long Transformation looked at Kyle.
She had thought that she couldn't back out, but he had actually successfully backed out.
The next moment, the Chief Overseer and the Countess appeared in front of them.
Long Transformation inhaled a shaky breath.
But at what cost?
Long Transformation knew that she wasn't in any trouble. It was clear that she had lost.
She wasn't the one who had decided to rebel all of a sudden.
This was all on Kyle.
The two legal representatives looked at the two combatants.
With their experienced eyes, they could see things Kyle and Long Transformation couldn't.
Legally, the result was a draw, but the world disagreed.
At this moment, the two representatives could feel Kyle's Momentum increasing drastically…
And Long Transformation's Momentum dropping drastically…
Losing a True Battle was a big hit to one's Momentum.
Long Transformation's Momentum dropped all the way to the beginning of her Realm.
All the Momentum she had gained as a Primal was gone.
If she wanted to become a 12/13 Primal, she would need to go through several True Battles again.
That was a heavy setback.
"As much as I enjoy a display of defiance in a rival's party," the Countess said, "deception and arguing semantics are abhorred by the Contrast Empire."
"The Contrast Empire is not so weak that we have to argue about rules to gain a small advantage. We all saw the battle. The outcome is clear."
The Countess looked at the Chief Overseer.
"You win."
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