The Novel's Draft

Intercepting his attack by attacking not at my clone’s body, but at his own fire hero sword.

With this strategy, he wouldn’t be able to swing fully.

The strategy seemed to work because every time I cut his attacks short, the effectiveness of the attacks weren’t as potent.

But this strategy won’t last long.

His vision was clear, and he started changing the way he swung his sword.

But he must’ve underestimated my abilities.

Using my true swordsmanship, I immediately adapted to his new style.

This fool.

He’s me, so of course I know his strategies.

But the downside is that he knows mine.

He suddenly broke through my interceptions by simply overpowering my attacks.

"Aurgh!" My blade flung up, making me stumble back.

I knew it wasn’t going to last long, but he broke through it too fast.

When my clone closed his eyes and he slowly opened them, I shuddered.

He not only had the truthseeker eye on his right eye but his left eye.

Damn it.

As seconds passed, I was being pushed back.

He saw through my defensive sword techniques and broke through them.

We both have true swordsmanship but he is simply overpowering me with his knowledge of the future.

Because I’m practically drained of all of my mana, my right eye’s potency was much weaker.

I was seeing into the future in short bursts of a short time stamp.

My right eye would see a fraction of a fraction of a second into the future whenever he would attack.

By limiting when the eye activates, I’m slowing down the process of when I go into mana overflow.

My veins were beginning to bulge a faint color of blue, which was an indicator that I was already beginning to enter mana overflow.

Small cuts were beginning to rip through my skin, I couldn’t hold him off anymore.

Now I’m just defending myself like an ant fighting a cockroach.

Just as my face was about to split in half, a pillar of ice rose up in front of me.

Chanting words, Vertere ran towards me and touched my back.

A surge of strength exploded through my body.

My body felt lighter than it was, I wouldn’t have to rely on using the sensation of falling to dodge attacks.

Taking off the bracelet on his wrist, he made me wear it.

"Take this, me and Acro replenished it with mana. It may not be much but it will certainly be of help." Vertere started panting.

Dragging Vertere back, Acro opened his mouth:

"Please win."

Nodding, I turned towards my copy.

Stepping forward, I swung my blade horizontally.

This time my sword had weight behind them, I didn’t have to rely on inertia and I could grip the handle of the sword properly.

Clashing against my sword, sparks flew out.

Using the mana from the bracelet, the eye of the true truthseeker’s ability jumped.

I could see all of his attacks, it didn’t matter if he had two truthseeking eyes... he’s just my copy..!

Picking up the pace of my attacks, I matched his tempo.

Throwing a feint, I waited until he reacted to gauge how much his eyes were seeing into the future.

Seeing that he twitched, my mind started running mathematical theories.

He’s seeing about three seconds into the future.

That twitch told me something.

He must have seen that the blade was going to strike at him but just a second later, he saw that I would pull my blade back and strike down at the side of his thigh.

Which I did.

With his blade down to the side, he was left completely defenseless but so was I.

Throwing multiple jabs at me, I weaved out of the way.

Stomping my lead foot, I threw an uppercut.

Barely missing the attack, I felt the skin of my knuckle touch the skin of his chin.

Because he had two truthseeker eyes, his mana was being drained at an exponential rate.

Closing one of his eyes, he swung his blade at my pelvis.

Deflecting the attack, I attacked at his blindside.

We’re both the same, I’ve yet to learn how to manage this eye unlike Alleus.

But even so, she still had to use an eyepatch.

Jumping back, his face was full with caution.

Staring at each other, we walked in a circle as the clouds above thundered.

Lunging forward, we continued our battle of blades.

Face poured down my face, and the same was for him.

Slashing at his blindside once more, he closed his opened eye and opened the other.

But when he tried to dodge the attack by leaning back, he must have miscalculated.

A small amount of fresh blood dripped down across his nose.

His blood slid down my blade, as I looked in astoundment.

My attack reached him.

I see now, when an eye is closed off for a prolonged time, it will take a while to readjust.

Because the lighting of the demon’s territory was unnatural in the sense that it would darken with a faint light that made things barely visible was occasionally broken by the thunder from the clouds.

Touching his face, my copy looked at the blood.

"Well would you look at that, a copy can never beat the original." He readjusted his blade.

"You... can never beat me." I pointed my blade back.

Gulping, we both opened our mouths at the same time:

"But I am the outlier."

"Because I am the outlier..."

Swinging our blades diagonally both at the same time, the metal of our sword resonated.

Our attacks were growing much more refined over time.

Dodging a thrust, I stepped forward and slammed the pommel of the blade upwards.

When he slashed diagonally towards me, I met his sword.

Scraping my blade downwards against his, I hit the guard of his sword the same technique that Index used against me.

Wincing, his hold on the sword slightly loosened.

Looking up at me, I sprayed the blood in my mouth at his eyes.