Zeke lunged to the side, narrowly avoiding the strike aimed at his head. In one fluid motion, he turned his momentum into a roll, dodging the follow-up attempt to ensnare him as well. By the time he came up to his feet, the whip had already circled around for another strike. Ishaan was not giving him any time to rest or catch his breath, crazily chasing after him.
Zeke did the only thing he could: he ran.
His breath was already getting labored from the continued action. It was unbelievable how fast the high-speed pursuit was able to sap his stamina. This couldn’t go on for much longer. The hall under the headquarters of the Ember Scar Cartell was quite large, but he would eventually run out of places to escape to, even if his body were able to hold on.
Zeke sensed the whip enter his sphere of awareness. It was a vertical sweep bearing down on him from up high. Immediately, he took a step to the side, avoiding the strike with the least possible movements. Before he was even done taking the step, the shrill noise of air being split sounded out right next to his ear. He had made it, if barely.
However, before he could rejoice, the weapon changed course. It started to coil and pounced at him from right next to his body, spitting in the face of gravity and momentum. Zeke gritted his teeth and [Teleported] before the weapon impaled him. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.
Not only did the whip move so fast that he could barely react, but the weapon also behaved like it was alive. It didn’t feel like an inanimate object but more like a cunning predator chasing prey. It didn’t take long for Zeke to realize that this phenomenon wasn’t just because of Ishaan’s incredible weapon mastery. No, the [Bone Whip] moved in ways that would have been impossible for an ordinary weapon. It was blatantly obvious that Ishaan controlled its movements with Magic.
Most likely, the older man had engraved [Bone Manipulation] on his Core. This gave him the ability to perform attacks that would have been completely impossible through skill alone. Also, it made it almost impossible to predict his attacks. Even Akasha was completely helpless, as the weapon didn’t follow any observable patterns.
Zeke pressed on with his escape, his breaths growing shallow and frantic. He leaped backward, contorting his body to evade yet another sweeping slash by the skin of his teeth. The whip sailed by, but it was already starting to coil. This was something he had come to recognize to be a sign that Ishaan was about to use his magic. However, it didn’t let him know what attack would follow.
In his sphere of awareness, Zeke noticed that he was getting awfully close to a wall. If he continued to retreat in this direction, he would soon be cornered. After landing, he immediately rolled to the side. The tail end of the whip pounced at him, mimicking the perfect thrust of a spear. Even though he hadn’t hesitated, the attack still clipped him.
The spike and the first three of the bone fragments grazed his arm as he rolled. Even though Zeke knew that it was a minor injury, the pain made it feel like a mortal wound. He wasn’t quite sure how Ishaan did it, but even the smallest scrape inflicted such severe pain that Zeke could barely stifle a scream.
He came up from his roll and immediately started to run. Fortunately, there was no immediate follow-up attack. The reason for this was that the hall was ringed by giant stone pillars that stretched all the way to the ceiling. They made for a good cover against a whip, as even Ishaan had trouble using his weapon effectively with so many obstacles.
Zeke darted behind one of the pillars and took a moment to catch his breath. While his back slumped against the cool stone support, his mind worked furiously. He hadn’t lost sight of his opponent, studying him for all he was worth. He needed to find a weakness he could exploit.
[Notice]
The opponent is bleeding heavily from the injury on his back. If Host is able to draw out the battle, the opponent is going to succumb to it in less than 22 minutes.