I immediately counterattacked, of course.

“Ice Punishment!”

Bang!

Hahaha! I’m almost invincible because I can regenerate quickly!

Even a little while ago, even if he blocked my attack, bubbles along with black energy were released from the spot I struck. And his body shrunk as a result.

But this time there were no bubbles coming out. This meant that no black energy came out.

Moreover, I came to realize why he mentioned ‘rapid regeneration’ because his body swelled in an instant. If he succeeded in going back to his original shape, I would be doomed to lose to him.

So I shouted immediately, “Use Savant!”

I could not watch him recover any more.

The most extraordinary stat of physical strength, agility, stamina, willpower and intellect that Lumen, Asirante currently possesses is intellect.

-Current intellect value: 85,457

-Your intellect value will be changed to 170,914 for 30 minutes.

– A ten-day cooldown will occur when the retention of Savant expires.

I haven’t used my Savant skill for some time because I didn’t have to.

Of course, I had thought of using it from the moment I was locked in the Ring of Death.

However, I saved it because I thought that if I couldn’t kill that guy in 30 minutes, I might end up losing to him. While fighting, I thought I had already seized victory, so I didn’t bother to use it until now.

But now was the right time for me to use it.

So I quietly opened my mouth.

“Ice Field! Multiple Thin Ice!”

Pasasasasak!

I spread ice again after renewing my determination.

Then I used my strongest skills buffed up by Savant.

“Blizzard! Ice Tornado!”

And now the environment was perfect for my main assault.

So I shouted at him, “Try withstanding this one! Ice Breath!”

Bang!

This time I was confident in destroying him.

He said he was close to invincible, but he didn’t say he was invincible.

If that was the case, I was fully confident in crushing him.

There was a roaring sound.

But I would have been disappointed if Ice Breath had ended up making such a big noise because it meant he blocked my attack.

But then I saw some thick black smoke coming out of his body.

There was so much black energy coming out that I couldn’t even see any further than my nose.

And when the black energy finally stopped billowing everywhere, somebody who was reduced to skin and bones appeared. Of course, it was the black liquid guy.

No way! This can’t happen to me!

He muttered to himself with hollow eyes.

It seemed he was pretty much shocked to know he was completely defeated by me even when he said he was close to invincible.

Of course, his belated monologue or regrets had nothing to do with me. Rather it was what I wanted.

So I opened my mouth proudly because I still had lots of retention time left for my limited skill Savant.

After all, this Ring of Death that he installed became a prison in which he was confined.

“Hey, wake up! Was that your final secret weapon? Do you have any other ones?”

…

The old him would have sneered at me, insulted me, and attacked right away. But this time he didn’t swear at me, nor did he counterattack.

He just looked at me with sunken eyes.

So I added, “Ah, I don’t enjoy harassing a kid. Moreover, you are so small and skinny right now. Then should I take care of you?”

Having said that, I sneaked a glance at his face, but his expression did not change.

With his eyes hollow and his lips pressed in a tight line, he wouldn’t speak.

So I made the decision to attack him right away.

“Ice Punishment!”

Bang!

I used Ice Punishment directly on his head.

Of course, considering that I made all kinds of efforts to obtain even the slightest bit of information from him, it was rather contradictory for me to attack him again.

But I couldn’t spare his life in this situation. Obviously, Savant still had a lot of time left, but I had to fight it out with him anyway until it expired.

That’s why I fought him so hard until now.

Of course, I could have appeased him and gotten what I wanted because he had his back to the wall.

But the moment he realized there was something I wanted from him, he would have bargaining power. He could use it to put forward some conditions that I would have to agonize over. And something unexpected always happened while I was agonizing.

So I decided that I had better kill him before anything unexpected happened.

I already won this fight, so if I kept dragging my feet here, it might bring about some unexpected variables that he could use in his favor.

In any case, the Ice Punishment backed up by Savant showed a tremendous power compared to before, which not only caused the mass release of bubbles an dblack energy from the black liquid man, but eventually penetrated through his head.

Boom!

At that moment, his body exploded with a loud sound as if a huge balloon filled with air popped. And like before, massive amounts of black energy erupted from his body

At the same time, the black liquid disappeared from the spot, leaving only plain transparent water scattered on the ground.

In other words, It was the end of the fight and my victory.

“…”

Since he was such a strong enemy, I could not help but stand still, staring blankly at the spot where the black liquid man stood

While I was standing there, a message rang.

There is only one person left in the Ring of Death.

-The Ring of Death has been deactivated.

Kuuuuuuuuuuo!

The red pillars towerint to the east, west, north, and south disappeared, causing the small square ring to disintegrate. It disappeared like dust as soon as the message rang.

Only then did I realize that I won, and so did those on the outskirts of the ring.

“Wow!”

“He has won! He has won!”

“Juyoung Hong! Juyoung Hong!”

“Asirante! Asirante!”

They started shouting so loudly that they defeaned my ears.

So I returned their shouting by gently waving my hands.

Unlike before, I needed to show them I really fought hard to defeat that black liquid man and deserved the due credit.

Then I moved slowly, following them who chanted my name over and over again.

***

In the place where the Ring of Death was created that night.

The battle was over, but the traces of the fierce battle were bound to remain.

There was something slowly and very slowly merging together on the outskirts of that fierce battle scene.

Wiggle. Wiggle.

It was something black, which was almost invisible to the naked eye.

Since it was a dark night, even those on patrol just in case of an emergency could notice it.

They kept merging together from late at night until just before dawn when complete darkness fell. Eventually they merged to the size of a little finger’s nail, and stopped growing after that.

Bang!

Something struck down towards it. It was none other than a huge chunk of ice.

Then a certain voice rang out.

“Shit, I knew it would end up like this.”