Chapter 33 Slow, Ticking Time

Alex knew that he cannot use any extremely powerful moves right now, as he had limited Mental Power.

If he uses one powerful move and Lord Gallius manages to dodge it, then Alex will be a goner.

As such, Alex’s only choice was to use less powerful but still lethal ways to win.

Lord Gallius seems to be thinking the same thing too, as all the skills that he used to attack Alex earlier were all still at the normal level of abilities.

"This means my fight with Lord Gallius right now all depends on perseverance, tenacity and creativity." Alex thought to himself as he looked at all the ice creeping towards him.

"....." Even if he will not use much of his analytic prowess, Alex knew the reason for why Lord Gallius decided to freeze his surroundings.

"Since I can dodge his attacks, then the only thing that he needed to do is to slow me down." Alex muttered grimly to himself as he started to feel the effects of the cold settling down on him.

Alex could feel his body’s reaction rate slowing down, as his muscles started to get hampered by the cold. His body also started to slightly tremble, as his internals started to recompensate for all the body heat that he is losing right now.

"Now, let’s see if you can still move like you used to before." Lord Gallius said as he jumped towards Alex’s direction.

For some reason, it seems like Lord Gallius was not affected by the cold trick that he just did.

Of course, Alex knew that Lord Gallius can make himself immune from the cold by increasing the vibration of the particles around him.

By doing that, they will generate heat that will counteract the cold around Lord Gallius.

"..."

However, Alex knew that he should not dwell deep into thinking of these things as he had more important things to do.

And that was to stay alive from his incoming opponent.

"Swoosh~" Alex leaned back, letting the longsword pass just right above him.

Lord Gallius seemed to be not perturbed by this dodge as his longsword changed directions, as it now snapped down towards Alex.

But before Lord Gallius could see a bisected Alex in front of him, he suddenly felt pain inside his chest, which forced him to falter.

"Gah!" Lord Gallius staggered a little as he clutched his chest as he wondered what happened to him.

As for Alex, he was able to place himself at a farther distance than Lord Gallius’ longsword.

"That took longer than I thought." Alex muttered to himself as he straightened his body. "Good thing it happened at this moment..."

"What the hell did you do?" Although he was not sure if Alex will answer him, Lord Gallius still forced some air out of his lungs as he uttered his question.

"Just like what I told you earlier, I used my special move." Alex said while shrugging his shoulders. "Now, the only thing that I need to do is to watch."

"...."

******************

When he started this virtual match, Lord Gallius was sure that it will be his victory.

According to the info that he got from his ’special sources’, Alex only awakened his Esper Ability around 9 days ago.

Even if Alex was a Battle Esper and that he presumably had training with both the Jackal and Alina, Lord Gallius was sure that Alex’s combat abilities will still be paltry.

However, that thinking of his got wiped away when he talked to Alex.

The start of their conversation was okay, but that all changed when Alex called him ’Vibrator’.

That namesake was something that Lord Gallius could not accept in his life.

Even though his Esper Ability was Vibration, Lord Gallius was extremely uncomfortable from being named similarly to a phallus-shaped object used for sexual satisfaction.

Alex’s nonchalance as he said his accursed namesake just managed to piss Lord Gallius off. It was at that moment that Lord Gallius decided to make Alex suffer.

With his limited Mental Power, Lord Gallius cannot use moves like vibrating the whole area, or vibrating Alex from a distance.

These kinds of moves require high amounts of Mental Power, which Lord Gallius cannot afford now.

Thus, he resorted to using his classic vibration air armor and vibrating longsword.

Both of these moves reach their peak lethality and effectivity when Lord Gallius was at the Star Esper level, but they are also as dangerous right now, even when they are only supported by Tier 100 Mental Power.

The UV Beam that Alex shot to him was a little dangerous, but it was effectively neutralized by his vibrating air armor. Unfortunately for him, Lord Gallius was temporarily blinded by the weakened UV Beam.

But Lord Gallius was not worried by that, as he relies more on sensing Alex’s bodily vibrations to attack him.

His eyes being disabled will be not enough to stop him.

But even with that, Lord Gallius found Alex to be an extremely difficult opponent.

Alex’s movements as he dodged Lord Gallius’ longsword was efficient and calculated, as if what he was doing was just simple.

"This f**ker..." Lord Gallius was mad as he saw what Alex was doing. "He must have an extreme and strenuous training on martial arts. That is the only way that he can move nimbly under my assault!"

Since Alex can move this well, Lord Gallius decided to slow Alex down by lowering the temperature of their surroundings.

Lord Gallius was able to easily do this, as he started to siphon off the vibration of the particles around him.

The effect was immediate, as Lord Gallius saw ice and mist forming quickly.

Alex was able to see through what was happening, but that was not enough for him to escape.

Before Alex could know it, Lord Gallius started his one-two longsword attack.

With Alex’s state at that time, even if he could dodge Lord Gallius’ horizontal sweep, there is no way Alex can dodge Lord Gallius’ second vertical slash.

But before Lord Gallius could hear the satisfying slosh of Alex’s body, he suddenly felt an intense pain inside his chest.

That pain was enough to halt his actions, allowing Alex to distance himself away from him.

"Ugh... I need to find the source of this pain!" Lord Gallius thought quickly as he knew if he will not do anything now, then it will be him who will most probably lose.

With his Vibration Ability, Lord Gallius could also sense the vibration of his organs, allowing him to see if they were fine.

If his organs were ’vibrating’ at the ’right way’, then he is fine.

But right now, Lord Gallius could sense that the majority of his chest cavity were vibrating erratically, as if there was something harming them greatly.

"What is it?" Lord Gallius thought urgently as he tried his best to understand his situation.

"Alex’s Epser Ability is EM Wave Manipulation... that just means whatever he is doing to me right now is related to the EM Spectrum. But what did he exactly do?"

Instead of just blindly guessing, Lord Gallius tried to remember what Alex did earlier in their fight, hoping that will give him some clues.

"That Alex... the only thing that he did was to throw UV Rays at me... And all of those EM Waves were weakened by my vibration air armor...."

It was at that time that Lord Gallius got the answer.

"So it was that huh..."

Lord Gallius now realized why Alex still threw UV Rays at him even with his vibration air armor.

Those last UV Rays were not an attempt to penetrate Lord Gallius’ defense.

Those UV Rays were there to divert Lord Gallius’ attention.

"And to think that he timed those diversions so well... I really should not underestimate this guy." Lord Gallius thought to himself as he took some deep breaths to stabilize himself.

After a few more seconds of observing his insides, Lord Gallius was able to determine what exactly damaged him.

"Small doses of gamma rays huh." Lord Gallius muttered as he felt the burning sensation inside his chest cavity getting stronger. "You were lucky you were able to trigger it."

Gamma rays are products of the disintegration of radioactive atomic nuclei and the decay of certain subatomic particles.

Compared to alpha and beta particles, gamma rays have lasting and fatal effects to the human body.

Radiation poisoning, DNA mutation, and cellular destruction are just few of these lethal effects.

And right now, Lord Gallius is feeling these effects.

"Well, I actually did not trigger it quickly." Alex replied as he watched Lord Gallius from a distance. "I had the change of frequencies to slowly happen... around 1 minute, I guess?"

Alex then let out a sigh of relief as he saw Lord Gallius starting to weaken. "Mind you, that slow change was really difficult.... I was lucky to pull it off right now. After all, there is a high chance that I could fail."

"....."

"....."

"Did you trigger the change at the start of the fight?" Lord Gallius queried as he started to slump over.

"Well yes, I discreetly shot some miniscule amounts of light inside your chest while you were busy summoning that longsword of yours." Alex replied nonchalantly.

Alex then continued talking as Lord Gallius felt himself weakening faster.

"I guessed that there is a way that you can somehow sense your internal body condition, so I decided to not attack your internals quickly. If I did that, I reckon that you will detect my attack coming, which will allow you to neutralize it."

"Yes, I would have done that." Lord Gallius thought to himself as he willed himself to stand up.

"I will just use my vibration to shake off the gamma rays that you put inside me.... But since you set them to change slowly, I was not able to notice their change."

Lord Gallius’ effort to stand seemed futile as his legs started to give up on him. By that point, Lord Gallius saw the damage of the gamma rays spreading at the organs inside his abdomen.

By this point, Lord Gallius already knew the results of the match.

"Alex, let me tell you something first..." Lord Gallius breathed out as he felt his insides starting to melt.

Blood was already dripping out of Lord Gallius’ mouth as he talked. "You cannot just rely on placing EM Waves inside a person’s body in order to win... There will come a point that this move of yours will be obsolete... especially if you fight against really strong Star Espers..."

"I understand..." Alex was not bluffing this time, as he realized the sincerity of Lord Gallius. He understood that relying on Internal EM Wave attacks will not work on stronger opponents.

Hell, Alex knew that he was just lucky it worked against Lord Gallius.

But no matter how Alex appreciated what Lord Gallius said, Lord Gallius’ sincerity had Alex confused.

"Why are you telling me this anyway?" Alex said as he tilted his head. "You hate me, right? Are you okay giving me info like this?"

"Hmph, I just did it because I want to." Lord Gallius replied, as he obviously showed that he will not answer Alex’s question truthfully. "Just be grateful to me!"

"Ok, thanks a lot." Alex said as his mocking smile returned. "In return for your good advice, I will stop from referring to you as Vibrator."

"You bastar-" Lord Gallius’ attempt to curse back failed as his virtual body suffered multiple organ failure, effectively killing his virtual body.

Alex laid down on the floor exhausted as he saw Lord Gallius’ ’corpse’ dissipating back into motes of light particles.

"I won." Alex muttered to no one in particular. "I won."

historical

"You won indeed." Asteria replied as she let out a sigh. "Its too bad I did not see any severed limbs from you. That will make your win more epic and bloody."

"....."