Atlas appeared directly in front of the clone swinging his scythe horizontally and aiming at the scythe's throat to cause maximum damage and hopefully dealing a decent blow on it. The clone's eyes narrowed in concentration as it continued to build mana while warding off Atlas with a conjured stone sword, deflecting his scythe. Atlas hurriedly created a platform of almost solid air, allowing him to stand in the air and fight the clone. Atlas struggled to fight with the scythe, seeing as he still wasn’t used to it and it wasn’t the most practical for fighting one on one.
Atlas used everything he had, striking again and again, trying to make the clone drop or maybe even break its weapon, but it was to no avail, the clone continued to just barely deflect all of his blow, almost seeming to be taunting him, and no matter how hard Atlas tried to get around the sword, running around the clone, teleporting behind it, using some of the strength from his gauntlets, etc, but nothing ever seemed to work.
As the scythe and sword repeatedly clashed against each other, the clone finally finished its massive spell. The air filled with dozens upon dozens of fireballs, and it continued to create them until there were so many it blotted out the sky. Atlas grew terrified as he noticed something about the fireballs that he had only seen once before, when he was as close to transcendent as he could be currently. They were all covered in black flecks. Or in other words, they were made from hellfire. The clone grinned at Atlas, directing the hundreds of fireballs made out of hell fire rocketing straight towards…
The town.
Atlas’s eyes widened fractionally as he realized what the clone was intending to do, and dove off his platform with mana circling throughout his body as he attempted to use Elemental Union to stop the blazing balls of black and red fire from impacting his town and destroying it. But right before he used his mana to stop the fire-
“MINE” the clone thundered, and suddenly he couldn’t use Elemental Union anymore, forcing his mana to dissipate back into his core, having no more purpose. Atlas watched with wide eyes as his town was turned to nothing but dust and ash with a thunderous clap of fire of stone and metal.
Your town hall has been destroyed, more half of your buildings have been destroyed.
Your town has been permanently destroyed.
He couldn’t comprehend how it was possible, couldn’t believe what his eyes were seeing. He had been doing so well, in the hardest difficulty of the tutorial, having a hard time doing things but still conquering everything and growing stronger. Now? His town, which he had defended for 9 full waves, was gone, obliterated in a single attack. What was he supposed to do now?
He slowly turned and glared at the clone, who was finally showing an emotion, pure, unbridled glee, a large grin taking over its face, which looked exactly like Atlas’s.
Atlas activated all of the abilities in Avatar of Slow Profitable Death and charged forward, strength at the absolute limit and scythe fully debuffed. He was now on a timer. His body could only handle the stress of the full might of the gauntlets for so long.He slashed outwards, warping the air slightly around the scythe because of the pure power held in the scythe. The clone's eyes narrowed, deciding to avoid a frontal clash and ducking under the swing before lashing out at Atlas with its sword.
The sword clashed against the armor before bouncing off in a shower of sparks. No matter how good the clone was at using its skills, its strength was still subpar when compared with Atlas’s, and technique could only help close that gap so much.
Atlas was quick to counterattack, kicking out at the clone and hitting it square in the jaw, launching it backwards with a loud crunching noise as the clone’s chin shattered in a spray of blood and bone. The clone staggered backwards before using Elemental Affinity to mend its jaw somehow, reducing the loss of life force by doing it himself.
Atlas used Master Scan on the clone and saw that it had just over half of its health remaining. Atlas descended like a meteor upon the clone, pushing his now passive Battle Trance to the max as he became a flurry of punches, kicks and slashes, fully allowing the trance to seep into his body.
The clone was ready for him however, and it got through mostly unscathed, only suffering a minor cut to its arm as it deflected and dodged the blows, not able to fully block them without the risk of shattering its sword.
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Atlas felt his motions become smoother as his brain seemed to become more and more drowsy, just like when he had first gotten Avatar of Sloth. Just as he felt like he was about to slip away, the clone lunged forward, stabbing its sword through a small crack in Atlas armpit, almost completely ripping the limb off. Atlas was shocked out of his growing drowsiness as he screamed in pain as life force gathered around it, mending it back together at the cost of a third of his life force, and that was with Regeneration making it cost less.
They clashed multiple times and each time the clone managed to target a new flaw in his armor and leave him with a new wound, though none of them were nearly as deadly as the first.
Atlas continued to fight, but life force was being constantly used to mend the tears constantly appearing all over Atlas’s body. His life force was still passively being regenerated, but the drain was twice as fast as the recovery. His life force was hovering in the hundreds, barely holding on as it constantly went down by a couple, before rising by half as much, and continuing to repeat the cycle.
Just when Atlas thought that things couldn’t possibly get any worse, his brain shut off as he fell asleep in the middle of a swing at the clone.
The clone, watching Atlas’s eyes drop closed, believed it was the aftereffect of a skill and lunged at him, sword poised to rip deep into his armpit again, when suddenly the sleeping form of Atlas cleanly blocked the blow before perfectly counterattacking by using the butt of the scythe to knock the clones feet out from under it before cleanly cutting off its head in a single chop. The clone fell like a stone to the ground, with Atlas following close behind as he landed next to the body, still sleeping.
Something that the skill description didn’t mention is that the sleeping body would be controlled by the subconscious brain, and directed by Battle Trance so that it is actually effective. It knew all the flaws of Atlas, even though his conscious brain didn’t see them, it knew and remembered all of Atlas’s skills on a profound level. So as soon as it was given charge… It struck brutally and quickly, ending the life of the clone in a second after gaining control. Now, all of this isn’t to say that the subconscious brain is better, it most certainly isn’t, it can’t make decisions as easily as the conscious part of your brain can, and it can’t add ideas together, just use existing ideas.
However, currently, the subconscious part of Atlas’s brain was far more potent than the conscious part of his brain because there were simply too many skills, new concepts and movements that Atlas couldn’t use them all at the same time.
***
Atlas awoke to find himself laying on the soft grass, with the body of the clone a dozen feet away, and its head lying even further away.
Atlas blinked, trying to recall what had happened. He had been fighting… then he had fallen asleep, how had the clone died. Atlas realized with a jolt, the last effect of Avatar of Slow Profitable Death! He pulled up his notifications quickly to see his gains.
Level Up! X14
You have gained a never before seen achievement! As the first killer of the Keeper of the clone, your skill Legend of the Tutorial is permanently deleted and you gain the title Fate Breaker!
Error. Earth Player 0001 “Atlas Channing” Already possesses this title.
Searching for optional rewards…
Option 1: Upgrade Fate Breaker.
Denied, skill is too powerful as it is for a tier 3 player.
Option 2: Upgrade another skill or title.
Possibility, though it may not be a fair reward for the player because of the difficulty of task accomplished.
Option 3: Reward level(s)
Possibility, could directly send player to the next tier.
Option 4: Give Soulbound Item.
Possibility, though the player already has two… computing… player has the title Powerful Soul, so more Soulbound items is the perfect solution.
You have gained two Soulbound items at D tier!
Fistwraps of Corrosion (D): Gives a Debuff (Corrosion) to all enemies that the user attacks.
Reaper Shoes(D): Magic can be used through these shoes.
You can go to the lowest realm of Limit, Etherome, whenever you want, however, you will not be able to come back to The Grove ever again.
Atlas was glad for some nice rewards, especially the shoes, he had been barefoot this entire time! But more than anything, he was excited to finally leave the tutorial. He could finally have human interaction! He put on the Fistwraps and Shoes, which also included socks thankfully.
He took in The Grove for the last time, soaking in the trees, the demolished town and all the burnt buildings, along with the endless grass, the dungeon and cave far off in the distance. With a final breath, Atlas accepted vanishing from The Grove.
