'Damn it all! I just wanted to do the tests and prove myself only decently strong, but no! Nothing ever works out for me! Can't the concepts smile upon me already?'
Putting on glasses he got as recompense for the knowledge avatar's life, he met the expectant gaze of Reginald.
"Go on, lad, I sure ain't going to do it for you."
Sighing deeply, Jani used his eyewear to analyze the vestige's ability. His concentrated expression gave way to professional coldness as his body burst into a sprint.
Loud snaps of the creature's jaw were heard as it tried ignoring the distance between them. Each bite manifested behind Jani.
Beneath its teeth, whatever was behind Jani tore apart.
'As I thought, the concept has to be relatively tangible to ignore. It'd be impossible to beat if it could ignore something like the act of dodging itself...'
Grabbing a light pole as he ran, Jani ripped it out of the ground, then squeezed it into the shape of a javelin.
He slowed, planting the lead foot firmly, allowing his body to twist, muscles tensing.
For an instant, he waited.
Then, his body released like a coiled spring. The grey projectile whizzed through the air akin to a missile.
'...But like this, it's just another routine hunt!'
It turned red-hot as it moved through the air, slamming into the creature's head.
It bounced off as if hitting an immovable wall, its tip bent.
Steam radiated from its forehead, the usually pearly skin marred with red burns.
'So only the heat was flashy enough, and only barely? Damn!'
The creature's face contorted in anger as it let out a roar. The noise itself became physical, as its standard wave-based nature was ignored, slamming into Jani immediately.
The distance between the attack and Jani was ignored, too.
His body groaned, then started breaking apart as the durability of his body was partially disregarded. His skin ripped, bits of muscle tearing out of his torso along with streams of blood.
All he could do was let out a guttural scream as he flew backward, sliding across the metallic street.
Landing, he immediately gritted his teeth, pushing through the pain so he could run. His bones let out painful cracking sounds as small bursts of sticky blood encompassed his very essence.
'Hurts, hurts, hurts, no, no, it's fine, just fight! Fight!'
Every step was hell. But it was better than his fate if he stood still.
Every exhale was accompanied by a wince.
His coat dissolved partly into shadows, turning thin as strands welded his skin back together.
Dozens of slashes, bites, and roars appeared, breaking apart anything where Jani was just an instant ago.
'Even when ignoring space and properties of noise, it can still dampen my durability?! That just isn't—'
Jani's footing disappeared, completely ignored from existence. The man barely managed to roll, keeping his momentum.
'—Fair!'
The hunter landed partly onto the tortured torso, his hand shaking from the pain. Jani couldn't afford the time necessary to distract himself any other way.
He ducked.
A bite appeared millimeters from his head, ripping off a chunk of hair.
'Let me try the smokescreen, then!'
His coat dissolved into shadows, which spread themselves thin, covering the world itself.
The creature growled, ignoring parts of it. When it turned its sight to snub other parts out, the darkness would regenerate, keeping a constant veil on the battlefield.
Suddenly, bolts of lightning exploded from the shade, generated by Kirom's artifact.
The vestige dodged by ignoring space to its left, teleporting as space bent around it, its proportions seeming distorted and freakish.
Shadows behind the creature twisted as Jani uncovered himself from them. The cleaver he was holding turned into a blur, cutting off the creature's arm, having met no resistance.
His weapon slid through the appendage, leaving the creature's white skin marred in crimson.
For the first time, the beast was majorly wounded.
Sliding back into darkness, Jani laughed, screaming out loud:
"You wanted flashy? Too bad! You don't get the luxury of choice!"
Unfortunately, his euphoria wasn't long-lived. The creature's severed limb disappeared before ever hitting the metallic streets and simply appeared where it was a moment ago.
'Fuck!'
The vestige ignored having taken damage.
Jani slipped from exhaustion, allowing himself to fall deeper into the smokescreen.
Sitting down to catch his breath and compose himself, Jani used the opportunity to formulate a plan of attack.
His hand slowly rose to his chest, but the moment it touched his skin, he winced, pulling it back.
'Ow...'
His breathing was stabilizing.
'Should I use the peace amulet for a longer rest... No, I can't waste this year's activation. I'm not even sure it's sentient enough for it to work on.'
He decided to go for plan B.
'It can't ignore anything it doesn't perceive using its senses, so I should keep making distractions and try to move into its blind spot.'
Slapping himself to focus, he got up.
'C'mon, you can do this.'
Jani used any tool at his disposal as a distraction. Lightning flashed, shadows falsely bent, and he'd even made multiple throwable weapons out of the metallic streets.
If the creature ever dared expose its back, he'd immediately take the opportunity, something expected of a skilled hunter.
The cleaver bit into the vestige again and again.
However, each time it ignored a bit of space, teleporting just enough so the wound wasn't lethal. Any damage was simply ignored.
The last attack ended with the creature predicting his timing, turning to meet him. Jani pushed himself off from its torso, the creature failing to rip his face open with its teeth.
Jani's ear grazed its bloody jaws.
He ducked, barely managing to turn his head before it was able to be skewered by a red talon.
Out of breath, he fell back into his domain of shadows.
His hands fell down onto his knees, his torso shaking with exhaustion.
'I didn't want Reginald to see this, but I guess I have no other choice.'
The hunter ran at the creature head-on.
It smiled, biting at nothing. Space should have been dismissed as nonexistent, his durability reduced to nil.
However, the creature needed to register something to ignore it.
Shadows condensed around the creature's head, turning tangible. Darkness enveloped its senses, making any ignorance obsolete.
Jani ran at the unmoving creature, ready to kill it in one blow.
The cleaver dropped, slicing everything within the space the creature occupied in twain.
Unfortunately, the vestige disappeared, leaving only the dark, solidified sphere cut.
Behind him, a smooth, previously unheard voice echoed.
"Ooh, close!"
Jani recoiled, managing to dodge the talons that would pierce his brain from a large, ignored distance.
'It spoke?!'
The hunter ran at the creature in a weird pattern, using his shadows to block the vestige's line of sight.
Or at least, that's what he tried to do.
"I am sorry, but I cannot allow that."
He was frozen in place, unable to budge. Panicked, he screamed out:
"What did you do?! Aren't you a mindless—"
The creature shrugged as it cut him off, its silky voice ringing out:
"Hey, why does it feel so good for you to be at my mercy? Intellect is so weird. I really want you to know just how badly you lost."
Deciding to entertain the human, it continued.
"Well anyways, I am supposed to be a mindless tool for punishing humans, but I'm pretty ignorant. I just dismissed that little factoid."
The creature smiled as the hunter gave a mental command to the shadows to attack, ignoring them. Before the artifact could be wholly overlooked, Jani unsummoned it, allowing the coat to regenerate.
Walking towards the hunter frozen in place, it continued:
"Then, I ignored the fact I existed in the spot where you tried to kill me, since you can sense yourself, even if blind. And currently, I'm nullifying your momentum."
Jani tried to yell out, but his voice was reduced to nothing, omitted from reality.
"Ah, how nice it is to be intelligent! Such weird concepts as time or momentum are so tangible now."
Brushing Jani's chin with a hand stretched out from its wing, it said:
"Pride is such, such a weird part of cognition, too! It feels so good to monologue. And I really like the sound of my own voice. How fun."
The fight was over. Jani knew that.
Because the vestige had put itself in checkmate.