Argol looked up at Reine, his eyes glazing over as blood bubbled from his lips. He tried to speak, his chest a hollow ruin—a "donut" of shredded armor and bone.
"L-Li-Live..." Argol wheezed, the word escaping in a spray of crimson.
Reine stood in frozen horror. He had spent only two days with this man, but those forty-eight hours were warmer than the last five years of his life. The Commander's voice boomed like a mountain collapsing:
"ADDRESS YOURSELF!"
But Reine heard nothing. Tears blurred his vision as he roared, a careless, grief-stricken surge of mana flooding his arm. He lunged with a full-mana blow, reckless and sloppy.
The Commander grunted, swinging the massive slab of steel, but Reine's muscle memory—forged in a thousand deaths—snapped his body back just in time. Reine took a jagged breath, stilled his heart, and launched his newfound technique: The Pulse-Strike.
He aimed for the Commander's head, the mana coating his fist like a vibrating diamond. But as the fist traveled, the world tilted. His mana circuits, overstrained by his emotions, finally buckled.
He fainted mid-swing.
The 15th Reset
SNAP.
Reine was back. The cool air of the treetop hit his face. The sun was low, and the fox was just about to squeak. Reine trembled, the image of Argol's ruined chest burned into his retinas.
"The loop," Reine thought, clenching his fists until the knuckles turned white. He took a long, shaky breath, forcing the grief into a small box in his mind.
Argol didn't know. To Argol, they had just climbed this tree. Reine had to keep it that way.
"Hey, are you okay?" A familiar, warm voice asked from the branch beside him. "You seem frustrated."
Reine turned. There he was. Argol, looking at him with genuine concern. Reine didn't care about the mission or the stealth; he lunged forward and hugged Argol tightly, burying his face in his friend's shoulder.
"Uhh, are you okay man? You're acting strange?" Argol asked, patting Reine's back awkwardly.
Reine let him go, his eyes hard and clear. "Yeah. I'm fine now."
The Swift Execution
The fox let out its warning squeak. Below, Okla and Bokla appeared. This time, Reine didn't count down. He didn't wait.
He used the Pulse-Strike logic, distributing 50% of his mana flow to his legs only at the micro-second of takeoff.
He moved like a blurred streak of lightning. Before the brothers could even look up, Reine was in their guard.
He shifted the flow to his fists and landed two devastating blows. Their armor saved them from instant death, but they were shattered.
Reine didn't waste a heartbeat; he finished them with two precise strikes to the throat.
"REINE!" Argol shouted, dropping from the tree in shock. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT?"
"Stealth Op training," Reine lied blatantly, his voice cold. Argol grinned, wiping sweat from his brow. "Yeah, right."
Breakthrough: Kinetic Retraction
As they skipped through the trees, Reine's mind analyzed the punch he'd thrown at the Commander.
"When I hit him, the mana stayed in my fist. It pierced, but it also anchored me. Like a hook stuck in a wall."
"If I want to hit multiple targets, I can't let the mana linger. I need to snap it back."
He visualized the flow: Body → Arm → Target → Body. By retracting the flow at the exact moment of impact, the mana acts like a spring. It dumps the kinetic energy and the "recoil" resets the arm instantly for the next strike.
Testing the Kinetic Vacuum
They found their next target: three soldiers and a Mage. Reine sensed the Mage's Mana Heart—a rhythmic, pulsing drum.
Impact: His fist hit the first soldier's chest. In 0.01 seconds of contact, he jerked his mana flow back into his shoulder.
The Result: A Kinetic Vacuum. The soldier was blasted backward by a shockwave of pure pressure, his internal organs failing instantly.
The Reset: Reine's arm didn't overextend; it snapped back into a cocked position, perfectly ready. He hit the second soldier before the first one touched the ground.
The Mage: As the Mage tried to ignite a fireball, Reine's fist met the blue mana shield. He punched, retracted, and the shield shattered like glass. The secondary shockwave crushed the Mage's chest.
"You're getting... scary, Reine," Argol said.
"I'm just learning, Argol," Reine replied. "Just learning."
The Commander's Domain
Argol was firing off questions, but Reine's nervous system was screaming. A monstrous presence was bleeding into the forest.
"ARGOL! STAY ON GUARD! A REALLY STRONG FOE IS APPROACHING!"
They stood back-to-back. Argol felt the mana like freezing water rising past his chest. Suddenly, Reine felt a surge to the right. He launched, but met nothing. A decoy.
Schlick.
Argol was on the ground, a massive sword driven through him. The Commander stood over him, grinning. Reine's vision blurred with rage, but he kept it together.
"Isokinetic Torque-Burst: 50 Percent." * Reine's legs exploded. He dived into the giant's guard. Using pulse retraction, he delivered six continuous strikes in one second.
CRACK. The armor spider-webbed, but the Commander's elbow slammed downward, sending Reine skipping across the dirt.
Reine reappeared to the side like he had teleported, snapping a heavy right hook into the Commander's jaw. But as he went for an uppercut, his body felt heavy.
The Gravity Trap
His muscles refused to fire. His bones felt like lead.
Reine was fighting through 4x gravity while the Commander moved freely.
He dodged a strike and punched the Commander in the face. It did nothing. It was like hitting a mountain.
The Commander slashed. Reine blocked with his unsheathed sword.
CRACK. The force and gravity crushed Reine's leg bone instantly. The ground shattered. Reine realized the Commander had saturated the area with mana to claim it, just like the Knight.
The 16th Start
SNAP.
Reine was back on top of the tree. He leaped down instantly toward the Kla brothers. He felt the heat in his legs as he experimented.
"Isokinetic Torque-Burst: 60 Percent."
No pain. His body was adapting. He reached them like a green blur and punched them both with devastating hooks. They died in a single hit.