Hiro remained in a deadlock with the fragment, a single misstep and he would be dead. This was now beyond what he had bargained for, no longer a fight where he had to improve himself to face a future enemy he did not know but a fight where he had to improve to not die.

  But he had two maybe three life lines in this fight. One was Spiriton, the holy sword that was passed down generation after generation to defeat a certain demon lord. The second was his attack reflection, his own strength was left in the dust no longer a threat to the fragment, he had to rely on using its strength against itself to cause any significant harm.

  (This is not enough Spiriton is heavily guarded against while reflected attacks only cause harm, not enough precision to target the core. I need another win factor.)

  Hiro thought of the other techniques he had but sadly none of them would qualify to being a win factor.

  Clank! Cling!

  Hiro parried its sword strike and felt his hand going numb. But he was already used to it, unlike initially when it caused slowness now he was not restricted and moved unbothered.

  "Oh, human you could have saved us both the trouble if you had just left. You may use my strength against me but your body will give out long before mine does. I admit you have that to remain a threat but will it be so easy to land an attack."

  The fragment discouraged as it shot several plasma blasts at close range. Ever since Hiro could reflect its attacks it was left with no choice but to return to close range combat, after all ranged attacks were the easiest to reflect if not evade.

  Pew pew pew!

  The several plasma blasts shot at this range did not cause any harm to it. As for Hiro, as indifferent as he was while deflecting and evading the blasts, he had to admit the fragment's words had some truth to them.

  Bam!

  One hit right on the shoulder, he had seen it coming but at this close of a range it was hard, near impossible to deal with all the blasts without sustaining a single wound.

  (Should I use that technique to increase my speed?)

  He pondered, before it also guarded against Spiriton but thanks to his advantage in speed he still managed to come close to hitting it multiple times and eventually succeeded.

  But would this work a second time, Hiro wasn't confident. And this technique he had been holding onto wasn't just a trump card but a last ditch effort that would definitely harm himself as well.

  (But do I have the luxury to hesitate, it's not like I can surprise it with a space severing technique using Epsilon. Where would I even...)

  As he agonised over this a memory of a certain conversation with Soltia flashed in his mind. Even as swordsman he wanted to understand other paths as well, magic included. In this memory he was asking about her spells, some space magic spells were among them.

  (One of her responses about this was not all space magic bends, contracts or stretches space. Instead they take advantage of the natural bends, stretches and contractions of space caused by objects.)

  At the time this information he believed to be only relevant to mages, but now as wielder of Spiriton it wasn't.

  He had Spiriton and could sense abnormalities in space, naturally its bending, stretching and contraction was included. What did this mean, he could also take advantage of these abnormal spots now, a half paved road to creating a sword techniques with effect on space.

  Bam bam bam!

  Hiro was struck multiple times and sent flying as he suppressed a groan. His maxed perception suddenly deactivated for a moment and he lost his observation and analysis advantage. He wiped the blood sipping through his lips, his eyes flashing with unwavering resolve.

  (Who knew a person could handle so many senses at once. Losing Epsilon's help is disastrous but I'm left with no choice.)

  To have a spatial sense and maxed perception, Hiro chose to discard danger sense. Spatial sense was vital and maximum perception although not danger sense, it could make up for it while the opposite couldn't be said of danger sense.

  With these preparations he dove back into the fight without a fear of being distracted by his thoughts. He could think about every step to make the technique without the worry of time and such. In fact he was grateful for this distraction to entertain his thoughts while the world around him appeared stilled.

  "Hahaha."

  The fragment laughed as it felt another significant leap in power whereas Hiro, before it was beginning to bleed from his eyes and nose. Not from its attacks it judged, as such it assumed this was a side effect of reflecting attacks with power leagues above his own.

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  With this assumption in mind its attacks became more brutal and frequent. There was no longer hesitation, wary of them being reflected back enough to be a true threat.

  (Persevere, I just have to persevere.)

  Hiro grit his teeth while continuing to resist the barrage of attacks, they came unceasingly. Even his healing started to lag behind slightly, but combining the healing of both holy swords this was averted. But he was still overwhelmed, he could barely handle over seventy percent of the attacks thrown at him.

  Zap! Zap! Zap!

  Hiro stepped into the path of several blast while avoiding several others. These were electromagnetic blasts, they were a translucent blue and hollow. He could neither evade nor reflect them all, he had to pick his poison. In such cases he would rather tank through electromagnetic blasts than the yellow light plasma blasts.

  Time continued pass, eventually Hiro arrived at an answer. After spending an eternity in seconds observing space around him, he could now identify which abnormality was a bend or a stretch in space. He also discovered how these two abnormalities worked, uninfluenced by magic or unnatural phenomenon.

  Hiro also became aware of the constantly changing and bending of space around himself and the fragment. And the greatest bent in space was between them but closer to the fragment.

  Lastly their movement could not be ignored in these changes. This was enough information for a technique, all that remained was making it. He didn't even need another eternity, inspiration washed over him.

  A set of movements that used and further bent and stretched space to the limit.

  (Unpolished but this is as far as I can get at making a space severing technique. All that remains is...)

  He thought finally using the last resort technique, deaths door blazing strength. It was a technique that burned through one's life force for a temporary burst in strength.

  Normally it increased a person's stats nearly evenly but to individuals with self mastery at the level of supreme grandmasters, this could be controlled thus distributing the burst of strength in which ever area they wished for.

  Hiro chose to go all in on speed, bringing him several folds faster than before.

  (If it wasn't for the backlash I would have used this long ago. From the moment it reached power above my own this was inevitable, having not used it so far is astounding in its own way.)

  Hiro had a sudden burst in speed, the fragment noticed. It moved even more of its focus to defending its core, wary of Spiriton.

  And like it had expected Hiro slashed with the sword. It could not move quickly enough to dodge so it did the most sensible thing, sacrificing a portion of its body since the slash could not be resisted.

  Thanks to this and pushing Hiro back with the forces at its command it managed to get away. It did not mind losing a portion of itself, as long as the core was safe all was well.

  (I have to make some distance, those slashes will be dragged down when they leave the sword's edge.)

  It thought, quickly moving away from Hiro putting up a much gravity and magnetic force on Hiro to slow him down.

  (As expected Spiriton was guarded against, how many attempts would it take before I succeed? Outside this field three at most but in here I'm not even sure it is possible.)

  Hiro thought as he began with the initial movement of his new technique. He didn't just attack with it for two main reasons, first it was new, unpracticed and unfamiliar. Secondly it would be suspicious not to attack with Spiriton after having an increase in speed, at least if he was the fragment he would be chary.

  Swoosh! Swoosh!

  The Epsilon moved so fast that even with Hiro's suppressed speed, the fragment had trouble following its movement. But Hiro could see it clearly as he guided it along the path of bent space.

  In a blink through speed alone and brushing against space, it began to heat up. Its golden surface became a bright yellow before disappearing into a black line that emerged from its bladed edge.

  Slash!

  When Hiro completed the slash the black line left the sword, the surrounding space began to tremble. Epsilon's blade became visible again but Hiro did not notice, his gaze was fixed on the black line, now an abyss black slash.

  (Success or failure?)

  He pondered as it continued towards the greatest bent in space. After it reached this spot a transformation occurred.

  The fragment wasn't blindly watching all this, spreading the forces to this black slash, but like ranged slashes nothing happened.

  (Another unrestricted ranged attack. No matter, his attacks are no more than scratches to me, I can tank.)

  Confident from receiving several ranged slashes with little to no harm, the fragment brought its arm forward in a swatting motion. There was no point in trying to runway it would not be fast enough.

  "Desperate I see."

  It declared noticing Hiro's expression, it wasn't one of defeat but close enough to want to crush his spirit even more.

  All along the black slash had continued to transform rapidly. From its initial long, thin, black and near straight line, it transitioned into a crescent, becoming shorter but thicker. Then thickest and shortest upon being an incomplete donut with a tiny gap.

  By the time it reached an arm's length towards the fragment, it became a black sphere.

  Pop!

  The black sphere suddenly shrank in size becoming less than one tenth of its original size.

  Upon seeing this the fragment nearly burst out into laughter as it ignored the tiny black sphere and aimed at Hiro with its mussel hand.

  "What was that supposed to do. Pathet..."

  As the fragment shot out a beam of plasma, it was sucked into the black sphere followed by the disintegration of its hand, also being sucked into the black sphere.

  (I have to get away.)

  A feeling of dread took root within it, the fragment felt like it could gouge out its core and throw it away to avoid this. But that too would lead to death, it was clear of the suction force pulling at it. The chances of the core escaping were abysmal, and if it did, would Hiro just ignore the vulnerable core?

  Seeing no alternative it pounced on the sphere hoping to destroy it. But it didn't even last a second before being torn apart and devoured by the black sphere that continued on its path before disappearing.

  (Did he win?)

  Aleus wondered, an abundant amount of its life force still remained but the core was completely destroyed. Before he would be certain of victory but having witnessed it come back together after being nothing but life force, he was not so sure.

  He was still hesitating on what to do, when he saw Hiro unnaturally drifting in space. One explanation came to mind, Hiro was likely unconscious.