Reincarnated Lord: I Conquered Fate With My Harem-Chapter 58: Ten Minutes, Nineteen Seconds

"Rest now. I will take it from here," I whispered to them, my voice firm yet gentle as always.

So far so good; they had really done a good job fighting the Sentry. Not only that, I was able to see their strength in its glory.

Being an Element surely entails a lot.

Then I turned and faced the Sentry.

This time, I hovered closer than it expected. Very close. So close I could almost hear the automatic clinking of the Sentry’s machinery.

My moves earlier seemed to have left the Sentry dazed, however, since it wasn’t even attacking even in my closeness.

But I had no time to spare. Casually cracking my neck, I announced calmly, "I will be fighting with no magic."

Collecting itself, the Sentry’s seven eyes rotated simultaneously.

"Don’t tell me that... you are forfeiting your mana?" it asked with a deceptive tone of concern.

I smirked. "No. I’m simply not relying on it."

Then I pointed down to where the other two Elements lay, tired. "I can see you’re intelligent enough to have learned the patterns of my friends. Making your predictive model quite impressive."

I paused for a moment, then added. "That won’t work on me. You know, I have too many patterns."

This information looked relatively unnecessary in my ear... I mean revealing them. But the little reaction I got from the Sentry made me curl my lips to a smile.

It had shifted backwards, its core flickering in agitation.

I inhaled deeply.

"This is thanks to them anyway. I’m not limited in the techniques I can use because of their indirect training."

The Sentry tilted its head.

"Irrelevant information. I will commence termination now," it said.

Unsurprisingly, the Sentry hovered to a farther distance and descended onto the bare floor of the arena.

I covered the distance in a dash, only for it to take that advantage to counteract an attack.

It moved toward me with a blur, impossible speed.

But I was already gone. In fact, I had anticipated such an attack, so I landed with a sideways slide, wind bursting under my feet. In the same motion, I tweaked my wrist and commanded—

"Come." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

My sword obeyed instantly, shooting out of the earth where I had planted it. The blade streaked across the arena with blazing runes and struck the Sentry directly in the abdomen from behind.

The Sentry hadn’t noticed the blade coming since the sword traveled swiftly with little noise and since it was also intent on formulating its attack against me.

Luckily for it, that attack wasn’t enough to pierce into its abdomen. For some reason, it connected with a miraculous part of the Sentry’s metal and clanked.

The attack was, however, enough to make the demonic artifact stumble backward.

I didn’t wait.

Before my sword could land on the ground, I dove and caught it mid-fight, twisted my wrist, and shifted into a wide stance.

"Now, let’s officially start."

With those words, I slashed, delivering a clean, furious arc.

Except this time, the Sentry reacted faster—faster than even I had imagined.

’I guess it also hadn’t released its full power.’

It forged a weapon, a sword made entirely of arcane energy, and blocked the strike.

KLANG!!!

A shockwave erupted, pushing both of us backward.

I flipped midair with perfect control, landing lightly with a grin spread across my chins.

"I owe my friends my victory. Thanks to their healing initiative, my attributes increased unlike I even expected," I murmured, clenching my left fist beside me.

The Sentry simply watched me, eyes running down as if it was scanning me.

The truth was that, even if it heard what I just murmured, it wouldn’t understand.

Earlier in the wind cocoon, my stat points had increased solely due to the healing stage I was immersed in.

There are ways for a mage to get their stat points recharged whenever they lose them during battles.

The first usually occurred if such a mage happened to sustain an injury and would be required to heal before continuing such a battle.

In as much as this depended on the mage’s luck of whether a healing power user was present, it was also considered a most effective method of getting a mage fully recharged for action.

Then, there was the other one that came in the form of rewards. Just as I had been rewarded 100 stat points in my earlier attack, a mage could be rewarded in unpredicted moments of their fights with such points or at the end.

This was handy and not regular; hence, mages who were victorious in any battle reclined to have recovery measures taken on them to recharge themselves for future engagements.

Of course, this whole thing about renewing stat points depended on the mage’s ranks.

"Phew."

The Sentry surprisingly waited for me despite wasting a bit of time.

Maybe it was using the opportunity to rest, or well—

I lowered my stance and launched forward.

The Sentry launched too.

My blade went against its constructed blade. The clash that followed was unlike anything the arena had taken in.

For a moment, I suddenly thought about Lyra and Miriam and took the little second interval I had to look behind.

They were no longer lying on the ground where I had left them. It meant they must have gone to hide in a safe zone.

Fine. There was no need to hold back.

My collision with the Sentry didn’t end at the clash. Without giving it time to space out from me, we fought like two conflicting storms.

Blades flickered. Runic sparks danced in the air. The ground shattered with every dash and parry. The air screamed as our movements tore it apart.

I spun, deflecting three rapid slashes.

At the same time, the Sentry countered with an overhead cleave.

I blocked it, and instead, twisted to answer the call with a low sweeping cut.

As fast as the Sentry was, it jumped back with unnatural precision, firing bolts of condensed arcane particles.

I swung my sword, swatting the attacks aside with swift slices, and the fight continued on and on as if there was no stop.

As if we would never get tired of fighting.

For every strike I delivered, the Sentry countered with two. And for every parry from the Sentry, I offered three more.

Our speeds escalated so much that the arena seemed to collapse into lines of blue and white streaks each time we moved.

The Sentry, however, was acting like a demonic artifact it was. Reconfiguring every second. Adjusting its combat module based on my last movements.

If I fought predictably, even once, it would see through me. Fortunately, predictability was the last thing I was capable of.

I feinted left, but the Sentry predicted it instantly. Its blade cleaved through the air, targeting where my ribs should have been.

Except I wasn’t there.

With a grunt, I twisted my body mid-tumble and planted a boot on the Sentry’s outstretched arm, using it as leverage to vault over its head.

The moment I landed, I dragged my blade across the floor, sending sparks scattering like fleeing fireflies.

The Sentry rotated its torso a full 180 degrees without turning its feet.

Creepy.

"Your adaptability is impressive," it stated mechanically, sparks dripping from its arm. "But your stamina will decrease in approximately ten minutes, twenty seconds based on current performance output."

"Oh, shut it! I didn’t seek your opinion," I said dejectedly, then whispered. "Anyway, if that’s so, I will defeat you in ten minutes, nineteen seconds.

The Sentry’s eyes glowed brighter—a rare display of agitation.

I lunged before it could calculate a response.

This time, my strikes became... unpredictable even to myself. A mix of old training, instinct, improvisation, and momentum.

The Sentry’s blade grazed my cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.

But that was fine. An injury wouldn’t cost me my victory.

The last thing a person should worry about during fights is pain. It grounded one and sharpened their abilities.

’Doesn’t mean I will remain this weak though.’

With this thought, I kicked off the ground, shot upward, and flipped above the Sentry’s head. It followed my arc but not fast enough—my heel struck its shoulder hard, cracking the plating.

Finally, damage.

A small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

The Sentry staggered back, recalibrating. Its seven eyes spun in chaotic circles, trying to regain visual clarity.

"Do you understand now?" I said, lowering my sword. "I told you... I have too many patterns."