Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 100: Ch98. Pain as a teacher (22) - It speaks

Chapter 100: Ch98. Pain as a teacher (22) - It speaks

The Revenant lunged, and Miles barely had time to react before its many limbs blurred toward him, moving faster than anything that size should be capable of.

Instinct screamed at him to move, and he threw himself backward just as a serrated claw slammed into the ground where he had stood a split second ago, sending metal shards and dust flying.

The air burned. A static hum crackled around the Revenant’s form, distorting the space near it.

Kurt moved before Miles could fully recover, his knives flashing as he closed the distance. He wasn’t aiming for deep wounds, no.

He knew better than that by now. Instead, his blades danced along the Revenant’s outstretched limbs, aiming for the joints, slicing through the thin webbing of metallic chitin that connected its unnatural extensions.

Then, Kurt’s hit landed.

One of the Revenant’s arms jerked, black liquid spraying onto the floor, sizzling as it ate through the rusted metal. But the creature did not react the way a normal enemy would. It did not falter, did not flinch. It merely adjusted, its hollow, helmet-like face turning toward Kurt with something that almost felt like amusement.

Then, it retaliated.

Miles watched as a limb shot out toward Kurt with a speed that should not have been possible. But Kurt was faster. He flipped sideways, narrowly avoiding the swipe, using the momentum to plant his foot against a rusted pillar and propel himself back toward the creature, and immediately after that, there was a gunshot.

A violet streak of energy erupted from his revolver, aimed directly at the Revenant’s exposed wound. The bullet struck true, sending a visible shock through its form. The creature convulsed, limbs twitching violently.

But then, it spoke.

"You... Are incomplete."

The layered, static-laced voice echoed through the ruined chamber. But it was not just a voice,

It was voices, overlapping, blending into something that should not exist.

Miles’ breath caught in his throat.

Kurt hesitated for only a fraction of a second, but that fraction of a second could very well mean the difference between life and death, and the Revenant knew it, somehow, taking complete advantage of it.

It moved, one of its arms twisting unnaturally, stretching across the space between them in an instant. Before Kurt could dodge, it caught him by the waist and threw him.

Kurt’s body crashed through a section of collapsed debris, disappearing into the rubble.

Miles’ heart pounded as his grip tightened around the scythe as the Revenant turned toward him now.

It knew that Kurt was stronger, more experienced than Miles. So, it was only natural that it would deal with him first.

"Oh, hell no." Miles gritted his teeth.

The scythe whistled through the air as Miles swung at the creature’s midsection. He wasn’t aiming for a kill, already knowing by now that nothing here died easily. He needed damage. Openings.

The Revenant twisted, dodging the first strike, but Miles anticipated it. He shifted his stance mid-motion, pivoting the scythe’s haft in his hands, using the momentum to bring the blunt end up in a brutal upward swing, and the impact connected.

A solid, sickening crack echoed through the chamber as the Revenant’s head snapped back, and it stumbled.

Miles pressed forward, ignoring the ache in his limbs. He moved with the weapon, keeping it in motion, each swing feeding into the next. Faster, sharper, he was not just swinging wildly.

He was trying to do just like Kurt did with his movements.

Miles was building momentum, controlling the rhythm.

It was hard because Kurt was countless times faster than Miles, so he simply was not able to perceive Kurt’s movements through anything other than his instincts, which made copying his motion-based style infinitely harder.

But Miles felt it, faster than he could process it through logic.

One movement led to another, and if he stopped that motion right then and there, it would kill the attack, wasting all momentum and force into one single strike.

But if Miles moved from one strike to another, making it just fluid enough to not make the next movement completely absurd...

He landed another strike, another hit, and the Revenant reeled.

And then...

Miles felt the shift a fraction of a second before it happened, but it was already too late. The thing’s limbs coiled inward, lowering its stance, and it tilted its helmet-face at an odd, unnatural angle.

It learned.

It adapted.

And then it countered.

Before Miles could even breathe through his motions, the Revenant’s elongated arm shot out, but not to strike. To deflect.

Its limb wrapped around the shaft of his scythe, stopping its momentum dead and killing Miles’ flurry of strikes with a single movement.

Then, it yanked, making Miles stagger forward, pulled off balance.

It took him half a second to register the mistake before a second limb slammed into his side like a wrecking ball, knocking both the air from his lungs and the food from his stomach.

Pain exploded through his ribs as he was lifted off his feet, his body thrown through the air. He hit the ground hard, rolling against the jagged terrain, skidding to a stop near the far end of the chamber. His breath hitched, his vision blurred.

’Move. Get up! Now!’

But the Revenant was already there. It loomed over him, limbs curling, shifting, the static hum of its presence growing deafening.

Miles tried to raise his scythe, but it was too slow. The Revenant’s limb shot down, and then...

A gunshot echoed through the walls, and a violet streak tore through the air, slamming into the Revenant’s exposed side making it recoil, shuddering.

Kurt, he was alive.

Bruised, bleeding, but still standing.

"Damn thing forgot about me." He wiped the blood from his split lip and smirked.

"Yeah, well, I didn’t." Miles coughed, forcing himself up.

The Revenant twitched, as though re-evaluating the situation. The hesitation was brief – just less than the blink of an eye – but Kurt did not waste it.

He blurred forward, knives flashing. His movements were not just fast, they were precise.

It was a dance of controlled chaos, with each strike targeting the Revenant’s weakest points, exploiting every gap, every delay.

It was then that Miles saw it.

A pattern to the Revenant’s movements.

It reacted instead of attacking outright. It analyzed, learned, and countered. But it took time, even if just the blink of an eye.

It needed time. So, there was no reason for them to give it any.

Miles lunged, trying his best to sync his movements with Kurt. The Revenant twisted, blocking one, but leaving itself open for the other.

There was no time to stop moving because Miles’ attacks were not simply about brute force. They were all about disrupting the process of learning, about keeping it from adapting.

And for the first time, the Revenant staggered back.

It was losing.

Miles exhaled sharply, tightening his grip, ready to press the attack, but before he could start to move again, the ground rumbled, making both him and Kurt freeze as the chamber shook, metal groaning beneath them.

Then, a deep, resonating crack echoed through the walls, making Miles’ stomach drop.

’Oh, shi-’

The fight, the damage, it all was so intense that the floor beneath them was giving way.

"We have to get out of here." Kurt cursed.

Miles barely nodded before the ground beneath them collapsed.