( Within Max’s mirror world, 2 days ago )

” Agh man! I can’t win if you amputate both my legs, now ur just playing nasty grandpa Drax ” Max said as he complained about how the mirror clone systematically attacked and chopped off both his legs leaving him limbless and without mobility in a fight.

With 18% of his HP bar left, Max wondered how to fight with both his legs chopped off, however, he did not have much time to figure it out as only 3 seconds later he was on the receiving end of a devastating overhead slash.

[ Overhead Slash ]

-22,000 CRITICAL HIT!

Max died from a strike to the head as he stood defenceless against the clone created by Drax.

” You will always die against me Max if you don’t realise the flaws in your attack pattern.

Granted you are improving and can fight me to a stalemate for a full 4 minutes before you die on average, however, your stamina reserves are enough to fight an opponent continuously for 7 hours straight at high intensity and at least 25 minutes if you are going all out.

You are far, far away from facing your own limit as well” Drax said as he introduced the grim reality to Max that he was far from being the best version of himself.

Ever since Max had his ass whooped in the mirror world, it became his obsession to improve against his clone as he spent every free second of every day inside the mirror world, fighting his clone as he tried to find an attack pattern that not even Drax could have seen through, however, even after 1274 fights against himself his total cumulative damage against his mirror clone was at 789 HP points, as he had managed to land a grand total of 5 hits that did an average of -150 damage.

Max was far from catching the heels of his perfect self and the thing that infuriated him the most was knowing that at the end of the day it was his own body that he was being defeated against and not a stronger opponent.

It was not like Max was facing an unbeatable strong opponent that was two tiers above him, because then it would be okay to lose so badly all the time, but losing to his own body at his own capability level was infuriating, hence Max continued to grind against Drax’s A.I. hard and everyday his total time he survived in a match against himself increased as he was now upto 4 minutes of average combat against his own self from the pitiful 1 minute average that he started from.

According to Drax this progress was still negligible compared to what Max was capable of and hence he still had a long way to go.

” Max, what do you think is your one strongest attack? ” Drax asked Max as he respawned in the corner

Max thought about this question seriously for a while before saying ” In terms of damage, if I think if I couple Fire Compression and use it with Inferno and then unleash the attack via my Runic Bone Staff, I can unleash a fire spell at the high tier4 strength level, it can one shot a tier 3 enemy, no matter how strong “

Max had calculated the damage objectively and decided that although there were other attacks that could do more scattered damage to multiple opponents, in terms of one on one damage, this was probably his best attack.

” You’re wrong ” Drax said as he invalidated Max’s line of thinking that Inferno was his best attack.

” Your strongest attack can wipe out even 500 tier 4 opponents at once, whereas the exact limit of its power is not something that even I can compute ” Drax said as Max felt his mind going numb

At his current strength level Max was happy to be able to go toe to toe with one tier 4 opponent, but Drax claimed that he had a move capable of wiping out 500 of them at once.

” You have lost me, I don’t think I have such a move ” Max said as he gave up on thinking hard as to what this mystery attack could be and pleaded Drax to enlighten him.

” It is the move you have used to pass your tier 3 promotion test. The one where you tapped into the power of an ancient god and wreaked havoc all around you.

While you might not remember it because your consciousness is still not strong enough to peek into Angakok’s form and retain memory, I remember it as clear as a crystal the strength that move is capable of” Drax said as he revealed the true strongest move on Max’s arsenal.

” That attack? B-but you know that it puts me in debt to the ancient god right? I have to pay back all the mana he expended for me and then some within a 10 day period of using the move.

I admit the move might be strong, but the debt is astronomical, last time I had to use about 100 million gold coins worth off mana potions to pay it off overnight ” Max said as he clearly remembered the conditions of using that attack.

” That debt is laughable compared to the benefits it brings you.

Trust me when I say this kid, that God is benevolent to make this move for his followers.

If it were the fire god Agni, he would have put the debt at around 5 times the mana incurred by him or something like that.

The power of a god surely doesn’t come for free ” Drax admonished Max as he woke him up to reality.

**************

( Present day, Inside Southern fortress)

” How did that dwarf escape? How the hell does he know spacial magic? Isn’t that supposed to be forbidden high level stuff? ” Mazda groaned in despair as he watched Sebastian disappear in front of his own eyes.

” You should be focused on me ” Max said as he unleashed a strong Inferno attack on Mazda forcing him to block as he took a bit of burn damage

” I got to say you have balls, not running away with your dwarf friend and choosing to stay back.

But your tale of bravery ends here Captain Ravan ” Mazda said as Max’s skin crawled at the feeling of being surrounded by multiple high level opponents.

He was completely surrounded by 11 tier4 opponents with nobody but himself to rely on.

‘ Grandpa Drax, I guess it’s time to use my strongest move ‘ Max thought as he cracked his neck and put on a devilish grin underneath his mask.

It was do or die time.