The Extra is a Genius!? Chapter 618: Noel vs Roberto [V]

Roberto’s dimension hadn't dissipated entirely. Beneath Noel’s boots, fragments remained—faint, ethereal patches of ground barely discernible under the crushing weight of the "Eclipse Sun." The luminous world he had crafted was shrouded in shadow rather than annihilated, a fact that made the situation all the more disquieting. Every surface was consumed by a dark veil that pulsed across the void, yielding nothing unless the brilliance of an attack forced it to reveal its secrets.

That was the central dilemma. Roberto occupied a territory that no longer bowed to his absolute will.

He showed no signs of panic. Noel could discern that much even through the gloom. Yet, a palpable unease had taken root in him—a genuine, visible discomfort that seized his body before his pride could mask it. His head darted around with increased frequency. He adjusted his stance with smaller, more precise shifts. He was straining to listen, far more carefully than he cared to admit.

"Show yourself, then," Roberto goaded, his tone sharpening. "You wanted this finished, didn't you?" A pale streak of light erupted from him instantly. "Radiant Slash."

For a fleeting second, the darkness tore open. The bright floor flickered into existence. Roberto’s arm. The searing line of light bisecting the space.

And Noel, having already vanished. "Shadow Step."

The shadows swallowed him before the slash even completed its arc. Roberto spun toward the movement and unleashed another technique. "Flashbind." A violent glare flooded the blackness for a heartbeat, providing just enough visibility to reveal a fragment of Noel’s silhouette near his flank, accompanied by the biting chill of an incoming strike.

"Glacialis." Roberto pivoted barely in time. "Lumina Veil" mitigated the impact, yet the ice slammed into his shoulder with sufficient force to knock him off his balance.

"Can you only fight effectively when hidden?" Roberto queried, his voice dripping with mounting irritation. "Is that the extent of it? A coward skulking in the dark?"

Noel remained silent.

A slender fissure materialized behind Roberto. "Shadow Rift." Revenant Fang lunged out first, swift and low, compelling Roberto to twist and respond with "Sanctified Step." The distance between them shrank unnaturally, barely enough to prevent the blade from slicing his side, yet insufficient to thwart the ensuing assault. "Chain Flash." Lightning crackled through the void, shattering the air; the primary discharge struck where Roberto had stood, while the secondary arcs forced him into another desperate correction.

Again the world flickered. Again it faded. A heartbeat. A stroke. A brief circle of clarity. Then descent back into shadow.

The duel settled into this rhythmic pattern, and Roberto grasped the inherent peril as quickly as Noel did. Every occasion he employed light to navigate, to strike, or to reset his domain, he left himself exposed for Noel to exploit.

Roberto kept talking, as the encroaching silence gnawed at his composure.

"Come now," he urged, pivoting toward another movement he only partially tracked. "Say something." A harsh torrent of light tore through the dark once more. "Is this all your capability amounts to? Hiding. Waiting. Striking from the sanctuary of the unseen?" The flash illuminated the area for less than a breath—just enough to reveal empty ground where he had targeted and the pale periphery of his dimension beneath the black. Then, the darkness collapsed again. "Coward."

No reply. Just movement.

"Shadow Step." Noel flickered behind him for a blink, close enough that Revenant Fang grazed Roberto’s ribcage before "Lumina Veil" absorbed the worst of the blow. Roberto wheeled around to strike, but Noel had already evaporated. A rift tore open higher to the left. "Shadow Rift." Noel emerged already descending with a strike; Roberto intercepted it just in time, their blades colliding with such force that white sparks showered the dark before vanishing.

"A rat, then," Roberto snarled through gritted teeth, twisting his blade to force Noel’s weapon off-center.

Noel delivered a sharp elbow to his ribs in retaliation and faded away before Roberto’s follow-up could connect.

The nature of the duel had fundamentally shifted. Roberto attacked to unmask his foe; Noel attacked to claim his life.

"Radiant Slash." Light bisected the darkness once more, and within that clean, white rift, Roberto finally spotted him—or so he believed. A silhouette, crouched low, one shoulder turned, providing the perfect target. Roberto instantly fired "Corona Breaker," a dense discharge punching through the void in a luminous tunnel.

It hit nothing but empty space. Noel had never been there.

The realization dawned a heartbeat too late. "Glacialis." A concentrated spear of ice struck from Roberto’s blind side, driving into his upper arm and forcing him into an awkward stagger. Before he regained his footing, lightning splintered the black. "Chain Flash." The primary strike caught his guard, and the electrical branches snapped against his side and shoulder, forcing another reluctant adjustment.

Then, Noel breached his guard. Not from the front. Not from the position the light had suggested. But from beneath the very angle Roberto had attempted to clear.

"Shadow Step." Revenant Fang surged upward, swift and precise. The steel carved across Roberto’s torso before "Lumina Veil" could fully manifest, inflicting a genuine wound. Not a superficial graze. Not a scratch softened by light.

A true injury. Roberto reeled back, and for the first time since his dimension was consumed by darkness, the blood that spilled was unmistakably his own.

Roberto said nothing for several seconds. When he finally shifted, his demeanor had visibly transformed. The mockery was gone, and the noise had ceased. While his irritation remained, it had hardened into something cold and focused. He wiped the blood from his side with a gauntlet and hoisted his sword, the aura of light around him expanding.

"Flashbind." The flare was more intense now, harsher, sweeping across the dark in a wide arc that forced the reality of the dimension into existence for a fraction of a second. Roberto seized the opening instantly, driving forward with "Radiant Slash" guiding his momentum, then layering "Sanctum Pulse" into his movement to shatter the surrounding space and flush Noel out.

The white brilliance evaporated. The shadows engulfed them again. And Noel remained absent from the spot where Roberto had anticipated him.

A shadow parted behind the fading pulse. "Shadow Rift." Noel stepped out, low and rapid, not seeking the finishing blow yet, but applying calculated pressure. Roberto spun in time to parry Revenant Fang, steel shrieking against steel, and for one grueling moment, the fight devolved into close-quarters combat. Shoulder to shoulder. Roberto’s forearm hammered against Noel’s sword arm. Noel’s knee slammed toward his thigh. Roberto absorbed the blow and retaliated by swinging his hilt toward Noel’s jaw.

Then, Noel dissolved. "Shadow Step."

Roberto’s gaze snapped around, but the darkness offered no answers. He illuminated the void again with another sharp stroke of "Radiant Slash," and this time, he caught a clear view of Noel for a fleeting moment.

Too close. "Voltage Needle." The slender line of lightning pierced the opening before Roberto could fully reposition, striking his ribs and stealing his breath. Noel immediately pressed the advantage. "Glacialis." Ice struck the same point of pressure, not lethal, but enough to crush Roberto’s high guard.

"Eclipse Rend." Darkness cascaded forward from Revenant Fang in a brutal arc, and Roberto met it with the remainder of his power, light flaring with enough intensity to prevent the void from bisecting him. Even so, the edge of the attack sheared across him, carving a deep wound from shoulder to chest. Blood spilled again, shimmering darker than the surrounding gloom for the brief moment the light held.

Roberto retreated. Only one step, but it marked a surrender of ground.

His breathing was different now. Not labored, not fragile, just heavy and deliberate, and the expression in his eyes had hardened accordingly. The truth had finally penetrated—not through taunts or discourse, but through rhythm, through the visceral reality of his own damage, and the undeniable fact that this was no longer a mere inconvenience.

If the pattern persisted, defeat was inevitable.

Noel lingered somewhere ahead within the unwavering darkness, his blade poised and his pressure relentless, while Roberto remained illuminated only by the flicker of his decaying light, breathing deeply as the blackened dimension maintained its hold and the final phase of their clash drew near.