The Minotaur charged with a deafening roar.
Neo dodged the monster's swing and retailed with a quick strike to its ankle.
The Minotaur used its mace to block.
It grunted and raised its mace with a surprising agility, swinging its down in a wide arc.
There was no time to dodge.
The monster was too fast for its size.
Neo raised his sword.
He let the Minotaur's mace slide off his blade and he deflected it into the ground.
Neo's parry caused the Minotaur to lose its balance.
The monster staggered.
Taking the advantage of the situation, Neo leapt.
Death and Darkness wrapped around his sword flared.
The sword grew in length and Neo slashed, slicing off the Minotaur's arm with a clean, wide swung.
The forearm, which was larger than Neo, fell with a dull thud.
Instead of bellowing in pain, Minotaur acted as if it did not feel anything.
It moved it calculated coldness and grabbed Neo with its other arm, making Neo realize the Minotaur had baited him by sacrificing its arm.
The monster held him in a crushing grip.
Neo's bones cracked under the pressure.
Blood began to seep from his eyes.
He used Necrotic Touch and applied five stacks on the Minotaur's fingers.
Cracks appeared on its skin.
Neo, freed, fell from its grasp.
He was about to land when the Minotaur, with its two last remaining hands, smashed him into the ground.
It roared and tried to pick its mace to finish Neo only to realize it couldn't.
The Minotaur looked down and noticed it was missing its hands.
At the last second, Neo had attacked instead of defending and sliced them off.
"You look better that way."
Neo stood up with a cough.
He wiped the blood clouding his vision and ran towards the Minotaur who had lost all four arms.
The monster stomped its feet, like an elephant trying to crush an ant, but Neo used his agility to dodge the attacks and climbed its body.
He leapt again to reach its head in one go.
Neo used the Aura Slash to behead the Minotaur.
The Minotaur fell with a resounding thud.
Neo stood over the fallen beast, breathless but victorious.
He watched the monster dissipate into black smokes.
The Divine Energy of the Labyrinth churned.
It rushed towards the center of the chamber and—
The deafening roar echoed.
Minotaur, revived, beat its chest as if to assert dominance.
"Of course, you'll revive you damned fat cow."
Just as Neo was about to raise his sword, the Minotaur moved so fast it disappeared from Neo's sight.
A giant shadow fell over him.
The Minotaur fell over him, bringing down the mace with the power of gravity and momentum.
Neo died aad he had to use Immortal.
He clicked his tongue.
"I hate using this skill in the battle, but I guess it's fine since we are both cheating."
Healed and refreshed due to the revival, Neo attacked with full power to return the favor.
Professor Daniel's Office, Demigod Academy
Professor Daniel appeared inside the empty office.
He doubled over, coughing blood.
He took out his pocket watch with his trembling arms.
"I arrived a few weeks earlier."
In Neo's words, he had returned to D-79.
He massaged his brows.
"It's getting harder and harder to control the dates."
In last round, he was unconscious when he arrived at D-0.
This time, he tried to arrive earlier because he didn't want to faint in front of Neo
However, D-79 was too early.
"It's getting harder to control dates? Of what? Your Time slipping?"
Professor Daniel snapped his head into the direction of the voice.
He saw Charlotte, the principal, flipping through the documents while she sat on his chair.
"No need to be surprised. It's quite clear you are going through Time Slipping."
Professor Daniel nodded and took a seat.
"You are more talented than I thought you would be.
"It's the first time I've heard someone can control their Time Slipping."
"It's nothing special, principal. I can barely control it and my control weakens every time I Time Slip."
Charlotte threw the documents towards Daniel.
The pages slipped across the glass table.
They stopped before him.
His personal information was written over it.
[Name: Daniel Caelum]
[Subject: Meditation]
[Elemental Affinity: Time, ???, ???]
"Why are you showing this to me, principal?"
"Your profile is funny. It's missing quite a lot of information."
Professor Daniel frowned.
He suppressed the aftereffects of Time Slipping and spoke,
"The Academy allows us to keep our privacy. There should be no problem with my missing records."
"We do allow privacy. But this isn't Academy records.
"It's the record of all the previous principals. This is all information we have on you."
She snapped her fingers.
The pages of the documents flipped on their own.
They showed the pictures of Professor Daniel from 10 years ago, from 20 years ago, from 50 years ago, from 100 years ago, from 200 hundred years ago….
He was in all pictures.
Even in the picture taken during the foundation of Academy 3000 years ago.
"Who are you? If you've been in the Academy for so long, we should've more information on you.
"Even the Sphinx refused to speak about you."
Professor Daniel stared at Charlotte, his lips pressed into a thin line.
He sighed after a few minutes and finally opened his mouth.
"I thought there was an unspoken rule among the principals to not disturb Daniel Caelum or interfere with his life."
"There is a rule like that."
"But, you see, I like to know about everything that happens in my backyard. It includes you.
"You are too strong to be a simple demigod whose only strength is his long lifespan.
"You could send Neo Hargraves into the past multiple times —"
"Is this why you recommended Neo Hargraves to me? To test the limits of my powers?"
Professor Daniel's gaze grew stern.
Watching him Charlotte chuckled,
"It's quite funny how you lose control over your emotions despite being thousands of years old.
"And you don't need to be angry. Neo Hargraves had no idea I was using him to test you.
"He is genuinely working hard under you to awaken his element."