Chapter 360: Torture Method [III] Azel took a long breath. His entire body was trembling. ’This is real torture...’ he thought. His lungs burned... his muscles were screaming, and his head ached like it was splitting in two. At some point he started wondering... was the person maintaining this mental domain not tired yet? How was this insanity still going on?! ’I died... again and again...’ he thought with a shudder. ’Sixty-three straight times from regular pressure points... and then paralyzed ten more times before dying again... That’s seventy-three fucking times!’ His body had adapted to the pain, but his mind? That was another story. "Oi, you still here with us?" Sebastian asked, he was a few meters away from Azel at this point. That same annoying laugh followed right after... the same laugh that had haunted him through every death. Azel rubbed his face. "I sure am." He stood up slowly and sighed. The good part of all this torture was that his photographic memory had memorized every single weak point Sebastian hit him on. Now, every one of those points was covered in a thin shell of aura. "Are you done using me for your experiments?" Azel asked flatly. Sebastian chuckled, stretching his arms. "Well... maybe. You’ve gotten ridiculously good, though. It’s like I’ve been training a damn machine." He grinned, clearly proud of himself. "Don’t let it get to your head, though." Azel didn’t wait for more talk. He untied his knot, letting his aura burst through his veins again, and shot forward in a blur... He did all that in a matter of three seconds. His fist connected squarely with Sebastian’s jaw, sending the older man skidding backward. "You didn’t even wait for me to say ’go.’" Sebastian rubbed his chin, clearly more amused than hurt. "You literally told me to start attacking as soon as I came back to life," Azel replied, moving his legs apart and spreading his aura outward. "When?!" Azel launched another attack... a sharp roundhouse kick that sent a gust of compressed air spiraling forward, making Sebastian’s hair whip violently. "Twenty-eight deaths ago." Sebastian tilted his head back, barely dodging the follow-up uppercut. The aura displacement that followed the strike cracked the cave wall behind him. "Kid’s got a mouth now too," he muttered, ducking low. He moved to jab at Azel’s thigh again, but this time the young man caught his wrist mid-motion. Azel’s legs twisted, both feet connecting squarely with Sebastian’s face. The blow sent both of them flying in opposite ways. Sebastian landed with a grunt, rubbing his cheek. "What the fuck...?" he murmured. "When did he get this good?" He hadn’t even noticed when the boy’s movements became so clean. Every exchange had been brutal, but somewhere along the line, Azel’s body learned faster than anyone he’d ever trained. Azel stood straight, assuming a solid stance. He was keeping his aura under control too... wearing it like an armor. "Come on," Azel said coldly. "Are you scared?" Sebastian’s grin returned. "You little punk." He released his first aura point. The air around him turned gold. And then he vanished. Azel twisted instantly to the right, dodging the explosive smash that cracked the ground where he’d been standing. Sebastian’s hand slammed into empty space, and the professor raised a brow. ’He dodged that?’ Azel planted both palms on the ground, spun, and delivered a devastating double kick into Sebastian’s face. Sebastian caught Azel’s legs before the momentum could carry him away and lifted him up like a sack of grain. "Time to go again—" He jabbed at the same nerve on Azel’s thigh. But nothing happened. "Huh?" Before he could react, Azel’s heel recoiled backward, slamming him right between the eyes. Sebastian stumbled a step, he was dazed. The second foot came down harder, hitting him right on his chin, sending him back even farther. Azel landed lightly. He didn’t waste the opening. His leg came around in a tight arc, landing squarely against Sebastian’s stomach. A shockwave exploded. His aura exploded outward like a hammer of wind, sending the martial artist skidding back several meters. Sebastian coughed and stood his ground. "What the hell did you just do...?" To defend against Sebastian’s pressure-point strikes, he’d used his aura to create tiny bubbles of energy over each one of his vulnerable spots. It was hard at first but once he knew exactly where they were, it became instinct. And the attacks he’d been throwing weren’t just random blows. He’d been feeding aura into Sebastian’s body, in small waves. Each wave carried the vibration, mapping the exact feedback Sebastian’s body gave off when defending his own points. Now he knew where they were. So when the last kick connected, the aura inside Sebastian’s body found its mark. And popped the defenses. Sebastian froze. His body locked up completely. He tried to move but his limbs refused to obey. His face twisted as he toppled backward, hitting the ground with a thud. Azel exhaled slowly and walked up to him. "That’s Pressure Point #73," he said, crouching slightly. "It’s located right between the lower spine and the left hip. Hit it right, and it seizes the nervous system for about thirty minutes." Sebastian blinked rapidly, disbelief written all over his face. "You... used aura to find my pressure points? In the middle of a fight?" Azel smiled faintly. "After you paralyzed me, you always stomped my head to kill me and make me restart. I can’t go through that seventy more times." He raised his leg. "But killing you once should be enough to make me feel better." He brought his foot down with all his might. The cave trembled. But before the blow landed, everything turned white. The world shattered like glass. ... When Azel opened his eyes again, the cave was gone. He blinked several times and realized he was sitting upright in a chair. A thick metallic device was strapped around his head with wires extending from it to a glowing crystal sphere in the corner of the room. "...What?" He grabbed the cable and yanked it off his head, grimacing as the static buzz faded away. Then he looked around. He wasn’t in the cave anymore. The room was small, bright, and painted white from wall to wall. Across from him, Sebastian sat in another chair, the same cables still attached to his head. The martial artist groaned, rubbing his temple. "Ow... That one hurt." Azel’s eye twitched. "Hurt? You killed me seventy-three times." Sebastian chuckled softly, unbothered. "And now you know seventy-three ways to not die. You’re welcome." Before Azel could curse him out, another voice interrupted. "Ahem." It was deep. They both turned and saw a little boy sitting casually on a chair in front of them with his legs crossed and he was holding a clipboard. He looked no older than twelve with his hair neatly parted and glasses resting perfectly on the bridge of his nose. He tapped the clipboard once and adjusted his spectacles like a proper accountant. "That will be thirty gold for your five hours in the Mental Domain," the boy said in a calm, businesslike tone. "We bill extra for damage done to the simulation core." Azel blinked. ’Who the fuck is this child...?’