---A week later---

[You have defeated sixty-four enemies and have earned 320 EXP! You are now 0325/6000 EXP on your way to LVL. 7. Good Luck!]

The boy and Teq were currently killing lots of soldiers. They came through just about every direction, but were almost always spilt up; making his and Teq’s job easier than ever. Another thing that helped was that the soldiers were exclusively looking to kill slimes rather than them, making sneak attacks that much more efficient.

But they were now surrounded on all sides. Teq told the boy to stop moving, as she and he were both tired from running and killing. They’re mistake was that they did this in a corridor with six different openings, from which five of them did soldiers run out from. Almost all entrances and exits blocked off, the boy thought: “How did this even happen?”

---Six hours earlier---

The boy woke up as usual within his cell, and then came the same slime that always came in the mornings to check up on him. But today was a not like those other day’s; today was the great escape of him and Teq. They had been formulating a plan of vengeance on the king since the day of her freedom, and she gave some very useful tips.

“You know, there are two ways to kill a slime, thirty-one. You can either drown it, or completely squish it. slimes with cores are very easy to kill too, since the core is what holds everything together. But we must be cautious, those slimes with cores are very strong.” The boy soaked in all such knowledge that Teq gave him as thanks for sticking with him in the revenge plan.

Teq on the other hand, thanked him by doubling down on the boy’s training routine. His body was broken a lot, but the boy made big progress in understanding his speed and learning how to get used to it. This in turn allowed him to use it far more effectively; making him perceive things slower than him the faster he went.

He could almost catch up to Teq without using any abilities; but he would easily beat her if he used them. That is why Teq restricted him to only using his natural speed and perception until he could beat her without them. The boy agreed, and this is why he was nearly wining right now.

Teq had once again cut the boy with her dagger, this being the forty-third time today. He was bleeding all over, but this didn’t stop the boy. He had gotten some good hits on her too, as evident by the bruises around her neck and under her eye. But he has yet to defeat Teq and her teleporting strategy.

Teq would teleport in from a random angle before cutting the boy. He almost caught her several times, but she always escaped his grasp with a teleport. The boy in turn saw where she teleported back to, and started to calculate where she would appear next; which led him to being cut again.

In the end, with his whole body bruised and bleeding, he threw in the towel. Out of nowhere, the healing slime came in, and start to wobble onto the boy and heal up his wounds. Once finished, the boy and Teq nodded to each other. “Hey little slime, wait up!” Said the boy to the blob of gelatin as it was moving on.

“Blah blah blah blah bluh, bluh blah blah...” He went on and on, and by the time the slime realized it was being made a fool of, Teq teleported in and smashed it with a hammer. Now that both of them were covered in slime, the boy looked to Teq. “Did you have to be so brutal about it?”

Teq smiled at the boy before throwing away the hammer she had hidden earlier.

“Now thirty-one, follow me!” He followed the teleporting Teq by sprinting alongside her predicted trajectory. The boy and Teq killed several more slimes on the way to their objective, arriving at their destination.

In the king slime’s throne room, the king slime rested on his giant chair. He smiled at Teq, before heading into the room as slow as possible for maximum dramatic purpose. “Hello your maje-” The boy was cut off by an explosion coming from the ceiling in the middle of the room.

Dropping down were several soldiers from the newly made hole in the ceiling, all wearing fully plated armor, the one in the middle wearing a different set of plated armor then the rest. The assumed leader came out from the middle and towards the king’s pedestal.

“We have come here by the orders of King Propu the Second to subjugate the monster group known as the kingdom of slimes. Please come peacefully, or die.”

The slime king wobbled outrageously, looking like it was about to explode with all the anger in it, when it began transforming. Before it even began to bring out it’s legs, the slime king exploded. The boy then looked to where a red light came from moments ago, and saw a plated figure with their hand out. ‘They have a magician... shit’

The leader then spoke: “Kill everything that isn’t us.”

The boy then moved back to be behind the wall where he was standing, and was met face to face with another soldier pointing a spear into his face. The soldier, who was without a helmet, was about to open his mouth when the boy grabbed the spear, and covered the mouth of the soldier.

The soldier tried moving the spear while screaming mutedly, but the boy just let go of the sharp stick and sent his hand into one of the soldier's eyes, grabbing and ripping out the eye. The soldier screamed and bite down on the boy’s skin, the boy’s reflexes sending his hand away from the still screaming mouth.

The soldier dropped to his knees, holding the space where his eye was. The boy looked to the dropped spear, picked it up, and slammed down with his knee near the sharp end. Picking up the newly made dagger, the boy stabbed it into the soldier’s skull, ending his screaming.

Unfortunately, the boy looked back to the group of knights, and saw that they had seen him, and that all of the slimes that were in the room now covered the room. The commander looked at the boy, and said “Get him.”

The boy wasted no time using Gait and Eyes, and ran off, as he was running, he remembered about Teq. The boy stopped and looked back, only to hear her voice up ahead. “WHY’D YOU STOP RUNNING YOU IMBECILE?! KEEP RUNNING!” The confused boy hesitated, before continuing to run.

[ You have defeated a peon of the subjugation army. You have received 5 EXP. 0330/6000 EXP left till LVL. Up. Good luck!]

---Current time---

The boy raised his fists, slowing backing into Teq from the five groups of soldiers, who now formed a massive grouping around the boy. Blocked off from all exits, the boy made plan after plan to escape and dismissed every single one of them as a death wish. The soldiers lowered the spear, ready to stab into the duo. The boy began to feel his eye twitching from the stress, as he unconsciously activated Eyes of Chronos.

The world slowed down as he saw the soldiers coming slower, their spears ready to be blooded with his own blood. The boy kept looking from soldier to soldier, trying to find a way out, a way to beat them. At one point, his eyes were moving so fast that he blacked out.

As his vision returned, the boy saw nothing but black in front of him. He looked around, and saw a familiar orb, which was emitting light. The boy wasted no time in sprinting in the opposite direction.

The boy saw the orb’s light up the darkness behind him, so he ran faster. The orb’s light sped up as well, forcing the boy to go at maximum speed. Yet the light didn’t give up, as it sped up another time.

It was slowly catching up to the boy, and he knew this. He knew that if it caught up to him, something bad would happen and he would die in the material world. He knew that Teq, a formidable ally, and terrible master would die too. The boy didn’t want this, he wanted to live, and most of all...

He wanted to run away from all this.

The boy suddenly found himself running faster, faster than the light. He looked back, and saw that the light was slowing down; or rather, he was gaining speed at a rapid pace. In the distance, he saw the orb, still emitting light. The boy saw how it changed the direction of the light to go towards him.

But this time, the boy had a plan to get rid of the sphere. Permanently.

The boy, without hesitation, ran directly towards the light. ‘Be faster than the light particles, faster than the light particles, faster than the light particles...’ He kept repeating the same mantra in his head, hoping that it would work. He also hoped that the next part of his plan would work as well.

He activated Gait and Eyes, meeting the light at the same moment. The next few moments were filing the boy’s mind with only single words; ‘Heat, Pain, Blind, Speed.’ Were of the four repeated words as he got closer and closer.

But with every step, a patch of his skin was burnt to a nice crisp. And with another, his hair was turned to ash, flowing off of him like leaves in the hurricane. Soon, he lost feeling all over his body, but the boy kept on walking, getting closer and closer to his goal of the orb.

Putting all his remaining strength into is legs, he watched as his skin and flesh started to burn away, revealing the bones underneath. It didn’t take long for the bones to turn black and burn away as well, the incineration of his body spreading further and further up his body.

Soon, his arms were gone, and his legs had no more flesh left on them. His organs were exposed, and the only thought that was in his mind was pain. When he finally came before the orb, the wave of heat doubled, blowing the boy onto his back. With his limbs complexly gone, the boy had only one thought left in his head.

‘Pain Pain Pain Pain Pain Pain Pain Pain Pain... END OF ALL OF THE PAIN’

He started to laugh. The boy’s eyes turned black, a black light beginning to emanate from the remains of his body. His body began to float back to where he was, shadow limbs growing from his remains. The boy then looked at the orb with a calm expression, before grabbing it in both hands, and filling it with darkness.

All light from the space was gone, and the boy placed down the orb back onto its pedestal. One last chuckle came from him, as his limbs grew back, his hair returned, and his eyes... stayed black.

[Gods save us. You have conquered The Challenge of Time, and have received rewards for doing so. You have received the passive skill “Father’s Rate.” Another skill of yours is experiencing evolution... Clockwork Fate has evolved into Trap of Sands

Father’s Rate: It is said that Father Time can only go in one direction, and nothing will stop him. Although he can travel in any direction, nothing will ever stop him. When you are proceeded with a great obstacle on your path, your speed increases until the obstacle is overcome. Scales with level.

The Conscious Desert: Some say that time is like a desert, always, moving, and never resting. They say once you get caught by it, it is only by will of the desert do you get out, or turn into sand yourself. This is an upgraded version of Clockwork Fate. All effects are sextupled.

Good Luck]

The boy opened his eyes, and saw the spears were all pointing away from him, a path made between the soldiers to their captain. “You must be fucking kidding me.”