Pause System: Harem In The Apocalypse

Lita's moist eyes begged her brother to wake up, "Brother... Wake up, Brother!" She shook him with her hand.

A young blond boy who had been fast asleep slowly opened his eyes before standing up from the constant shoving.

Rubbing his eyes, he asked, "What's wrong?".

It's them! Aurora and Gray! T-They're in danger!" She said, her voice shaking as she trembled in fear.

Kylo jumped out of bed when he heard this. He was helped up by a gust of wind before landing on his two feet on the floor.

'Gray? That Gray is in danger? The one that brought us here?'

"Did you get a vision?" He asked.

She nodded, her eyes teary.

"Don't cry, it'll be alright. Just tell me what was on the vision."

"I-I'm not sure... It was blurry... But Gray was covered in blood! And Aurora was being kept captive...!".

"What!?"

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Slowly, Aurora opened her eyes, only to be met with a blank white ceiling. She saw a window beside her out of the corner of her eye.

She turned her head to peer through it, only to be left stunned when she realized she was looking down on the facilities from a relatively tall building inside the dome.

Before she felt a sharp jolt on her head, she asked, "Where am I?".

The sensation was all too familiar to her. Once again, she overdid it. As the cold set in, her body could not stop shivering.

"I need to get stronger... Faster..."

In an attempt to warm her body, she raised her hand to hug herself. A rattle could be heard as her hands rebounded back from a set of cuts. She didn't seem surprised to discover her hand cuffed to the bedframe.

*Rattle*

Suddenly, her eyes landed on the figure of a young, light blonde-haired girl who was fast asleep on her bedside.

'Lita? No, her hair was a much darker blonde and she was also younger than this one."

She took a deep breath before slowly exhaling. After carefully analyzing the situation, she finally came to a conclusion.

"I'm being kept captive.." She spoke, with disbelief... "Ah... Why!? I still haven't even resolved things with Gray... Why is everything going wrong lately...?" She complained silently as she turned her head down, letting out a sigh.

Having said that, she quickly raised her head again before looking around. An empty room, with another empty bed. Other than that, there was nothing.

"Where's Gray...?" She asked.

Sleeping on her bed, the young girl slowly opened her eyes before suddenly waking up.

"You're awake!" The young girl exclaimed, her voice filled with excitement.

Her blonde hair swayed as she leapt onto the bed, placing both hands on her hips and smiling brightly. "Welcome, newcomer! My name is Freya! Rejoice for you are my new friend!"

"Huh?"

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Gray and Realm, stared each other down. Both of them had gotten into a fighting stance, ready to attack at any time.

Grasping his sword, Realm leaned forward, tilting toward Gray. Meanwhile, Gray shifted the grip of both of his knives into reverse as he too leaned in.

They stared at each other for a few seconds,

*Drip*

*VOOM!*

With a ripple breaking the silence. The two kicked off, charging at one another. As they did so, they gripped their weapons tightly in their hands.

They were equal in speed, covering the same distance as they drew closer. Just a few steps from each other a noise could be heard.

*CLANG!*

A result of their collision as they parried one another.

Upon rebounding, their figures could be seen sliding backwards, but as soon as they caught themselves, they immediately leaped at the other.

*Swoosh*

*Clang!*

Realm swung his katana vertically down at Gray. As he watched Gray heading straight for the swing, rather than trying to parry or dodge it, his eyes grew wide.

​ [Pause]

His expression only grew more surprised when his sword halted mid-air while he was still heading to collision. Gray then hurled his knives at Realm's chest.

He didn't know Gray could pause objects with just a glance, only through touching, so this had caught him off guard. There was no way to avoid it--

[Realm: Shield]

*CLANG!*

There was a loud bang as Gray's knives were parried by a spherical forcefield which had appeared almost out of nowhere, enclosing Realm inside as it protected him.

Gray's heart sank as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. In order to escape from the realm, he paused the air in front of him, creating a platform from which he leapt.

But by that time, it was too late.

[Realm: Field]

From Realm, the forcefield expanded at an instant, passing straight through Gray, until it covered a 20 meter radius around Realm, at which point it stopped.

It was that same move as before. Gray wanted to avoid this outcome as much as possible, so he aimed for a quick victory, but it ended up being unavoidable

Having landed on the ground. In his rush to look for the Realm, Gray noticed that his figure had disappeared, and all that remained was his paused katana.

A chill ran down Gray's spine at that moment. As he looked up, he saw that realm's boots were just inches away from his face as a kick was being delivered.

[Pause]

Almost like a forcefield, Gray paused, the air above his head creating a four by four rectangle which cancelled out Realm's kick.

"!?"

However, that didn't stop Realm's attack. A kick hit the side of Gray's face as he appeared beside him, his legs stretched out.

[HP: 10/20]

Gray's figure was sent flying to the sides, advancing toward the ground with every passing second. Realm, however, appeared from above just before Gray had landed, thrusting his leg down to slam him into the ground.

"!?"

Gray's figure disappeared, and his leg passed through thin air. At that moment, he flashed his eyes up, quickly spotting Gray above him with an Axe kick heading down, aimed at the back of his head.

'*WHAM!*'

The sound of collision, or at least that's the sound Gray's expected. But in reality-

*SWOOSH!*

Gray's eyes widened as the field retracted back into a forcefield, blocking his kick.

[Unpause] The ten second timer on the pause objects had expired. Taking this opportunity, he attempted to pause the Forcefield as he jumped off of it, but his attempt failed.

[Pause]

While in mid-air, he rotated his body so that his feet were parallel to a platform he had created in the air. It faced the forefield which was falling with Realm inside.

The muscles on his leg bulged out before Gray leapt off the platform. His knives thrust forward as he did so.

*Pierce*

Gray's knives were able to penetrate the forcefield's defenses as they collided, even though it was just barely. Surprising both him and Realm as they dropped to the ground.

[Pause]

In order to avoid falling and being injured, Gray paused in the air. In that instant, the forcefield expanded yet again, creating another 20 meter radius field.

[Realm: Field]

Gray unpaused himself, before pause-stepping to the ground. Meanwhile, Realm teleported over to where his sword was before looking over at Gray.

Gray, who was on the floor and facing Realm, could be seen smiling.

Realm asked, "What's so funny?".

"Nothing, I've just finally found your weakness."

In the same way Gray could not use pause step twice without a cooldown, Realm was not able to teleport more than twice in succession. There was probably a cooldown period too. That was why he had retracted the field into a forcefield to block his attack.

Furthermore, Gray realized that the forcefield was not unpunishable. While it can parry slash attacks, it's weak to thrusts. As a result of Gray's piercing through the forcefield, a crack had formed.

In other words, realm wasn't invincible.

As he placed his sword in its sheath, Realm replied with a smile, "Right back at you.".

Trying to figure out which one Realm he was referring to, Gray pulled his brows together in a frown. After all, pause had many obvious flaws. However, what confused him even more was how he sheathed the blade despite the field still being active

'Does he intend to fight me with his fists alone because I can pause his weapon?' Gray concluded.

Wrong.

Once again, Realm leaned forward. As he bent forward, he tightened his grip on the sword tilt.

Gray wasn't sure if he'd make the first move given that the field was active and Realm could teleport anywhere in it.

But just as Gray had thought that, the field suddenly retracted. This time, however, the retraction was different. Instead of becoming a forcefield, it compressed itself into a sphere that covered the top of his sword sheathe and tilt.

As Realm drew in a deep breath, the pressure in the air around him changed. The sphere continued to compress and compress itself further and further as veins bulged out of Realm's hand from the pressure and his grip strength.

Gray's eyes froze open, his heart began to pound as he could feel the grim reaper take it's swing at him. An attack was coming, and whatever it was, it spelled only one word.

[Death]

Gray knew that he had to stop and cancel out whatever it was, but it was already too late-

[Realm: Compression]

Realm unsheated and swung his blade, all in a single motion. His eyes widened as he exhaled. In that instant, it broke loose.

"Realm Sword Skill..."

[Spatial Tear]

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