Future Shock (Initial Project)

Vol. 4 Chapter 12 - A Darkened Mentality

———Temple Interior, Artifact Chamber———

Minutes of prolonged duelling, Matthew struggled to get back up after suffering exceptional damage from Colette, while he managed to land significant hits on her, she shrugged it off and retaliated with more extensive damage than he could pull off. He can tell one or both of her Absorbed Artifacts are causing it, as every impact resulted in a red aura surrounding her form.

'S**t...' he uttered as he saw Colette athletically parkour towards the teleportation artifact before he used his matter manipulation to pull her right back to him, and he landed another punch to her stomach before she was thrown across the room destroying one of the pedestals.

However she ripped out and absorbed that pedestal's artifact afterwards and a pink hue surrounded her form, seemingly a form of regeneration as a few scars began to heal, excluding more major and open wounds.

'You B***h... I can't even... Absorb anything.' Matthew thought. He is very limited in terms of capability. Specifically due to his ability overuse, to the point where absorption is, while not impossible, exceptionally difficult and perhaps even time-consuming.

Matthew manifested an AK-74U equipped with a 60-round Casket magazine from his inventory and opened fire on Colette who managed to reflexively dodge the string of bullets being directed towards her and eventually lunged towards him.
He reactively turned his weapon to its side managing to block the blade of her weapon, while it pierced through the gun, the impact absorption prevented the blade from reaching his throat before he raised it and landed a kick against Colette's stomach area and she slammed against one of the pedestals.

Matthew turned to his right before managing to relay back by several metres avoiding the crushing blow of one of the few remaining golem's.

"Annoyances..." he uttered through gritted teeth before he used his matter manipulation to grab the artifact from the pedestal in which Colette was, and sent it to the head of the golem, upon impact its entire body was turned into ice and its head shattered. And soon followed the rest of its body.

In response, Matthew launched the artifact towards the centre of the room where the last golems were and molecularly ripped it apart which simultaneously reduced the last obstructions into ice, and further accelerated mental strain.

He quickly turned his attention back to Colette, he stumbled back a bit as he saw her finish absorbing two artifacts.

"Oh, what's the matter?" She cooed.

Colette soon jumped high and manifested a large number of spears which she manipulated to all point towards Matthew. "Catch!" She yelled as she directed them at him at a blinding speed, Matthew couldn't react in time which resulted in several spears piercing his body, and keeping him pinned in place, and his mana rapidly got absorbed.

Colette athletically jumped up again and landed a significant blow on Matthew, his stamina and mana levels were quickly depleting.

"*cough*"

"Hmm... I expected you to be more resilient." She said, Matthew's negativity rapidly began to loom over by the sign of his eyes, only very briefly, turning dull.
By this point he was below his prime, with his unchecked capability usage, his mental state began to deplete severely.

"So weak... Though I guess these artifacts are helping me. But that still doesn't clear how embarrassing it is, huh?"

Colette soon after used one of her recently absorbed abilities to launch him across the room near the centre, before she leapt towards him and sent him down, before descending and landing a hard kick against his chest which managed to break through the floor centre area which had been turned to ice, and both exchanged melee hits as they fell roughly 90 or so metres before hitting the marble bottom of a larger chamber.