Chapter 90: First trial 4

Time passed while I chatted with Anastasia, until it was time for the map to show up again.

’Well, would you look at that.’ I thought as I gazed at the map. According to the map, there were still seventeen dots including ours, which meant, only three teams had been eliminated so far.

Not only that, most of the dots now seemed close enough, so much that they were almost overlapping. It was obvious the ones in that positions would soon clash.

We didn’t have to worry about our position though, just like yesterday, there was no team that close to us. Which was why we decided to wait for the next hour and see what happens. With some luck, the required teams should be eliminated by that time.

However, when the next hour came, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I muttered. The teams that were about to clash with each other had all withdrawn far away from each other.

Worse, one of them had come quite close to ours. ’Can’t a guy channel in peace?’ I inwardly groaned.

“Everyone, let’s move.” Dpress turned to us. “If we eliminate another team, we’ll hold the advantage over every other team.”

We unanimously agreed with that, if they were so close, why lose the opportunity. We ran in their direction, hoping to catch them off guard. But it would seem that they thought the same thing. Because we met them at where I would call the mid point, and right now, they were standing not so far away from us, combat ready.

This time there was a woman who looked to be in her early thirties leading the group. And she wasn’t the slightest bit weak to say the least. The reason I came to that conclusion? Well it was due to the absurd Theta+ ranked aura she was radiating.

The other four behind her weren’t weak either, two of them, a man and a woman, stood at solid Theta rank, while the remaining two men were at the Theta- rank.

“I’ll be damned.” I silently muttered. It would seem we had bitten off a little more than we could chew by running to this team. No, even if we hadn’t come to them, they would have come to us eventually.

The faces of everyone in my own team grew grim. Meanwhile, I turned to Sia.

“Can you beat her?” I silently mouthed.

Her face grew thoughtful. That was not a good sign. Sia was always confident, ever since I’ve known her.

“I don’t know.” She mouthed at last. “But she’s not beating me either.” she added. “I see.” I nodded as two more of me appeared by my side. ’Maybe it’s time to swap with those reflections I left back at the dilapidated build….’

BOOOM!

Things happened so fast that my eyes barely caught what happened. The Theta+ ranked woman burst forward so fast that the air rang behind her. In a fraction of a second, her sword was at Dpress’ neck.

But then, her body suddenly froze, certainly due to Dpress’ ability, but in what felt like milliseconds, she broke through whatever it was that was holding her with pure brute force. But that was more than enough time for Dpress to try and jump backwards. Try being the keyword.

Her leg brutally knocked the side of his head sending him bouncing on the ground far away. I was sure if he hadn’t cushioned the kick with his arms, his head would have been blown off.

All these happened in a single second. But that didn’t mean the woman slowed after kicking Dpress away. Instead she flickered towards… me? My main body specifically, but I switched with my reflection at the last moment, making me escape by the skin of my teeth.

Her sword cut through my reflection like hot knife through butter. The reflection shattered before I could even comprehend the pain.

Seeing the failure, she twisted her body in one seamless motion, and sped to to me again, but the time, she was intercepted by Sia mid point.

Krannng!

The sound of their sword clashing rang through the space as if a towering bell had been struck.

The woman didn’t move from her spot, but Sia, got sent flying backwards, before she flipped mid air, and landed on her feet. Though she still skidded for a bit.

The next second, they clashed again, then flashed across everywhere. I used the word flash, because they were literally flashing. I could only catch glimpses of their figures. This was a fight way across my current level, unless I used a reflection with 90 percent of my aether, which would make it have 360 percent of stats. And even then, I was not sure I’d be able to keep up. Any other way, and this wasn’t a fight for me, It would be me begging to be killed instead.

Right now, there was only one thought on my mind. ’This woman is no joke.’ And so was Anastasia who was keeping up with her. The main problem however, was that the others still hadn’t engaged.

Still, I made up my mind, since Sia would hold this woman down, and Nina and Greg were already charging at the woman’s teammates, I also did the same.

Dpress who was sent bouncing had also came back. My body exploded forth in a series of afterimages towards the woman’s teammates.

Obviously I went for one of the two Theta- ranked aetherials among them, while the remaining three were handled by Dpress, Nina, and Greg.

“Heh.” The guy smirked. “You must really underestimate me, kid.”

“Well, what can I say, you really do seem like the weakest among them.” I retorted.

His expression twisted into fury. “That’s it kid, I’ll enjoy flaying you alive.”

We both zoomed forward at the same time, he, leaving a streak of displaced air in his wake, and I, leaving a series of afterimages in my wake.

He was slightly faster than I was, so he built the most momentum. When our swords clashed, I felt the force of the impact rattling my bones.

Our swords clashed for a little while longer, with each clash sending sparks through the air, and threatening to send my sword flying out of my hand.

His sword reached for my neck in a single thrust, I sidestepped, but then had to duck again due to him transitioning into a horizontal slash. I then flickered back to make some space between us. But what he didn’t notice, was that one of my supposed afterimage that was still at his side, hadn’t disappeared.

“Fall.” My reflection struck, hoping to finish it in one straight strike, but the man’s eyes widened as if he felt the danger, then at the last possible moment, twisted his body, and blocked the advancing sword.

BOOOM!

Even though he blocked it, the shockwave from the attack still sent him flying through the air and towards me. ’This was my chance.’ I had thought. But the man suddenly froze mid air.

’Wait… he can fly?!’ my brain short circuited. Only when one reached the Delta rank could they resist the world’s laws, and be able to fly. But he definitely hadn’t reached that rank, so there were only two explanations for this, either he had air/ wind manipulation that enabled him to be able to float, or he got dealt a bad hand, and his ability was that he was able to fly.

The reason I said he got dealt a bad hand, was that everyone who reaches the Delta rank would eventually be able to fly, it would be like second nature to them, and he would have no advantages whatsoever then.

I watched as the man stopped himself mid air, then turned to look between me and the reflection.

“So not all of them are mirages then.” he muttered. “Still, it’s meaningless, I just have to fight from up here then.” he muttered gazing at me.

He raised a finger and pointed at me.

“Lightning art: Piercing bolt.” A bolt of lightning the size of a needle shot at me so fast that I could barely track it.

A stinging and electrocuting jolt spread through my body as I barely managed to block the bolt with my sword.

“Shit.” I muttered. Another one of these, and I wasn’t sure I could keep standing.

Another bolt shot at me , but I swapped with my reflection at the last second. This time the bolt hit my reflection directly, and I truly felt how it would feel like if it hit my true body.

I looked up at the smirking bastard.

“Since you want to stay up, let’s see how you evade this then.” I said as another reflection appeared beside me.

“Second art: Summer blaze!” I roared as I swung at his figure. A blindingly crimson arc left my sword and went straight at him, but that wasn’t all.

“Third art: Fall!” My reflection boosted the crimson arc. A searing heatwave spread so fast, that even I felt it. Some of the ruined buildings around us crumbled. I made this attack because I wanted to test if he could move fast enough in the air, as far as I remember, maneuvering on the ground was far more easier than in the air. If he could, this would get a lot more harder.

But turns out he couldn’t. The air grew hazy for a bit, but when it cleared. The man was still floating mid air, with various burns all over his body.

“I’ll fucking kill you, kid.”

*********

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