‘In front of you!’
But it was too late.
Ahhh!
As Somani's left hand suddenly disappeared, the pain was immense—very much.
The transparent floating creature had aimed for his head, but I had drawn him back just in time.
Vengful Ghost, Lv. ???
‘I can’t see anything!’
‘Leave it to me.’
I spawned a Mana bomb and threw it at the monster, buying me time to retreat.
Boov!
It was then that I noticed it…
My hand isn’t regenerating!
I didn’t have time to inspect the injury.
The Ghost wasn’t bothered by the explosion as it barreled through the bomb’s energy directly at me.
I turned around and sprinted away using Mana infusion.
Thankfully, the creature was slow, and after a few turns, I stopped to catch my breath.
‘What the heck was that?! I saw nothing!’ Somani shouted.
‘I didn’t see it, either. Light reflected weirdly in a certain area, catching my attention.’
‘And why isn’t my hand regenerating?!’
I zoomed in on the injury, and… I saw a faint yellow Mana.
Cells were fighting the yellow Mana as they tried to regenerate the wounded area, but the Mana was stronger and was slowly gaining ground.
I activated [Primus Will] and started dismantling the construct, but then…
Ahhh!
The piece of my back resting on the wall disappeared.
It can pass through walls!
I shot a bone arrow as I jumped away, but the attack passed through the creature as it exited the wall.
Gritting my teeth, I cut a piece of my soul to create Blood Bomb before ducking behind a corner.
Boov!
And… nothing.
The Ghost, slowly but surely, floated towards me.
I cut the nerve endings sending the pain signals before giving control of the body back to Soman.
‘Somani, take control and run. I’ll try to heal our injuries.’
‘What about the monster? I can’t see it.’
‘Just run. It’s slow, so maybe we can shrug it off.’
I refocused on my injury.
The wounds were gushing blood, but thankfully, the lost blood was regenerating, or I would’ve died of blood loss.
I dismantled the yellow Mana as Somani ran.
The Mana felt sticky to [Primus Will], like it refused to get destroyed, but after a while, I was done removing it.
My hand and back wounds quickly closed, but for some reason, they didn’t go back to their original shape, leaving a crater and stump.
What the—
I handled Somani and threw him against a wall.
‘Where?!’
‘It’s—there’s two! Run straight ahead!’
And Somani did just that.
I looked at our Mana situation, 90%.
In the few exchanges we’ve been through, a not-so-negligible amount of mana was spent uselessly.
… There’s still a day ahead of this; I need to use my Mana more wisely. We also need to start gathering points.
My soul pain was driving me insane, but I knew that to survive, I must push myself.
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I activated [Forced Mana Regeneration] and started gathering the white Mana particles needed to regenerate Somani’s core.
Unfortunately, my film was still made of green Mana, and with Somani’s mitochondria spewing white Mana, I couldn’t regenerate my film. However, we weren’t using it that much, as white Mana was way more potent.
‘Why is my hand like this?’
‘I’m looking into it, so don’t worry.’
I zoomed in on the newly formed cells; they looked normal.
Forming a bone sword, I focused on making its edge as sharp as possible on the cellular level, then I cut off the stump’s end.
Ahhh!
‘What was that for?!’
I ignored Somani, observing how the cells reformed.
They propagated like usual—cellular division, but instead of the cells moving in to take the hand’s form, they bent inward and converged in the middle, forming a stump.
Swish!
A hand swipe, and Somani’s head went flying.
“One less competitor,” a calm voice said.
The human attacker was tall but slim. His hair was straight and dark, while his eyes were as cold as a dead man’s. The most striking thing was the white Mana coming off his fingers.
Supreme Mana…
Somani's head tumbled a few times, then…
A neck formed, but before the ribs could be created, the human noticed, shooting his charged hand at me.
I spawned a bone arrow, going for his head, but the human somehow evaded the point-blank shot.
Primal Hunter, Lv. 50 (Combatant #78302: 45 points)
Unlike usual, where people would be shocked by my regeneration, the hunter's bored expression turned into a wide smile.
He tried to attack me again, but I took hold of the head and half-regenerated torso, and swiftly flew away.
“Primus Magus, huh? Not bad regeneration.”
The madman followed me, but thankfully, I was a bit faster.
Upon reaching an intersection…
The ghosts returned, and there were three now.
No option but to fight the Hunter, I guess.
The ghosts were a mystery, could stop my regeneration, and had a higher level than the Hunter, so it was an easy decision: I chose to fight the Hunter.
My torso was fully reformed as I sped back towards the Hunter.
Encompassing him in my spherical vision, I created a bone barrier before forming a Blood Bomb behind the man. Although a Mana Bomb was stronger, for this situation, the Blood Bomb’s lesser Mana consumption was more appealing; I endured the soul pain.
Boov!
I was… shocked.
The human had swiftly created a circle with his hand, forming the outline of a floating white Mana shield.
The shield popped into existence and absorbed the explosion.
Voooom!
“Whoa!” The hunter seemed as surprised as I at his shield’s capabilities.
Who the heck is this guy?
I circled the bone barrier, trying to take advantage of the guy’s momentarily lapse of concentration to attack him with a Mana-infused punch from a blind spot.
The man cut off my newly regenerated limb before reaching for my neck; I barely evaded.
Does he have eyes in the back of his head!
He spat; the spit pierced my right eye and destroyed a part of Somani’s brain.
I created a Mana bomb to stop his advantage, but the guy cut it in half before the Mana became visible energy.
I spread bone barriers between us, retreating slowly.
The man kept pushing, slicing everything like it was thin air.
I have to do something…
Half my Mana was spent, and the challenge was still young. If this beating continued, Primus or not, I’d lose Somani.
It was then that the ghosts entered my spherical vision, worsening the situation, until…
A ghost appeared behind the Hunter, going for his head.
Yes!
But my hope didn’t happen.
Somehow, the man saw the Ghost.
He dodged before going for an attack of his own.
The light shimmering, signifying the Ghost’s presence, got cut in half.
…Impossible
The shimmer shook for a second before turning into visible particles that disappeared into the air.
I ducked under a wide slash from a ghost, but then another attacked, pinning me against the wall.
Ahhhh!
The pain was just as intense as soul pain; the monster took a chunk of my left shoulder.
….Soul pain, huh?
It hit me then.
I zoomed into my soul space, looking at Somani’s soul…
His soul’s left hand, shoulder, and a piece of his back were missing—the same areas as the real world injuries.
The ghosts are souls, and souls can do soul damage!
The Hunter was relentless. Cutting the last bone board, then killing another Ghost, he reached me.
Boov!
Taking advantage of his momentary lapse, I had formed a Mana bomb.
The surprise attack didn’t work, as the Hunter somehow predicted it and had a shield ready, but it bought me some time to create more distance.
A plan was forming in my mind—one that’d help me get rid of this threat.
The shield the Hunter had made quickly absorbed the energy, then the man resumed his advance, while more ghosts converged around us.
I snapped a piece of my soul, but unlike the pieces that were used to create the Blood Bomb, this one was huge.
Pain, from everywhere, ravaged through me, and only the truth kept me sane…
There’s no stopping my All!
Weilding soul manipulation like never before, I moulded and stretched the soul piece and turned it into a large disk.
“What are you doing?” The Hunter asked as he sliced a ghost in half.
I ignored him.
A ghost jumped at me; I made the flat side of the disk meet it…
It works!
The disk had shoved the Ghost away.
The next phase of my plan started.
As ghosts attacked from behind me, I funnelled and pushed them secretly—by distracting the Hunter as much as possible—into the side wall while retreating.
The Hunter pushed harder, probably seeing that I was up to no good, so I increased my attacks.
Instead of forming a single Mana Bomb, I formed two while creating thick bone barriers to stop the explosions from reaching me; they hindered the man and blinded him to my plan, too.
I was eating at my Mana at unprecedented levels. I also had to repair the soul disk a few times, as the ghosts kept damaging it.
Come on, come on…
I waited for the right chance.
The Hunter grew impatient and tired; he overextended, going into an awkward position…
Now!
I stopped retreating and pushed back.
Activating [Hive Mind], I connected Somani’s brain and the Aqua Slime’s to mine—the heavy skill use multiplied my soul pain.
Somani’s teeth cracked as I tried to endure the strain.
[Hive Mind] flickered off, but I kept turning it back on.
For the All!
My soul clone residing in the Slime shouted too.
For the All!
I infused Mana into the entirety of my body, while creating four Mana Bombs and ten poison darts with the help of [Multicasting] and the increased BP given to me from the Aqua Slime’s mind—13MBP.
For the first time since the fight started, the Hunter was driven back.
I expected fear, but the man’s crazed smile only widened.
“You’re an Eternal, aren't y—“
BOOOOV!
I dashed with [Mana Infusion], aiming a punch straight at the bastard’s smug face.
Somehow, the man still managed to create enough shields while evading my punch, but he didn’t evade the follow-up attack: a frontal kick that sent him flying right into the ghost hoard I had been creating behind him.
“We’ll meet again, Rival!” The bastard shouted from among the ghosts, and just to make sure, I sent him four more Mana Bombs.
BOOOOOOV!
***
I was spent. Neither Mana, stamina, nor soul reserves could be stretched any further.
My soul burned like hellfire, as my recently cloned soul couldn’t handle the abuse.
‘Cello… you can rest. I’ll keep a lookout.’
‘I wish, but until we exit this place, we’ll need each other’s aid.’
Thankfully, not everything was gloomy and dark.
We had gained a few points, class and skill levels.
You have killed Vengful Ghost, Lv. 107
Primus Magus has reached Lv. 37
Updated Ranking:
1) Combatant #78302: 102 points
2) Comabatant #32526: 78 points
3) Combatant #63739: 53 points
4) Combatant #23947: 53 points
5) Combatant #98345: 52 points
…
86) Combatant #96047: 2 points
…
100) Combatant # 95372: 0 points
Rank 86… we need to step up our game.
I had killed a single insistent ghost by cutting it using the sharp edge of the disk; it had given me 2 points.
So, a Tier 1 being only nets me 2 points… my competition must be strong.
It was then that I realised that the other combatants didn’t have to be tierless, like me.
Even the tierless guy I had just met was crazy strong, but that’s expected from a Supreme-class wielder. Could this competition be for the strongest prisoners?
I doubted it, as I had seen beings with ‘????’, and putting me or the other supreme against such beings wasn’t just unfair; it was insane, although a lot of humans weren’t logical.
If they had wanted, they could’ve killed us long ago, but for some reason, they had kept us alive. What’s the reason?
They had previously tried to gather knowledge on Somani’s class through a dream, but that didn’t explain the need to imprison other beings.
Maybe they’re researching them, too. Maybe this isn’t a prison, but a discovery area. Humans… they must have extensive knowledge on many aspects of this world.
Whatever the case was, I had to be extra careful and smart. There was also a huge opportunity here.
The other Supreme’s level isn’t that high. If I try, I can make him a host.
The idea sounded great, but until I got a class and raised its level close to the Primal Hunter’s level, I didn’t have this option yet.
‘What tier do you think rank one is?’ Somani asked.
‘Not sure, although I had seen high-tiered beings imprisoned. For now, let’s lay low until we recover more Mana.’
‘After that, we gather more points to break through the fifteenth rank, right?’
‘Probably.’
I then looked at our skill level ups.
Rudis Subtilis Biomancy has reached Lv. 10
No skill evolution at ten, huh?
Hive Mind has reached Lv. 3
Manima Senses has reached Lv. 9
One level before skill evolution. I wonder what it’s going to be.
Mana Infusion has reached Lv. 4
Forced Mana Regeneration has reached Lv. 5
Mana Manipulation has reached Lv. 10—skill evolution available!
Getting rewarded after hard work was really nice.