Several bullets the size of a human forearm come straight at me, intent on riddling my body with holes like cheese. They’re white or gray; I can’t quite tell because I have to keep moving to avoid being pierced.
The Diamond-rank noble takes advantage of the opportunity to quickly put some distance between us. At least he has finally gotten his screams under control. His eyes now show nothing but deep resentment and anger toward me. Even as I retreat to avoid getting hit, I haven’t taken my eyes off him.
These enormous gray bullets with white undertones are extremely powerful, overloaded with mana to the limit. The babysitter can compress his mana into these constructs at an alarming speed, and they’re difficult to see with the naked eye.
Smoke affinity? After a few seconds, I reach that conclusion. It’s the only possible affinity based on what I’ve been able to see and feel. His constructs clearly have plenty of substance, but at the same time, they can easily dissolve and reconstruct themselves in an instant.
This babysitter knows how to control his mana extremely well. He’s reusing most of the mana from his previous constructs to create new ones. Smoke affinity is very uncommon, but I’ve read a little about how it works, and I’m certain he has some powerful ability behind what I’m seeing.
Those projectiles really do have substance. They’re capable of breaking apart my electric serpents and even my blocks of fused ice and death mana. Usually, enemy constructs become almost useless after colliding with mine; the death mana consumes them or leaves them with so little mana that reusing them becomes pointless.
This time, things aren’t going as well as I expected. He can preserve a large portion of the mana from his destroyed constructs and reuse it in other missiles. There are already dozens of those missiles surrounding me, trying to turn me into a sieve.
I’ve also felt life mana trying to heal the idiot noble’s arm, but I’m not allowing that. While moving from side to side and constantly destroying smoke constructs, I’m creating black swords to prevent him from being healed.
I manage to dodge all the enormous smoke bullets and close the distance with the noble. He’s doing everything he can to defend himself against my twin swords. He has gone completely defensive, and breaking through this idiot’s defenses isn’t easy when I also have to watch out for so many missiles around me.
This bastard isn’t making things easy for me. More and more smoke constructs keep appearing as the fight progresses. What an annoying affinity. I know smoke affinity is extremely uncommon and has a particular connection to the Imperial Family’s blood affinity. It belongs to only one family and their descendants.
I grit my teeth, doing everything possible to gain some kind of advantage. This is getting more complicated than necessary.
Several of those smoke bullets manage to break through my outer defenses and slam into my body. My light-blue armor absorbs as much of the damage as possible, but that doesn’t mean I come out unscathed. Several bones break, and multiple organs are torn apart.
My mouth tastes like metal from all the blood that has accumulated inside it. I’d rather take those enormous smoke bullets than be cut by the yellow spear.
I slow my movements slightly, keeping pace with the one-armed noble while focusing on minimizing the damage I take from the smoke bullets. For a moment, a realization flashes through my mind: I’m holding my ground against two Diamond ranks. I’ve never done anything like this before.
They aren’t the strongest opponents I’ve ever faced, not even close. Especially the noble; it’s obvious he used several external methods to reach Diamond rank. But at the end of the day, both of them are still Diamond ranks.
Their Jurisdictions prove it. The pressure of both pressing down on my body is extremely annoying. I have to stay alert and destroy their attempts before they can envelop me; otherwise, I’ll have to spend far more mana and Imra.
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Prito is thrown off balance as he narrowly avoids losing his other arm at the last second. I shift my body, and my right sword leaves a massive gash across his right leg. I want to take advantage of the moment to amputate another limb or kill him, but my position isn’t ideal because I still have to dodge all the smoke constructs.
The tip of a black sword forms over my foot. My leg is propelled forward at tremendous speed by my gravity mana, aiming directly at his stomach with the intention of piercing straight through his body. Several light and smoke constructs try to stop my kick, but I tear through all of them using more death and gravity mana.
My kick sends the noble flying toward the ground. The tip of the black sword didn’t penetrate completely; I only managed to drive part of it inside him. I can’t complain. It still caused tremendous damage. I saw a huge spray of blood burst from his mouth the moment he was sent crashing toward the ground.
A gigantic smoke bullet tears through my arm. I couldn’t avoid it. I grip my sword with what little strength remains and shoot toward the person responsible for the damage, pouring as much mana as possible into regenerating the enormous hole in my arm before I reach Xinu.
Dense smoke expands outward with Xinu at its center. The smoke is nearly invisible to the human eye and is even well concealed from my mana senses. Without my Personal World, I wouldn’t have noticed it.
This is dangerous. This ability is a headache. My Crushing Tempest reacts the instant I enter the area of his ability; I can feel the nearly transparent smoke attempting to wrap around my entire body.
This ability is clearly intended to immobilize me, as if I would ever let that happen. Gravity mana keeps the smoke mana far enough away that it can’t affect me.
Several constructs resembling drill bits appear around him, each one the size of an average human. I throw every form of restraint aside. I don’t have much time before the other noble recovers. I need to land a devastating blow or kill him right now.
I shoot toward the man like a bullet. Xinu’s eyes widen in surprise when he sees me only a few meters away. All the constructs rush toward me, while my own black swords and active abilities do everything possible to stop the smoke bullets and drills.
I can’t stop them all. One buries itself in my lung, and a drill tears apart my left leg. But I’ve achieved what I wanted. He’s almost completely exposed, and my swords are already aimed at his vital points.
I feel my left arm tear itself apart from the force behind my strike. Every one of Xinu’s defensive constructs suffers the same fate as my arm, and his right leg separates from his body.
My right arm isn’t as fortunate. My sword is deflected just enough to prevent me from cleanly severing his neck, only leaving an enormous gash stretching from his left shoulder to the right side of his waist.
I feel another smoke bullet bury itself in my stomach. I bite my lip and, with one fluid movement, try to drive my left sword into his neck. I sense familiar mana gathering around him. Although I try to interrupt it, I’m too late because it catches me by surprise.
That bastard teleports about eighty meters away from me. I turn toward him and see something different in his eyes.
Fear.
A smile forms on my face. I like the expression he’s making.
I sense the noble trying to get back on his feet. He drops to his knees and spits out another massive mouthful of blood. Prito knows he can’t allow his companion to die; otherwise, they’ll have no way of defeating me.
I waste no time and shoot toward Xinu like a rocket once again. Death mana is doing everything possible to destroy every remnant of his abilities, while life mana is already reconstructing my damaged body.
Xinu is also trying to use life mana to heal himself, but its effectiveness is below mine. That doesn’t surprise me much. Everyone has told me that I’m an extremely unusual example of how life mana can be used, and that very few people can heal themselves at the same speed I can.
His constructs have lost some of their substance because Xinu is focusing as much as possible on healing himself. Many have completely disappeared because of his injuries. I do my best to ignore the pain when one of them pierces through the same leg that was torn apart earlier with another enormous smoke bullet.
The pattern repeats almost perfectly. The smoke surrounding him tries to trap me, while his constructs become even more frantic than before as they attempt to stop and kill me at the same time.
Several small cuts appear across his body, and when he senses mortal danger, I feel the same sensation as before. Another attempt to escape using spatial mana. His ability doesn’t seem overwhelmingly powerful, although it is stronger than mine.
A small smile forms on my face. Although his ability seems far more powerful than mine and works in a different way, there’s one thing my ability does better.
The ease with which I can teleport within the range of my Personal World. I appear beside him, directly behind his back the moment he reappears. Apparently, that smoke ability also has some sensory properties because he immediately tries to turn around.
“Too late." I whisper. One of my swords severs his arm, while the other drives deep into his abdomen with tremendous force.
I leave another enormous slash across his back and throw him toward the noble before appearing between the two of them. I grab one by the throat. I pin the other beneath my foot, pressing down on his chest as I place my sword against his neck.