Chapter 593 - 2v1

There are no words exchanged between us. Vic charges first, only for her body to explode into pieces the moment she gets closer. Each of these pieces grows into another person, and five Victorias charge Lissandra at once.

She kicks one of the Victorias away, the broken body passing by me through the air. Another two explode into piles of flesh. One of the remaining ones grabs Lissandra's arm, and the last one tears off its finger to throw it at Lissandra.

I use Wraith Dance to jump down and slash to Lissandra with Fracture.

Lissandra ducks under the blade, and a cascading mana attack seeps out of her hand. Victoria holding onto her arm bursts like a bubble.

I catch Victoria's finger midair, pulling it close to protect it as a burst of heat escapes from my partially unsealed heart. It scorches everything nearby, making the air flicker.

Out of the golden flames, Lissandra emerges undamaged with a pale blue barrier flickering across her skin. My kinetic energy’s hold on her is broken through a sheer burst of force, and a sword made of mana forms in her hand, which she slashes at me.

It meets with Fracture, which incredibly does not cut through it immediately. Up close, the two blades clash. While her sword remains firm and stable, Fracture keeps cracking, releasing bursts of black and gray smoke.

I send a disruptive wave at her, something that would easily overwhelm anyone from the Earth tutorial, but she remains unaffected. Instead, she pushes me back, using her mana to reinforce her body.

Circles of flame burst from the exhaustion node on my back, tearing through my hoodie. These flames surround me, swirl around, and attack Lissandra.

She steps forward, forcing me back, and the flames closing in on her are blown away by the pressure radiating from her.

The finger I have hidden within these flames behind her expands, and Victoria regrows from it only to be kicked by Lissandra who doesn't even turn around. Still, Victoria endures and grabs Lissandra's leg, twisting in an attempt to break it.

I seize the opportunity and boost my body to its limit, slashing at her with Fracture once more and finally shattering the sword she created.

For a moment, that familiar pale blue mana flickers across her palm as she deflects the blade by striking the flat side. Lissandra breaks free from Victoria's grip and kicks her again. Then she vanishes, reappearing atop another broken building.

I use the mark I left on her to send a tricolored orb through and then teleport behind her using the same mark. But the explosion I expected never happens. Lissandra stands completely untouched. With a viper-like motion, she reacts as if she saw it coming and grabs me by the neck. She raises her arm to block Fracture, only to realize with slight surprise that it's not there.

Victoria reaches us, holding the sword in both of her hands, which are already more damaged than mine, and slashes at Lissandra, who moves to dodge. I use that brief opportunity to create a nail made of black mana and stab it into her shoulder as she deflects Fracture Victoria holds.

I release a burst of kinetic energy at her, and she lets go of my neck to quickly draw a glowing inscription in the air that absorbs all of that kinetic energy and deflects it back at me, forcing me to absorb it as well.

Lissandra vanishes, even with the black mana nail stabbed into her, even with the pull of the black mana crown and the disruption I attempt. Her control is so precise that she ignores it all, and I focus on observing how she does it as closely as I can.

I grab Fracture as Victoria throws it to me. Meanwhile, Victoria bites off her tongue, spits it out, and regrows another duplicate, arms undamaged from holding Fracture.

Both of us jump over the buildings and follow Lissandra, who continues to put up distance by creating shields and shooting projectiles at us that, though weak looking, totally obliterate anything in their way.

We chase her across the rooftops as the first projectile hits behind us. The building it touches caves in without a sound sucked inward before collapsing in a slow, unnatural sink. Windows melt and flow like wax, then burst into steam.

Another shot cuts through the street below. The asphalt warps, buckles, then craters inward. Cars are flipped and crumpled like foil, their frames folding into each other before catching fire.

One glowing orange spark flies just past my face. The heat singes my cheek, leaves a glowing line across my hood, but I keep going. Behind me, it touches the building and explodes into a fiery vortex. Victoria ducks under another, her hair catching fire briefly before she snuffs it out.

One more strikes a parked car. It just folds the car inward until it's a perfect sphere, glowing faintly, then drops it through the cracked pavement like a stone into water.

All while Vic seems unkillable. She is quick, she is durable, and no matter how much she gets destroyed, a new version of her always pops up. It seems like these versions are becoming tougher against the attacks Lissandra uses, likely due to some sort of adaptive resistance passive or trait.

Meanwhile, Lissandra, even though limited, is far stronger than Ruby's avatar. Not because of levels, whether skill or stat levels, but because of her sheer experience and decisiveness she shows. She knows most of my skills and quickly adapts to Vic.

Even while holding back and fighting so simply, her style feels like that of someone who had to learn on their own, gathering abilities from different sources and relying entirely on personal understanding.

The fight slows down as she retreats back to the streets, giving us a few seconds to regroup.

Victoria joins me at my side, throwing down a few pieces of herself that grow into duplicates. They start walking in from the side and surround Lissandra, who lets it happen without even turning around to watch them. Fracture vibrates in my arm, breaking, cracking.

No cheesy one-liners are spoken, and I attack. Through the stretched Ley Line, I teleport, only to appear somewhere entirely different and high in the air.

I send a pulse of detection and fly in that direction, altering my course and heading straight for Lissandra, who is fighting against Victoria's duplicates.

I crash down like a meteor, with Fracture merely slicing past Lissandra as she twists her body. Immediately, I boost myself with black mana, both in body and mind. The barrier around Lissandra's body flickers as my black crown starts absorbing it, and Victoria moves faster than before and from behind grabs her in a chokehold and stabs one of her fingers into Lissandra's eyes.

My Mana Wavelength Iris observes Lissandra and the mana moving around her body, and she easily returns that gaze with her now single eye. Everything feels slowed down, and I move as if wading through mud, my body struggling to keep up with my perception.

Lissandra increases her speed to match mine. The fading mana around her skin flickers, and she deflects Fracture by striking the flat part of the blade with her hand and directing it into the ground. In one smooth movement, she throws Victoria off her, by breaking and twisting my sister´s arms.

I boost myself further. I recall the way Lioren moved, and even though I lack his grace, I try to mimic him for a moment, moving faster, raising Fracture, and stabbing it toward her.

To stop the blade, she slams her palms together, catching it between them. Fracture halts just a palm’s width from her chest. Even then, it releases bursts of gray and black smoke, tearing into her hands and leaving wounds across her chest. The same force hits me as well, and I’m forced to redirect my mana to avoid damage to my circuits.

Lissandra moves to twist the blade out of my hands, but Victoria's punch hits her blind side and sends her through the air, rolling across the asphalt and coming to a stop against the side of a bus. Victoria doesn't stop there, charges her, sending the bus rolling across the road as she hits it with her shoulder, but Lissandra is not there.

Feeling a movement behind me, I release a burst of mana in that direction, a huge amount that I have collected.

Lissandra, standing there, slashes her arm across the air, and that burst splits in half, passing by her sides and tearing the street and buildings behind her apart. She walks forward, her gaze locking with mine. Mana spirals across her body in a pattern far too complex to be random. My currently activated Mana Wavelength Iris catches it for a moment, then falters. Pain surges through me, and my grip on my mana breaks.

Even then I force myself to attempt to absorb the kinetic energy of her punch, but I fail and am sent flying back, crashing through the glass window of a small shop nearby.

I boost myself back up only to see Lissandra holding my black crown, which she must have grabbed as she kicked me away. She smiles and throws it far into the distance, only to be punched by Victoria, who appears nearby. The hit lands, but Victoria’s body instantly detonates under the force, torn apart into flying chunks of flesh and blood.

From one of the scattered pieces, another Victoria grows. She moves the same way, landing a second hit before disintegrating mid-strike. For a brief moment, she's as fast as Tacita and nearly as strong as Jean. The impact sends Lissandra crashing through buildings, and the shockwaves push debris and vehicles down the street.

Once again, from the pieces a new Victoria appears, charging at Lissandra with her shoulder and sending her into another building that collapses as well. The structure groans under the impact, walls cracking and supports giving way. Before it can fully collapse, it erupts in a violent explosion, launching debris in every direction.

Lissandra steps out, with pale mana flickering around her and remaining nearly undamaged.

Victoria charges again in the same reckless way, and I try to read her trajectory, predicting where her punch will send Lissandra. I move to intercept, ready to swing my sword as she comes flying toward me.

I move, positioning myself before Lissandra's punched body reaches me, but a spear of mana forms in her hand. She drives it into the road, slowing her momentum and causing me to miss. She then immediately moves and stabs my neck, chest, and leg before I break the weapon with Fracture and slash it across her legs, causing a wound there.

Thermal energy combusts beneath my skin, healing these wounds nearly immediately, and I throw Fracture aside, where Victoria grabs it.

I start channeling more kinetic energy through my body, using mana to strengthen it at the same time, all as much as I can with the entirety of my [Focus]. Thermal energy continues combusting inside me, sending waves of pain through my body but healing the damage I cause to myself. Using my rapidly healing body I let go of efficiency and worry and only focus on quickly channeling kinetic energy through myself to match up to my sister and Lissandra.

Victoria unleashes short bursts of strength and speed that tear her body apart with each movement. My own body holds together only because it's constantly burning itself to heal. Lissandra uses some form of overclocking, combined with incredible mana-based reinforcement.

What began as a clash of skills and tricks shifts into pure, brutal melee as we attack Lissandra together. She’s likely only as strong as one of us alone, yet somehow matches both of us combined.

Lissandra gets wounded and hit, yet without healing herself, she continues to fight with these wounds. Even with just the physical capabilities we possess, she matches us one-on-two, redirecting our attacks, positioning herself better, or exploiting our lack of experience in fighting as a pair.

We move at speeds that turn my side view into a blur, crashing through skyscrapers and reducing them to rubble. Every step sends cracks racing through the pavement, every missed strike shatters concrete and twists metal. Windows burst from the pressure alone, and the ground quakes beneath our feet.

An elbow strike from Victoria sends Lissandra flying through a high-rise, her body carving a jagged path through steel beams and office walls. She crashes out the other side, landing in the middle of a street already cratered from earlier impacts. I follow close behind, my landing punch splitting the asphalt like dry earth.

The force of my kinetic impact throws parked cars into the air. Streetlights are ripped from their foundations, traffic signs bend and melt under stray mana discharges.

A single deflected kick from Vic blows out an entire building's facade, raining glass and debris over several blocks.

And yet Lissandra remains unshaken. She meets Victoria’s raw power with ruthless timing, slipping past her charges with narrow sidesteps, punishing overextension. Against me, she reads the smallest shift in my stance and parries with perfect counter-movement, redirecting force instead of resisting it. Her body, though wounded, moves like it’s untouched.

Mana radiates off her like a pulse. Shields flicker and reform between blows. Spells shape and unshape in her hands in half a second. She sends Victoria crashing through an office building, then spins to block Fracture with a blade made of mana. The clash sends both of us skidding backward, tearing up the street in long, burning trails.

Fracture devours the air, cuts through the barriers Lissandra forms, and obliterates the mana weapons she creates. But she knows my plan. She locks eye with mine and changes direction so that we do not head toward where she has thrown my black crown, a move I had hoped to counter.

"Give me 2 seconds," I shout to Vic as I bury my feet into the broken asphalt and throw her Fracture.

I release a blast of kinetic energy and shoot to the side to avoid Lissandra, bulldozing through the building. She tries to head my way, but Victoria jumps in front of her, only to immediately fall back with her head exploding.

Lissandra tries to pass by, but that body moves and a hand grabs her, and a piece on the other side regrows for the duplicate to attack her as well.

In that brief movement, I reach the crown lodged deep in the side of the building, and it floats over my head, granting me access to an incredible amount of mana that it absorbed from me and stored inside.

Out of nowhere, Fracture comes flying and pierces through my leg, stabbing me against a nearby wall. Victoria's body crashes next to me, only for her to stand up immediately nearby to face Lissandra, who slowly walks out from between the buildings. She is missing one eye, her face is bruised, and there are wounds on her body caused by either me or Vic, and even a few caused by Fracture.

Still, against all logic, this Absolute does not heal herself. She doesn't even put much effort into dodging; instead, she drags herself down to our level. An Absolute, bruised and wounded by two mere Champion candidates, remains uncaring about her image or pride. In fact, she seems to be enjoying it.

"That's all?" she asks, and mana rises up around her.

Against my will, I let out a short snort and, grabbing Fracture, pull it out of my leg, redirecting more thermal energy to the wound and nearly entirely burning it, setting it on fire and regenerating it at the expense of great pain. Even then, the damage caused by this weapon remains, and I change the way I channel mana within my body to account for these wounds.

Ding, the notification rings. Something as useless as death now being possible.

I wave it off, then the second round starts.

***

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