Chapter 559 - I don’t know how to do it any other way

I use the following 12 hours to get a handle on my abilities. Without the Mental Attunement Loop, the pressure I can put on my mind is severely limited, restricting my use of [Focus] and making it more difficult to maintain my Mana Cycling. Right away, I notice the mana I’m used to hiding begins to leak as I redirect my brainpower to different tasks, leaving less available.

The protection against mental attacks also drops immediately. There is also no longer a passive that absorbs blunt attacks on me and feeds my reservoir with mana. In fact, the reservoir is gone, reducing me to my body’s mana only.

As I handle everything, I think about her reason for it all.

When I limit my resources, I tend to be pushed harder. I fight more desperately and with more cold cruelty. In these situations, my mind becomes sharper, having no choice but to compensate for the lack of extra resources I sometimes lazily rely on.

From one point of view, I think I’m more dangerous when limitations are imposed and when I’m forced to use fewer resources more effectively.

That might be why.

So, as the hours tick by and I prepare, no one bothers me, and I don’t connect to the link they made. The plans were already discussed and are being carried out by people far better and more reasonable than I am.

Finally, the timer reaches zero, and the 12-hour clash begins.

I boost myself into the air and exit the area of our fort now that the barriers are gone. As I land on the water, I stand on the surface, mimicking the way of doing so that I already saw plenty of natives using. Each of my steps sends small ripples through the water, and the tops of the waves wash against my legs.

Disliking the feeling of wet shoes, I kick them off, pull down the socks, and continue barefoot.

When something plops into the water in front of me, I reach out and pick it up before it sinks and put it in my pocket.

Our fort empties as well, with everyone splitting into two groups. One is led by Gareth and Samuel supported by Sophie, Izzy, and Maya. The other is a smaller group with Lily, the twins, and likely Tacita, heading in the opposite direction. I have long noticed how much Tacita stays around us. The reason is simple: Lily.

Even though Tacita dislikes Lily’s attempts to befriend her so aggressively, she doesn’t attack her. And damn, she could. Instead, Tacita runs away.

I’ve seen her kill dozens of people during this tournament who got too close or tried to touch her. She doesn’t do that to Lily, likely because Lily saved her life after Tacita dueled Savant and nearly died, with her last breath crawling into her hideout.

I would call it a silly strategy to befriend that catlike assassin girl. I even mentioned it to Lily.

Back then, Lily just smiled at me and said, "I know how it looks. Grumpy used to be just like Tacita, and I did the same thing then as I’m doing now. Back then, I was young, and my father told me to give him space, and he would come then and open up to me slowly. But I didn’t. I did it my own way, and I think Grumpy appreciated the effort. Even though he kept hissing and scratching or biting me, gradually, he accepted it and started enjoying my presence. I got hurt a lot by him, but I think he liked that someone showed they wanted to be with him and that they showed so much effort."

She looked straight into my eyes. "I know many people would find me annoying. They’d call me childish, tell me to grow up, and say I bother others and do everything wrong. I tried to change, but I don’t know how to do it any other way. This is me. Stupid, annoying, naive, and, as you like to say, bulldozer-like me. Me, Lily."

And I asked, "As far as I can see, Tacita isn’t, in fact, a cat. It might not work on her."

Her smile changed with confidence shining through. "It will work."

I remember how those words gave me goosebumps back then, along with the way she looked at me. For a moment, you think you know people. Who they are and why they do what they do, and then they surprise you. Over and over again.

With that fascinating memory, I speed up into a sprint and head toward the fortress on the left while sliding deeper into [Focus]. To focus more, I filter out useless emotions and extraneous visual details like most colors and some sounds. I also suppress pain and smell.

A lot of information that my upgraded, far more powerful, and sensitive body usually collects is removed to free up brain capacity for the fight.

In a flash, I spring to the right, dodging a barrage of fire projectiles trailing me, each one piercing the air and heating it up. When they hit the water, they explode and sizzle, evaporating into mist. A few domains expand and collide, their clashes seemingly wasteful as they oppose each other, even though their main objective is simply to hit me.

I jump into the air, attracting even more projectiles. A water stream, an arrow, orbs, stone-like missiles, pure telekinesis. I boost myself again back toward the water. As I land, no ripple is sent through the surface when I perfectly absorb the impact. Whitey would be proud.

More kinetic energy flows through my body, and I use Wraith Dance repeatedly to avoid more powerful attacks, each one sending a shockwave behind me that propels my body further ahead.

Finally, near the fortress, I shoot [Empyrean Lance].

The spherical barrier, composed of hexagonal pieces, each a slightly different shade of blue, is pierced. The lance passes through it, striking several people in its path before crashing into the buildings. It pierces through them and exits the barrier on the other side.

This barrier is different from the one in our first clash. A damaged segment disappears, the surrounding segments weaken slightly, and a new one forms in its place.

Before that happens, my [Ley Line] passes through, and even though the barrier closes, I know I can still use it.

First, I send a tricolored orb through to let it form at the end of the line.

Noname (Beyond, King) → llllllllllllllll (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) → DoorOfStoneWhen (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) → Aidan(Normal) +5 pts

…

Then I teleport inside, appearing in the middle of the crater, surrounded by molten stones from an explosion and compressed material caused by a nearby implosion. Using Wraith Dance, I move to avoid the attack and actively defend my mind against a series of stun attacks crashing into me. There are attempts to seize control of my mana, but they cannot.

It is my mana.

Two men by the nearby wall fire ranged projectiles at me. To avoid wasting mana, I don’t defend against them, only dodging by tracking their trajectory.

Wraith Dance brings me to them.

They react too slowly, noticing me too late. One tries to flee while the other turns to attack, but with a strike from Needle Point, both vanish into fine blue particles.

Noname (Beyond, King) → NotGristletock (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) → Monsieur (Hard) +10 pts

Ley Lines stretch through the area, where some of the people, likely Beyond attendees, have sensed them. They attempt to tear the lines apart but to no avail. I detect the most impressive attempt and teleport through a closed [Ley Line], using Wraith Dance to cover the remaining distance.

I come upon a young woman surrounded by a barrier. Another man with a shield and sword stands beside her.

For a moment, I activate my eyes, adjust my frequency, and then pass through her barrier as if it wasn’t there.

The man jumps into my path, slashing his sword at me, but I duck under and throw him off with my movement. Absorbing my inertia, I shift in an unexpected way and reach the woman.

She is painfully slow but with a remarkably powerful mana signature, one of the strongest I’ve felt from an Earthling. Yet despite her mana talent, her body movement and instincts are lacking.

I don’t waste mana creating weapons; I simply slam my hand against her head, exploding it and turning her into blue particles.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Eliana Yankova (Beyond) +100 pts

Ducking under the sword, I teleport somewhere else, sensing too many signatures converging on my location.

A group of people appears, screaming as they turn to attack, and I teleport once more, leaving a tricolored orb behind.

Notifications ring.

A group of five rushes my way. I dodge the awkward attack of the first one and kick his chest, sending him crashing against the wall.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Woojoe (Normal) +5 pts

I grab another one's axe, breaking his hand in the process, and swing it against him.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Ellimist (Hard) +10 pts

The woman charging at me screams and tries to pierce me with her spear. I duck to the side, and as she staggers past, I strike the back of her head.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Kirin (Easy) +1 pts

The last two nearby try to synchronize and attack me at once, but I dodge both. Each vanishes after a short burst of kinetic energy.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Jtscuba (Normal) +5 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) → Monkeh (Hard) +10 pts

Spotting another Beyond attendee, I head his way before more of them rush me. There are hundreds of people around.

The Beyonder is a man standing atop the tower on the roof, the same one I sat on while watching the other fortresses. He stands alone, with two daggers in his hands: one radiating a blood-red light and the other black with a hint of purple, infused with void primordial energy.

My senses narrow, with kinetic awareness dominating. I sense the vibrations of his steps and the beating of his heart; I even feel the air reacting as his body moves. Then I duck and sidestep, avoiding two stabs aimed at me. A third strike comes unexpectedly from an invisible third arm, but I dodge it as well.

His void energy pulses in a disruption attempt, unlike anything I’ve sensed before, aimed at disturbing my mana and kinetic energy. It partially succeeds, making my energy more difficult to control.

He stabs at me again. Once at my head, once slashing my neck, and once toward my heart, and I continue to evade. He displays incredible speed; every movement is deadly.

But he cannot compare to Tacita.

Instead of dodging the next attack, I let his void dagger pierce my palm and grab his hand holding the dagger.

This disrupts my mana and kinetic energy, giving him an opening to move quickly and finish me off before I can counter. Then, I release the thermal energy I had been hiding. It passes through his hand and into his body, with golden flames melting through everything in their path.

He reacts quickly, attempting to escape as his effort shifts from disrupting me to saving himself. As he does so, I use kinetic energy to keep pace and release a stronger burst of thermal energy.

Just a tiny bit, I open the seal on my Ignition Heart, and he turns to ashes even though he tries to resist and escape.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Georgiadis (Beyond) +100 pts

I pull the Ley Lines back to me and hurl them out again to counter the traps they've already started setting.

Releasing kinetic energy through my bare feet, I stomp and break a hole through the roof to reappear in the throne room I jump into.

Immediately, an arrow made of compressed red and white lightning crashes against the tricolored barrier I form, breaking it and slicing my cheek, drawing blood.

Someone tries to enter through the hole I just made, but I shoot a mana projectile that pierces his head and kills him instantly. When another attempts the same, I repeat the action.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Kiara (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) → William Fairfax (Hard) +10 pts

Then, I turn back to my opponents.

"You are bleeding," says the 8th round’s [King] from the throne.

I follow his gaze to my palm, which was pierced by that assassin’s void dagger. Even now, it continues to bleed and heals more slowly than it should.

There are no healing marks on me this time; even my healing passive is deactivated.

For a short moment later, I watch a droplet of red blood flow down my palm, onto my finger and fingertip, before dropping onto the white marble floor.

"Just a flesh wound," I answer to Derick Kelley. His wife, Noelle, stands beside him with her bow drawn, its mana string stretched, and an arrow made of primordial lightning nocked.

Then I charge at both of them.

***

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