Chapter 296: Clash

Atlas stared at her before speaking calmly, "You aren’t allowed to go inside of that." The woman who had retreated a short distance stared at the sudden appearance of the unknown man, her eyes narrowing as she tried to understand how he had appeared in front of her without her sensing his movement.

From looking at him only once, she could already tell that he wasn’t particularly strong, for a brief moment she remained silent as her gaze remained fixed on him, then she finally asked, "Who are you, Human?"

She could instantly sense the strength of others through the thermal heat radiating from their bodies, which seemed to be a natural trait of her race. Yet despite sensing that Atlas wasn’t particularly strong, she still couldn’t understand how he had managed to open the space in front of her without her detecting anything beforehand.

Atlas arched an eyebrow slightly when he heard her call him a Human, and a small thought immediately appeared in his mind, ’How does she know of the Human race? Hmm...’

For a brief moment, Atlas said nothing as he continued staring at her, trying to understand what kind of existence he was dealing with. After a moment, he finally spoke, "First, you answer my questions, where is this place?"

The woman immediately became speechless at his behavior, and although it was logical that neither of them wanted to reveal anything about themselves, Atlas didn’t seem interested in following that kind of courtesy. She remained silent for a moment before extending one hand.

A massive spear immediately materialized in her grasp, and the moment Atlas looked at it, his eyes widened slightly from the immense amount of energy it was releasing. The woman tightened her grip around the weapon before saying, "Let’s not talk anymore, It is time to kill you and see for myself what is inside that portal."

Atlas narrowed his eyes for a moment before extending his own hand, and the familiar Katana immediately materialized as Reiden took the form of the blade. He looked at her indifferently and replied, "Then I suppose that is what it is, I was going to kill you anyways, even if you gave me information."

Atlas didn’t seem particularly concerned about killing her, but another thought appeared in his mind as he observed the spear in her hand, ’If she doesn’t have something to counter my ability, then she would die effortlessly.’

He then remembered the Pill of Experience that Kael had given him, ’That pill Kael gave me will come in handy now. Still, I don’t know her abilities, and I wouldn’t want to reveal my cards before I see what hers are.’ If he used his Logic ability immediately, she might notice something unusual about the attack and could potentially have some hidden method capable of countering it.

Atlas couldn’t take that risk, so he decided to first understand what she was capable of.

With that, both of them moved without thinking about anything else, and their intentions were almost the same. They wanted to assess each other’s abilities before revealing everything they possessed.

Atlas still didn’t understand how someone from an unknown race had ended up inside a "Ruin," but that question could wait until later because he first needed to prevent her from entering the portal and then obtain the answers he wanted through his own ’ways’.

For now, the only thing that mattered was understanding the strength and abilities of the woman standing before him.

Both figures appeared as streaks of light as they moved toward the middle of the distance separating them. The tip of the woman’s spear struck the edge of Atlas’s Katana, and the moment the two weapons collided─

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

An enormous explosion erupted from the point of impact, spreading outward as though a dome of pure destructive energy had formed around them. Before the dome could fully expand, both figures had already disappeared from its range and struck each other again, creating another massive dome across the barren land.

BOOOOOOOM!!

Atlas’s Katana was already descending toward her neck when she smoothly swung her spear and stopped the blade. Atlas immediately shifted his entire body and descended toward the ground, landing seamlessly within a single moment before crouching and bringing his Katana down from above with all the strength he could muster.

Her instincts reacted immediately as her spear suddenly released that unknown energy, and she moved it into the path of the descending blade to stop the attack. However, just as Atlas’s Katana came within a centimeter of the spear, a grin appeared on his face as he thought, ’Mu-En.’

The moment that thought formed, the Flames of Nothingnesscoated his Katana for a brief moment. Before the woman could understand what had changed, her instincts immediately warned her of the danger, and for the first time since the battle began, she stopped holding back.

Her entire demeanor changed as she poured even more energy into the spear, making the concentration of power around it so dense that it seemed to form another invisible layer over the original weapon. But even that became meaningless when Atlas’s Katana touched the spear and completely cut through the concentrated energy as though it wasn’t there at all.

Her eyes widened in horror as her instincts screamed that allowing those flames to touch her would result in certain death. She immediately vanished from her position and appeared some distance away, staring at Atlas as he was already shifting his position again, almost as though he had expected her to retreat from the attack.

She narrowed her eyes while thinking, ’Those flames are—!’ Before she could finish the thought, Atlas’s figure appeared behind her at an angle toward her left side, his Katana already descending with considerable force.

"Those Flames are dangerous, is that what you’re thinking?!"

Atlas swung the Katana downward while maintaining his grin, and at the same time, he used the ability of Logic on himself to amplify his physical strength several times. He had figured that using it on himself would make it much harder for her to detect anything unusual, especially because the alteration was occurring within his own body.

Just moments earlier, he had also used Mu-Ho, which required Null to flow inside him, making the movement impossible for her to detect, ’Now then, reveal your ability or you are dead.’

The next moment, just as Reiden coated with the Flames of Nothingness came within an inch of her body, the woman raised her spear once again. This time, however, her eyes didn’t even move toward Atlas as she embedded the spear into the barren ground and immediately shifted her entire stance.

Atlas didn’t understand what she was trying to do as everything seemed to happen in slow motion, but then...he saw her fish tail suddenly swing toward him at an unnatural angle. Just as the tail reached his body, it transformed into a humanoid leg and slammed directly into Atlas’s stomach with unbelievable force.

"KHUG!"

Atlas’s entire figure bent forward from the impact as his body was launched hundreds of kilometers away. A massive shockwave spread from the point where he had been struck, tearing apart the barren land behind him and leaving a vast trail of destruction across the empty field.