Chapter 897 - Say it

Nyssa shoots forth from within the flames, each heartbeat sending out another pulse of kinetic energy that pushes them away from her. Almost lazily, she deflects the [Empyrean Lance] I throw her way, and a swing of her sword cuts through the explosion I trigger from that lance.

As she lands on the metal bridge next to me, it rings out in a clean, high tone, and each of her steps, trailed by pulses of her kinetic energy, makes it ring again and again.

When I start walking, it rings under me too, though body reinforcement with black mana and my kinetic energy create two different tones that weave together.

The albino demon avoids my stream of golden flames, and as it sweeps around, it further lights up the cavern already illuminated by the lava lake. Even as the flame moves across the walls, it fails to heat them completely, and instead, it deflects off fractals to bounce and shoot through the cavern.

I boost myself back, and Nyssa only increases her speed, dodging and deflecting my attacks, even the ones shooting at her from behind her back or bending to attack her again after missing.

Multiple orbs explode all around her, kinetic, mana, thermal, and mixed varieties. Some hit with raw power, others with more exotic properties mimicking the attacks I have witnessed other people using. Each packs enough force to erase a city block, but none can stop her.

She pushes through, cuts an orb in half to make it miss, or blows it away with an output of kinetic energy.

That output continues to become even more ridiculous as she lets it run wild while binding herself together. At this point, I wonder how high of a level she usually fights at when she’s not using binding energy. Half of her potential? A third?

How ridiculous.

But even then, I won’t let myself be pushed back too much. Though I cannot generate as much kinetic energy as she can, nor can I perfectly handle the thermal energy bestowed on me by my heart, I can still handle my absurd quantities of mana. My minds have been working in overdrive since the start of the fight, redistributing and channeling, handling my eyes, cycling, and managing it all.

A few of my orbs shoot toward the lava lake, exploding beneath the surface while I keep my distance, weaving threads of mana in Nyssa's path to slow her down while bombarding her with ranged attacks to tire her out.

When her face twists in the faintest hint of anger as I avoid direct contact, I laugh out loud.

I’ve already modified my marks and woven a [Weave] around us that she, because of her specialization in primordial energies, can’t seem to sense very well. Also, unlike Morwag or Lioren, her use of binding and kinetic energy seems much more limited, though it packs a far more powerful kick.

And I’m limited too because of my specialisation. I cannot simply suppress, take, or disrupt her mana, as she mostly uses primordial energies.

When it comes to dueling, she’s far better. So much better than anyone I’ve ever met. Her [Weapon], her incredible perception that allows her to sense attacks, her ability to parry or deflect. And her sword... I have nothing that can stop it.

So I try to be as annoying as possible. I continue to switch up my methods of attack in an effort to confuse her. I use a multitude of different strikes and keep observing her, letting my subminds develop new methods to face her.

The longer we fight, the more accustomed I become to her abilities, but unfortunately, the same goes for her. The longer we fight, the more she grows used to her own abilities as well. The way she handles her gargantuan output continues to rapidly improve, her strikes around me come closer, and she grows better at using only the exact amount of power needed.

Slowly, this battle turns into a fight of endurance. Who can keep this up for longer?

During all of this, the surface of the lava lake below us ripples, and the huge monster, awoken by my explosions, pierces through.

[Scarlet Drake - lvl ????]

My skills hit its body, but its scales ripple and physically move like waves on the surface of a lake, and when they’re smooth again, my attacks haven’t left a single scratch. The drake roars and begins to move swiftly, stabbing its claws into the cavern walls and pulling itself out.

I can sense the incredible heat gathering and shift to the side as it shoots flame from its mouth and tracks me.

While I’m avoiding that, Nyssa exploits the opportunity and jumps into my path. The smile on my face disappears only to reappear on hers. She kicks at my crossed arms, I barely absorb the impact, yet my bones break, and I find myself being flung back.

Nyssa then reaches into the flames heading her way, grabbing them out of the air and pulling back as she shapes them into a flaming sword in the form of a Flamberge. The drake does not seem impressed. It roars, its red eyes lighting up and then flashing as an invisible attack shoots at Nyssa.

She cuts through it and deflects a portion toward me, causing it to hit my leg.

I watch as it begins to turn to stone at an incredible pace, and without hesitation, I cut my leg off, watching it fall and crumble into sand. No matter how much thermal energy I send through my body, that part of my leg refuses to regenerate.

Avoiding another burst of flame from the drake, I create a leg out of mana and entirely cover myself in Regalia, just in time, as the drake's eyes flash again.

I’m not as fast as Nyssa, and the attack hits me, but instead of my body, it begins to turn the mana of my Regalia to stone.

I escape from it before recreating it anew. Once again, I [Focus] and snap all my mana black, with Regalia taking on that same color.

During that time, the drake that was already clashing with Nyssa suddenly twists its head, turning toward me. With eyes wide open, it stares for a moment and sniffs with that gaze, then turns into one of pure hate.

That invisible attack flashes omnidirectionally this time, but Nyssa cuts through it, landing on the drake's neck.

The drake ignores her entirely, its scales rippling once again as it triples in size. The surface of the lava lake, calm until now, churns violently as the whole of it rises into spinning tornadoes, hurling droplets of molten rock all over the place, and laser-like streams of flames shoot forth, reflecting off the fractals of the walls of the cavern and bouncing all over the place.

Increasing its speed, the drake jumps from the wall onto the bridge and, like an unstoppable train the size of a building, rushes at me while Nyssa stabs her Flamberge into its neck. Her sword breaks through some of the scales and burns the monster's flesh, but that is all.

Several times over, the monster’s eyes flash, and that invisible attack slams against my black armor, failing to turn it to stone this time, but sending heavy ripples through it nonetheless.

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My armor continues to strengthen as it feeds on the rich ambient mana, and I form holes across its back to let my exhaust nodes vent the scorching thermal energy generated by my heart. I stretch the armor, making it grow in size as I use kinetic energy to power my movements and the thermal blast from my back to propel myself forward, slamming headfirst into the drake.

The sheer power of the impact shakes me to the bone, and I almost fall off the bridge as the drake continues to push and bite at me, carving deep wounds into my armor.

My output surges, and the flames from the back of the armor emit a high-pitched whine as I prevent myself from sliding off the edge and drive back against it. I pull my back arm and punch the drake while the same high-pitched flames erupt from my elbow to increase the force, making the monster stagger in turn. Then, in another burst, I propel myself forward to strike it once more, only for the beast to snap its jaws down and bite straight into my hand.

It thrashes violently, trying to tear my limb off, but then Nyssa lands right over its eye, plunging her flame sword straight into the socket while releasing all of its stored energy. The eye explodes into a burst of gore and fire, and the drake roars out, releasing my hand.

I boost my mecha armor forward, grabbing the monster around the neck, shoving my hands into its maw to force its jaws wide open.

The invisible attack flashes multiple times in rapid succession as the lava tornadoes grind closer, superheating the air around us and slamming into our surroundings with flames bouncing all over.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly exhale.

In my mind, I recalculate the steps, find the arrays, modify them on the fly, and, relying on my mind to keep up with the load, trigger them all at once.

I draw in the heat from the lava tornadoes.

I fight against the black armor threatening to take over.

I pump more power into the armor and continue to pull the drake's mouth even wider.

I then step out of the black armor, leaving one of my subminds to take control while a bus-length [Empyrean Lance] manifests over the palm of my hand, ready to be blasted straight down the drake's throat.

Then I remember something.

I can’t level up yet.

My eyes snap to Nyssa, and I give her an apologetic smile.

She crosses her arms in front of her face just as I redirect the lance and fire it at her, blasting her straight through the cavern wall and out into the open air.

Redirecting every bit of force I can gather, my black mana mecha uses all its power to punch the drake, infusing the attack with a kinetic pulse, one of Lioren's favourites, that rattles the monster from the inside out.

The drake briefly loses consciousness, its heavy body sliding back and beginning to tip off the edge of the bridge. But it regains itself quickly, scrambling as its massive claws dig deep gouges into the metal, trying to pull itself back up.

My mana armor moves and steps onto its head, sending the beast falling off the ledge and into the lava lake below.

The armor shrinks, shattering into particles which I quickly force into the shape of a black halo spinning above my head. The exhaust nodes on my back ignite, and the raw thermal energy propels me between the roaring lava tornadoes and out of the cavern through the hole left by Nyssa and my lance. Behind me, I trigger a string of explosions to bury the cavern.

Just as I break out into the open sky, I detect a rapidly approaching presence and jerk to the side, barely dodging Nyssa as she flies past me in the style of a kinetic rocket strapped to her back.

I increase my kinetic output as well and redirect the thermal output of my exhaust nodes to fly away as fast as I can while she relentlessly follows behind me.

As I dive toward the ground, I remanifest my vessel out of my halo just as Nyssa starts to close the distance. She crashes against the black vessel being piloted by one of my subminds, and I absorb my inertia and the associated G-forces as I turn to a blur and explode toward Nyssa just as she escapes my vessel's grip.

The lance that pushed her out of the cavern and which she deflected somewhere comes back at the same time with the speed of a falling meteor, slamming against both of us as I grab both of her hands to keep her there.

As the enormous lance, moving at hypersonic speed, crashes against me, it breaks into pieces against my layered defense, which I’ve specially modified against it. One of my eyes pops under the effort, and I am pushed to my knees under the strain of all that has already happened.

The binding energy around Nyssa entirely disappears, pulled closer toward her as she concentrates it on her skin. Her blood boils in her veins, and the heartbeats of her kinetic energy create a barrier around her.

I watch as the [Empyrean Lance] breaks through. It slams against her shoulder, it tears the skin, wounding her there. And I also watch in my thought acceleration as her glowing red pupils move faster than her body does, trying even now to keep an eye on me.

As the lance between us explodes, I don't even notice how she escapes my grip until I see my broken hands. Nyssa then slaps her hands together, compressing and then deflecting the entirety of the explosion off to her side where it cleaves into the landscape like the strike of an enormous axe.

A boost of kinetic energy pushes me back onto my feet. I absorb the kinetic energy of her attack and punch back, once again breaking my hands against her defenses. My black vessel stands forgotten as all my effort goes into mana reinforcement and kinetic strengthening. My mind maintains its thought acceleration as the two of us face each other, exchanging and avoiding punches in turn.

In the end, of course, it's not a good idea for me to go melee against someone like her. It's just a straight-up dumb, stupid decision.

Yet, I still do it.

Even as I stagger back with a hole through my neck, I don't regret it after seeing the bruises and wounds I’ve left on her body.

I activate the self-destruct in my vessel and teleport away despite her effort to bind me to the space.

Once again, I reappear as a skeleton with only my hearts, one eye, and my brain. My body begins to regenerate as my black vessel far in the distance explodes with enough force to erase a city.

That should do some-

[Perception - lvl 79 > Perception - lvl 80]

Nyssa uses her binding to bind herself to the remains of my teleport and follows through. I can feel the force of her Primordial Blood as she forces her way toward me, and I shoot an attack toward where she eventually steps out.

Even so, she acts fast enough to deflect it just as the rift closes behind her. The closing portal cuts off the surge of mana radiation from my black vessel, whose explosion lights up the horizon.

I'm still not fully regenerated, with muscles and skin only just beginning to cover my skeleton, so I use kinetic energy to push and pull on my body.

But Nyssa reaches me in a boost of kinetic energy and stabs her hand through my chest, wrapping it around my Mana Heart.

That's when I stop everything I was doing. The lance that was forming in front of me disappears. The vessel I was manifesting stops, and I disperse all defensive layers on my body as well as my preparations to teleport.

My mind that was so busy until now shuts down, and I stand still.

“Say it,” Nyssa speaks for the first time as her hand squeezes my heart tighter.

But looking at her, I have no problem saying it.

“Today, I've lost.”

“Today?”

“Yes, today,” I emphasize, fully aware that I mean it.

In front of someone else, I might have lied and said whatever I thought they wanted to hear, but not in front of her.

There’s not a speck of doubt in my mind as I say these arrogant words, and I would rather watch her destroy my Mana Heart and die trying to bite through her neck than take them back.

“Very good,” she says with a smile, letting go of my heart and pulling her hand out. She then even stands on her tiptoes as she reaches up and taps my cheek gently with her bloodied hand.

“Will you eat with me, NatNat?” she asks and begins to look around as if searching for something before looking back at me and waiting for the answer.

“Gladly.”