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788 - CRACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
🕑 Added 2024-11-20 10:07:11 +0000 UTCThe tense faceoff between Aron and the Trinarian fighter lasted only a moment before the AI referee’s calm voice broke the silence: {You have five minutes to complete your preparations.} The reminder echoed through the Colosseum, signaling the countdown to the battle’s commencement.
The Trinarian fighter finally broke the face-off, closing his eyes. The act puzzled many, sparking speculation about his intentions. Was he simply waiting out the five-minute preparation period in silence, or was he initiating something far more complex that required focus?
It didn’t take long for the answer to reveal itself. The arena began to distort subtly, with space itself cracking and healing rapidly at various points. The phenomenon repeated across multiple locations, each instance leaving no trace behind but clearly demonstrating an underlying attempt at work.
{He’s coordinate-mapping the Colosseum,} Nova explained immediately, recognizing the Trinarian fighter's actions with precision.
“It seems his ability isn’t entirely omnipotent,” Aron replied, his tone measured as he absorbed the information. “He needs to map new areas before using it effectively. That’s a limitation, a weakness—but only if I can exploit it.”
Amidst his response, he continued his mental and physical preparations, Aron’s mind sharpened, knowing the significance of this particular opponent. This was one of the rare fighters whose ability, depending on how it was wielded, could bypass his shields and deal direct damage—a dangerous prospect.
While Aron himself lacked the ability to manipulate space or time due to his runic knowledge being currently limited to beginner and intermediate levels until he had enough SP to upgrade to the next level, he had studied their theoretical applications extensively. Though he couldn’t use them yet, he had clear strategies in mind for how he might wield such powers once they were within his grasp.
Still, this wasn’t just about potential. The Trinarian race had likely spent more than a millennium living with and refining these abilities, developing techniques that might far surpass anything Aron could anticipate.
His shield, which had been active since the first fight, immediately began to shift as Aron modified the underlying shield rune. With precision and focus, he incorporated a flight rune and an anti-friction rune into the existing structure. Simultaneously, the gravity device embedded in his armor ramped up to its maximum operational capacity.
Nova seamlessly took control of coordinating these elements, ensuring the shield, runes, and gravity device worked in perfect harmony. Her oversight allowed Aron to focus entirely on the fight, confident that his defenses and mobility would respond fluidly to his commands.
{You may begin.} came the announcement from the AI referee, signaling the end of the preparation period. However, even before the final syllable of the sentence echoed across the Colosseum, the fight had already begun.
……………….
Aron’s finely attuned senses, enhanced by the mana permeating the atmosphere, now working seamlessly with his five natural senses immediately alerted him to a disturbance in the mana on his left side. Without a moment of hesitation or second-guessing the information, he acted.
With a sharp mental command, his shield-integrated flight runes roared to life, propelling him rapidly out of his current position.
Despite his swift reaction and the flight rune surging with mana to propel him to supersonic speeds instantly, the spatial attack proved nearly as fast as his own evasive maneuver. Just as Aron moved a few meters away, the cracking in the space finalized, forming a hole several meters in diameter. The opening revealed the other side as a void of pitch-black space—vast and haunting.
The brief moment of stark beauty was immediately overshadowed by the consequences. Air from the Colosseum’s atmosphere was forcefully drawn into the vacuum, creating a powerful suction effect. The surrounding pressure plummeted, and the roar of rushing wind filled the area. Aron's position became precarious as the vacuum tugged relentlessly, threatening to pull him through the portal. His armor's systems and shield runes strained to counter the sudden shift, the coordinated effort crucial to resisting the overwhelming force.
“I don’t have time for this,” Aron muttered, his voice steady despite the chaos. He immediately conjured a circular shield, which materialized around the spatial hole. The shield encapsulated the portal entirely, halting the suction of air and stabilizing the area around it. The deafening roar subsided as the atmosphere normalized, but Aron knew there was no time to savor the small victory.
Another spatial disturbance flared up, this time behind him. However, having learned from the first attack, Aron didn’t focus solely on evading. Instead, he moved swiftly while simultaneously creating another shield. With precise control, he sent the second shield to intercept and neutralize the forming portal before it could fully materialize and impede his path.
All of this was executed seamlessly, in under a second—an ability to adapt honed as a result of his fights against the AIs.
But things didn’t go as Aron had anticipated. When the second portal fully formed, instead of leading to the vacuum of space like the first, it opened to another part of the Colosseum. The other side revealed a chaotic, electrifying display as bolts of lightning surged through the opening. These weren't ordinary lightning bolts; their jagged arcs seemed to distort and tear at the very fabric of space they passed through, leaving faint trails of spatial instability in their wake.
CRACK!!!!!!!!!!!! The shield designed to contain the vacuum of space shattered instantly upon contact with the lightning. It was the first time in his life that his shield had been breached since he got access to Rune. No amount of mana, no matter how much had been funneled into the shield, could prevent it from cracking the instant the Spatial lightning made contact.
“Mh……” Aron groaned, the force of the shield cracking sending a sharp backlash through his body. The attempt to stop the lightning had failed, but he didn’t allow it to slow him down. He pushed through the pain, his focus locked on evasion. He knew that even the slightest touch from the lightning would leave him severely injured, and he couldn’t afford to let that happen.
It was the first time since the fights had begun that Aron found himself in such a disadvantageous position. Dodging now wasn’t a choice he was making on a whim anymore—it was now a necessity as the shield that had always been invulnerable to harm had now been breached, leaving him vulnerable in a way he hadn’t experienced before.
