Agent047
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690 - FAFO 6
🕑 Added 2024-08-10 04:46:30 +0000 UTCWhile the humanoid was waiting for Aron to sink deeper into despair, Rina was also facing her own set of challenges.
After leaving Aron, Rina had headed to the opposite side of the planet. Now, she hovered a few kilometers above the surface, receiving constant updates from Nova about the situation from the information being summarized by her, but gathered from every sensor on and outside the planet.
She was on high alert, prepared for anything. Her clothes had already transformed into armor, opting for defense instead of a weapon like Aron, as she didn’t possess his level of durability.
{You have an approaching guest,} Nova warned as soon as she detected a humanoid closing in on Rina's position.
Rina didn’t flinch as the humanoid approached, hostility evident in its movements. Her stillness wasn't born of arrogance or ignorance of what Aron was facing; it was rooted in confidence in the situation.
Seeing her lack of reaction, the humanoid dropped its hostility momentarily and said, “It seems you're already aware of what's happening to your husband and have decided to make things easier for us. A wise choice. For that, I’ll make it painless for you.” Without waiting for a response, the humanoid surged forward at high speed, its right hand expanding like a blooming flower as it aimed directly for her head.
Just meters away from Rina, the humanoid suddenly froze as a sharp *zzzzzt* filled the air. Before it could react, it was ensnared by mana ropes crackling with lightning, sending powerful shocks through its body and momentarily paralyzing its movements. That brief pause was all Rina needed.
A fire whip materialized from thin air, lashing around the humanoid and attempting to sear through its body. However, the humanoid’s form, crafted from a core root, displayed remarkable resilience. The flames licked at its flesh, but rapid regeneration allowed it to resist being consumed.
Yet, the relentless assault continued. Rina's attacks came from every direction, trying to overpower the humanoid's regenerative capabilities through sheer force. But despite the onslaught, the humanoid managed to hold on, its regenerative abilities keeping it intact against the barrage.
“Your attempts are quite futile, and I'm going to make you regret even thinking of it,” the humanoid snarled, though the anger in its voice was betrayed by the fact that it was still tightly bound by Rina's mana ropes.
Rina remained silent, unfazed by the threats. She knew the limits of her mana ropes—how much energy they could handle before breaking. But she could also tell that the humanoid was nearing the rope’s breaking point, its bravado merely a tactic to buy time.
The silence between them might have suggested that Rina was waiting for the humanoid’s next move, but she wasn’t one to make such a foolish mistake. Just as she was about to act, the humanoid shattered the mana ropes, lunging at her with deadly intent, planning to kill her and claim her body for reconstruction, just as they had done to Lee.
BAM!!! The sound echoed sharply as the humanoid’s punch was abruptly halted, coming to a stop mere meters from Rina. The force behind the attack was palpable, but something had stopped it cold, leaving the humanoid stunned and confused.
The humanoid looked around in surprise, perplexed by the invisible force stopping its punch. It couldn’t sense anything unusual in its surroundings, but it needed to confirm that its punch hadn't simply been halted by air molecules in the air due his fast punching speed.
BAM!!! BAM!!! BAM!!! BAM!!! BAM!!! BAM!!! BAM!!! BAM!!!
The humanoid continued throwing punches in different directions, only to encounter the same frustrating results. Each time, its fist either met an unseen barrier or, in some cases, passed through only to be blocked as it tried to move forward. The invisible walls surrounded it, confining its movements and leaving it bewildered by the unexpected resistance.
"Doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity," Rina finally spoke, her voice calm and collected as she addressed the humanoid for the first time since their confrontation began just seconds ago.
"What did you just do?" the humanoid demanded, its voice laced with anger. Although it didn't expect an answer, it couldn't help but replay the events in its mind, searching for clues.
The humanoid recalled that each of her attacks had appeared out of nowhere, with no visible magic circles or even the strange magic system used by the currently imprisoned little emperor. It began piecing things together.
"Stealth," the humanoid muttered, deducing that it was the most likely explanation for what had happened. "But there would need to be two different magic circles—one to hide the other from being seen or sensed. But I don’t think my senses are dull enough to miss something like that."
The humanoid's frustration grew as it continued to puzzle over how Rina had managed to conceal her attacks and movements so effectively, leaving it unsure of its next move.
Rina felt a deep sense of satisfaction as her years of hard work and rigorous training began to pay off. Her deep understanding of mana, combined with the extensive knowledge she had assimilated from Aron and countless hours spent in simulations, had allowed her to refine her magic system.
She had now mastered the ability to merge multiple magic cycle properties into a single cycle, activating them as one cycle.
Currently, she could combine up to five different cycles into one cycle and the humanoid was experiencing the result of this advanced technique.
The spell in question was an intricate amalgamation of five magic cycles: a shield cycle, a stealth cycle, an absorption cycle, an energy conversion cycle, and a mana cycle.
This complex combination together with the attacks that delayed the humanoid at the start had been prepared before the humanoid's arrival and rendered nearly invincible, thanks to thier stealth properties.
The shield cycle generated two layers of invisible shields. When one was struck, the absorption properties took in the impact, which was then transferred to the energy conversion properties before the shield reached its maximum tolerance and breaks, the absorbed force was then converted into mana, albeit with significant inefficiency.
This mana was then utilized by the mana cycle to maintain the magic's integrity, supplemented by ambient mana from the surroundings.
Her most notable achievement was the conversion mana cycle, a concept she had personally developed by studying Aron's runic conversion techniques. With the help of Aron's magic training partners and the ability to see things in deeper details within the universal simulations.
She had spent at least twenty years in VR to create this cycle and although still rudimentary and inefficient, it represented a significant leap forward in her magical capabilities.
Rina had hoped to further refine this cycle with the assistance of the tree folks, but their betrayal had complicated her plans.
