Chapter 340 - It's MY mana (Patreon)

At this point, most of the black mana is used to strengthen my body, something I can do the most reliably with the [Restriction] placed. Something I did against the Veil Guardian when I so dumbly challenged him for the 1st time.

With my eyes activated and black mana strengthening and pummeling my body, I jump from building to building, being prepared in the case Tacita attacks me.

Even then, Savant doesn't use the arcane glove on his hand and stands there, his own mana surrounding his body as he fights with aftereffects of Sophie's skill.

Two tricolored orbs shoot at him, one of them disappearing the moment it enters his reach, the other one redirected at Adam. The man in the suit repositions before the orb explodes, sending a shockwave and heat into the area. Purple mana flickers around Adam´s body as he does so.

Keeping an eye on Savant, I try to find out what happened to the second orb, but it's gone.

Where did it go? I can't sense anything.

Like a flash, Tacita appears near Savant, a dagger in her hand slashing down only for her to freeze on the spot as he squeezes his hand into a fist, using the arcane weapon.

Unbothered by that, Tacita's presence becomes even fainter, and she disappears from the spot where she stood. A big chunk of the building implodes into a small spot as Savant fully closes his gloved hand into a fist.

Purple mana shoots out from Adam, moving like water and crashing against Savant in huge waves. The air flickers under it, and the pressure of his weird skill grinds the building around Savant to dust.

Not even using the weapon, Savant does something, and even though the attack continues, it doesn't touch him at all. Then he moves his hand, and all the anchors I placed disappear. 

Tacita, who attacks him again, is thrown away into the empty city. Adam is sent crashing to the ground while surrounded by his purple mana.

With my mana around me like a brilliant flame, I endure it all, floating at the same spot in the air. Black mana flowing through my body, my eyes bleeding but reading the way he fights.

My domain expands even further, and Savant´s domain pushes against mine, a gentle orange light radiating from him.

Within my domain, my mana becomes easier to manipulate, and within his, mana radiation slowly ramps up, attempting to attack me.

I know that skill. It's hard to forget.

[Dawn]

The skill that Champion Tristan, controlled by mind mage Emperor, used to wipe out his world.

In my domain, dozens of mana projectiles form a constant barrage shooting at the man. Weaker ones disappear because of his domain, and the stronger ones disappear an arm's reach in front of him because of his other skill.

Tacita moves to attack him again, but Savant, while defending against me, sends a pulse of telekinesis from the glove.

The brown-haired woman tilts her body, taking damage and spinning around before lowering her posture to avoid another attack. Her body moves even quicker than before.

Before he can attack her, I push against him with my domain, [Redistribution] and [Resonance] at full power crash against his body, trying to stop his movement and disrupt his mana as I read its flow.

But all of it is pointless in attempting to match the arcane item.

His hand moves, and a big chunk of his mana with it.

The air reverberates, and I layer barriers in front of me when a huge area surrounding him explodes, all the buildings blown away as if by a powerful wind.

Another pulse sends all dust away, revealing Savant standing on an untouched building and around him, tonnes of debris float.

Tacita is there aready, her knife stabbed into his side and pointed at his heart, yet she is unable to stab deeper, her movement stopped in the same way as the debris at high cost to Savant´s mana.

He looks at her, the arcane weapon glowing. “How?” he asks almost curiously.

I bet if Tacita could move, she would just shrug.

Then he squeezes his fist and she disappears, turning into particles, unable to escape this time. Her dagger glows once more before that, damaging her target further and making him stagger and spit out some blood.

Immediately after, even wounded, Savant moves, lifting his hand with the glove in front of him. A javelin made of black mana stops an arms reach in front of him.

He tries to absorb it in a similar way he did to multiple attacks before, but it doesn't work. It did cost me a lot of focus and damage to my body to make that javelin in my current restricted state, so what will he do now?

With curiosity, I watch as he looks at the javelin and then at me.

Then a gray mana I know so well shoots from somewhere within him against the javelin.

When black mana and [Disintegration] meet, they clash for a short moment, and then [Disintegration] destroys part of the black mana javelin before the skill weakens enough for the remaining black mana to absorb it.

Seeing that, Savant tries to absorb what remains but is unsuccessful.

Having a good idea at this point what his skills are, I put my body and mana into overdrive. My attacks hit against him again, a barrage of thermal, kinetic energy, or pure mana constantly hitting him and destroying the building he stands on.

Adding to the mix, orbs filled with disrupting mana pop near him, pressuring him to keep up his domain and waste his mana.

Adam and his waves-like purple mana shoot into the area, crashing over it and pressuring Savant even more. And the entire time, I keep collecting mana inside my body.

This isn't all, I know.

Savant uses another chunk of his mana, and the glove on his hand glows, exploding more buildings and throwing the debris at Adam. The circle behind his back changes, and the purple mana surrounds him, defending against that all. Adam seems to be confident and he still has big reserves, so he will last longer than Savant, I’m sure of that.

That's when a small black orb shot by me crashes against his purple barrier, touching it and immediately starting to absorb it.

Unable to stop it his defenses are sucked away, the barrier crumples, and the debris compresses on him.

Another orb explodes inside of his barrier.

Noname (Hell, 4th) ⟶ Adam (Hell, 5th)

2 / 2357

The rooftop explodes under my feet as I use my strengthened body and a push of kinetic energy to fly in a circle, rows of buildings crashing behind me caused by the arcane weapon Savant wields.

When he stops his attack, I examine my body.

Oh, that's not good at all. But it could be worse, I guess.

Looking at it, the system will consider me dead in ten to thirty seconds, maybe?

“Not enough mana for the glove?” I call to Savant.

“It's more fitting for obstinate people like you. It uses quite a bit.” He moves some hair off his face, and his domain skill shrinks even more.

He is not capable of resisting my [Mana Domain] that is infused with [Resonance] and powered by a steady stream of mana from my Mana Reservoir.

Another of my compressed javelins crashes against him, only to disappear to god knows where. A skill similar to the one the last king of the 3rd Floor had.

Increasing pressure with my domain, I place anchors closer to him to distract him and charge ahead, squeezing the axe and the sword in my hands.

When I teleport, he moves his hand and activates glove once more, all three of my anchors are damaged by telekinesis.

But I don't use any of them and just reappear on the same spot.

When he lifts his arm towards me, I'm already in front of him, and telekinesis crashes against the weapons I cross in front of myself, a few of my projectiles shooting at him.

As the epic weapons crumple and crack, I let go and teleport to one of the projectiles I had tied an anchor to.

Losing control over black mana, I force it out of my body into the shape of a black dagger, and my vision blurs out as my eyes finally deactivate, unable to keep them up.

Sounds come rushing in as my mind loses hold over [Focus], and with a last stumble, I stab the dagger into his forearm that has the glove on.

His absorption skill activates, trying to get rid of the black mana or send his mana to the glove, but the black dagger absorbs it all and starts sucking in more.

Decisively, mana shapes on the palm of his other hand, and he cuts off his arm at the elbow. An orange light shines around him, and he is blown away instead of getting killed by the kinetic energy I was able to collect.

Further away, he stops, blood dripping from his arm.

Looking at him, I reach down and take the glove off his cut-off arm and put it on my hand. The moment I do so, I feel something eating at my hand, and I quickly identify the skill.

On purpose, I destabilize kinetic energy inside of my body, blowing off my hand with the glove on.

I watch as [Disintegration] eats up my hand inside of the glove, and I laugh shortly. “Well, that was kind of stupid of me. But I really wanted to try that glove.”

When I turn to him, he still stands there wordlessly, his [Dawn] defending him against my attempts. His eyes calm and sharp, calculating. He observes every movement of mine, and that annoying skill of his flickers in the air, ready to fight against me.

I glance at the black dagger that already turned into a black orb, floating there, trying to absorb any mana that comes close, eating at both of our domains.

I don't think I can play it safely and try to pressure him from a distance until he is out of mana. He will probably be able to last that long.

Ten seconds at most remain, and my body will crumble. I would die, but the system won't let me; instead, it will send me away. So, let's be stupid and check how far the 4th-floor me could be pushed before dying.

All my mana I was releasing up until now gets pulled towards me like into a vortex, and [Focus] activates once more, forcing my trait to activate as well.

One of my eyes loses its sight, and the other one is blurry, and I feel more wounds on my body. Then I reach to all my remaining mana, all around me and in the domain, to pull it…

I stop.

“You poisoned my mana.”

“So you have noticed. However, it doesn't matter, you are done anyway. You won't be able to control your mana anymore.”

Me? Done?

Because you decided that?

It's MY mana.

***

POV Tess Hansen

As always, when pushed to the corner, Nathaniel becomes the most dangerous. At the point where there is only a sliver of his life remaining, he throws all the failsafes away and becomes like a dangerous animal.

He was always like this. Even when he got ganged up on by a group of boys who called him the brother of a murderer, he fought back. And then, when they pushed him to the point of losing, pummeled, and bleeding, he started biting, scratching and fighting dirty.

Just a few fights like that were enough. Even if he lost, the boys just became too scared, and considered it not worth attempting anymore. That, and the fact that Nat hunted them when they were alone, beating them to the point where they were always moving in groups.

Even now, he has the same expression as we watch him on a giant screen in the common area. The screen that allows people who left the Survival Domain to watch what's happening inside.

Nathaniel says, “You have poisoned my mana,” and Savant answers.

Even knowing that, the poisoned mana he mentioned, his mana, continues to rush back inside his body, his other eye losing sight in it, and wounds appearing all over.

When he charges this time, the leg he uses to leap breaks in a dozen spots, turning into a floppy piece of broken bones inside of skin.

He moves quicker than even Tacita did, in the process destroying his body.

Yet, somehow, he still is capable enough to use the black mana of his to do that without it immediately killing him. 

We can't die during the tournament, but being able to push yourself to the point where you know you will die requires a special kind of mind.

When he crashes against Savant, the man, surprised, has time only to tilt his body and avoid most of the attack.

Both of them roll on the ground, and in Nat's arm, a nail made of black mana forms; he stabs it into Savant's arm the man uses to cover his eye.

The nail absorbs Savant's attempt to push Nathaniel away, and Nathaniel smashes his head down, breaking Savant's nose, and the blood spills.

Savant dodges another attack, his arm still somehow coated in pale blue mana; he stabs into Nathaniel's side.

In exchange, Nathaniel stabs the exposed jagged bone that's left of his exploded hand and forearm into Savant's neck. He has a cold expression on his face as he does so.

The entire time their domains clash, Nathaniel's easily overpowering Savant's, as his mana radiates from his body, forcing the other man to shrink his domain more and more until it’s barely covering his body. The parts outside of it are destroyed immediately.

Heat, vibrations, and mana itself move around, trying to tear Savant apart, only stopped by the gentle orange light surrounding him. But it's clear he won't last much longer.

Unfortunately, neither will Nathaniel.

Savant observes him calmly, and when Nathaniel attacks him, he blocks the hit and stabs Nathaniel again.

Ignoring that precise mortal wound another black nail forms in Nathaniel's hand, and with a swing, he stabs it down towards Savant's eyes.

In the middle of that movement, his body turns into shiny particles, and he disappears.

Silence fills the common area, no one says anything, everyone is staring at the screen.

While holding his palm on his strongly bleeding neck, Savant stands up and looks at the spot from where Nat disappeared. For a short moment, he stares there, the meaning of that look hard to decipher.

The winner of the first event has been decided.

The air next to our group wavers, and Nat appears here, outside of the Survival Domain. He is fully healed, his clothes fixed as well, and his mana is back to the levels before the event started.

Nathaniel blinks a few times, looking around with wild eyes, ready to attack. Mana radiates off him in waves that wash over the common area, causing some people from lower difficulties to throw up and others to faint.

I watch him, curious what expression he will put on, but his expression just returns to his usual neutral face and his mana disappears as if it never existed, barely able to be felt from him.

“I will get the fucker during the duels,” he declares simply.

Even with his hard-to-read face, I can tell how dissatisfied he is.

Then he turns around, passing by the groups of people and heading towards our house. Dozens of people rush away from his path, some looking at him like he is a demon.

***

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