The pleasant surprise looked at me as that mysterious smoke started to cover his body. As it did so, the Mana made him disappear from my sight, as did the mana leave my senses. It was a new form of using mana that I had never seen or heard of. This world was vastly fascinating in different forms of mana.
The man charged at me while I was looking him over, trying not to let me think. He was a close-ranged combatant. I jumped back as the man moved towards me. My leather whip licked out towards the man. The mana parted, revealing the man behind it as the whip neared his face. The Man's face was scarred with significant marks. Some of those marks were gouges; some were long knife scars. An arm intercepted equally scarred intercepted the whip, letting the leather lightly bite into his arm.
A fresh mark appeared on his arm, and I used energy to stop the man from grabbing the whip to disarm me. The leather whip dodged the man's hand as he tried to grab it. I retracted the whip, and it started to wrap up as I guided the energy while my feet touched the ground to leap again.
The man continued with the reckless charge towards me. My whip lashed out to greet him again, trying to slow down that charge as he neared me. The bladed whip reached him, and it licked into his skin with conflicting mana at the clash as he tried to swat the bladed whip away from him. The blade of my whip cut deeper anyways, but the source of his mana seemed to have repelled the whip away after a second longer, sending it away from him and off to the side. The whip slashed the wall as I retrieved it back.
The man never stopped moving forward while I regained control of the whip, though, and his smoky fist filled my vision. My body leaned back, dodging his fist by a hair, and I followed the motion while my wrist flicked out, sending the leather whip up into where I believed his face was. The smoke started to part, and I saw the fist already charging to where my stomach was.
My feet moved as I did a backflip, sending my foot towards where his face was charged with energy. So much was happening at the same time I heard the floor break as my whip licked into something above me. My foot hit something hard while my world was upside down and my feet were in the air. It tried to knock it away, sending my backflip almost into a barrel roll. The pain went up to my shin, but my world was soon upright again as my body twisted itself, and I was on my feet jumping away as the man smoke filled the holes and the man charged towards me.
My instincts screamed at me a second later while I was in the air, and my bladed whip lashed out not at the smoke but the rafters of the warehouse. My whip gave me the leverage needed, and I twisted in the air as a fist from behind came out, making me yelp missing me only by a couple of inches.
Something allowed that man to move instantly or something else. Maybe an illusionist, but the pain I felt was real, and I didn't understand how he could move that fast. My feet, though, were free, and his fist had missed, and my claws extended from my feet as I swiped, fueled with the energy of my body. The claws bit into the skin, and the first real damage of the engagement was done as I heard the man roar under me. His arm was gashed as I then used his arm to leap using the bladed whip to move away from the man as the smoke moved quickly towards the man I finally got a good look at.
He was ugly, scarred all over with cuts, gouges lashes from many battles. This man was experienced and reached B rank through the blood of his enemies. Noises from outside made known to the two of us a battle was taking place, and the smoke covered the man again as I landed eloquently on the ground about twenty feet away from the man.
The smoke covered him again, and his mana was covered, as was his body. That smoke was dangerous, and I could already think of many ways that he could lead me into death with it. My heart hitched in speed, and a smile grew on my face as the man charged towards me again. My whips lashed out, and the smoke parted before them. The leather whip made it there a second before the bladed whip did, and the smoke parted before the energy.
The man dodged the leather whip, and the man's fist with that smoke then met the whip. Energy clashed, and the whip moved first, lashing back hitting the floor near me as the man continued towards me. I dodged to the side and twisted my body, letting the whip move in a large loop around me. The Man's foot then lashed towards me in that smoke as the whip lashed around towards me.
That leg smashed into my side, sending me away, and the whip loudly snapped as I flew towards the wall. I growled through a smile and realized my weapons were not suited to fight this man. The whips would only lick on the skin. The bladed whip would only cut the flesh lightly. The Sadist's whip would have done something with all those enchantments.
My hands let go of my weapons. I needed a new weapon for this persona, and the whips were inadequate for this level of combat. Although, in the memories I took as my own, whips were incredibly useful to people even stronger than me. So strong they were that I couldn't understand how they did what they did. Right now, though, wasn't the time to change how I fought with my primary weapon.
It was time to fight in his comfort zone and use my superior flexibility to make him understand there was a counter to the dominating strong fighting style he used. I was wary of his experience, but my whips were nod doing the job as of this moment.
We stared for only a moment as I dropped to all fours, ready for combat as the man charged at me. Instead of running to keep my distance, the man came at me with the smoke covering himself. I brought my mana to every part of myself as we neared, and my speed increased as I lunged low for his legs.
The man in the smoke reacted with the smoke kicking out the energy showing a leg coming towards me. I smiled and instead grabbed that leg, letting him fling me in the air as my legs swing and my muscles moved my body towards him, going against the momentum. The man growled as the smoke cleared wherever my energy was.
My claws dragged deep into him, and I heard him growl as that smoke cleared, showing the fist as I wrapped my body around his leg. His balance was amazing as I twisted my body under him, using my flexibility to crawl along his body. My claws penetrated his flesh, and the man understood what I was doing and tried to grab me as I moved under his legs.
At this moment, he was trying to get me off of him and jumped towards the wall while trying to grab me. I made a snap decision and crawled down to his left leg, letting my legs fly out into the air using my arms to strap myself to him as he smashed out of the warehouse into the open with broken would and splinters flying out. His arms missed with my movement, and I brought my legs back in, with agility being my survival. If I got caught, I was dead, and the smoke stayed in his upper body as I felt it move to his powerful lower limbs. My body moved to wrap my legs around his hips, leaving his legs as I twisted my body back up, my hands grabbing his shoulders as I heard something else break after his legs smashed into it.
My claws dug in and racked with my mini scythes tearing out muscle as it moved. The man jumped into the air, and my claws sank deeper as the man seemed to want to drop me on the pavement; my legs unwrapped from his hips just as I felt fingers lightly brush my toes. My body moved feet in the air as the man's back collided with the ground without me to cushion the fall. A grunt left my mouth as I landed on the breasts first against the dirt. I started to bring myself back up, swinging my legs up in the air, using energy to move faster.
The man's arm swung to hit me right after as I swung myself up, hitting me in the center of mass, sending me off of him and back into the warehouse. The pain swept through my body as I collided and rolled through leftover boxes and debris. I felt splinters of wood break trying to pierce my body, and I rolled through the debris. I was on my feet a split second later, trying to regain my footing and seeing a smoked mass run towards me.
My instincts screamed at me, and I smiled. I turned lept and twisted, jumping in the spot my foot's claws lashed out, and a scream erupted as the man had appeared behind me—my claws raking through one eye taking out part of his vision.
His hands grabbed towards where I just clawed, and I used my advantage. I leaped forward, pushing him off balance as his hand lashed out blindly. My instinct helped me dodge the fist by a hair, and my claws found his throat. I ripped at it with both hands. I mounted him, swiping back and forth and the scream of the man ended as I cut into his throat. I felt mana move under me, and I squeaked in surprise.
"Your fucking Crazy!" I cried out in that same surprise and lept off the man, increasing my distance as much as I could. The Smoke joined with the man again, and the smoke cloud increased. I didn't need to know what was happening under the mana anymore as I felt whatever type of energy the man used bubble forth even with the smoke concealing and increasing in volume.
It had been just a few seconds, and I was already outside the warehouse when The smoke erupted. Blinding and clouding the area we had just fought. The warehouse started to move then. Things started to shake, and debris started to splinter from the building towards the dying man as in his final seconds, he cast some type of death spell with everything he had, acting as the catalyst that acted like a black hole. Things started to get sucked in the merchandise, and spoils started to disappear as the Mana in the area continued to be sucked in. I heard cries out as the smoke increased in range and anything inside of it disappeared as it traveled outwards.
I ran for it knowing that I lost my weapons and anyone that was near enough. The direction I ran was not the right one as I heard screams behind me. I looked back as I ran, and the smoke finally stopped moving. I sighed in relief, realizing half a kilometer or less was covered in that smoke. Nothing ran out of it, and the smoke stayed still for a moment longer than rapidly it contracted in on itself.
Watching fascinated as nothing was left when the smoke disappeared leaving a blank spot where the smoke couldn't go. A hundred feet away I could see some members of the gang with Cassandra standing there surprised. I had no Idea the casualties, and I looked at Cassandra and pointed back the way we came.
We retreated.