Hey guys sorry about not posting yesterday. I just got back to work and it's been hectic. Hope you understand. Enjoy.
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My skills were all tailor made for my body and in some cases, some of them showed their true power when used in a compatible environment. I let seamless evasion take control of my body as I circled the…argh…evil clone. In the water, seamless evasion showed it's true potential because while paired up with my water sense and the strengthening effect the ocean had on me…well let's just say I was pretty confident about my chances. But still...
"Listen Yuki, communication seems to be blocked in here but I don't know if it's one way. So if you can still hear me, once you get the chance turn this guy into a popsicle."
I hoped she heard me. With my hydrokinesis severely suppressed I needed Yuki's help in finishing off this guy. I could fight yes, but I didn't know if I could win.
"Time to find out!"
I used a facet of my abilities I had been neglecting a bit and let loose a shockwave from my heel. The power output was lesser than usual but I I still managed to land a punch on the clone's face before it could react. Poseidon was not only the god of the ocean but also horses and earthquakes. So although one part of my demigod was completely inaccessible except for allowing me to breathe underwater and negate the pressure, the other lesser divinities were available. To an extent.
The head shattered into little pieces of light and soon after the body as well. Leaving me surprised and staring at my hand. I warily looked around in confusion. Was that it? 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes later and the retaliation I had been expecting never came.
"Ok."
I looked at the red Vines that still couldn't breach the distance between us.
"Were you guys expecting that? Coz I wasn't."
I shook my head at my silliness.
"Yuki? Can you hear me?"
Nothing. I still couldn't communicate with her and that was starting to worry me. It worried me because it meant that whatever was blocking us off was still in effect and that means…
"Huh?"
Bubbles started appearing around me and a huge force blew back the water in my immediate surroundings. The barrier dome separating the city from the rest of the ocean was special in the sense that it blocked out only a select few of things. It didn't keep water and small fish out. The set up was strange and it had immediately made me think of one thing that Atlantis was known for, magic. Hence that meant that the barrier was most likely an application of intent based wards.
So when the water withdrew away leaving an empty space around me, I knew who or what to blame. Magic. The fact that runes briefly lit up the wet floor briefly before sizzling out proved my point. If you asked me, magic was the energy of imagination given form. Like any other thing in existence, it probably had rules that you couldn't break. Limitations on the other hand…those were imposed by people who probably feared living up to their full potential. Magic was the reason I was cut off from Yuki and why I couldn't use my favorite power. That just went to show how powerful it was. Just imagine what I could do if I learned it. If I learned how to tap into the runes restricting my powers. I could get control of any battlefield through debuffs and buffs. But first things first.
"I can feel you watching me…"
A soft wind blew on the ground and the clone appeared again, formed instanteneously from a tornado of wind.
"Fuck."
I could feel my weather control powers get restricted this time. Now I was down to shockwaves, blood control that didn't work on him, the thinker's powers which had no combat applications and my lightning powered speed which couldn't be used underwater anyway. I finally understood what the brief flash of the runes were.
I would have to defeat my clone while growing weaker each time I defeated him. First was my hydrokinesis now it was my atmokinesis. Damnit.
I instantly appeared next to him and cleaved right through the hastily put up barrier of air. My hand sank into his chest but he had already turned his body into water. Damn. Elementization. Even I couldn't do that yet! As long as I defeated him, he would grow stronger and stronger as I grew weaker. I couldn't hold him indefinitely in place and that meant I would have to come up with a way to ensure he died and stayed that way. I channeled shockwaves through my hand and he broke down into liquid.
The runes below me on the ground shone again. This time pulsing with energy before disappearing in a flash of lightning. Mother...!
I had already lost 2 teeth before I even knew what was happening. I hit the wall and rebounded.
"Ack!"
A breath of air escaped my mouth and I quickly released a blast of shockwave at my front. It collided with the huge beam of lightning heading my way and both attacks disappeared. He had access to my lightning! For fucks sake what the hell is this test about?!
The lightning dispersed around our make shift ring and dried up the ground. The air cleared and I was left gaping at the red lightning clad man looking back at me with an expressionless face. I was down to shockwaves, blood control, super intelligence and my strong body. Only 2 powers out of those actually worked on him. I didn't attack again, content to stall until I found a way out of the predicament. 5 minutes later, my opponent got impatient. I couldn't follow him so all I could do was strain my senses to avoid fatal hits and grunted as I tanked the rest.
Blood flowed down from my forehead obstructing my right eye's sight, I had a cracked rib, a concussion and bruises all over my body. Every attack had been delivered with a frightening precision that only got better and better. Everything hurt and it was all I could do to keep on spamming shockwaves to escape and attack.
"Enough!"
I blasted him away and instead of rebounding on the water wall, the water instead caught him and bled the momentum from him. Once on the ground, I blinked and found myself between a circle of clones.
"How..."
I had 2 burning questions in my head by then. Why hadn't the water cancelled out his lightning speed abilities and how could I detect the real one from all them.
"This is bullshit. Utter fucking damned screwed up bullshit."
I had never thought I would be fighting for my life in such a place. I had been arrogant. Thinking that no one could pose a challenge to me just because I had achieved a measly level of power. My powers couldn't be stolen but that didn't mean they couldn't be restrained. I still had a way out of this but I wasn't sure if it would work. And if it did, it would set me back big time. Most of my plans would be derailed and I would have to find a way to keep up with the schedule I had made for myself. It would be a last result. I still had one more card to play before I escalated things to that point and it starts with killing this fucker.
"Ok...let's pray this is going to work."
I said to myself while watching them. The hum of unreleased energy beneath my skin felt terrific. I was just waiting for the slightest twitch. There! Shockwaves blasted out of me in a spherical shape. One following the other. For a full 10 seconds I didn't let up and even increased the force. The water wall that had been 20 to 30 meters away was pushed away as the space expanded. Loud booms sounded as lightning fought against a tempest of shockwaves and lost. I fell down to my knees, suddenly exhausted.
Everything was silent for about 5 more minutes but just as I thought with a rumble a ball of light emerged from the center of the space and formed into me. This time there was a flicker of intelligence as he watched me. The light was still forming into his feet and I ignored my exhaustion and jumped up. This was it. Before the runes could activate. The moment of vulnerability I could exploit.
"Aaaagh!"
Booooom!
I stomped down on the ground and the marble cracked from the pressure. The ground begun to shake as the runes briefly flashed and died out just as quickly. But the runes unfortunately had succeeded in doing what they were made to do. My shockwave generation powers were suddenly cut off after wrecking the marble floor. However, my move still bought me an opening. I recognized the brief flash of fear in the clone's eyes as I used all my strength to dash straight at him. A sword made of my blood appeared in my hands and with a slash, the clone's head was sent flying away.
The exhaustion hit me even worse now and it was all I could do to suck in my blood back to my body before I could pass out. Luckily, the mirakuru had given me a minor boost in healing so I was able to barely keep consciousness. I breathed heavily as I rose up. Wincing in pain and clutching at my ribs...I went towards the dead clone and watched as it dissipated into light.
I didn't drop down my guard for even a minute as I waited. A blood sword in my hand. 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes. I breathed a sigh of relief and partial disappointment when nothing happened. Disappointed because although I had come so close to dying many times over that encounter, I had enjoyed being pushed to my limits like that. And I realized that I hadn't really had a fight to the death before.
With a feeling akin to a click, my powers returned and I basked in the feeling. The water forming the wall flowed in to occupy the vacuum left and I suddenly had a frantic Loli's voice in my head. I sushed her up and explained everything that had happened.
"Are you sure it was a test?"
She asked me unconvinced.
I shrugged.
"Honestly? Yes and no. Otherwise why would the doors to the conservatory open now of all times without our interference?"
Sure enough, the huge gate had swung open after my powers had returned. However,
"However, I don't think i passed the test the way I was supposed to. If you ask me, the test was meant to strip a person of all their strength and power through a simulated fight to the death."
I said while caressing the destroyed rune formation on the ground. A tingle of static went up my fingers briefly that I thought I had imagined it.
Yuki's face scrunched up in confusion.
"But why?"
"It's just a theory but based on the fact that it's at the entrance to the conservatory of sorcery, I would say it was a test made to push the one being tested to awaken magical power. It wouldn't make much sense to put the ones being tested in danger so the runes were probably meant to put someone in a perfect illusion. Making them think that whatever was happening was real."
"If it was sima..luted? Simulated...then why are you hurt Jin?"
I chuckled as she fumbled with the words.
"Good question Yuki. I think the accumulation of energy over a long period of time enhanced the runes. Hence the illusion evolved into reality."
I finished with awe in my voice. Everyone wanted to learn magic. Whether it was card tricks or god tier spells, few would say no to that. And I wasn't an exception. Everything I had told Yuki led me to a startling discovery...I could understand the runes. They just made sense to me. Could this be an effect of being a demigod?
Or was I just naturally talented?
All I knew was that the answers to all my questions laid behind the huge gates of the conservatory.
"You ready Yuki?"
"Yeah!"