My sword had passed right through the man, I took a good look at him, and he wasn't very tall or very muscular. In fact, it felt as though he wasn't even here. It was like facing a ghost. He had a darker skin tone than most people I had ever met, he was wearing a set of clothes that had been made from the pelt of a Mana Beast of some variety. The part of his clothes that weren't covered by his clothes, including his face, were heavily scarred.
He had markings on his face, but before I could make them out, he dissapeared. Even with Sword Sense, I couldn't make out where he was. However, he suddenly reappeared and was behind me.
I used my sword to block his attack, but he dissapeared once more until I felt a blow on my back. The blow wasn't painful, I wasn't even hit that hard, but for some odd reason I was sent into the air.
'What.. what the hell is wrong with this guy's strength?'
While I was in the air, I noticed that he was constantly rebounding from tree to tree, seemingly phasing in and out of existence, building up momentum before launching himself into the air. His body was rapidly approaching mine, as he threw a kick at me.
I raised my sword to block it, but his leg went right through it and hit my neck. And seemingly, momentarily phasing through it before I was sent flying towards the ground. I used my ability to fly to slow my fall, but ultimately, I crashed into the ground and left a giant crater on the ground.
'He's phasing in and out of materials. And, judging by what I'm seeing, when he phases into a material and deactivates his ability, he gets repulsed. Matter cannot overlap with other matter, and thus, when his ability is deactivated it sends me flying and essentially enforces his punch with a crazy amount more power.'
Getting up, I patched all the minor cuts on my body up using Blood Manipulation.
'The ability to become intangible, how annoying.'
"But all I need to do is hit you when you're no longer intangible. Right?"
I said, turning around on my heel, and swinging my fist and instinctively guessing where his fist would be. Our fists collided, releasing an enormous amount wind pressure, and causing a dust cloud to form around us.
"I was told you'd figure me out quite quickly, but this isn't even fair. What the hell is up with that inhuman timing?"
I didn't reply, instead, I grabbed onto his wrist and thrust my sword into his stomach. However, both my hand and sword went fight through him as he phased through the ground.
And within an instant, a fist landed on the right side of my jaw as he rose from the earth. But, having foreseen this, I managed to cut the man's flesh while he was still tangible whilst simultaneously creating a crystalline formation of blood that cracked from his attack and splintered onto the ground.
"I knew it. You can't phase separate parts of your body, you can only turn it on and off."
Gritting his teeth, his fist went through the residual Blood Armour and connected with my actual jaw, sending me into the air.
'Why doesn't he just phase through my skin and just grab my guts? Or, maybe he can't?'
I began to think about his ability to phase and compared to weapon enhancement. Weapon Enhancement was something derived from Material Enhancement.
Material Enhancement could be used to blow things up, depending on the item, you could either be unskilful and cause it to explode or you could do it on purpose.
When attempting to do it on another person, the difference in output had to overwhelming, this was because you had to not only oppose the flow of the person's Mana but you had to fully overcome it before you could try blow them up from inside out.
'The reason he doesn't just grab my organs is probably because he has to do something similar when trying to go through someone who's enhanced their body with Mana. The reason he can oppose my Blood Armour's Mana flow is probably because it's not contained within my body, the same probably goes for weapons. But, it only applies when he's attacking me. If I punch him while he's phasing, I can't hit him. However, what applies to Blood Armour applies to weaponry as well.'
Breaking me out of my thoughts, a blow was delivered to my stomach, sending hurling to the ground. But just before I landed, I slammed my hand onto the ground, cracking it while transferring a huge amount of the force out of my body, making my landing much safer than last time.
"Your ability, the more I fight it, the worse I find it to be."
Saying that, I drove my elbow backwards, my Sword Sense immediately notifying me of his position the moment he was tangible. My elbow collided with his abdomen, causing to puke.
"You would've been way scarier if you didn't put all your faith into your ability. Your output isn't impressive, so while you move faster than I do using repulsion, your blows aren't that fearsome. And your defenses are non existent."
Saying that, I grabbed his face and threw him into ground before him stomping on his legs, shattering them to make sure he couldn't walk.
Looking up at me, he smiled, pointing at my side.
"I.. Or rather we, knew we would never beat you in a fair one on one. Your physical prowess is just unfair. Your Blood Manipulation and regeneration make it hard to keep you down. So, that's why we're going to take you down bit by bit. The weaker group gave us an understanding of your thinking and tactics when fighting a group, the two sisters showed us your Mana Art and showed us the speed and effectiveness of your regeneration. And now, I've given you a nasty wound on your torso."
I took a look at the left of my torso, I hadn't even noticed that I taken a blow. I didn't even know when he had landed it. There was a large gash on my body, blood was pouring out of it and my ribs were exposed.
"But I can just heal, you should know this."
Coughing up a little blood, he spoke once again.
"While maintaining Weapon Enhancement? Don't think we haven't noticed. You can't maximise your offensive power if you want to be able to regenerate. And against our force, I'm sure you'll realise you need your best."
And with that, he sighed, and was carried away by a blur.
And before I could prepare healing, an arrow was fired at my face, not having enough time to move my body, I raised my hand and caught it.
'That arrow was dangerous.'
Before I could move in the direction of the Archer, a helmet wearing Spearman appeared, blocking my path.
"A 2 on 1? This is getting old."
Though I said that, I knew that this fight was going to be harder than the last one. That arrow almost certainly belonged to the Elven Princess. And this Spearman, their helmet wad similar to that of a Spartan.
Sensing a presence behind me, I swung my arm back, but missed my target. Looking at my stomach, I saw a dagger making itself at home in my guts.
'Fast. They're really fast.'
"This is bad. Really bad."
Though I said this, I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear.
"I love this place way too much."