Emrys didn’t understand what Uriel ant, but he could clearly feel his excitent, and it, in turn, left his blood boiling.
He unleashed a roar that shook the air. Then, with a press, he bridged the distance between them, his maw open and ready to clamp shut around Uriel’s head.
"Oh my, did I not say no serious injuries?"
For a mont, Uriel debated whether he should go all out and show the little fox the gap that stood between them.
Clearly, Emrys was still under the impression that the glaive-wielding version of himself he’d defeated was him at his full power.
’There’s no need. He’s still young, he’ll learn.’
Uriel’s thoughts were slow and unhurried, and yet Emrys remained frozen midair in front of him, as if ti had stopped and he’d been left suspended.
And that was because, to Uriel, he might as well be.
...
[Uniqueness: {Heavenly Void Rupture}
>Details: Your mind roots itself within a Heavenly Void of its own creation, a plane of astral thought none may surpass and only ever hope to match—across the void of heaven, the waters of ti flow in all directions to birth chaos.
•The mind has been massively enhanced and transford beyond its mortal shell, rupturing the limits of the heavens—your soul is deeply attuned to the waters of ti and winds of space.
•Note(I): Abilities of the Uniqueness’ previous state have been kept.
•Note(II): Due to the unseen and rogue evolution of the uniqueness, influenced by worldly forces, the true depth of its might is unclear.]
...
His uniqueness activated the mont the battle began.
’Without relying too much on pure magic, what would be the best option to counter this?’
He humd in thought. ’As of now, I need to either evade or block, then follow either of them with an offensive spark.’
’Hm. I could summon a thick wall of vines or sand to block, but I don’t want to hurt him. Actually, regardless of what I do, if I block, he’ll be injured.’
He shook his head. ’That idiot.’
’Evasion it is, then.’ He sighed. ’Let’s try Light.’
Light aether surged from Uriel’s core and his resonance activated. Then, he did sothing he’d never done before.
He infused the aether into his body.
But he didn’t do it carelessly.
Using the enhancent thod he’d discovered during the cloud trial—a thod that boosted his body by playing on the interactions of the natal and atmospheric—he created a new technique.
A technique that allowed his body to embody part of the elent’s purest essence and traits.
WHOOOSH!
Uriel moved. But... his uniqueness was still active.
The light aether infused across his body made him so fast he could keep up with his own mind.
’Oh, nice, it works. Let’s call that, uhh, True Infusion.’
He nodded. ’That sounds nice.’
...
CLACK!
Emrys’ maw clamped shut and t nothing but air.
He landed a dozen ters away, sliding against the silver flooring and summoning sparks that flew through the air as he rapidly ca to a stop.
He looked around, confused. Was Uriel dead?
No, that wasn’t possible. He’d used less than a tenth of his power in that attack. In no world would—
"Ah, nice. I can also make myself lighter."
Emrys froze. Suddenly, he sensed a presence he’d been entirely unable to detect. The figure stood on his head, as light as a feather and so inconspicuous that even he hadn’t noticed him.
Uriel vanished, then reappeared a couple of ters in front of the fox, smiling.
He waved a hand, taunting him. "Co, don’t be scared."
BANG!
Emrys didn’t entertain Uriel’s taunts and imdiately shifted his ntality, forgoing his bodily superiority and focusing on his elents.
Lightning exploded around him, turning everything into a field of chaos and destruction. He used the distraction to furiously retreat.
Then he opened his maw, and tendrils of lightning gathered alongside shards of thin blue crystals—shards of space—the two lding to form a chaotic orb.
He roared, and the orb vanished, teleporting right in front of Uriel’s face.
"That’s good. You knew my speed would disadvantage you in close range, so you switched to long range to see how I’d react, then reset the tide of battle."
Uriel nodded. "That’s great."
And then he simply slapped the chaotic orb away, his hand coated in swaths of chaotic dark aether. The orb veered far off to his left, impacting against the ground.
It exploded, the ground shaking as a powerful shockwave of heat slamd into them both.
"But you don’t understand aether well. Energies of the sa type often cooperate. That’s why most don’t usually use energy in its raw form."
"An orb of stable atmospheric aether won’t hurt by virtue of the fact that it is energy—it’ll just hurt because it’s heavy."
He’d learned it during his spar against Ayah and Enoch back at the settlent, right after he’d ford his mage circles.
"To hurt soone, you usually want to use natal aether, because naturally, it has your will infused into it. So the mont you attack and it touches the enemy, their own natal energy destabilises it and then, boom."
"Kih!"
Emrys didn’t understand where Uriel was going. Evidently, he’d used his own natal aether in the attack. Not only that, he’d added strands of atmospheric aether to make it even more chaotic.
If Uriel’s words were to be believed, then he shouldn’t have been able to simply slap it away just by coating his hand with chaotic aether.
"Oh?" Uriel raised a brow. "That’s a trick I just learned recently as well."
"I use my chaotic aether to target the runic fabric of your attack, then use its chaotic nature to erode the ’will’ runic components of your energy. So, it stops being natal."
"Then, like I said, it just becos a heavy, harmless ball of energy. It only exploded at the end because I don’t know how to do it well enough yet."
"Anyway," he exhaled, "let’s continue. Try and focus on your fundantals, copy if you want."
"It’s important."
Emrys blinked, and it was now his turn to be overwheld by Uriel’s rapid lunge. The latter was already upon him, in the air, leg extended and whipping down to hamr into his snout.
Lightning aether flowed through Emrys’ body and he reacted fast, but the mont his muscles twitched and energy flowed, a sort of chanism seed to activate.
His own energy shifted, turning to wood aether as vines magically appeared and wrapped around his limbs, tightly wound and digging down to anchor into the steel ground.
He found himself restrained, unable to do anything as Uriel’s leg whipped down onto his snout and hamred him into the ground.
But just as he expected pain, he felt nothing.
He’d beco weightless under the effects of Uriel’s light aether and could hardly take damage.
Rather than being relieved that Uriel looked after him even in the midst of battle, Emrys was suddenly overwheld by rage.
He was being looked down upon.
BANG!
Uriel landed, then kicked Emrys away, sending him flying, uncaring for his rage.
Though he wasn’t necessarily trying to, it was important the little guy had his pride crushed before they veered into danger.
He was just testing his elents’ array of abilities and their compatibility with his magic, but if it could also humble Emrys, it was all the more useful.
’That’s nice. But I doubt it’ll be easy to override most people’s natal aether like that.’ He pursed his lips. ’Ah, maybe it will be, actually.’
’But I don’t think it’ll work against those who’re strong enough to face in the first place.’
By now, with his body alone, he could probably face a couple Ex-Rankers. And that was before he’d even undergone his evolutions of the F-Rank and his pioneer scale upgrade.
’I’ll find out with ti.’
SHAH!
Emrys returned with furious speed, arcs of lightning dancing around him as he swiped down at Uriel’s face with claws covered in wind aether.
Uriel shook his head. "You’re mixing things up."
Sand rose from the ground, forming a thick do around Uriel that protected him from the attack, easily blocking the fox’s claws.
The do burst apart, a strong gust of force pushing the creature away as the countless grains of sand suddenly beca akin to bullets, pelting across his body and drowning him in pain.
"All elents are versatile, but at our level, we need to stick to the most obvious. You have space, wind, and lightning."
"But you use lightning for movent, wind for attack, and barely use space. You’re doing it all wrong, bud bud."
Emrys flipped onto his feet and growled, his golden eyes turning red as his body shrank down. For the first ti, his spark activated.
Uriel pouted. "Oh, that’s cheating."
From three and a half ters tall, he shrank to just two ters tall and barely five long, but it didn’t co with any loss of power.
In fact, it felt like his power doubled.
"Oh well."
The hall shook, and its tal flooring tore as countless vines rose, turning their battle arena into a spiderweb of nature itself.
Uriel lightly tapped a foot on the ground, and the entire section covered by the web of vines turned to sand.
Emrys began to sink, but with a mighty roar, he finally used the simple domain he’d summoned, a ripple echoing out that shattered the sand plain Uriel had ford.
Uriel nodded. "Good. Don’t let terraform the arena."
SHA! SHA! SHA! SHA!
Having returned to steel, Emrys was free to stride across the ground, easily dodging the slithering vines that ca from all directions to skewer him.
Wind aether cycled across his body, and he stopped using lightning for movent. His speed rocketed so high he beca a blur of green streaking across the hall.
He moved so fast even Uriel, with his uniqueness, couldn’t follow him anymore.
Worse still, the rage consuming Emrys seed to echo across the ’will’ runes of his natal aether, making them so strong Uriel couldn’t override them anymore.
In the air, dozens of orbs of twisted arcs of lightning appeared—manifesting not as aether, but as true matter, sothing Uriel couldn’t simply slap away.
They zood through the air just as he closed in.
"You’re lucky I can’t make complex constructs like Enoch and the Emperor yet," Uriel muttered.
He was quite surprised by the attack. Emrys hadn’t aid the orbs directly at him, but instead ford a net with them, essentially stopping Uriel from escaping too far.
It was either Uriel blocked and fell to Emrys’ rapid follow-up, or he tried to escape, only to be rebounded by the net of chaos and then taken off guard.
It was very ingenious.
But Uriel didn’t move an inch.
...
[•Note(III): The Iron Body makes one utterly and absolutely immune to all flas and lightning regardless of type or nature.]
...
A glaive—his Broken Fang of Hate—appeared in his hands as he grinned.
"Haha!"
Then he swung, seas of aether burning to form an avalanche of sand not unlike those of the desert.
Uriel shot forward, entirely ignoring the orbs exploding across his body, unable to pierce him, though still hurting nonetheless.
He slid across the dune rushing toward Emrys, then jumped high into the air. The network of vines he’d summoned suddenly wrapped around him, forming a gigantic titan-sized exoskeleton, mimicking both body and blade.
The giant of vines swung down just as the wave of sand ca crashing onto the speeding fox.
’Who would’ve thought elents could be so fun?!’
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