Ren changed his strategy. Instead of continuing to cancel individual attacks, he began to emit pulses of light that expanded in concentric waves from his position.
The light waves montarily transford the battlefield, altering all shadows simultaneously. Luna was forced to forget about jumping, unable to predict where the new shadows would appear after each pulse.
"Hand-to-hand?" Luna pressed her lips together, visibly frustrated. She had never faced soone capable of manipulating her environnt against her more than she and her team could. For the first ti since obtaining her beast, she felt that her special ability was being truly countered.
She let out a short laugh, almost incredulous.
"Didn't you just say you weren't going to hit ? What are we doing here?"
"I won't," assured Ren. "I'm just going to stop the flow in your belly."
Luna's face imdiately reddened. Instinctively, she covered her abdon with both hands, stepping back.
"Pervert!" she exclaid, with a mixture of indignation and embarrassnt.
"What? That doesn't make sense... I'm not!" protested Ren, visibly alard by the accusation. "I already did it with Larissa, ask her and you'll see it's a valid way to take you down!"
From the stands, Larissa blushed violently as she rembered the mont, averting her gaze from the curious onlookers who turned toward her. In the upper box, Sirius Starweaver clenched his fists tightly, his normally impassive expression transforming into a mask of fury.
Luna evaluated her options. Continuing with her usual strategy would be useless against Ren's light manipulation. Although Ren's idea and declaration frightened her, only one viable alternative remained.
"Fine," she finally murmured. "But don't think I'm going to let you touch or win."
Luna reabsorbed her shadow wolf, fusing completely with the beast and acquiring ears and tail.
She launched herself at Ren with everything she had, her speed increased by an impressive 90%. But to her surprise and frustration, Ren proved to be even faster, with a 120% increase thanks to his combination of beasts.
The exchange that followed demonstrated the difference not only in speed but in all enhancents including perception and, even more elevated, strength... Every ti Luna attacked, Ren had already anticipated the movent by covering himself, dodging, and closing in.
Every ti she tried to touch him, her reflexes were one step behind.
Soon she found herself in serious trouble, barely able to follow Ren's movents as he clearly sought to bring his 'playful' hands to her abdon. With a particularly fast movent, Ren finally achieved his goal.
Almost...
Luna dodged most of the hand but felt two fingers passing her coverage and pressing lightly on her navel, touching her for just an instant, but enough for a strange sensation to course through her body.
Imdiately, she noticed that the connection with one of her shadow claws had been cut. Panic invaded her for an instant, but was quickly replaced by the acute awareness that Ren had touched her abdon.
Her face reddened again, this ti more intensely. "D-don't do that!" she exclaid, stepping back several paces as if she had received an electric shock.
From the stands, Min, Taro, and Liu simultaneously hit their foreheads. They had believed that Ren's warning about "canceling the flow in her abdon" was simply a way of naming a combat technique or even a joke.
"Player Patinder strikes again," muttered Min with resignation.
In the honor box, Sirius Starweaver had stood up, a vein visibly pulsing at his temple. Only the discreet intervention of one of his advisors, who whispered sothing in his ear, prevented him from taking more drastic asures.
"What... what have you done to ?" asked Luna, noticing the absence of her left claw.
"I temporarily blocked the mana flow to one of your arms," explained Ren, oblivious to Luna's true discomfort. "It's only temporary, but when I cancel all your flow it will be like losing the connection with the beast when it's eliminated."
Luna tried to restore the connection, but the blockage was effective. She was at a more clear disadvantage now. Even so, she wasn't willing to surrender.
"Don't think you've won because of this," she declared, a renewed determination shining in her eyes. "I have more resources than just shadow jumps."
Luna evaluated her options. Her father was watching. She couldn't afford a humiliating defeat. She decided to risk everything in one last attack.
"Let's see if you can handle this, Patinder," she murmured, concentrating all the shadow energy of her wolf in her right arm and legs.
She launched forward with an explosion of speed that surprised even Ren. Her right claw, charged with an unprecedented density of shadows, sought the uncovered parts of Ren's chest.
Ren reacted by instinct, deflecting the attack with a desperate movent in which he invoked his light claws that he hadn't intended to use at the last mont. The intense clash of energies sent a small mana wave to the stands.
However, Ren concentrated on reaching Luna's abdon in the next instant...
But Luna was already executing her next move. Taking advantage of Ren's distraction in controlling the shadows, she had jumped to Ren's blind spot and was now launching a direct blow toward his side.
Ren tried to dodge but Luna stretched and reconfigured her claw making it bigger at the last mont to reach him.
The impact connected perfectly with Ren's unprotected side, cutting him superficially and making him retreat several ters. For the first ti in the combat, he seed genuinely surprised by the power of the attack.
"Surprised?" asked Luna, a small smile forming on her lips as she launched herself against Ren again. "I'm not just a shadow jumper."
Ren rose fast, an expression of respect appearing on his face. "I never thought you were," he responded. "But I'm not just a defensive or pacifist tar either."
Luna's claws were inches from their target when Ren, anticipating the movent, spun with superhuman speed. His eyes, bright with concentrated mana, had detected the mana deformation this ti.
Ren seed to have gone back on his word not to hit her when he dodged, turned his body, and his hand headed for Luna's head…
However, instead of hitting, Ren simply covered Luna's eyes. And hugged her.
Luna tried to break free with an elbow to Ren's torso that ended up generating a lot of empathy from Larissa.
Ren entangled Luna with Lin's techniques and finally brought his other hand to the girl's abdon.
Sirius was foaming at the mouth.
Luna fell to her knees, her breathing labored.
"I think that's all," said Lin, advancing to the center of the arena with an amused smile. "Victory for Ren Patinder!" she proclaid, her voice resonating in the now silent stadium.
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