POV Sophie Martinez

Immediately after Nathaniel begins releasing his mana, members of a small guild called Blackrock, along with a few individuals from Serpent's Eye who were nearby, attack us.

Tess runs in front of me and hits the man who is about to attack Hadwin from behind, while lightning crackles around her body, burning the attacking man. Her javelins spin around her, moving as if they have minds of their own, stabbing at anyone who attacks us.

Maya's armor darkens, and she is thrown back by an explosion nearby. She is bleeding and her eye seems hurt, but her armor darkens even more, and I can see the wound healing at a visible speed. Moving faster and with a calm look on her face, she attacks a woman who has flames around her body.

The twins move even faster than Maya, constantly attacking a single target while confusing him with illusions of other people. The illusions seem so realistic, it's hard to determine what's real and what's not.

Hadwin continues to take attacks from people, none of them able to pierce his skin or even draw blood. Hadwin is thrown back occasionally, but he always stands up quickly and slashes with a sword he got from Nathaniel, each attack breaking barriers and piercing armor.

Kim maneuvers dozens of orbs made from silver metal around him, and seizing the opportunity, he shoots them at people trying to kill us. The orbs are boosted to an insane degree, barely a blur, and they deform or pierce the armors of anyone he attacks. Often, he also targets an opponent or two, and when he does, their movement slows down.

One of Elydor´s men performs something similar to teleportation and appears behind Lily, slicing into her neck and almost separating her head from her body. Just before we react, a few of Lily's fingers disappear and the wound heals nearly instantaneously. The man tries to vanish, but she's already holding his hand. Lily uses her terrifying skill, and with one pulse of grayish mana, the man disappears, gear and all.

My eyes meet Lily's. I shudder and avoid her gaze.

Someone shoots ice-like spikes at me, and I don't react as Izzy creates bright blue flames that swirl around us. They melt and burn everything in their path, while our group doesn't feel any heat. The man who attacked me gets surrounded by them, and his body burns and is set ablaze, even though he constantly tries to fight against them with his barriers made of ice.

I continue to maintain the barrier that blocks the particles of the Living Tree. Only when I notice one of the women creating a strong attack do I reach into her mind. At first, she reacts with extreme surprise, as like many, she's unaware of mind manipulation, but she quickly defends herself, pushing against me. I don't stop there though; I attack more aggressively and burrow deeper, destroying her mental defense and taking over her mind while the woman screams in pain.

Then I send a simple order.

The woman's expression changes and becomes calm, with only the fear in her eyes revealing her true feelings. The woman starts pumping all her mana into a single attack, ignoring the strain it places on her body and mind. She bleeds from her eyes, nose, and ears, but she disregards it all under my [Manipulation]. When she's done, she turns around and releases the attack against her guild, torn apart in the subsequent explosion.

Blood and flesh cover the walls of the tunnel.

Another man approaches, clad in armor similar to Maya's, and attacks Izzy, only to be grabbed by the ankle with purple mana arms. These aren't translucent as before; they're a solid, dark purple color and seem to be affecting the man's armor, dissipating, disrupting, or dissolving it. A dozen more arms appear from Biscuit's back and surround the man's body, angrily tearing off pieces of the armor and dissolving the rest. Then, as the man screams, the mana arms tear off his head.

Biscuit looks around, and I notice his eyes glowing a purple hue. He shouts something at another enemy, using his telepathy differently — this time as an attack. The man screams in pain, clutching his head.

And then I feel that mana.

It's as if a monster is waking up from deep slumber. The domineering mana fills the tunnels, and it continues to do so. An immense, insane amount of mana that makes it feel as if it's hard to breathe or move through.

Dealing with the last member of Blackrock, whom Tess kills with a burst of lightning, we all turn to the source of all of that.

It's him.

Nathaniel stands there in the center of all of that, releasing all this mana without any worry in the world and blocking ranged attacks that are thrown at him. His face has a bright smile on it, instead of the distant expression he's shown in the past week.

Others probably can't feel it, but I can with my [Manipulation]. The area around Nathaniel feels as if it's his, the area within which he moves all this mana. There's no efficiency, there's no delicate control, and he doesn't even use it to feed his skills.

It's just a sheer amount of raw mana that he controls and moves. The mana is so dense it's possible to see it without any skills.

My mana continues to move through my body, cycling as I wish. [Focus] changes and this time it only helps me deal with my skills. My emotions come to the surface, filling me with anger I haven't felt in a long time.

Every expression, every movement, every word Elydor says fills me with disgust as his mana rushes towards me, threatening and raging. He moves it in sharp wisp-like constructs that continue to slash against the walls, yet not damaging them at all; the tunnel is incredibly durable.

[Mana Domain] encompasses the entire tunnel and not waiting for Elydor's attack to reach me, I take a step towards him. A disrupting wave is sent ahead, canceling his attack and a few attacks from his guild members.

At the same time, I hear Group 4 finishing their fight against the members of Blackrock who stayed near them and a few members of Serpent´s Eye who joined the fight.

I feel movement in my shadow and a woman steps out of it, a short dagger glowing in red light, as she moves incredibly fast towards my neck. At the same moment, I feel pressure on me, some sort of gravity magic.

[Redistribution] slows the woman's attack to a crawl as I absorb the energy of her movement. She tries to escape into my shadow again, but I disrupt the activation of her skill.

They throw more attacks against me, yet I quickly create a barrier that is stronger than ever before. Even then, a few cracks start appearing on it as I turn towards the woman, now blocked from the view of the rest of her guild.

In front of her, I create an orb. Not caring about efficiency, I use [Mana Infusion] to fill it with mana, then push more with [Redistribution], the orb turning into a tricolored one: blue, light blue, and purple mana swirling inside it.

“I remember you. You're the one who laughed when he came to our house,” I say.

She doesn't answer.

Oh, obviously, she can't; I'm holding her movement with [Redistribution].

I laugh shortly, “Sorry, I didn't realize,” I apologize to her. Then, strengthening my body and holding the tricolored orb in my hand, I bury it into her chest, blood, and gore exploding on me. But I do not care and leave the orb shining brightly in her chest.

Still unmoving, blood flows from her mouth and her eyes start losing light. I lean closer, “Why aren't you laughing now?” I ask.

She doesn't answer and dies, right after my barrier breaks under the attacks of her guild.

I grab and throw her body against her guild mates.

For a moment, they hesitate and do not attack or block. Only a bit later does Elydor realize what's happening, “Barrier!” he shouts, his mana rushing back to him, creating a sphere around his guild, and over it, multiple additional layers are formed.

Before the orb inside the woman's body explodes, I send a few javelins, boosted and filled with kinetic energy, toward the barrier, destroying several layers of it. Then, I expand my domain to reach even behind them and start working on an Anchor.

The orb explodes, tearing the woman´s body apart and sending a shockwave through the tunnel.

I absorb all the heat around me into stored thermal energy. It puts pressure on me, but I force myself to do so. Surprisingly, they even weakened the explosion a bit, and when their barriers break down, no one is dead. There is not even an implosion.

Before they attack again, I activate the [Tether] I placed behind them through my Domain. I appear on their flank, and before they realize it, I grab a man by his neck. Immediately I recognize him as one of the men who laughed when Elydor kicked Biscuit.I smile at his terrified expression and while disrupting his mana I squeeze and pull off a big chunk of his neck. His heart continues to pump the blood that spurts on me as I kick him towards his guild mates.

[You have defeated Flame Ascendant - lvl 162]

I sense something and strengthen my body, and the invisible slash that would have killed me only sends me against the wall. Before I hit it, I absorb my own movement and stop in place, dodging another attack and attack with vibrating kinetic energy while a high-frequency pitch rings in my ears. The man staggers backward with a big hole in his chest. I can even look through it before he falls to the ground.

Remembering him as one of the assholes I send another blast of kinetic energy at his corpse, exploding it in its entirety, covering the walls in blood and tiny pieces of what used to be the man.

[You have defeated Terra Guardian - lvl 171]

My javelin pierces through the chest of one of the men attacking me, expanding afterward, tearing his body into two pieces that fall down.

I burn his face with dark yellow flames until he stops screaming.[You have defeated Shadow Weaver - lvl 159]

They launch more attacks at me. A weird smoke that burns my skin, and I cancel it with [Resonance]. Mana whips and projectiles that Elydor uses to attack while blocking my own with his quick and powerful barrier. He holds the sword in his hand, the sword with a blade made out of translucent white crystal that is slowly changing its color to pale blue.The entire time Elydor also pressures and fights against my [Mana Domain] and continues to destroy my anchors, not allowing me to use [Tether] again.

Two warriors charge at me; their movement is slowed by [Redistribution], yet not enough. Supporting them, a man keeps shooting arrows at me, each a deadly projectile glowing brightly.

But I do not hesitate and fires appear around me, slowly healing my body and preventing the warriors from moving much closer. I redirect the arrows with the barriers that I continuously create.

My heart continues to thump, and I release more and more mana into the area.

I disrupt the gravity skill trying to slow me down. A burst of kinetic energy throws one warrior away, and a laser-like flame continuously fed by the thermal energy my heart generates blazes toward him. More and more, even when a barrier appears around him to protect the man. I disrupt them, and while screaming, the warrior is set ablaze.

Still able to fight he moves towards me while burning, an incredible amount of stats in physical attributes keep him alive.

I step towards him, creating a sword in my hand to kill him. Then I sense something through my [Perception]. A few more members of Serpent's Eye are moving towards my group.

My regulator changes its settings, and all my mana gets redistributed into physical stats.

With a swing of my fist, I hit the head of the burning man, exploding it like a watermelon and then I release all the kinetic energy I have to push myself towards where the men are going.

I disrupt the slowing gravity skill, hit a few mana wisps away with my bare hands, and kick a woman with a shield who steps in my way. One of Elydor's projectiles burrows into my side, destroying a few barriers I have created, but I ignore it.

Within a second, I reach the first group and extend my hand towards one of them.

Varrik was his name? Elydor's right hand.

I place my hand on his shoulder and then fight against an attack that tries to disrupt my mana, his skin covered in some barrier that tries to do so. A giggle escapes my mouth at his attempt and I squeeze harder, breaking his shoulder and making others in front of him turn around.

I disrupt his barrier with one short pulse of disrupting mana and then send a strong burst of kinetic energy through his body, and watch as it swells, expands, and explodes in a shower of flesh and blood that hits me and his friends.

[You have defeated Crimson Bloodtracker - lvl 172]

Attacks enter my domain, and I create barriers behind my back while boosting my body even further and moving ahead.

The man that charged at group 4 dodges my attack, and his fist hits my chest with force strong enough to explode my body if I hadn't strengthened it. Tattoos start glowing on his body, and his movement speeds up, with multiple more attacks landing while two more men get behind my back and the remaining woman sends a lightning attack at me.

Barriers behind me break, and this time Elydor stops hiding and charges as well, sending waves of mana towards me and creating pressure that makes it hard to move mana outside of my body. The sword in his hand glows brighter and Elydor moves much faster than before.

[Focus] allows me to see every detail, and mana glows beautifully in a black-and-white world.

This is too easy.

The world is as if slowed down, and I take a deep breath in and out. Then, fueled by the anger that still keeps burning inside of me, I reach towards my Mana Reservoir, which is three times the size of my entire mana, and use it for the first time.

A few mana arms form within my [Mana Domain] and grab the men and women closest to me. With just a simple thought I control my mana and the arms tear them apart. Limb by limb and I throw them at Elydor, amused by his expression.

Multiple attacks are shot at me, but barriers and shields form immediately out of my mana within the domain. The barriers break but are quickly replaced as I disregard mana expenditure.

Right now my mana feels truly bottomless.

Elydor creates orbs that explode, dissipating large amounts of that mana within my domain. A terrifying attack follows, piercing through multiple barriers and throwing me against the wall.

A man rushes at me, bright blue tattoos glowing on his body. It's almost cute.

Quickly I form ten javelins around me and throw them at the man. He dodges three of them, the fourth hits him and throws him to the side and somehow, he destroys the rest of the javelins.

I form twenty more of them, each of them of a darker shade of blue than the ones before. By the twelfth one, the man gets pierced by it, the remaining javelins arriving and obliterating his body.

A short silence ensues and then a loud thump sounds.

Five members of Elydor's guild encircle me. Elydor as well and he holds a sword that has a beautiful blade seemingly made of transparent crystal. He does something, and all the mana around me gets pulled towards the blade, which starts turning blue to a darker shade of blue and emitting a pale blue light.

I block a few attacks and start actively sending mana toward Elydor and observing the sword in his hand. Such a nice weapon.

Two women attack me from behind, their bodies covered in some sort of armor made of mana. I just release more mana and form four bigger mana arms that grab them and pull until they are torn in half.

Again, I throw their bodies at Elydor.

He shouts something and I can see tears appearing in his eyes. Yet he still notices the tricolored orb inside one of the bodies and screams with rage, ordering a barrier to be created while moving at a speed that seems too high for someone with as many stats invested in mana.

An explosion follows, accompanied by heat, but there is no implosion, once again canceled by Elydor.

A few more of his guild members die in the attack, unable to defend against it on their own.

What a letdown.

Elydor starts pulling out and using multiple mana stones, an amulet, and some other equipment, but he doesn't feel threatening anymore. His attacks are strong, yet they feel desperate, and seeing fear in his face is satisfying, yet disappointing.

I expected more from them.

The following fight takes barely over a minute. I don't even have to carefully use my skills, I just radiate as much mana as I need and my attacks are simple enough to be called primitive. Just simple mana shaping. There is nothing they can do, unable to deal with my vast amount of mana. Their barriers are torn apart by massive mana arms. Attacks are blocked with barriers.

It's not pretty and it's not efficient. There is no fight of wits, no exchange of skills. It's just the sheer force of my mana.In the end, four big mana arms appear, tearing away every limb of the Serpent's Eye guild master while I ignore his attempts to continue to dodge or defend himself. The man screams, twitches, and tries to attack even in such a state, but to no avail. I let kinetic energy flow from my body and explode his limbs on the ground, reducing them to nothingness.

Then I throw Elydor towards Biscuit.

(Asshole!) a single word resounds, but this time it feels different than usual.

Purple mana tentacles appear around the corgi, dozens of them, and they grab the man, completely enveloping him. It takes a long time but at the end, the screaming stops and Elydor´s mana signature disappears.

I feel mana from Obelia and her guild and with a push from my kinetic energy, I move in front of them. Stopping at the spot in front of their barrier by absorbing my inertia.

Obelia and her guild. The Storm Brigade didn't join the fight at all, yet now I feel them preparing their mana, ready for anything. It doesn't feel threatening; it's more like saying: if you attack, we will fight.

I don't like it.

While staring down at them I start releasing more of my mana, taking more from my Mana Reservoir and using it to pressure them. There's no hesitation in what I am doing, and I'm ready to fight them. To fight and win.

The pressure continues to increase on both sides, like two wild animals facing off and growling at each other.

Obelia says something, and reluctantly, slowly, her guild members, and then she herself, pull back their mana, deactivate their skills, and abandon their combat-ready stances.

Only then do I feel satisfied. I send one more strong pulse of mana through the tunnels and stop using my mana.

I pull all my mana back to my body, copying something I saw Elydor do, and soon it all disappears as if it never existed.

A long sigh escapes my mouth, and I feel my face revert to its usual expression.

I turn back to group 4 and my domain reaches them again, once again countering the attack of the Living Tree.