Sinner System-Chapter 495: Jaden vs Cleo (Part 3)

Jaden swooped down as Cleo unleashed a deafening roar towards him, evading the blast of sound before zipping up towards her with immense speed.

She began to brace herself, before wheezing sharply as he suddenly propelled himself with a pressurized telekinetic burst, slamming his right fist onto the middle of her stomach, knocking the wind out of her.

Yup, just as I thought, he’s done playing this passively, he’s fighting for real now. This’ll be a good test of Cleo’s abilities in the face of an overwhelmingly powerful opponent.

She gritted her teeth and grabbed his forearm as trickles of blood ran down the corners of her mouth, before extending her spider legs out of her back, driving the razor-sharp tips in towards him.

Her grasp over his arm got blasted off as he triggered a sharp telekinetic burst around his forearm, before she froze as she lost sight of him, her spider legs colliding against each other...as Jaden shot up above her.

She quickly lifted her gaze and unleashed a burst of wind from her back as he fired down a crushing telekinetic blast, hitting her back and sending her hurtling down towards the ground.

He swooped down after her as she crashed onto the ground, a thick cloud of dust rising up.

Jaden veered across as a drilling pillar of Negative Energy came shooting up towards him, before he spread out his arms and spun around rapidly like a top, firing out a flurry of telekinetic slashes down towards her.

She zipped out of the dust cloud as the slashes shot down with immense speed, one slicing off her left arm, before she unleashed a shredding blast of wind up towards him.

Jaden zipped across the air to evade the attack, Cleo’s left glove flying off her severed arm and returning towards her as grew a new arm, the glove slipping itself onto her hand.

"How about this-...?" Began Cleo, charging up Negative Energy, before trailing off as a devastating shockwave erupted across the air, Jaden vanishing from her line of sight.

She instinctively spun around, but he wasn’t behind her...

"Up here," He grinned, before she found herself slammed against the ground face-first, as he unleashed a crushing telekinetic blast.

As she sent her tail zipping up towards him, he swiftly grabbed it and flung her away with a rapid snap of his arm, before she sharply spread out her wings to bring herself to a halt, the glow of her eyes intensifying as she began to charge up her petrifying beams.

Jaden swiftly raised his right hand towards her, the glow of her eyes fading as she began to get pulled in towards him, losing her balance as he abruptly cut off the pulling force he’d exerted on her.

As she began to regain her balance, her gaze rapidly darted about frantically as an intense telekinetic shockwave burst out, Jaden vanishing from her line of sight again, before she suddenly got teleported out of the barrier, a perplexed look on her face.

She took her eyes off him for just a moment, and he used that opening to launch himself forward and then up to spring up behind her. After that, he fired out a telekinetic slash, which would’ve split her vertically in half if it wasn’t for the safety barrier.

"He’s pretty much on our level now, even we’d have serious trouble beating him," Muttered Aria, as the barrier faded.

"Yeah, his Power Level with that Telekinetic Surge Spell is on par with our full power. We already knew about his new power boost, but I didn’t expect this much of a drastic increase," I nodded in response.

"Damn it...," Muttered Cleo, as she dragged her feet over towards us, having reverted back to her base form.

"Hey, no need to be so down, you put up a great fight," Smiled Aria, giving her an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

"Yeah, that was fun! You’ve got such a wide arsenal, that really kept me on my toes," Grinned Jaden, as he walked over cheerfully.

"I, um-...n-next time, I won’t lose," She muttered, as she peered at him from behind Aria and I.

She’s stuttering a bit less, guess that fight made her feel slightly less awkward around him.

"Cool, looking forward to it," Responded Jaden, a gleam in his eyes.

"Alright, that’s one bout down, let’s keep going, guys. Who wants to go next?" I inquired, as I looked around at the others.

... 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

...

"Whew, I’m beat!" Sighed Aria, as she flopped onto the ground with a thud.

"Same, though I’m not as worn out as I’ve been after those brutal raids," Responded Aarav, as he poured some water over his face.

"Mm...that’s better," Mumbled Iseul, as she popped one of those concentrated alcohol pills into her mouth.

"Gotta say, it’s pretty cool to see how much stronger you guys have gotten since the tournament," I chimed in with a wry smile.

"Heh, yeah...back then, and for a while leading up to it, I assumed that I’d already reached my upper limit, you know? I figured I had no way of getting stronger than I was, not by a significant margin anyway, nothing beyond just sharpening and honing my skills and technique. I’m glad I was wrong," Replied Jaden, as he ran the back of his sleeve across his forehead.

"Yeah, me too. We’re going to need every ounce of power we’ve got, after all. Alright, let’s wrap this up for today, we need to rest up. All hell’s going to break loose in less than twenty-four hours, so we’re all going to need to be at our best," I remarked objectively, as I stood up and stretched my arms out with a sigh.

"Sounds good to me."

"No arguments here."

"Same, I’m totally drained."

"Well, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to keep going, but that’s probably not the smartest option right now, huh?" Jaden sighed wistfully.

"Yeah, we-...hm? Oh, it’s from the Chairman," I remarked as I got a call, before adding, "Okay, this must be it, the HUC must have settled on our next course of action. Let’s find out what our next move is going to be."