Weapons of Mass Destruction-Chapter 559: I don’t know to do it any other way

I use the following 12 hours to get a handle on my abilities. Without the Mental Attunement Loop, the amount of pressure my mind can handle is severely limited, restricting my use of [Focus] and making it more difficult to maintain Mana Cycling. The first thing I notice is that the mana I’m used to hiding begins to leak out as I redirect my brainpower to different tasks, leaving less available to manage the overflow.

My resistance to mental attacks also drops immediately. And I no longer have the benefits of a passive that absorbs blunt attacks to feed my reservoir with mana. In fact, even the reservoir is gone, limiting me to the mana in my body.

As I handle everything, I think about her reason for placing these restrictions.

When I limit my resources, I tend to push myself harder. I fight more desperately and with more cold cruelty. In these situations, my mind becomes sharper, having no choice but to compensate for the lack of extra resources I sometimes lazily rely on.

From that point of view, one could almost say I’m more dangerous when I’ve been stripped of resources and forced to use what I have more effectively.

That might be why.

So, as the hours tick by and I prepare, no one bothers me, and I don’t connect to the link they made. Our plans have already been discussed and are being carried out by people far better and more reasonable than I am.

Finally, the timer reaches zero, and the 12-hour battle begins.

I boost myself into the air and exit the area surrounding our fort now that the barriers are gone. As I land on the water, I stand on the surface, mimicking the way of doing so that I already saw plenty of natives using. Each of my steps sends small ripples through the water, and the tops of the waves wash against my legs.

Disliking the feeling of wet shoes, I kick them off, pull down the socks, and continue on barefoot.

When something plops into the water in front of me, I reach out and snatch it before it can sink and put it in my pocket.

Our fort empties as well, with everyone splitting into two groups. One is being led by Gareth and Samuel while receiving support from Sophie, Izzy, and Maya. The other is a smaller group with Lily, the twins, and Tacita… probably, heading in the opposite direction. I have long since noticed the way Tacita seems to have attached herself to us. The reason is simple: Lily.

Even though Tacita seems frustrated with Lily’s aggressive attempts at befriending her, she doesn’t attack her. And damn, how she could. Instead, Tacita simply runs away.

I’ve seen her kill dozens of people during this tournament who got too close or tried to touch her. She doesn’t do that to Lily, likely something to do with the way Lily saved her life after Tacita’s duel with Savant nearly killed her, leaving her struggling to crawl back into her hideout with her last breath.

I would call it a silly strategy to befriend that catlike assassin girl. I even mentioned it to Lily.

Back then, Lily just smiled at me and said, "I know how it looks. Grumpy was just like Tacita, and I did the same thing then as I’m doing now. Back then, I was young, and my father told me I needed to give him space and that he would open up to me in his own time. But I didn’t. I did it my own way, and I think Grumpy appreciated the effort. Even though he kept hissing, scratching and biting me, gradually, he accepted it and even seemed to enjoy my presence. I got hurt a lot by him, but I think he liked having someone who showed him that they wanted to be with him and was willing to go through so much effort."

She looked straight into my eyes. "I know there are people who would find me annoying. They’d call me childish, tell me to grow up, and say I bother others and do everything wrong. I tried to change, but I don’t know how to be any other way. This is me. Stupid, annoying, naive, and, as you like to say, bulldozer-like me. Me, Lily."

And I asked, "As far as I can see, Tacita isn’t, in fact, a cat. It might not work on her."

Her smile changed with confidence shining through. "It will work."

I remember how those words gave me goosebumps back then, along with the way she looked at me. For a moment, you think you know people. Who they are and why they do what they do, and then they surprise you. Over and over again.

With that fascinating memory, I break into a sprint and head toward the fortress on the left while sliding deeper into [Focus]. To focus more, I filter out useless emotions and extraneous visual details like most colors and some sounds. Pushing deeper, I then suppress the sensation of pain and smell.

A lot of information that my upgraded, far more powerful, and sensitive body usually collects is removed to free up processing power for the fight.

In a flash, I spring to the right, dodging a barrage of flaming projectiles that were trailing me, each one piercing the air and heating everything around it. When they hit the water, they explode and sizzle, evaporating into an obscuring cloud of mist. A few domains expand and collide, their clashes seeming particularly wasteful as they act in opposition to each other, even though their main objective is simply to hit me.

I jump into the air, attracting even more projectiles. A water stream, an arrow, orbs, stone-like missiles, pure telekinesis. I boost myself again back toward the water. As I land, no ripples expand through the surface as I perfectly absorb the impact. Whitey would be proud.

More kinetic energy flows through my body, and I use Wraith Dance repeatedly to avoid more powerful attacks, each one sending a shockwave behind me that propels my body further ahead.

Finally, near the fortress, I shoot [Empyrean Lance].

The spherical barrier, composed of a multitude of hexagonal panels, each a slightly different shade of blue, is pierced, and the lance continues on through, striking several people in its path before crashing into the buildings behind them. It pierces through them as well and exits the barrier on the other side.

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This barrier is different from the one in our first clash. A damaged segment disappears, the surrounding segments weaken slightly, and a new one forms in its place.

But before that can happen, my [Ley Line] passes through, and even though the barrier closes, I know I can still use it.

First, I send a tricolored orb through to let it form at the end of the line.

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Noname (Beyond, King) → llllllllllllllll (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) → DoorOfStoneWhen (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) → Aidan(Normal) +5 pts

…

Then I teleport inside, appearing in the middle of the crater, surrounded by pools of molten stone formed by the explosion and a mass of compressed material created by the nearby implosion. Using Wraith Dance, I move to avoid an incoming attack and actively defend my mind against a series of stun attacks crashing into me. There are attempts to seize control of my mana, but they cannot.

It is, after all, my mana.

Two men standing on a nearby wall fire a series of projectiles at me. To avoid wasting mana, I don’t defend against them, only dodge after tracking their trajectory.

Wraith Dance brings me to them.

They react too slowly, noticing me too late. One tries to flee while the other turns to attack, but with a quick strike from Needle Point, both vanish into clouds of fine blue particles.

Noname (Beyond, King) → NotGristletock (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) → Monsieur (Hard) +10 pts

Ley Lines stretch through the area, where some of the people, likely Beyond attendees, seem to have sensed them. They attempt to tear the lines apart, but all to no avail. I detect the most impressive attempt and teleport through a closed [Ley Line], using Wraith Dance to cover the remaining distance.

I come upon a young woman surrounded by a barrier. Another man with a shield and sword stands beside her.

For a moment, I activate my eyes, adjust my frequency, and then pass through her barrier as if it wasn’t there.

The man jumps into my path, slashing his sword at me, but I duck under and throw him off with my movement. Absorbing my inertia, I shift in an unexpected way and make my way over to the woman.

She is painfully slow, but she still has a remarkably powerful mana signature, one of the strongest I’ve felt from an Earthling thus far. Yet despite her talent at handling mana, her body’s movements and instincts are still lacking.

I don’t waste mana creating weapons; I simply slam my hand against her head, exploding it and turning her into blue particles.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Eliana Yankova (Beyond) +100 pts

Ducking under the sword, I teleport somewhere else, sensing too many signatures converging on my location.

A group of people appears, screaming as they turn to attack, and I teleport once more, leaving a tricolored orb behind.

Notifications ring.

A group of five rushes my way. I dodge an awkward attack from the first person to reach me and kick him in the chest, sending him crashing into the opposing wall.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Woojoe (Normal) +5 pts

I grab another one's axe, breaking his hand in the process, and swing it at him.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Ellimist (Hard) +10 pts

The woman charging at me screams, mana surging through her limbs as she vanishes and reappears mid stride. Her spear twists unnaturally, splitting into mirrored afterimages that strike from three angles.

I pivot around the thrusts, absorbing momentum into my stance, and lean just out of reach. I boost up and over, landing behind her. Before she can turn, I grip her spine and snap her forward into the ground with enough force to crater the surface.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Kirin (Hard) +10 pts

The last two nearby try to synchronize and attack me at once, but I dodge both. Each vanishes after a short burst of kinetic energy.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Jtscuba (Normal) +5 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) → Monkeh (Hard) +10 pts

Spotting another Beyond attendee, I head his way before more of them can muster to rush me. There are hundreds of people waiting when I finally arrive.

The Beyonder is a man standing atop the roof of a nearby tower, the same one I sat on while watching the other fortresses. He stands alone, with two daggers in his hands: one radiating a blood-red light and the other black with a hint of purple, infused with void primordial energy.

My senses narrow, with kinetic awareness dominating. I sense the vibrations from his steps and the beating of his heart; I even feel the air reacting as his body moves. Then I duck and sidestep, avoiding two thrusts aimed at me. And though a third comes from an invisible third arm, I dodge it as well.

His void energy pulses in an attempt at disrupting my skills, unlike anything I’ve sensed before, aimed at disturbing my mana and kinetic energy. It partially succeeds, making my energy more difficult to control.

He strikes out at me again. Once at my head, once slashing for my neck, and once aiming to pierce my heart, and I continue to evade. And all the while, he displays an incredible degree of speed; every movement is deadly.

But he just cannot compare to Tacita.

Instead of dodging the next attack, I let his void dagger pierce my palm and grab his hand, locking the dagger in place.

This disrupts my mana and kinetic energy, giving him an opening to move quickly and finish me off before I can counter. Then, I release the thermal energy I’ve been holding in reserve. It passes through his hand and into his body, with golden flames melting through everything in their path.

He reacts quickly, attempting to escape as his effort shifts from disrupting me to saving himself. As he does so, I use kinetic energy to keep pace and release a stronger burst of thermal energy.

Just a tiny bit, I open the seal on my Ignition Heart, and he crumbles into a fine ash even as he struggles to escape.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Georgiadis (Beyond) +100 pts

I pull the Ley Lines back to me and hurl them out again to avoid the traps they've already started setting.

Releasing kinetic energy through my bare feet, I stomp, breaking a hole through the roof and dropping through to land in the throne room.

Immediately, an arrow made of compressed red and white lightning crashes against the tricolored barrier I form, breaking it and slicing my cheek, drawing blood.

Someone tries to enter through the hole I just made, but I fire off a mana projectile that pierces his head and kills him instantly. When another attempts the same, I repeat the process.

Noname (Beyond, King) → Kiara (Hard) +10 pts

Noname (Beyond, King) → William Fairfax (Hard) +10 pts

Then, I turn back to my opponents.

"You are bleeding," says the 8th round’s [King] from the throne.

I follow his gaze to my palm, the one that was pierced by the assassin’s void dagger. Even now, it continues to bleed, healing more slowly than it should.

There are no healing marks on me this time; even my healing passive is deactivated.

For a short moment later, I watch a droplet of red blood flow down my palm, onto my finger and fingertip, before dropping onto the white marble floor.

"Just a flesh wound," I answer to Derick Kelley. His wife, Noelle, stands beside him, bow drawn, and its string of mana nocked with an arrow made of primordial lightning.

Then I charge them.