Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Orrel———

“Fancy meeting you here.” I said to Gregori, who is standing still in the middle of this field.

“Rare for you to be out here.” Gregori remarked. There isn’t any sign of abnormality, so he’s the real deal. Then again, we’re not even sure if that person can be anyone else. “So, one has to wonder if that person will show up today.”

“It’s kind of early, isn’t it?” I pointed out. Last time it was more than an hour later.

“Perhaps, but the most important condition for this person to appear should be an isolated area most people wouldn’t dare to waltz into, is large enough to display a lot of power, and durable enough to withstand everything as well…” Gregori said while his expression turned serious. “Which is this place, as we all know.”

“It does give off an episodic feel, doesn’t it?” Jennla’s voice rang out as someone approached us. “Or maybe a boss gauntlet? There are a few applicable tropes there, right?”

“Whatever we call it, does it really matter?” Gregori asked before pulling out his sword.

Unfortunately, we have confirmed that this person can disguise as more than just Karra, and once again her voice and general appearance is accurate with slight discrepancy. She doesn’t have her monkey ears, and her build is noticeably more muscular, a bit taller and wider. “So, are you going to attack us now?”

“That is the plan, yes.” She said with a smirk as she wrapped her tail around her waist. “Don’t worry, I’ll go a bit easier on you two, neither of you are on Qyunda and Malk’s level.”

*Rumble* *Shine* *Crackle*

Very suddenly she began letting out a massive wave of pressure, multiple layers of aura surrounded her body and the ground shook at the vain display of strength hidden underneath. It seems to shoot up high into the sky, her clothes fluttering in the wind that became violent. The clouds seem to split apart from this demonstration, changing the scene in the sky. It’s absolutely suffocating.

“Alright… All warmed up.” She said with a smirk as she clenched her hands and the aura around her was suppressed. Seems like it’s truly starting.

*Dash* *Swing* *Punch* *Launch*

Before either of us could react, she already closed the gap between her and Gregori, and she sent him flying into the sky with an uppercut.

*Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Slide*

She then turned her attention towards me with a flurry of punches and kicks, each one coming with the ferocity I was expecting, as well as suspicion.

Like what Qyunda and Malk described, her movements seem erratic and hard to predict or intercept, but there seem to be a clear blindspot or tell with most attacks, allowing me to dodge out of the way of this individual that is clearly way stronger than me.

The earlier display of her strength made one thing abundantly clear, she could easily kill us with a flick of her finger, that searing sensation is not something one feels when the opponent is relative or even slightly stronger, that was a sign of clear dominance. It was also a warning.

While her strikes wouldn’t come close to dealing fatal damage based on its trajectory and speed, it’s still ill-advised to try tanking it and calling her bluff. It might hurt like hell, or she might change her mind and use more horrific attacks to force me to actually play defensive. Either way, I need to play along with this rhythm and make sure to not lose my footing.

*Swing* *Duck* *Grab* *Swing* *Throw*

I ducked under a punch coming straight to my face and quickly grabbed the arm and threw her away to give me some space.

*Drop* *CRASH* *STAB*

Suddenly someone with a dark aura around them crashed right onto the fake Jennla with a sword in hand, crashing right on top of her and stabbing her right in the stomach, the impact of the landing causing the ground to subtly shake.

Gregori keeps pushing the sword deeper into the ground with the fake Jennla pinned down as well, using his own weight and his affinity for dark magic to intensify the gravity surrounding them to keep her pinned down.

*Grab* *Lift*

“Don’t get cocky.” The fake Jennla said, standing up while grabbing Gregori by his head with his sword still lodged in her stomach, breaking his concentration and the gravity spell along with it.

*Throw* *Crash*

“Uoghf!” Gregori groaned as he hit the ground, quickly getting back up and summoning the sword back to his side. The gaping wound she should’ve had had already closed. “Damn it Orrel! Can’t you do a follow up?”

“My mastery over magic isn’t that advanced yet. You only kept her pinned down for about five seconds, it’s simply not enough.” I answered. I might know a lot about magic and all the theories surrounding it, but my mastery isn’t on the same level as someone like Malk or Kenni. There is a massive difference between theories and practical experience. Magic relies mostly on instincts and memorization. The sensation involved with casting a spell is more akin to a sixth sense than anything that could be described by the other five.

Weirdly enough, EX-VR allows anyone to experience that sense of magic, no matter how faint. That game truly is a massive elephant in the room.

*Shine* *Sparkle*

Suddenly the fake Jennla’s hands light up, each of them building up energy for an attack.

*Blast* *Blast* *Blast* *Blast* *Blast*

Crap! An energy barrage!?

**Leap** *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* **Leap** *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

Both of us have to continuously jump around avoiding the massive amount of energy attacks being thrown our way. While it’s not difficult to erect a barrier to block this kind of non-elemental spell, the quantity means that we’ll probably drain all of our mana before the onslaught is over. We need to stay in the air as least often as possible, since our air movement is still sluggish compared to the burst of speed from jumping off the ground, she can easily throw out energy blasts that can catch up to the former approach. With my inhuman reptilian legs, this is one advantage I have over most people with similar levels of strength. It’s not on the same level as Karra’s legs in terms of keeping a steady yet high movement speed, but it can output a lot of force.

“We need to change our approach quickly!” Gregori yelled out in the few seconds before the next barrage of energy attacks reached us.

**Leap** *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

“And what’s the plan!” I yelled back at him as we continued to dodge the barrages of attack. It felt like she had an infinite amount of mana with how much energy blasts she threw out.

*Leap* *Grab*

Suddenly Gregori jumped towards me with a hand grabbing the collar of my shirt.

“Brace yourself! [Gravity Launch]!” He screamed out as I anticipated what he was about to do.

*Dim* *Throw* *Swerng* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

He threw me while also putting me under the effect of his gravity spell, throwing me straight through the barrages of energy blasts that I can only withstand with the barrier I quickly put up to defend myself against them.

*CRASH*

I crashed right into the fake Jennla, causing her to be sent flying by the human cannonball reaching a speed that is no doubt faster than a speeding bullet. We were sent flying right into the wall at the very edge of the ground floor.

*Kick* *Tumble*

She kicked me away once she stood back up while I am still reeling from Gregori’s less than graceful approach. Even with a quick barrier casted on my body, it quickly shattered the moment I hit the fake Jennla. She is simply so durable that even the force of the human cannonball might’ve pushed her, but it doesn’t seem to do any real damage at all.

*Swing* *Dim* *Pull*

Before she could follow up with a right hook right into my chest, Gregori quickly used another spell to drag me out of the way quickly, avoiding having my ribs being broken.

“I could’ve sworn I pump that spell full of mana.” Gregori remarked as the fake Jennla stared at us. She is indeed completely unscathed, not so much as a bruise on her body.

“It’s what we should’ve expected, her strength is no doubt so vast that no one could accurately judge it. She is purposefully toying with us for an unknown reason.” I said while staring at her, seeing if she’ll make any moves. She seems insistent on using Jennla’s skillset, which is mostly throwing our raw energy attacks. It’s not hard to counter or anticipate, but she seems to be compensating for it with a large quantity of attacks. Compared to Karra’s agility and fire magic, this is probably easier than what those two had to deal with, even with said compensation.

“Too bad we don’t have spells that synergize well with each other.” Gregori remarked as the fake Jennla began walking towards us. None of our elemental talents matched at all, so combining spells is a much tougher sell.

“Stop complaining, we have no time for that.” I said while the fake Jennla is ready to keep attacking.

———Lynda———

“Are they seriously still fighting?” I muttered while looking in the direction of the school campus from afar. The mana reading over there can be felt more miles, it felt like.

“It’s a miracle no stray blasts came out of that campus. Anything outside it would’ve been blown to smithereens.” Glery remarked.

“Good thing the campus is so damn massive. Otherwise everything around that area would indeed be blown to smithereens.” I think anything inside there is also insanely durable, so whoever they are probably aren’t all too afraid of breaking things. There seem to be multiple layers of protection making sure any magical mishaps happening inside will be contained and stay that way. “Based on reaction alone, can’t be weaker than the Perfect Class folks. If it was anywhere else there would’ve been a massive crater where they fought.”

“The entire town would’ve been wiped out.” Glery corrected. “At least the fact that it happened there means that they show some restraint, so it’s probably people who we are familiar with.”

“There ain’t any problematic mages for us to worry about anyway. We have at least three people who can easily intercept them. Considering it’s the second time this happened, it’s clearly no accident that no one had intervened.” Thinking about it a little bit more, it’s probably something similar to Malk and Qyunda’s routine. They tend to hold back a lot to mostly refine their skill when they spar, but this time they went a lot harder on each other… and also had one more person on board.

There are actually other people in the area who had sensed the battle as well, a surprising amount of them, even. Despite the distance of all of us from the school campus with no obvious sign of battle that can be seen from here, the sharp spikes of power that came from each limb being swung and magic being casted. It’s hard to actually tell if it’s due to the intensity of the battle or our sense being sharpened with the higher frequency of mage training.

“This is the second time, right?” Someone asked the nearby bystander.

“Yeah, that school is being weird again.” Said bystander replied.

“Feels like demigods are clashing, hella scary.” Someone else said.

“Jeez, feel like I could even taste it from here.” Another person said. The streets become a bit noisy as the few people just trying to have a casual stroll noticed the abnormality.

Some of them I know are from the guild, so their mana sensitivity is not surprising. They are the usual people who take a walk this late, so this is actually just the regularly scheduled, if I think about it.

Unfortunately, no matter how much people are yapping about this, we still have no idea what’s happening.