Dimensional Descent

Savahn steadied herself, lowering her waist into a stance that looked like a martial art Leonel had seen in many movies before. Her palms faced her opponent and her gaze looked tranquil.

Leonel realized at that moment that he had never bothered to learn much about Savahn’s fighting style, he didn’t even know what her Ability Index was. Though, honestly speaking, he didn’t really know Yuri’s either. Everything he did know was thrust upon him at some random time or another, while Savahn had been lost to them for a very long time after the Metamorphosis.

He always wondered how this girl had survived.

Much like Leonel, after she saw Aina kill someone with an arm through the chest, Savahn had alienated herself from Aina and Yuri.

Unlike Leonel, rather than coming back in just a few days to what was basically the same baseline, it took Savahn years to truly get over it. In fact, if not for experiencing the hardships she had, it was unlikely that she would have ever gotten over it.

It took realigning her views on the world and understanding that living in this sort of environment meant that murder was no longer an objective wrong…

The battle began and Savahn’s arms moved. A delicate wisp of air seemed to move with her, following the tips of her fingers and leaving trails of a foggy energy everywhere she moved.

Her arms left afterimages in the air despite their slow pace, and when she suddenly accelerated, she seemed to magically bypass the spear of the Half-Spiritual and strike against his chest.

The Half-Spiritual stumbled back a step, a bit surprised, but his spear wasn’t slow, dancing in an attempt to counter, but its blunt tip passed right through Savahn’s arm and leg as though they were just illusions and a second palm landed right in the same place.

Savahn and the young man should have been on equal footing, but it quickly became obvious that for whatever reason, the young man was no match for her.

Leonel, who was high above, realized the problem instantaneously.

‘What an interesting Ability Index… it should be unique… She should be similar to Emna…’

The martial arts style that Savahn was using was very much like kung fu, it was fluid and it also didn’t look as though it held much strength or not. In practice, at least on Earth, only a layman would claim that kung fu was a deadly art to begin with.

“Did Savahn practice martial arts?” Leonel asked Aina.

Although he asked, he already knew that answer was no. If Savahn had practiced martial arts in her youth, kung fu would have been the last she chose as the foundation of her combat.

“No,” Aina shook her head.

Leonel nodded. That was what he expected.

It was more likely that Savahn hadn’t had any experience at all and just used whatever methods she had happened to see before, hoping that it would work.

But what was clear was that over the years, whatever method she was using here wasn’t kung fu at all, instead it might as well be her own self-created method because while it had the form, in function… it was nothing like kung fu at all.

The longer Savahn fought, the larger the swirls of energy around her became and the more powerful her strikes were. In the end, it became akin to an endless barrage.

In this sort of situation, though… hand to hand combatants were at a disadvantage. That was because they were used to their hands being lethal, so it wasn’t as though they could blunt their attacks without also pulling back on their usual strength to begin with.

Even in this situation, though, there came a point in the battle where the young man’s feet couldn’t even touch the ground, being hit so many times in succession that his tongue hung out from his mouth and he was continuously sent soaring into the air.

‘She’s lost herself…’ Leonel thought without a word.

As expected, the sickening sound of bone breaking echoed and the Half-Spiritual let out a blood curdling screech.

“Time!” Alderian called out.

Unfortunately, the fluid motion of Savahn’s strikes carried on, three attacks erupting before she blinked, realizing what she had done.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Savahn tapped a foot and moved back almost out of extinct. She didn’t even have to see it coming, but she felt Alderian’s aura erupting even before she saw it.

“I said enough!”

Alderian’s temper boiled over and his booming voice shook the stadium. A raging torrent of Force shot toward Savahn, causing her expression to change. She put her hands up to defend, but she was only in the Seventh Dimension while Alderian was in the Ninth. Although the latter obviously hadn’t used his full strength, and wasn’t trying to kill her either, there was no way she could-

A tall figure appeared before her, brandishing a halberd that glittered with a dark crimson hue beneath the waning sunlight.

BOOM!

Joel’s aura shot up like a pillar in the skies before it concentrated into a blade aura so profound and deep that space seemed to split in two at the same time.

SHIIIIIIIIING!

The aura was split and catapulted toward Alderian, splitting the arena in two. However, before it could attack the old Lord Guard, it dissipated into wisps of energy.

ƈοm

“Are you alright?” Joel turned toward Savahn who was smiling bitterly. She looked into his eyes and somehow felt both happy and helpless at the same time.Leonel stood up, ready to leave the arena. He knew what was happening, but he had no intentions of doing anything to stop it.

This plan of theirs probably had multiple stages and this was likely just one in a long list of many that had already occurred and were likely to occur in the future.

Right now, he had no intention of getting involved.

The Moonstone Lord stood to his feet, and shook his head just as Leonel did so.

“I think that’s enough, Brother Omeron. I’ve seen it already. If you think this is the path forward, I’ll just say that my Bubble won’t be able to condone it.”

The Emberheart Lord frowned. “This… you can’t be truly angry at what’s just a little scuffle, right? There’s no need to discuss this matter here, let’s go back and-“

The Moonstone Lord waved a hand. “Nono, that’s perfectly alright. I had already seen their true faces by the barbarianism of their number one ranked. I don’t want to be involved in this matter any longer.”

Leonel’s steps paused.

He didn’t look back immediately, probably trying to control his impulses.

He shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t get involved. It probably wasn’t smart to do so and it wasn’t his place to do so.

He still didn’t know what the purpose of all of this was. There was a chance that it could be a larger plan set in motion to target humans in general, but he had little evidence of that.

“I should really ignore it.”

In the silent atmosphere, even though Leonel whispered, many in his section heard him.

“I really should…” he whispered again.

The Emberheart Lord frowned. “Number one ranked?” Suddenly, his eyes lit up in realization. “Brother, your words are too-“

“I won’t discuss this matter any further.”

Leonel’s head slowly turned back, a murderous glint reflecting within them.