Genuine Incarnations.
A Master could create Perfect Aura, which boosted their abilities and stats, on a higher level than Full Body Aura. However, to truly be considered accomplished as a Master Stage combatant, one had to have the ability to shape the Perfect Aura into a Genuine Incarnation, which extended a Master's arsenal of utilities, and made way for said combatant to reach the 1,000% ability boost they could achieve when they were at the Peak of the Stage.
Incarnations had two types. Living, and non-living types, or object types.
Living type Incarnations could boost the offensive abilities of the user; the user's technique, attack power, and so on. Object types could boost defensive properties; durability, toughness, resistance, among other similar traits.
However, as one perfected their Incarnation, and got close to the Peak, the interpretation of offensive, and defensive became more nuanced. Being a Master meant defining what your Incarnation's limits are... what your own limits were, in preparation for ascending into the Incandescent Stage, which opened a path to being limitless by nature.
In this current situation, the braided Mind Caster, with his staff, which, with the constantly whirling eyes, persistently twitching body, and fluttering little white wings counted as a living type Incarnation, could boost the effects of his Mind Casting techniques to a stupendous degree.
The short Swordsman on the hand, with his red neon cloud, which was quite the unique object type Incarnation, could defend himself from enemy attacks.
This defence however, came in the form of weakening anyone who was touched by the red, neon cloud. The effect wasn't as potent on other Masters – even if it still restricted them, and their abilities to a large degree – since even if their Incarnations were living, they still offered protection by concentrating Perfect Aura around their users.
When the glowing cloud was matched against others however, say Advancement Stage experts...
Skullius struggled to get his balance right, now that he had lost a large chunk of himself, an arm included.
'Tomato flinger!' Sila called out, feeling that Skullius in this moment, had been rendered a little sober by the shock. He had been tickled the wrong way too.
'Wake yourself up dammit!'
Skullius staggered, and a low groan came from his mouth.
Sila saw this chance.
'Sockethole, wake the flesh up!'
...
Perhaps it was because two of the words in this sentence were very close to Skullius' soul, or because he was surprised by the prospect of another him suddenly spawning out of nowhere.
Like clockwork, a grunt was heard within the clouded mental space. A voice that seemed to have been buried in sand yelled, its volume rising higher with time.
'Sila...?' Skullius said unsurely.
'Who else, you fool?! Get your thoughts straight! You could died just now! Your body isn't regenerating! And you don't have many options to defend yourself here! You should run when you get the chance!'
Skullius blinked a few times. It almost seemed like he hadn't been the one steering his body all this time, but that truth was, he had been. He just hadn't cared much for context, reason, and restraint while feeding his rage with murderous intent.
His thoughts were still sluggish outside of talking to Sila, which was much like talking to himself.
'Wha—'
He had been about to ask something when he felt a heavy boom in the ground.
A distance away, the braided man had pointed his staff at the Swordsman, and sent him soaring among the pillars with a shriek of enhanced mental energy outside the blurred dome.
Without wasting any more time, the Mind Caster turned to Skullius.
Surprisingly, he left his staff floating in the air, and rushed to the Hybrid Luman with just a halo of his Aura around him. He arrived before Skullius who was thinking to run, but couldn't make his body respond, in a blink, and his one hand which was in good condition shimmered with a fierce, radiant light!
Then he threw it in a fist with full force into Skullius' face!
A crackling nose like that of thunder resounded as Skullius ate the punch, his face appallingly sinking into itself. The Mind Caster didn't allow the force of his fist to carry Skullius wayward. He dragged the Hybrid Luman into the dirt, and drew back his hand.
The number above Skullius' head went from '4,690 to 4,590' – the lethal hit he took from the Swordsman included.
Skullius' face was heavily damaged, but not smashed into paste, much to his own surprise.
'Tomato flinger! You have to run! You'll surely die here!'
Skullius didn't have a response to this. It wasn't that he could feel the pain from having his face mushed up, after all, unlike where his body was still being affected by the wisps of red neon clouds, [Saint Lumis' Benign Arc] was already starting to heal his face.
It was because he realised the gravity of the situation he was in.
Both he, and Sila had begun to realise that this dome the Mind Caster had erected, was a field of highly condensed mental energy that stalled thoughts, making the body react way later. Even while blinded by rage, it wasn't that hard to notice.
A technique like this was on a similar level to Karrun's – Setkh's bodyguard – and equally as tricky to deal, if not more so.
He was stuck here indefinitely!
Strangely though, the Mind Caster's punch which Skullius had imagined to be able to bore a hole through his head easily, hadn't managed to kill him.
Why?
As his thoughts accelerated with the influence of the Omniscient Thought Cracker, Skullius remembered that this man was one of the many contenders who had resorted to killing his opponents in the Royale... with a weapon instead of his abilities.
Now he realised why.
It was to fool everyone by hiding the fact that he was a Mind Caster.
Also, perhaps he was incapable of killing with his raw strength since most Mind Casters didn't have impressive physical stats, even as Masters. Skullius rivalled many Masters with his own stats right now because of his race, after all.
But why wouldn't he use his weapon then?
Skullius couldn't see it, but the braided man's damaged hand had a cracked ring on it that had suffered brutally because of Tallo's first attack!
"I didn't think you'd be this hard to kill! You have a pretty strong body, and even some decent healing abilities," the Mind Caster said as he huffed down at the Hybrid Luman.
His body was suddenly saddled by a vicious glow that Skullius sensed to be coming from the staff floating away from them.
His body grew quite a bit muscular, and a bit bloated, his face turning fierce.
"I hate relying on brawn, but I have no choice. I just need a little bit more to pop your head in," he said before looking at Skullius' hand which, after he intended it to happen ages ago, shot a charged shot of mana at the braided man's face.... to absolutely no effect.
The Mind Caster snickered.
"As long as you're in here, your thoughts will begin to stray, and your body will continuously become unresponsive. Even your skills. But don't worry, I'll kill you quickly. Maybe."
A heavy fist smashed into Skullius, prompting the ground around him to rise high in a plume of dust.
This punch was more than twice as strong as the last, and...
'4,490.'
His face instantly began to heal, restoring to perfection.
Another fist covered his face, a little stronger that last.
'4,390.'
But he healed still.
Another fell before a moment could pass.
'4,290'.
Skullius healed, but slowly, his face almost turned to mush.
'Damn... it...' Skullius thought begrudgingly as he pushed his body to move, his thoughts turning into a mess the more he remained here.
This was really bad!
There didn't seem to be a solution, especially when his emotions were wrestling his sanity!
Maybe because he thought about how easily he had beaten beasts at double digit Tiers, compared to the current situation, Skullius finally understood.
No wonder.
No wonder beasts in many cases couldn't measure up to humans.
Even if a beast was at the tenth Tier, as long as it had a mana core that matched its human counterpart, it wouldn't win... if they were a Master.
All mana related skills wouldn't work, and beasts couldn't use Aura.
Right now, he was like a high Tier beast, facing a full counter.
Skullius felt his rage rising again, and desperately tried to tuck it away.
'Calm down!' he thought with hints of panic in his mind.
From before the Mind Caster had started wailing on him, he had used most of the mental focus he had left to position his Temporary Storage below his body.
He didn't know when his intent would become a reality, but right before another loathsome fist could smash into his head which was barely hanging on, a gush of mana exploded from the narrow mouth of the Temporary Storage, and blasted him several dozens of meters into the air!
It worked!
The braided man was caught by surprise.
He saw Skullius escape his dome, and frowned.
The Hybrid Luman had used the excess mana stored in his Storage to propel himself outside the stalling influence.
As soon as Skullius felt the sluggishness of his mind, and lapse in his bodily response fade, he activated [Destined Warp Steps], and appeared a distance away from his enemy.
His heart was pounding.
He had barely escaped that.
His head healed, and he was about to desperately run away when...
A cloud of red surrounded Skullius in that instance, and he felt the presence of the short man a few paces away, his sword held up, and against his chest!
....!!!
Alarm bells rang in Skullius' head!
'No!'
He felt the cloud Incarnation weaken his body furiously, and at the same time he felt once again.... a sharp whisper from the man's sceptre sword, which soared toward him!
This time, Skullius had activated [Destined Warp Steps] at the sign of danger, and was thirty meters away from the short man in a blink, but as he shakily stood on the ground once again.
He felt a deep gash that had nearly split him in two carved across his chest.
Skullius huffed with sweat dripping from all over, feeling the trepidation he had, start to turn into... fright.
Had he been a second later in reacting, he would have been carved cleanly, and like the first strike from the short man, he could feel the red neon clouds swimming where this large gash was.
It wasn't healing!
And it went without saying that he had lost another 100 Units.
Skullius gritted his teeth, but he didn't have the time to stew in this... because just as he landed, his enemy was already close, his cloud Incarnation attempting to close him in!
Unlike the Mind Caster, the Swordsman had great physical stats, and was well versed in using them.
What's more, he was able to match [Destined Warp Steps], which increased Skullius' speed by twelve times his usual base maximum!
With the amplification from his Perfect Aura, he was just a little slower than Skullius!
But that didn't mean the Hybrid Luman was safe.
He felt the familiar sharp whisper when the Swordsman went into his stance, and before he knew it, his body staggered forward, and fell to the ground!
...!
His leg had been lopped off!
What kind of swordsmanship was this?!
This man wasn't even swinging his sword!
Was he... was he a Sword master?
What he was doing felt familiar to Skullius, but he couldn't place a finger on what it was with the state of his mind at the moment.
Not when he was beginning to get swarmed by desperation.
Skullius thought of what to do.
Should he use everything he was holding back? His Insurgent Magnus skills? His darkness, and light, his Precept of Light?
Would that even help?
All these skills were mana based, and didn't have direct offensive abilities anyway!
He might as well reveal them for nothing!
He could use [Boundless Evil] to escape though, but would he be able to run from the Swordsman who was close to matching his [Destined Warp Steps]?
The fear started to set in.
Skullius had long escaped the fear of death, but that didn't mean he wasn't afraid of dying in such a hopeless situation.
The rage started to close in.
Skullius was holding it back as it urged him to move forward, and kill everyone, but he couldn't.
He was losing.
It started with Demion's Dance being turned into a snake, which he assumed was Tallo's doing with Transmutation, something he had experienced before.
Then when all his opponents exposed their hard counters to him as an Advancement Stage expert...
...
Skullius gritted his teeth.
He had resolved to use [Boundless Evil] to escape when, a sharp whisper rang in his ears.
At the same time, this sharp whisper made him recall a set of words he had stopped mulling over ever since he started preparing for the Royale.
'...After speaking to you, clashing swords with you and witnessing what stands as your resolve, I cannot see what I see in everyone else who transcends some threshold. Maybe it's truth you're missing? A tangible goal maybe? Whatever the case is, the sword cannot handle it. It requires you wholly in it, even if you may die by it.'
Skullius gasped.
...And then a sharp sensation swiftly took his head.
Follow current novels on (f)reew𝒆bnovel