Kenno dashed back from the surging flood of mana.
His shirt and pants were sizzling and torn, which was a feat on its own for the new development from Allora, as these two pieces of clothing had a decent amount of durability that wouldn't have been compromised by a simple strike of mana.
But that was the thing.
'What's happening here?' Kenno thought while squinting his eyes. Past the glaring glow, he could perceive Allora's blue core letting out volumes of mana that it shouldn't have been able to.
In fact, no mana core could do this. None could expel a limitless amount of mana!
'Are you telling me that she got a Class that grants her an unlimited amount of mana?'
Allora, while covered in the intense glow took steps from the wall and looked down at her abdomen.
A smile appeared on her face. She then turned to Kenno, her confidence still burning bright.
"Third time's the charm," she said, and then got into a stance. But this time, she didn't wait for Kenno to come to her. The reckless glow and flow around her was reeled in, and layered around her body, an audible grunt of effort leaking out in the next moment.
With a great thrum akin to that of an explosion, Allora shot towards Kenno who frowned and swiped away a straight fist that demanded to meet his face. Another came from below his chin and he swiftly moved his head out of the way only to send his elbow towards Allora's face.
Bhup!
...!
Kenno felt a thick, shock resistant layer swallow his blow before it reached Allora's nose. In the micro moment he took to express surprise, he was forced to groan as a nasty, unseen presence rammed into him like a giant bat, and the next thing he knew, Kenny struck the wall at the end of the wall with a greater force than that which he had punished Allora with earlier!
The former common bandit didn't listen to the pain, however. This would have been case even if he hadn't seen Allora practically soar through the air to pile on the attacks on him while he was down.
His mana surged as he extended a straight palm right where Allora was approaching from, and then he released a blot of it in a precise, unbelievably fast blast that caught the former Shaman off guard, and struck her in the solar plexus.
Allora groaned bitterly.
The packet of bright light around her had been pierced for the blow to reach her, but it immediately reforged itself. Allora did the same.
While a blow like the one she had been dealt would have ended the fight for most, she only took a second to stifle her body's weakness and then proceeded to continue her charge. The second she took was enough for Kenno to reach her, however. He wasn't naive enough to believe conventional blows would work anymore especially after...
...!
As Kenno's foot was about to strike at Allora's side, once again...
BAM!
Kenno was sent flying so fast towards the end of room that it looked like he had teleported coarsely to bash against the wrong destination.
'What the hell is going on?' Kenno once again ignored the pain he felt to focus on his opponent. Allora didn't rush in to attack this time fortunately.
'I thought she was just using some kind of wind attack, but... no. Something's not right.'
Mana continued to leak out of Allora's mana core fiercely, with no end to it in sight. The thick coat it formed around her had managed to block Kenno's elbow swing easily, but the mysterious blow he had sent to her chest had pierced it easily.
She wasn't satisfied given that failure from her mana reinforcement.
The layer of mana around her turn brighter, but thinner with her will. Her muscles seemed to grow tauter and firmer as this occurred.
'Come on,' she said, her eyes pinned on Kenno.
Replicus looked amused.
It was normal for most sessions of combat to start with basic physical attacks or in the case of Mages, basic elemental attacks. This battle was following the same principle. Neither Kenno nor Allora seemed keen on revealing more than which was necessary. Allora in particular was stubbornly using a combat style she was weakest in as a main form of attack while sprinkling elements of her new abilities.
Said new abilities, it seemed, had more to them that the seemingly insurmountable volume of mana gushing from her mana core.
"You've changed a lot, Allora," Kenno said with a weak smile.
"Yeah, I have," the tall, thin woman said.
"Glad to see it. Let's get to what the new you can really do now."
"Sure."
Allora saw Kenno opposite her in one micro instance, and in the next, she felt his leg hook around her neck to pull her to the floor. The tall woman groaned defiantly, and in a shocking show, her hands blurred to grab Kenno's leg and push it back.
Kenno's eyes shone.
'Her strength suddenly increased to match mine!'
Then, he felt it.
A walloping blast of unseen energy rammed into him again, this time with twice the force.
However, Kenno didn't budge.
...!
Sadly for Allora, Kenno's leg around her neck grew heavier.
"I'm starting to figure your powers out," Kenno told the ex-Shaman before he speedily grabbed her arm, pulled it up, and pushed her face to the floor where he trampled it with his foot.
While her cheek scrapped against the floor, Allora's eye turned up to Kenno with a rebellious light.
"Are you really?" she said as a distorted grin appeared on her face. "Then did you figure this?"
Kenno felt alarms ring within his body.
The mana which had been bursting freely out of Allora's mana core suddenly vanished, and at the same time Kenno felt a violent flame and its immense scorch explode right in his face!
Allora's arm which he was holding up had sent a fireball slithering his way, and it caught him off guard, causing him to loosen his grip and footing on her head. That momentary lax in firmness was all Allora needed.
Once again, a furious, unseen force blasted Kenno in the head and he staggered back a few steps. He recovered quickly, however, and was about to hammer down on Allora the instant he located her from derision when...
WAAA!
Kenno felt Allora's mana explode out once again, growing in volume each second. When he got a clear view of her, he found a radiant sword in her hand that spat out misty spores of mana.
Wait. The sword itself was made using mana!
Allora used her exceptional mana manipulation skill to create it, and without waiting a moment more, her teeth ground hard against each other as she raised the mana sword and brought it down with all the might she could conjure!
"HAAAA!"
There was a tremor and an unreal flash of light!
Pherdanta who had been silent and unresponsive to the fight since the start, showed a glimmer of a reaction, finally. Even she hadn't expected this, and now she too started to understand what Allora could do now.
A straight but slightly rugged cut traced the floor from Allora to the wall on the other side. Kenno was a few inches to the left of it, a stunned expression on his face.
Allora grumbled, seeing that Kenno had managed to dodge. She panted heavily and she was sweating buckets. She raised the sword again and Kenno wore a funny smile, preparing to lunge.
"That's enough," Replicus' voice suddenly came.
Both combatants turned to their boss.
Already?
Allora looked particularly shocked and disappointed.
Why did the boss suddenly call for them to stop? Was the boss not impressed by what she had to show? But she wasn't done!
Allora's state of mind was only made worse when Grim popped into the room with an excited face and said:
"What did I miss?"
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