664 10/12 0:08 (Autumn, Sunrise, Midrar)
Luna felt out the layer of Skill Rejection enveloping Sabel, repeatedly probing it to grow used to the interference, Recording as much as possible to try and figure out both how to reproduce and bypass it as needed.
Yet her progress was minimal because of the nature of her Mate's Unique Skill itself.
Its Effect restricted to just disrupting Skill themselves, unable to directly influence matter or energy, was incredibly hard to analyze, Luna being only able to feel the Effect of Rebellion indirectly by contrasting the difference in the fluidity of her Astral Ichor inside and outside of the Skill's protective layer.
A good way for Luna to train both the control and acuity of her Authority's Sense.
Fortunately, however, Luna's Will Manifestation offered more direct data for her analysis.
After a brief warning of her incoming action towards Sabel, subtly preparing Mafel and Amber to act at the same time, Willing the Status Alteration 'Charm' to start influencing the Human, landing successfully on her.
Status Alteration Immunity did not influence or weaken incoming Status Alterations, merely negating their Effects until a threshold is reached.
Yet the 'Charm' that was being applied on Sabel was reduced by ten percent.
Curious, Luna strenghtened her assault, doubling its intensity yet feeling the same resistance, a constant ten percent negation in the Status Alteration being applied to the Human.
Even after ramping up even further, the exact same percentual of her Skill's Effect was negated, leading Luna to change her approach.
Instead of applying a Status Alteration, her Will Manifestation now attempting to reinforce her Mate's clothes showed an identical weakening of its Effect, causing Luna to nod in thought.
Soon after she rose a single hand, a droplet of Astral Ichor floating in place before it started to shine, Light-Attribute flooding the place and concentrating around Sabel, Casting a Light-Attribute Defensive Spell around the Human, noting down its five percent weakening.
Silently both Mafel and Amber Casted a Spell each, weak Holy-Attribute Supportive Spells hidden by Luna's Light-Attribute one, testing if Rebellion's rejection was limited by her concentration or the number of vectors.
As an identical, five percent weakening applied to the two Holy-Attribute Spells, Mafel started Casting a Curse-Attribute Spell while Luna returned to actualize her Will, applying both the 'Charm' Status Alteration and reinforcing her clothes at once.
Yet even so the weakening was the same exact one, five percent to the Spells and ten percent to the direct Effect of Skills indipendently of the number of vectors involved, at least none that they figured out right here and now.
"I wonder if… Hey Sabel, can you meld your Aura with your coating?" Luna asked, her Will preparing to sustain Sabel if necessary.
And once the black-haired one actively released her Aura together with her Unique Skill, Luna's Will starting to fray and fall apart around the Human causing red eyes to widen in surprised glee. "How wonderfull!" She couldn't help but let out, firming her Will to fight back against Sabel.
She couldn't help but start a battle at once, her competitive spirit flaring violently at this challenge and leading Amber to immediately jumping in, her own boiling Aura, Vital Energy and Mana molded together, interfering in the fight and ending it with an overwhelmingly direct show of power. "Luna! Hold back a little! Sabel is still-"
She was soon interrupted, however, as Sabel's own Unique Arma started to shine brightly, its light melding with the Human's Aura and causing it to explode violently, Amber's Aura being immediately suppressed and ripped apart under the youngest's presence, her Skills becoming chained, unable to be activated outside of her body.
Fortunately Luna's Will soon erupted, fighting back against the swordswoman's Aura, burning some Astral Ichor to overpower and suppress it in turn, her lust for combat being roused by this conflict.
Before Sabel could start using her Vital Energy and Mana to enhance the Effects of her Aura, Mafel interposed herself between her three more belligerent Mates, distracting them by releasing a mass of Curse-Attribute Mana granted physical mass.
The poisonous purple obelisk now rising between the four immediately stole Luna's attention, her Senses stretching towards it and trying to figure out why exactly it was perfectly stable despite the waves of Rebellion constantly trying to disrupt even her own Will.
Yet she found nothing in either its material composition or its nature that would explain the reason behind such a phenomenon.
Even after Luna created an exact copy of the object using her own abilities and Astral Ichor, seeing it being deteriorated by Sabel's Aura despite her efforts, her attention moving from the mass she created to the still unharmed one made by Mafel.
Starting to move around and poke it gently, the Lunarian completely forgot her previous belligerence, her curiosity stealing completely her attention as she started examining the totem made by Mafel.
Having noticed that her true purpose in creating it was a success, the Spiritual Elf took advantage of the white-haired one's distraction to move towards her other two Mates, covering Sabel's mouth with one of her hands while pulling her towards Amber. "While she is busy, you two better calm down before she returns to reality or you will be pulled in a fight."
At the grey-haired one words, the Phoenix closed her eyes, breathing in and out a couple of times and slowly cooling her temper, having been agitated by having her pride bruised by Sabel's Aura suppressing her own, using her Mark to help calm down the black-haired one.
After a brief wait caused by Luna's shadow erupting into large maws that devoured Mafel's construct, aiming on engaging in a destructive analysis to better understanding it, joining back together with the other three, her crimson eyes infallibly focused on the purple and gold ones belonging to the former Monster. "How did you do it? I am unable to find a reason behind their stability. There are no patterns that would explain its resistance."
Her eyes gleamed intensely, immediately grasping Mafel's hands and pulling her towards herself.
But Mafel knew exactly how she should answer to keep her distracted. "What, can't you figure it out on your own?" The grey-haired one teased, earning herself a long look from the Vampiric one, before this last one sat down, shutting down completely all of her physical senses in favor of concentrating on her Senses, the entirety of her Processing Power, both conscious and subconscious, focused on figuring out the reason behind that construct's stability in the face of the Unique Skill.
Once the Elf was certain that the Lunarian would be unable to hear her, she explained to her other Mates. "Well, Rebellion only Targets non-Racial, non-Unique Skills, right? So I just used my Unique Skill, Malice Generator."
"But even so there should still have been some Rejection, right? For example-" Amber interjected, rising an hand and liting it aflame using just her Racial Skill, the warm orange flames starting to waver and weaken under Sabel's Aura. "- Even if I am only using my Racial Skill, my other Skills are still influencing and strenghtening it, rendering it a partial target of Rebellion."
"Yeah, you are right." The Spiritual Elf nodded, her lips twitching upwards, preparing to divulge how she did it. "And so I made an Oath to shut down all of my other Skills for ten minutes, in exchange for a significant boost to my Unique Skill for five minutes." She smugly affirmed, proud of her workaround. "My Unique Skill after all already let's me manifest Curse-Attribute Mana into physical mass."
At her words, a small marble of curses formed above her left hand, the mass surviving unschathed under the waves of Anti-Skill constantly emanating from Sabel. "Then why did you just challenge Luna to find out how you did? It's not like her Unique Skill is based on creating matter." The Human protested.
"I am sure she will figure out her own workaround to your Skill." The Elf casually brushed it off, moving towards the still Lunarian, poking her face a couple of times to make sure she was unresponsive before taking advantage of her own greater height to pull her in her embrace.
The Human squacked at seeing what Mafel was doing, immediately running to her and trying to pull her away. "You can't just! Stop!"
"Oh? Stop what? I am just hugging our distracted Mate. What did you think I am doing?" She teasingly asked, her purple eyes gleaming as she looked at her red-faced Mate.
And as this last one stuttered, Amber just smiled to herself, smugly congratulating herself for having dodged becoming Mafel's target, before turning towards Luna, carefully studying the way her Will was moving, trying to imitate it with her own Aura.
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