Leones rolled her neck once, exhaled slowly and reset her stance. She was already panting as her wounds healed in seconds.
Leones Richinaria is not weak. Her problem wasn't lack of power. It wasn't lack of durability. It wasn't even her lack of skill. It was delay.
"You're extremely good."
"That didn't look like it."
"I didn't say you were better than me. I said you're good."
"..."
"You are incredibly durable. Your physical strength is above most Fourth Enlightenment Divines. Your reaction speed is high. Your endurance is excellent and your defensive instincts are almost excessive."
That made her glance at me.
"Excessive?"
"Yes. Your defense is too good."
Leones is built like a fortress. Her guard is tight. Her stance is stable. Her weapon attacks are efficient and controlled. That was admirable.
"The only issue is your Divinity."
"Yeah. I figured."
Her Inanimate Control Divinity was powerful in theory, but theory didn't win Divine-rank battles.
"It's not that your Divinity is weak."It's slow."
"Slow?"
"Yes."
Before she could fully seize control of an external object in the arena, she had already lost seconds. And seconds in Divine combat were lethal margins. To use Inanimate Control, she has to identify the target, focus on it, extend her Divinity, establish dominance then manipulate it. That process was not instantaneous. Against Divine-rank beings, that delay was fatal.
"The Aeterium are both mages and weapon users. Veneri is an extremely skilled mage and weapon user and so is Anamorsia. They can transition between both seamlessly."
She clicked her tongue lightly.
"I know."
"You're skilled with both but your transition time is long. When you shift from weapon to Divinity, you lose focus on the battlefield."
That split lapse of cognitive switch was visible to me every time she tried to exert her Divinity mid-fight. And in a battle against Divine Rank beings, that was enough to die. Meanwhile, I was also realizing something else. My Sapphire Materialization has improved significantly. Using sapphire at large scale is easier l now after training in the Sucking Void.
Leones exhaled and then suddenly dropped down to sit on the arena floor.
"Alright, say it. My issue is my Divinity, right?"
I sighed softly.
"You have one weakness."
"Only one?"
"Yes."
I raised my hand. Two massive sapphire walls materialized side by side in front of her. Both were identical in size and density at three meters tall and thick.
"Strike the first wall using only your weapon and your physical strength."
She stood without complaint. The chain tightened around her forearm. She spun once and slammed the mace into the first wall. The wall cracked deeply. It was nearly destroyed.
"Now use your Inanimate Control on your mace. Enhance the motion and strike the second wall."
"On my mace?"
"Yes."
She closed her eyes briefly. This time, when she lifted the mace, her Divinity flowed into it to control her own weapon.
The chain responded first. It vibrated, elongating slightly as her Divinity reinforced its alignment. The mace head subtly shifted orientation mid-swing, correcting its trajectory by fractions of a degree.
The second wall shattered into thousands of sapphire fragments that dissolved mid-air.
"What?"
I crossed my arms.
"Inanimate Control is not a battlefield seizure Divinity. It's a precision enhancement Divinity."
She looked down at her mace like it had betrayed her.
"I've been using it wrong."
"Yes."
Like Veneri, she requires preparation to use a mage-based Divinity effectively. It was similar to Runes. You don't just use them blindly mid-combat.
"You can't use your Divinity externally in high-speed combat without losing focus. That lapse can cost your life."
"So I use it on my weapon."
Her chain mace is a Divine Weapon. The chain could elongate at extreme distances. It has no fixed handle. That alone makes it ideal for Inanimate Control. She could manipulate its length, tension, rotation and angle without physically repositioning her grip. All she needs to do was learn to use Inanimate Control continuously through it.
"I can do that. But in a high-speed fight, it's hard to maintain focus."
I sighed before I smacked her lightly on the head.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
"Stop thinking about 'focus' like it's something separate."
She rubbed her head, glaring at me. I materialized two sapphire blades in front of me. Without moving my body, I sent one blade forward toward her chest and the other towards her side. They moved simultaneously at the same speed and she parried both easily.
"What did I just do?"
"You controlled multiple projections at once—"
I smacked her head again.
"That is not the question."
"Then what is?"
"How did I do it?"
"I don't know."
I exhaled slowly.
"Because I analyzed the surroundings before acting."
I stepped back.
"For me, I use holograms to adjust to my surroundings. Adelasta has the Mystic Eyes of Perception. Veneri uses his Mystic Eyes of Awareness, Narisva relies on Spatial Awareness. Elyonari senses changes in air currents. Asenane has draconic sensory acuity. Those help them to analyse what's happening around them."
Leones stared at the ground.
"I don't have anything like that—"
"Incorrect. You have Soul Energy and you have two options on how to use it. Expand it in a controlled radius around your body as a field. Maintain it at all times in combat. Anything that enters that radius, you will feel it. You will not need to look. Second option, you could maintain continuous Inanimate Control around your body to seize objects mid-approach. But that does not work on attacks without a physical form."
"So the first one is better."
"Yes."
A Soul Energy field would allow her to detect incoming force before visual confirmation. That would eliminate the reaction delay.
"And once your awareness stabilizes, you can integrate Inanimate Control into your mace permanently a a baseline."
"So instead of switching from weapon to Divinity…"
"You never switch. You'll use both at once. The robots you used can act on their own if you give them commands. They're under your Divinity after all."
Her grip tightened around the chain as she looked at it.
"You're annoyingly right."
Soul Energy began spreading outward from her body to form a field.
"Again."