At the last moment, just before her fist smashed into my face, I managed to move my head to the side. The air shifted violently as the punch passed by, the force behind it strong enough that I could feel the wind brush across my skin. Seeing that I had barely dodged the strike, she immediately shifted her weight and gathered even more strength for the next attack. Her body flowed smoothly into the motion as her fist drove forward again, this time aimed directly at my chest.
Because of how close we were, I knew there was no way for me to dodge it.
Instead of trying to escape the hit, I made a quick decision. I would take the punch and use that moment to strike back as fast as I could.
As her fist moved closer, I braced myself for the impact, tightening my muscles and clenching my own fist. I prepared to endure the pain if it meant I could finally land a hit on her. For a brief moment I felt confident in that plan.
I had severely underestimated how strong she was.
The instant her fist connected with my chest, the air was violently forced from my lungs. Pain exploded through my body and my vision blurred for a second, my feet nearly losing their balance under the overwhelming force of the strike. Even so, I refused to let the opportunity slip away. Gritting my teeth, I forced my body to move despite the shock still running through my chest. Using every bit of strength I could gather, I thrust my right arm forward, my fist aimed straight toward her.
In my mind the punch was supposed to connect. I had already imagined the moment it would land and what I would do afterward.
Unfortunately for me, that was never the case.
She clearly realized that I had intentionally taken the punch just to retaliate. Yet instead of looking surprised or attempting to defend herself, she simply stood there calmly as if nothing about my attack concerned her. Seeing that she made no effort to block or avoid the strike filled me with excitement.
Finally.
I could land a hit.
(Considering he had always been on the losing end of their fights, how could he possibly ignore an opportunity like this?)
But when my fist reached her, instead of feeling the impact of bone meeting bone, I struck nothing.
Or perhaps something that simply refused to yield.
Confused, I lifted my head and looked directly into her eyes, trying to understand what had just happened. For a brief moment we simply stared at one another in silence.
Then she smiled.
"You thought I was going to let you land a hit?"
She paused for a moment, her expression filled with quiet amusement.
"If this were before, I might have given you the chance. But now you need to learn the hard way. So watch carefully and learn, Orion."
Realizing that she had been playing with me from the beginning, I tried to think of another way to attack, but before I could even form a plan, her leg snapped forward.
The movement was so fast it reminded me of a bow releasing an arrow.
The kick came like lightning.
The sudden danger sent alarm bells ringing through my mind and my breathing instinctively sped up. Her leg was already rushing toward my chin with terrifying speed, but my body reacted before my thoughts could catch up.
I moved purely on instinct, shifting away just in time for the strike to miss me by the smallest margin.
"Nice reflexes," she commented sarcastically.
She moved like the wind itself. Most of the time she was nothing more than a blur in my vision, appearing clearly only at the instant she attacked. The sound of her movements cut through the air like sharp gusts, and each strike carried enough force to rattle the ground beneath our feet.
How was she doing this? I had believed that with all the changes my body had undergone, I would at least be able to close the distance between us or catch her off guard. Instead, I found myself completely on the defensive, barely managing to avoid her attacks.
Taking a slow breath to calm my racing thoughts, I tried to focus.
My body had changed. I could feel it clearly. I was faster than before, my reflexes sharper, and my body felt lighter and more responsive with every movement. It was almost as if my senses had expanded, allowing me to feel danger before it fully happened.
My body was aware.
If I wanted to survive this fight, or even last longer against her, then I needed to trust that instinct. I needed to stop thinking so much and allow my body to react naturally.
She gave me a few seconds to gather myself, watching me calmly as if she understood exactly what I was experiencing. The realization slowly settled into my mind that all the training we had done before had never been serious for her.
She had always been holding back.
Allowing me to believe that I had a chance against her. In reality, I was nothing more than a fledgling standing before someone far beyond my current level.
Then her expression changed.
"I expect you to give this everything you have," she said firmly, her voice carrying a tone that made it clear she was no longer playing around. "No more second-guessing. Use every ability you have, because you will need it. I'm taking this up a notch.
I looked at her and nodded slowly, silently agreeing.
"I understand."
"Be ready," she said quietly.
The moment she finished speaking, the fight escalated.
I threw everything I had into it. I tried to evade her strikes and counterattack whenever I saw even the smallest opening, but every attempt ended the same way. She was simply too fast for me to keep up with. Most of the time I relied entirely on instinct to dodge her attacks, my body moving on its own as her fists and kicks sliced through the air around me.
Every punch I threw failed to reach her.
Every kick met nothing.
It felt like trying to strike empty air.
After several failed attempts, I finally realized why.
Something surrounded her. Some kind of invisible barrier.
By the time that thought fully formed in my mind, bruises had already begun to spread across my body. My arms ached from blocking, my ribs throbbed from the strikes I had failed to avoid, and my breathing grew heavier with each passing moment.
Eventually the strain forced me down to one knee. Breathing deeply, I looked up at her.
"You're protecting yourself with something," I said, struggling slightly to steady my breathing.
She simply nodded in response.
Then she spoke again.
"I'm going to increase the pressure."
Standing calmly in front of me, she slowly released something from within herself.
The change was immediate.
A powerful pressure began spreading through the training hall, as if invisible seals were gradually being lifted from her body. An otherworldly aura surrounded her, glowing faintly as it expanded outward and filled the space around us. The atmosphere itself felt heavier.
The pressure pushed against my body from every direction, making it harder to breathe. My muscles tensed as if they were being pressed down by an invisible weight, and for a terrifying moment I truly believed the force would crush me where I knelt.
Just before the pressure became unbearable, she stopped.
"That should be enough," she murmured quietly, almost speaking to herself. "Any more than this and this plane won't be able to contain it." Then she looked down at me.
A beautiful yet unsettling smile appeared on her face.
"I would suggest you start using your abilities now," she said calmly. "Otherwise I might kill you by mistake." The shift in her tone sent a cold chill through my body.
She wasn't exaggerating.
Realizing that holding back would only make things worse, I took a slow breath and steadied myself.
Something she said reminded me of something that had happened to me a few days earlier.
Since the meteor shower and everything that followed, I had been trying to understand the strange power inside me. Through countless attempts I eventually realized that the crystal within me responded strongly to my emotions and to what was happening around me.
After enough experimentation, I had finally discovered a way to activate it intentionally.
Now, standing here in the present moment, I knew there was no point holding back anymore.
Still kneeling, I placed one hand against my chest as if trying to reach the crystal within me.
"It's time," I muttered quietly, just loud enough for both of us to hear.
Slowly, I rose to my feet.
The air around my body began to change.
A strange, distorted aura formed around me, spreading outward like a shadow twisting through space. My eyes deepened into something darker, resembling an endless abyss that seemed capable of swallowing light itself. My black hair gleamed faintly under the dim lighting of the hall, and even my expression felt different, sharper and more dangerous than before.
Seeing this transformation, the woman's sadistic smile widened.
Our eyes locked.
Without saying a word, we both understood what would happen next.
In the next instant we moved.
Our bodies shot toward each other like two violent storms colliding in the center of the arena. The force of our clash cracked the floor beneath our feet, the sound echoing through the training hall as dust and fragments of stone scattered outward.
For the first time since the fight began, I was able to fight back properly.
My body moved far faster than before, my strength pushing beyond normal limits as each movement carried far more force than I had ever felt before. At the same time, the strange power within me responded to my will.
Telekinesis.
Now I could control it.
When she launched herself into the air to deliver a devastating attack, I reached out instinctively with my mind and grasped the space around her, slowing her movement for the briefest fraction of a second.
That tiny delay was enough.
I moved aside just in time to avoid the strike.
Instead of looking surprised, her smile only grew wider.
She broke free of my hold almost immediately.
Dust filled the air as the ground shook from her landing. Even through the cloud of debris I could still feel her presence clearly.
"So you've finally activated telekinesis," she said calmly. "I expected it much later."
Her words confirmed the truth.
Since my encounter with the shadowy figure days ago, I had been experimenting constantly, trying to understand the limits of my abilities.
Now I could finally activate telekinesis consciously.
But it was still rough.
Unstable.
The air grew quiet for a moment as we both paused, like the calm before another violent storm. I waited cautiously for her next attack.
This time she didn't approach like a blur.
Instead she simply appeared behind me.
One moment she had been somewhere else.
The next moment she stood directly at my back like a ghost.
The sensation stirred a memory in my mind.
It felt exactly like the moment I had been displaced through space before.
Then her voice whispered beside my ear, soft and chilling.
"You still have so much to learn, Aether."