"Heh."
Sonaya chuckled, completely ignoring the two men struggling in the distance. She turned her gaze back to the Bald Man, curious to see what other tricks he had up his sleeve.
The Bald Man stared at Sonaya's contemptuous expression. His face remained stoic, though a flicker of hope rose in his heart. Her raw power far surpassed his own, and that grotesque sickle-chain could suppress strength and abilities alike. His only path to victory lay in her arrogance.
Whoosh!
The Bald Man crouched low and lunged forward, hurtling toward Sonaya with desperate speed.
"Decent speed, I suppose," Sonaya mused, unmoving. "But your physical build isn't nearly robust enough to survive the strike I just landed. It really is the effect of those strange 'Weapons,' isn't it?"
She watched him approach with utter indifference. To her, this level was trivial. These men hadn't even traversed a third of the Path of Transcendence. Weapons, spells, and tools were merely secondary. To Sonaya, only the fundamental "Path" mattered; without reaching transcendence, one didn't even have a ticket to the real struggle.
BOOM!
With a casual wave of her hand, Sonaya unleashed a force that sent the Bald Man hurtling backward the moment they collided.
How is this possible? the Bald Man thought, his mind numbing with shock. Why did my 'Blade of Mana Severing' do nothing? Her mana signature is so thick it's suffocating. Did she just use pure physical strength? What kind of creature is she? A Phantasmal Beast?
His Mystery item—that short blade—was designed to cleave through any spell or object saturated with mana. Since "Weapons" used by humans were fueled by mana to function in this world, his blade was usually an ultimate trump card. It should have rendered her powerless. But now...
Thud. Splat.
He tumbled from a tree he had snapped in half, his consciousness flickering. The continuous overdriving of his Weapon had drained his mana reserves to near zero.
"To be able to destroy a 'Mystery' item... what... cough... what the hell are you?" he wheezed, staring at the shattered remains of his short blade.
"You actually survived that?" Sonaya tilted her head. "I was quite confident that blow would kill you. I'm starting to get interested in your ability. The amount of 'Mana Discharge' I just used took quite a while to collect from those thugs' souls. Yet here you are, without a scratch on your body, even if your mana is bone-dry. Do you offset damage by burning mana? No... it's something else."
Sonaya stepped closer. "Your physical toughness is average—middle-of-the-road for a human athlete at best. That kind of body shouldn't just survive my strikes; hitting those trees alone should have turned you into paste. And yet, no injury. Why?"
She hummed to herself. "Every time we 'collided,' I noticed a faint ripple of mana. Your Weapon only activates at the exact microsecond of impact, doesn't it?"
She smiled down at him. "But every Weapon has a threshold. If the attack exceeds that limit, you have to pump in more mana to raise the ceiling. The good news: you blocked my strike and your 'intimate encounter' with the trees. The bad news: you didn't block it perfectly. My strike caused your own blade to kick back into your skull. Your head lost its protection for a split second, hence the concussion. I noticed the mana fluctuations when you hit the tree and when you hit the ground. The tree strike only showed exhaustion... but the fall to the ground looked like a 'lethal' wound, even though a toddler wouldn't have been hurt by that fall.
So, your ability is 'Reversal,' isn't it? The more force I use, the less damage you take. No... hm? Oh, omoshiroi (interesting). A clone?"
Sonaya reached down, her hand forming a blade of energy, but a palm suddenly clamped onto her shoulder.
"It's over," a middle-aged man with a buzz cut said from behind her. He pushed up his glasses with his free hand. "Regardless of your race, if you rely on mana to fight, you've lost the moment I touched you."
"Two of you?" Sonaya didn't look bothered. She glanced at the 'other' buzz-cut man—the one still pulling the chain in the distance. "A clone? No... a phantom double that repeats your actions while your true self gains invisibility?"
"You have a lot of little toys," she noted. She swung her hand downward. The air distorted, and the Bald Man lying beneath her was sliced vertically in two. His eyes glazed over instantly.
"How?! I 'Neutralized' you! Why can you still use mana?!" The buzz-cut man recoiled in terror.
"So, you were their last hope?" Sonaya turned, her palm facing upward. She crooked a finger, and the chain-sickle around Meisai's neck retracted instantly, dragging the old man to her feet.
"This old man has a nice ability too. Now, all of you... become my 'Materials.' And you," she looked toward an empty patch of forest, "don't think I didn't notice that ability. I was just playing. Only through the heights of hope and the depths of despair can your 'Potential' truly be stimulated!"
She thrust her hand toward the empty space.
Splurt!
A line of blood erupted from the thin air. With a heavy thud, the invisible body of the buzz-cut man manifested as it hit the ground, stone-dead.