A Formidable Foe, As Expected

After waiting patiently for a while longer, Benjamin slowly opened his eyes, a cold gleam flashing through them.

Maintaining his Phase Space state, he silently "glided" directly above the massive boulder, within arm's reach of the figure seated cross-legged below.

Then he suddenly exerted force!

The "separated" state of Phase Space was actively released. Benjamin's figure seemed to leap abruptly from beneath the water, appearing in the Main Plane in an instant!

Yet when Phase Space was released, the suppressed, violent spatial shearing force produced by the overlap of the two spatial layers did not subside or dissipate. Instead, he forcibly guided it with his powerful spiritual force, gathering it along the edge of his palm!

[Spatial Slash]!

A tiny black fissure, as though capable of cutting through the world's very foundation, silently slashed toward the figure below, who had just awakened in alarm at the violent spatial disturbance, following the downward swing of Benjamin's hand!

Though the Soul School wizard had been wary of the anomaly that had just appeared, his attention was focused entirely on the possible presence of another Soul School wizard. He clearly had not expected an attack to come from directly overhead at almost point-blank range, without the slightest warning, by tearing through space itself!

More importantly, he clearly had not expected to be discovered at all!

His cross-legged body shuddered violently, and at least seven layers of shields and barriers of varying colors and properties erupted around him in an instant. Some deflected perception, some neutralized energy, and some directly hardened space in an attempt to halt the attack.

But the cutting force of Spatial Slash came from the displacement and tearing of spatial structure itself. It "skipped over" most conventional confrontations between energy and material defenses.

Ssshh!!!

Like a hot knife slicing into