Volume Three: The Academy Goes on a Rampage-Pain Spiral (Part One)
"Pfft!"
The space rippled like the surface of water, and from the center of the vortex that appeared in the void, the bright moon was "spit out".
The moment she hit the ground, she immediately used Snow Moon to support her body, but she collapsed to the ground after only a few seconds.
"Ugh... Ugh..."
She tried to straighten herself by holding onto the tree, but the persistent dizziness and nausea made her collapse again before she could even get up.
"Ugh!!!"
The contents of her stomach surged up into her throat, and she knelt on the ground, vomiting violently until she had almost emptied her stomach. But she didn't have much time to recover. Clutching her still dizzy and throbbing head, she staggered to her feet, wiped the vomit from the corners of her mouth, and tried to focus her attention on her surroundings.
"Where is this... a peninsula?"
Despite the dizziness, Haoyue could still make out the general layout of this long and narrow piece of land at a glance. It was a sizable peninsula, covered with reefs and twisted trees, with one end connected to the mainland and the other side leading to the boundless sea. The surging waves crashed against the reefs, seabirds whose names she did not know flew overhead from time to time, and small animals such as crabs crawled in and out of the crevices between the rocks.
Although both are peninsulas, this one is clearly not the peninsula where the League of Scholars) is located.
The dizziness gradually subsided, and Haoyue warily released runes all over the ground, with Gold Silver Orange halos expanding in circles, guarding against any possible surprise attack.
Where is that guy...?
Based on her observations, there were none on land, at sea, or in the sky.
Could it be underground?
Thinking of this, Haoyue looked down at the ground.
Reefs and unidentified weeds, dust, crustaceans crawling around, and...
"... Um?"
A faint, perceptible ripple emanated from beneath my feet, growing stronger and more pronounced as it approached.
"Oborozuki-bu!"
In the final instant, orange runes affixed to Haoyue's feet, and she leaped into the air, rapidly moving away from the ground! Just as she left the ground, the rocky and overgrown ground suddenly twisted violently, forming a huge vortex centered on where she had just stood! The destructive twisting force caused the rocks to crumble inch by inch, and the area continued to expand, eventually shredding the entire central part of the peninsula!
Haoyue stood on the Bridge of Light in mid-air, still feeling lingering fear.
"You've already gone to hide from me, but although you're still feeling dizzy and disturbed, oh, not bad, oh."
The light distorted, Raosen's eerie figure appeared on the ground, his vertical eyes fixed on the bright moon.
Haoyue frowned, deep in thought.
"You... achieve invisibility by distorting light?"
"Well, it's too fast and it'll backfire~"
"..."
It's pretty much confirmed.
Raosen's superpower is to distort objects, whether they are solids like rocks or intangible things like light. The next level of distortion is "rotation." In the previous aerial chase, Raosen used the power of rotation to create a tornado behind him to propel himself forward, and its speed was not to be underestimated.
Only one question remains—how did he manage to throw the bright moon directly from its original location to a peninsula several kilometers, even tens of kilometers, away? Was this also related to the power of distortion?
"Ah, the grumbling and cursing will cause more spider disease, but it will waste too much time. It's really fun to play with beautiful girls."
"Golden Moon - Moon Wheel Spear!"
Several Light Gun shot towards Raosen with lightning speed, only to be shattered into dust less than a meter away. Raosen smiled eerily, the light around him twisted again, and his figure swayed a few times before disappearing. Hao Yue immediately tensed up, carefully observing the surrounding situation.
"There!"
Haoyue dodged the attack that came from the side. It was a very small whirlwind—no, rather than a whirlwind, it was more like a product of space itself curling and folding. Although it was only the size of a thumb, you could clearly see tiny spiral cracks in the space it passed through.
The first few spirals missed, but the next few immediately followed. Haoyue waved Snow Moon, and several shields formed by orange light covered her. However, the moment the spirals hit the light shields—although only grazed them—a strange spiral pattern spread outwards from the point of contact like waves, instantly shredding the entire shield!
What terrifying destructive power! Haoyue's expression grew increasingly solemn. Although this man named Raosen's superpower had clearly not yet been fully unleashed, his power could be seen from these various signs!
"Can 'distorting power' spread between objects through contact...? In other words, even the strongest defense can be broken by a single strike, and even a tiny bit of it will cause serious trouble."
While dodging the spirals, Haoyue quickly analyzed the situation. Defense was pointless—realizing this, Haoyue immediately withdrew all defenses to avoid unnecessary energy consumption, and then increased her speed to dodge attacks. Since she couldn't defend, she could only focus on dodging.
Just as she was constantly observing and figuring out the other party's abilities, that guy was also constantly observing her, which is why so far they've only been minor skills... Haoyue thought to herself. Then, with a wave of her hand, several runes floated in front of her, but these runes didn't form an attack; instead, they quietly emitted dense particles of light. The hazy particles of light scattered across the sky, sprinkling down on the earth, filling the entire space...
Haoyue carefully observed the diffused light particles and quickly discovered that the distribution of the light particles was very strange in a certain place less than a hundred meters away from her.
"Silver Moon, Moon Sea!"
The most dazzling silver rune exploded in the air, and a torrent of silvery-white liquid light poured down like a waterfall, instantly forming a surging ocean of light. This lunar sea was even larger and more turbulent than the one in the last battle against the bright moon! The giant waves of light shattered all obstacles, spreading outwards in concentric circles, and the area it occupied was still expanding!
This time, Haoyue didn't use a quick attack technique like the Moon Wheel Spear, as that would only result in her being completely defended against, just like before. So she used her signature technique, Moon Sea, which could cause wide-area damage and create the illusion that she had to use an area attack because she couldn't find a target.
"This skill is terrifying, gorgeous, and real, wow wow wow."
Sure enough, under the wash of silver light, Raosen's ability to become invisible by distorting light was severely disrupted, and he finally reappeared. Although his features were distorted, it was not hard to see that he still had a relaxed and confident expression.
"Kill him!"
With a thought, a colossal wave of light surged toward Raosen. Raosen smiled gently, and the spatial ripples engulfed his figure. The bright moon, which had been standing above the lunar sea, immediately submerged into it. The next instant, Raosen appeared where she had just been, with small tornado-like spirals swirling around his fingertips.
"That was close!"
The bright moon emerged from the other side of the lunar sea, still feeling lingering fear.
The Moon Sea is located in the air, appearing from a distance as a luminous ocean floating in mid-air, with emptiness above and below. Raosen was previously in the upper part of the Moon Sea, while Haoyue, to avoid his attack, passed through it and arrived at its lower side. Above her is an ocean of light, and a hundred meters below is the ravaged peninsula, scarred by the flying spiral she had previously dodged.
"I see... He can also distort space?"
Haoyue had now figured out how he had achieved teleportation.
If we consider space as a sheet of paper, the shortest distance from one side of the paper to the other is not a straight line, but rather if we fold the paper so that the two sides are directly touching, with zero distance.
Raosen achieves teleportation, or at least makes it appear as teleportation, by distorting space to bring the two sides of the "paper"—his current location and the location he wants to reach—together.
"But in that case, space will inevitably distort for a split second before he teleports, and I can react in advance based on this sign!"
In this way, Raosen's sneak attack wouldn't be so difficult to deal with, and I could also—hmm?
Through the sound of the waves of the Moon Sea, the bright moon seemed to hear Raosen's soft laughter--
"--Oh no!"
Haoyue immediately accelerated to dodge, while a deafening explosion resounded from the ground below. The spirals that Haoyue had previously dodged and shot into the ground continued to accumulate and combine, eventually converging into an extremely terrifying force! A tornado-like air swirled up sand and dust into the sky. At first glance, it didn't seem to have any destructive power, but Haoyue could feel that each grain of sand had an unusual fluctuation!
Although Haoyue accelerated to its maximum speed, it was still a step too slow! A few grains of sand, just a few grains of dust, passed through the not-yet-fully-formed Shield of Moon Radiance and struck Haoyue's left hand, which was not holding a sword!
An extremely powerful twisting force traveled from the sand and dust to Haoyue's fingertips, instantly twisting and cracking her beautiful, jade-like fingers! And the twisting energy didn't disappear; instead, it spread from her fingers throughout her entire arm—
"Tsk!!!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Haoyue raised her sword and brought it down. A streak of blood flashed, and her left hand traced a strange parabola as it fell. In less than a second, it was twisted into minced meat. The twisting force on the minced meat continued to work until every small piece of meat was shredded into dust before finally disappearing!
"... Yuyue."
A silver rune immediately adhered to the severed area, and the warm silver light quickly stopped the bleeding, but regeneration would still take considerable time. Facing a formidable foe, she focused most of her power on fighting and dared not allocate too much energy to the regeneration of her left hand.
At the same time, a huge vortex emerged from the center of the lunar sea, causing the entire ocean of light to explode and dissipate into countless particles of light. Raosen's twisted body slowly emerged from the particles of light. He looked at Haoyue's left arm, which was missing its left hand, with great interest, his vertical eyes narrowing into two slits.
"Is it really so precious that you can't just chop off your hands? Young lady, you're so ruthless!"
"..."
Although Haoyue didn't show any signs of pain, it was actually excruciatingly painful. Should she thank Xiao Ye for the daily torture she endured? Her pain tolerance has improved significantly.
At the cost of losing a hand, Haoyue realized one thing.
Raosen can indeed make the distortion force propagate between objects.
The small "spiral" he previously launched at Haoyue was actually a manifestation of the power of distortion propagating through the air. After the spiral struck the ground, it transferred the power of distortion to the ground, and the gravel and dust on the ground became its new carriers. After the power of distortion accumulated to a certain extent, it exploded on the ground, causing countless grains of dust carrying the power of distortion to disperse into the sky. When they touched Haoyue's hand, the power was transferred to her fingers.
If she hadn't decisively cut off her left hand, her whole body would probably be twisted into mincemeat by now.
"What a terrifying guy..."
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I'm back from HKU. Do they think electricity is free there? The air conditioning is so cold...
I'll hurry up and write more, then take a break before writing tomorrow's chapter.