[Skill: Mana Disruption (A-Rank)]
[Type: Passive]
[Cost: 0 Mana]
[Description: Allows the user to disrupt the mana flow of others by sending their own mana into them, stopping their skills or magic from activating.]
[Note: The amount of mana needed to disrupt a skill must be at least a quarter of the required amount to cast the target’s magic or skill.]
Cipher observed the skill. He’d probably gained it when he disrupted the Chairman’s space magic at the end. Looking at the skill, although it seemed quite impressive, it actually wasn’t all that. At least not in battle. After all, who would let you get close to them and then start injecting mana into them?
Someone you could do that to, you could already subdue. You also needed to know the amount of mana needed for the skill they were about to cast, meaning you needed appraisal.
Still, the skill had its uses. After capturing a troublesome individual, you could use this to make sure they didn’t try anything weird. He noted in his head to talk to Iris about this. At this point in time, capturing Awakeners was still troublesome, and most were just straight up killed or put in cells that they would just break out from.
This led to huge resources being spent on securing captives which wasn’t sustainable at all.
If he could have Iris study this magic and create something that could contain Awakeners, disrupting their skill casting, it would be a great win for the Association. At least they could be seen a little better and not just as maniacs killing thoughtlessly.
He shook his head, letting out a long sigh. Being the acting Chairman for just a few days had made him start thinking like this. Well, he would discuss it with the actual Chairman later once things settled down.
With that, he jumped off the building, flying toward the Association.
As he flew into the Association grounds, he saw undead flooding everywhere. He noted that he didn’t have time for this - he needed to get to the Immortal King to back the others up. That being said, he couldn’t just let the others be overwhelmed.
He retrieved daggers from his inventory and flew by the people who were being overwhelmed, throwing the daggers at the undead and taking them out instantly. Of course, he didn’t use the maximum power he could, as the monsters weren’t all that strong.
Instead of the full aura, he just used mana manipulation to coat the daggers. Although the damage was reduced, it was still enough for the weak undead that didn’t even reach B-Rank. With this, he could save mana. Though each strike still cost him over ninety mana.
In the fight with the Immortal King, it seemed he’d have to borrow demonic qi once again. Well, he supposed he would make it up to the Heavenly Demon by finding Fork and Merge cards to upgrade Mana Recovery and increase the rate of qi gathering.
As he was supporting the overwhelmed groups, he recognized someone. It was Selene, who was also fighting the undead. He descended next to her, landing and taking out the surrounding monsters in a single swing.
"You’re back," Selene spoke, turning around.
"Yeah. What’s the situation?" he asked.
"It could’ve been worse, but thanks to external help, we managed to hold out," she said. "I don’t know if we can keep it up, though."
"Foreign help?" he wondered, but he didn’t bother pursuing it. "Where is the Immortal King?" he asked.
"That way," she pointed in a direction.
"Alright. Take care," he said as he flew off.
...
As he moved more and more towards the direction, his ESP began picking up the Immortal King and... "Orion? Draven?" He wore a confused expression. After all, he was picking them up high in the air. But those two didn’t have any flight-related abilities - at least not for sustained flight - and at the altitude he was detecting them...
He wondered if it had something to do with this other person he was detecting with them.
"Amélie..."
He decided not to think about it and quickly rose to their level.
The Immortal King stared at the group standing in the air opposite him. He had noticed this strong woman and had decided to lure her to the sky to get rid of her, but somehow she’d managed to bring these other two to the sky with her. How was she doing that? he wondered.
He looked at the feet where Orion and Draven stood. Below their feet, he felt slight mana fluctuations. It might’ve been thin, but it couldn’t hide from him, who was extremely mana-sensitive.
At that moment, Draven charged at him. As he moved, the Immortal King remained stationary, observing his movement.
"This is for the Chairman!" Draven roared as his mechanical fist was about to connect with the Immortal King’s skeleton face.
But just as it was about to, the Immortal King chuckled and then disappeared, leaving a blast explosion that knocked Draven back a few meters before he was caught by an invisible force.
"I finally see it. How come I didn’t notice something so simple?" he said as he appeared once again. "Barrier magic, is it?" he asked before breaking into laughter. "How very interesting. I didn’t know barrier magic could be used like this." He now looked at Amélie. "Girl, you’ll make a nice addition to my collection."
"Sorry, but I’m taken," Amélie replied casually.
"That wasn’t a request," the Immortal King spoke as he launched a massive ball of lightning toward Amélie.
Amélie simply extended her hand. A large invisible barrier captured the massive ball of lightning, then began condensing until the ball was completely destroyed.
"I can do this all day," she said.
At that moment, a portal appeared from behind and dark tentacles emerged, ready to pierce her. When she noticed it, it was already too late and she couldn’t move. But right as they were about to pierce her, Orion appeared in a flash, slicing through the tentacles.
"You dare to use this disgusting move before me?" he asked angrily.
"Caught you," the Immortal King replied.
It was then that Orion realized the first attack was merely bait. The Immortal King’s target was actually him. Just as panic was about to set in, Cipher appeared, pushing him away. He then grabbed the dark tentacles with his hand, surprising the Immortal King.
But that wasn’t all. He stabbed his sword - not through the tentacles, but through the portal they were coming from - hitting the Immortal King directly through space and causing him to scream out in pain.
He didn’t bother wasting time talking and rushed toward the now-stunned Immortal King. He placed his hand on his skull, activating Mana Disruption to make sure he couldn’t move. He then swung his sword, decapitating him. He swung a few more times, cutting up his skeleton body into smaller pieces.
He then turned to Amélie. "Quick," he spoke.
She was surprised at first but quickly understood. Using her barrier magic, she captured the Immortal King’s bone fragments and then condensed the barrier, crushing the remains into even finer fragments, then dust, then nothingness.