Test 101

Continuation from the perspective of Arial:

Just as I foresaw the nature of the red MANA, it was teleportation magic. Dantes and Xter are together, so they'll probably be fine, assuming they even survived the initial teleportation—my priority should be Ella then—she's all alone in an unknown state; it's a shame that I didn't manage to touch her in time.

I held up one of my hands in the pose of a prayer, and as I was about to cast my spell, "huh?!"

A person was slowly walking up to me—the MANA I'm picking up is that of a normal human being, just like the rest of townsfolk from earlier. "Are you conscious?" I asked.

"You're not replying, I see." I proceeded to raise one finger in his direction and then casted just a few minor spells.

[SUPPRESSION ACTIVATED]

[ANALYSIS ACTIVATED]

[MANA PURIFICATION ACTIVATED]

Continued staring at the now-immobile man. "Oi, are you conscious? Ya there?"

Turned around; even more of them seem to be stepping towards me. "Can any of you reply to me?"

[SUPPRESSION ACTIVATED]

[SUPPRESSION ACTIVATED]

[SUPPRESSION ACTIVATED]

"Nothing, huh?"

[ANALYSIS COMPLETED]

[RESULTS: HUMAN WITH UNKNOWN ABNORMALITIES]

Unknown abnormalities… I guess they're corrupted in some way and the version of their corruption isn't in the System's database, in that case.

[SUPPRESSION FAILED]

"The fuck?!" Instantly turned around—the man was lunging on top of me with an open mouth trying to bite me.

[SHADOW DISMEMBERMENT ACTIVATED]

"AAAAAAAAAH!" I screamed and he dropped dead with shadow spikes sticking from all over his body. It's a close-range attack that is practically useless from a distance.

[SUPPRESSION FAILED]

[SUPPRESSION FAILED]

[SUPPRESSION FAILED]

"All 3, huh…"

[SHADOW CAGE ACTIVATED]

"Hmm… what do I do with you guys…"

"...you're still human, right? Can't have you just die…"

I raised my hand towards one of them.

[PULL ACTIVATED]

He got pulled straight towards me.

[SHADOW CAGE ACTIVATED]

Caged this one separately from the other two; let's test some of the other spells I have.

"Hmm…"

[MANA TRANSFER ACTIVATED]

Still nothing…

[HEAL ACTIVATED]

[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]

"What about now!" I giggled in mild confidence.

He started…

…grinning.

"Hey! Are you there?!" I voiced in expectations.

Then he… opened his mouth wide. "Shi—"

*GUUUUUUSH!!*

I took a deep, angered breath. "Hmm… mental clarity makes them explode?"

What else can I—

My mouth proceeded to slightly open, and not because I was about to go KABOOOOM, but because the other two I caged suddenly bent the shadow bars and then stepped out of the cage.

"No fucking way…" I stated in awe.

Some sort of affinity or immunity to suppression spells? How can that even be?

What now…

"Hmm…" I don't have time… I need to find Ella as fast as possible.

Held up my right arm. "Unlucky for you two, I guess," I started materializing my shadow blade.

Instantly, I was behind their backs—both of them were frozen without moving an inch.

Then…

…a loud gushing sound appeared and they got cut into minuscule pieces.

"See? I can do that too," I smiled.

I raised my hand yet again—it was time to stop playing around.

[MANA AURA ACTIVATED]

The radius of my MANA goes as far as 0.7 miles (1.12654 kilometres), I should be able to spot her in no time—I closed my eyes and started focusing on detecting her.

Not this one…

No…

Wrong one…

Where is she…

Is there not a single real human being here? All of them are these skinwalkers…

"Oh!" Abruptly opened my eyes.

[SYSTEM MODIFICATION ENABLED]

[NEW MONSTER ADDED TO THE LIBRARY: SKINWALKER]

[SYSTEM MODIFICATION DISABLED]

That should do it! They're still human, but I can't risk others trying anything funny with them—they should focus on surviving instead of playing some sort of warriors of justice.

Anyhow, this isn't good… couldn't detect Ella's MANA in the radius of my aura—she might even be dead by now, for all I know.

"Now… what do we do with you?"

Tons of them walking up to me.

I guess I'll just run—it would be a shame to kill them if there's a way to reverse the corruption.

Jumped on top of a building. The sun was bright; had to block the light with my right hand. "This way…"

[LEAP ACTIVATED]

My right leg instantaneously began cramping to hell—muscle density started increasing, and the roof I was standing on proceeded to crack all over because of the pressure.

"Ouch! This shit always hurts like hell…"

[HEAL ACTIVATED]

Leaped forward—the whole building instantly collapsed to nothing but rubble.

Then…

…time began moving slowly in my eyes…

…a man was holding his right hand straight at me…

…he's grinning… is his hand special? Is it sharp?

[BARRIER ACTIVATED]

And just in case…

[HEAL ACTIVATED]

[SUPPRESSION ACTIVATED]

[SHADOW CAGE ACTIVATED]

The spells were activated in the span of one-tenth of a second… all while in the process of flying across the Town because of my Leap spell. It was a moment of adrenaline and slight panic—it wasn't something to be replicated intentionally.

His right eye… it twitched.

I smiled.

The hand he was holding up towards me got crushed—it was the equivalent of a regular human being punching a brick wall at the speed of a train—even his shoulder got ripped off without even blood spilling out.

Got ahead of him and stood up on the building; he landed on the building behind me. I turned around. "Oh? You're all okay?" I stated while he was turning around with wide depraved eyes.

The suppression spells didn't work? Not even slightly?

He began glaring at his now-non-existent arm with a faintly open mouth.

Then…

…it regenerated.

My smile got dragged to hell.

What the actual fuck?! How the shit did he do that?! My face got intensely serious upon the sight.

"Who are you?! How did you do that?! There's no one in the whole Im City that can cast healing spells strong enough to regenerate whole limbs," in frustration, I voiced; even so, my confidence didn't fall off any cliffs.

[SKINWALKER, Level ?]

System identifies it as one of those walking corpses… that just can't be it.

"You're not going to say anything? Is that so?!" I put on a smirk upon saying that—I felt wickedly compelled to terminate this monster right at this moment.

[LEAP ACTIVATED]

[HEAL ACTIVATED]

[SHADOW EXCHANGE ACTIVATED — STANDBY MODE]

[SHADOW DISMEMBERMENT ACTIVATED]

I took a massive breath as both of my legs cramped even harder than earlier.

It was time…