Asher’s Shock Move

[Shoutout to Redemption112 for the review. Thanks a lot and I'll try to bring a steady flow of chapters.]

'How come?' Ethan's eyes widened in shock.

Ethan wasn't the only one who was filling dizzy and shivery as a result of the abrupt sensation of intense cold. The other two on the team -the girl and a poker-faced teen- who had survived Asher's assault were also affected.

It might have seemed like they had dodged the majority of Asher's attacks from before and only got slightly injured, but the truth was far different.

Growing up, Asher realized that his ice mana wasn't regular ice-type mana, but dark-ice mana, which was a rare derivative of the secondary element ice. Apparently, the attendant at the Martial Hall of Ages had mistaken it for regular ice mana affinity[1]. Asher had also noticed it back then but only came to learn the truth later on.

Unlike regular ice mana, dark-ice mana was a lot more powerful and dangerous compared to the former. It was like the difference between gold mana and regular metal mana. Added with the spell Asher had used, getting injured would still have one infected by the dark-ice mana, but the side effects would only show later on, depending on the degree of 'infection'.

For the three from earlier which included the loud-mouth boy, they had got injured by seven shards of ice, enough for the dark-ice mana to cause an outbreak and neutralize them on the spot. Ethan and the other two only got injured by one or two shards, so the effects weren't as pronounced since they weren't infected much. However, this was where the specialities of dark ice showed themselves, leaving Asher with enough confidence to ignore them and face Aurora.

Like a virus hibernating within an organism, the mana didn't cause much of a threat but simply spread in their body and strengthened itself silently like a terminal disease waiting to flare up. Only when the infectious mana had reached a critical point did it finally erupt, sending chills throughout their body. If they were a bit more experienced or of the third stage of the Guardian realm, Ethan and the other two might have noticed the mana within their body before it flared up, but their weakness and inexperience were their flaws.

"What's going on?" The girl couldn't maintain her calm as she slowly felt strength leaving her body.

Aurora suddenly slowed down in her attacks as she sent a glance towards her teammates. What she saw made her raise her brows in shock.

Ethan collapsed on one knee as he gritted his teeth trying to draw out the last bit of heat in his body to resist the cold. The other two were now either laying on the floor shivering from the cold. As for the other three who were previously immobilized by Asher's move, a very thin layer of frost, almost imperceptible at first glance, currently covered their bodies.

Although they weren't in a coma, it was obvious that they were almost no different from a comatose patient; the exception being they were aware of the happenings in their surroundings.

"What did you do to them?" Aurora growled at Asher, a hint of confusion in her eyes at the current happenings.

Asher's eyes flashed for a second following which he struck swiftly with his fist at a speed about two times what he had been showing in the fight.

Aurora was stunned by this and couldn't react in time. Unlike Asher, she didn't have a load of battle experience even when considering the special training she received in the royal family's domain so it was inevitable that even with the impressive power she wielded, Aurora would not be able to utilize it enough to crush Asher.

Bang.

An explosion rang out despite the fact that Asher's fist had landed on Aurora's chest.

Asher raised an eyebrow at the development as he realized that his mana was incapable of penetrating into her body, almost as if there was something in between his fist and her flesh.

'No, there is.' Asher narrowed his eyes as he spread his senses through his fist into her clothing.

Asher wasn't a pervert, on the contrary, one could say that he was a man of dignity and this became more pronounced after he became the Celestial Emperor. Nonetheless, when facing an enemy whether male or female, he would let go of certain 'restrictions' and treat his opponents equally regardless of gender.

'An Armour.'

Through the mental sense he sent using his arm on Aurora's chest, Asher was able to see that there was some special type of clothing Aurora had on that prevented his mana from passing through and entering her body while also diminishing the force of impact that Aurora felt. It wasn't made from metal but from a strange material that was both light and durable.

'Interesting.' Asher thought.

While it seemed like all this took too long, in truth, only three seconds had gone by since Asher's fist struck Aurora. Apart from a slight pain in her chest, which was almost negligible to her, Aurora felt nothing. On the contrary, her cheeks flamed and she felt a wave of embarrassment due to the fact that Asher's hand was in an inappropriate location.

"Bastard!"

After recovering from the temporary 'paralysis' due to shock, Aurora's temper blazed as she struck once again with the Heliotrope spear. Even from a distance, it was obvious that this strike was a lot stronger than the previous ones.

'Let's see how tough your armour is.'

Asher channelled his force towards his fist which was still planted on Aurora's chest. This time around, he didn't try to use the elemental property of his mana, but simply struck out with its brute force, just like how Human mages battled.

Bang.

Just like before, Asher felt a bit of resistance from the armour but he gritted his teeth and pushed on with his attack.

While the armour could mitigate a part of the force, Asher's attack was performed with this in mind so it could only put a stop to roughly 40% of the blow. The remaining 60% force transmitted through the armour into Aurora's body, shocking her organs and forcing her to tremble, her movements slowing down.

"Tch."

Aurora gritted her teeth as she tried to ignore the pain and continued on with her attack.

'No matter what happens, you're going down now!'

Aurora's eyes gleamed as she swung her spear right at him. This time around, lightning flashed around her arm as her attacking speed abruptly increased out of the blue.

Bang.

"!!!" Lyn widened her eyes in shock as she took a step forward.

As it turned out, Asher got hit by the shaft of the spear with enough force to possibly end him, or at the very least, leave him with a major concussion. No matter the end result, the hit meant that Asher would lose any ability to continue the fight. Even if he wasn't dead or knocked unconscious, the pain from the hit would affect his movements and actions.

"Haha." Aurora smiled seeing this.

"I told you. You were destined to lose right from the very start."

Aurora laughed victoriously.

"I underestimated you."

Asher's voice sounded out, causing Lyn to stop and Aurora's eyebrows to raise.

"Huh?"

Aurora gaped slightly at the fact that Asher was still conscious and standing, but it only made her a bit surprised and not shocked.

For Asher to have lasted this long against her already showed that he did possess some skill despite being a null, hence it wasn't so shocking to see him standing even after that hit.

Crack.

A weird sound came from Asher.

"I was originally thinking of just taking this fight as a training of sorts. I didn't want to take it so seriously, after all, I'm facing a bunch of kids. I might face my enemies with my all, but that would only be if they could be of some threat to me."

"What the heck are you saying?" Aurora narrowed her eyes.

Asher, however, ignored her and continued speaking despite the cracking sound that occasionally resounded in the background.

"You, however, didn't originally qualify for that rule; you posed no threat to me. But now, I realized I made a mistake. I'm also weak like you, so, you qualify for me to take you more seriously; only a bit."

Crack.

Right after Asher finished those words, the cracking sounds got louder and suddenly, he turned brown just like wood. The cracks became visible and as it turned out, they were from him, or rather, this wooden Asher.

Bang.

The wooden Asher exploded sending splinters in all directions. Aurora, who was still within arm's reach also got hit by some, albeit her armour protected her. The same couldn't be said about her face which got a few bloody cuts on them.

"What the hell is happening?" Aurora mumbled in shock as she had never experienced something like this before.

Lyn, however, was able to see things clearly from a distance and wasn't as affected as Aurora by the current changes. Two words which seemed to explain the current situation suddenly appeared in her head.

'A clone.'

"You're worth facing my main body."

Asher's voice sounded out once again. This time, however, it was from a position about ten metres away from a tree.

Aurora and Lyn watched in shock as another Asher exited from the tree almost as if he was a ghost.

"Now, time for round two."