CHAPTER 131: SYLVA’S SPEED VS. UNTOUCHABLE

"Let me show you... what speed really is."

Sylva’s voice was low and cold, a thin smirk tugging at her lips.

In the same instant, the elemental armour covering her body flared brighter lightning crackled across her limbs, wind wrapped around her like a living second skin, and behind her the massive twin wings of storm unfurled to their full size. The combined roar of electricity and slicing air filled the arena.

She didn’t even bend her knees.

One sharp flap of those wings, and

CRACKLE

She vanished.

To most eyes in the arena, it looked like a streak of green and violet light had simply appeared and then shot forward in a perfectly straight line, cutting the air like a actual lightening falling from the sky. The sound lagged behind the motion by the time the boom of displaced air hit, she was already somewhere else entirely.

But Razeal’s perception told a different story.

"Oh... you’re quite naive if you think I care about someone’s speed," he murmured, his voice calm in the face of her sudden assault.

His physical eyes saw nothing but empty air. Yet in his mind through his perception he saw everything as though the world had slowed to a crawl. Sylva’s body, propelled by the violent burst of wind and lightning, flew toward him like an arrow loosed from an oversized bow. In her right hand, energy condensed, shaping itself into a weapon

A sword.

Its blade was impossibly thin, the edge almost invisible, yet its form was clear: a seamless union of wind and lightning, glowing green along its body and lined with snapping arcs of violet at the edges. The air around it warped, shredded by the compressed force in its structure.

Her thoughts in that moment were casual lazy, even.

If I hit him with this, the pain will be forty thousand times worse than the actual pain this attack would’ve brought him. He might not wake up for days... if ever.

Where to place the strike? A cut across the chest? Yes, that would leave a proper mark for a man to must have. Ruining that cute face be such a crime.. Afterall.

One flap of her wings, and she was in front of him as though she had teleported. She brought the sword down in a merciless arc aimed directly at his chest.

She had already considered his strange "untouchability."

It couldn’t be true intangibility. If it were, she wouldn’t be able to feel the faint wind resistance around his body. And if he truly rejected all contact, then light itself would be redirected away from him making him invisible to the naked eye. That wasn’t the case. She could see him clearly.

And besides how would he even breathe if that were true?

No. Whatever he was using was some kind of calculation-based defense. He was predicting, processing, and rejecting incoming force in real time. Which meant there were limits.

Two ways to crack such a system:

1. Hit it with an attack so absurdly powerful it shatters the concept entirely.

2. Move so fast he doesn’t have time to calculate and respond.

Sylva had chosen the latter.

Her confidence was absolute. His defense wouldn’t work this time.

The blade sang as it cut the air, the violet lightning screaming along its length. Her aim was perfect.

"Ohhh... you’re quite naive if you think your speed is fast enough," Razeal said softly, still standing exactly where he had been, unflinching.

The sword should have landed. It did land on the point she had chosen

Except... it didn’t.

At the final instant, before the blade even made contact with his body, it shifted. No she shifted. The entire trajectory of her attack bent away, sliding off-target as though her sword had struck an invisible curve in the air. The velocity didn’t drop ..it simply... missed, carving through the space just beside him.

Sylva’s eyes narrowed, a flicker of disbelief crossing her face.

For less than a second, Razeal caught it the faintest ugly expression breaking through her composure. His lips curved upward.

Ohhh... I love proving people wrong.

But Sylva didn’t stop.

Her momentum carried her past him in a blur, and in the next heartbeat she twisted in midair.

BUZZZZ

Lightning cracked again, bright and violent. She reversed direction instantly, wings flaring to generate an impossible burst of acceleration. She shot toward him once more, aiming for his side this time.

BUZZZ BUZZZZ BUZZZ

The streak of violet-green light tore back and forth across the arena, hitting from the left, the right, above, and below in dizzying succession. Each time she came within striking range, her arc would suddenly bend away redirected, slipping past his body as if guided by unseen hands.

To the spectators, it was chaos. They could only see the streak zigzagging, rebounding, splitting the air like a storm trapped in a glass dome. The sound was deafening, a constant rolling clash of thunder punctuated by sharp, high-pitched snaps.

To Razeal, it was all perfectly clear. He stood still, the center of her whirlwind, his perception watching her every motion. Each strike came in, perfectly calculated in his mind, and was turned aside before it could connect.

Her attacks painted arcs in the air, and each arc bent at the last possible moment, as though reality itself refused to let her blade touch him.

She’s relentless... he thought. But she’s not adapting.

Sylva, however, was thinking the opposite. I’ll hit him. I just have to push faster. Harder. One clean touch that’s all I need.

The circle they formed became tighter and tighter Sylva’s blurred figure weaving around him like a predator encircling prey. Sparks leapt from her wings to the arena floor, searing black scars into the stone. Her sword’s edge left afterimages that hung in the air for a fraction of a second before fading.

Every near-hit fed her frustration. Every redirection sharpened her desire to break through.

Her arrogance refused to believe he could keep this up forever.

And yet, Razeal wasn’t even bothering.

He hadn’t moved his feet once.

Sylva was a blur.

For what felt like an eternity, she had been whipping around Razeal slashing from the left, right, above, and below only for her sword to slide harmlessly past him every single time. Her wings tore at the air, the sound of their flaps drowned in the constant buzzing crackle of lightning coursing through her armour.

The count of her attacks had stopped mattering somewhere after the first fifty. Now, she was well past a hundred strikes. Her lungs drew in air evenly, her stamina nowhere near its limit but her mind? Her mind was burning hotter than the electricity around her.

And then

A voice.

Slow. Steady. Cutting clean through the chaos.

"Why are you being so stubborn?"

Her entire body stiffened mid-flight. Her next attack mere meters from Razeal didn’t land. Instead, she halted in the air, boots skimming the arena floor, wings beating once to steady her balance.

"Haven’t we taught you not to get caught up in the pride of doing so?" the voice continued, each word deliberate, almost scolding. "Remember what we told you: do not limit your path with the chains of your own words and thoughts. If it’s not working change it."

Sylva didn’t respond, but her grip on her sword shifted slightly.

"Your strength isn’t bound to one trick or one method," the voice went on. "You are gifted beyond what most beings could dream of. Instead of clinging to one approach out of pride, use every gift at your disposal."

It was like a lecture from a master who’d seen too many battles to tolerate foolishness.

"There is never only one solution to a problem. If the first approach fails, don’t cling to it just because you chose it first. That is not how an intelligent fighter wins."

Sighh.. She sighed.

"Pride and arrogance they are the sins of weakness. They might feel good to you in the moment, but in the long history of the races, they have always been nothing more than the mindset of the foolish. Do not let them bind you."

Sylva exhaled sharply and shook her head. "...Sigh. Apologies. I let it get to me again," she said under her breath, as if admitting it only to herself. The crackling of her wind-lightning armour didn’t lessen, but her stance... calmed.

From across the arena, Razeal tilted his head slightly. "Quite not as fast as me now, don’t you think?" His tone was cool, edged with mockery. An eyebrow lifted in deliberate provocation.

Sylva’s green eyes slid toward him. She didn’t move or argue

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