NOVPUBIt’s been 1 hour since I’ve been fighting purely with my body against Zaya, during all this time I haven’t attacked her once, all I’ve done is dodge, defend and sometimes push her.
I’m not tired myself, but I’m starting to see signs of tiredness in Zaya, the funny thing is that she doesn’t start sweating or sweating like most people do.
In fact, the cold around her only increased to the point where a light layer of frost formed around her, I found this strange since she shouldn’t have ice or water powers, this made my curiosity alarm go off.
At the moment when I was exchanging blows with her, I defended the cutting attack she made with my open hand by striking her wrist in the opposite direction, so her other hand took advantage of the opening session to hit her wrist right after the blow, which also doesn’t work when my tail pulls your leg, taking your balance and making you lose your target.
She was unfazed and bent her body backwards while twisting her body in a way that surpasses her flexibility, all to kick me, but I bite her foot and launch her into the air before dodging her tail that tries to bite my neck.
She lets herself go and sits on a tree branch as I wave her to stop.
"This is enough." (I)
"I... I can still... I can continue..." (Zaya)
"I know you can continue, but it’s not about that, I’ve seen enough of your firm fighting." (I)
"Tell me, why is your body creating ice around you? Since when have you had an affinity with the ice element?" (I)
"I have no other affinities other than Life, Curse and Death." (Zaya)
"A Lady of the Grave like me has a naturally cold body and rejects heat, the more tired we become the heat around us moves away, leaving our surroundings colder in return." (Zaya)
"< Life Absorption >" (Zaya)
As she spoke she touched the trunk of the tree she was standing on and activated a skill, I could see the Tree’s Vitality being sucked away by Zaya’s small hand, the tree was becoming drier and the leaves were dying at a fast pace in seconds.
I also noticed that Zaya was getting warmer and the frost around her was melting, I could also feel the temperature around her increasing and she seemed less tired than before, in fact there were no visible traces of the tiredness she showed until now.
"I can do this to recover my body, if we keep fighting, I would probably last longer than you with so many trees and monsters to steal Vitality." (Zaya)
"Interesting, but there seems to be the inconvenience of touching directly, isn’t there?" (I)
"Unfortunately yes, I also don’t really like stealing Vitality and so I avoid absorbing it all leaving enough to recover naturally later." (Zaya)
She says this, but I didn’t see her show any emotion when absorbing the tree’s Vitality, it was also extremely fast, probably this technique can even heal injuries.
"Since you have recovered, then we can continue the fight, but this time you can use everything you have." (I)
"I would like to avoid that if possible, since you are much stronger than me, but the power of Death is not something that can be used when one does not wish someone’s death." (Zaya)
"(I think I’m being underestimated.)" (I)
"I apologize, it seems I held back too much and gave a false feeling about myself." (I)
"No, wait..." (Zaya)
"Try not to get too scared." (I)
By hands that I would like to avoid being compared with Gods, I cannot deny that the novel of my power has already reached this category and for some time now, I have managed to defeat Evil Gods and faced Minor Gods head on, I am able to grant Blessing and even I have multiple Essences.
I am so close to becoming a God it could happen at any second, especially now that I have created the 3 Sources of Natural Power from new elements.
Because I fear negatively influencing those around me or scaring innocent people, I constantly withhold my presence to the point that it has become a habit for me.
My Aura does not reveal my Essences, my Authority, my Holy Power or my Dragon Power and yet I have to do my best to keep my Aura controlled at all times since I don’t want to scare the Dungeon People.
"(Her strength level is close to that of my Children, so other than a momentary shock there should be no problem letting go a little.)" (I)
I release all the limitations I was placing on myself, without holding back my Authority, Sacred Power, Dragon Power and Essences to stay away from my Aura, everything comes together at once being like a dam that burst.
My presence caused everything around me to shake, the ground cracked, the plants and flowers grew at an accelerated rate, miasma gathered like a light mist in the surroundings and the Dungeon was struggling to balance this sudden pressure with the rest of the environment.
All I felt was a sense of relief and a sense of relaxation as I had left my muscles tense for a long time and was finally letting my muscles relax, it was a truly pleasant feeling at least for me.
Zaya being the only one around was kneeling on the ground, her body was shaking a lot, her hair was flying in all directions even though there was no wind, the surface of her skin in several places was getting covered in layers of ice and I could feel her inability to breathe.
After the initial explosion my Aura becomes calmer as if the previously stormy water has calmed down, the volume of water has not changed at all, but the violent tides can no longer be seen.
Zaya seemed to recover little by little, she regained the ability to breathe with difficulty at first, but in a few seconds her breathing returned to normal, she stood up and with her movement some small thin sheets of ice fell from her body, her eyes were completely eyes fixed on me, but even that changed to a calmer look within a few more seconds.
I could have removed my Aura once more, but she seemed to be adapting well to it, so I continued, it’s not like I was specifically targeting her or doing anything to harm her, what she felt was just my normal presence without no type of direction or containment.
"Now you understand?" (I)
"..." (Zaya)
"Now I understand... the power of Death, Life and Curse that I felt before coming from you were just the tip of the mountain, my power wouldn’t do anything against you, would it?" (Zaya)
"I wouldn’t say that, I’m not invulnerable and I’m not a God either, at least not yet." (I)
"Your power could still harm me, but you are unable to kill me or bring me close to death." (I)
"(Without possessing Divine power or an Essence, she is simply not fit to go after my life.)" (I)
My body could be destroyed in infinite ways, but I could always recover as long as some part of me remained, the Vitality in me is found more in my Soul than in the body now, killing myself would be as big a job as killing a God High level evil.
"Is there still a reason to fight?" (Zaya)
"Yes, fighting you was never about winning or losing, it was about getting to know you and your power better." (I)
"That’s why I said at the beginning that I wouldn’t attack, you’re not weak, but you’re still too far away to be considered a threat." (I)
I wasn’t being arrogant or proud by saying this like her, I was just stating a fact and that is the overwhelming difference in power between us.
"At least give me a few minutes to catch my breath." (Zaya)
--------------
Some minutes later.
Zaya had already recovered and we moved to a different area, my presence was more controlled now, I wasn’t holding back like I had before, but I was still lessening the range of my presence so it wouldn’t spread too far.
"You can come with everything." (I)
"As you wish." (Zaya)
"< Existential Enhancement >" (Zaya)
Suddenly Zaya’s body glows, her eyes become bright purple with the white part being taken over by darkness, her tail grows and thickens looking more like a Snake-type monster, her right hand was surrounded by a layer of white energy and her hand left was surrounded by a layer of black energy.
Her body grew even more scales and her presence grew stronger, I could feel the power of Life and Death swirling within her like a tornado, her power was truly interesting.
"< Rune of Life: Guardian Summoning >" (Zaya)
Something appears from the earth, it was 3 meters tall and had a shape similar to a Wolf, its tail was made of leaves and branches, its body was a mixture of wood and stones, its teeth were made of crystal and the strangest thing was to feel the Vitality of the surroundings connected with the creature that positioned itself to attack me.
"(This is going to be interesting.)" (I)
