POV Kim Min-Jae

Nylian and Aias immediately disappear in a blast of golden flames that engulf them entirely. The flames exploded toward where Nat was pointing, right at the trio of warriors sitting to his right.

Golden flames devoured everything in their path. A huge part of the room is gone—walls, ceiling, furniture. The door we entered through. All melted from existence, and the remaining uneven edges where the flames struck still glow red-hot.

Even though Nathaniel's attack was pointed away from us, the heat fills the entire room.

I scream from pain as I feel the heat on my skin to the point where serious burns appear on my skin. I smell burned hair; some clothes catch on fire, and I hear multiple members of our group groaning painfully as well as Biscuit howling, surprised by the side effect of Nathaniel's attack.

Our wounds immediately start healing, and I can see them closing in front of my eyes, yet it hurts so much. When I look around I see Lily breathing heavily as she holds her burned hand, Aaron and Dennis also groan in pain.

Then Nathaniel turns toward us, toward the king and the remaining warrior, Edwal, who was able to escape and now stands by the king's side.

Half of Nathaniel's face is burned to the bone, his skin and flesh gone. Burns cover most of the right side of his body, and his right hand is a charred and blackened husk.

Yet he doesn't care. He says something in a casual tone, and I feel my heart beat wildly.

Right now, even terribly wounded, he seems invincible, and even though I got wounded by him, I can't help but feel deep admiration for him.

He is everything I always wanted to be.

No one is moving, and I use this opportunity to let the healing aura heal my wounds. It's not as quick as I would like it to be, but it's enough. I'm still able to fight, and half of the enemy forces are gone.

The king and Edwal both look like they don't know what to do or feel. For the first time, I see genuine confusion on their faces, as if they can't understand what happened. They just stare toward where Aias and Nylian were. The only things remaining after them are the beautiful sword and bracelet; my flames were unable to damage them at all.

Yet, it was enough. I compressed the flames as much as possible, massively reducing the area of the explosion, and burned their bodies faster than they were able to regenerate.

The others got hit by heat I wasn't able to control, but that much is fine; it will regenerate fairly quickly.

"This is really confusing. I don't know how to feel," the king shifts the crown on his head, and the remaining warrior only waits for orders. Edwal has lightning cracking around his body, and his initially shocked face smiles again. He forces himself to do so and even laughs shortly as he looks toward where the bracelet and sword are.

I absorb the heat from the room and turn it into kinetic energy, adding more to it. Then I shoot it at the king in a thin cone.

The king´s head explodes and his body flails around while the crown falls to the ground.

Before I do anything else, the head is back, regenerated at dizzying speed. The king casually bends down, grabs, and puts the crown back on his head, "I consider this dinner to be ruined already, so why don't you take care of your guests, Edwal?"

Immediately I boost my body, and Edwal appears in front of me; his pale blue eyes are cold. His fist hits my chest while he is barely slowed down by [Redistribution].

I crash against the wall, not wounded because of how much mana I'm using to strengthen myself. The armor barely forms around my body, and Edwal hits me again. Golden lightning trails his limbs and strikes my body, burning it.

Everywhere the lightning hits me, the wounds heal slower.

I release a blast of kinetic energy, and Edwal is thrown away; half of his face is missing but healing already at a speed that is much higher than mine.

The javelin pierces his body, and the red and white lightning flows through it. For a moment that lighting clashes against his own golden one, and both disappear. Then the javelin flies back to Tess.

I exchange a simple glance with Tess and boost my body, running toward the king, who is already fighting against the others.

Hadwin gets thrown against the wall, and when Sophie tries to control him, the king just cuts off his own head and quickly regrows it back; then, before Sophie has a chance to manipulate him again, he molds some mana into a projectile that shoots at her.

Sophie doesn't hesitate and reaches out toward it; [Manipulation] interferes with the projectiles and makes them miss.

At the same moment, blue flames engulf the king, but he only takes a single step, and stomps, and the flames disappear as if blown away by wind. The projectiles that I shoot at him disappear in the same way, deleted out of existence.

Hadwin charges the man again, and the king casually sidesteps and kicks the older man, right toward Sophie, who barely dodges. Isabella's flames disappear once again, and another projectile is shot at Sophie when she tries to manipulate him again.

Meanwhile, with [Perception], I see Tess exchanging hits with Edwal, lightning cracking around their bodies, while Min-Jae continues to shoot projectiles at the blonde warrior. When given the opportunity he also continues to make his body heavier.

The twins move quickly and with perfect sync, dodging even Edwal's quick slashes, and sometimes when Edwal hits them, they disappear, just an illusion created by their skill.

My dark yellow flames blaze into existence and in a stream as thick as my wrist hit the King, who just stands there. The flames disappear the moment they get to a certain distance from him, and I continue to track his mana. The way he moves it and uses it.

The king is absorbing them. It's as if he is taking them into some storage, and after a few seconds in this storage, they disappear totally. There seems to be a limit to that storage, but my flames don't fill it at all. The limit of his store is massive, giant, and it will be impossible to overwhelm him like this.

My heart beats, and projectiles boosted by kinetic energy disappear as well, the absorption or storage skill ignoring the speed the projectiles are moving at. Kinetic energy disappears too. Orbs filled with tricolored mana as well, and the king's ability isn't even overwhelmed at all.

The king then pulls out his sword.

I dash at him at the same moment he dashes at Isabella, and his silver sword cuts through the rare dagger I got from Beyond. My mana, my [Resonance], do not stop him at all. I hit his body with mine before he reaches the little girl and then dodge his blade. This time I also try to cut off his arms.

His eyes smile, and his sword moves like a flash, confusing me and instead of me hitting him a deep wound appears on my chest. The wound is immediately healing, yet at a much slower speed than his wounds.

He steps closer toward me.

I [Focus] and boost my body to the point it creaks under the pressure and slash against him. Then I watch, and in the black vision of the [Focus] as he blocks each of my strikes. As if teasing me, he doesn't even cut my blade made of mana; he just lets it slide along his blade, showing immense skill with a weapon in his hand.

Then he kicks me, and the moment his leg touches me, I force my skill into overdrive and absorb all of the kinetic energy of the kick. I do not move at all, absorbing all the kinetic energy of his kick. It's only as if he touched me with his leg.

A blast of kinetic energy, further strengthened by the one I was collecting, explodes the king´s hand, and the sword gets separated from his body.

Before I can grab it, another kick sends me flying, breaking a few ribs. Before I crash against the floor the king's hand is already back, and he picks his sword up from the ground.

At that moment, Hadwin hits him with his shoulder, his body surrounded with [Disruption] and the king is sent flying, crashing through the remaining furniture in the room.

Before Hadwin charges again, I use a bit of kinetic energy to throw him away from the path of attack from the king, and three mana projectiles hit the ground in an explosion of debris, and a shockwave is sent toward our surroundings.

I then see Edwal jumping out of the window and flying far into the distance, golden lightning trailing him. Without any hesitation, Tess jumps in a similar way, and the [Lightning Armor] around her body surrounds her in red and white sparks as she pushes herself far ahead. Min-Jae and the twins follow her quickly.

"It's nice to see that Edwal is having some fun; it's tough for him," the king says as he fixes his clothes, his green eyes piercing, and for the first time, he looks like a ruler. Standing here proudly, surrounded by enemies, yet calm and confident.

"Hadwin, take the others and find where the saint is; Lily can kill her with her skill," I take a step toward the king to block him from getting to the others.

In deep [Focus], I take on multiple of his attacks, ignoring the wounds on my body and slowly releasing my mana more and more. It puts pressure on me; it starts hurting me, but I'm getting healed constantly.

When the king rushes at Lily in a last attempt before they get out, I do not even hesitate for a moment. I charge him, my body breaking and healing under the strengthening and my mana.

Then the king moves immensely quickly, much faster than before, and I feel a slash on my legs. Lily screams, and I see my cut-off legs flying through the air.

With a speed that is faster than I was able to reasonably manage, mana rushes through my body. It tears my circuit and hurts my brain. Then, instead of falling to the ground, I take a step and, instead of my cut-off legs, there is a replica made of translucent blue mana that I move as if I would move my body.

Not missing a moment, I kick the king with a leg made of mana and cough up some blood. My head is spinning and I feel like falling down. The king laughs and even says something, but I do not listen.

He also fires a mana projectile at Lily, who is being pulled away by Hadwin. However, a simple purple tentacle appears and effortlessly deflects it, which even surprises me. Biscuit woofs at me once and then disappears around the corner with the others.

I reach toward the ground and pick up a silver bracelet I was moving toward during the entire fight. The laugh immediately stops and he turns his full attention to me. I put the bracelet on my arm at the same moment the king rushes at me while shooting a few projectiles my way.

My [Resonance] activates, and I use the bracelet; I resonate with its mana and connect myself to the item and subsequently directly to the Saint´s healing aura.

In a flash, my legs are restored and my wounds healed.

"How dare you!" he screams.

I ignore him and release my passives and constructs that were limiting my mana and the entirety of my mana pool reverberates around me. I use it to boost my body, and my limbs explode under the pressure only to be immediately restored. My brain hurts; my heart is tearing apart. But it's all regenerating instantly.

Ignoring the pain, my kick sends the king flying away, the man unable to see my attack at all.

Then I look at my hand and over my palm, an orb forms. Mana rushes inside of it, blue, light blue, and purple, swirling to the point where it starts to shine. The orb immediately fills to the brim while I disregard the wounds it causes me.

And then I do something I wanted to do for a long time. A thing I wanted to try ever since I realized that I might not use one of my skills the way it was intended to be used.

The orb fights against me, held back only by my mind that is getting healed as all of this pressure keeps wrecking it. I activate [Focus] and consolidate it. But this time I do not use it on myself. I turn it toward the mana over my hand. I grab it, I hold it, and then I [Focus] that mana to a much smaller point.

My body screams and regenerates as I do something I shouldn't be able to do at my current level.

The mana that is about to explode stops and the orb becomes even smaller.

Its color changes.

A small black orb hovers over the palm of my hand, and in that pitch-black darkness, tiny sparks shine like stars in the sky.