After reappearing on the roof I start replaying the events of my last match. I knew that too much mana could make people with high sensitivity faint and that enough could overwhelm even the stronger ones.

I'm almost certain that I could create what I’ve heard called mana radiation at a high enough level. And I could probably accomplish the same effect with less mana with the right combination of skills, like Savant’s [Dawn] and my [Mana Domain] if I try to learn it. I’ve already seen Savant using it a few times so it shouldn't be all that hard for me to replicate.

With a high enough concentration of mana, mana radiation can be created even without having access to a skill. As for how much it would take, it's difficult to guess. I'm sure Champions and Absolutes are capable of it, after seeing zones like the Valley on the 5th Floor.

As of now, I have yet to fully understand the effects. Does it just overwhelm people killing them once the mana density exceeds their body's resistance to the pressure? Does it act like some sort of poison? Does it affect animals or monsters?

More fun stuff to experiment with.

“Congratulations on making it to the finals of your group,” Maya says.

“I’m not selling you the ax.”

“Douchebag.”

Another fight starts, flickering into view on the screen. Adam vs Miwa, who got surprisingly far.

They face each other. Adam in his clean suit seemingly unarmed and Miwa with her pink tinged silver arm and a katana. She gives Adam a bow which he awkwardly returns.

“Adam’s been trying to hire Miwa for a while and he refuses to stop looking for the real identity of Tent Creep. Miwa has to refuse him constantly, decrying him as a fake who cares only for money rather than the art of crafting,” Tess informs me as she ties Maya's hair into a braid.

“Hehe, Tent Creep,” Maya giggles and looks back at Tess who smiles at her.

“For some unknown reason, the price for the ax just went up by 20 percent,” I state, as I turn my attention to the screen.

Purple mana surrounds Adam, much as it did in the second event. It moves and looks like waves, surrounding and crashing against him.

Opposite him, Miwa tightens her grip on the katana and takes a well-practiced stance. That katana, held in her prosthetic arm, takes on the same pinkish hue as her arm and she charges, swinging her weapon.

She cuts an opening in the purple wave of mana with her weapon and tosses a metal cube on the ground in front of her absorbing another attack from Adam.

Even so, it's not enough and the man just releases more. The wave-like mana crushes and grinds away at anything it touches.

“I thought she would do better, having that arm from the Champion and all,” Maya states.

“She’s from Hard difficulty. The Champions there probably weren’t as powerful as they were on our floors,” Tess points out as she finishes working on Maya's hair. “She is also a crafter and she spends most of her time on that so it makes sense.”

“The arm is upper epic at most,” I say, joining the conversation.

“Huh, you have plenty of items like that so why do you want her arm so much?” Maya asks me.

“I believe it can be upgraded to arcane. The base of the arm is amazing, everything from the material, to what I saw of the inscriptions. It wouldn’t take much work to push it over the line.”

I would need to examine it a bit more but I'm fairly sure that I'm right. The arm reminds me of the unfinished upper rare items I found in the Veil Ignition Station and upgraded to sell.

Even so, Miwa doesn’t seem to be that disappointed when she loses. Her movements are smooth and elegant and the weapon, strengthened by her arm, does surprisingly well when faced with someone from Hell difficulty.

Still, the fight ends with her loss and a few fights later Lily faces Alaine, the woman archer we saw not that long ago.

After exchanging a few words with her opponent, the length of Lily’s hair shortens and she dashes. Three arrows rocket towards her, each intercepted by Lily’s hand, only to be eaten away by [Disintegration]. Lily boosts her movement further, bulldozing through the stone rather than moving around it. A huge chunk of stone just disappears, eaten away by her skill.

Alaine tries to keep her distance and slow Lily down, all to no avail. Lily reaches her and ducks under the last two projectiles. She tanks the last one as it pierces through her neck, only for the wound to immediately close.

The arrow in Alaine’s hand contracts into a palm-length blade, which she thrusts at Lily, who makes her arm disappear with a simple touch, almost as if it had never existed in the first place. Then Lily strikes out again, boring a huge circular hole in Alaine’s chest before she explodes into particles and both of the women reappear outside.

Now that both of them have made the finals for their group, Tess and Lily exchange competitive looks. That duel will be fun to watch.

Sophie goes next, facing a woman from Hard difficulty and the fight barely takes a few seconds. The woman’s mental barrier breaks nearly immediately and she fails to stop her hand from stabbing her in the neck with her own dagger, causing her to forfeit nearly immediately.

That gets Sophie into the finals against Tacita and when she gets out she has the same expression she did when Tacita defeated Izzy.

In the remaining fights before the group finals, Gareth defeats his opponents, while Biscuit, and Dennis defeat theirs as well.

Then Min-Jae’s up. The duel in question deciding who will go into his group finals. His opponent is the scrawny man from Hell difficulty, and unfortunately for Min-Jae, his opponent seems to have a solid counter for him and more combat experience to boot.

The man disappears taking advantage of his assassin-build, either becoming transparent, going invisible, or making use of some kind of camouflage.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Min-Jae tries to counter it with a gravity field centered around his person and his metal orbs proceed to spin wildly around his person. Each of the orbs in question is quick enough to tear the man apart the moment he moves closer. That’s just how dangerous they are.

At this point, it should be easily winnable for him. He just needs to reduce his output. Even half would be enough to deal with the guy and allow him to save his reserves. But unfortunately, Min-Jae doesn’t do that.

Shaken by the result of his last fight, Min-Jae is more worried than he should be, he’s focusing on useless stuff, and draining his mana quicker than he should. He seems to realize it after some time as well and finally lowers his output and starts randomly moving a few orbs further in the distance, trying to blindly hit the man he can't seem to locate, not even by using his eye to watch the surrounding gravitational waves.

The reason seems simple enough to me and I stare into the air high over Min-Jae. Maybe he saw the perfect opportunity or maybe he’s running out of mana, the scrawny man appears in the air, with some kind of weird platform made out of mana under him.

That platform disappears and pulled by the heightened gravity, he falls at high speed, crashing into Min-Jae and likely breaking a few bones in the process. But even so, he stabs Min-Jae about a dozen times, reducing the surprised teen into a cloud of fine particles.

When Min-Jae appears on the roof and then leaves without saying anything, I place an anchor on him and turn back to the screen. But there are still a few fights I don't care that much about before the finals of the groups, so I guess I have some free time now.

“I’ll check on him,” I tell Tess, who seems like she is about to follow Min-Jae.

To be honest, it’s getting on my nerves seeing him act like this. I know I said he is still young and dumb, but this?

“Don’t be too harsh,” Tess says.

“Sure.” I use the anchor I left on the 16-year-old boy and teleport directly to him.

His reaction time is decent and he senses me even before I appear and his skills crash into me before he realizes who I am.

I deflect the attacks and face him. “That was kind of disgraceful.”

He blinks a few times and I can see anger behind his eyes, but he holds it back. “Yes. I fucked up.”

“Quite a bit. Want to spar for a moment?”

The silence stretches on for a bit longer.

“Nat, I don’t know what you are trying, but please, I’m really not in the mood.”

“Just for a bit.”

“I’m sorry but no.”

“A short spar, come on.”

“I said no!” he screams. “Do you not have enough?! Did you not enjoy seeing me fuck up everything I could since the tournament started? You’re always watching, looking, without saying anything and now you want to spar?! No fucking thanks! I’m not in the mood to take another beating.”

“If you don’t, I will just attack you.”

“Fucking do it then! Beat me up! I hope you have fun doing so like everyone else. Maybe even mention how easy it would be.”

“I mean, after seeing today’s matches I could use 1st Floor [Restriction] and win. It would be easy, even back then my mana orbs were decent and I could sling them fairly quickly. You tend to get impatient and careless against weaker opponents, so I would take advantage of that, taunting you into making a mistake and then I’d shoot an orb through your legs. Your defenses tend to be a bit weaker around your feet.”

I take a step closer and look down at him, “My body strengthening was decent too so I could use your arrogance to get in close. Then I would let you hurt me, maybe tear off my arm or a leg, or blind one of my eyes. After that, I would push through and cut your throat.”

I mean what I'm saying. Even though it might have cost me my life, I can't imagine failing to kill Min-Jae before dying. Of course, I would probably run away and try to continue the fight in a way that would allow me to survive, but in a fight to the death, Min-Jae would lose to 1st Floor me.

“Nat, I don’t know why you’re…”

I don’t let him finish and send a burst of kinetic energy at him, sending him staggering backward and almost falling down.

Even through all that, he uses gravity, and the next two orbs I shoot at him crash to the ground at the places he marked.

“Fuck, what…”

More of my mana orbs fly in his direction and he redirects each of them and when I jump back he increases gravity under me. Stones shoot up from the ground to fly at my face. In response, I coat my palm in mana and let them crash into it.

Min-Jae senses me creating anchors behind and above him. His body becomes lighter and he pulls himself with [Telekinesis] just in time to escape a burst of flames and kinetic energy. A dozen orbs pour from his pockets and proceed to spin around him whistling through the air.

He parts the yellow flames I send his way with [Telekinesis] leaving them to flow harmlessly to either side of him.

Every time he tries to say anything or stop the fight, I push more.

Another orb, a javelin filled with thermal energy, an anchor nearby. My attacks do not give him time to think and I push him deeper and deeper into the forest where he resorts to throwing trees at me and changing the gravity around them so that they find themselves pulled toward me.

He levitates into the air but my bombardment continues, yellow glowing orbs and flames exploding all around him, forcing him to land, increasing gravity as I step closer.

Even using [Telekinesis] to move his body he barely manages to dodge my attacks. He knows I’m far from going all out. But he has no time to do anything about it.

I know his skills well. I’ve seen him fight many times, and I know where he’s lacking, and what I need to target in an attack. So as we clash I fight in a way that allows him to utilize his strengths. I let him use the environment against me, I use skills I’m sure he can counter and I poke at his weaknesses, forcing him to react.

Like that, the fight becomes faster and faster. Min-Jae knows the attacks I’m using and I can read the movement of his mana with my eyes so I allow him to use everything he can.

An orb nearly kills him but he redirects it at the last moment, a look of sheer surprise flickers across his face, caused by his own reaction.

My flames surround him and I see him debate running away, but I don’t give him the opportunity and he uses his skills to redirect them around himself and push them away. And a smile climbs its way onto his face as he succeeds.

At close range, he keeps escaping my anchors and the explosions that rock the environment in their wake, he’s getting better at sensing them as his mind relaxes. He allows his instincts to take over and guide his reactions, allowing him to respond quicker than standing in place nervously.

And as the fight goes on and his reserves drain he smiles more and more. There is no other thought in his mind outside this fight. I don't allow it. He doesn’t think of useless stuff like worrying about losing, people looking, or what others might think.

We simply fight for the sake of it.

He finally stumbles and falls to his knees and even then it’s not over. He pushes himself back onto his feet, gathering the last bits of his mana he bombards me with the deadly orbs he’s bonded to himself.

After I block even that attack, he tries again, but there is nothing left.

Min-Jae stands there, breathing heavily, sweat wetting his hair and making it stick to his face. He is looking at me, wanting me to say something.

I send a soft burst of kinetic energy at him, just enough to make him fall on his ass. Then, while he is looking up at me, I teleport away, leaving him to reflect on his own.