SHATTERED REALM: FORGOTTEN ECHOES-Chapter 176: Damned Vs Space II

Instead of panicking, Kaela spun her tail, letting the electrified segments slice the incoming strikes apart.

Electricity ripped through unstable rifts, and the portals snapped shut violently.

The collapsing space made a harsh, tearing sound that grated on people's ears.

Kaela exhaled smoke."I hate you."

Vaelis bowed his head slightly."You have good instincts, so I can't hold back. No one wants to lose."

Kaela slashed in rapid arcs. Lightning carved jagged paths through the air.

Vaelis stayed inches ahead of each attack, slipping past her attacks by stepping through rifts.

Kaela released a powerful shot of lightning. It moved so fast, Vaelis wasn't fast enough to dodge.

He quickly opened a huge portal, swallowing the attack.

As the space buckled, it released bursts of pressure that rattled the arena.

Vaelis quickly surrounded himself with several portals, but Kaela had discovered something.

He can't store too much power in a portal. It'll just go unstable.

Kaela doused herself with lightning, flickering like a wildfire in a storm. And like lightning, she charged around Vaelis, not attacking him, but causing trouble to weaken him.

Sparks exploded each time she changed direction, and as the explosions and lightning flowed towards Vaelis, he had no choice but to use his portals to redirect or swallow them.

And the more he did, the fewer rifts he had surrounding him.

It's working, Kaela realized. Won't be long before you're kneeling.

Vaelis desperately needed a way out of this before Kaela got to him.

"I need to stop her from moving around. If only I—" His eyes suddenly widened in realization.

Very quickly, he collapsed a point in Kaela's path.

Kaela was yanked backward mid-dash and slammed into the floor, electricity scattering across the ground.

The crowd gasped.

Kaela rose instantly, wiping lightning-burn dust off her cheek.

"Good hit."

"Thank you," Vaelis said softly.

Kaela laughed under her breath. "You're welcome."

Kaela inhaled, and purple lightning crawled from her ribs to her wings. The air around her vibrated with static as if she were going to open her own rifts.

Her voice echoed with two tones.

"Damned Form—Storm Manticore."

Her wings expanded, and her tail thickened with segmented armor, each plate humming with lightning. Horns arced backward like lightning rods, and her pupils split into vertical slits.

She blinked sideways, and Vaelis paled slightly.

"This will be… difficult," he admitted.

"You should be able to handle it," Kaela said sincerely.

Vaelis couldn't tell if that was sarcasm or honesty.

Kaela's tail shot for Vaelis with frightning speed.

Vaelis opened a portal, and Kaela's tail entered one side and came out behind him.

Kaela responded quickly and redirected her tail at him.

He ducked as the tail cut through the air like a guillotine.

The portal began to close around her tail.For a breathless moment, her eyes widened.

Then—SNAP.

Kaela's tail tip was sliced clean off.

The severed piece thrashed on the ground, sparking wildly, releasing unstable lightning arcs that whipped across the arena like rabid serpents.

A few flinched as stray electricity blasted the barrier.

Kaela hissed in pain, then grinned savagely.

"Clever."

Vaelis breathed hard."Sorry. I didn't want to—"

"Don't apologize mid-fight!" Her eyes burned with savagery, and Vaelis knew he was in danger.

He opened a wide rift under Kaela and teleported her 40 meters above the arena.

Gasps were heard everywhere.

Kaela twisted midair, but Vaelis didn't give her space.

He closed a second rift below, and Kaela plummeted.

At the last second:

Kaela detonated lightning beneath her.

The shockwave cracked a crater into the stage and blasted dust up in a storm.

Vaelis shielded his face as spatial distortions buckled under the raw force.

Kaela's claws raked through the ground as she lifted off. She flapped her wings, and powerful gusts of wind scattered the dust, clearing the stage.

Vaelis thought fast and sliced off a chunk of the stage with a vertical rift.

A 12-meter slab of stone fell toward Kaela like a meteor.

Kaela flew up toward the falling debris and clawed through it in a single lightning-charged strike.

Shards exploded everywhere.

Vaelis went all out and teleported around her, trying to confuse her perception, bending angles, making the arena feel like a maze, while looking for an angle to attack. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Kaela answered by overloading her senses.

Lightning pulsed outward in a dome, shattering the illusions and destabilizing several rifts.

Vaelis gathered what remained of his stamina.

Three rifts unfolded behind him, flickering unstably, each distorting the air violently.

Kaela braced herself.

Vaelis whispered, "Dimensional Convergence."

Space folded inward.

"Oh no, you don't!"

Kaela didn't hesitate.

She whipped her broken tail forward as the space pulled her in, charging a dense ball of lightning.

Lightning met collapsing space, and the space started to overload.

She flapped her wings furiously, countering the gravitational pull of the rift.

They were in this stalemate for a while, then the gravitational pull disappeared. Without it holding her down, Kaela shot upwards, spiralling out of control before stabilizing herself.

The explosion was silent at first as the space swallowed itself with the lightning, then everything detonated at once.

A burst of violent violet lightning shot out, and a shockwave of warped space came after, releasing heat, static, and pressure that caused the shield to ripple like a strung string.

When the dust settled, Kaela hovered above ground, breathing heavily.

Vaelis lay on his back, his last few rifts floating above him.

Kaela reverted to her human form, only retaining her wings, then walked over and offered a hand.

She still breathed heavily, drained, but still standing.

"You pushed me harder than anyone this year. I respect that."

Vaelis hesitated, looking at her with a little fear, but the honesty in her eyes was clear.

Carefully, he shook her hand, but shook his head when she attempted to help him up.

"You did well," Kaela said.

Vaelis exhaled. "You broke every prediction model my instructors had."

"So you admit you cheated to catch me off guard." She narrowed her eyes. "Then I have to punish you. Besides, the match is only over if you can't go on, so..."

Before Vaelis could respond, she raised a lightning fist

"That's for the trick," she said, then punched him squarely in the face, throwing him away like a ragdoll.

His body spasmed with lightning before finally stilling.

The place went silent as a cemetery.

Kaela turned to the announcer. "I'm done here."

"K—Kaela Draycin of Dragon Emperor Academy emerges victorious!"

"She showed mercy...then corrected her mistake. That ending was unexpected," Aramith commented. And he wasn't just referring to the punch, but also that a damned defeated a space user.