The Extra is a Genius!?-Chapter 615: Noel vs Roberto [II]

The change was immediate. One instant the distant clash was still tearing the world apart with pressure strong enough to shake the battlefield under everyone’s feet. The next, it was gone. No more shockwaves rolling across the land. No more white flashes or black arcs carving through distant ridges. That force which had been pressing over the war like a second sky simply vanished, and the silence left behind felt wrong in a way that made the skin crawl.

Noir felt it first. Her giant wolf form stayed still for half a breath, purple eyes fixed on the place where Noel and Roberto had been. Selene noticed at once. So did Charlotte, Elena, and Elyra from their own sections as the absence spread through the field more clearly than sound ever could.

Selene reached Noir first. "Where is he?"

Noir did not answer immediately. She searched through the bond between them, trying to follow Noel the way she always could. For a moment her ears twitched back, and something uneasy passed through her expression. "I don’t know exactly," she said at last.

Charlotte’s face tightened. "What do you mean you don’t know?"

"I can still feel him. He’s alive." That much came without doubt. "But I can’t reach him through ’Shadow Step.’ There are no shadows connecting to wherever he was taken."

That made the silence around them heavier.

Elyra’s gray eyes sharpened, but her voice stayed controlled. "So he’s somewhere else. Alive, but outside the reach of your shadows."

"Yes."

Elena exhaled slowly, her grip tightening around her weapon for a moment before easing again. Worry was there in all of them now, obvious and real, but none of them had time to sink into it properly.

A roar rose from the front. One of Roberto’s monsters broke through a weakened section and forced a fresh wave of movement through the defenders nearby. The battlefield had not stopped to respect Noel’s disappearance.

Noir lowered her body slightly, claws digging into the ground. "We have to trust him."

Selene’s eyes stayed forward. "I know." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Charlotte swallowed once, then nodded. Elena and Elyra did the same, each of them pushing the weight of that uncertainty down where it would have to stay for now.

The warped sensation ended a moment later, and Noel landed lightly with Revenant Fang still in his hand. The first thing he noticed was not Roberto, but the place itself. Everything around them was white in a way that felt artificial, as if the whole dimension had been built from stable light and then stripped of every irregularity that made a place feel real. The ground, the distance, the horizon, all of it blended together with a clean perfection that made the space feel controlled rather than empty, like a world reduced to a single idea and polished until nothing imperfect remained.

Then he understood the real problem. There were no shadows anywhere in that place, and the conclusion came before the thought had fully formed. Nothing beneath his feet, nothing behind Roberto, nothing hidden at the edge of his vision, and when instinct made him reach for it anyway, the result was the same as touching cold glass. "Shadow Step" did not answer. "Shadow Rift" did not answer either. It was not a matter of weakness or interference. Those skills were simply unavailable there, severed completely by the nature of the dimension itself.

Roberto watched that understanding settle into Noel’s eyes. "This is my dimension. It’s easier to fight here." A faint smile touched his face. "And much worse for you."

Noel looked around one last time before returning his gaze to him. "How considerate."

The reply came dry, but he did not waste another second on the disadvantage. Complaining would not create shadows where none existed. So he moved first.

"Ignition Surge." Fire wrapped itself around Revenant Fang in a burning layer of orange-red heat, and Noel rushed in immediately, relying on raw speed and swordsmanship instead of darkness. His first cut came low, the second rose fast toward Roberto’s upper body, and both were met with controlled efficiency. "Lumina Veil" flowed over Roberto like a thin layer of light pressed close to the skin, reducing the force of impact without disturbing his movements. The clash rang sharply across the white expanse, the sound itself too harsh for a place that looked so unnaturally pure.

Noel vanished with "Spatial Shift" and reappeared at Roberto’s flank, driving "Glacialis" toward his ribs at close range. Roberto turned cleanly and answered with "Radiant Slash," the line of compressed light cutting through the ice and forcing Noel to shift his footing at once. Even inside a place that had stripped away all of his shadow movement, Noel’s pressure remained real. Sword, speed, fire, ice, all of it layered together without hesitation, enough to make the first exchange matter and enough to show Roberto one simple truth.

Even here, Noel was still dangerous.

Noel adjusted quickly, but not blindly. In Vaelterra he had relied on shadows to shorten angles and break rhythm whenever a fight became too controlled. Here that path was closed, and "Spatial Shift" was not something he could throw out freely either. To use it properly he first needed to move through the space itself, mark it with his own flow, make the path his before trying to bend it. So instead of forcing what was not ready yet, he ran.

"Ignition Surge." Revenant Fang burned again as Noel stepped in with raw speed, his boots cutting sharp lines across the white ground while he changed angles through footwork alone. His blade came fast from the right, then turned halfway and dropped toward Roberto’s waist in the same motion. Roberto met both with precise parries, "Lumina Veil" softening the force without disturbing the neat economy of his body. Their swords rang again, bright and hard, and Noel followed that contact immediately with "Fire Arc," the curve of flame cutting across Roberto’s side at close range.

"Radiant Slash." Light answered fire. The two attacks tore through each other, and Noel was already moving again before the heat fully spread. He lowered his hand and cast "Cooling Veil," forcing a thin wave of frost across the white space around them. The perfect clarity of Roberto’s dimension did not disappear, but it became harsher, the air turning sharper as cold spread over the ground. Noel used that small change at once. "Ice Spike." Jagged ice burst upward from a blind angle near Roberto’s rear flank, forcing him to move with "Sanctified Step" instead of keeping the center as cleanly as before.

That was enough to stay on him. Noel closed the distance again with sword pressure, the fight tighter now, closer, more oppressive than before. Blade collided with blade. Roberto’s elbow checked Noel’s shoulder to ruin one line of attack, and Noel answered by turning his body and driving "Glacialis" from almost point-blank range. Roberto cut through the ice and flashed back with "Flashbind." White light burst across Noel’s vision, but this time he was already expecting it. He gave ground instead of forcing the next motion and avoided the follow-up "Sanctum Pulse" by the smallest margin, the wave of light still clipping past him hard enough to tear open the ground behind his heels.

Noel understood the problem more clearly now. This place favored Roberto too heavily to fight the same way he had outside. Every exchange here rewarded clean control, stable movement, perfect spacing, all things that fit Roberto better than they fit him. But Roberto understood something too as the distance between them opened for a moment.

Even without shadows, Noel was adapting too fast.

They stopped a few steps apart, both still steady, both still dangerous. Noel held Revenant Fang raised, already recalculating. Roberto remained calm, but the casual ease from earlier had thinned. The duel was alive. And if Noel wanted to win in this place, the next version of his rhythm had to be born here.