Chapter 456: Manipulation

They arrived in a barren garden with sand as the stepping ground. He looked around and found the place was surrounded by limestone and cement. The field was close to that of a football field, so they had plenty of room to practice.

Considering Kai, the Race Protector, who needed to use it, he indeed required a place this big or his power wouldn't be able to be contained.

They reached the middle of the field as Arba turned around, facing him with a serious expression.

"And so, I will be teaching you how to use your power."

"Now that I think about it, I remember that the magic is called Mystic in this place…"

Arba nodded. "Yes. I will explain the difference between Magic and Mystic. I have studied your so-called magic and realized that you need to force the Magic Particles out of your body before shooting magic with a certain sequence. Mostly it's about your movement."

"Yes." Kai nodded, confirming what she said was right.

"And now, I'm going to explain what mystic is." Arba paused and raised her hand, summoning a green magic circle on her hand. She then released the magic to the air, creating one straight line. "This is Magic called Wind Bullet. It's literally shooting a bolt of wind in a particular direction. I assume you know about it, right?"

Kai agreed with her.

Arba then continued, using the same magic. However, this time, the small ball formed by wind curved and went straight to the ground, kicking up the dust. "This is the Mystic version. Do you understand?"

"I can understand the difference, but I don't think you've done anything…" Kai narrowed his eyes. "No. You must have done something, but I don't know how you twist the trajectory."

"That…" Arba pointed at Kai with a smile. "Trajectory. This is the difference between Magic and Mystic. Magic allows you to shoot something, but Mystic gives you the ability to direct it according to what you want.

"Direction!" Kai frowned and contemplated.

"To put it simply, we're determining the direction of the vector where our magic will go. This is called Mystic. It requires practice to do something like this, of course. And I'm going to explain it to you right now. However, I would like to ask you to attack me once. I believe you have Sound Magic, right?"

"Yes." Kai nodded and asked, "What kind of attack do you want?"

"Whatever you like."

Kai fell into deep thought and raised his left hand to create a Sound Insulation Magic to prevent the sound from going out. After that, he raised his other hand and snapped his fingers.

Clack.

Ding.

The moment the snapping sound echoed, a magic circle appeared and released a high-pitched noise that would disturb anyone around them.

"Lullaby."

The Sound Wave flew in all directions, including her. However, Arba simply raised her hand and created a small wind barrier that eventually covered her own body. After that, she continued to expand it and created a small dome to protect many people inside.

Surprisingly, when she enveloped him, he couldn't hear a single sound as if everything just disappeared. Even Kai was shocked.

"This…" Kai looked around, observing the Wind Barrier.

"I'm using my Wind Power to create a barrier that reflects any sound from coming in. After watching the video when you killed an S Rank Mole, I realized that you have mastered releasing your magic and changing its characteristics. For example, you can change the frequency to something that no one can hit while the shock wave remains.

"If you can direct the shock wave, I think you will be able to do something even more amazing. For example, how about you hit me with your sword that causes a sonic boom, isn't it?"

Kai frowned and asked, "Are you sure?"

He was worried that Arba couldn't do anything to it, considering it was his most powerful technique.

Arba simply nodded her head and said, "Although I don't say it, even if there are ten of you attacking me together, you won't be able to defeat me. I'm strong. That's a fact, so please no need to worry about my well-being."

Kai contemplated for a moment and took out his sword. He used his Super Sonic Sword and raised his hand. He planned to stop right after it hit her, but Arba raised her finger and created a small magic circle.

The Magic Circle dispersed the Sonic Boom immediately and suppressed the sword, preventing it from vibrating. This was his first time finding something that could stop his sword other than a hard surface.

"This… Canceling? No. It's like…"

"Yes. I'm just directing your Sonic Boom to somewhere else with my wind while circling your sword to prevent it from vibrating. Well, I can only slow it down since the vibration is so strong to be handled like this."

Kai took a deep breath, understanding that power. He thought for a moment and sighed, "To think my power can be neutralized that way."

"I believe you won't have any problem next time if you have mastered this power. Hence, I suggest you learn this intensively, but since language is also important, it's better to do it this way."

"Well, I guess that's good." Kai nodded. "I feel like I can do many things about it."

In Kai's mind, the scene where he owned the bull flashed, reminding him that he could do so many things as long as he used it in the right place and right direction.

"Do you wish to try fighting me?"

"Hmm…" Kai narrowed his eyes and nodded. "I am curious."

"Sure. My ability itself isn't that great since the density of Magic Particles in my body is around S Rank Magical Beast level. However, this also means I can demonstrate the power of vectors to you." Arba took a few steps back and said, "No need to worry about me. I will handle everything you throw at me. Make me fall once, you win."

Kai raised both of his swords while taking one step forward. This was his stance to charge forward, but he then saw Arba's stance that made him hesitate.

She didn't even raise a single stance, but that alone made him uncomfortable as if she was trying to do something big.

It was then he realized something different from her. This was not a killing intent or something, but purer. He took a deep breath and said, "Magic Power…"

"Exactly." Arba smiled. "This is an intimidation technique. By spreading your Magic Power around you, the enemy will sense something that makes them uncomfortable. The purpose is like killing intent. In fact, you can combine it with this technique, raising the intensity even further. In short, by learning how to control your Magic Particles' direction, you can direct your magic and anything else that comes together with it.

"That's why its first name was Magic Manipulation before it was renamed Mystic." Arba then raised both hands and had both palms facing Kai. Her right foot was in the front, slightly bending down to lower her center of gravity. "Let's go. I will only use a bit of my power and won't make something big out of it."

Kai narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath to fight this weird feeling. The Sonic Boom appeared again on his swords as he used his Super Sonic Sword Magic.

While he prepared himself, Arba seemed to have no intention of moving and remained in her position without opening her mouth. However, there was still a trace of gentle expression on her face as if this fight was just child play.

Since she was so confident, Kai summoned a Sound Blast on the ground as he leaped with his fastest speed while leaning his body to the right, sending a kick to her side.

Arba lowered her right hand and grabbed the kick. Surprisingly, the momentum didn't push him back, forcing Kai's body to go around her body only to find a small Magic Circle on her back. Then, Kai's vision fell to her feet, finding two more Magic Circles.

In other words, Arba controlled her power well enough to block that kind of momentum without even being serious. The Magic Circle on her back was formed to kill his momentum and stopped her from falling. Meanwhile, the two on her feet were to prevent her from getting blown away and somehow tripped.

In addition, she leaned slightly forward to make the catch even easier for her.

"Seriously?" Kai made a weird smile before feeling the grip on his foot was tightened. "Oh no."

Right after that grip, Arba took another step forward and spun her body, making Kai spin with her in the center.

Kai gritted his teeth and endured the headache due to the spinning while creating a Magic Circle to bail him out.

Noticing this kind of movement, Arba then let his ankle go. The centrifugal force launched Kai to the ground and rolled a few times until the momentum ended.