Sora glanced at the struggling Demon Race player, recalling the boldness of his plan and the desperation driving him toward such an extreme path.
The Dark Elf who had killed him initially had done so effortlessly. To manipulate his powerful body with such ease, the Dark Elf must have wielded a supreme skill related to telekinesis, honed to an incredible level of mastery.
Recalling how a Spirit Race player had toyed with him during the group battle, Sora realized that neglecting his mental defenses during the group battle had been a critical mistake. However, relying solely on [Peak Meditate] during combat wasn't ideal either; the deeply distracted state it induced left him less responsive to immediate threats.
Thinking back on the Dragonborn who had reflected his attack and the speedster Dragonborn he had defeated with Kara's [Time Acceleration], Sora was reminded of just how formidable the top elite players were. None could be underestimated; each seemed to have their own innate skills, supreme abilities, or techniques taken to the limit—much like Kara.
Kara, who had been so weak when they first met, had grown into someone he looked up to. She had focused her skillset, mixing everything into a cohesive path of extreme growth. Her [Time Space] was the perfect tool to train her swordsmanship and mastery over life force, while her control over time had elevated her fighting prowess to a whole new level.
An idea flickered in his mind—something so ambitious that anyone who heard it would laugh in his face. Shaking his head, he dismissed the thought for now, choosing to focus on his immediate goals.
Driven by a desire to grow stronger and aware of the dangers posed by the other elite players, Sora decided it was time to push his abilities even further.
Activating [Blink], he appeared beside the Demon Race player, who was desperately trying to escape from Emily's clone. In one swift motion, Sora summoned a dozen clones, each taking a position to surround the demon.
The demon struggled as Sora's clones tightened their grip on his arms and shoulders, pushing him closer to the storm. Desperation was clear in the demon's every movement as he clawed at the ground, his heels digging in to resist.
Leaning in, Sora said, "If you help me with an experiment, we'll let you go. What do you say?"
The player narrowed his eyes, his voice thick with suspicion. "What do you take me for? Some kind of test subject?"
Sora hesitated, caught off guard by the demon's words. After all, his intentions weren't exactly noble. Emily, stepping in as her clone darted away to scout ahead, answered for him.
"You're as good as dead anyway; might as well give yourself a chance to live. Doesn't that sound better than the alternative?"
The demon glared at her, his teeth clenched, his eyes full of defiance. Finally, after a tense pause, he spat, "Fine. What do you want?"
Moments later, Sora and the others watched intently as the demon cautiously followed their instructions, stepping closer to the edge of the storm to test its properties. The storm lashed out with elemental attacks, leaving scars on the demon's body. They observed how the damage seemed to increase gradually over time, manifesting in bursts of fire, lightning, and frost.
Interestingly, the storm only affected the parts of the demon's body directly in contact with it, sparing the rest. Sora's sharp eyes caught every detail, his mind racing. 'It's not an instant-kill field. The damage is gradual and specific. This could work.'
Satisfied with the experiment, Sora's group released the demon, who bolted away as fast as his injured body allowed him to. Turning his focus to the storm, Sora immediately began testing its effects on himself. Starting with his hands, he cautiously reached into the storm, 'testing the waters.'
Following his intuition, he released his own mana, summoning lightning and guiding it toward the surrounding lightning elements, seeking to "coax" them into submission. With his formidable command over lightning, he was confident his attempt would succeed .
But something inexplicably strange occurred. His own lightning slipped from his grasp. The foreign lightning thread extended, devoured his lightning, and shot back toward him, striking his outstretched finger—the very spot he had released it from.
Sighing in relief at his decision to test the lightning element first, he noted that the damage was minimal, much like the other elemental attacks he had resisted so far. He thought, 'Thank god, my resistance to these elements is insane. Otherwise, that would have been dangerous.'
As the faint impacts of the earth element began brushing against him, Sora focused intently, anticipating the next strike of the space element, hoping to gain a deeper understanding of its nature.
When the cluster of energy from space element finally reached him, the difference was immediate. Its energy was razor-sharp, slicing cleanly through the storm itself.
The instability of the space element prevented it from forming a stable shape. As it moved toward him, Sora cautiously reached out, channeling his mana to "catch" it. Immediately a ripping pain tore through his hand, forcing him to withdraw from the storm.
Appearing injured in front of the girls, he smiled in embarrassment and was fully healed by Kara who was waiting outside.
Not willing to listen to Emily's mocking, he returned inside of the storm to continue his experiment. He gradually learned to endure the sensation and attempted to coax the space element to react to his control.
Instead of forcing control, he eventually shifted to guiding it, sensing how it resisted any typical manipulation. Every time the space energy struck, he braced for the impact, then slowly channeled his mana around it, attempting to create a stable path for it to flow without backlash.
'This feels familiar,' he thought, recalling his earliest attempts to recreate other elements. Back then, he had also faced repeated failures. But unlike those times, the space element offered no clear roadmap to success. Its nature was unlike anything he knew.
As the process stretched on, boredom crept in between his interactions with the elusive space element. An idea formed in his mind to make better use of the time between each attempt.
Releasing the five elements he had high proficiency in, he sent them outward to attract more elements, trying to temper his body further by provoking the elements he was familiar with.
Feeling the elements react to his attempts and rebel, his body was bombarded by the five elements simultaneously. The impacts, however, felt like faint tickles against his skin, a sign that the attacks were too weak to challenge his resistances.
Releasing more mana, he increased the area affected by his elements, hundreds of threads extending from his body to attract the surrounding elements—everything except the [Space] element, eventually reaching a threshold of pain he considered worthy to be considered training.
Alternating between trying to control the storm's elements and attempting to master the [Space Element], Sora remained entirely focused.
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