Nova's brain was racing. And had continued to do so as soon as the match began. Orosu was getting increasingly closer with each step as Nova's heart pounded in her chest. It felt like a ritual, her heart as the drum, the rhythm they danced to. But at this moment, she felt like a sacrifice. One to be offered up to Orosu.
"This is… Humiliating," Nova said to herself. Admitting how weak she felt compared to him.
"Do speak up when you're talking. You're making it impossible for others to hear. It's really quite irritating." Orosu said with a flat face. Standing over Nova.
Nova steadily gets back on her feet, Scarlet liquid dripping down her face, coming from her forehead.
"You're blee-"
"Shut up," Nova retaliates. "I've heard your voice for years, I've grown tired of it, telling me I'm not good enough, that I'm nothing more than an insect. I wanted nothing more than for you to shut the hell up!" Nova yells at Orosu, throwing a punch that surpasses Mach 1, breaking the sound barrier and slamming into Orosu's cheek and pushing him back several feet.
Nova looks up with a newfound fire ignited in her soul as Orosu staggers back, clutching his forehead. As he then looks back at his rival, his eye changes, but only for a split second. His pupils turn from black to white, and his sclera, the white part of the eye, turns black. It's so subtle,e I don't think even Orosu noticed it.
The muscles in his legs tighten as he launches himself towards her. But Nova is faster. She uses Orosu's momentum against him as she deflects his blow to the side. Throwing him off balance and allowing her to strike him in the side with harmonic energy, boosting the weight of her punch. In response, Orosu increases his durability in the exact spot Nova landed. Effectively nullifying the attack. Wait… Nullifying?
A sudden thought came to me. I scanned the battlefield, a task that would have been impossible under the current circumstances. Smoke covered the platform where Nova had struck. The force of her blow kicked up clouds of dust. But with my highly trained eyes, I spot it. The spider silk. The one that was infused into the chain. I bite my tongue, trying to tell myself that it isn't supposed to be possible. That reversing the effects of an attribute shouldn't exist.
Back on the field, Nova throws a series of punches and kicks, but none seem to do damage. Each of them is landing, and she was sure she used her attribute to merge a shard of iron into her fists. As the last hit lands, Orosu takes perfect advantage of the opening and grabs her face, slamming it into the ground. Nova doesn't hesitate, sensing danger, her reflexes activate, and she kicks Orosu with the underside of both feet, almost like a horse when someone walks behind it. Orosu gets launched in the air but lands gracefully on his feet.
"You're quick on your feet, I'll give you that much. Isn't it about time you used that attribute of yours? I don't fully understand how it works, but it's quite interesting."
"You haven't even begun to get a glimpse of what it can truly do. I will do what I must to ensure I can stand beside him with honour."
Orosu's face became a twisted one of surprise and disbelief, and it morphed into a smile so sinister that there was no way I could believe it was him. At the end of it all, he burst out laughing, his voice shaking us down to our souls.
"And what makes you think you can stand beside him on equal footing?" Orosu asks, walking forward again, not even a scratch on his body.
"How did my attacks do nothing to you? I was sure I-"
"Fused Iron chunks into your fists?" Orosu finishes for her. Holding out his hand to show her the pieces of metal that were originally used in her strikes were now being held in Orosu's palms. He had just extracted the iron from her fists, effectively reversing her attribute. Nova stands there in absolute shock. Eyes wide, finally understanding just how big a threat this man is.
"It's quite simple, really. I just have to output the opposite frequency of your attribute and cancel it out. Or if I'd like…" A bright purple flash emanates from Orosu's hands as the chunks of iron disappear into his fists. "I can reverse the reversal and use your own techniques against you."
Copying someone's techniques, while simultaneously negating their original owner's, was straight out of a nightmare beyond nightmares. But after regaining her senses. Nova just smiled.
"Well then, I'd like to see just how far that can go. Don't you?" For a split second, just like Orosu, her pupils fade to a transparent white. "I know you have a limit. And I intend to reach it."
Once again, the child-like grin shows itself on Nova's face as she brings both her hands out to chest level. Cupping both of them and conjuring what looks to be a glowing, swirling mass of neon green. Slowly forming a nucleus and orbiting atoms. Nuclear energy materialized.
"I'm no longer just throwing away my resentment, but I'm willing to toss my life to the depths of no return."
"Nova! Don't!" I screamed at her, my lungs tearing themselves apart with how much force I was exerting.
But Nova just smiled. As warm as a thousand suns, all converging at one spot in the universe. This woman's face. Why had they all chosen to come together in this one spot? I did not know. The burning radiance matched the heat on her hands as much as her face. Those upturned corners of her mouth were as sweet as sugar. But it wasn't something I could just eat to my heart's content. This delicacy was meant to be savoured with each bite. Each passing moment, just trying to hold on to that distinct flavour. This wasn't just the starter, the appetizer, the main course, or the dessert. The entire meal was served in this one dish.
"Arashi." Nova shoots back, her words and voice calm." I knew how many risks I was taking just facing him alone. Please worry about yourself. Besides… Does anyone actually expect me to die from this?
Nova grins, enjoying the exchange of words.
"Oh, what the hell? I'm out of cool stuff to say. And I'm not much of a talker anyway."
Nova suddenly presses her hand to the ground. But there is no devastating exaltation like everyone expected. Instead, a giant cloud of smoke covers the entire platform, enveloping it in shrouded mist. The smoke shower billowed over like a thunderhead. I doubted either of them could see inside its stomach. But amidst the smoke, I could see faint flashes of purple light, slamming into their target. From out of the cloud, Orosu flew. Knocked flat on his back. Nova followed. But there was something about her appearance that changed; her eyes now seem more predatory. As if homing in on their target with precision.
Orosu wipes some blood off his face. "Lucky shot. We both know nobody can see through this fog."
"Then why do you think I put it up in the first place?" Nova asked, grinning ear to ear. "Tell you what. If I can't hit you within the next oh, I don't know 30 seconds? Give or take? I'll declare myself the loser. Does that sound good to you?"
Orosu's shocked face gave away every ounce of surprise and disbelief.
"That's absurd! You really want to gamble whether you win or lose on an idiotic game?" Orosurealizess his outburst and tries to compose himself. "Well… if you want to lose that badly, I can grant you that wish."
With that, Orosu darted back into the mist, eager to avoid any spots where Nova could see him. All ranges of vision are blind spots now. Nova covered the rest of the arena in clouds of smoke. Enveloping her body completely, as I saw a flash of movement from where she last stood. Telling me that she was on the move.
My ears picked up on a noise so faint it could only be described as a butterfly's wingbeat. I enhanced my hearing with Harmonic energy to hear pitches previously invisible to humans. It was a slight clicking noise,e almost… mechanical. I increased the output of the flow of harmonic energy into my eardrums. This time, I heard two different sounds. One, coming from the platform covered in smoke. It sounded like a gun being reloaded, then cocked. And the other felt like it was coming from the entire stadium.
I had no time to find out what the second sound was because my focus and everyone else's was shifted back to the battlefield as a gunshot rang out. The smoke was beginning to dissipate into the air as Nova stepped out first, the strap of an M4 Carbine rifle slung over her shoulder as she held it with one hand. The same wide grin plastered over her face. She seemed proud of herself. Then, her opponent, Orosu, stepped out. Clutching his shoulder, his face a mask of pain.
"Does it hurt? Good. I hope it does. I hope that you feel every atom of pain that bullet has given to you. Every fibre of your body, every neuron, every blood vessel."
Did she shoot him? I looked down at Orosu's arm, and I noticed some torn clothing but no blood. I breathed a sigh of relief. The nano shields had taken the brunt of the blow. But still,l a bullet was dangerous stuff. Then a thought popped into my head, or rather, two. Where had Nova gotten that gun? And how had she managed to Orosu through the smoke?
Attribute analysis: Nova's attribute is fusion. So while she can build a gun out of metal scraps and whatnot, she needs a certain amount of the material to build the object in mind and needs the primary material that the object is made out of. In the M4 carbine's case: Aluminum and steel. But the other part is more complex than that. How was Nova able to accurately snipe Orosu with smoke blocking her vision? Fusion is an extremely rare attribute that manifests on its own without training. And it's not just able to fuse physical objects. It works with attributes as well.
Nova's eyes glowed with a radiant purple light. The iris held three rings. the pupil? Replaced by a crosshair. Nova Rust had fused her eyes with the attribute: optic.