Chapter 148: Mira vs Samuel 1

Samuel said "Show me what you got". Mira grinned and said "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you" and Diamond dust appeared around her figure and they reflected the light of the moon that hung over them.

The Diamond dust swirled around Mira while Samuel's violet aura surged from his body in a burst into the area around him violently causing gales to be exuded from his figure.

White lines flashed between Mira and Samuel as Mira used Shooting Stars that curved and surrounded Samuel from all sides. The world around Samuel turned violet for a moment and all the Diamond dust grains were frozen inside violet crystals by the time everything went back to normal.

Samuel smiled revealing his fangs a bit as he said "Little energy in each attack. You might not know this but energies from different energy zones repel each other when the density of one energy is enough what I just did now is an application of that principle"

Mira smiled and said "I know, but it's not like any of that matters" Samuel revealed a puzzled expression which quickly turned to shock. He couldn't sense his aura crystals restricting the Diamonds anymore and he watched in confusion as the Diamond dust grains slipped out of the crystals without suffering any of the repulsive forces they should face against condensed energy.

Samuel jumped back to escape the encirclement of the diamonds. The world around him got a shade of violet again for an instant but no crystals formed around the Diamond dust particles. Samuel thought 'Well this is messed up' as he looked at the swirling cloud of Diamond dust around Mira.

The Diamond grains chased him for a while before he said "You have really good control. I didn't expect you to be so good at controlling something you just got some hours ago". He knew that Mira had a limit to the amount of separate individual particles of her skill that she could control at anytime so he was quite impressed that she could control such small things so accurately.

Mira scratched her head before saying "I'm not controlling anything, the Diamond acts on its own to protect me and it attacks what I want to attack on its own. I'm just giving commands, it's like it has a mind of its own and it just understands me".

Samuel stared blankly at Mira like she was an alien as he dashed around before shouting "THAT'S SO UNFAIR. IT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE. ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT YOU CAN SEND AS MANY DIAMOND PARTICLES AS YOU WANT WITHOUT ANY RESTRICTION?!!"

Mira nodded with a blank expression like it was the most normal thing in the world and she said "Let me show you" and the cloud of Diamond dust turned into a stream of light that curved around passing through the ground and the air to encircle Samuel.

Samuel's red eyes turned violet and the whites of his eyes turned black as an armor made of strips of violet metal covered his body 'Partial Aura Manifestation: Imperfect Knight'. The world around him turned violet 'Partial Aura Manifestation: Buggy World'.

The Diamond grains were frozen by purple crystals, all except for the first ones Samuel froze which still came at him without hindrance but he stretched out his palm and a violet mace with a spherical head covered in strange patterns appeared in his hand. 'Partial Aura Manifestation: Owner of suffering'

The crystals that trapped the diamonds and the diamonds that were free all flew toward the head of the mace as if they were attracted by a gravity that originated from the head of the mace. Both the crystals and the diamonds disappeared as they sunk into the head of the mace.

Mira was surprised and Samuel said "Time out. I want to explain something". Mira nodded and Samuel said "You can certainly take on Rank 7s. This aura manifestation is the one I use when I get serious. The stuff I said about the weakness of your technique is true but I lied that the technique I used to counter it uses compressed energy. The technique I used can freely increase and reduce friction within a certain zone, the crystal is the manifestation of the ability. I don't know how your diamonds overcame it though do you mind telling me?"

Mira was puzzled at Samuel's reveal so she asked "Why are you telling me this?" Samuel was revealing his abilities and how they worked which was something he never did but now he paused the fight to explain which was different from his normal behavior.

Samuel answered "The stronger a person is the harder the person is to capture and torture for information. The monsters are smart so I'm sure they'll look for opportunities to capture some of us to learn our weaknesses. To counter that, information about the full working of the abilities of Rank 7s can only be disclosed to Rank 7s or in your case, someone who is already strong enough to be Rank 7. This way the monsters won't learn valuable information even if they succeed at capturing one of us. You can choose not to tell me how you overcame my skill though"

Mira was impressed by the foresight of Night City's leaders and said to Samuel "The brightness of the Diamonds comes from my energy but the hardness comes from the reaction of my energy with the environment since the containment represents my reality. When you trapped my diamonds they reacted with your energy and absorbed apart of it. By doing this, your energy will only sense my diamonds as energy that came from you so you won't be able to repel my energy even if you compressed your energy and it seems like your friction skill doesn't affect your own energy or what it considers as your own energy".

Samuel had a look of realization as he understood what Mira said "Thanks for sharing. What you said really helped me". Mira said "You're welcome" and Samuel said as he showed his mace "This is the aura manifestation; Owner of Suffering. It redirects all the energy of various attacks to the mace and supplies me with the energy. Honestly most of my aura manifestations are a bad match for your diamonds… except this one I guess. Let's continue".