Ellen vs Akito 1

Ellen coated the awl in a Shadow Qi and threw it at the ball. Halfway through the air, the shadow of the awl shot forward through the shadow of the ball. The awl trembled slightly, then pulled towards its shadow like a magnet.

Water exploded out violently and completely smashed the tiles beneath it as the bomb was pierced through.

'Shadow Attribute?' Akito frowned, but it only lasted a moment before his smile returned. 'Looks like this might be more interesting than I thought.'

'Compress.' A large volume of water splashed out of his hand before regathering and compressing around it. He waved his encased hand, and another blade of water broke the air as it cut towards the awl.

It looked the same as the attack he'd used on Ren, but it held over five times the strength and would even challenge regular Pillar Realm Cultivators.

He'd just launched the blade when a feeling of threat surrounded him. His spirit sense spread outwards and caught several more awls rapidly approaching from different directions and speeds.

He snorted disdainfully and shook his hand to launch more blades at all of them. His Compression skill was a channel burst skill that made any water attribute attack he launched automatically compress while active, giving a deadly power to even a basic skill like Water Blade.

"I hope that's not the best you ca–" his taunts died in his mouth as the awls bore a hole through every blade. "Impossible!" No way those twigs contained as much power as his blades.

His time to think was cut short by the need to dodge. His movements were fast and fluid, skillfully avoiding all the awls, yet more kept coming. Any time he stopped moving he'd find himself swarmed by an array of awls.

He kept channeling more qi into Compression, but the awls still pierced right through. Even when Compression reached its max of twenty times and would be life threatening for Pillar Realms, the awls punched through all the same. Unfortunately, the lobby didn't have the same sturdiness.

With the increase in strength, the water blades continued to fly even after being pierced and left long gashes and breaks across the building. Marina had long herded Raul away to an upper floor hall where they could see into the lobby, and Ren reluctantly removed himself to a further position to watch as well. The staff were experienced enough to have left when Akito first came in, knowing where to go when cultivators started fighting. As for the rest of the Vault Family, they were all Ascension Realm and knew how to conduct themselves when attacked by a superior opponent.

"Watch Ellen closely Raul, this is what you should aspire to." Marina told him. She didn't want this situation, but she'd take what benefits she could get from it. Ellen's skills in Attribute Manipulation were a great example for Raul if he really wanted to tread on that path.

Shadow Tag is the only proper Shadow Attributed Technique the Vault Family owned, forcing Ellen to rely on Attribute Manipulation for most of her moves.

Raul didn't need telling as he already had his eyes absolutely glued to the fight. He didn't have Spirit Sense and could only rely on his eyes to barely keep up with it. Even with the higher view, he couldn't see Ellen's awls until Akito's attacks knocked into them.

More than anyone else he'd seen, he felt fighting Ellen was impossible for him and it wasn't about strength. If you couldn't track her awls then you wouldn't even know how you died. 'I really have to get Marina to teach me how to make Spirit Sense.'

Akito managed to stay one step ahead of the awls, but just barely. Ellen didn't only throw from afar, sometimes she'd Shadow Tag quite close to him to keep the pressure up.

Even though he was slowly getting cornered, Akito's eyes brimmed with fascination. 'Not only are they hard to track, their power and speed are incredibly focused. It even seems to have a maintenance effect, how interesting.' His Spirit Sense had noticed how several of the awls that pierced his blades cracked or crumbled after catching up with their shadows.

It was only natural. The awls Ellen used were personalized, but they were still a mass production product. They had no durability, utility, or other functionality than to pierce. In exchange, when controlled by Ellen's manipulation they could perform that one function exceedingly well.

Usually the Shadow Attribute made them hard to detect even with Spirit Sense, but Akito's spirit sense was unusually powerful. He'd definitely spent a lot of time refining it. However, even his powerful senses didn't pick up on the six rats scurrying around the ceiling and shadows of the room while carrying long quills.

"Not that this hasn't been fun, but it's about time we end this." Akito said with a relaxed grin. He more or less understood the mechanics of her attribute, there was no need to waste anymore time. "Water Pillar." He launched a large pillar of compressed water at an empty area a moment before Ellen appeared there.

Ellen's eyes widened as she activated Shadow Tag and ported away again, but another attack came at her.

'Damn! He can actually track it.' Ellen cursed in surprise. Shadow Tag required her to tag a shadow with her Spirit Sense before she could port to it. It was even less noticeable than her awls, but Akito finally discovered it.

The battle took a turn now. Ellen continued to attack with her awls piercing Akito's pillars, but the pillars would also threaten her as he could now follow her movements and the pillars continued after being pierced.

The two were stuck in a fierce exchange of attack and dodge that tore apart the lobby.

'She's better than I thought.' Akito admitted with an excited smile. He'd assumed it'd be easy once he figured her out, but her skills went beyond just her attribute.

The difference in sheer power between them was huge, and even a single hit would cause her serious damage. She could've retreated to a further range to give herself more breathing room at the cost of giving him the same. Instead, she grew more aggressive, riding the edge and using hard angles and quick tags to keep up the pressure. Her split-second judgement ability proved to be incredibly refined and daring, it was a thrill to fight such an opponent.

It earned Akito's appreciation, but it also made a cold light flicker through his eyes as he subtly increased the intensity of his attacks. He knew the strength of his house's Ascension Realm participants this year, she would tear them apart.

While he couldn't do anything as drastic as murder without serious consequences, if he could injure her badly enough to knock her out of the exams, or even just decrease her combat power, it would give his members a better chance.

Before he could think of a way to do it without looking deliberate, she stopped a far distance from him.

He clicked his tongue in disappointment, believing his opportunity was gone. "So are we finally done with this little game? I don't mind letting you off with just this if you hand me that guy personally." He said teasingly, unaware of the rat standing in his shadow.

"Hmph! You got one thing right, the game is over." She knelt and touched her shadow and used Shadow Reach. All the shadows in the room deepened and swirled, revealing the runes hidden within them. The runes sunk in, and the shadows dyed the floor black as they rushed towards Akito.

"Cute." Akito sneered in disdain before jumping out of the way. Or at least, that's what was supposed to happen.

"What!?" He exclaimed in shock as his body froze in place. It was only now that his spirit sense found the quill sticking out of his shadow. The quill trembled and pieces broke off from the force of his attempts to move. It was obvious it wouldn't hold for long, but it didn't need to as the shadows swooped in.

"No!" His body might be stuck, but his qi still worked. Water spread out from his feet in waves to fight off the shadows, but the runes within them suddenly glowed and gleefully swallowed all the water they came across like dry sand.

Akito could only watch in horror as the shadows blended with his own. His hands forcefully clamped together, and a sudden suppression caused him to lose control of his qi. The shadows receded and the room went back to normal, but Akito's hands were still stuck.

They wouldn't separate no matter how hard he pulled, and when he tried to use his qi it would forcefully convert to Water Qi and get absorbed. No, even when he didn't try to use it his qi was slowly being converted and sucked out.

If one looked at his shadow, they would see glowing runed manacles binding his hands and constantly sucking water from his body.