Chapter 263: Uhtred vs Zara (II)

He had severely underestimated what Zara meant by ’not holding back.’

His fist sailed forward, carrying the heavy, volatile force of his Unified Elemental Strike. For a fraction of a second, he actually felt his knuckles connect with something solid, and a brief flash of hesitation crossed his mind — a sudden sting of regret.

Damn! She didn’t react?!

He had assumed she would be able to react to his strike and counter in quick tandem...

Did I overestimate her abilities?!

That thought barely lasted a second before he realized he was sorely mistaken.

A frown colored his face as he quickly realized that the contact he had felt beneath his knuckles had gone completely weightless.

The heavy pushback he had expected upon breaking through Zara’s spatial redirection barrier was nowhere to be found, as if the physical resistance had simply ceased to exist.

In fact, she had disappeared entirely from his view like a phantom.

Alarm bells rang wildly in his head, signaling that something was terribly wrong.

His fist, now having nothing to hit, continued forward on its unchecked trajectory, and he immediately kicked into action, straining his body to correct his momentum and prevent himself from tumbling headfirst to the floor.

At the same time, shocked thoughts and questions about what exactly was going on fired off in his mind in rapid succession.

He was completely sure he had hit Zara right there, and he was even mentally prepared for her to counter immediately. His whole body had locked up in anticipation of the inevitable strike that was going to hit him in return... but it never came.

Uhtred’s swing carried him forward, and he quickly converted the awkward fall into a tight roll across the floor to re-stabilize himself on his feet, his eyes darting around the arena in confusion.

Zara was nowhere to be seen. He couldn’t hear her breathing. And neither could he see her anywhere in the arena. What exactly was this technique?

For a second, he even looked past the edge of the arena toward the dozen or so artificers excitedly watching their fight from the sidelines. He wanted to call out and ask them where Zara had gone, but then he quickly realized that nothing within the dome could reach them outside.

The tremors of their battle couldn’t cross the barrier, and therefore not even the sound of his voice could carry over to them.

Realizing that asking the spectators was completely out of the question, Uhtred activated his Gnostic Eye immediately. He hadn’t wanted to use it if he could help it, mostly because of how severely draining it was to keep active.

One had to remember that they had only just left the Heavenly Demon’s dinner table about an hour or so ago. Uhtred hadn’t even had the time to fully recover his strength, rest his body, or top off his essence reserves.

Using his Gnostic Eye wasn’t something he had thought he would need to do here on Earth for whatever reason, but at this point, he had no other choice left.

The deep purple color in his left pupil suddenly began to glow a bit brighter as the deciphering ability of his Gnostic Eye kicked into gear, cutting through the ambient light of the arena.

The very moment it activated, Uhtred flinched involuntarily, but it was already too late.

The vague outline of a figure appeared right up in his face, appearing out of nowhere. Before he even had the time to process what he was looking at, a heavy fist slammed squarely into his chin, the sheer force behind it sending him tumbling back several steps.

"Fuck, that hurts!" Uhtred cursed out loud, his jaw flaring in pain.

He immediately kicked into Slipstream Stride to move out of the way, knowing full well that the sucker punch that had caught him in the face was definitely only the beginning of it.

He flashed all the way to the other end of the arena, turning around quickly as he yelled out:

"Zara, is that you?! What kind of fucking ability is this?!"

Zara did not answer.

Meanwhile, Uhtred’s eyes were darting around his immediate surroundings, trying his absolute best to spot the same outline he had seen before and react to it quickly. This time, he wanted to really see what exactly he was dealing with and try to understand the logic behind it.

That outline had definitely been Zara, without a doubt. And from that sucker punch to his face, she was fucking mad right now.

He knew she would answer his question eventually, but she was very obviously looking to sink several heavy blows in first, paying him back for the hits he had landed on her before she would give him any proper reply.

But Uhtred wasn’t looking to become her personal punching bag either. He needed to figure out what exactly this new technique was before she beat him black and blue.

Suddenly, up above, right in the blind spot of his left eye, he saw another shape conjure in the air. The same vague outline of a human female materialized out of nothingness.

Zara.

Uhtred activated Slipstream Stride instantly, but her punch landed before he could fully move out of the way with the technique.

He had spotted her just a second too late. Before his movement art could fully take off and propel him across the room, the heavy weight of her blow landed square on his back and made him stagger several steps, fighting against his own momentum before he finally managed to regain his balance.

"Goddamn, she’s really pissed!" Uhtred seethed through clenched teeth, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

He could feel her anger very clearly from how heavy those blows were. Those strikes of hers definitely had to be laced with some added spatial technique, because he could feel blood rising from his throat, trying to force its way out of his mouth.

If not for the fact that he forcibly swallowed it back down himself, he would already be bleeding heavily from the corner of his mouth.

Zara was very clearly pissed off and wanted to settle the score right here and now.

Uhtred had landed several heavy blows on her earlier during their fight, so a small part of him knew this was just pure retribution.

"Come on, Zara, wasn’t this a spar to explain space magic?!" He yelled out, his frantic voice carrying a slightly playful edge despite the situation. "Why has it suddenly turned into an attempt on my life?!"

"Of course I’m going to explain it to you... but let’s dance first," Zara’s voice echoed back to him. "You landed five good hits earlier, right? There are only three more left for you to take. So, be a good boy and stop whizzing about so we can get this over with!"

Uhtred chuckled, but a small frown also colored his face. Zara’s voice didn’t have a single, clear origin point. It sounded like she was speaking from directly in front of him, from his left, his right, and even from beneath his feet all at the same time.

It resonated from everywhere at once, completely lacking any particular source that he could lock onto.