Chapter 264: Zara’s Technique

Just what kind of technique is this?! Uhtred cursed again, his frustration rising. Even his Gnostic Eye wasn’t showing him anything out of place.

He scoffed out loud, shaking his head as he called out a response:

"No fucking way I’m letting you score a hit so easily! If you want to dance... then let’s dance."

Uhtred still wasn’t willing to give in. He reasoned that it was just a matter of timing. He could already spot Zara whenever she was preparing to strike him. Her body would become slightly more corporal in his vision, allowing him to see a faint outline of her through whatever technique she was using to hide herself from normal sight.

If he could just react on time before her blow actually landed, then he still had a solid chance in this fight.

...Or so he thought.

He continued using Slipstream Stride, blurring across the arena floor and pausing at several deliberate moments to allow Zara to try and attack him. And when she finally did, just when Uhtred thought he could time his counter properly and catch her off guard, his own strike hit nothing but empty air again.

"Huh?! I definitely hit you this time—"

A thunderous blow struck him dead center in the face, completely cutting his words off and sending him tumbling through the air like a rocket.

Zara had scored a very good hit this time.

Her pleased, contented sigh resounded through the open arena as Uhtred went rocketing backward through the air.

Slowly, she materialized at the exact spot where she had just sucker-punched Uhtred’s face. She stood quietly, staring at him as his body slammed hard into the far side of the arena, the heavy impact causing visible ripples to spread across the translucent barrier of the dome.

Outside the arena, the artificers watching were slack-jawed in shock. They had just witnessed Zara force Uhtred to the ground with a verythunderous blow.

Was this just how domineering Zara was? Was the true gap between Uhtred and Zara so little? Or was Uhtred, the number one ranker on the planet, just having a bad day?

They all watched with bated breath as he slid down to the ground, his head hanging down limply against his chest.

Zara snorted softly, walking forward a few steps. "You aren’t deceiving anyone with that act. I know I hit you good, but there’s no way that’s enough to put you down yet."

At her words, Uhtred suddenly began to cough violently where he sat slumped against the barrier. He spat out a mouthful of blood onto the floor, wiping his lips before he slowly lifted his head up with a low groan.

For a brief moment, he shot an instinctive, dangerous at Zara before he caught himself and his expression eased.

"Well I guess I deserved that... But damn, why do you have to be so vengeful? Even I never hit you that hard earlier," he muttered, reaching up to massage his sore jaw. "Are you trying to mess up my good-looking face for good?"

"I wouldn’t mind," Zara shrugged casually, looking down at him. "We have Diya with us, after all. She’s always there to patch you up if anything goes wrong."

"So heartless," Uhtred muttered under his breath, slowly pushing himself back up to his feet.

He stretched his neck, loosening his shoulders before looking directly at her.

"So," he began, leaning slightly against the arena’s barrier. "Are you going to tell me what kind of spatial technique that was? It’s really fucking with my senses here."

"Are you being serious...?" Zara raised a brow, staring carefully at Uhtred’s expression to see whether he was joking or not. "Oh? You’re actually serious...? I figured you already knew by now."

"Knew what?" Uhtred asked, his brows knitting together in confusion.

"This, of course," Zara said simply, spreading her arms wide as she gestured to the vast arena dome surrounding the two of them.

Uhtred scowled, unimpressed. There was nothing surrounding them that he wasn’t already aware of. His Gnostic Eye had been active the entire time and he hadn’t noticed any anomaly.

But just to be sure, he urged more essence into his Gnostic Eye once more, pushing its deciphering abilities as far as possible to peer intently at his surroundings... yet even then, he still didn’t see what Zara was trying to point out.

"Oh, not the arena itself," Zara added, seeing his unimpressed look. "But... this."

Suddenly, from Uhtred’s perspective, the dome around him shifted.

Previously, he could have sworn that he was standing nearly a meter to the right of where he currently felt himself to be, but it was as though his entire perspective had just shifted very slightly in an instant — like the entire space inside the dome had just been rotated like a dial by a few small degrees.

Uhtred’s gaze went to the floor immediately. His first instinct was that Zara had somehow found a way to manipulate the array or move the underlying formation powering the arena.

However, nothing about the floor array had changed, and even under the intense, analytical gaze of his Gnostic Eye, there was no active spell or anything that caught his attention at all.

Not to mention, even if she could somehow manipulate the array, the array was just one that prevented the battle within from spreading outside. There was no way it could do... whatever it was that she had just done in their fight.

No. It has to be something else... Uhtred frowned in thought.

Based on Zara’s words earlier, whatever she was doing was something that he was supposed to know... which meant he must have come in contact with something similar to it before in his battles.

Uhtred’s frown deepened as he wracked his brain. For a while, nothing seemed forthcoming... but then, all of a sudden, his eyes went wide. His recent battle with the Heavenly Demon back in that grand palace crossed his mind out of nowhere.

"Yeah," Zara nodded, watching the realization hit his face. "You are inside my Domain, Uhtred..."

"Singularity Domain: Skewed Geometry."