In the arena, time seemed suspended.
Zerath, Hinata, and Kert faced each other, forming a perfect triangle in the center of the battlefield. None of them moved, but the tension between them was palpable, almost overwhelming. Their gazes crossed one after another, each evaluating the others with extreme concentration, as if they were already trying to anticipate every upcoming movement.
Kert was the first to break this silence.
A smile slowly stretched across his lips, a confident smile, almost provocative.
— So… I hope you two aren't wimps.
He tilted his head slightly, his eyes shining with excitement.
— I'd like to avoid you falling too quickly… especially when I'm going to get serious.
Zerath barely reacted. He simply replied in a calm, grave, perfectly controlled voice:
— Speak for yourself.
Next to them, Hinata remained silent. Unlike the other two, she was neither trying to provoke nor respond. All her attention was focused on the fight that was about to begin. Her body was tense, her mind focused… perhaps more than ever.
Kert leaned slightly forward.
— Here we go.
And without warning—
he disappeared.
He attacked Zerath first.
The clash was immediate.
A brutal collision between two equivalent forces caused a gigantic shockwave, distorting the air around them and further cracking the already battered arena.
Taking advantage of this moment, Hinata leaped backward, seeking to gain distance, to read the situation.
But—
— Don't think you're going to escape.
Kert was already in front of her.
The shock pierced her.
She had seen nothing.
Not the slightest movement.
But at the precise moment when Kert attacked—
her mana reacted.
Brutally.
Her body moved on its own.
She dodged.
Then again.
And again.
Kert chained attacks at a terrifying speed, his strikes tearing through the air with deadly precision. Yet, Hinata avoided everything. Her body slid, bent, shifted with an almost unreal fluidity, as if guided by something faster than her own thought.
Kert stopped briefly, surprised.
— Wow…
An amused smile appeared.
— You dodge super well…
His eyes narrowed slightly.
— But I wonder why you never counterattack.
Hinata did not respond.
She could not.
Suddenly—
Zerath appeared between them.
His intervention was brutal.
A massive attack crashed down between Hinata and Kert, instantly separating them and pulverizing a part of the arena in a dry and violent explosion.
Debris rose into the air.
The ground fractured further.
Zerath then turned his gaze to Hinata.
A heavy gaze.
Measured.
As if he had already understood something.
Hinata felt it immediately.
She knew.
Zerath had targeted her.
But she had no time to react.
Kert attacked again.
This time, it was Zerath.
And the two S-classes engaged in a brutal, fast, almost invisible confrontation. Their movements exceeded what the eye could follow, their impacts resounding like successive explosions across the arena.
Hinata stayed back.
She watched them.
But above all—
she understood.
She knew her weakness.
If she dodged, it wasn't thanks to her.
It was thanks to her mana.
A mana that reacted in her place.
A mana that saw, decided… and acted.
But that same mana—
did not yet allow her to retaliate.
Or perhaps…
not in the right way.
She lowered her eyes slightly to her arms.
Her green mana enveloped them, vibrating slightly, like a living force.
Too fast.
Far too fast for her.
In this kind of fight, she couldn't keep up.
She endured.
So a question imposed itself on her:
At what moment… could I synchronize with it?
At what moment… could we act together?
A memory surfaced.
A discussion.
With Sally.
At the time, she had explained the problem to her.
This constant lag.
This feeling of being behind her own power.
And Sally had been clear.
As long as Hinata and her mana remained two distinct entities—
she would be in danger.
Because if her mana forced her to go left… while she thought to go right—
the contradiction itself could injure her.
Severely.
Especially since that mana—
seemed to take precedence over her when it acted.
Hinata had then asked her, sincerely:
— So… what should I do?
— How can I fight in synergy with it?
Sally had paused.
Then replied simply:
— It might sound crazy…
Her gaze was serious.
— But you have to fight without consciousness.
Hinata had been caught off guard.
— What?
— Is that possible?
Sally had nodded.
— When you activate your mana…
— You have to stop being conscious.
— You have to let your body act alone with it.
She crossed her arms.
— It will know when to dodge.
— It will know when to attack.
Then her tone became more grave.
— But be careful… you can only do this completely when your opponent vastly surpasses you.
— When your mana can keep up… but not you.
She had leaned in slightly.
— And you know this as well as I do…
— It's going to exhaust your body.
A pause.
— Terribly.
Her eyes had locked onto Hinata's.
— If your opponent is too powerful…
— Just keeping up with the fight can drain you in a few minutes.
A silence.
Then—
— Or worse.
Finally, she had added one last thing:
— So if you do it…
— You have to keep an intention.
Even faint.
— End the fight quickly.
Back to the present.
Hinata slowly raised her head.
In front of her—
the fight between Kert and Zerath continued.
Violent.
Unstoppable.
Her mana vibrated.
As if it were waiting.
And for the first time—
Hinata hesitated to do something dangerous.
Very dangerous.
To fight…
without herself.
Hinata slowly closed her eyes.
It was not a trivial decision.
Disabling her consciousness… was only a temporary solution. A survival method in a gap too great between her and her own power. But she knew: it was not an end goal.
Sally had already told her.
One day, she would have to go further.
To merge.
No longer be two — her and her mana — but a single flow. A single will. A single existence in motion.
And above all…
That it be her consciousness that dominates.
But to reach that stage, it would require a level far superior to the one she currently possessed.
So for now—
she let go.
Her mana took over.
In the same instant, Kert and Zerath surged forward.
A combined attack.
Fast.
Brutal.
Impossible to anticipate in this chaos.
And yet—
Hinata moved.
Her body bent at an unreal angle, defying all bodily logic. A perfect, inhuman twist that allowed her to avoid the attack with absolute precision.
Zerath had a slight movement of surprise.
It was impossible.
That attack had come from a total blind spot. Even he would have struggled to read it in such an unstable situation.
And yet…
it was as if Hinata had seen it coming.
Kert sketched a smile, excited.
— Not bad…
He cracked his neck slightly.
— But this time, we've decided not to let you stay back anymore.
His eyes gleamed.
— Come play with us.
An instant.
A simple push.
Then—
BOOM.
The three launched into the air in a titanic explosion, cracking the arena even further.
The fight immediately changed scale.
Everything became blurry.
The spectators could see nothing anymore.
Only impacts.
Flashes of movement.
Detonations so violent that each shockwave seemed capable of bursting eardrums.
It was a spectacle—
terrifying.
Faced with that, the guardians had no choice.
A dome formed around the spectators.
A total protection field.
The sound was cut off.
Instantly.
For at the heart of the arena—
Hinata, Kert, and Zerath had already exceeded all perceptible limits.
They moved well beyond the speed of light.
Their trajectories intertwined, collided, overlapped at an absurd speed.
And little by little—
their movements drew something.
A structure.
An entanglement of lines, trajectories, impact points…
A chaotic geometry.
Dense.
Almost unreal.
As if their fight traced an impossible figure in space itself.
At the center of this chaos—
the three clashed relentlessly.
Strikes.
Clashes.
Deflections.
Every attack could be fatal.
Every mistake—
definitive.
Zerath, in the midst of this hell of speed, noticed something.
Hinata.
She had her eyes closed.
A lack of understanding crossed his mind.
Why?
Was it a form of concentration?
A ritual?
Or—
something else?
He had no time to think about it.
BOOM.
A brutal kick sank into his stomach.
Kert.
— So what…?
His smile was wild.
— You start dreaming at a moment like this?
Zerath spat blood.
His body was violently thrown—
but he straightened up immediately.
His gaze changed.
Colder.
More dangerous.
And without a word—
he plunged back into the fight.
Even more violent than before.