A few minutes ago, a couple hundred miles away from Sarah's battle.
Hidden from any inspection by a precious barrier, a human and an abyssal went all out as they aimed for the other's life.
The high level 5 Abyssal was a Controller. So his stats were all just a bit above a mid level 5 Enhanced.
Varian, as a low level 5 Enhanced found this gap manageable.
But the real trouble dealing with a Controller was their ability to increase one stat.
Once this Abyssal used it on any stat, it would reach peak of level 5.
Varian learnt the challenges of fighting a Controller in the battle right after his first move.
He teleported to the left of the Abyssal and covered his arm with lightning. Not holding back an ounce of strength, he punched at the Abyssal's chest.
At the same time, he blocked out the space surrounding the Abyssal while tampering the Abyssal's brain using his mind power.
Varian used four of his five divine paths. Morpher path wasn't going to do any substantial change, so he left it out.
With this combination, a normal mid level 5 would've halted for a moment and Varian would've used the opportunity to one shot him.
But-
Crack!
"Gah!"
The high level 5 Abyssal first increased his strength. It rose to peak level 5. Without any delay, he broke the space block.
The next moment, he increased his speed. His attack power fell back to just above Mid Level 5 and his speed reached the peak of Level 5.
-Whoosh!
His reaction speed, several notches above Varian gave him an edge as he easily dodged Varian's punch while he kicked at Varian's temple.
"Damn it!"
There was almost no time to teleport. Varian wrapped himself in Space Armor and lightning barrier as he raised his arms in defense.
-Zap!
-Kacha!
The lightning barrier only lightly affected the Abyssal as he broke it into pieces. His kick soon reached Varian's space armor.
Space Armor was a thinly wrapped space around Varian's body. Basically, binding the space around him to use it for defensive and offensive purposes.
Despite its thinness, it could withstand even the blows of peak Level 3.
But Level 5 and Level 3 were miles away.
So, having a Space Armor made no difference.
Varian felt a huge impact on his arms as he teleported out the last moment.
"Ha! Ha!" Appearing a few hundred meters away, he downed a healing potion and shook his head regretfully.
Controllers were really a pain to fight with. They'd increase their defense when you attacked them, raise their attack when they attacked you, spike their speed when they wanted to run or chase you.
The current Varian would be better off fighting almost any other Awakener than a Controller.
If he awakened in a suitable divine path, things might change.
Controllers had the benefit of one higher stat, but it was evened out by other lower stats.
But for Varian, even the lower stats of his opponent were higher than his.
In a sense, the Controller was fighting under favorable conditions.
The best way to deal with a stronger Controller was to fight with a group. If a Controller fought a group, their advantages would be restricted.
For instance, when a Controller increases their strength to attack their target, other members could attack the Controller then. The Controller would only have their base defense and hence take more damage.
Of course, at the same level, no Divine Path had an edge.
In general, no Divine Path was more stronger than the other. It just depended on the circumstances.
The burning pain in his arm bones made it clear to Varian that he was under unfavorable circumstance.
"Triple Awakener, oh Triple Awakener." The high Level 5 Abyssal raised his speed and dashed in front of Varian in the blink of an eye.
Varian didn't attack this time and simply teleported away.
"Hmph!" The Abyssal was pissed. He already determined Varian's Space path level— Peak of Level 3.
So seeing his enemy use a mere Level 3 Teleportation to dodge his attacks, he felt humiliated.
In fact, if it was just a Level 3 Space Awakener, they would not be able to respond in time to his attack.
They would just teleport to some place and before they could even think, his fist would crash their face and blow their skull.
The speed of a level 5 was no joke.
But this guy…!
-Boom!
"Come out and fight!" The Abyssal roared as his fist passed through empty air. Varian disappeared once again!
-Boom!
He tired to attack Varian, but this time too, he simply teleported. All he got was empty air.
"Don't dodge, human! Fight me! Why you are being such a pussy?" The Abyssal couldn't help but curse in annoyance.
"No. I am being a dick." Varian answered with a nonchalant expression.
"Arggh! Yes you are!" The Abyssal was further enraged and he kept lunging at Varian even as his every punch and kick continued to miss.
Varian looked at the Abyssal and shook his head. "Drop the act. You are not crazy. If anything, you're very clear headed."
The Abyssal suddenly paused his attack and looked at Varian with wide eyes.
Varian shrugged. "I can't break the barrier's defense, but due to the lack of energy supply, it is going to fade away in three..no, two and half minutes."
Veins popped up on the Abyssal's forehead and he dashed at Varian once again.
"No! You don't know anything!" The Abyssal increased his attack and his fist was just a few inches away from Varian's head.
-Whoosh.
Varian appeared in another location and sighed. "If a Level 5 Body Awakener and a level 3 Space Awakener are trapped in this barrier, all you need to do is try to chase them.
Because of the lower level, the Space Awakener would soon be drained of space power.
Then you can easily kill the Space Awakener. But look at how desperate you are…
Even though you know you couldn't, you really want the reward for killing me, don't you?"
The Abyssal paused and glared at Varian. All his previous 'rage' was gone, leaving behind only cold indifference. He squinted at Varian and sneered. "So what? Even if I can't kill you, I'll report your powers once the barrier opens. You'd just wish you were dead."
"Heh. Some nice wish you have, I must say." Varian's lips curled up in amusement.
Despite being in a weaker position so far, he didn't seem bothered. Instead, he was enjoying the show.
The Abyssal felt Varian was expressing the same emotion he had for every human.
Contempt!
'How dare he?! I'll chop him to pieces!' The Abyssal almost wanted to start a chasing spree once again.
But as the kind of person he was, he didn't loose his cool and hummed. "I can't kill you. But you can't kill me either. Whether you believe it or not, in less than a minute, you'll be surrounded by Abyss Dukes."
That was of course a bluff. But winning the enemy psychologically was never unwelcome.
"I can't kill you?" Varian repeated and raised an eyebrow.
"Who decided that?" With those words, he snapped his fingers.
A mysterious red jacked enveloped him. It had a skull and two bones printed. More importantly, right after it appeared, the space suddenly fluctuated.
The Abyssal felt the space around him go wild. Sometimes, it turned solid, needing incredible amounts of energy for the slightest of movements.
The others, it turned fluid and even if he moved slowly, his speed would be much higher than intended.
The worst thing was that he felt space shake like it was about to burst. It was similar to Space Bomb— an ability Level 5 Space Awakeners unlocked that allowed them to blast space open.
But this one was much, much lethal. Perhaps even a high awakener wouldn't survive this blast.
"Gulp!" The Abyssal realized something and looked at Varian with wide eyes. "Y-You madman! To kill me, you even want to go as far as suicide!"
Despite realizing his imminent death, the Abyssal didn't waver. Instead, he even stepped forward and raised his arms. "Come! Let's die together. I will be a honored martyr."
In his life, the best he could reach was level 6. So if he managed to end the life of a genius that could reach Level 9….what could be better than it?
....
A/N: Yay! 200 Chapters. Thank you everyone for your support! Please leave a review and share your thoughts on the novel so far.. If you like or dislike anything, please be specific, I'll try my best to work on it. :D