Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

In the next moment, blood began to gush from Reca's arms as some wounds in the shape of claws appeared on them. At the same time, the opponent appeared behind her and then turned around.

"What the fuck was that?" Jori asked. "Did you see him moving, Rain?"

"No," Rain replied while squinting his eyes. "Still, it seems that he has a technique that boosts his speed to the limits, and it must be connected to the black lightning."

While Rain didn't see it, perhaps he could have seen it if he had used Limit Breaker… he wouldn't do that. Just watch a fight, of course. In any case, he had some confidence in his guess since the enemy should have been able to cause deeper wounds if the technique boosted anything else aside from his speed.

There was also the fact that if he was only able to attack twice, his speed conditions were rather limited.

In any case, Reca turned around while showing annoyance in her face. When she was attacked, Limit Breaker was active, so her defenses improved as well… she felt like she probably wouldn't be able to move her arms if her defenses weren't that high.

Without thinking any more than that, Reca charged again and then thrust her spear at the opponent… it felt like her spear suddenly had become ten for the audience. Still, the black tiger effortlessly dodged those while looking at the tip of the spear without losing his focus.

Before long, Reca was forced to stop since her stamina had already taken a huge fall by that sequence of attacks… she didn't like to think too much about it during fights. Still, at that point in time, she couldn't help but accept that the opponent was much faster than her, even at her best.

"I guess I will have to grow up a bit too ..." Reca thought.

She didn't like that idea that much, but Reca realized that the black lightning was probably consuming the opponent's mana at a fast rate, so she just had to slow down a bit and play it safe until the opponent couldn't no longer keep that technique active.

Again, Reca didn't like that… she felt like it was better to beat the opponents while they were at their best… that would be a clear sign of her growth…

Still, the black tiger could read Reca like an open book… he disappeared at the last moment while the sound of lightning echoed in the area. Reca used Limit Breaker to enhance her defenses, but then her same wounds were hit, and more blood began to gush out from them when the opponent appeared before her.

"Son of a bitch…" Reca grunted in pain as she felt the burning pain in her wounds increase.

Even though she has enhanced her defenses, the wounded area had been weakened thanks to the previous attacks, and the second one caused two times more damage… Reca never realized that such a thing was possible because that never happened to her.

"It seems that they are no longer trying to take us lightly…" Rain said while showing a serious expression. "The beast king told them to take us seriously… even if they can only take down one of us at a time, that will be enough for them to win…"

"What can Reca do about this?" Jori said while biting his fingernails.

"Maybe she can turn around with the power of friendship or something," Rain said while showing a difficult expresion. "She is the only one who can think of what she can do since she knows her weakness and strengths more than anyone else."

Jori was also aware of that, but he couldn't think that Reca actually would accept in her mind her own weakness. She trained hard and got strong, trying not to think of them and focus solely on her strengths, after all.

While Jori was thinking about that, he saw Reca silently looking at the adversary. She was annoyed, but she wasn't enraged, and she wasn't planning on doing anything reckless… at the very least, she realized that she was slower than the opponent even while using Limit Breaker, and that was something.

The opponent got caught that Reca could be trying to buy time and think of a plan by not doing anything, so he decided to attack again. Just like before, he disappeared, but then Reca spun her spear in front of her while clicking her tongue… in the end, that didn't stop the attack, and Reca was pushed away from her spot as she felt the heavy blow on her spear.

However… her wounds were hit, but they didn't suffer as much damage as before…

Jori found himself in a state of shock as he observed Reca adopting a defensive stance during her battle. This was a surprising departure from her typical combat style, which leaned heavily on offense rather than defense. While she had certainly blocked attacks before, actively prioritizing defense to buy time was a novel approach for her.

Jori couldn't help but wonder what had triggered this change in strategy. It left him both intrigued and somewhat puzzled as they continued their fierce combat… it wasn't like he couldn't understand it, but he never thought that she would change like that.

"I see… so it is like that, huh," Reca thought and then smiled.

Reca turned around and saw the opponent behind her turning as well. He was truly fast, but his speed truly had some limits; if he was impossibly fast, he would keep attacking nonstop until Reca falls covered in wounds.

If he was insanely faster, he wouldn't have to turn around like that… if his speed was impossible to beat, he would have avoided Reca's spear and hurt her just like usual, but that didn't happen. In the end, Reca took a deep breath and began to focus… using her head wasn't so bad; it made her feel smart.