Utopian System

Zahyla's eyes narrowed. The perception difference was proving more devastating than she had calculated. She would need to change strategy, and soon.

The air in the chamber became saturated with power as Zahyla raised her hand.

The artromus moved in synchrony with their leader, each channeling their own elemental power. The space around Elio became a minefield of magical reactions.

For any other warrior, even one at level 20, coordinating defense and attack against such an assault would be impossible. But Elio's enhanced perception transformed the chaos into a readable pattern, each elemental manifestation telegraphed in the way mana condensed before taking form.

His left hand's fingers danced in precise patterns, each movement countering multiple simultaneous threats. Where fire threatened, oxygen was canceled. Where water sought to crush, hydrogen was separated, making the caster explode. Wind found opposing currents, and earth was disintegrated into most of its basic components.

His sword, meanwhile, never stopped moving.

The edge cut through magical manifestations as if they were mist, the blade charged with its own elemental magic that destabilized enemy constructions on contact.

An artromus launched a sphere of concentrated fire. The sphere dissipated harmlessly while his sword found the attacker's cores.

Zahyla observed with growing unease how her advantage was systematically neutralized. Her own magic, backed by millennia of experience, always found a perfect counterpart in Elio's movements.

She attempted a surprise attack, channeling all four elements simultaneously while the artromus attacked from the flanks. The combination should have been impossible to defend against and attack at the same time.

But Elio's fingers were already moving before the magic took form, creating a two-layered boron barrier, one soft that absorbed the power. The sword traced an impossible arc that eliminated 2 more artromus and, in the movement's recovery, found Zahyla's neck for the fourth time.

The cut was followed almost instantly by a fifth and sixth, taking advantage of the microsecond of rebounds against a fragment of the barrier that had just broken. Both blows exactly in the same spot as the previous ones.

Zahyla's blood dripped more profusely now. The cuts, though still not lethal against her enormous resistance, were beginning to accumulate. Each impact exactly in the same place was slowly overwhelming the area's regeneration and making the wound larger.

The remaining artromus intensified their magical assault, desperate to protect their leader.

But Elio's dance continued, relentless. His left hand never stopped moving, each finger executing counterspells with millimetric precision while his sword found openings that shouldn't exist.

For the artromus, it was like facing a force of nature. Where their numbers should have been a decisive advantage, they had become another demonstration of the insurmountable gap in perception and control.

Zahyla's face hardened.

The combination of physical and magical combat wasn't working as she expected.

♢♢♢♢

Ten seconds. Only ten seconds had passed since the battle began, but the chamber was already a testimony to absolute devastation.

The dissipating bodies of more than fifty artromus created a supernatural mist that floated as a reminder of the massacre.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

The wound in Zahyla's neck had become an enormous bleeding gash, twenty-seven perfectly superimposed cuts boring through even her formidable resistance.

The surviving artromus maintained their distance and attacked more cautiously, terror overwhelming even their legendary coordination.

Elio's body burned. Five hundred resistance points consumed in pushing his capabilities to the absolute limit. Each movement was an agony that threatened to tear his muscles, each SSS technique a reminder that the human body wasn't designed for such abuse.

But the pain was irrelevant. If he could win, if he could save everyone...

And then, Zahyla began to laugh.

It wasn't a laugh of desperation or madness.

It was the sound of someone finally finding something interesting after millennia of boredom (Though if you asked her, she'd say it was a smile of love). Her eyes shone with new intensity while blood continued flowing from her neck.

Elio's next cut was as precise as the previous ones, but for the first time in the battle, it didn't find its usual mark. The difference was minuscule, barely millimeters off, but it was enough to trigger alarm in his mind.

What happened next defied all logic.

Fire and water intertwined in the air without nullifying each other. Wind and earth danced in patterns that shouldn't be possible for her level 10 control.

Zahyla's elemental manifestations began combining in ways that contradicted the basic laws of elemental magic.

The surviving artromus stopped, their transformed forms tensing with a mixture of awe and... fear? Their eyes followed Zahyla's movements with new understanding, as if they were witnessing something they shouldn't be seeing.

Eleven seconds since the battle began.

Zahyla's smile had transformed into an expression of absolute concentration. Blood continued flowing from her wound, but she no longer seemed to care.

Her movements had changed, acquiring a quality that made even Elio's enhanced perception struggle to follow her.

She wasn't faster. She wasn't stronger. It was as if... as if she were getting accustomed to the overwhelming restriction.

"Fascinating," she murmured, her voice mixing amusement and something deeper, more dangerous. "Truly fascinating. It's been millennia since anyone forced me to push myself like this..."

The magic around her densified, elements fusing in combinations that contradicted everything Elio knew about the elemental system. Discover hidden tales at empire

Twelve seconds.

The battle had changed.

Zahyla's movements began to flow more naturally. The initial clumsiness of level 10 gradually vanished. With each passing second, her control over the situation seemed to solidify.

The surviving artromus responded to her renewed mastery and her faster, more specific mental commands, their formations becoming more precise, more lethal.

If someone had heard Zahyla's mental transmission, they would have thought she was almost at the level of a supercomputer.

Where the artromus had attacked with fear before, now they moved with calculated purpose.

Elio found his attack options increasingly limited. Each attempt to reach Zahyla's neck was deflected, countered, or intercepted by perfectly positioned artromus.

His advantage in perception remained overwhelming, but the space to exploit it constantly shrank.

"Can you feel it too?" Zahyla asked, her voice mixing amusement and concentration while dodging another attack. "How the body remembers, how each cell awakens to its true potential… How we adapt."