Alien Evolution System

Chapter 168 - A True Battle I

The Collector's pliomatter tendrils also swelled up in size as the blood flow and bonus magical energy reached them, and with these, it tested the fighter known as Kui's capacity to defend against ranged attacks.

The Collector swiveled to the side while extending forth one of its tendrils, sending out whipping forward in an arc meant to slice the fighter in a perfect forty-five-degree angle down from the shoulder to the waist.

This attack, too, far surpassed the speed of sound, and by observing at range, the Collector determined it had a higher chance of being able to glean what it was that this fighter was doing.

Kui reacted with complete ease as he raised his forearm up to block the pliomatter tendril. He stepped backwards, skidding across the snow so that the whip did not simply lash around his arm and hit his back.

Instead, the very tip of the whip struck his forearm, and green energy melded around it in the form of a [Guard].

A [Guard] strong enough to almost completely neutralize the damage, leaving only red marks on the skin. Highly impressive for a fighter with a Flow mana affinity that was balanced in all things but not especially potent in any one field.

That single swipe had before completely cleaved through the bodies of dozens of Amoraks. It would have even been enough to grievously wound the golden winged humanoid. 

Kui then used his other hand to grab the tendril and pull the Collector inwards. Incredible force jerked against the Collector, and the Collector resisted the push by emitting force against it through its capacity for physically unbound flight.

In terms of sheer quantity of physical force, the Collector could comfortably match this fighter and, with a burst of chaos mana, even overpower him, thus winning any direct physical confrontation such as this tug of war. 

However, the Collector found that as it flared out chaos mana and pulled against the fighter, its calculations were incorrect.

When it pulled backwards, it felt itself inexorably pulled in towards the fighter, only slightly being able to reduce the rate at which it flew into melee range.

No amount of force sent backwards to resist the pull worked, in fact, the Collector could sense that the more power it exerted, the less effective its efforts were, causing it to lose its balance in the air, to twist awkwardly and give more ground to the fighter.

That was when the Collector's analytical abilities managed to perceive what exactly was going on.

It was not that the fighter was dramatically physically stronger than the Collector.

No, rather, it was that the fighter's control of the flow of power was exceptionally fine tuned down to a level that surpassed any level of perception the Collector had ever observed in this world before. 

By only having a grip on the Collector through its pliomatter tendril, the fighter known as 'Kui' could sense every single flexion of the Collector's muscles, every single minute direction of flow of mana spreading throughout its many spirit roots, and thus determine the Collector's movements to an accuracy that honed down to the individual muscle fiber and spirit root.

Knowing this, the fighter could then exert force that broke the Collector's balance or, when the Collector shunted out excessive energy, manipulate ever so slightly his grip on the tendril such that he transmitted force that prevented the Collector from maximally exerting its force.

Any physical attack started with a chain of energy transfer.

A punch followed from a kinetic chain of energy that traveled up from the drive of the leg muscles, gaining more strength with the flexion of muscles across the back, then to the shoulders, then traveling down to the fist.

What this fighter did was essentially 'break' the kinetic chain the moment it began by exerting minimal yet highly targeted force via a point of contact such as a grip.

In essence, it could be compared to interference that halted a larger attack that took time to charge up.

However, the fighter had honed down this counter movement to the point where he could control the flow of power from the Collector almost before it even began with a predictive sense nigh akin to precognition.

The fighter's accuracy and precision in this specific field, in this control of the flow of power, was so developed that it matched or even exceeded the Collector's own processing power. 

In essence, this was not something that even the Collector could immediately replicate with its natural capabilities alone.

The fighter was not born with the Collector's immense processing power.

He had made up the differential, then with sheer training.

How long had this fighter trained? To what intensity? 

The answer was difficult to calculate, for the Collector had never needed in its existence to ever 'train', for it was born perfect, and if it was lacking in any field, could simply consume and evolve. 

The Collector allowed itself to be drawn into the fighter's range this time, but as it was pulled in, it shot forth a machine gun volley of purifying light shards from its central light orb. As expected, the fighter tugged at the Collector's tendril, sending it off balance and causing the shards to largely miss.

However, the Collector compensated with Sapia, turning the shards into homing projectiles.

The fighter let go of the Collector and stepped backwards, raising up both his hands and sheathing them in green mana. He then rapidly deflected the volley of supersonic light shards that numbered well over a hundred at hyperspeed, individually striking all of them down.

Because the fighter's hands were wreathed in strengthening magical energy, the shards could not pierce them and enact their purifying damage, instead clattering off his hardened hands like low caliber bullets against reinforced Smartsteel. 

The Collector closed its fist and used larger scale Sapia, causing a fifty-meter radius of the ground around the fighter to glow purple. Then, the snow and earth around him caved in before surging upwards in an omni-directional geyser that then collapsed inwards like an avalanche.

The massive pile of ice and rock crashed onto the fighter, burying him as he stared expressionlessly ahead.

The Collector knew this would not even be close to putting down the fighter, and it used this moment to circle behind the fighter.

The pile of condensed ice and rock exploded outwards as the fighter surged out his magical energy in a shockwave, exhaling deeply with the maneuver. He was staring straight ahead where the Collector had been, but not at where the Collector was now.