Chapter 77: Asura Mask

Frey retaliated by releasing Calamity Mana through his left foot, exploding sideways rather than backward. The abrupt lateral acceleration carried him around Jet’s sword side, and one curved blade swept toward Jet’s exposed ribs.

Jet barely redirected it with a manifested palm before the second sword followed. Metal scraped against the Vorpal Blade, sparks tracing a bright line between them as Jet rotated away.

Their battle spread across the clearing again.

Every new release gave Frey another movement option, but every use consumed what Vritra had accumulated. A short burst through his foot could abruptly change distance.

A controlled release through a sword could amplify a slash without creating another massive projectile. Whenever the Reservoir dropped, Frey began hunting Jet’s heavier attacks with Vritra’s Coils, turning defense into another opportunity to replenish what he had spent.

Jet adapted to that rhythm as well. He learned to distinguish between Frey positioning a Coil to restrain him and Frey positioning one specifically to harvest an incoming strike. Sometimes Jet withdrew rather than feed the Reservoir; at other times he deliberately forced his way through because the attack would create a better opening even if Frey gained energy from it.

The result was a cycle that made the spar steadily more violent.

Jet struck harder.

Vritra captured more.

Frey released more.

Jet adjusted.

The clearing suffered for every escalation.

A Calamity-enhanced sword strike missed Jet after he bent beneath it and tore a long scar through the ground behind him. One Asura fist struck a Coil hard enough to send a pressure wave through the surrounding trees.

Frey launched himself upward with a foot discharge, changed direction against a tree using another Coil and descended with both swords, only for Jet to catch one wrist with a manifested hand while the Vorpal Blade deflected the other weapon in a shower of sparks.

Jet twisted and hurled Frey sideways.

Frey used Vritra to intercept his own momentum before striking a tree, and the captured force pushed the Reservoir higher.

[Calamity Reservoir: 58%]

Jet saw the serpent’s density increase again.

He also felt the strain accumulating behind his own eyes.

Asura Arms had been active far longer than during his hotel experiment, and maintaining them through a high-speed fight placed a persistent pressure along his shoulders and nervous system. Yet there was one ability he still hadn’t tested.

Asura Mask.

The warning attached to it remained clear in his memory. It didn’t increase his body’s safe limits. It suppressed restraints that normally prevented him from drawing too much output from Asura Physique. Strength, acceleration, reflexive output and Mana throughput could all rise, but any damage caused by exceeding what his body could tolerate would remain entirely real.

That was precisely why this was probably the safest chance he would get.

Frey knew he was testing it. They had medical supplies nearby.Neither intended to kill the other. Most importantly, Jet could deactivate it the moment something felt wrong.

He created distance with a heavy Vorpal Blade slash that forced Frey to retreat and then lowered the weapon slightly. The Asura tattoo across his back suddenly became hot.

Frey noticed the change and stopped advancing.

Crimson-black Mana seeped from beneath Jet’s clothing around his shoulders before climbing the sides of his neck. It moved like living ink across his skin, spreading along his jaw and cheeks as additional streams rose from behind his ears.

The energy met across his face and thickened rapidly, transforming from a layer of Mana into something that looked almost physical. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

The Asura Mask formed.

Its features were fierce and inhuman, with pronounced cheek structures, short upward tusks and narrow eye openings burning with dark-crimson light. The expression carved into it seemed trapped somewhere between fury and savage exhilaration.

Jet inhaled.

The world sharpened.

He felt the restraints disappear before he felt the power itself.

His body had always possessed unconscious limitations that prevented muscles from exerting everything they could produce and stopped Mana from being forced through pathways beyond comfortable output. Asura Mask loosened those restraints, allowing Jet to reach deeper into what Asura Physique could currently provide.

Frey’s expression changed immediately.

Jet moved.

The ground burst beneath him.

Frey barely had time to raise his swords before the Vorpal Blade crashed against them.

CLAAAANG!

The impact drove him backward so violently that both feet left the ground. Before he could recover, one Asura Arm caught his shoulder and changed his trajectory, pulling him back toward Jet while the second manifested fist came from above.

Vritra’s Coil appeared between them.

The punch landed.

BOOM!

The spectral serpent compressed until its bodynearly folded around the fist.

[Calamity Reservoir: 73%]

Frey was still thrown away despite the interception. He hit the ground, rolled and immediately used Calamity Mana through one foot to launch himself sideways as Jet reached him again. The burst carried Frey out of the Vorpal Blade’s path, but Jet changed direction far sooner than he had during their previous exchanges.

Frey’s eyes widened.

The Mask wasn’t simply making Jet hit harder.

His acceleration had increased. His reactions were sharper. Mana moved through his body faster, and the Asura Arms responded with enough speed that Frey could no longer rely on the slight delay he had exploited earlier.

Jet pressed forward with four limbs working around a single offensive rhythm.

The Vorpal Blade forced Frey’s swords toward the center, one manifested arm attacked around his shoulder and the second guarded the space Vritra usually exploited. Frey summoned three Coils in rapid succession, weaving them between himself and Jet as he gave ground.

One Coil caught an Asura fist.

[Calamity Reservoir: 78%]

Frey spent part of it immediately through his sword, unleashing a violent arc at close range. Jet crossed the Vorpal Blade and a manifested forearm before him, redirecting the edge of the discharge away from his torso.

The blast tore past him and struck the earth, opening a long trench through the clearing as dirt erupted behind his back.

Jet felt pain shoot through his arm.

The Mask didn’t remove it.

His muscles were beginning to complain beneath the increased output, particularly around his shoulders and thighs.

Every acceleration demanded more than his body had been willing to give earlier, and the freedom Asura Mask provided made it dangerously easy to ignore the accumulating strain.

He reduced his output slightly without dismissing the ability.

Frey noticed but neither needed to discuss it.

They continued fighting.

Frey used Calamity Release through his feet to stay mobile while Vritra hunted Jet’s strongest attacks.

Jet’s improved speed made bypassing the Coils easier, but whenever he committedenough force to overwhelm Frey’s defense, Vritra only needed to contain the attack briefly to steal part of it.

The Reservoir climbed despite Frey’s expenditures.

[Calamity Reservoir: 82%]