Chapter 190: Spatial Severance

Another arrow tore through the subterranean air.

?Cassian tilted his body at the last possible moment, allowing the projectile to graze past his shoulder before it slammed into the cavern wall behind him.

The resulting explosion sent shattered fragments of stone showering across the ground.

?However, unlike before, the Centaur’s movements were no longer fluid.

?Exhaustion was clearly written across its features. Its heavy chest heaved, its fingers trembled violently around the war bow, and the spatial distortion protecting its torso flickered erratically.

?Cassian’s eyes narrowed to sharp slits.

?[Soul Gaze]!

?The world shifted into pure energetic vectors before his eyes.

?Beneath the Centaur’s massive frame, its internal mana circulated in intricate pathways, converging around its chest before feeding the spatial rift that surrounded it.

However, the once abundant reservoir had dwindled to a thread.

?It had reached a critically low level.

’?Finally.’

?Cassian raised his right hand, channeling a massive wave of mana into his palm.

?[Aura Slash]!

?Cerulean light condensed into a massive, crescent-shaped blade, its brilliance illuminating the pitch-black cavern.

Across the passage, the Centaur slowly raised its war bow, drawing the string with whatever residual strength it possessed.

?Neither moved to evade.

?Both understood that the next exchange would decide the outcome of the battle.

?The Centaur’s violet eyes locked onto Cassian as mana coiled around its arrowhead.

The surrounding space began to warp, pulling a dark, unstable spatial barrier over its torso.

?Cassian, however, wasn’t merely preparing another standard attack.

?Throughout their prolonged fight, while dodging explosive arrows and monitoring the beast with [Soul Gaze], he had been actively dissecting its spatial mechanics.

He had mapped its mana flow, analyzed the distortion’s structural density, and studied the exact microsecond incoming attacks were redirected.

?It was the exact same analytical approach he had used to dismantle Silas’s Silk Domain.

?And finally, he had broken the code.

?The Centaur’s spatial defense was not an absolute, invulnerable barrier. It was a precise, spatial manipulation technique that opened a pocket rift to swallow and displace incoming energy vectors.

?However, sustaining that pocket rift required a massive continuous drain on its core.

?More importantly, the technique was not instantaneous. There existed a microscopic delay between the activation of the skill and the complete, stable formation of the spatial distortion.

?A window of vulnerability that could be exploited.

?Cassian had spent the entire battle waiting for an opportunity to strike that gap.

?Unfortunately, understanding the technique wasn’t enough on its own. The Centaur’s spatial control was too dense to disrupt while its mana reserves remained full.

He needed its energy pool to drop to near-zero before he could interfere with the structural framework.

?Now, that exact condition had been met.

?The Centaur’s arrow reached maximum tension.

?At the same instant, Cassian’s [Aura Slash] condensed to its absolute limit.

?Both combatants released their strikes simultaneously.

?The arrow exploded forward with terrifying velocity, dragging a turbulent vortex of compressed wind behind it.

Its kinetic force was concentrated into a single lethal point, capable of punching through solid titanium.

?The cerulean crescent shot forward to meet it.

?Unlike his previous strikes, however, Cassian had subtly altered the internal mana structure of the blade.

?The attacks collided mid-air.

?BOOM!

?A violent shockwave erupted as the two techniques clashed. For a fraction of a second, the arrow held its ground, its concentrated point grinding against the cerulean edge.

?But the sheer disparity in their mana reserves was absolute.

?Cassian’s [Aura Slash] was backed by an inexhaustible, overwhelming well of energy.

?The cerulean blade tore straight through the projectile, splitting the arrow down the middle before continuing its trajectory toward the beast’s chest.

?The Centaur’s eyes widened in horror.

?It instinctively funneled every remaining drop of mana into the spatial void surrounding its body.

The spatial distortion expanded, swallowing the incoming [Aura Slash].

?And then...

?The cerulean blade vanished.

?Or rather, it appeared to.

?The Centaur’s expression shattered.

?Its violet eyes bulged as it sensed a catastrophic anomaly.

?Cassian’s lips curled into a cold, victorious grin.

?"Checkmate."

?The next microsecond, a massive, gruesome gash burst open across the Centaur’s torso.

?A fountain of dark blood sprayed into the air.

?Its upper body staggered back, the war bow slipping from its numb fingers as its massive, heavy frame slowly collapsed to the stone floor.

?The Centaur died before its body even hit the ground.

?Cassian lowered his hand, watching the corpse lie motionless.

?He had officially turned the beast’s absolute defense into its ultimate death warrant.

Cassian smiled as the Centaur’s enormous body collapsed to the ground.

?"Luckily, that worked."

?He glanced at the corpse, recalling the final moments of their battle.

?After observing the Centaur with [Soul Gaze], he had eventually devised a method to bypass its spatial defense.

His initial plan had been rather straightforward: combine [Gate] with [Aura Slash], then teleport the attack directly onto his opponent.

?Unfortunately, the Centaur’s spatial barrier made that considerably more difficult.

?The spatial distortion surrounding its body interfered with his control over [Gate].

Attempting to force an attack through it while the barrier was active would have been incredibly risky, especially when a slight miscalculation could leave him exposed to a lethal counterattack.

?So, rather than forcing his way through, Cassian had decided to exhaust the creature first.

?He had spent the entire battle bombarding it with [Aura Slash], forcing it to repeatedly activate its spatial ability.

Once its mana reserves had fallen sufficiently, he finally executed his plan.

?And it had paid off.

?A system notification suddenly materialized before his eyes.

?[Congratulations, Lord Cassian Voss!]

[Through continuous experimentation and the successful combination of spatial manipulation and Aura Slash, you have developed a new personal skill!]

[New Skill Acquired: Spatial Severance!]

[Skill Description: By combining spatial manipulation with Aura Slash, the user can bypass conventional defenses and deliver a spatially displaced slash directly onto a target.]

[Note: The effectiveness of Spatial Severance is dependent on the user’s understanding of space and their control over spatial mana.]

?Cassian examined the notification with satisfaction.

’?Spatial Severance, huh? Not bad.’

?This was already the sixth skill he had acquired that didn’t originate from his summons, six skills he had personally developed or obtained through his own efforts.

?That was an impressive number by any standard.

?A Lord could spend a hundred years developing their abilities and still end up with only one or two personal skills.

Even three was considered an impressive achievement among experienced Lords.

?Yet Cassian had managed to acquire six in just three days.

?Granted, one of them had been a direct reward for saving Planet Roca, but that didn’t change the fact that it was still a personal skill under his command.

’?At this rate, I’ll have enough skills to fill an entire catalog before the week is over.’

?His thoughts were abruptly shattered by a heavy, resounding crash.

?BOOOOOOM!

?Cassian snapped his head around.

?A massive body had just slammed into the far wall, shattering the rock face and creating a sizable crater upon impact.

Its headless, armored figure slid down the stone surface before collapsing lifelessly onto the ground.

?A short distance away, the enormous black steed it had ridden lay severed in two separate pieces.

?Cassian stared at the carnage.

?Then he looked toward the other side of the cavern, where Nyxara stood with her scythe resting casually against her shoulder.

?Her expression was calm, almost indifferent, as though she hadn’t just swatted an armored knight across the cavern hard enough to cave in a solid rock wall.

?Cassian remained silent.

?"..."

?It seemed Nyxara was having a great time.