Chapter 61: Raw Instinct

As Armaros rapidly closes the distance, his fang-like glass daggers drooling with excitement as they prepare to land the lethal blow, Crow, who had just detached the previous dagger he used to swing himself forward, throws the blade beneath him while simultaneously releasing his hold on the upcoming tree to alter his momentum.

The dagger he cast beneath him embeds itself into the ground and promptly zips Crow downward while Armaros's blades swing at nothing but air. If Crow took even a quarter of a second longer, his head would've been sliced cleanly off his body.

"Kulta!" shouts Crow as he plunges down, multiplying the density of his dagger tenfold. Gritting his teeth as he plunges through the air, Crow slams into the ground at full force, a tsunami of dust instantly sprouting from the point of impact as an abundance of cracks sifts throughout the ruptured ground.

Knowing Armaros is still free-falling through the air above him, Crow whispers a single word, activating his 'Liraz Realm' once more within his miniature, self-made crater… visual presence wholly concealed by the dust. An ominous, faint violet aura instantly transforms into a dome-like, transparent barrier around him.

Meanwhile, Armaros is attempting to get a read on Crow's exact location from above the cloud of dust, which has expanded to the point where its center is no longer discernible. Within Crow’s realm, he immediately fabricates a false visual of dozens of craters along the ground, with fragile visual illusions of himself in each one, even creating a copy of himself in the original crater. With that setup, Crow realizes he only has so much time before the dust settles, and Armaros distinguishes who the original is.

Knowing he needs to escape and gain an environmental advantage at the clearing ahead, Crow begins to make his getaway, sending instructions to a crow.

1C, fly high into the sky, and signal which direction I need to go.

Watching the panel as his crow rises higher and higher, he quickly identifies his own silhouette amongst the dozens of copies scattered within the sea of dust displayed below.

Where's the training field?

1C's panel adjusts its visual to the field, directly to Crow's right. Without haste, Crow and his many copies fling both daggers into the sky. Armaros's eyes narrow, their silver gleam sharpening as he swiftly spawns a broken mirror underneath his falling body.

Crow smirks at Armaros’s counter. While seemingly harmless to Armaros, Crow's seemingly one-note attack had three separate outcomes, all capable of providing him valuable time and useful information.

The first is Armaros's location. Crow's clones were incredibly weak, as their daggers probably wouldn't have even left the tiniest of scratches on Armaros, but that's not what mattered. It's only natural for one to be alarmed as dozens of daggers come flying toward you. And with such a large area being covered, as each clone was intentionally spaced out, the gamble at least one dagger would connect with its target was extremely high. Meaning this was a low-risk, high-reward assault in terms of identifying where Armaros was above the dust cloud.

The second is a proper service toward distraction. Just after Crow launched his attack, he took off toward the field. If Armaros could locate him now, Crow would be at a dreadful disadvantage. Armaros would be informed of Crow's current whereabouts and where he's traveling, and he could estimate how long Crow would take to arrive at said location. Most importantly, though, Armaros has a full visual of the dust, including its outer perimeter.

While Armaros can't fully see what's inside because of the dust's opaqueness, the same is true for Crow, who can't visually identify where Armaros is outside. If Armaros locates Crow, Armaros could quickly identify all he needs to know and patiently wait for Crow to leave the dust cloud to carry out a lethal ambush.

Which means this gamble is of the highest order. But still, while Crow continues to act on raw instinct, his long-time experience in life-or-death battles such as these affect his natural movements and actions. Crow’s mind unconsciously communicates with his body, his limbs immediately carrying out their orders while his blood pumps with adrenaline.

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And because of that, he's still able to draw on information from earlier, just not assess and apply that knowledge toward the best, most effective usage in the middle of a fight. Crow’s being is acting entirely on the first thought that his mind conjures up in a split second, no matter how risky.

Recalling what occurred earlier in the fight, where Crow was instantly picked out amongst the clones he created, and Armaros promptly took down all eleven clones moments later, Crow has inferred that Armaros must've mastered “Orasi.” Orasi is a technique where the user channels their iris into their eyes to enhance their vision significantly, but not in the way many would believe. This technique allows the individual to essentially attain x-ray vision, allowing them to see past a person's outer appearance and inspect the iris within their body.

For example, if “Person A” channeled iris into their fist and their opponent, “Person B”, was using orasi, person B would instantly be able to determine the increased amount of iris in person A’s hand, as well as the decreased amount of iris within the rest of their body.

This means for Crow's clones… which are all far weaker than the original, it would only make sense that they also maintain a much weaker resemblance of iris. Unless Crow makes clones that are practically identical to himself in nearly every quality, even the most marginal of differences can eventually be detected by a skilled orasi user.

However, those who aren't highly, or even moderately skilled in orasi, will have dire consequences for using such a technique in the heat of battle.

Referring to the prior example, when person B uses orasi to see the channeled iris in person A's hand, person B is also weakening the rest of their body, just like person A. Additionally, while transferring iris around your body is already difficult for the average user, manifesting an abundance of iris into your eyes can be incredibly detrimental. Because, just like channeling iris into your hand, channeling iris into your eyes also leaves the rest of your body weaker defensively.

While the muscles of the human body have the main priority of providing strength and fluid movement, the eye is at its' core… an organ. Meaning that if one hasn't adequately trained and strengthened their eyes to adapt to using orasi, their vision can be severely damaged. Now, throwing this same inexperienced individual into a battle where their iris is constantly shifting where the body needs to be strengthened and weakened… if they prematurely use orasi, it may even make them go completely blind.

Skilled fighters are capable of transferring their iris safely without harm. Those who have mastered orasi and iris control can transfer their iris around their bodies, including their eyes, at a moment's notice and much quicker than those who are skilled.

So, Armaros's prior sequence of actions, where he determined which body was the original Crow and instantly followed that notion up with a direct attack of his own, conveys his proficient capabilities and mastery of orasi and iris control.

Which is what Crow was counting on.

Because Crow was no longer visible to Armaros, the inference that Armaros would use orasi to locate Crow is reasonable… essential even. Which resulted in Crow enacting multiple steps to try and ensure his safety. By cloning himself, he created a much larger area that included clusters of iris scattered all over, knowing that each one needed to be individually scrutinized. Although it wouldn't take Armaros long to discern a similar pattern between the clones, all that mattered was that this action bought time, seconds even.

And that it did, but even before Armaros was capable of identifying which visual skeleton of iris was the original, Crow followed this action up by commanding each of his clones to throw their daggers straight in the air, as well as scarcely augment each dagger with the slightest hint of iris. With dozens of iris specks shooting upward, as well as the clots of iris emanating from each of the clones on the ground, it would be astronomically tricky for Armaros to locate and track Crow using orasi with the dozens of daggers posing as an incoming threat.

Armaros is now forced between a rock and a hard place. Either way, he wagers that the daggers are a simple distraction, opting to continue using orasi and putting his unarmored body at risk. Or, he deactivates orasi and transfers his iris back to his body to defend himself.

But what occurred was something Crow could not foresee. Armaros upheld his use of orasi and activated one of his special abilities, broken mirror, for defensive purposes... placing it just underneath his body at the perfect time. This, in turn, would channel almost every bit of iris Armaros can muster into his eyes and ability, leaving his body almost entirely defenseless for an iris-fueled attack.

But that wasn't a concern for Armaros, as he had already gathered all the necessary information he needed. He noticed the slightest lateral movement of one of the clusters of iris as the dagger projectiles shot toward him, and just that momentary, split-second glimpse was enough. With the daggers only traveling toward him from one direction, Armaros didn't have to fear another incoming attack, so he simply countered and continued tracking the cluster of iris as it traveled further away from him and closer to the field nearby.