Zoe staggered back. She was about to fall, and she let herself.

As she reeled backwards off the cliff, she tried to catch sight of her attackers. All she managed to see was a few shapes moving towards her before she was tumbling backwards in the air.

Zoe let herself fall because she figured that being under the overhang would give her at least a little bit of protection and at least a little bit of time to figure out what was going on. It was also a split second decision, so she didn’t have much time to wonder if there was a better strategy.

In any case, she dashed to the ground when she figured she was close enough but not too close. She judged correctly — perfectly, even — as she lightly dropped down just about a foot after the end of her dash.

Sprinting forward, she placed her back to the wall of the cliff and looked up. She didn’t see anything — after all, the overhang obscured whatever might be above it. Looking side to side, Zoe tried to think of which way would be the better way to run.

If worst came to worst, she still felt she could fight these people. However, that blast of annihilation had been strong. She was still feeling it eating away at her scales — in fact, she even had a system notification for it again.

{You have been stricken with annihilation!}

Yeah, real helpful.

Also, her decision to let herself fall in order to gain momentary respite now put her at an altitude disadvantage. Trying to climb back up was likely a terrible idea, as was running forwards. The latter would expose her out in the open for too long — so running to the side would definitely be better.

Picking the right at random, Zoe was about to dart off when a beige-uniformed man landed on the ground right in front of her.

Zoe dashed forward before she had even analyzed him, a {Corrupted Strike} ready in her upper right hand. Just as she closed in, she saw that he was a level fifty-one kinetic aura master.

Zoe didn’t have much time to process what that actually meant when she was violently pushed back with a heavy wave of force. Her {Kinetic Manipulation} flared to life, instinctively informing her that the wave was a half circle arc. While it wasn’t fast or even very damaging, it was dense and it was strong. Even with her own monstrous strength, there was no stopping its momentum.

Letting herself be carried, Zoe braced herself back against the cliff wall.

“This one’s on you, Jason!” Someone called up from above, “no help unless you start dying.”

That shocked Zoe enough to make her momentarily pause. Are they treating this like some kind of field training exercise?

She had just killed like half a dozen of their crew members at minimum. Actually, how had these two even survived?

Deciding that those were all good questions but also questions for later, Zoe tensed her powerful leg muscles against the rock face like a coiled spring. At the same time, she activated {Kinetic Enhancement} and prepared another {Kinetic Dash}.

At the same time, the aura master in front of her appeared to be channeling some kind of attack. He had planted himself in a wide, sideways combat stance and was accumulating a dense vortex of mana in his cupped hands. Once again, Zoe’s {Kinetic Manipulation} tingled slightly.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A kinetic beam attack, maybe?

Whatever it was, Zoe didn’t want to let him set it off. So she dashed.

The man released the attack when she was halfway to him, claws outstretched. In that brief moment, it seemed to Zoe like he had released it early in order to react to her sudden onslaught.

On her part, Zoe desperately activated {Kinetic Manipulation} and {Mana Manipulation} to try to defend herself from the incoming pulsing column of raw force. She met the attack just a quarter of the distance away from her target.

The magic roiled chaotically as she collided with it. In an instant, the tightly focused beam exploded into a radial nova of primal destruction. Zoe and the aura master alike were flung backwards.

{Kinetic Manipulation has leveled up! Kinetic Manipulation is now level 14.}

{Mana Manipulation has leveled up! Mana Manipulation is now level 18.}

As Zoe tumbled through the air, she could actually feel her internal organs being shocked around. Her scales and chitin on her exterior were perfectly fine, however — it seemed that the force had a harder time damaging them than shaking up her insides.

Zoe hit the wall with the back of her head.

Crumpling to the ground, she felt a dull spike of pain stab all the way through her mind.

{You have suffered a critical brain injury! Warning: extreme permanent damage may result.}

Fuck that.

Zoe activated {Corrupt Wound}.

The pain receded, though it was still there. Fortunately, her max level {Pain Resistance would have allowed her to brush it off even without the healing — but it was the ‘permanent brain damage’ part that made her immediately put everything into healing.

The aura master was rising to his feet as well, but Zoe had been faster. He was just getting his bearings when she dashed straight towards him. A pathetic, half-hearted wave of force tried to brush her back, but Zoe was able to brute-force power through it this time.

Unfortunately, when she tried to strike it felt like she was fist-fighting in a swimming pool. Despite her tremendous strength, her attacks were sluggish, and her opponent was able to dodge. Fortunately, he wasn’t able to get away from her or counterattack.

Unfortunately, they were now both in the open and Zoe had to deal with someone else up above.

{You have been stricken with annihilation!}

{Annihilation Resistance has leveled up! Annihilation Resistance is now level 7.}

Fuck this.

Directing her {Kinetic Enhancement} entirely into her upper right arm, Zoe slashed towards the man’s side with everything she had.

Her outstretched claws just barely grazed him.

Her {Corrupted Strike}, however, hit him right in the gut.

{Kinetic Enhancement has leveled up! Kinetic Enhancement is now level 8.}

The man froze, his eyes quite literally widening as the black mana tore through his body. Strangely, while his uniform was shredded and the flesh beneath instantly turned a sickly, diseased yellowish purple, it didn’t actually break the skin.

But from his reaction, Zoe knew she had delivered a critical blow.

Another beam of annihilation struck her, snapping her back to attention. A system notification popped up.

{Your corruption has encountered an unknown resistance. Active attention required for continued effects.}

As the man keeled over and Zoe darted back towards the base of the cliff, zig-zagging between bolts of annihilation, she reached out with her arcane senses. Immediately, she realized she could feel a tethered connection to the man.

No, not the man. To what was inside the man. The black component of her mana was fighting a battle inside of him — inside of both his body and his spirit. And while it was able to hold its ground, it wasn’t advancing, either.

As Zoe made it to cover, she took a moment to focus deeper on the strange battle she was now intimately connected to.

Of course, she could just kill him the normal way. However, that would have left her exposed out in the open — possibly for enough time to let the sniper get off more damaging shots. Already, several patches of her scales were breaking off, corroded and eaten away by the annihilation.

No, this way was much safer. And not only that — it would allow her to experiment with her powerful new abilities.

Zoe licked her fangs. This is going to be interesting.