Zoe just ran straight towards the guy. She didn’t even bother doing any kind of evasive maneuvers. She didn’t dash, either—she was saving that for when she would likely have to abruptly react.

Her opponent didn’t just stand there and let her rush him, of course. But instead of preparing an attack or some kind of defense, he just tore open a rift and hopped through it, disappearing. Well that’s pretty annoying.

Fortunately, it didn’t take Zoe very long to pinpoint his new location. Not only could she feel his powerful mana signature, but she also had some kind of vague, tingling sensation warning her of potential danger. While it didn’t feel entirely necessary, Zoe quickly stepped to the side anyway as she rounded to face her adversary.

The astral knight had repositioned himself a little over a dozen meters away. Once again, he was channeling a swirling maelstrom of energy. Zoe recognized it as the same ability she had tried to recklessly charge through right before her ascension. Yeah, not falling for that one again.

So Zoe did the obvious thing. She ran straight towards him and the incoming magic.

Once again, Zoe made it about halfway when the ability was unleashed. But this time, she knew better. Right before the warp in space reached her, Zoe dashed up. Well, it was still mostly forward, but she angled it such that she just narrowly missed the attack as she soared above it. There was, of course, a slight problem with this tactic. Specifically, for those precious couple of seconds, she couldn’t do much to alter her trajectory.

It didn’t matter. The astral knight had evidently overinvested in the attack, as he was wholly unprepared for the {Corrupted Strike} Zoe had aimed at his skull with her talons. Quickly conjuring a comparatively pathetic version of his devastating blade, he defended just in time.

Even though the magic weapon was far weaker and less well-formed than previous versions, it definitely had the potential to severely debilitate or even incapacitate Zoe again. And it would have, if she had tried the same thing earlier in the fight.

But it was not, and Zoe had a new path with powerful new abilities at her control. Activating the spirit shield, Zoe allowed herself to slam into the blade. Once more, the space magic shattered into fragments of raw mana as soon as it collided with the ghastly barrier enshrouding her entire body.

Zoe released it almost immediately. While she wasn’t currently watching her mana, she could feel that the drain was immense. At the same time, the resulting burst of unformed, chaotic magic blasted both of them backwards. While it wasn’t actually that powerful of a blast, it knocked Zoe away because she was already in the air. If she had been firmly planted on the ground, she could have resisted it without a problem.

{Instinct has leveled up! Instinct is now level 2.}

{Kinetic Dash has leveled up! Kinetic Dash is now level 7.}

Dashing again, Zoe prepared another corrupted strike, using her tail this time. The man blinked away just before it could connect. Without giving it much thought, Zoe leapt into the closing rift.

Reappearing in a new location, Zoe immediately lashed outwards. Ducking low as her gut warned her of danger, Zoe assessed her current position and orientation, as well as her opponent’s. They were still at the top of the cliff, only a few meters away from where they had been before. And he was already diving into another rift.

Ah! Not so easy!

Dashing into the rift just before it could close, Zoe repeated almost the exact same process. Frustratingly, while the astral knight was now clearly on the defensive, he always seemed to be just half a step ahead of her. As this continued, Zoe made sure to watch out for if he was leading her into some kind of trap.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case. He tried to dump her off the cliff a few times, but Zoe’s new form was far too agile for that to work.

Finally, something changed.

Just as Zoe was repeating the now almost routine process of diving into the closing rift, a new rift opened right in front of it. Realizing the danger, Zoe tried to avert her course, but it was too late. As space warped around her, Zoe instantly went on much higher alert. She needed to be ready for whatever happened when she emerged. Is he going to drop me off the cliff or something?

A fraction of a second passed. And then a whole second, and then Zoe realized she had a different problem. Namely, she wasn’t reappearing somewhere else. She was just stuck there, trapped in a chaotic rift of astral magic.

It was starting to actually hurt.

The space around her didn’t make sense. She couldn’t actually see anything, as it was completely dark with no light. Briefly, she noticed that there was no visual snow. The static was just gone. For the first time in her entire life, Zoe was experiencing true blackness. Okay that’s weird but also not important.

What was more important was that she was experiencing increasing physical pain, the kind she would imagine you would feel if you were being simultaneously crushed, twisted, and stretched in many simultaneous and unnatural ways. Also, her body felt all wrong. She had never really thought about it before, but Zoe had an innate sense of what her body was doing and how her various parts were oriented. Even with her new monstrous form, this remained true. But now, it felt all impossibly jumbled.

It was even giving her a headache.

Alright, fuck this.

It was obvious that her opponent was not just trying to temporarily trap her—he was also trying to literally tear her apart with some kind of screwed up geometry rearrangement. It was actually pretty terrifying, and Zoe had to extinguish a small spark of panic at the sensation of helplessness. Clever tactic, but I think I’ll have to bring it to a close.

Zoe activated the spirit shield again. The astral magic trapping and damaging her began to unravel immediately. Curiously, it wasn’t nearly as instant as it had shattered the blade, and so her mana was now dipping dangerously low again. Fortunately, there was nowhere for all the resulting mana to go, as it was trapped inside this tiny pocket dimension as much as she was. Zoe siphoned it up with ease.

{+204 Mana}

And on top of that, a coursing wave of empowering energy was surging through her body and soul, growing stronger and stronger as the space magic battled against her shield. All in all, it only took several seconds, though by the end of it she had actually just barely failed to break even on mana. This shield is so damn expensive.

And then the darkness shattered too, and Zoe lashed out at the light. She had no idea where she would end up, or if the astral knight would be nearby—but she wasn’t going to let an opportunity for a potential surprise attack go to waste.

Her corruption-imbued tail whacked the man straight across the chest, sending him stumbling back with a strangled cry of surprise and pain.

Zoe didn’t give him any time to recover. Activating {Kinetic Dash}, she darted forward, striking again—with her claws this time. The man defended with a feeble conjured blade, much to her irritation. But this time, she held her ground and didn’t even use her shield. The once devastating attack only shattered her top right forearm. A small price to pay for another hit. This one hit him in the jaw.

Frustratingly, he still wasn’t going down. Once again, her corruption was hitting a formidable resistance. But on the upside, it seemed to be doing a good job of distracting him. Let’s see if I can amp it up.

Zoe activated {Corrupt Wound} on both her arm and on the injuries she had inflicted on her opponent. Her arm melded back together at the same time as the disease spread deeper into the astral knight’s spirit and flesh.

It still wasn’t enough to kill him. But it incapacitated him enough that he wasn’t able to stop Zoe’s claws from piercing his throat.

{+180 Mana}

{Sapping Strike has leveled up! Sapping Strike is now level 2.}

{You have leveled up! You are now level 34.}

Huh, I didn’t expect that.

Zoe guessed that this was the ability her doppelganger had used during their endless fights. Returning her attention to the astral knight, Zoe realized something really annoying—he was already dead. Damnit! Now I have no one to question.

Sighing, Zoe dropped the corpse. She would {Devour} it in a moment. But first—

Let’s see my new status.