MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 956: Two Weaknesses

Aura Nova gazed downward at Lucian, who just stood motionless and returned her stare with a subtle, relaxed grin that clashed entirely with the seriousness of their confrontation. She struggled to grasp how their fight had twisted into such a ridiculous and nearly impossible shift, where moments earlier it appeared they'd smoothly entered a clash of spells and far-off assaults, incantations smashing together and powers shredding the atmosphere, only for Lucian to suddenly close in the very next beat, his katana unsheathed, near enough that she could spot the tranquility in his eyes, as if the space separating them had simply never been there.

She failed to comprehend the sudden and illogical pivot in the battle, so she hovered mid-air while fixing her eyes on Lucian below, her thoughts and intellect racing through endless options and myriad situations at a terrifying pace, dissecting each motion, each instant, every ripple in mana and the void, moreover, she still puzzled over how the deception had fooled her at all, since by reason and her prior encounters, nothing like it should have ever tricked her perceptions so utterly.

Lucian stayed rooted in place with that identical casual grin as he looked up at Aura Nova, carrying the poised air of a veteran expert leisurely guiding a novice pupil, his stance upright but non-aggressive, his aura subdued yet inescapably heavy, like the outcome of their duel had been settled ages ago and he merely awaited her arrival at that same understanding.

"Do you know your weakness, Aura Nova?" he posed as a rhetorical query, not anticipating any reply from Aura Nova, his voice casual and nearly chatty, yet Aura Nova answered right away without pause, her tone firm and free of annoyance.

"Enlighten me," Aura Nova declared while eyeing Lucian with total poise and steadiness, her face impassive and lacking any trace of ego or resistance, for if it really was her flaw, she stood ready to listen without evasion or rejection.

"Your error right from the start was assuming your shortfall was just close-quarters fighting experience, and then, after falling to my Sword Intent, you now think that's where your flaw hides," Lucian started explaining, utterly unphased by Aura Nova's response to his supposed rhetorical question, his explanation gliding out steadily and with patience, "that's precisely the problem. You're too narrow in your view, Aura Nova," he went on without shifting a step, his eyes fixed firmly on her features.

"At first, I was truly thrilled and keen to exchange blows and test myself against you, I really was, but at this point..." he halted briefly, as if picking his phrasing to avoid excess sharpness while still expressing his letdown, "I’m not so keen anymore," he murmured with a light sigh, like all the hopes he'd held since encountering Aura Nova had silently fallen apart and broken.

Aura Nova stayed quiet, she neither yelled nor fired back as others in her spot likely would, she just lingered airborne in her spot while absorbing his statements with serene attention, since she knew Lucian had no motive to deceive here, no cause to invent tales or steer her astray whatsoever.

"You grasp only a tiny piece of the puzzle, Aura Nova. Your flaw splits into two distinct parts. One, combat experience overall, not in bits or narrow fields, but in its complete scope," Lucian pressed on, resembling a teacher methodically outlining flaws to a promising yet unrefined disciple.

"You miss broad fighting wisdom, combat plans, flexibility, and strategic sharpness; you've got the pure skill and crushing might, but lack the honed practice. Like how you took two hits in one fleeting moment, I'm certain you still can't figure out the method... correct?" he pointed out, his gaze still pinned on Aura Nova as he talked, as if averting it even briefly might let her miss the insight he aimed to embed in her thoughts.

Aura Nova offered no response, yet Lucian's observation rang painfully accurate, for she truly couldn't fathom how Lucian had landed those exact, flawlessly timed strikes without her detecting the slightest hint.

"But I won’t reveal the solutions, because if I did, how could you really grow?" Lucian said with a soft, nearly playful grin. The way he'd wounded Aura Nova was actually rather basic and direct; as she focused entirely on countering the Void Eater spell, he'd layered an illusion spell alongside it, blending trickery with ruin, and he'd foreseen Aura Nova enduring the Void Eater anyway, since that incantation had only acted as a lure from the outset.

Lucian had surmised that Aura Nova lacked innate resistance to illusions, unlike him, Anthony, and Aaaninja. Anthony shrugged off illusions due to his ridiculously dominant nature that ignored all reason and rules, while Lucian resisted them thanks to his system safeguard that instinctively blocked and dismissed such meddling, and Aaaninja overcame illusions through his ridiculously potent Eyes Of Genesis that saw reality past all lies.

Lucian had figured Aura Nova relied on her Omniedit ability for active immunity to illusions. Though she might pierce through deceptions without it, she'd require that brief instant or minimal sliver of time to spot the reality unaided, and Lucian had wagered the whole fight on abusing that tiny lag.

Aura Nova, busy shattering the Void Eater spell with brute superiority, faced another assault out of nowhere; she reacted on pure gut and impulse without deliberate consideration, lacking time to even register the illusion fully, and Lucian seized that split-second gap with brutal precision, though he spared her head, he claimed her arm as toll for that lapse.

Regarding her other arm and Lucian's prediction of her position prior to her arrival, he could still detect the faint spatial waves she trailed during her shifts and jumps. The void resembled liquid, and traversing it always stirred waves and eddies however minor, yet Aura Nova hadn't mastered concealing or smoothing those traces, rendering her paths foreseeable to anyone skilled enough to sense them.

"I bet on the Dusk planet, you just crushed foes with pure devastating force, leading to your gaps in versatile fighting know-how and polished tactics as you bulldozed past all barriers without pushback," Lucian went on, hitting the truth with eerie precision.

"Ultimately, your Omniedit ability, your top asset, has paradoxically turned into your biggest liability. No misunderstanding—it's a phenomenal and fearsome power, but facing types like me, Aaaninja, and Anthony, it can't hold up," he noted evenly and plainly while holding Aura Nova's gaze without smugness, just voicing what he saw as plain fact.

Aura Nova's thoughts whirled as she concentrated fully on Lucian's words, her mind surging while recollections surged swiftly across her awareness, rerunning her myriad fights across the Dusk planet in quick succession. She'd never required plotting or deep tactical thought or placement, able to halt time and wipe out any and all with ease, and wielding such vast dominance, she'd skipped all the fuss and intricacy.

Yet against rivals innately as mighty as her, or mightier still, she inevitably lagged, for yes, her prime power had gradually and quietly morphed into her prime shortcoming on this tier where savvy, accuracy, and smarts counted equally to brute strength.

Aura Nova held her silence despite this epiphany, knowing words alone wouldn't alter a thing.

Just effort, progress, and dedicated labor could ever shift the balance.