NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 86
Chapter Eighty-Six: Time Stop Domain (Request for Subscription)
“Let’s begin.”
Xue Ji’s red lips parted slightly, her cold and beautiful eyes reflecting the figure of Cid.
Cid was on high alert, fully concentrating as he waited for Xue Ji and Alpha to make their move.
However,
1 second passed.
3 seconds passed…
“Are you not going to attack?”
Seeing no movement from the two women, Cid prepared to strike first.
But in the next moment, he found himself retreating dozens of meters.
“What’s happening?!”
His pupils trembled uncontrollably, one hand gripping his neck tightly. “I… have been slashed?”
Drops of blood seeped through Cid’s palm. Just moments ago, something sharp had cut through his windpipe.
Without any warning, unable even to see the opponent’s trajectory, Cid had already suffered a fatal blow!
Indeed, a fatal blow.
It wasn’t that he perceived the attack and dodged it in advance.
Rather, after his throat was severed, he only then reacted instinctively.
“Just now, what happened?”
Cid stared intently at Xue Ji, wanting to ask.
However, upon shifting his gaze, Cid saw the dark golden longsword in Alpha’s hand, and a drop of crimson blood slowly dripping from it.
“Drip.”
“Drip.”
The blood fell, landing on the grass beside Cid’s feet.
He used his magic power to seal the wound and stimulated cell activity, quickly restoring the injury on his neck.
“You’ve lost.”
Alpha lightly flicked the longsword, her tone indifferent, as if narrating a trivial matter.
Under such circumstances, Alpha’s sword could not have been stained with blood.
The fact that blood dripped must have been intentionally left as evidence for Cid.
“Time… huh…”
Cid was very clever. Though it was his first encounter, there was no doubt that what just occurred couldn’t be explained by mere speed.
One of the two people before him had employed a bizarre technique similar to time stop.
And within that world where everything was motionless, someone held a sharp blade and, in an instant, broke through the magic power covering his body and cut his windpipe.
If this hadn’t been a sparring match but a real fight,
Then just now, Cid wouldn’t have merely lost; he would have already been dead.
Being able to sever the windpipe meant they could also cut off his head.
Alpha’s intention was crystal clear.
The time stop was the fox girl’s technique.
And the one who broke through his defense should be this blonde Pokémon.
With their cooperation, Xue Ji froze time first, followed by Alpha delivering a fatal blow.
Such a combination skill left even Cid unable to escape being defeated in their first encounter.
“Now, do you still want to fight both of us at the same time?”
“Again!!”
“…”
Alpha looked at Cid, noticing the excited gleam in the boy’s eyes: so quickly, he had figured out a way to counter it?
“As you wish!”
Xue Ji lowered the paper fan in her hand. She too wanted to find out whether the time freeze she developed from ice and snow elements had any undiscovered flaws.
“Swish!”
Thus, as Xue Ji’s fox tail swayed behind her, an invisible field instantly swallowed everything around them.
Colors rapidly faded away—the sky, the earth, the grass, and Cid ahead.
All things in the world were shrouded in shades of gray and white.
Of course, Xue Ji’s time stop, essentially, halted the flow of matter rather than truly controlling time.
Through the development of this ability, Xue Ji had already become adept at adjusting the intensity, range, and target of this power.
For instance, right now, Alpha stood in the gray-white world.
She was completely unaffected.
Unlike the previous occasion when Alpha’s Sacred Domain of the Golden King rendered Xue Ji’s ability ineffective,
At this moment, there was no golden light emanating around Alpha.
“Great improvement.”
Watching Xue Ji deliberately bypass Alpha, making her the only one capable of free movement in this area,
Bai Luo gained a clearer understanding of Xue Ji’s talent.
And this was still just an ice-based element.
After all, besides absolute defense, Xue Ji’s authority allowed her to control all elements.
In just a month’s time, even Bai Luo didn’t know how many interesting techniques this girl had privately developed.
“Hm?”
However, before Xue Ji could let her guard down, the faint purple glow emanating from Cid caught her attention…
“Of course!”
Cid scanned this gray-white world: “Everything has stopped.”
He felt somewhat relieved since Xue Ji’s ability wasn’t true time stop; it simply solidified matter.
This method was something Cid hadn’t considered before.
In the Shadow World, Magic Swordsmen could stimulate cells with magic power to achieve faster reaction speeds.
Simultaneously, during high-speed movement, as long as they covered their bodies with a thin layer of magic power, they could neutralize the forces and friction caused by rapid movement.
During regular spars with his sister, Cid often used this technique.
However, Xue Ji’s time stop was different!
The opponent wasn’t accelerating their own speed but forcibly immobilizing the surrounding matter.
Thus, simply enhancing one’s reaction speed couldn’t negate Xue Ji’s time stop.
The only method was to completely sever all connections!
Similar to wearing warm clothing in the cold winter to keep one’s body temperature within a safe range.
“How did you manage to do this?”
Cid was certain that Xue Ji’s method of halting the material world wasn’t merely about using magic power.
If it were solely reliant on magic power, the amount needed to immobilize such a vast area would be beyond even what Cid could endure.
“No, having powerful magic alone is far from enough!”
There was also precise manipulation of magic power required. To accurately stop the movement of every single atom necessitated calculations of astronomical proportions.
Even if Xue Ji or Cid themselves attempted it, not even Bai Luo could possess such immense computational capability.
“It’s this gray-white energy…”
“No, this isn’t energy. This is some kind of field, isn’t it?”
Cid raised his hand, as if trying to touch the surrounding space.
Unfortunately, he touched nothing.
“Untouchable, and imperceptible even with magic power.”
“Intriguing, what exactly is this force, and how does it work?”
Cid realized that with his current knowledge, he couldn’t comprehend the essence of Xue Ji’s ability.
The only thing he could do was cover every inch of his flesh with magic power, severing all connections with external matter, allowing him to remain unaffected by Xue Ji’s time-stop domain.