"Are you truly Stencil?" The Invader System's startled shout resounded in the void as immediately, the figures of Arnark, Slayer, Martial, and even Zaira focused, their expressions varying in the level of tenseness.
After all, if Stencil somehow managed to tap into the powers of the Regression System, then her danger level increased.
But a moment later, Zaira's voice resounded, "She's Stencil. I don't know how, but she's using the Regression System's ability placed on her as a shield."
She then observed the change in Stencil's luck values, letting out a grin, "By shaving off a part of her luck, she used Cause and Effect to force her body to regress for a second, and by that, she also reversed the sustained damage."
"Well, it doesn't seem like she can repeat it for long." Slayer commented as suddenly, he began to attack Stencil, unleashing mysterious runes that gradually locked up the space, preventing her from evading as quickly as before.
Swoosh!
Arnark targeted Ying and unleashed a killing blow.
"No!" Stencil moved before Ying and defended using her power, being mortally wounded in response as suddenly, her figure flickered like static before she wasn't injured anymore.
Her luck values took another significant plunge in response, worrying Earth Star who felt weak in response.
The five entities before them were incomparably powerful in comparison to those he had fought until now. And unsurprisingly, each of them were stronger than him.
If not for Stencil expending her luck constantly to protect them, he would have been killed already. But, the greater her luck was expended, the more precarious her situation became.
'This is scary.' The Secondary System thought as it observed the battle through Ying's eyes. It was still perfectly fine, for the one Stencil took control of was just the Hunter System fragment in Ying.
The primary nature of the Secondary System was its stealth, which was how it avoided Arnark's detection even before it fully evolved into the Secondary System. And now, having completed its evolution and attained the peak of Grade 1, it was perfectly hidden.
This was why none other than Zaira were able to sense its existence. If the Secondary System hadn't set foot in the System World, then even Zaira wouldn't have been able to detect it.
Systems part of the Protagonist Genre were special, whether it was the infamous Main Character System or the newly emerged Secondary System.
While observing the battle, the Secondary System wished to escape, but never had the opportunity to do so. If it tried to return to the System World at the moment, the portal would exist for three seconds.
In the current scenario, that was just too long a time frame. The moment it tries to return to the System World, Stencil might figure out the truth regarding it. After all, they were connected by a strong fate.
So, there was a chance she could see through its disguise. If that happened, the Secondary System would fall under her control. That would mess up all its plans.
'I need to wait for the perfect opportunity to flee.' It thought and primarily focused on the actions of Slayer, Arnark, and Stencil, the three entities that had an incentive to devour it.
Boom!
"Gah!" Stencil screamed again as despite her best efforts, the enemies overpowered her. The moment she tried to control any opponent using her chokers, someone else would interrupt and destroy the chokers.
If she attacked one enemy, the remaining targeted her. Earth Star was only able to fend off one person. This meant that among the five enemies, there were always three whose attacks weren't being blocked.
This forced her to tank all attacks and constantly regress herself to remain uninjured. After all, an injury from her opponents were too potent to be cured in a short duration. It might take from weeks to months, to even years depending on the complexity of the concepts used.
"Your luck is only a tenth of its original now." Arnark said and casually kept up with the attacks, "How long can you last?"
Though despite having the initiative to finish Stencil, he never took the shot, always training his senses to his surroundings. After all, his true opponent wasn't Stencil.
Considering how cunning Compass Carburettor was, Arnark felt that the moment he took the lead to kill Ying and gained the option to advance to Grade 2, Compass Carburettor's strongest attack would slam into him to disrupt everything and prevent him from reaching Grade 2 ever.
The possibility for that existed, considering he possessed the power of Tell-Tale. So, instead of revealing such a chance, Arnark stared at Slayer, "Master, I'll hinder her attacks. Take the chance to cripple her."
"Got it!" Slayer didn't even seem to doubt the other party's intentions as he took the lead and swatted away Earth Star, closing in on Stencil to condense a mysterious blade in his hand that he plunged into her heart.
Thump! Thump!
Stencil stared in aghast as her body began to disintegrate, beginning to kill her. Moreover, using the opportunity Arnark created by blocking their attacks and with Slayer swatting him away, Martial took the opportunity to target Earth Star and plunged an energy blade into the opponent.
"Shit!" Stencil glared in hatred as she expended the last reserve of her luck to cause the bodies of her and Earth Star to flicker before they recovered from the damage, causing their bodies to regress to the moment before they were almost killed.
Unfortunately, she didn't have enough luck to relocate their position as all Stencil managed to do was bring Earth Star within her reach once again. But, Slayer was right before them, holding the mysterious blade in his hand, the power in it sufficient for another attack.
Slayer didn't waste any time and plunged the mysterious blade once again, intending to finish Stencil and absorb all her powers, aware that doing so would give him enough foundation to target Zaira for real following that.
His dull eyes didn't express any change but hidden behind them was a cunning gaze belonging to the old Slayer. It had become a habit to supress his true self from everyone, and even now, he was doing the same after observing the minor behavioural changes in Arnark.
But, right as the mysterious blade was about to come in contact with Stencil, Slayer sensed something amiss and immediately switched the mysterious blade to a counterfeit with a similar aura and appearance.
Boom!
A hand appeared suddenly, grabbing hold of the blade as a terrifying power converged upon it, rapidly absorbing all power in it.
Staring at the familiar pair of eyes staring at him with uncontrollable bloodlust, Slayer let out a wry smile, "Ahh, the one that escaped my grasp has returned. Welcome,"
"Gehera."
