Reincarnated in a Shounen Manga - Chapter 227: Do Not Intervene

This fight became a learning moment for both me and my opponent. Though I would wish to be the only one here improving, that would be an unrealistic expectation. Also despite the bitter aftertaste it left, it revealed my opponent’s surprising ability to think independently.

Engaging in mid-air combat against someone who could manipulate wind made it abundantly clear how bad that choice was. I sensed a colossal wind blade hurtling towards me, prompting me to swiftly dodge the deadly projectile. The sheer force of the attack sliced through a nearby building as though it were nothing but paper.

I would have been cut in half if that had landed on me.

Strangely, though, I found myself less nervous than I should have been. I had faced enemies with potentially lethal attacks before, so while I remained cautious, I wasn’t entirely overwhelmed. Which was a weird feeling, to be honest.

Despite dozens of blades raining down upon me, I managed to narrowly evade most of them. Yet, relying on Carpy’s senses, I barely sidestepped a manifested wind blade that nearly severed my arm, leaving me with a nasty but quickly healing shoulder wound due to our fused state. Carpy’s regeneration was not that strong, but it proved effective for this injury.

As I planned to counterattack and trap the creature, an abrupt and intense pressure bore down on my head, almost shattering my skull. It was a powerful blast of wind!

Helpless, I crashed heavily to the ground, and the asphalt cracked under the impact. I spat out blood as some internal damage was done, but I knew it would heal as long as my organs remained intact.

Despite the excruciating pain and feeling as if my body was broken, I stood up with a defiant smile, determined not to reveal any sign of weakness. Pointing at the two-headed creature, I confidently said, “I know your second special ability – it’s Clairvoyance, isn’t it?”

Normally, I would gauge my opponent’s reaction to confirm the truth of my words, but these fused twins’ expressions were blank, their mouths melted shut, devoid of any emotion.

What frustrated me, even more, was knowing that I wouldn’t receive any mid-battle power-ups. I envied Agon and his team for their miraculous ability to grow stronger during a fight, while I had to rely on my pre-battle training. Encountering an enemy stronger or well-equipped to counter me was indeed a major hassle.

Also, despite knowing its ability, there wasn’t much I could do to fight against Clairvoyance. It was a short-term form of Divination, allowing one to see a few seconds into the future, with a maximum of seven seconds. However, beyond that timeframe, it became unusable in battle as the future transformed from certainty to mere possibility. Battles were too unpredictable; any action the Clairvoyance user took based on future knowledge would inevitably alter the course of events, as their opponent would react and change the outcome they had seen.

The fused twins seemed to possess a limited range of Clairvoyance, which, in turn, granted them greater accuracy in predicting the immediate future. It was the kind of future sight that was useful in battle. Nevertheless, Clairvoyance had its weakness: users often relied too heavily on this special ability.

Furthermore, Clairvoyance was a type of special ability that could counter Special Me. Even if I made the perfect decision, it would ultimately be foreseen and countered.

There were methods to counteract Clairvoyance, such as employing wide-range attacks that even the user of this special ability couldn’t anticipate. However, my ability to create such attacks, like a tidal wave of water, was hampered by the impenetrable wind barrier.

Thankfully, my opponent wasn’t a Qilin, who possessed both long-range Divination and short-range Clairvoyance. As far as I knew, they were among the best demons at predicting the future, and there were no others like them.

When I was deciding what tamed demon to choose, Qilin had been considered due to its raw power and the potential synergy with Perfect Me.

Yet, dragons were simply too enticing to pass up. Even if Qilin might have been the superior choice, which I doubted, I wouldn’t have picked it, even if given the chance to change my decision. After all, this journey led me to meet Carpy.

***

Anika was with Sei and the Strength Exorcist, observing the battle from far away. She frowned when she saw Kon suddenly slammed to the ground. “We need to go and help him.”

Sei nodded, and the Strength Exorcist did too. Yet before any of them could move, Anika felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and saw a man that made her suddenly freeze as a primal fear took over her body.

Anika stood there, her heart pounding with fear and urgency, as she observed the silver-haired man’s cold demeanor. She knew she had to try again to convince him to let them help Kon.

What could she do now?! She had to help Kon! Do anything!

With a deep breath, Anika attempted to keep her voice steady. “Please, we can’t just stand here and do nothing. Kon needs our help, and this fight is too dangerous for him to handle alone.”

The man’s expression remained unchanged, but a subtle tension seemed to flicker in his eyes. Anika felt a glimmer of hope that maybe her words were starting to reach him.

“Please,” she implored once more, her voice unwavering. She didn’t care about her Ord depleting. “We need to act now. Kon might not survive this fight on his own.”

Finally, the man turned his gaze to Anika, and for a moment, she saw a trace of something behind those crimson eyes—perhaps a flicker of empathy or understanding. But just as quickly, his emotions retreated, and his face reverted to its emotionless facade.

“You don’t understand,” he said, his voice surprisingly calm and measured. “There are greater forces at play here, and interfering may lead to consequences you cannot comprehend.”

Anika was taken aback by his response, but she refused to back down. “We might not understand everything, but we have to help. Please, just give us a chance.”

The man’s gaze flickered between Anika and the ongoing battle.

The Strength Exorcist was the first to react, as he seemed unaffected by the fear at all and instead had a wide smile on his face. He gathered Ord in his fist, the same attack that had caused a large demon to fall down and despite it not being a special ability, due to the Ord it had behind it was stronger than Agon’s Super Impact.

“I hate bastards stopping me from doing what I want!” Exclaimed the Strength Exorcist.

The silver-haired man didn’t bother dodging and the punch landed square on his stomach, despite the following powerful explosion, the man didn’t even inch backward, and the only one with any injuries was the Strength Exorcist who started bleeding from his nose and coughed a mouthful of blood before he fell to his knees.

The silver-haired man regarded them with an inscrutable expression, seemingly caught in an internal struggle. At last, he sighed, the smallest crack appearing in his emotionless facade.

On the other hand, the silver-haired man spared him only one glance and no longer even stared at him as if the Strength Exorcist wasn’t worth his attention.

“Please, we have to go and help him,” Anika pleaded with the man, trying to appear calmer than she actually felt. She felt a large chunk of her Ord just gone, and she realized that she was speaking to someone from the future.

Yet despite her pleasing, the man didn’t even look at her as his eyes were glued to the fight in the distance. Anika’s heart broke when she saw Kon standing up and loudly declaring that his opponent’s second ability was Clairvoyance.

Anika had heard and learned about such abilities from her clan, although they were quite rare and not well understood by many. These abilities were ranked based on their strength. There were three main types: Percentile Prediction, which could predict the likelihood of a future event happening; Possible Prediction, where multiple predictions were made based on different courses of events, and one of them would prove true or close to the truth; and Absolute Prediction, a fate-bound event that was nearly impossible to change.

Such thoughts flashed through Anika’s mind in a split second as she began to wrap strings around her body. Whether the silver-haired man would let her go or not didn’t matter. There was no way she was going to let Kon die!

Allowing fear to dictate her actions now would mean she could never forgive herself if Kon perished.

Before she could gather her Ord to activate her special ability, foreign Ord entered her body like a scalpel. She tried to resist, managing to prevent the Ord from shutting down all her Ord nodes, but it still interrupted the activation of her special ability. Anika suffered a minor backlash, feeling blood rise up her throat and burst through her nose.

“Damn it!” she muttered, not even getting a chance to resist further.

On the other hand, Sei remained the calmest among them and only stared at the silver-haired man. He created a mirror that instantly shattered into particles of light, atomizing before it could fully manifest.

Unlike Anika, Sei stayed composed. Instead of launching another attack, he simply sat down and gazed into the distance where Kon was fighting against the two-headed humanoid demon.