The Edge of Supremacy

REINHARDT'S POV

Suddenly, I watched as Anastasia's expression changed when a sword fell like thunder upon her unprotected head. The leader had attacked stealthily, and I held my breath. The tremendous blow split the air and raised a cloud of dust that obscured my vision, leaving me in suspense as I wondered if she had managed to block such an attack in that vulnerable position.

I knew that Frank's attack had been a perfect stealth move, executed with the precision of an experienced predator.

When the dust settled, I could see Anastasia crouched, her back intact like an impregnable fortress. The black sword in her other hand had stopped the enemy's attack with a skill that left me speechless. Both weapons formed a perfect cross over her armor, while Frank floated in the air, supporting his back with a pipe still between his lips and tipping his hat with an almost theatrical gesture that seemed to mock gravity itself.

In a blink that I could barely follow with my eyes, Anastasia turned her body with supernatural fluidity, wielding both swords: one pointing backward like a hidden snake and the other with its tip downward, ready to counterattack. The leader's sword fell to the ground along with his body, and sliding her legs to stabilize herself with the grace of a dancer, Anastasia slashed upward, tracing a long, slanted silver line in the air that seemed to sever Frank's neck like a deadly thread of light.

The silver line cut the leader's pipe along with strands of his white hair at the neck, and small droplets of blood splashed into the night air like liquid rubies while the severed pipe rolled across the ground with a metallic clink. However, to Anastasia's and my surprise, a silver sword was heading toward her neck like a steel viper. Forced to react with supernatural reflexes, she raised both swords to block the attack. The force of the impact made her shrink, her back arching backward as sparks illuminated the night like miniature fireworks.

When their gazes met in that moment of extreme tension, Frank's face hardened, stunned by the dizzying speed of the events unfolding before him.

—I'm surprised. If I lacked energy, I would have been decapitated right now —said the leader with a nervous smile that failed to hide his unease, while a red line formed on his neck like a crimson collar and stellar energy began to accumulate, slowly closing the wound in a process that fascinated and terrified me in equal measure.

How had he survived a direct blow to the neck?! My mind worked feverishly as I thought: Had he concentrated his energy around his neck to reduce the damage?! It was a technique I had never seen before.

I was deeply shocked by what I witnessed before me. The warrior's path manifested with a supernatural strength and agility that far surpassed anyone who was not an Illuminated. Their imposing physique and extraordinary defensive capabilities allowed them to mitigate the adverse effects of certain supernatural powers, acting as a living shield.

They were endowed with an innate ability and exceptional talent that turned them into masters of combat, specializing in close-quarters confrontations. They mastered various martial arts with a skill that seemed to defy the possible, moving with a mastery that challenged imagination. Thanks to their enhanced constitution and deep affinity for battle, there was no combat style they could not perfect, as if their bodies were forged to adapt to any form of warfare.

From my position as a strategic observer, Frank revealed himself as an exceptional warrior, surpassing by far everything my imagination had dared to conceive. The enormous energy emanating from his being, combined with the sophisticated and masterful way he wielded it, completely eclipsed most of the fighters I had seen recently.

Across his body ran a network of dark lines that outlined the stellar circulation system, a web of energy connecting a series of bright nodes of the same color, distributed throughout his figure. On his head, these nodes concentrated at key points like the forehead, temples, and the base of the skull, while on his torso they aligned precisely along the spine, chest, and abdomen, forming a symmetrical pattern that denoted harmony and balance. His arms and legs were also traversed by these lines, with additional nodes at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles, suggesting a continuous and fluid flow of energy extending to the extremities.

In the region of the solar plexus stood out a central spiral, serving as a convergence point for the surrounding lines, drawn with concentric curves that expanded outward, evoking the image of an energy flow originating from that point and distributing harmoniously throughout the rest of the body. From this spiral, multiple main lines radiated in all directions, ascending through the torso and branching toward the arms and legs, connecting with circular nodes placed at regular intervals that represented the stellar points.

At his core, located precisely in the solar plexus, swirled a dense concentration of dark blue, almost black stellar dust, with an oily and sinister texture that reminded me of oil spilled on the sea during a nighttime storm. What amazed me most was the way that energy manifested: it condensed around a large nebula in wide concentric rings, three perfect layers that enveloped it like protective mantles, through which immense amounts of energy flowed with an almost palpable intensity that made the air itself vibrate.

Up to level 3, I knew that the number of rings in the core indicated the exact level of an Illuminated. In other words, that man was an Illuminated of this stage, making him, in every possible sense, vastly superior to me, who was merely at level 1. The difference in power was abysmal.

—I have no idea where you learned such a strange sword handling at that age, but… you will die here! —growled the man with ferocity, his eyes gleaming with a sinister glow that made me shudder.

Suddenly, the energy in the leader's body erupted like a violently erupting volcano, pushing Anastasia backward with a force that seemed capable of toppling trees. The scene had an almost comical touch for an external observer: a small girl facing an furious older man.