Ren went inside the village, and the first thing he was greeted with was an attack by two people. They were a team. It was troublesome, but he quickly noticed that one of them had some sort of explosion power. He didn't know exactly the mechanics behind that ability, because that didn't matter. What mattered was what he noticed about the explosions the first teammate created—they were only being made when him and his teammate were far away. The guy wasn't immune to his own ability, and he could harm his teammate with it.
So once he realized that, he timed the next explosion and got in a good position. Then he dragged the two of them, using them as shields from the explosion, and—kaboom—he got launched away while the other two got teleported back.
Ren just got up, dusted himself off, and sighed.
Well, that was quick, he thought while he was cleaning himself up. I should seriously do something with my hair. I like it being long, but it sometimes interrupts my vision. Maybe I should use my old hairstyle a wolf cut ponytail.
But before he could think about that any further, he noticed something next to him on the opposite side of the street. He saw another student—with red eyes, horns, and smoke coming from the corners of his mouth. And he was wielding a katana.
Damn, that guy is really terrifying, Ren thought.
But he didn't focus on that entirely. He looked at his surroundings—more specifically at the building next to the oni-looking student. The roof was destroyed, and unlike the broken buildings he had seen so far, this broken roof looked fresh.
So he probably was done with his opponent.
Ren calmly walked towards the oni, and Luke calmly walked towards him.
Luke immediately dashed towards Ren, aiming for the neck.
But he didn't expect what Ren did.
Ren, while he was walking towards the oni, had all his focus on him. He registered every single movement as best as he could. After all, this guy looked really powerful, so he honestly didn't want to meet him.
And then he saw the oni dash towards him.
It was extremely fast, so his ability definitely gave him enhanced physical abilities—but he wasn't too fast to the point that Ren couldn't react.
Ren wanted to dodge to the right but something felt off.
He was putting all his focus on the oni, and because of that, he felt something was really off—but he couldn't think about why for too long, because the blade was already coming toward him.
So he just took a deep breath…
…and trusted his gut feeling.
And dodging to the left—where Luke was swinging his sword from—Luke's blade passed by Ren's neck and disappeared.
Ren saw Luke appear again, swinging from the right.
What the—?!
Both of them exclaimed in surprise, and that made them take a step back from each other.
What the hell is that? Ren thought to himself.
He knew he felt in his gut that something was wrong, but that didn't mean he knew what the hell just happened. Does this guy have some sort of illusion power? And if he does, how the hell did he figure that out?
He automatically reviewed everything that he could do with his power, because that was definitely the thing that gave him that gut feeling.
After a single second, he had a theory.
Shadow Radar.
He has the ability to sense where shadows are so he can manifest shades through them. He must've used it unconsciously when he was focusing on him even though he wasn't really sure.
Until he saw the oni dash towards him again, ready for a stab.
So Ren quickly used Shadow Radar, and Luke stabbed him without a problem.
It was an illusion.
Ren could sense it.
There's a shadow back there where the oni used to be.
And for some reason, the shadow that came to him from the illusion was… off. Like it's some sort of fake shadow.
Dammit, this guy can sense my illusions, Luke thought to himself.
He sent a single illusion just to check and confirm it.
Well, this is annoying. Half my power may be gone, he thought.
He thought that, but he wasn't truly worried because he saw Ren's reaction. Like he was surprised for a second when he sent that illusion. He seemed surprised as well that he could sense them.
So it's probably a unique detection.
Luke's power name is False Oni.
It gives him the ability to create illusions and enhance his physical state after activating the transformation. His power is simple but it's really powerful.
Its strongest part is the illusions.
They are extremely realistic to begin with when he first manifests them, and then he trained his illusions and studied to make them even more realistic to the point that there are only three ways to see through them.
First: you need a detection ability that is extremely powerful more powerful than his illusion ability, or at least a good enough detection ability that was trained much more than his ability.
Second: straight-up danger detection abilities. His illusions will not trigger those abilities at all.
And third and finally is a unique way of detection.
Judging by his reaction earlier, it seems like it's not danger sense, and it's not an advanced detection ability.
It's a unique form of detection.
Luke got into a proper fighting stance.
"Well, it doesn't matter. It's only gonna make defeating you a little more annoying. Not to mention… kicking the ass of Kai's sidekick would feel satisfying," Luke said with a little malicious tone.
Ren also got back into a proper fighting stance.
Kai What does he have to do—
Then Ren remembered.
"Wait… you were with Astra," Ren said.
"Yes, I am. And the name is Luke."
And as soon as he said that, Luke immediately appeared right in front of Ren and swung his sword.
Ren immediately blocked.
It with his right arm that manifested Shadow Skeleton.
Clank.
It was the sound of steel hitting rock.
Luke immediately started swinging his sword multiple times, while Ren blocked it with his Shadow Skeleton arm switching between arms depending on the angle.
This is good, Ren thought. He isn't using his illusions. It would've been problematic if he tried to use them again.
Ren immediately created two shades from the side to attack Luke, but Luke immediately took a step back—then did a backflip, because another shade tried to attack him from behind.
"Your ability is tricky," Luke said. "It causes your opponent to keep an eye out for their surroundings in case the shades come from out of nowhere."
"But too bad my power enhances my awareness of my surroundings."
"And I think we will end this here… after all, there is one other person in the dome."