CHAPTER 114: OZONE BLADE

Ozone Blade

Gales Sky Domain, as Osho decided to call it, was a passive ability that stemmed from his bloodline.

As explained before, its base effects were quite simple. The domain acted as Gale’s personal ’Sky’ that followed him everywhere. It was common knowledge that being in an environment filled with the Mana Affinity you possessed was beneficial as it increased Mana regeneration speed while reducing the cost needed for magic and increased the efficiency of each magic-based move. Making them better overall.

Not to mention, Sky Magic was a bit unique in the sense that the level of magic one could perform with the Affinity depended greatly on how close they were to the sky. The Mana cost spiked the farther away one was from the sky, and the inverse was the case when they were closer, moreover, they could do a lot more things.

Osho couldn’t manipulate the sky like a fabric with his current Mana capacity unless he was in the sky, or was near Gale to use the domain, which was a good example of this phenomenon.

With this Domain, Gale was effectively always in an advantageous position as he never needed to worry about being in a place that was too far away from the sky or lacked sky Affinity Mana.

But those were only the passive effects.

Taking it a step further, one needs to remember what the sky was.

The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, the sky is also called the celestial sphere.

The sky is also where numerous weather phenomena can be observed, and contains various layers and zones the higher one goes.

After Mana appeared, though, these changes became far more significant, and the sky was often considered to be an entire world of its own where people couldn’t traverse freely.

Why is this important? Well, think about it. Gale’s sky domain is quite literally a personal sky bound to him which he could control freely with next to no energy cost at all.

Meaning that Gale could create his own weather within this domain, control the atmospheric layers within this domain, as well as a variety of other things. He could do all of this freely within this domain.

So with some imagination and drive, Gale could do some pretty interesting things.

As soon as Osho gave the order, Gale slowed down his flying before simply hovering in the air some distance away from the battered Alligator that was slowly rising to its feet.

Gale looked down at the Beast with an impassive look as he stretched one of his wings to its full length.

As soon as he did, energy suddenly began to gather around the wing, specifically the edge, and everyone watched as the edge of the appendage began to shimmer faintly, similar to how the horizon looked during a heatwave.

A high-pitched hum filled the air.

Light bent around the wing as the Sky Affinity Mana started to reach a boiling point. Sky Affinity Mana that was refined to an incredible degree, compressing the atmosphere along the edge of his wings until the oxygen molecules began to tear apart.

Ionization.

In layman’s terms, Gale was essentially ripping the electrons from the air itself. Every molecule touched by the edge of his wings became supercharged and unstable, becoming a volatile brew of positive ions and free electrons. The natural oxygen in the air (O₂) was ripped apart under the strain, its atoms smashed together unnaturally.

As a result, Ozone began to form rapidly O₃ molecules sparking to life in thin layers. Each one unstable and insanely sharp. His wing, which was already incredibly sharp when he wanted it to be, now shimmered with an invisible blade made of charged air and volatile lightning. Energy hummed as the blade was formed, the scent of Ozone filling the field.

The Alligator roared and tried to retaliate as it felt an immense level of danger from the charging attack, water, and roots moving forward to try and stop it from being unleashed.

Before they could reach, though, Gale raised his wing, the humming reaching a crescendo, and slashed down.

There was a flash, and it seemed like time froze for a moment. The spectators held their breaths as they saw the Alligator go still for a moment, then a line appeared from its head to its tail, and everyone watched in amazement as its entire body was bisected in two down the middle.

Blood spurted from the corpse, and everyone was silent for a moment before a powerful wave of cheers erupted.

"He really did it..." Mira muttered to herself, genuinely stunned for a moment, but she quickly regained her composure and said with a wide grin.

"Well, it seems like the Bright Spark Academy getting angry at the seeding was more than a bit justified. Looking back now, placing Osho as the rank 34 Seed was simply criminal!" She laughed and pointed at the leaderboard.

"And that leaderboard reflects it perfectly."

1. Osho – 725 pts

Bright Spark Academy | Seed #34

2. Ellie Trost – 405 pts

Bright Spark Academy | Seed #2

3. Han Jiwon – 345 pts

Vermillion Academy | Seed #1

4. Ren Yamada – 324 pts

Vermillion Academy | Seed #3

5. Clive Malloran – 303 pts

Obsidian Tamer Hall | Seed #4

6. Tarek Sulaiman – 218 pts

Northwind School of Beasts | Seed #6

7. Sam Dako – 211 pts

Bright Spark Academy | Seed #16

8. Nari Hwa – 199 pts

Vermillion Academy | Seed #7

9. Sasha Irwim – 186 pts

Vermillion Academy | Seed #5

10. Kurt Voss – 160 pts

Bright Spark Academy | Seed #28

Coupled with the various kills Gale had gotten from the rest of the congregation, Osho had taken the lead by a huge gap all of a sudden, and the previously exalted Han Jiwon seemed to be lacking a bit.

"That attack... how did he pull it off?" Within the VIP room, the VIPs were silent as they had been taken by surprise when Gale unleashed that final attack.

The person who had asked the question, Fredrick, was genuinely shocked by what he had seen. He had not expected to see such attack potency by a student today, and judging by the expression of the other people, it seemed like they hadn’t either. Except for a few, that is.

Lady Haggai hummed as she added more notes to her tablet before continuing.

"The bird ionized the oxygen in his immediate surroundings to create supercharged Ozone. Such an attack isn’t sharp in the conventional sense, but quite literally causes the atoms of whatever it hits to destabilize. Which is why the Alligator which had been resisting the attacks from it previously was sliced in half like a knife through butter. Its durability barely mattered just then." Lady Haggai explained quite calmly as she mused.

’Interesting, so that local domain he possesses can be used in such a way. Quite the ingenious way to use it. I’d assumed that the bird didn’t have that much control over it, but I appear to have been sorely mistaken. It is quite literally a sky that passively follows him everywhere, one he can use and control on a whim to perform attacks like the one he just did, and judging by how lively he is, it’s clear that the cost is negligible despite the potency of such an attack. Fascinating indeed.’ She hummed before continuing her note-taking.

’Which should make what’s about to happen quite interesting.’

***

Osho cradled Gale in his arms as the bird looked up at him happily.

’That was cool!’ He exclaimed through their bond and Osho smiled.

’I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure you could pull it off on the first try.’ Osho chuckled before sighing. Now that Gale had done what he did, he suddenly had the urge to have the bird test out all the different move ideas he had in mind and see how effective they would be.

He looked at where the corpse of the Alligator lay after Gale used the Ozone Blade. The Alligator wasn’t the only thing that had been sliced in half as the ground, trees, and several rocks behind it had also been sliced apart from the attack that was far more potent than Osho thought it’d be.

Just from this move alone, Osho began thinking about many potential uses for it as well as ways to modify it.

Just as he was thinking, though, he suddenly felt Gale go alert through their bond, and his eyes narrowed. He also noticed Clyde who had been at the sound begin growling.

The others had just finished their tasks had all come to meet him. All of them except Kurt.

Osho felt them enter his Mana sense before he saw them.

With narrowed eyes, he turned to face a large group of Vermillion Academy students emerging from the shrubbery. Han Jiwon led them, and with them was Kurt who had been tied up with what looked like silk and was being dragged along.

"I must say, excellent performance. You did a lot better than I’d expected, for a mongrel." Han Jiwon said darkly.