The Ascension Age

Altina had done a few stress tests on the Stellar Suit Arm back in the Ascension Age School. However, using it in real-life combat was another story. "The consumption of Stellar Energy becomes higher. However, it's not enough to dry you out too quickly. I believe I can battle for one minute or so all out while this arm is deployed," Altina said with an excited expression. "As for its strength, I definitely wouldn't be able to put down the alligator with a single punch as I just did. If my hunches are correct, I would say that my combat power, thanks to this arm, increased nearly three times."

Sera and Kymei immediately high-fived between themselves as Sera said with glee, "Hahaha! As expected of the real deal. Even though we used materials at the Stellar Bones Stage, it was still this powerful!"

Altina nodded as she replied, "I can't help but want to put on a complete Stellar Suit. Just how amazing would that be?!"

As Altina and the others discussed the Stellar Suit, Aire noticed something weird a hundred meters away from that. Sadly, it was somewhat hard to see since there were a few trees on the way. Nevertheless, he was sure that he saw some light coming from there.

Aire looked around and saw that nothing else came out after killing the alligator, so he went ahead to take a look. He didn't have to walk the entire 100 meters. Once he covered half the path, he finally saw its form clearly. "That's..." Aire immediately turned around as he called the others, shouting, "Guys! It's a Stellar Energy Bubble!"

Altina and the others immediately looked in his direction before looking at the place Aire pointed at. Sure enough, although it was harder for them to see, they had seen Stellar Energy Bubbles before. That being said, they could tell it was the real deal even if they were farther away than Aire.

Aire didn't waste time and immediately rushed over as Altina and the others followed right behind. However, Aire didn't even cover ten meters when out of nowhere, another shadow jumped at him, coming from behind a tree.

"Aire!" Altina and the others screamed just as the shadow was about to land a clean hit. Even Altina wouldn't be able to arrive there in time with her speed.

However, things played differently this time. Aire's body moved almost unconsciously. He raised his arm as a silver light came out of another bracelet device there. This wasn't the bracelet given for the mission. Instead, it was the one that kept the Stellar Suit Arm in an inactive state.

*Clang~!*

In the very next second, Aire's arm was covered by metal as the sound of metal hitting metal echoed.

"What?!"

It turned out that the one who attacked Aire was also a Riser student. His team just so happened to see the Stellar Bubble come out, so they prepared to land an ambush on Aire's team before collecting it. At the same time, they sent out one of their members to take the Bubble. Fortunately for them, the ambush was perfect. They were sure that Aire's group hadn't seen their movements. Unfortunately, Aire reacted far faster than the enemy thought. It was just too quick!

Following that, Aire jumped back, using the counterforce of the attack to move away from the enemy. That ended up being the right decision since the moment Aire retreated, two more Riser students landed their attacks, which were supposed to be the backup plan in case the first one failed.

However, the most shocked ones weren't the Risers they were fighting against. Instead, it was Aire's team, especially Aire himself. Aire felt like everything was pure deja-vu. Even though he failed to notice the enemy, his actions were precise and efficient, which frightened him. 'How did I do it? I couldn't even move when the alligator attacked me before,' Aire thought for a moment.

Stella then laughed in his mind as she responded, 'Hahaha! Don't underestimate yourself, Aire. I told you before that your body is many times better than before, including your brain. These guys just tried to ambush you. However, your brain has already experienced that feeling before. Naturally, you knew very well how to react even if you did it subconsciously. Trust me, committing the same mistake twice would become a very rare thing for you.'

Of course, all those words were exchanged in the mind world, so only a second passed in reality.

"Itol, that's a Stellar Suit!" The guy who first attacked Aire immediately identified the thing on Aire's Arm.

"What?" Itol, this group's leader, was taken aback before hastily commanding, "Retreat!"

Itol knew very well what a Stellar Suit meant, even if it was just a part. He had no intention of fighting against it with common weapons. However, how could Altina, someone in the First Stage of the Stellar Manipulation Level, let them leave like that?

Before Itol could take a single step back, she had already appeared right in front of him. Her arm shone with silver light, just like Aire's before a punch came in the direction of Itol's face. If it connected, Itol would definitely die!

However, Itol's bracelet shone with silver light as well as gel enveloped his entire body. As soon as Altina's punch landed, the gel was already deployed, absorbing the whole attack's energy and dissipating it. The members of Itol's team could only widen their eyes from this sight. If Aire was already fast, then Altina' was simply ridiculous! Fortunately, their leader was the first one to be attacked, which gave them enough time to turn around and flee.

Aire eventually got back to himself and tried to pursue them as well. However, he began to trip everywhere, showing his obvious lack of experience in situations like that.

Kymei and Sera were the last ones to arrive. They decided to follow Aire since they were certain that Altina could take care of herself.

As Stella mentioned, Aire wouldn't commit the same mistakes for long. At first, the enemy in front began to open distance from him, trying to move together with the guy who took the Stellar Bubble's Energy. However, not even ten seconds had passed as Aire's movements started to match the guy in front of him. Another ten seconds later, Aire was already moving faster than him, much to Sera and Kymei's delight!

"Go, go! You just need to stop him, Aire!" Kymei shouted from behind.

Sera agreed with Kymei, saying, "That's right. If you delay him, we can catch up."

Aire nodded and continued to increase his speed when out of nowhere, he fell on the swamp and lost consciousness.

Sera and Kymei almost vomited blood! Aire...had run out of Stellar Energy. He forgot to deactivate his Stellar Suit Arm, so it sucked him dry! Well, that made sense. Altina could only sustain it with her Stellar Energy Reserves for just a minute. Aire, who was still three stages away from her level, couldn't possibly get close to that.