The New Era Project 21 Spiritual Awareness

Feng Ye readjusts his condition and heads to his designated area.

DIINNNGG!

This time, Feng Ye doesn't immediately dash towards his opponent. His opponent looked rather relaxed which seemed quite odd.

The European male across from him immediately uses his ability in which two additional individuals appear besides him. These two individuals look exactly the same as the European male. The three of them rush towards Feng Ye.

As they rush forwards, Feng Ye a.n.a.lyzes in his mind. "Isn't that similar to a clone? He is ranked F though, so it should be limited. Perhaps, they are only projections utilized to disrupt the line of sight."

Feng Ye straightens up and braces in preparation for the exchange. He exhibits a Bruce Lee stance.

Initially, the European male was in the centre while the clones were to the left and right sides. However, while running he had decided to crosspaths with his clones making it difficult to discern the true one.

One of the three European figures strike. Feng Ye prepares to block it, but at the time of contact, he realizes that something is off. His Spiritual Awareness gives him the feeling that there is an individual with ill intentions behind him.

Immediately, Feng Ye chooses to trust his ability and completes an elbow strike behind him. The sound of impact occurs and Feng Ye notes that he had hit the main body. However, the opponent who had taken Feng Ye's elbow strike doesn't fall immediately and vanishes in thin air. A second after Feng Ye had made contact with the main body, he had felt a punch on his stomach.

The other two European males had immediately thrown a punch at Feng Ye after the first exchange.

Feng Ye suffers a hit, however, due to his attributes and Halo of Recovery, the pain only lasted for a moment. He immediately completes a roundhouse kick to the nearby European figure who had thrown the punch and he vanishes into thin air.

The two clones have vanished into thin air resulting in the main body of his opponent staring at him. His opponent is seen holding his stomach where Feng Ye had elbowed him.

"Not bad kid." He smirks and two individuals immediately appear next to him again. All three rush towards Feng Ye.

At this time, Feng Ye had some suspicions on the limitations and ability of his opponent. There was no time to ponder, thus Feng Ye immediately calms his mind and closes his eyes.

His opponent continues to rush and approach him thinking that Feng Ye had given up.

With his eyes closed, Feng Ye can clearly sense the ill intentions of his opponent through Spiritual Awareness. He is surprised to find that the ill intentions of his opponent are concentrated completely on one of the three bodies of his opponent. Malicious intention appears in his mind as though it is a beacon of light. It is extremely obvious. He immediately identifies that as the main body, while the other two have some ill intentions but they are merely a blur.

He decides to wait until his opponent is closer as he could see the main body of his opponent unexpectedly being able to completely swap places with his blurred clones. At any time, they are able to exchange places which explains his earlier exchange. This is a very tricky and deceptive opponent.

Thus, he decides to wait and concentrate all his strength into a single blow that will render the main body of his opponent unable to continue. At this time, his opponent had arrived and had thrown their punches out. Feng Ye ignores the attack from the two blurred figures in his mind and makes a small weight s.h.i.+ft to his right side. As soon as the main body's fist is about to hit, Feng Ye completes an uppercut with his right fist. His fist lands perfectly on his opponent's chin.

BANG!!

Upon impact, his opponent is sent flying upwards and lands a few metres away after soaring through the air in a parabola trajectory. The two blurred clones on the left and right side of Feng Ye immediately disappear.

The staff members who are observing are somewhat surprised at how Feng Ye was able to deal with it and were even more surprised when he had closed his eyes.

s.h.i.+ra's voice resounds in his mind. "You have gained another 20 EP (Energy Points). So, total 40 EP to be allocated."

Seeing the result, a the staff member announces, "Victory to the Challenged Party." The European male is unconscious and carried away out. The staff member approaches Feng Ye and inquires, "Do you want to continue?"

"I would like a quick water break for 2 minutes." He replies to the staff member who inquiries.

"Okay. While you rest, we will bring the next opponent in." The staff member replies as he starts heading out.

Feng Ye is provided with a bottled water from a nearby staff member and sits on the floor of the arena. He uses this time to rehydrate as he had started to break out a sweat. By now, his injury from the first exchange with European male has recovered. He uses this moment to a.n.a.lyze his recent match.

Without Spiritual Awareness, Feng Ye probably would have lost. This opponent was able to create two projections of himself which looked essentially identical to the main body. However, that wasn't the most annoying part. It was his ability to s.h.i.+ft his main body and essentially swap positions with his projection. It is unknown why he is ranked F as an esper, however, there probably were some limitations in the number of times he could do so. As his opponent had taken an elbow strike, that may have also limited the opponent. The main ability of his opponent is essentially disrupting the line of sight. Thus, Feng Ye ponders why his opponent was given the evaluation of F.

Through deception, one could be fooled. However, this probably wouldn't work for higher ranked Espers who can easy see through his projections, thus making the only benefit is being able to swap places with the projections. In a sense, it is similar to Akimichi's ability but limited to two other clones. There is probably also a time limit and distance limit on how effective each was. After reasoning it out in his mind, Feng Ye then is convinced that even rank F espers could be formidable if they could work around their limitations.

This match made Feng Ye really take a step back and realize the true prowess of his Spiritual Awareness ability. He didn't know that Spiritual Awareness was also able to allow him to sense ill intentions and visualize it. It wasn't explained in his attribute panel. This made him realize that esper abilities are truly out of the system's control. s.h.i.+ra won't be able to determine the potential and development paths that his ability could take. She could only speculate on the basics. Spiritual Awareness also can be developed to become more useful. He will need to take some time to investigate how to grow this ability and determine what his other unknown ability is.

He stands up and walks to his indicated position to prepare for the next match.

At this time, the staff member leads the next individual member of the group. The third member of the five arrives. This member is also male. He is dressed in a red hoodie and is darker skinned than the previous two members. He snorts when he sees Feng Ye and heads toward his indicated position.

As the staff in charge notices that both partic.i.p.ants are ready, they immediately begin the match.

DIINNNGG!

The red hoodie opponent immediately uses his ability.

WHOOOs.h.!.+

Feng Ye sees his opponent cross the distance between them in a mere few seconds. His opponent throws out a punch.

Feng Ye immediately is. .h.i.t by his opponent's punch and sent flying a few metres backwards. As soon as the punch makes contact, the opponent stops and waits.

Feng Ye, after being hit, is quite sore and depressed. "Dafuq, this ability. So quick and violent…"

He immediately gets up and braces himself for another attack while observing his opponent. "Something doesn't suit." His opponent is seen standing across from him but isn't attacking as though he is recovering from backlash.

Immediately, Feng Ye rushes towards his opponent. His opponent continues to focus on recovering from the backlash. Feng Ye is enlightened. So, his opponent can use increased agility and essentially can burst him. However, it comes at a cost. There is a cooldown in which his opponent will suffer some backlash and be unable to move immediately. The only issue is how long this backlash/cooldown lasts. As Feng Ye nears, he throws a right hook at his opponent. Unfortunately, at this time, it seemed that his opponent had recovered.

With a quick burst of speed, his opponent was able to dodge Feng Ye's attack and counter with a front kick.

Unfortunately for him, Feng Ye was also prepared as he was unsure of the cooldown time. Thus, his hook was actually a feint and wasn't meant to make contact.

His opponent dodged the feint and used his ability. As it was a feint, Feng Ye was able to pull back and avoid the kick that his opponent had sent out and retreats a metre backwards.

He was also counting in his head ever since he had started das.h.i.+ng towards his opponent. At this time, his opponent's body becomes stiff and stationary again with an unwilling expression on his face. He was suffering backlash.

Feng Ye looks at his opponent. "You lost. Cooldown time of 10 seconds... Admit defeat and I won't finish you off with a final blow."

"I admit defeat…" His opponent sighs as he also knows of the huge limitation on his ability.

"Victory to the Challenged Party." The statement deciding the outcome of the match is heard.

s.h.i.+ra's voice resounds in his mind. "You have gained another 20 EP (Energy Points). So, total 60 EP to be allocated."

At this time, the opponent's cooldown and backlash is over. He looks at Feng Ye in the eyes and comments. "You are pretty good kid."

He follows a staff member who guides him back to the waiting room.

The staff member who announced the outcome inquires if Feng Ye needed a break again. At this time Feng Ye declines. Although he had been hit, this match didn't require as much effort. He just had to outwit his opponent by making them use their ability immediately.

He sighs. These rank F espers aren't actually bad. If they could learn to maximize and work around their limitations, they could possibly promote to rank E. He still has two more opponents. Another rank F and a rank E are awaiting him next.

The staff member nods and leads the fourth member of the group in.