Hamar's metal rod 'sword' pierced the man's shoulder. Blood splurged out of the wound but, too, the man's muscles contracted and pulled Hamar's weapon from his grip.
He launched back with an intense burst of blue light. Hamar was flung into a nearby wall. He looked beside him and saw a man who was crawling on the floor.
He had cybernetic legs but only crawled with his feet and his face showed genuine terror. Hamar looked back to his energy who had pulled out Hamar's 'sword' and now had blue veins being from his muscles.
Hamar didn't know for sure, but his experience told him that this was not a good sign. His enemy would likely jumps straight for him, only corroborated by a scan of the mana wavelengths coming of the man.
He looked to his side, at the pitiful figure trying to crawl to safety. Hamar couldn't ignore him, this meant he needed to block this attack.
He had just used the mana circuit and could not teleport. He looked around for something, anything to block this coming attack.
His eye locked onto a set of two items. He closed his eyes for a moment before deciding surviving was more important.
He scrambled upwards to the crawling man and ripped off his legs. As he held the two metal legs a popup appeared in his vision, "TWO WORKING CYBERNETICS DETECTED, REGISTER?"
he turned his head behind himself, "Working? You could have ran?!" He shook his head but looked back towards the man he was fighting.
For the last twenty seconds he had been breathing roughly, and the glowing blue veins had been enlarging. Finally it reached an apex and the ground below him shattered, he shot into the air towards Hamar.
"Let's hope these are sturdy enough!" He held the two cybernetics in front of him and closed his eyes. He braced for impact and waited.
The man shot forward with immense strength and slashed through the cybernetic legs but at the last juncture, the legs held on and Hamar could redirect his force.
Hamar looked behind, as he saw the man redirected directly into a wall. He shot at a speed that Hamar could not even fully see. He collided with the wall and his head split open, coating the wall red.
Hamar flicked and looked away, "I guess I did it..."
He looked down at the man holding tight on his legs, crying incomprehensible mumblings.
"I'll repay you for the legs, sorry." He held the cybernetics legs, holding together by the smallest of strips of metal.
Troy walks over, "Don't mind. He can't use them anyway. It's phantom lost legs. He abused virtual reality experiences and now his mind can't distinguish that that virtual reality of having no legs is not real life. Trapped by his own mind..."
Hamar looked down with a sense of pity, "Well I'd still like to help him somehow..."
Troy put his hand on Hamar's shoulder, "Then give him some credits, I just sent you some." He threw his thumb back, pointing to a pile of bodies, "Those had some bounties, I got a pretty penny for them."
Hamar nodded, "Thanks," he knelt to the man he couldn't understand and held the man's hands, while pulling them off his ankles.
"[Transfer all credits]" he said in his mind.
He stood up and looked to the sky, "Trapped by his own mind huh?" Again he felt a pain overcome him.
His head tingled and he saw the world turn black. As he jolted awake, he opened his eyes to see a massive ocean.
He floated within the ocean and began sinking. Water entered his lungs, he coughed them ups Nd looked up; he was now in a desert.
The sun blared down and Hamar saw he was now in an endless void. His mind hurt as he tried to comprehend what was happening.
He saw that doorway again. This time, he didn't have any distractions. He floated through the endless void and to the doorway made of instructions.
He looked at the flowing text and then dimly moved his hand out to grasp it. He held the written instructions and understood them. Not only that he closed his eyes and breathed in.
When he opened his eyes again, he floated around the sky. The market had transformed into words. Troy, the disabled man, the walls, the crowds, it all turned to mere words.
Hamar floated above it all and he held out his hand, stroking each strong of words as if a stronger instrument. He let go and saw them vibrate with a certain frequency.
"I understand." He shed his skin as a resident of this world and regained his appearance. His glowing robe appeared out of nowhere.
Too, his Sword Soul formed. His aura flowed endlessly. He slashed a hole into the space, "It's not that I couldn't access my aura here. It was my own thoughts that were restricting me. How can the world stop me, I am my own world. I make the rules that I follow!"
He instantly teleported to the subway going from the map in his head. The initial 'doorway' he had grasped was the teleportation mana circuit.
He now grasped the inner workings of that technique and translated it into his aura. He could now used it to teleport any distance but the drawbacks were the same.
If it would have taken him an hour to get to point A; then teleporting to point A would mean that his teleportation cool down would be an hour.
He saw the subway and looked at the wall, "Now let's see if I can't meet with the Elder and arrange somewhere for me to recover my aura...and determine he isn't someone related to Yi Sect."
***
At the same time, back where Hamar was before his awakening, Araxis stood confidently. He chuckled, "It worked. I took a little help from myself, but he figured it out in the end. But his aura is still too little."
He looked behind and opened up a door he had created, entering a new room. He spoke confidently, "Elder? I presume you understand who I am? I have some knowledge I want you to pass on..."