Reborn as an Extra Chapter 677: Princess of a Dying Nation. Part-2.

What if a speedster capable of striking before any prediction catches up clashed with someone who foresees every single attack before it even begins?

Rio was witnessing exactly that spectacle unfolding right before his eyes.

Perched atop a modest hill distant from the primary dueling arena, Rio experienced profound shock at the scene playing out.

"If it was the me from before reaching rank S... this version of Lia could have easily defeated me... she’s strong..."

Given his present power level, not even early SS-rankers could handle him with ease, much less Lia, yet the less powerful him from roughly a year back would surely have fallen to her.

Rio wasn’t belittling Lia at all; managing to match him to this degree was already a staggering accomplishment for her.

Any comparison between Lia and Rio needs to account for her innate talent starting at just rank S!

In contrast to Rio, who seized the protagonist’s opportunities and benefited from prior knowledge of the full plot, Lia had broken her boundaries purely through relentless personal effort!

Without that ’limitless’ talent, Rio might never have attained his existing power even after decades! Yet Lia would almost certainly have hit rank S regardless of circumstances.

No matter the situation, she was someone who always toiled tirelessly.

"To think she can now interfere with the strings of destiny... this is almost on par with a fully fledged ’Legendary Skill’!"

Indeed! Rio deemed Lia’s ability extraordinarily potent not merely for its predictive nature; she could now actively alter the course of future events herself!!

Right as her confrontation with Ivy kicked off, Lia’s outrageous power sprang into action without delay!

Though Ivy appeared frail and plagued by decay, she held no weakness whatsoever; the instant the duel commenced, she charged at Lia with her shattered spear, moving at velocities nearly matching Rio’s from his initial S-rank phase!

Within the blink of an eye, Ivy unleashed a barrage of a thousand stabbing thrusts toward Lia, each assaulting from a unique direction!

Ivy seemed to sprout a thousand arms, piercing toward Lia from every conceivable angle simultaneously!

Her velocity was utterly overwhelming!

That single onslaught possessed such devastating force that it would have gravely wounded the pre-rank S version of Lia on the very first hit!

However, circumstances had shifted dramatically this time; Lia had evolved, surpassing her former self across nearly every metric.

Now a true S-ranker, her command over foresight proved so dominantly superior that predicting this onslaught came far more effortlessly than before!

Lia scarcely needed to twitch a finger; she subtly altered the strings of destiny linking Ivy, enacting a ’temporary’ modification.

These strings of destiny bind an individual to the ’world’; tampering with them allows one to reshape that person’s fundamental reality!

Lia adjusted Ivy’s strings of destiny, ensuring the ’technique’ meant for attacking her had never been acquired by Ivy to begin with!

Though temporary in nature—since the strings would soon detect the meddling and revert to their prior state—it demanded considerable time to do so!

In the interim, Ivy would completely erase any recollection of ever possessing that technique!

"Wha!?"

Mid-strike, Ivy’s memory of the assault skill vanished, leaving her clueless about her next move and shattering her forward drive.

Seizing this opening from Ivy’s faltering momentum, Lia swung her blade and plunged it directly into Ivy’s tainted eye!

A single strike demolished half of Ivy’s face, hurling her hundreds of meters back from the raw force of the blow!

Lia hadn’t employed any special technique there; merely an ordinary thrust!

"The feeling of having a legendary skill must really be unique... Sigh, if only I had it too..."

Lia showed no astonishment at her tremendous power surge, yet she regretted lacking a true legendary skill.

Her legendary talent served as a diluted form of a legendary skill, yet its potency alone elevated Lia to rival Rio and the rest of team Astra’s members, all bearers of legendary skills!

Experiencing this talent firsthand revealed to Lia the enormous edge a legendary skill grants its wielder.

S-rankers wielding legendary skills operate in an entirely superior tier to those without.

While Lia’s destiny manipulation won’t affect SS-rankers yet or Rio himself, against all others, it’s an absolute terror!

No assault escapes her sight, and even pre-planned countermeasures get foreseen thanks to her extraordinarily potent premonition!

Her 'Intuition' has grown ten times stronger than Rio's own! Defeating her through speed or surprise attacks alone is utterly impossible now.

"This is the most ridiculous power I've ever witnessed in my entire life..."

Rio's eyes widened in utter shock as he observed Lia altering the strings of destiny.

"Until now... I believed manipulating strings of destiny couldn't happen until reaching peak rank SS or possessing some related authority..."

"But... this feels entirely different..."

Lia has shown it's possible to achieve this even at rank S!

"Err... I believe this is one of those rare abilities even I can't replicate..."

To wield the strings of destiny like Lia does, Rio would require her exact legendary talent or some other unique method.

"Now... she can dominate nearly all S-rank fights on her own, without needing Kai's assistance..."

Rio's heart swelled with genuine joy for Lia; her relentless efforts had finally yielded results!