Reborn as an Extra

Chapter 585: It’s my ’Path’! Rio Vs Raika. Part-1.

Projections are usually very rare, and only a few rare talents have the ability to give someone the power to create such realistic projections of a person.

Rio did manage to figure out that Raika was likely a projection of someone created solely for the purpose of contacting Rio, travelling in the spirit realm, and messing with him.

But Rio could not understand who would waste so much of their energy to mess with him for no apparent reason.

Raika was so realistic that Rio couldn’t notice that he was not a real living creature until Rio carried out several dozen tests and experiments on him and landed a few attacks too.

’When I slashed him... I didn’t feel the sensation of cutting anything at all; it was like I was slashing in empty air...’

Soul-type attacks, fire attacks, and thunder attacks. Etc. Rio tried everything, and nearly all of them were useless against Raika; after all, he was just a projection of someone.

He was not even real!

’The person who created such a realistic projection knew a lot about me in great details... and they also knew that I was going to enter the spirit realm beforehand...’

Travelling in the spirit realm is bound to be very dangerous; even demons do not like this place and don’t prefer to settle inside the spirit realm because the influence of the Sea of Miasma here is very strong.

Even demons do not like being turned into mindless puppets of the sea of miasma, let alone anyone else.

Thus, the person who made Raika chose him for the mission because they knew that entering the spirit realm would be dangerous for themselves, but they could surely send their projection inside.

A projection does not need to worry about getting corrupted.

As long as you manage to break your connection with it on time, no corruption and miasmic damage will ever reach you back from the projection.

The best way to destroy a projection is by cutting off the mental connection between it and its user.

But even that method is very difficult to achieve.

People with abilities capable of breaking mental connections and capable of doing mental interferences are already very rare, and if the projection is made by a very strong being, it’s near impossible to deal with it.

Even if you somehow manage to cut the connection off, the other party can just create a new projection out of nowhere right away!

’But I don’t think I read anything about any powerful being in the original novel having such kind of power...’

Usually only a select few powerful beings can create such powerful projections of their own, and for that projection to interact with the world like a real person similar to Raika, it involves a very complex and vast number of skills.

Even Rio, who’s able to control all elements, can’t create his own realistic projection.

At most he can only create a hologram-like projection using light elementals and sword intent at most.

He can’t make it as realistic as Raika!

’I guess this is the reason why they say that it’s not a wise idea to measure the strength of an SS-ranker from their raw strength...’

’Many of them have bizarre world authorities that can help them do various bizarre things...’

Rio was sure that the person who made Raika was likely a peak SS-ranker at the very least; otherwise, they couldn’t have made a projection that is capable of using power output similar to a peak S-ranker.

Raika’s power output is much stronger than ordinary peak S-rankers, and he’s able to easily bypass Rio’s defenses for some reason too.

’No... he’s using some kind of ’world authority’ to bypass my defences...’

Rio’s shadow robe is now a legendary artifact; it’s impossible to just bypass its defenses easily unless someone uses legendary skills that have been mastered to 90% or more proficiency.

’Even World authorities that are too low in level will not work... this is someone who’s got a high-level world authority...’

World Authorities that manage to reach Level 5 or above become capable of ignoring or suppressing the effects of even legendary-rank items.

’Thankfully, my shadow robe got upgraded or perhaps I would have receive more damaged from the previous direct attack...’

’I need to avoid getting hit directly, otherwise... I will lose today...’

Rio hasn’t fought anyone’s projection before, and Raika was created exactly in such a way that he can counter Rio perfectly.

[Echo of Paradise: Cosmic Symphony: Echo of Gravitational Pulse!]

While Rio took a few milliseconds to think about the various things in his head, Raika continued his next attack without a single hesitation!

He raised the floating Lyre around him higher and slammed Rio with an insanely powerful Gravitational Pulse attack!

The space-time fabric of the spirit realm was already very fragile, and after being twisted and bent forcefully, gigantic spatial cracks opened in the area as everything in them was erased into nothingness.

A powerful gravitational pulse slammed Rio into the ground, and he was unable to dodge it, as it was travelling faster than even light by using the space-time fabric as a medium!

[Sword Intent: Maximum Output!]

[Sword Sage’s Enlightenment: Cosmic Manipulation: Cosmic Repair!]

Rio already had an ability to close spatial cracks and stop the collapse of the space-time fabric using ’Spatial Suture,’ but that ability was more focused on single targets or small areas.

But seeing the scale of Raika’s massive spatial attack, Rio had no choice but to instantly create a new skill by increasing the range of his spatial suture to protect himself from getting erased due to spatial collapse around him!

Rio used massive amounts of his own mana and used sword intent at maximum output before manipulating space-time elementals to repair and suture the spatial cracks in the entire area around him.

’Phew~ The very next moment, Rio flew towards Raika at an insane speed.

While holding his sword in one hand, Rio brought out a spatial anchor with the other and activated it with his own miasma before making it float around him using telekinesis.

Spatial anchors are devices that excel at stabilizing the space-time fabric and suppressing the space-time-related skill usages.

Usually, Rio has no need for it because his sword intent and other abilities are enough to deal with all external spatial fluctuations, but today was different.

Raika was unpredictable and had an insane number of skills; moreover, Rio had a limited amount of mana, and he couldn’t use miasma, or he would lose the intuition he barely managed to regain.

The loss of intuition would then work in Raika’s favor, and his attacks will land on Rio much more easily.

’Thankfully I carry all kind of equipment with me just in case...’

Rio is the type of person who’s always overprepared for everything.

Even if it is a vacation, Rio always has all his equipment and necessary items packed neatly in his space ring.

His space ring is not only for storing clothes and emergency rations; it also stores various kinds of potions and various kinds of artifacts that he has bought or acquired during his time as a criminal hunter.

While hunting criminals all over the nation, Rio learned that it is better to always be ready for every kind of situation.

And thus, obviously, Rio has a spare spatial anchor, which he bought after he saw its importance when Raji and he ambushed the hidden smuggling organization located near the orc nation’s borders.

Although the space anchor floating around him won’t help him in attacks and will also hinder his own space-related skills, Rio knew it was more important to suppress Raika’s usage of skills at the moment.

The fewer types of skills Raika can use, the easier it will be to predict his next attacks and dodge them.

’I can kind of understand now how other’s feel when fighting me...’

Just like how Raika was using various bizarre skills, Rio has been doing the same for years now.

Link, Liam, Lia, and the others who have fought him all knew how bizarre and unpredictable Rio was.

He had an endless arsenal of skills, and once you showed him a skill of your own, he could easily copy it and add it to his inventory as if he were mocking your efforts and training.

’The last time I had to fight someone who could use various types of skill was back in the prototype version of the ascension spire in the dragon valley...’

’But even back then, I was just fighting a weak version of myself and it was easy to predict, as it was behaving similar to me... but this guy is different...’

’He’s giving me the taste of my own medicine... ugh...’

While Rio was sighing to himself, Raika threw hundreds of thousands of bolts of thunder at him, but Rio summoned metal rods to redirect the thunder and fired it back at Raika.

Raika just disappeared from existence to avoid the thunder rods and then reappeared beside Rio to fight him head-on.

*BOOOOM!* *BOOOOM!* *BOOOOM!!*

In just a matter of a few milliseconds, Rio and Raika exchanged more than a hundred thousand blows and destroyed the entire miasma-filled landscape!

All the monsters that were nearby were blown to bits or were erased from existence due to Rio and Raika’s attacks colliding and creating powerful shockwaves that spread in all directions.

Rio could even sense some powerful monsters getting attracted by their loud commotion and rushing over to join in the fun, but Raika didn’t seem to care at all.

He even grabbed a massive mutated snake by its tail and tried to use it like a whip to hit Rio, only for it to get blown apart from inside out due to Rio’s attacks!