Just as she was about to fall into absolute despair, Aria shook her head and stopped herself.

"He's strong, yes, but I should be confident in myself too… I shouldn't just let my ass get handed to him like that without fighting back."

Her fists clenched, her knuckles turning pale. The air trembled faintly as she drew in mana and forced her mind to focus.

"Gravity Dome."

In an instant, an invisible field of crushing force expanded around her, dense, heavy, almost suffocating. The air warped faintly as if space itself refused to exist properly within it. Any external force that tried to reach her would be countered with an equal and opposite pull. Still, she knew the limit. Her control over this level of compression was far from perfect. But it didn't matter. Not now.

She pointed her hand toward Bruce.

"Gravity Beams!"

PEW! PEW! PEW!

The air screamed. Invisible projectiles of pure gravitational distortion ripped through the atmosphere, leaving sharp concussive booms in their wake. The sound was enough to make the air quiver, but there was no light, no visible trail, only faint distortions and the deadly hum of reality bending.

Bruce's eyes widened.

He couldn't see a damn thing.

But the moment they fired, something primal in his body screamed danger. His heart skipped. His skin prickled. His instincts flared.

Then he thought of something and smiled.

'I really have to thank you Aria. You just gave me inspiration for an interesting ability that'll be an interesting addition to my arsenal.'

'Heal: Neural Amplification!'

A faint glow spread across his body, subtle, barely visible, like golden dust seeping into every vein. But this wasn't the usual healing light meant for wounds. This was different.

He was healing his cells. His entire nervous system. Rejuvenating every micro-fractured neuron, cleansing the fatigue, accelerating the communication speed between his sensory receptors and brain. His eyes dilated slightly, his pupils expanding as his nerves began transmitting signals several times faster than before. Every hair on his skin became a sensory antenna. Every cell vibrated with heightened awareness.

He didn't just see anymore, he felt the distortions of gravity cutting through the air. He sensed the ripples of pressure before they struck.

And with a faint smirk, Bruce moved.

Not with sight, but with instinct sharpened to a supernatural level.

'It's not like Goku's ultra instinct but it's close...' he sighed as he weaved, twisted, and shifted his center of gravity by fractions of an inch, every motion fluid and perfectly timed. Invisible beams sliced past him, missing by hairbreadths, their shockwaves ruffling his hair and clothes.

To anyone watching, it looked like he was dancing through death itself.

He didn't know where they came from, he simply reacted faster than logic could follow, his body guided by the signals of trillions of enhanced cells screaming at once.

In that moment, Bruce didn't look human. He looked like something else entirely.

Aria's breath hitched as she watched him, dodging every single invisible beam as if they were nothing more than falling leaves in the wind. Her teeth clenched hard enough to hurt as that faint, crawling dread inside her chest began to grow sharper, heavier.

"It's useless…" she hissed under her breath, raising her other hand.

"Gravity Beams!"

The air cracked again, louder this time.

PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW!

Dozens of invisible gravitational lances shot toward him, faster and denser than before, tearing through the atmosphere with a frightening, high-pitched hum. The ground beneath her feet fractured from the sheer recoil of her attacks, dust and small stones rising as if drawn up by an unseen current.

But Bruce,Bruce only moved faster.

His body flowed through the barrage with inhuman precision, every step measured, every lean perfectly calculated. He ducked, sidestepped, twisted, bent, and weaved, slipping through each gravity beam with movements so clean it almost looked effortless.

To Aria, it was maddening.

'Damn this guy…' she cursed inwardly, her earlier fear melting away, replaced by something hotter, rage. Pure, burning rage. She wanted him dead. She wanted that calm, mocking expression wiped from his face forever.

But deep down, she knew the truth.

With that level of power, he could easily have tanked her attacks head-on. The only reason he was dodging was because he wanted to. Because he was toying with her.

That realization hit like a knife to the gut.

Her chest tightened. Her throat burned. For a second, it felt like all her pride as an Awakened was being trampled on.

But then,

She closed her eyes, forcing a slow, steady breath.

'I shouldn't be mad at him for being so strong… or for toying with me like this.' Her eyes snapped open, burning with renewed focus. 'I should be mad at myself… for being too weak to do anything about it.'

Her expression hardened.

She retreated, step by step, her boots skidding across the cracked ground as she continued to fire beam after beam in calculated rhythm. Each shot was precise, covering her withdrawal path.

Bruce followed her movements quietly, his gaze calm, a faint approving smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

He had to give it to her, she was smart. Tactical. And above all, determined.

At that moment, Bruce's sharp gaze caught the subtle shift in her lips. She muttered coldly under her breath, voice low but laced with intent.

"Gravity Boulders…"

The air above them rippled. Then,

Whoooosh, whoooosh, whoooosh!

A chorus of heavy, distorted gusts roared through the sky. It was a sound that didn't quite belong to the world, like something massive was being dragged through an unseen dimension.

Bruce looked up instinctively. Nothing.

Not a shadow. Not a shimmer. Just the faint hum of warped space.

He sighed lightly. "Invisible boulders made of compressed gravity, huh?" he muttered, his tone more amused than worried.

Meanwhile, Aria had stopped firing her gravity beams entirely. The ground cracked beneath her as she turned sharply and sprinted away with everything she had left!

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