The screams and yells got louder, but it had nothing to do with him getting closer to the second floor. Whatever Ellie was doing, she was highly effective at it.“Obscure.”Miles made himself undetectable again, right before he stepped past the stairway.“I bet this hurts, doesn’t it?” Ellie said, pausing her attacks. “I bet you think I’m being cruel. But imagine someone half your size doing the same. Oh, wait. I am basically half your size.” She shook her head before resuming her stress-relieving swings. “So you know exactly how I feel! Share my suffering!”“Just knock me out!”“No more! I give up!”He didn’t look away as Ellie proceeded with her cathartic release, always choosing spots that caused pain rather than lasting damage. Ellie vented on a man and a woman who remained conscious after she knocked out four others.Given her past complaints about a person named Lydia, Miles assumed Ellie was referring to her while looking a little too manic. He would be more concerned about Ellie’s state of mind if not for the control she kept over her actions. It took actual skill and purpose to target non-debilitating spots repeatedly. He paid more attention to how she used her mana when external use wasn’t possible.Miles had already noticed Ellie had a slight talent for using mana in its raw form when she tracked the vendor to this building. There was a spell for what she did, but it was one that a novice—or rather, a T1 mage like Ellie—wouldn’t be able to use. Mages at that level rarely understood such sigils, which were too complicated.However, raw mana had no such limits. As long as the mage used it correctly and within their limits, it could be done. Of course, that ignored the downsides, such as immediate mana exhaustion that could lead to a coma or, in not-so-uncommon cases, withering to the end of their life within seconds.Miles hadn’t expected Ellie to be instinctively proficient at a form of (...)