“Are you sure about this?” Daniel asked for the umpteenth time.
“Do you really want to fight each other before our next mission? I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Fabienne added, clutching her robe in discomfort.
Scott and I glanced at each other from opposite sides of the combat ring we’d claimed for a quick spar. Scott shrugged nonchalantly, bringing a smile to my lips.
“As long as we don’t hurt each other, we should be fine,” I said.
Scott added, “Furthermore, we have yet to decide what mission we’re going to pick. We can recover with Accelerated Regeneration until we do.”
Sophie and the others looked like they wanted to argue, but we drew our weapons and coated them in ether to dull them.
“First hit counts?” Scott inquired, but I shook my head.
“Only if the hit would kill or cripple the target. Lethal blow, knocked unconscious, or disarmed sounds good to me.”
He nodded at that and shifted smoothly into a combat stance. His eyes shimmered like the stars of a cloudless night momentarily, until a familiar milky-white hue coated them.
I shifted into a stance as well, silvernit sword gripped in my right hand. Calling upon the Earthen Aspect, I conjured an earthen sleeve around my left arm, a small shield of hardened soil attached. Albeit far from perfect, the shield would protect me from a hit or two–it was better than nothing.
“Ready?” Daniel stepped forward, arm raised.
I nodded subtly, which Scott reciprocated a moment later, and Daniel’s arm sliced downward, his booming voice echoing in my ears.
“Fight!”
Scott moved the instant Daniel started the battle. He propelled forward, spear in his hands.
I considered copying him but decided against it when my instincts screamed at me.
Trip him!
Aureus shouted, ready to help me with the Earthen Aspect if needed. That was not the case, for I didn’t want to use my traits this time. I needed to understand the limit of my physical strength as well as the power of the trait that couldn’t be deactivated.
Predator, the first trait Nox manifested, had settled within me. It changed me in so many ways, and I had yet to grasp them all.
I locked onto Scott and the world around me blurred. My ears perked up, my vision sharpened, and senses I didn’t even know I had flooded my mind with information.
Scott was almost upon me, spear at the ready, but I was still unmoving. My eyes lingered on Scott’s feet, moved to his waist, then to his upper arm before finally straying to the spear as it shot forward. I burst into action when the spear was almost upon me. My arm shot upward in time, forcefully diverting the thrust’s trajectory. The shield cracked on impact but didn’t shatter–not that I cared. I closed the remaining distance to Scott and slashed at him, but he was already prepared.
He twisted his upper body, evading the incoming blade by a hair’s breadth. The spear came back to him and he thrust again, but not before I discovered another weak point in his defense. I stabbed, only for Scott to narrowly evade once more.
Scott’s attack didn’t carry enough strength to inflict a serious injury. It was lackluster because my attack had forced him off balance, breaking his stance.
That’s not good enough. I can see his weak points, but I can’t reach them.
That was not exactly unexpected. Scott’s fighting style was incomparable. It was like he could see incoming attacks–which was probably not far from the truth. To defeat him, it was necessary to overwhelm him, which required superior speed and strength. Superior combat experience, better traits, and higher weapon mastery would work as well. Or feints even he couldn’t detect.
I had neither, although Predator offered me something akin to a sixth sense. Once locked in combat, fully focused on my target, I noticed things I never would have before. At first, it was confusing, until I caught Nox and Aureus play-fighting each other. Aureus tried to overwhelm Nox with the Earthen Aspect and Paralyze, yet the Ferronox Mantis prevailed.
Aureus wouldn’t always be stronger than Nox, but he was older, more experienced, and his power level was still several times above Nox. That wouldn’t last long, but it didn’t change the facts: Nox wasn’t supposed to ‘survive’ this long against the Earthheart. Yet he did, and he targeted Aureus’ weakest points with terrifying precision. So I did the same–or tried to.
I had yet to study the Predator trait, and I would certainly not visit the Grand Camp’s researchers for a thorough examination. Not if they were the same mad researchers who’d examined me in the retinue exam–that much was certain. The memory resurfaced and made me want to hide under a blanket, but I didn’t have any time to think about it. I had to focus. Stay at the top of my game.
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We exchanged several blows in quick succession. My earthen shield shattered, and it wasn’t long before the spear struck my lower arm. If not for ether dulling the blade, it would have pierced through and caused a bloodbath. A bruise was all that remained, followed by a sensation I never expected to feel in combat: excitement.
Excitement surged through me–over the moon, even–and my body responded in kind, moving faster than before. The fight lasted a lot longer than I expected, and it turned out I was a lot stronger than I thought. I had yet to get used to the changes my body had undergone in the last few weeks, but I was adapting.
Scott’s eyes narrowed, and his left arm shot forward, slapping the flat side of my blade when it came dangerously close to his abdomen. He moved with surprising speed; however, that wasn’t enough to hide the weak spots revealing themselves before me. Scott was a great combatant, yet he wasn’t perfect. Even he had some weak spots, and I seized the opportunity.
I was about to strike at Scott when his eyes glowed brighter than before. His spear whipped upward, and the lower end smacked into my face, forcing me to a halt. The hit stung fiercely and warm blood flowed down my nose, but I jumped right back into action.
Whenever I noticed a weak spot, it disappeared, and new, harder-to-hit weak spots appeared within my perception. It was rather infuriating.
However, as infuriating as it was to fight Scott, it was exhilarating knowing I had the means to keep up with him. Sure, he hadn’t used any ether to augment his body or trigger the ether circuits of his spear, but he used his trait at all times. That was already a victory worth celebrating.
It was more obvious than ever that Scott knew what I was going to do, where I was heading, and what the next step of my plan was. Worse still, he moved faster than I could. But putting all the trouble aside, Scott turned out not to be overwhelmingly powerful. At least, his raw physical strength was not leagues higher than mine, which was what I’d expected.
“You’re too distracted,” Scott grunted, anger flashing through his milky-white eyes. “You’re not even using your traits properly. Are you underestimating me?”
I never underestimated him, but it didn’t look like Scott thought that way. Ether erupted from his body, and the weak points I saw a moment ago vanished into thin air. So did Scott, who appeared beside me, spear tip pressed firmly against my neck.
“You’re dead.”
“Looks like I am.” I grimaced, slumping to the ground, gasping for air.
The adrenaline pumping through my veins faded, and I broke into a cold sweat. “Urgh, that was intense.”
Scott raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.
“I hope you know I didn’t underestimate you. I just wanted to figure out how strong I was, and how Nox’s trait performs against your ‘predictions,’” I explained when Scott continued to look at me angrily.
At last, his anger faded and he stored his spear away. “I knew that. I was curious about that as well.” He rubbed the back of his head. “It’s not like I went all out from the start either. No idea why I got angry. Sorry about that, Adam.”
I waved dismissively and focused back on my breathing.
The others rushed toward us, and I felt the familiar relief of Accelerated Regeneration working its wonders on me. I hadn’t used too much ether in the spar, but I was mentally and physically exhausted. Predator was a sucker to use in combat. It was a powerful trait though and definitely worth training.
“That was amazing,” Fabienne said.
Daniel nodded in agreement.
“Amazing? That was breathtaking!” Sophie exclaimed, turning to me with eager eyes. “How strong exactly are you? Are you stronger than Fabienne already? Your growth is amazing!”
I was not that amazing. At least, I didn’t feel all that amazing. Scott had at most five Gates for every Rank, and I highly doubted his Soulkin had the potential to reach the Unblemished Rank without any serums. If anything, I was rather confident Destiny reached the Peak of the Evolved Rank only thanks to serums. Destiny was probably more like Aureus, offering only two or three 3-Star Ether Gates to temper Scott’s body.
Even if Scott filled most of his Gates, using a top-notch Body Tempering technique, I doubted he had the time to fill and refine all Gates. Especially with how time-consuming higher-ranked Body Tempering techniques were. They were the cream of the crop and therefore complex, unlike most ordinary tempering techniques. Perfection was hard to come by, after all.
“I filled and refined my 1-Star Gates as well as one 2-Star Gate,” I said, pride filling my chest.
“You did what?!” Daniel hollered, dashing toward me to inspect my skin thoroughly. He exhaled deeply after a few seconds but not without glaring daggers at me.
“How did you do that?” Sophie asked instead, not even trying to hide the worry in her eyes.
“I absorbed like seventy-ish ether stones in the last two weeks,” I explained, which led to another–even more thorough–inspection from Daniel’s side. He cursed and manhandled me, and even Sophie went as far as to come closer to inspect me. “There’s nothing to worry about. I pushed through the ether toxicity with Fabienne’s help. And a bunch of potions. It was a bit messy but nothing to worry about really. I annexed and redirected the stone’s ether fast enough, so I was never exposed to higher levels of ether toxicity.”
Daniel turned to stare at Fabienne like she was dead to him. She squirmed and hid behind Scott, who had to intervene before anything worse happened.
“Calm down, will you? Adam is not only fine, he is stronger than before. Shouldn’t we celebrate him for filling and refining so many Ether Gates in such a short time?” Scott smiled reassuringly, but he looked curious as well. “How did you do that though? What Body Tempering technique did you use to refine four 1-Star and one 2-Star Gate?”
I squirmed a little as all eyes turned to me and looked away, hoping we could avoid that topic. Unfortunately, the stares only grew more intense when I didn’t answer.
“Explain. Now!” Daniel shouted, which was a rare sight to say the least.
“Well… I may or may not have ignored the technical part of the tempering process,” I muttered under my breath, looking to the ground.
The floor is quite beautiful, isn’t it?