Chapter 129: More Butting Heads
———Wiina———
<12: 15 pm>
*Swing* *Clash* *Parry* *Smack* *Crash* *Crack* *Splash*
She overpowered the exchanges and sent me flying down through the floor of ice and into the freezing cold water below. It’s easy to endure with my physiology, a normal human would’ve already lost the fight already.
*Splash* *Zip* *Parry*
I quickly flew out of the depth and back into the air, homing in on her and swinging my sword only for it to be parried.
*Punch* *Kick* *Grab* *Swing* *Splash*
She punched me in the gut, kicked me in the chin, then grabbed my arm and swung me around and threw me back into the cold ocean.
Yeah. I think it’s pretty clear I can’t really get close to her level of power with most of my abilities turned off. But since she isn’t going all out, I shouldn’t do the same. This is supposed to be more of a mock battle, there isn’t a need to fight to the death.
*Splash*
I got back up to the same elevation as her, staring her down as she looked at me dispassionately, or was it more like a look of focus? It’s certainly odd to see someone who puts on a ‘What’s hip right now, students?’ persona.
*Punch* *Zip*
She punched me again, but this time sending me flying backward instead. All these attacks don’t hurt that much for me, and I can just turn off all pain receptors if I needed to. Still, the force behind this attack created so much velocity that I’m a bit curious as to how far I’m being launched.
*CRASH*
“*Cough* Ugh…” Where the heck am I? I think I got launched into a desert? The climate and the fact that there is sand everywhere makes it quite clear that’s the case, but which one is it?
I’m surprised she lets me fly off without chasing. Isn’t it normal to fly towards the launched opponent and do a follow-up? Comboing them while they are unable to control their flight path due to the force launching them in a certain direction, making them unable to focus and stabilize. It’s either let yourself get launched or try to endure all the force and therefore letting your entire body absorb the force and take more damage as a result.
I can still feel her energy homing in on me. Let’s get back up and form a shield around myself. It should take her no more than a three seconds to-
*Swing* *Shine* *Block*
I erected a shield in time to absorb the incoming attack, she swung her sword right towards me using the velocity of her flight to amplify the force of impact. The resulting impact causes the sand around us to be sent flying as if affected by a large explosion.
How much environmental damage are we allowed to cause here? I can’t say I’m a fan of this.
*Zip*
I quickly fly away in order to not be on the ground and possibly cause more collateral damage. This might seem like an empty desert, but who knows how many other living creatures around.
*Zip* *Swing* *Clash* *Parry*
She flew towards me and erased the distance we had in an instant, resulting in another series of attacks thrown at each other. I think I get a better grasp at the rhythm here, but the window of time needed to block and parry each attack is very tiny, and even then she could change things up at any moment and get another clean hit on me.
It’s a back and forth that doesn’t really give either of us an advantage in the long run. Of course in a mock battle it doesn’t really matter that much, but it is still a rather tired routine.
She has been using surprisingly little magic throughout the fight this time around. Mostly just a simple energy blast or extending the reach of her weapon by imbuing it with mana.
It makes me rather uncertain about using strong flashy spells to hit her with, since that just might make her rip off the kid’s gloves.
*Graze* *Pierce*
I managed to graze her torso but she stabbed me right in the left shoulder in response. Looks like we are going some-
*Palm* *Crash*
She struck me with her palm and sent me flying deep into a mountain that was nowhere near where we were. Great. More environmental damage. Can’t she do an uppercut or something?
Let’s float up to the edge of the atmosphere then, if she wants to play like that…
*Shine* *Crackle*
I enchanted my sword to make its blade completely enveloped by light, radiating with energy and enlarging its effective range by more than three times. I could go higher than this, but it might not be very stable under high pressure situations.
*Zip* *Swing* *Block* *Crack*
The moment she catched up to me and I tried to swing the enchanted sword at her, she blocked it with her bare hand and dispelled the light that engulfed it, causing the sword to return to its original effective size.
*Punch* *Zip* *Kick*
She punched me and sent me flying before following up with a downward kick that seemed intent on sending me back to ground level.
I stabilized myself before I could get near said level, and it seems like we are above an ocean this time around, no landmass nearby to accidentally be rammed into.
Alright, I need to pull out more spells if I want to get a good hit on her. I don’t want to be accused of slacking off, so I need to bring it up a notch.
*Sizz* *Sizzle*
I surrounded myself in a barrier made of flames, which should dissuade her from directly hitting me with another punch or slash. I increase the intensity to the level that would’ve melted almost everything on this planet. Let’s see her trying to brute force her way through this!
*Blast* *Block*
She catched up to me and realized that most attacks would’ve been burned off so she is using non-elemental magic blasts to try to destabilize it. As much as I would like to say that it doesn't have that much effect, it’s not like this barrier is made to be durable as much as it is deadly to most things.
*Zip* *Tackle*
I rammed my flame barrier-covered body straight into her, making her go on the defensive to make sure her body didn't catch on fire and being visibly damaged in a significant manner. Come on now, she can easily regenerate from this, she just doesn't want to look like she took any real damage from this mock battle.
If she can block the overwhelming heat in her current state of simply pouring all her mana into defense. Then I need to put in some extra punch to go through that. How about this then!
———Orrel———
<12: 21 pm>
“Hm?” That’s odd, there seems to be some sort of…
“What is it? Something on your mind?” Useph asked, noticing that I looked up into the sky.
“Seems like a large flash of light just goes off in the middle of the sky or something… Sorry. Maybe my imagination.” I swore I could even feel some sort of mana reaction. It’s rather faint and so does the ‘explosion’ I see within the corner of my eyes for a brief moment.
“Well. Who really knows? You’re more of an expert on this than I am anyway.” He said, not thinking that anything is wrong, just going along with my unproven experience rather than disputing it. “Anyway. Where were we going again?”
“How did you forget already? You said you’d take me to Bai Kluai, remember? It reopened not too long ago.” I know it’s been a while since we’ve been in the place, but surely he remembered both of us going there in the past. Right now during the holidays is the time to go. “Should be where it once was on the third floor of the mall.”
“Right. That place.” He said, not looking like he remembered the place that well. He really should. I think his tongue needs some cleansing after all the junk food he has been treating us to. I don’t really know if his mother and father are giving him enough good food to compensate.
Speaking of said habit, he really should tone it down, there are a bunch of places to go to. We don’t even go to Rico’s place nowadays.
———Kenni———
<12: 40 pm>
*Bang* *Leap*
I sent out a blast of energy that Emmie quickly noticed and jumped out of the way, quickly figuring out who just interrupted her moment.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Emmie glared at me with a look that could kill. Does she really think she has the right to complain about aggression?
“Whoa there, buddy. Unless I read your expression and movement wrong, you look like you’re about to cut his head clean off.” I pointed out. She really should think twice before doing that. I know this guy attacked her and all, and this is kind of a lawless zone at the moment. Surely she can be slightly more reasonable, as weird as it is for me to say that.
Speaking of that guy, he is still on the ground, slowly crawling away, terrified of a new face.
“You really think I would let him off so easily with a quick death? You’re far too generous.” She said with a hint of mockery. Right, torture then kill. As if that’s any better in many people’s eyes.
“I think leaving him to the mercy of the monsters roaming around here is the better option. More plausible deniability." If he gets mauled to death then it’s really not her fault at that point. “Anyway, why are you here? We’ll get to a location like this once Thursday comes.”
“Same reason you go to that floating island on your own. Why not? I can do it, so I did.” She explained with a straight face. Yeah, I guess that’s kinda my fault ain’t it? At least with this place it’s pretty to escape. Just fly away and they won’t chase you past a certain point.
Not really a luxury most people will have. Flight isn’t exactly something most people can claim to do, let alone so smoothly and freely.
“So this is where you were.” Suddenly, a new voice came in. Now who is this chick? “Hey, you two put him in this state?”
Quite a pretty face. Somewhat dull blonde hair and green eyes, attire is simple with a long black coat, unbuttoned, of course. The most eye-catching thing about her is that giant sword on her back that is about the same size as herself.
“What is it to you?” Emmie asked with less aggression than I expected.
“He’s a nutjob who a few people caught sight of in this place. I got a job to quickly apprehended him. No idea who in the world thinks trying to do that without appropriate tools on-hand is a good idea, but orders are orders.” She explained before grabbing the guy by the back of his heck. “You two girls… Should get out of here, obviously. I don’t care how strong you two are, some people would probably see you two as a public disturbance, being unfamiliar faces and all.”
“Oh, is that right?” Emmie’s grip on her scythe tightened, as if seeing the woman’s remark as a challenge. Now of all times? “He was my prey, you can’t just snatch it away from me and get away with it.”
“Whoa, you are really trying to escalate things.” I can’t help but put out that remark. I can’t quite get the power reading on this lady right now, meaning it’s either super low and hard to determine, or high enough and with good mastery to boot.
Said lady is glaring at me as well. Hold on now. I don’t really have the itch to fight today, can I please not be involved? Just got done with a dungeon run this morning. I do not have the energy nor the mood for another fight.
“What a pain.” Said lady remarked before turning around.
*Boom*
Suddenly, she creates a giant pit with a swing of her sword, then drops the injured guy into it to prevent him from escaping. Guess she believes that trying to run away with the guy while having Emmie pursuing them is not a very intriguing prospect.
“If it’s a fight you want, it’s a fight you’ll get. Let’s end this quickly.” She said before pointing her sword at Emmie.
*Flap* *Fly*
I have nothing to do with this one. I’m gonna leave the two to their own devices… Maybe just far enough to not get caught in the crossfire. I think the fight might be a fun watch. Let’s see if that lady is as strong as she presented herself as.