Chapter 32: Like a Different Person
"Phew, that takes care of that. I don't know about you, but I think that went pretty well," Grinned Celia, stretching her arms up with a content look on her face.
"Yeah, I agree. You got the hang of those gauntlets pretty quickly," Nodded Raven, as he cracked his neck.
"To be fair, they're not particularly complex weapons. Plus, they're super light and really flexible, so they don't slow me down at all. They're pretty amazing...I'd say my martial arts are fairly high level for someone who's mostly self-taught, but my physical strength is pretty average, I don't pack much of a punch, I need to land several hits to inflict any real damage. But with these, that's no longer a problem!" She declared as she slammed her fists together, before wincing and adding shakily, "O-ow, I p-probably...probably shouldn't have done that. M-my knuckles hurt and my arms are all n-numb..."
It was the next day, and as Aster had suggested, each of the three pairs had split up and ventured off on their own to train, by fighting any Monsters they came across.
Raven and Celia decided to handicap themselves in order to address their weaknesses; Celia decided to fight using only her martial arts, without her Explosion Magic, and Raven was fighting without transforming, his left arm and face remaining human.
His physical capabilities were lower in this state, his senses and instincts were weaker too, as were his plasma-based attacks. He figured that fighting while in his weaker form would help him improve his overall combat prowess more effectively.
Another reason was that, in this state, he was more vulnerable and therefore more likely to get injured, which gave him more opportunities to use his Recovery Magic Spells and improve his Spellcasting.
"It's pretty convenient that whenever you become Dark Raven, your overall Aura pressure increases slightly after that form wears off, and your Spellcasting becomes a bit more efficient as well. It's too bad you can't trigger that form at will, huh?" Smiled Celia wryly.
"Yeah, I wish I could. It only triggers when my emotions surge, and no matter how hard I try, I can't trigger it just by forcibly riling up my emotions by thinking of bad memories or whatever. Still, at least I understand more about it now...I guess I should be grateful that the Undead King was so chatty, huh?" He replied with a wistful smile.
"Well, he was trapped down there for over a thousand years, we must have been the first people he got to talk to in all that time. It's too bad he was evil...since he had Irregular Magic, we might have been able to recruit him if he was a good guy," Added Celia wistfully, before she put up her guard as she noticed Raven tensing up.
"There's a group of Monsters headed this way through the air. I count seven in total, and based on their Mana signatures, they're probably around Mid Level Threats. They're under a hundred meters away that way and closing in fast...the treetops are in the way, so I can't see them, and we're upwind so I can't pick up their scents, but they're definitely approaching," He informed her, pointing in the direction the Monster's were coming from.