Chapter 12: Chapter 22: The Cycle of Power
That noon was a time for round two.
"Come on Rem this was my revenge for yesterday," Cy said brandishing her sword.
"Cy, you will impale yourself with your sword," I said. Oh god help me, why did fate had to get this goddess anywhere near a sword. "Preferably I would love to do this after dunking you in the mana pool. Alas the sweetest joy in life was only available after a bloody battle. Lux, we need teamwork this time."
"Zzzz," Lux replied sleeping where she stood.
In ancient China, the greatest strategist of all time said the first failure of command was the fault of the commander's communication. I am pretty sure this is not my fault because I think I communicated pretty clearly. Sadly, the art of war never said anything about the best unit in the army dozing off from overworking because I certainly need that advice now.
So I stick with the tried and true tactics, kicking the leg out of my teammate.
Lux hit the ground and woke up.
"Ha!" She stood up word drawn. "What happened?"
"You sleep in," Cy said in my steed. I gave her a mental bro fists she never replied to.
"Sorry!" She apologised fater than the lighting she fired off and stood in ready position.
"Ready yet!" Scathach yelled with gusto turning into her human form for today beat-down. She may or may not be enjoying this too much.
"No, we need two minutes!" I yelled back.
The goddess tried to correct me but, remembering the last time her big mouth dragged us to a beat-down, she wisely shut up.
"Okay, you have one minute," Scathach said chillingly comfortably.
Good, I spent an entire night thinking about yesterday. We couldn't overpower Scathach so the only answer left was out thinking her.
We huddled together.
"Okay, she would try to take us by surprised and the easiest target will be Cy."
"Hey!"
"Rem, please be nicer" Lux said.
I face-palmed. I pity the guys trying to rally the feminist cause. You couldn't win anything worth a damn if your side only know how to play impulsive and terrified every potential allies into enemy. Let try this again.
"Guys she would aim at Cy first, then we flanked her okay. Given that this is Scathach, she would mix her tactic, but her end goal is to knock us out us one by one."
"Thirty seconds left," Scathach called up.
"So what we are going to do?" Lux said.
"We closed the battlefield. We directly exposed our weakest link and lure..."
"Rem!" Cy argued. "I know I am not good at combat but you are using me as a bait! Do you ever care about my..."
"Listen..."
"I understand but this is supposed to be a team effort." I tried to placated her.
"Ten seconds left."
I gave up. The plan was ruin. I couldn't convince those two in ten seconds. This meant I had to work with whatever plan fate deal to me. So far I didn't like my odds.
"What is the victory conditions?" I asked he,r summoning the sword of Ar'maskur.
"Oh, getting smarter now," Scathach said. "A hit will be enough. Now on five."
Ok Central, fully open multiple [Photon Ring] and can I summoned more than one sword now?
'A possibility my lord but sadly no. Your mana-strengthened body did indeed can take the strain for multiple creation but the energy drain combined with the after effect will done you in.'
Dammit.
"Five."
"Guys she is going to fake the count down." Cy yelled.
Gee, thank Cy you just give our element of surprise away.
"Four."
Lux's body crackled with voltage. And Cy leaped.
"Five." Scathach gave the smile belonging to greatest of troll as our goddess fall flat on her face. Indeed, she was worthiest to be my master, her ability to troll her opponent was perfectly done.
"Wha-" Cy managed but I know what was coming.
"Three, two, one." Scathach blurted out before moving toward the goddess before she could finish the sentence, grabbed her in the face and threw her into the mountain.
Let me made this quick and painless, she got KO in one hit...again.
And as expected, Scathach went for the most predictable route. She tried to be efficient by blasting Lux head-first with an explosion.
What was unexpected was the fact that Lux dodged the explosion and returned with electricity infused fist.
Let me repeated. Lux was standing near Cy when the fight started and Scathach blew her up almost instantaneously after our goddess went down. This meant that she had reacted and moved before Scathach aimed the blast then countering with her own blow. That was less than 0.01 second reaction time. I know elf was not human but I was pretty dodging something as fast as bullet point blank was not something all of them can do.
Even Scathach was shocked. Our trainer forgo any option of countering and just leaped back to reassess the situation.
Not to let this momentum dropped I opened fire with [Photon Ring], all five of them.
Scathach intercepted one, blocked another and let another three shot misses. Oh she also returned the fire with twelve spears appearing out of thin air.
Seriously, just where did she hid all this weapon.
I dove away. My enhanced speed allowed me to dodge all of them.
First round end: one of us of down by her own stupidity. Now it was time for us to pick up her slack.
"Interesting, " Scathach said gauging the situation. "Truly fascinating. As for you, Rem, smart choice to distance yourself from the obvious target. And Lux, is that [Neuroelectric Augmentation]."
Lux nodded, silently shifting her stance.
"Brillant," Scathach nodded in compliment. "I never expected any living being to master that skill in one night even when having highest known status among the known [Child of Lighting].
"Thank you," Lux said, her eyes crackling with lightning.
"So we had the boy who had too many attack to chose," Scathach summoned a spear. "And the girl who could react before I can do anything. This will be fun."
Central, stepped up the game. Activated everything. Please listed all the weapons I could summon and activated all the skill that might proved useful.
Roger! [Existence Comprehension (A)] fully activated. Prepare to open up maximum number of [Photon Ring]. Online all the weapons! Blade of Ar'maskur, Banishing Sword, The Desolator Blade, The Blade of Solitude, The Blade of Inferno, Buster Blade, Black Spider, Silver Stardust and The Chain of Heaven.
As for Lux, she saluted and flourished her sword.
We charged.
I summoned the Buster Blade, a giant blade meant for meteor strike level devastation, but Scathach knocked the leg out from under me. Lux, being Lux, intercepted Scathach's follow up with swordplay so well execute that I could barely followed it.
Scathach parried her barrages with some kind of reflex acceleration spell. My comprehension skill indicated that it was an ancient ruin changing her mana into reflex accelerator. I had to admit that despite working with spell-system, Scathach's speed was ridiculous.
Not to be out done I summoned The Blade of Solitude and impaled it to the ground, activating Ice Age, in an attempted to lock her mobility.
Sadly a magic circle appeared under the grinning Scathach, creating a tower of flame that wrecked Ice Age and forced me to rolled away. I gritted my teeth pulled out The Inferno Blade.
A multi-color aura charged around me and into the sword.
Using this sword meant going into end game. In exchange for less lethal side effect, this sword burnt a lot my energy. On the other hand it gave me a much needed way to disable Scathach's fire.
A plan form in my mind but I had to make this look real.
Activated Burning Corona!
Roger!
A cloak of flame roared around me together with massive exhaustion. Despite that energy drain I managed to surprise Scathach by breaking through the wall of fire.
But instead of panicking, she grinned, clicked her finger and row of pike shot up in front of me. Not that it matters, the Burning Corona burnt right through them.
"Impressive," Scathach said writing another rune.
My blade was stopped in mid-air despite the fact I am pushing it with my entire body weight.
"How?"
"Simple Space-lock." Scathach gave me a kindly smile. "You might discover the new concept of mana, Rem, but compared to the development pour into spell-craft, it still had a long way to go."
Oh crap, she managed to separate me and Lux again
I dispelled Inferno and prepared to summon Black Spider. This sword can extend two kilometer if I attacked from underground with this sword I might just force an opening and took her down.
Scathach prepared to snap of her finger.
In that split second my activated [Existence Comprehension] gave the exact detail what the snap's game plan was. Detection ability sure was useful. I changed the sword I summoned. Now everything depend on my acting ability.
Scathach went through with the snap. I collapsed instantly. My mana signature gone dark.
"And that was consciousness manipulation technique." Scathach said dispelling the tower of flame. "Goodnight Rem."
...
The pillar of fir dispelled to revealed a downed Rem and Scathach without a scratch.
Lux twirled her sword into an attack stance.
"So how do you feel to be repeating history," Scathach said summoning the blade to duel wield with her spear.
"Frustrating," Lux said. "But I guaranteed that this time would be different."
"To be fair it is," Scathach said. "Last time you all got taken out like an idiots. This time Rem played smarter and tried to find a way to win but you two girl repeat the same mistake."
"I prepare." Lux said.
"Yes you did," Scathach admitted. "You practice impressively hard and exceed my expectation but you know what would be impressive, following Rem planned and winning in the first three seconds."
"What?" Lux was caught by surprise.
"To overcome your enemy a hundred is not a proof of skill, to subdue them without fighting is," Scathach lectured. "Rem and I often discussed this concept when you and the twerp of a goddess are too busily focusing on eating or making cake. For us, to even committed to the fight in the first place is a mistake."
Scathach looked at the downed Rem.
"He never care about honor or about reputation. If a life must be traded to gain those two, then let its burn. He never see me as an opponent. When that kid decided to fight the only thing he saw is a goal--a victory condition. Even if he won the battle but fail to achieve the condition it will still be a lost. If you listen to his plan in the beginning, I can already tell you will win."
Lux silently rushed across the battlefield and swiped at Scathach who stepped back and let the ruin she covertly planted between he and Lux exploded. The elf dodged that shot and came at her master with augmented reflexes but Scathach parried the blade. An familiar explosive rune appeared on her chest.
The girl leaped away from the explosion but, what came was not a blast, instead a hand grabbed her ankle and threw her onto the ground hard enough to stun her. It was a direct hit from Scathach wrapped under a feint spell.
Lux was caught totally by surprised. Even she could not reacted to the movement despite her augmented reflex. She looked back to find Scathach with a glowing red eyes.
"Do you think you are the only one who knew reflex enhancement technique?"
Scathach lifted her arm up for a final blow on the out of commission Lux but, suddenly, in an act of suppressed panic, Scathach turned around and blocked an attack that was simply too sudden to intercept without enhanced reflex.
Rem was there standing in front of Scathach. The Blade of Ar'maskur fully locked by a spear.
"We won, " Rem stated.
Scathach sighed. Behind her, Lux was holding the sword that directly touched her back. It was a hit, barely registered hit, but a direct hit nonetheless.
"And you did, " she nodded. "By a sneak attack. I had to ask you how did you manage to play dead by for so long. Moreover, how did you escape my snap."
"Banishing Sword," Rem answered dispelling his claymore and slumped on the ground. "The sword function like an immaterial blade that have no physical presence in exchange for the ability to destroy and ward against magic. You could call it a perfect anti-magic weapon."
"Why don't you bust it out in the beginning," Lux said getting up and feeling a bit annoyed.
"It is immaterial," Rem answered. "A compensation for making the sword a perfect anti-magic is that it phased through anything but a magic construct.
"Your power are picky as hell." Lux said. "And how long are you going to sit there?"
"To tell you the truth I can't moved," Rem admitted with a wince. "The Inferno Blade took out a chunk of my energy threshold. And even with my mana still helping, partially activating Ar'maskur's Rampage and boosted my speed for that decisive blow took away the very last of my stamina. Hell, my body was screaming in pain right now. If you don't mind please help me up."
Lux complied heaving the useless mass that was depowered Rem on her shoulder.
"Hey," Lux began whispering down his ear. "At that last moment do you see the flash. It is like everything was broke down into energy current."
Rem said nothing.
"Funny, at the moment we launch the simultaneous attack I swore time slow to the point that I could actually outmaneuver Scathach. I think the last moment our perception was linked."
"Wait a minute..."
"Yep, I think we discovered a huge breakthrough. We can share our power."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
JWL09
JWL09 Sorry for the late release. I will be slowing down a bit and I would like you to try to guess what type of power systems I will introduce in the story...come on I want to hear your speculation.
What exactly is mana capable off
Weekly Power Status
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