Chapter 17: Match-Up
Quill stepped into the room with his sword gleaming with the residual of the fire. As he surveyed the aftermath, a faint smirk curled up at the edges of his mouth, but that immediately disappeared once his gaze fixated on Conrad.
"What are you doing? Get up already. This can't be the best you got, right?"
Connie didn't respond to his question or demand.
He silently sat on his knees and his head was faced downward. His face was obscured by his hair so Quill probably couldn't make it out.
"You should have it right? An Enchanted? Unless you are one of the Marked. If that's the case, then bring out your Arcana Card. There's no way you came here unprepared. A rookie mistake like that is laughable. Or you thought an amateur like you will just cruise right in and assassinate an upcoming Sect Leader. If that's the case, then you're even dumber than I thought"
Quill let out a low and mocking chuckle as he took a few steps closer to the young man.
Connie remained silent with his hands clenched into fists.
"Meliora Lynn Akerman, a Special Hydra Rank and younger sister to the Phoenix Rank Fern Kael Akerman. Out of the two of you, you seemed much more dangerous, Conrad. There's nothing on you in the System. It was frustrating really, I couldn't decide whether I should engage you or not. It was risky but it looks like all that caution was wasted…sigh"
Quill came to a halt a few feet from Connie then raised his sword as if performing an execution.
"At any rate. I should get things done here before Ranulf is finished with that girl. I expected more from you but…ah well"
He paused for a moment, waiting for a reaction but Connie remained the same. It looked as though he had already given up when he saw the power of his Enchanted.
Unfulfilled, he swung his sword down the latter's skull.
'This again'
The scenery before him was all too familiar. It reminded him of the day when it all began. The sound of crackling fire as it engulfed his late home, the abduction of both his parents and of course, his own supposed death.
The helplessness he felt that day haunted him ever since. The inability to do anything as his life crumbled away into ash in front of him really pissed him off.
—And this man had the audacity to remind him of that.
'No…not again. Not this time'
The blade ignited into a roaring inferno as it descended towards Connie. Once it made contact, a wave of searing flames exploded, setting the room in a blaze of fiery destruction.
—At such a point-blank range, Connie should have been reduced to nothing but ash in seconds.
Even the walls of the room cracked as if it would collapse at any second from the sheer force of the heat.
However, the flames suddenly disappeared.
As quickly as they raged to life was as quickly as they faded away. It was as if they were being consumed by an unseen force. Quill's eyes widened by the unsettling scene he saw before him.
"I knew it. You were hiding something this whole time"
Connie was still on his knees, completely unscathed by that attack. In his hand, he tightly gripped Quill's Enchanted by the blade. Demonic aura pulsed ominously as it wrapped itself around his body.
His eyes burned with an eerie crimson light. As they locked on to Quill's, he tried to move but his movements were hindered once he noticed his sword was frozen in Connie's grip.
No matter how hard he tried to pull it free. It couldn't budge.
"Oi, what the fu—"
Connie moved.
In an instant, he shot his fist upward into Quill's chin in a vicious uppercut. The latter's jaw snapped shut as his entire body was lifted off the ground and sent flying to the rear.
His body slammed into the wall and ground of the room he came from with a brutal thud that exploded the debris outward.
As the remnants of the destroyed wall crumbled to the ground, Connie looked at his hand. From it, he saw the red-Ish energy spiraling around his body.
Then he took a deep breath. This allowed him to calm his nerves a bit, and the glint of red in his eyes vanished.
'Careful. Calm down. I'll end up losing control if I give in to my emotions. Still, I was hoping to finish this without using my Avatar abilities. But he forced me to use [Devil's Presence]. He's going to be trouble if I don't deal with him'
Through his training with the old man, he found out that whenever he allowed his rage to boil over. He lost all sense of control of himself and turned into a mindless monster that viciously attacked anything and anyone in sight without discrimination.
This did increase his output, but it was too much for him to control. The best way he delt with this was to take a couple of deep breaths and some affirmations.
—If he's not careful, he might end up killing someone unintentionally.
'It's a shame I couldn't hang on to that Enchanted. This would have been over'
He said as he turned his head in the direction Quill hurtled towards.
"That was close, if I wasn't so cautious. Then, I would have really been in trouble if not dead already. Hehehe, damn Diviner"
Quill walked in the room, his clothes looking more beat up and blood trickled down his mouth from where his teeth had clamped down hard on impact.
"Still alive? Impressive. Maybe I held back too much on that punch. I'll make sure you don't get up on the next one"
Connie sneered as he raised his fist. His demonic aura still flaring around his body.
"Arrogant bastard…"
He chuckled as he took a battle stance.
"I'll make you eat those words"
Quill said scornfully. With a furious shout, he swung it in a wide horizontal arc which sent a slashing wave of fire hurtling towards the boy.
However, as they crashed against him, they were immediately snuffed out as if they had never existed.
Quill's eyes narrowed in disbelief as his face twisted to anger. He swung again, sending another arc at Connie but the result was the same.
It was as if he believed the first two times were just a fluke. Before his eyes, he saw the flames vanish before they could even touch him.
"What! How?! Even when you coat yourself in Aura, that should be nothing to an Enchanted. That confirms it. You really are a Diviner!"
"The Flowing Sword Fafnir, a B-Grade Enchanted capable of incinerating everything and anything it's waved at, changing it into nothing more than ash. It can even engulf its surrounding landscape in a blazing firestorm…"
That was one of the weaknesses of the Enchanted had. Everything about them was recorded and made fully available for anyone to use. This made it easier to prepare countermeasures in the event one should face off against someone wielding one.
This was one of the reasons why Connie didn't even bother to request one. As what would be the point of fighting someone who already knew about what you can do and has already prepared ways of dealing with you?
—If he did request for one, would they have given him one though?
With an Arcana Card. It varied with each user, while one person might use it in a certain way, the other might use it in a different way. It all depended on a number of unknown factors.
—Although they were still being recorded with each user. That information was unreliable.
"That would have been troublesome to deal with…If it was used by someone with actual skill"
Quill's eyes widened. Without a word, he dashed towards Connie as he launched fire slash after fire slash in pure desperation. But the latter blitzed around him each time he swung his sword.
Darting to his side or behind him. Just out of his reach.
"You need to try harder. That can't be the best you can do right?"
He said as he narrowly avoided another fire slash.
When an opening presented itself, he immediately launched himself forward and connected his foot with Quill's ribs in a brutal kick that sent the man staggering back in agony.
Quill tried to retaliate with another swing, but Connie was already on the move. He ducked under the blade and followed up with a sharp punch to the gut, the blow made him double down in pain.
Without giving him a chance to recover, Connie finished it by slamming his fist into his face with brutal force that sent his body stumbling meters away to the ground on his back.
Connie's Aura's flickered around him as he stood over the wreckage. He looked down at Quill who was still struggling to stand. He clenched his bloody face where Connie's blow had landed.
"You said your rank is Griffin, right? That should mean [Devil Presence] is about the same level. That would explain why it's more effective against you than the old man"
As Connie muttered, Quill on the other hand was groaning in pain, barely managing to lift his head. That grip on his sword had long since lost its vigor, and Connie could see it.
Connie looked around the area and noticed the destruction Quill's Enchanted had caused. By the looks it, the building was barely holding itself together as the flames had rapidly spread to each top-level floor and possibly the lower-level floors as well.
Beneath his feet, he could feel the structure beneath his feet weakening as the floor trembled and the walls crumbling under the intense heat.
'By now that bastard should be long gone. I can't exactly leave this guy alone either or else he'll become trouble later on'
Connie took a deep breath.
"I've failed my mission because you. I'm definitely gonna get in trouble for this screw up. On my first day too"
"Hehehe. As long as Mr. Langley is safe….then, my job here is over"
Connie pinned his attention on Quill who had barely managed to stand on his feet. It seems as though he still had some fight left in him or one last ditch effort left in him.
"Don't think I'll let you escape that easily…"
As Quill's grin faded, Connie's dark Aura dispersed from his body. He raised his hand as he said.
"Let me show you a trick I picked up in this past year"
***
ASPECT TOOL | ENCHANTED
Name: Flowing Sword Fafnir
Aspect Ability: Young Flame
Grade: B
Type: Attack
Blessing: The Sun
Description: The Flowing Sword Fafnir is an Enchanted with the Aspect Ability to generate and control intense fire. Each Swing of the blade releases fiery arcs capable of incinerating anything in their path, turning the surrounding air scorching hot. The sword can also create explosive slashes that can unleash waves of fire capable of engulfing a large area in flames. In skilled hands, Flowing Sword Fafnir can be used both offensively and defensively with greater destructive power and precision.
Flaw: User is not immune to the effects.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone