章 30: 1.12.
5th night in the dark.
Clink–
Sweep. Swipe. Clash. Swoop–
The spear and sword danced in the flickering lights of the flame.
The earth spear twirled; sword flashed.
Sequence twisted his body and dodged the slash by a small margin, holding his spear in an inverse position to the right, he pushed Yelen's sword away and spun it towards a downward strike.
Yelen twisted her body at the attack and swept her blade diagonally.
Sequencee quickly rolled away.
Quickly swinging his spear up to parry the incoming strike, he forced himself to stand.
Clashes continued– until Sequencee fell for yet another feint.
She raised her sword high, making Sequencee think that he would have to parry a heavy strike when she lowered her stance to a crouch and zipped past his flank. Even with the handicap of only being able to hit Sequencee with the sword, he was still losing most of his battles with Yelen.
The magic sword that swung past him was dispersing into the light. Sequencee touched his side.
"Haah.."
"That's it for today. Any more and I'll have trouble maintaining the energy to stay awake," Yelen loosened her grip and walked towards the fire.
"Thank you."
"It's my pleasure."
Sequencee brought his hands up and looked at the rock spear, it was chipped at a few places due to the collision between the two. Pushing mana into the shaft, the broken parts returned to the normal form.
"You should fight with magic instead of that spear. I can sense a monstrous amount of mana within you."
"Well.."
"You're withholding your spells during our spar so that you could train your spearmanship, is my guess. I suggest you only focus on one, otherwise, you'd become a jack of all trades master of none."
"Thank you for the advice."
'There's no way I'm just going to give up like that.'
Not all advice is created equal. So Sequencee was a little sceptical about her words. Nevertheless, it was a good reminder.
Sequencee's spatial magic reacted to something just then. He turned around to see her wiping her eyes.
Leticia.
She released the door handle and walked towards Sequencee.
"What is it?" he asked.
"How long have you been doing this?" Her voice was soft from the effect of sleep, but it carried with it a disconcerting weight.
"What do you mean? I'm sleeping properly alright?"
"Liar."
She voiced.
"You liar.."
"Sorry Leticia, I'm fine really. Shouldn't you get some.."
Snap–
Sequencee quickly stepped back to dodge the ivy that grew from the ground.
"Leticia, what are you.."
The ivy shot towards him. A wind barrier was quickly constructed and shredded those that came close into fine pieces.
At the same time, the grass underneath his feet quickly swirled up and held his feet in place, Sequencee almost tripped.
"What are you doing?"
Leticia ruby-amber eyes glimmered in the shadows. Her hair shone in a warm orange under the effects of the dim flames.
She raised her hands.
A powerful wind pressure stuck against him. The clouds above began to condense into a small whirl, thunder rumbled in the sky.
"Do you want to fight?" Sequencee asked calmly.
Leticia trembled.
Lightning crackled in the sky, the winds churned.
Complex emotion within her head manifested in her magic– altering the weather into her domain.
She tried to speak, but couldn't form the words.
She gripped her fist and a prison of ivy shot out from the ground, which tried to incapacitate Sequencee. To her expectations, the frail stems couldn't even touch him before becoming torn to shreds.
Weak.
Compared to him, she was weak.
Yet, who was it that had been putting more effort into developing themselves?
While he was pushing himself to the limits, what was she doing?
Waiting? Sleeping?
From the clouds above, a pillar of lightning stuck down on Sequencee.
Yelen's instinct reacted. A switch in her flipped as she drew her sword to knock out the half-elf when she found her greaves caught in between the grass.
'Shit.'
"If that's what you want, then you're welcome to continue."
'What..?'
Lighting struck down again and again; And during intervals when the lighting was absent, ivies as thick as a man's arm shot towards him repeatedly.
Amidst the barrage, red flowers bloomed all around him, their stalks all pointed towards him.
The lightning and ivies ceased.
And within that short respite, the hundreds of red flowers shot out needles.
Again.. and again.. and again..
Yet none of them managed to reach him.
Leticia had perspiration covering her face as the light began to fade from her eyes.
The 10th hail of needles, the red flowers began to wither. By the 11th, they crippled away, leaving the petals scattered all over the ground, taken up by the wind and drifted towards the dark.
She fell on her hands.
Sequencee took a step, tearing the grass holding his feet in place. Slowly, he walked up to the trembling Leticia.
He got down on his knees.
Her muscles tensed up as an unknown sense of dread welled up inside. Her eyes were hollow, deprived– like somehow who had lost her will. She dug her fingers into the earth and squinted her eyes.
She expected severe retribution, having attempted to kill Sequencee. What was she thinking? What if he got injured? What if he was poisoned? What if he had failed to defend himself? Just because she was afraid she didn't..
"Leticia, I'm sure you'll do fine for the appraisal."
He placed his hands on her head.
"You'll be alright."
Her tears wetted the ground.
===
'For someone as strong as Leticia, she sure doesn't have a lot of confidence.'
Sequencee stroked her hair as she leaned against his shoulder. She had passed out due to the over-exhaustion of her mana. Parts of her skin were blue, clearly the effects of mana exertion.
'Maybe it's because of me. Maybe she thought that I'm superior to her because of the effort I put in.'
The sounds of her soft breathing transmitted to his ears.
'When in fact, it's more of a racial issue. You can't hope to compare a demon lord like myself to a normal person.'
"Sequencee."
"What is it?"
He made sure to lower his tone so as to not wake Leticia from her sleep.
"You're not human, are you?" Yelen narrowed her feral irises.
"What do you think I am then?"
"I don't know. Whatever it is, I advise you not to do anything to harm my master."
"Then you don't need to worry about that. I won't."
"I hope so."
He nodded.
'So she's in that kind of relationship huh?'
With Leticia leaning on him, he looked up at the night sky twinkling with stars.
'I wonder why two people in love would want to kill each other.'
There was still a long way to go.
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