บท 43: Testing Strength
As the cameras reluctantly backed off, Athena turned her attention to Ragna, who was leaning against a broken car while clutching his side.
"You.", she started.
"You're no ordinary awakened, are you ? I have seen my fair share of nightmare creatures and people who tried to challenge them. I even went through hell, but there were rarely people who could fight against that many all alone. By the way, whats your name, kid ?"
Ragna scratched his cheek, not really knowing if she had complimented him or not.
"I'm Ragna .. You're Athena right ? From the forgotten shore. I heard from you on the news before my first Nightmare."
"Yeah that's me, but just call me Effie. But tell me, why did you fight off against the gate solo ? There aren't many people who would do that, and your reason definitely wasn't because you wanted to do something for the greater good."
'Should I tell her ? I have pretty much already reached my goal and it's not like she can use the information against me.'
"I did it because i want my name to spread. I need to get the attention of a great clan."
Effie raised an eyebrow at Ragnas answer since it definitely wasn't the one she had expected.
"Gain the attention of a great clan ? And why is that ?"
At the thought of Caspian, Ragna clenched his jaw slightly. It was not like he wanted to kill him or something. He rather would like to avoid Caspian and just forget about him. But because of what happened in the Dream Realm, Caspian surely would want to get revenge. And since he was backed up by a great clan, Ragna would need to be too.
"Personal reasons."
Effie laughed, her strong voice echoing through his ears.
"Personal reasons, eh ? Then I won't pry further. But what do you say, Ragna ? Theres this princess I know, she might be able to help you, but I can't guarantee it."
'Who does she mean with princess ? And can I trust her ? Just because she survived in the forgotten shore and has been a very popular person doesn't mean she's a good one. But I don't feel any malice coming from her.'
"And you think that "princess" will be able to help me ? How exactly ?"
"Actually, she probably won't help you since she's not the type who'll help someone out that isn't her friend or if it doesn't benefit her. But she's an adopted daughter of clan valor, so maybe you'll be able to get some connections out of it. And I think that once the news speak of you, you'll get the attention of great clans either way."
Ragna narrowed his eyes, since this was way to goos to be true.
"And why exactly would you waste your time to help me ? We don't even really know eachother."
Effie let out a mnh sound before as answering.
"I'm not so sure myself. You kinda remind me of someone, a doofus. He's in a pretty cold place with his stone girlfriend right now. I kinda miss him."
Ragna was caught off guard by the response, the sudden shift in her tone and the light hearted humor masking something deeper, emotions Ragna didn't dare to pry further into yet. So he started focusing on the opportunity in front of him again.
Ragna continued thinking for a few seconds. Clan Valor was no joke, but it was exactly what he needed at this moment. Their influence stretched across the dream realm, their strength pretty much only rivaled by the other great clans. If he could get their backing or even just recognition to someone tied to them, he would definitely get what he needed.
But joining a great clan also meant that he would have to do dangerous things, explore the dream realm with others and fight against horrors yet not known. But there were naturally also more benefits with Valor. As far as he knew, Valor put a great importance on memories and had a large storage of really strong ones - maybe he could get some of them too.
Ragna exhaled slowly, having made up his mind and having thought of every risks and benefits.
"Alright, I'll take you up on that offer. Where do I meet her ?"
Effie laughed once more
"I knew you would take up that offer. Let's go to my house first, I'll try to call her."
***
It took a while but eventually, because they took an uber, they arrived in front of a large house. And to Ragnas amazement the house was actually pretty close to his old school and to the house of his parents, meaning that he had arrived there where he wanted to be after he woke up from the dream realm.
"You really have a large home, Effie."
"It's not exactly mine. My friend bought it and I'm living with him, but he's gone right now."
"Is he the same guy you told me was in a cold place ? What exactly did you mean ?"
"Oh right, in the uber you told me that you awakened just recently, right ? Makes sense why you don't know what the Antarctica campaign is."
"The Antarctica campaign? What's that ?"
"While you were in the dream realm, things got pretty bad here in the real world. An abnormal amount of gates have appeared on Antarctica and since they aren't strong enough, NSQC has decided to help and get them here by sending off forces to Antarctica. And my friend volunteered to go there, so thats what happened. But thats enough about him for now, let's go inside."
As they went inside, the first thing Effie did was go to the kitchen, get two cans of beer and plop down onto the couch.
"Want some ?", she asked while already having opened one of them.
"Uhm, im 17, so no."
She shrugged before answering.
"You're awakened, you can handle some beer. But fine by me.
So, kid, before I call her, I want to test you too."
She quickly drank down the cans before easily crushing them and jumping up from the couch.
"Follow me, we'll go down to the training room."
Ragna started following her down a pair of stairs, anticipating what was about to happen.
'I can spar against an ascended ? I should definitely analyze the fight after we are done and learn from it. This is a chance that won't appear that often to me.'
Effie moved towards the trainings plaza and picked up a sword, before throwing it to Ragna.
"No memories allowed, except for an armor type Memory for you, since I don't want to accidentally kill you."
Ragna leaned down to pick up the wooden sword.
'Is she underestimating me or just confident ?'
"Aren't you going to use a weapon ?"
Effie grinned.
"No, my fists will be enough for you.", she said while crackling her knuckles.
'She sure is muscular so I shouldn't underestimate her physical strength, especially because she's awakened."
Ragna got into his fighting stance and manifested his first memory, the redfur cloak.
' I won't use my augmentation yet, I need to suprise her'
Before Ragna could even say that he was ready, Effie had already lunged forward, the distance between disappearing in a fraction of a second.
Just a second ago, Ragna didn't want to augment himself yet, but he knew that he wouldn't survive if he didn't.
He augmented his body and stumbled to the right, dodging her strike just barely.
"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME ?!"
"You're just too slow, kid !", Effie taunted before following up with another strike.
Ragna adjusted his grip on the sword and turned around to deflect her strike, but her power made the weak training sword shatter in just one strike, her fist going right through the wood and hitting Ragnas chest, throwing him backwards.
Ragna landed on his knees, gasping for air. He wasn't at his best right now, but he knew that even if he was, that he had no chance against her.
'She's way too strong. Does her aspect directly make her physical strength higher ? I really need to come up with a plan or I'll die.'
He threw the hilt of the sword away, since the blade had shattered just before.
While Ragna stood up, Effie had already dashed towards him once more, getting closer to Ragna. But that was just what he had wanted.
'I hope I'll atleast have some essence left.'
He concentrated on the blood that went through Effies leg muscles and disabled the bloodflow, making her legs go limp. Effie stumbled forward, catching herself with her hands.
But that singular second was just enough for Ragna to augment his legs, dash through the air and kick her face as hard as he could.
But to his horror, Effie didn't even flinch.
As Ragna pulled back his leg, he just saw how Effie was grinning and licking her lips, before standing up again.
"You're more interesting than I thought. Let's get a little bit more serious now."
——-Author's Notes——-
Words: 1506
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