Chương 10: Spar
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Ais shot towards me at several times the speed she'd used before and sent a furious combination thrusts in my direction, I went on to the defensive and used the flat of my blade to block her attacks matching the speed of her strikes.
She suddenly phased out of sight. I felt the hairs on my back stand up, and I sidestepped out of the way just in time as her Ale skewered the air where I'd been standing from behind me.
Following from the sidestep, I swung Gale around and slashed towards her neck. She fully expected this and ducked in time, pulling Ale in close to her. AS my blade passed by her head, she thrust forward to my stomach.
Quicker than she expected, I jumped up so fast it appeared as if I had just glitched out of my spot. But her eyes followed me perfectly, and widened as I brought Gale around in an overhead motion midair as I flipped, intending to hack down like an axe.
She back flipped out of the way as Gale smashed into the ground, throwing up rocks and dirt everywhere as the ground around us shook with the impact. A large dust cloud rose up from the crater I had made, creating a smokescreen.
I stilled waiting to hear anything that moved. I heard the sound of somebody landing on the tip of their boot behind me before Ais vaulted out of the dust with her weapon pointed at my face.
Using Gale again, I deflected again but then realized I'd fallen for a trap as Ais kicked out with the flat of her foot. Seeing the path of its trajectory, I momentarily felt the fear of having my knee broken or dislocated. Her aim was to make me falter an drop to the ground. Ans it looked as if she spared no amount of her real strength to accomplish it.
Her boot connected with the side of my knee with all the force a high-level five could muster. But to both of our surprises, more to hers than mine, my leg held fast and did not even budge. It looked as if she may have well been a child kicking a tree. She stared up at me as I smirked at her.
"That may have worked on anybody else Ais. But it is futile to try and deal me any bodily harm that way." I said cockily. She jumped backwards as I made a move to grab her foot and settled into a defensive stance.
I turned Gale around so that I would use the flat of it instead of its edge. I didn't want to create a slicing shockwave after all with the amount of strength I was going to put into this.
With one mighty swing, I brought Gale around to release a large shockwave. Ais covered her face with her arms as the wind howled around her, but the point of this was not an attack. No, because what it did instead was remove the dust cloud in a rather dramatic fashion in the eyes of our audience.
I stood there and waited for Ais to regain her bearings. Once she did so, she wasted no time in lunging forwards and launching another combo of attacks again. I smiled and raised Gale to intercept her as we traded blows with furious intensity, the shockwaves of our clash shaking the environment around us.
---
(General POV)
"So what do you think of our new friend Captain?" Tione asked, standing a little closer to Finn.
Finn took a few steps away from her while holding his chin in observation of the fight.
"Well true to his words, it would appear that he is not a swordsman primarily. He doesn't have much technique, all though he seems to know the basics."
"But how can he keep up with Ais skills if his own swordsmanship is mediocre at best?"
"It's because he's holding back." Finn said.
"Huh?!" Tione blinked as did Tiona who had stopped sniffing the cape in her hands as she looked at her Captain in shock. "What do you mean?"
"Have you not noticed? Despite being on the defensive most of the time, he's actually been holding his own with no strain on his part. He's not even breathing heavily, and every time he moves, it appears to be faster than before. Whereas Ais is quite clearly growing fatigued now that she has brought out her real moves.
The only reason Garth can keep up with her is because of his speed. Though his movements are small, he's quite clearly able to move faster than her. It stands to reason that his perception is also faster. So instead of using technique to make quick decision like one would normally do in a fight, he's able to see her attack coming and can either block, deflect or attack based on what Ais is doing."
"But how does that mean he's holding back?"
"Because look at the way he dodges, the way his agility outpaces her own. The way he moves, the way he guards his body even behind a sword. His stance, his manner of attacks. He's quite clearly a monk fighter. And if his strength is to attest to anything so far, its safe to assume that he is holding back a lot of his usual moves since he's using a sword."
"He doesn't look at all tired. And the way he swings that giant sword round like it's some sort of twig probably means he's also holding back a lot of his strength." Tiona said, her eyes gleaming.
"Exactly. Meanwhile, Ais is progressively getting tired. And she knows this, but she appears to be focused on trying to open a hole in his defenses. But...I must say that if Garth decides to take an offensive stance, I don't have much confidence that Ais will win. While she's clearly the better fighter when it comes to the sword, she still isn't stronger."
"Great~" Tione moaned. "Ais is already obsessed with becoming as strong as possible. If this newbie who is definitely her inferior in sword play manages to beat her with strength and speed alone, we're never going to be able to keep her in the manor. She'll either be farming as much Excelia as she can in the dungeon, or constantly trying to fight with him to raise her stats."
"Don't forget Riveria~" Tiona said cheekily. "She's already obsessed with learning more about his magic. If it wasn't for all that paper work you dumped on her Captain, she'd be out here right now begging for more insight on it."
"Speaking of..." Finn said as he continued to watch the two exchange rapid blows with each other. Garth suddenly jumped and flipped forwards with an axe kick that shattered the ground and created spider cracks all around him. Ais barely managed to survive being flattened by his heel.
"I observed his magic this time around." Finn continued. "And true to Riveria's words, his magic really is different from our own."
"How so? I don't really see anything different about it." Tione said confused.
"That's because you focus on the attack itself rather than how it is formed. His magic does feel like magical power but it feels...different, and somehow more potent."
"Maybe its a different casting method? He doesn't seem to use chants that much. Its like he literally just has to say the name of the spell and he casts it."
"That's the thing. His casting methods are different. For one, his magic circles appear to be different. They look more complex, and even to me, every sigil in each of the rings just seem to scream with power. Riveria has studied every casting method under the sun. But never has she seen magic like his. Makes you question where he came from, and who he learnt from..."
"What do you think he is Captain?"
"He's definitely human if that's what you're asking. He doesn't seem to be anything else. But if you're asking about who he is in more than name? I'm not sure. To possess this level of strength prior to having a Falna is unheard of even in the old stories."
"Then you know what that means!" Tiona squealed.
"What?"
"We are witnessing history right now! The birth of a new legend!"
"Huh, I guess you're right." Finn chuckled before looking back to the fight which had appeared to reach its climax. "Looks like its about to end. Look what Ais is doing."
The twins stared.
"Is she using her magic?!" Tione shouted.
"That's impossible! Even against him, to use that on a newbie, it can't have become this hard for her." Tiona shouted with equal shock.
"I'm taken aback as well. But seeing how this spar has turned out, its honestly not that surprising. Question is, how will Garth respond?"
---
Ais jumped back from the reach of my Gale as sweat poured down her brow. Her breathing was ragged and her arms were near limp from the constant impact of our clashes. Every time I blocked and parried, she may as well have been striking a rock since I just didn't move. And every time she connected with me, its would jar her arms, hence their current condition.
"I think its about time we ended this, don't you think Ais?" I called out to her. For the first time this whole day, she smiled and shook her head.
"No I'm not done yet." She gulped in a large breath of air as she narrowed her eyes at my relaxed breathing and stance.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Hm?"
"How did you become so strong?"
I pondered my answer. I couldn't just tell her that I received my powers from the get-go and hadn't actually trained for them. If I did, there was no telling what everybody's reaction would be. I decided to be cryptic.
"Not all of us are born equally." Her face scrunched up int a confused look.
"What does that mean?"
"It means that not all of us are born the same. Some are born into wealth, some are born into poverty. Some are born to be big while others are born to be small. Some are meant to be a leader, and others must follow them. Some are born to forever be weak..." I paused and tilted my head to her. "...or they are born to rise to the pinnacle of strength. Our fates are written down for us the moment we are born. It doesn't matter how we do things, because in the river of time, its then end result that counts the most. I was born to become this strong simply because fate demanded it of me."
"So we can only be strong if that is what is written in our destiny?" Ais tilted her head questioningly.
"Yes."
"In that case, let me end this with one last move."
"By all means." Ais sheathed her sword and put one leg behind the other. A sphere of green wind circled around her. This was her special power Ariel if I recalled. It boosted her speed and strength one level above her current one if I remember correctly. If that was the case, then that also meant her magic would be...
"Lil Rafaga!"
Ais lunged at me with speed that outstripped everything she had performed so far.
...there it is.
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