章節 7: Lazuli's Request
I knocked on the door of Nova and Shion's room to be answered by the man himself.
"Lazuli?" Nova said with his usual blank and emotionless manner.
"Hi Nova." I said brushing a string of hair behind my ear. "Can I come in or is it a bad time?"
"No, I don't mind, you can come in if you wish." He said gesturing me inside.
I entered the room, walking past Nova in the tight doorway, forcing me to get right up close to Nova causing my cheeks to go red slightly.
I quickly ran to the sofa and jumped on it to try and hide my embarrassment.
I hadn't realised before the incident with me pressing myself up against him unconsciously, but I found Nova very attractive and happened to be the textbook definition of my type. Tall, blue eyes and an aura of mystery. That last one sounds dumb I know but I can't control what I'm attracted to. Anyway, it makes getting close to Nova very embarrassing even though I'm completely fine with him at any other time.
"Anything to drink?" Nova asked from the kitchen area. "I was making myself some tea as you knocked."
"Oh I'm fine thank you." I called back.
Moments later Nova arrived with his cup of tea and sat down in the chair next to the sofa.
"Haven't seen either you or Shion since trainings started." Nova said casually. "It's been a month since training started right?"
"Yeah I'm guessing Shion's training now."
"She's on a strict schedule of training from 5am till 11:30pm and the going straight to sleep after with meals obviously in between, everyday on repeat." He said pointing at the clock which was currently reading 3pm.
"Sounds like her," I replied. "You heard the news about the Tournament's battle dimension?"
He nodded.
"Apparently Kara Cosmos The Sin Empress has taken an interest in this years Tournament and is building the dimension herself."
"Yep, this just came out but apparently, and I quote, 'because this year's Divine Tournament is holding an increased amount of incredibly strong and promising Ethereals, the battle dimension will be the size of many Multiverses - a Reality. Details of the environment of said dimension has not been confirmed' end quote."
Nova nodded again sighing sounding like he saw this coming.
"Kara specialises in creating pocket dimensions after all." He shrugged his shoulders.
Ok Lazuli, now comes the next part. If you wanna succeed you gotta do this.
"Hey N-Nova," I stuttered slightly. "I really want to do well in this tournament and was wondering if you could train me a little."
Nova is not a very expensive person. It would not be far fetched to assume he's emotionless as he always has a blank look on his face which makes his bright blue eyes come with a cold look in them. It's almost impossible to surprise or get a reaction from him and even if you somehow do the most you'll get is him widening his eyes slightly for a moment. There are only two times when I've seen actual emotion appear on his face. He looked genuinely nervous and shocked when the Carrion incident happened and him actually smiling slightly when fighting (well more like beating up) Kuni.
Nova spat out the tea he had currently been drinking.
"You want me to WHAT!?" He yelled he said suddenly inches away from my face.
Too close, Too close, Too close, TOO! CLOSE!
My face must have gone slightly red again as realisation seemed to flash across his face before it returned back to its usual blank look as he sat back down.
"I asked if you could train me." I answered a little startled.
"No."
"Why not." I whined.
"We have completely different Classes for one and I also have my own training to do as well."
"I'm not asking for you to train me for the whole time before the Tournament." I said quickly trying to salvage the situation. "Just a few days, maybe a week. All I want to learn is how to get faster and to acquire the Barrier Skill."
Come on Nova I know you wanna 'keep a low profile' and all that but let's be honest, you're about as unknown as Shion a clown running around the school wearing a multicoloured shirt.
Nova raised an eyebrow.
"The Skill Barrier huh. Well that changes" He took a sip of his tea. "absolutely nothing, the answer is still no."
"You owe me big time for this." Nova said very clearly annoyed by the tone of his voice, his face just as expressionless as ever.
We were standing in the middle of a Clash Dimension, one with the environment of a forest.
Nova took in a deep breath as if he as tired.
"Ok I need to spar you quickly first."
My heart began to beat much quicker. After seeing what he did to Kuni I'd rather not fight him.
"Don't worry" Nova said reassuringly. "I'm not going to go on the attack, all I'm going to do is defend and counter.
"Your Barrier Skill though." I pointed out.
Kuni is actually quite modest with his power surprisingly. He'll say he can destroy a planet or two maybe even a Sun at his 100% but I've been sparing him for a few weeks and from what I could tell he's definitely at a level of strength that is capable of destroying a Solar System or three. Considering the fact at my max I can only destroy the surface of planet and since you have to be worth 25% of a Barrier Skill's user in order to break it while also considering the fact Kuni didn't land a single hit on Nova, being able to land even one attack on Nova is impossible for me.
"Don't worry about that," he said dismissing my worries. "We'll say that every attack that gets blocked by Barrier and not by myself personally will count as you actually landing a hit on me"
I shrugged my shoulders satisfied.
That seems fair. Passive Skills aren't Skills you can activate or deactivate, they're always switched on after all.
"Ok so when the bell rings we'll start?"
"Yep." Nova replied.
3
2
1
*Ding*
Nova said it himself, he won't attack me, only defend and counter so I'm going to abuse that time he's given me. Any attack that hits Nova's Barrier will count as me actually landing an attack so I'll need speed to hit him before he can dodge or block.
"Herculean: Multiply 5x." I said and instantly felt myself grow much, much stronger as my physical strength increased dramatically.
the Skill Wall won't do anything to help me actually hit him but it will allow me to tank more of Nova's hits so I'll activate that as well.
"Enchanted Magic Activate. Strength: increase Maximum, Speed: increase Maximum, Durability: increase Maximum, Thought Acceleration: increase Maximum, All Five Senses: increase Maximum, Information Processing: increase Maximum, Pain Resistance: increase Maximum, Damage Reduction: increase Maximum and Auto Heal: increase maximum."
A lightly tinted blue aura erupted around me, sending great gusts of wind that sent sticks, stones and any loose debris flying in every direction. The veins in my arms glowed a blue colour as my hair started floated upwards as if it was underwater. As I got into a fighting stance the ground cracked beneath my feet as Nova calmly took his hands out of his pockets.
"You seem ready." He said. "Now bring it."
I rocketed forward many times faster than the speed of sound, tearing up the ground beneath my feet with every step.
Thought Acceleration allows me to do exactly as it sounds, allowing me to to think much faster though it doesn't increase my speed at all. With it increased to the maximum one minute of my thought process is equivalent to 0.2 seconds in real time allowing me to easily predict the movements of my opponent and formulate whole strategies within less than a second.
Nova's hands are out of his pockets and he would be able to block a head on attack from me if he activates the Flash Skill however, considering my speed, it's more than likely I'll be able to hit him before he activate it. After I've hit him he will have activated it so I'll have to be ready to block or dodge his counter attack. Yeah this should work.
I threw a punch which he caught faster than my eyes could follow with his counter punch already less than a few millimetres away from my face.
Even with my thought acceleration, I barely even followed that and his punch was already that close to my face! Shit! I'm not fast enough to dodge.
As soon as I realised it, the punch connected like a bolt of lightning and I felt myself being sent flying through the forest before everything went black.
I opened my eyes to see the sky and the tops of trees. I then felt a massive throbbing in my jaw like I had been hit with a metal bat. I suddenly remembered everything and sat straight up holding my jaw with one of my hands.
Man thit hurts like bitch.
"Welcome back."
I turned to see Nova sitting at the bottom of a tree a few feet away from me.
"How long was I out for?" I asked quickly.
"About 10 minutes, maybe 20." He answered.
Not too long huh. Now for the slightly embarrassing part.
"How long was the fight?" I sighed heavily. "If you could even call it that. Was I at least slightly faster than you expected?"
Nova gave something that could be a grimace on his expressionless face.
"I won't lie. It lasted 0.1 seconds and you were actually slightly slower than I expected." He said bluntly.
Ouch. Spare my feelings much.
"Did you even activate the Skill Flash?"
Nova raised an eyebrow.
"You do remember my Incarnation Skill makes my base speed faster than sound by 50x right?"
"Yeah... Bullshit you're a Lion Rank." I snapped back.
Nova shrugged his shoulders before helping me up.
"Good thing is I know exactly what your doing wrong and how to improve."
"And the learning of Barrier?"
"We'll get to that." Nova said waving away the question.
"Ok so what do I need to improve on?"
"There are two main things." Nova said. "One, you rely too much, or you find it easier, to activate your enchantments via speech. This costs you valuable time and gives your opponent plenty of time to attack."
He nailed it on the spot. I find much easier activating the enchantments by saying them aloud as I can picture the effects better that way.
"Your right." I said beginning to feel down. "It's easier for me to imagine the effects of the Enchantments."
"I see." Nova nodded. "Enchantments are like Skills and there is a way to speed up the process of activating them."
"I'm all ears."
"I'm guessing you activate your actual Skills via thought or via remembering feeling when they are active. Instead of trying to imagine what the effects of the enchantment looks like, try to remember how they feel like once activated. Remember that feeling and use it to activate said enchantment. With enough practice it should be like breathing."
"Your not a Tanker Class so how do you know this?" I questioned.
It was a valid question after all.
"As I said earlier Skills and enchantments are very similar to the point they're almost identical. You can activate Skills via speech as well but everyone quickly realises it's more efficient to do it via some other method."
He's not wrong.
"Theoretically, enchantments should behave the same way and the method I gave you is the exact way I use to activate my own Skills that need activation."
I thought what Nova said over and what he said couldn't be faulted.
It makes a lot of sense and the logic was sound, it just would take some time to getting used to.
"Now number two." Nova continued. "How you increase your speed."
This one is important. Tanker Classes are all about raw strength and power which leads to many of us having a disadvantage with speed even with our enchantments.
"You rely too much on your Skills to increase your speed."
"How else am I supposed to do it then?" I said putting my hands on my hips and raising an eyebrow.
"Ethos is more than just a fuel source for Skills, it's an ability of its own." Nova explained. "You wonder why there is such big gaps in power between your typical Dragon Ranked Ethereal and the strongest Dragon Ranks and Demon Ranks. It's because the majority view it as nothing more than a fuel source for Skills and in turn actually limit themselves because of this. This is because most have the image of Ethos like this, they imagine it's in some kind of storage space or tank within themselves which they then draw out when using to fuel Skills or something similar."
Nova was completely right. For me anyway, I view my Ethos being stored it my gut like a gas tank which I then draw out to activate my Skills.
"Ethos is something we can manipulate. That's a fact we've seen it happen before many times."
Nova was referring to the Cosmos siblings, more specifically Diablo. In one of his public appearances, Diablo extended out this red coloured energy which he used to form weapons, tendrils, shields, blast attacks among other numerous things. It was very clear that was Ethos itself that he was extending out and bending to his will.
"Are you telling me to that?!" I said almost shrieking.
"No I'm not." Nova said. "Manipulating Ethos like that is not something you or any other Ethereals, besides the Cosmos's, are capable of. The way they can manipulate Ethos in that is something I can't explain as I don't know myself."
I looked at Nova and saw the almost annoyed look in his eyes. He was telling the truth.
"What I'm telling to do is to stop viewing it as a fuel source that is being kept in one place like a storage tank. This will take a while but try to imagine it as like a secondary blood if you will. Something that is pumped all around your body boosting its abilities and properties and it will in turn increase your physical capabilities dramatically. This is why, although I'm an Assassin Class, I can punch and have the strength of some of the strongest Tanker Classes."
Nova paused to let me process everything he just said.
Imagine it's like blood being pumped around my body. That make sense but.
"Imagining it like that all the time sounds incredible hard though." I pointed out.
Nova nodded.
"It is but you don't have to imagine it like that 24/7 just yet." He offered. "Instead, try to imagine it like a secondary blood just before you go into a fight or at least imagine it flowing and being pumped around the body parts you want to be boosted."
"Ok, that sounds a little easier and the method for training myself to do this?"
"A form of meditation is my best suggestion." Nova offered scratching his head. "You can lay down or sit down and imagine it pumping around your body and remember that image so you can flick it on like a switch for battle."
I nodded to this.
We have just around a month or so before the Tournament and although I don't think I can pump it all around my body 24/7, I do think I can imagine it like a switch in my head which I can turn on and off at will. Nova must be able to do it 24/7, or at least close to that degree, if he can explain it and have this much knowledge on the subject. I underestimated how strong Nova really is.
"This manipulation of Ethos, does it link into attaining Barrier by the way?"
"That's why I'm telling you this." He replied
My attention was suddenly on full alert after hearing that.
"The only way to get the Skill is via hereditary means or a specific kind of training which is very brutal. Barrier doesn't just block attacks, it blocks anything that can harm the user if it's worth 25% of the user's power or less. Since you don't already have the Skill, hereditary means are out the window. The training you must do is to launch attacks at yourself that are stronger than 25% of your power. You then have to imagine your Ethos form an invisible shield around you that can block the attacks and you must do this over and over again only stopping when you come close to death. It's a gruelling training but it's the only other way to acquire the Skill. The time it takes to acquire it varies as well but it's guaranteed you'll get it anywhere from a single week to a whole five years of doing this training."
I let that sink in.
Launch attacks at myself repeatedly over and over again until I get close to death every single day for possibly up to five years. That's insane, ridiculous, suicidal!
"Many people have given up, some even died because they pushed themselves too much. I wasn't lucky to gain the Skill at birth and had to do the training for four and half years."
A question popped in my head.
"Nova I will do the training but I have to know one thing before so."
Nova paused for a moment before nodding.
"I'll answer any question as a reward for the training."
"Ok but I must know." I said seriously. "Barrier blocks any thing that can harm you as long as it or the opponent is worth 25% of your or less power correct? Kuni was going all out but couldn't land a single hit on you because of Barrier. How much of your power were you using against him during the fight?"
After hearing how strong of a Skill Barrier was and how long Nova did the training for I had to know. Launching attacks at yourself again and again would also strengthen your overall power while your body became more durable and used to it. Doing it for four and half years would significantly increase your overall power as well as gaining the Barrier Skill.
I could have sworn a brief look of irritation flashed over Nova's face before he answered.
"I did say I'd answer any question and I keep my promises." He said looking down. "The percentage of the power I was using during the peak of the fight,"
He looked up at me with a serious look in his eyes.
This would probably be the only time I'd be able to gauge how strong Nova really was.
I held my breath.
"Less than 1%." Nova answered.
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