Chương 100: Surprise Visitor V

"Still nowhere near your level." Evel managed, her surprisingly soft hands still cradling his jaw. His heart was racing, and his breathing rapid. Probably from the duel.

"Of course not. Other than when you trapped me with the skydart, you've never been on my level." Their first interaction had caused her to think he was a creep, and in their second interaction, she tried to kill him. It had been so long since the days they sat in front of the trapped beasts, killing their boredom with those pink fruits.

"I really had you beat, huh?"

"Hardly. It was a tie, at best."

"I tried searching for Inanes a few times, but they don't sell 'em here in Ichoris." He reminisced. She released his jaw and took a long breath.

"Maybe you should quit." His smile froze.

"What?" She pushed himself up and walked to a nearby tree, snapping off one of the branches. She turned back around.

"Let's make one thing clear." Her smile had faded.

"The true gap between us isn't because your martial prowess is less than mine. Get up." Evel coughed and wiped off the sweat that had formed on his face. Pushing himself up to his feet, he watched Diana closely.

"This time," Diana said, "we'll fight with our abilities." She took off her contact, ridding herself of her one silver eye and placed it with the rest of her stuff. Then, she pointed the branch forward at him. Evel narrowed his eyes. She was stronger, but her ability was that of an archer. Her strength lay in her incredible skills with the bow, which she combined with her empowered arrows to make a terrifying combo. He, on the other hand, had an ability he could now use directly in close combat.

Although initially he'd relied on it in mid-range scenarios, he'd developed his fighting style a lot since then. The battle would be difficult, but there was no reason for it to be any more difficult than his last. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he returned a curt nod.

"You know," Diana stepped forward, "I never actually figured out your ability." Evel rolled his shoulders forward.

"Nobody has." Diana narrowed her eyes.

"You didn't tell your teacher?" Evel shrugged again. It was only because he kept his ability secret that he'd been alive up till now, so why was it such a surprise that he didn't tell Albert?

"Aren't you limiting what he can teach you? He looked pretty capable to me."

"Maybe, but that's the choice I made."

"Well, not that it really matters." Diana raised her chin.

"I don't need to know your ability. I'm just that much stronger." This didn't feel like a playful mock. No, her previous smile fully disappeared; she truly meant her words. Evel gritted his teeth. He'd just steeled himself to continue down the path, and now she was trying to take it away from him. He just needed to show her how wrong she was.

"Fine." he held her gaze.

"Show me." Taking his words as confirmation, their auras surged outward at the exact same time — Diana with her stick, and Evel with Eth floating near him. He kept Eth close. He needed the hand for when he got into close quarters with her. Getting close also prevented her from making full use of her ability. Right now, she has some sort of effect on her stick. I need to bait it out. She still doesn't know my ability, and I can't let her figure it out. I'll try to end things as quickly as possible.

Diana didn't seem to care or didn't know about his supposed close-range superiority, so she approached him with the stick and lunged forward, swinging the stick at his torso. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. He leaned back, and at the same time, Eth nudged Diana's hand slightly off course. Following up, he pushed forward, but before he could get too close, she brought the stick back, so he had to back off.

If it had an explosion attached to it, she couldn't afford to get hit. But he also couldn't give her space, so he continued pushing forward. A glint flashed in her eye. Just as he was about to get close, Diana smacked her own arm with the stick. His entire body tensed as he jumped back. A billow of smoke expanded from her hand, completely enveloping her. Did she mess up? A surge of aura came from the smoke, and with it a few coughs. Just a few seconds later, a gust of wind expanded again, pushing the smoke aside.

Her ability flared once more. Just how many times can she use that? He knew her affinity was high—93 was no joke—but she'd already used it thrice in short succession, and two of those times had only injured her. Wasn't she being too reckless? So far, Evel had barely used his at all. His energy reserves were almost full. The fight was going well. Diana charged in again, and he charged back. Just as the two were about to clash, she swung again, but she was still too far from him to make contact. What's she thinking?

At the last moment of her swing, she let go of the stick, causing it to fly towards his feet. Evel jumped back. BOOOM! A massive explosion rumbled from the ground beside him. Her ability flared again. Dammit! Diana's figure rapidly approached, this time with a pebble in her hand. Shit! He scrambled to his feet and leaped out of the way as she launched the pebble at him. Another explosion. Another surge of her aura. In the trial, it took her much longer to charge each ability.

Now, it was like she could do it almost instantaneously! Evel held firm. If she's enchanting it that fast, it's got to have an additional cost. No way an explosive arrow like that can be made that quickly without insane cost to her reserves. His strategy had changed; he just had to wait out her reserves! Another pebble rapidly barreled at him, and Evel launched his body to the side once more to dodge it. This time, the explosion didn't follow.

He felt his stomach drop as he watched the rock she threw clack lightly as it rolled across the ground. He turned to look at Diana, who stood tall, looking down on him. Shit. He tried scrambling to his feet, but another pebble was already barreling towards him. This time, the one with the enchantment. If he had had his cards, he could have tried to deflect it in the air, but without them, he was helpless. Making a quick decision, he sent Eth forward, the spectral hand clashing with the pebble mid-air. BOOOOM!

Evel screamed out and clenched his head. The pain of a searing hot metal held up to his brain rushed over him. This was a sensation he'd experienced a lot in the past. Every time he pushed his ability to the limit in his training, and even more so when he used sunken vials. He experienced it so often that he thought he'd gotten used to it… But Eth getting forcefully destroyed was so much worse than overtraining. He'd gravely miscalculated; the explosion would have hurt less.

The searing pain lightened, and he regained his thoughts. Slowly, he looked up. Diana was upon him. She swung her leg, crashing to his chest as he soared back. He skidded across the ground, his momentum finally broken by his back making contact with a tree. The branches rustled as trees gently floated down. Evel slowly lifted his head and attempted to push himself to his feet. With the torture in his mind, the impact of the kick and the tree was hardly felt, and he still managed to get up. Diana was already there.

He tried getting into a defensive position in a desperate attempt to catch his footing. By the time his hands were raised, she'd already swept him off his feet. His shoulders crashed to the ground. Scrambling, he looked up.

"Do you understand the gap now?" she asked.

"What differentiates us is our abilities." His breathing was quick as he tried to recover from the onslaught he'd just received, but even if he pushed himself up, Diana was ready to get him again.

"If... if I had my cards," he stammered. Then he could have deflected the pebbles without issues. Then he could have created some threat she had to deal with. He also wasn't fighting to win; he fought fairly and without any weird strategies to catch her off guard.

"You think you'd have a better chance if I had my bow?" He swallowed his words. He just didn't have a reply. If she used her bow, she could remain outside his range as she rained down empowered shots. Her ability was just too ridiculous. She lowered her chin to stare directly at him, holding his gaze. Evel never really had a great read on Diana, but at this moment he didn't feel like he understood her at all. Just a few minutes ago, she was joking around, and now her expression had turned deadly serious.

Intimidating, even. He felt the same way as he had felt when looking at the Mayor. An impossible peak to scale that he'd never hoped to overcome.

"Quit." Her voice was almost a whisper.

"You won't make it on the front lines. Not with your affinity, and especially not with your personality." He clenched the grass under his fists. His personality? He grit his teeth. Dammit. She looked down on him for a few more seconds before softly shaking her head and walking to her equipment. The air was too thick to breathe. He had just decided he'd continue pushing forward, and now she told him to quit. What bullshit logic was that? Wasn't it she who helped him see just how far he'd come?

Equipping all her gear, Diana began walking away into the forest, slow and unbothered.

"The frontlines?" The words came through bared teeth.

"What do you know about the frontlines anyway?" Diana stopped walking but didn't turn around to acknowledge him.

"I'll be there." His breathing got heavier.

"I'm not as far from you as you think." A pause.

"I'll be there on the frontlines." The only reason he'd lost so badly was that he wasn't desperate enough to win. Desperate enough to come up with ideas on the fly. He had grown stronger. He waited for her to turn back and tell him she'd be waiting for him. For her to joke 'I'd like to see you try.' For the third time this evening, he stopped Diana from leaving But this time, she didn't turn back. He watched her back as she disappeared into the dark forest without another word.