Chương 104: Chapter 109: Sparring

"Wait a second," Elias raised his hands.

"First tell me something, what are we trying to do here? Do I have to do something in particular other than fight?" Vix was excitedly jumping from one foot to the other in a particular way. His movements were like he was dancing, fluid to an impossible degree.

"Nah, just show me all you've got. Aura, skills, curses, tricks… you can try anything you want. Not that it will work, but at least it will tell me how good you are at using the tools you have. Now, as your senior, I'll let you have the first move." I watched him. He was so eager about this, while I was not ready. Head in the game. I'm sure I can't beat him, but at least I should put up a good fight.

Ok, we're doing this, and he has the same amount of stats as me, but probably not distributed in the same way, so he'll probably be faster and stronger. But my mental attributes should be higher… how could I use that to my advantage? I started to infuse mana into my armor, the vambraces and sabatons expanding to cover me completely, except for my head. That I should fix soon. A helmet or some kind of protection was needed.

"Really? Armor? Isn't the aura enough to protect you?"

"I'm working with what I got, and this armor stores lifeforce, so…" I could see his expression morphing into one of disgust.

"Who the hell created that thing? A tier II trash armor with those kind of capabilities… such a waste."

"What is a—""Enough chit-chat, come at me or I will come at you," said Vix with a grin. Fine, how about this. I roused my aura fully. It exited my body and enveloped me like a grey flame. The world went monochrome as I infused my eyes with it. Then in a second I multicasted several hexes to reduce his speed and shot three arcane darts, two at his eyes and one at his left leg. Then a blast exploded just behind his back. I saw Vix take a step forward and to the left, like he were strolling in the park.

His own aura absorbed the blast at his back, he didn't even turn. The three darts all missed by inches and the hexes slid off him, finding no purchase. I stared at him for a second. What?

"That's it?" he said with surprise.

"I was expecting something interesting. This is, well, I admit that for someone a week in the tutorial it is pretty good, but not more than that. You fight technically, uninspiring. Try again. But this time, I'll fight back." Fuck, let's do this. I sprinted forward. Melee wasn't really my forte, but I had a plan. I created a cage of darts. Fifteen appeared simultaneously around the blue alien, all primed to pincushion him. But that was only a distraction.

I let them go as I propelled myself forward with the air of my aura and a little use of an arcane blast under my foot to push my speed higher. In a moment I was in front of him, the darts were nearly closing in… except that he wasn't there anymore. I felt his presence with my arcane sense, on my left, just out of my field of view. I instinctively raised my left arm, but before I could channel a blast my feet got swept out and I found myself airborne, horizontal to the ground.

I could see the wooden beams of the ceiling, the knots in the wood and the high window showing just a fragment of the sky. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Time seemed to slow. I could see, and feel, an aura coated hand chop down towards my chest. It was beautiful, that aura… all the shades of orange were contained there, the only color I could see in this black and white world I was living in.

As the hand cut into my own aura seemingly without any resistance whatsoever, I sprung my trap. It wasn't how I wanted it to go, but it was the best I could get. A blast tore free from the point that hand touched my aura. A bass boom sounded in the building as the hand got pushed away and I was pushed down by my own skill. The impact got absorbed by the armor and my aura, but still it rattled me a little. I pushed against the unyielding wooden floor and rose quickly to my feet thanks to a push with my aura.

I was about to attack again when I saw Vix standing still, looking at me with a grin.

"That was slightly better. Use that higher processing speed. Your intelligence stat is way higher than mine, that's your advantage. Again." I started casting hexes like crazy. After depleting probably twenty percent of my mana pool I managed to stick one. A little single hex to reduce his ludicrous speed. Malign Intensification, Drain the Accursed, Curse Rebinding. I sent three curses on him, Resonant Suffering, Duskvision and Hollow Echo. I saw him sag for a moment, all three curses taking hold.

These were definitely more powerful than a simple hex. I would have liked to put in the middle even the Curse of the Withered Vessel, but that was too powerful. I wasn't sure I could wrestle it back under control if it escaped the mace again. Instead I had an idea for that. I could feel the smallest trickle of lifeforce coming towards me as I spun three different energies all together for a single strike. He was already approaching, slower than before but just barely. I had time before he reached me.

I created a javelin made of aura hovering over my right hand, solidified and compressed. Then I superimposed a will infused arcane dart, created in part with the stolen lifeforce. The skill expanded as I overcharged it with Arcane Infusion. As it reached the same size as my aura one, they started to mix and vibrate in my hand. Vix now was just in front of me, a palm strike heading to my solar plexus. I couldn't throw the projectile, but I managed to barely angle it towards him and let it go.

A roaring sound erupted from the unstable construct. As it accelerated in the small space available it was about to pierce into Vix, but something absurd happened. He took it. With one of his four hands he snatched it out of the air. Then before I could do anything else but watch he swung it to my side. BOOM! An explosion sent me hurling away. I slammed a couple of times into the floor then I impacted the wall. Oh fuck… that hurt. But my aura protected me from the worst of it.

I was probably just bruised, no bones broken or anything of the sort. I quickly tried to get to my feet just to see Vix pointing a sword like construct made of aura at my throat. All the while he was studying a fragment of the javelin I had created. It was coated in his own aura, probably stabilized by it, because I still had a connection with it and I could feel like it wanted nothing more than to explode.

"Interesting… you have a talent in mixing energies. But let's try something else now. Just fight with your aura, leave the other skills aside. I want to see if it's worth it for you to follow this path." His sword retracted into his own aura. Then he took a step back, a single step that moved him more than ten yards away. Monster. What kind of skill was that that allowed him to move like that? I wanted it. I was sure that Quinn would like that too. But now…

I couldn't manage to scratch him with all my skills and curses combined. What could I manage to do with just one? I got up. My body hurt, but adrenaline flowed into my veins, dulling the pain. My heart was beating like a drum. You want to see what I'm capable of? I'll show you. If there is something I understood about aura it was that your will mattered more than anything. It responded to your desire and mental state. And right now, I wanted to hit him at least once.

I got up and retracted my armor, unclasped my cloak. Then I took off my weapon belt. My mace, grimoire and the wooden figurines fell on the floor, discarded, as well as the armor I wore. The stone slammed on the wooden floor, leaving no trace whatsoever. Not a scratch could be seen on the material from our fight. The thought entered and exited my mind in a heartbeat. I had to focus. Weaponless, I got into a fighting stance, my aura rousing from deep inside, churning wildly as it coated my whole body once again.

"Yes! That's the spirit! C'mon human, bring it on! Show me the depth of your will!" Round two.