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Chapter 96 (Bk 2). A Friendly Spar
🕑 Added 2025-06-07 15:00:06 +0000 UTCA spar with the girl who'd almost killed him once? Rafe decided it was as good a time as any to have a bit of revenge.
Of course one thing Rafe was determined to do was not show off just how skilled he was. He couldn't expose any more of his techniques. He couldn't blatantly show any combat skills.
He tightened his hold on his aura skill. Hestus suspected him, but no one else had felt the full extent of his aura. It was imperative he keep it that way.
He wondered what Hestus thought about his aura. Could he tell how low Rafe's level really was? But Rafe's skill was much stronger than any F grade’s should be. He'd be surprised if Hestus knew what he'd felt that day.
Rafe launched himself first. Filoria got ready to block his first blow. An error she would live to regret. She was still young and inexperienced, so maybe it was appropriate.
With a simple tag on the skill formation in his soul, his body heavy blow skill activated. Filoria Benhaven went flying. She did not collide with the ground like he expected. A thread of water pulled her up like a puppet. It righted her.
“That was stronger than I expected,” she said. “Impressive.”
Rafe kept his attention on her, not bothering to respond to her obvious taunting. She was stronger than him. He had fought strong individuals in the Skyholm trial, but none of them had been close to the peak of the F grade. And none of them had been using insights.
Besides, Filoria was a mage warrior hybrid. If she could use her insights to both augment her techniques and spells, then she'd provide a worthy challenge for him.
And she could. As she charged him, Rafe felt the air around him start to cool. He didn't worry about it at first, but then the cold spread. It started to become more pronounced. More unnatural.
Something in his mind clicked. What was a worthy first concept technique for him to develop once he had the time and space? It would be that ability he'd seen back before he'd regained his memories. The first thing Rafe would learn would be a domain concept ability.
But he was in the middle of a fight. He had to focus. It had been some weeks too. Crafting was all well and good, but nothing beat a good fight every once in a while.
Filoria had higher stats than him. And her highest was agility, meaning she could move fast when she tried. Rafe had to apply his coordination to its fullest to barely follow her.
He saw when her charge faltered for a moment as she took a stance. What the hell was she doing? Her technique was not yet a natural part of her fighting style?
Yet she already had insights? Then perhaps she couldn't use concept abilities? So she wasn't yet a master according to Aeon pre system ranking?
He did not get an answer. A string of water circled Filoria's body like the ribbon of a ribbon dancer, starting from her sword.
He did not like people who fought with whips. He had seen two such people. They had also been mage warrior hybrids.
He clashed with the tip of the whip. But he was surrounded by it suddenly, and any part of its length could attack him suddenly. And they tried to imbue him with a freezing insight whenever they touched him.
He had an insight that directly countered that. He wasn't sure which it was. He had been practicing his insight into hardness, and sharpness, and momentum.
Not that it mattered. It wasn't quite a technique or a skill, but using his stats and his athletic build, he swung his body around and around. It wasn't fast enough to form a mini-twister like when he used the techniques he'd learned from Orlandir. Still, it was fast enough to get him out of Filoria's water whip cage.
That had been a spell imbued with one of her insights. The semi-frigid surrounds were just her aura again imbued with a few insights. So she wasn't using concept abilities yet? Or she could not. She was an Elemenoid after all. Her race made it easier to do things mages did.
When he cleared her trap, he looked to the place where he'd seen her last. She was not there. He spun around one more time with his axe raised.
He didn't see her. But then he heard the whoosh of someone moving fast. He turned and tried to block. Maybe pretending he didn't have any techniques was catching up with him. He fumbled that first engagement, and that seemed to spell everything. He was pushed back and badly wounded.
First off, Filoria had four hands this time. He had only tried to block her real hands, but the octopus-like extra appendages made of water had an ice sword of their own too and they cut into Rafe's left shoulder. It wasn't super deep as he'd reacted in time to only receive a probably but not definitely crippling cut.
He had to stop the bleeding while protecting himself from Filoria's onslaught using only one arm. Using a large war axe one handed? Rafe grinned at Filoria.
She saw it. And she shouted as she got more ferocious for some reason. Why though? Weren't they just having fun?
Maybe she needed to learn how fun a good spar could be. She had probably had the wrong kind of training partners thus far.
Helare and Filoria had seen him use one technique before. He couldn’t help it if she'd forgotten about it. He had to make sure it came off as amateurish and unpolished. But he needed that little bit of surprise if he was going to get through this.
She continued to attack him relentlessly. He had to watch the attacks coming from two different angles. And he was holding a heavy weapon with only one hand. Thank the system for superhuman strength and coordination.
He waited for just the right moment. Filoria was on a role. She was stuck in a comfortable rhythm. And all he had to do was fly when she least expected it.
He didn't go too high, and he fumbled about when he was in the air. He needed two hands to hold the weapon. He had always needed two hands. In fact, this was a weakness Rafe hadn't ever come across.
He had modified the technique. He had not used it a lot before. He was finding the original Earth Shattering intent useful on occasion. It was important to smash your problems at times.
Filoria floundered, losing her balance when there was no more resistance to her efforts. She stopped and looked around wide-eyed. Rafe saw all this as he prepared to descend.
He descended like a drunk god. One of his hands was dead but necessary. It seemed like he just improvised this otherwise impressive move. But he was going to smash her still.
He saw the moment she realised what was happening. The unnecessary and unwelcome audience members had finally quieted, so there was that.
Still, Rafe hadn't fought seriously in a few months. He had not considered somethings. For example, Filoria was a warrior class hybrid.
And her veil activated just like any warrior's would have. Rafe had thought she was more of a mage, but the veil was thick as any he'd had the displeasure of trying to crash.
He couldn't reach her body, but the force he'd descended with, his insight into momentum, was enough to send her sprawling and causing dust clouds on her way. Rafe was sent heaven bound, and making his landing seem somewhat graceless wasn't something he needed to worry about in the end.
The veil did not protect from collisions with the Earth, Rafe noted. More notes for his anti-veil campaign.
Rafe was used to pain. It had been a constant in his life for so long. He had not noticed the state of his left arm. When he tried to lift it, he could hardly feel it anymore.
“Well…shit,” he said.
And Filoria was already coming. He used all the speed and strength he could pull out of his soul. He even applied the parry skill. It was almost impossible for him to fail to deflect an attack made by a sword. Almost was not totally though. And Filoria's attacks were augmented by magic as a rule.
Rafe's axe was sent flying and he had to jump backwards to not be horizontally cut at chest level.
“Woah there,” he said, trying to lift both arms in a placating gesture. He failed and had to settle for only his right. “That was a little dangerous, don't you think?”
She clicked her tongue. “I could say the same about your reckless overhead attack.”
“Yeah… but I knew you had your specs to ward you. And besides, you're the strongest. How was I getting through your guard?”
She shrugged. “Maybe I trust you to slither your way out of my attacks too. Like a god-damned serpent!”
“Hey, what do you call that technique where you add a water whip to your sword and control it like a snake or whatever?”
She blinked at him, frowned, then set her face. “Yield,” she commanded.
“Hmm? Why should I?”
“You have no weapon,” she said matter of factly.
He chuckled loudly enough that everyone heard him.
“I have no weapon. I don't need those,” he lost his jovial expression. “I am the weapon.”
For a moment, Rafe felt his inner self cringe at the line, but he had finished saying it. There was nothing to be done about that now.
“This is going to be fun,” Filoria declared with a shit eating grin.
Poor girl. She did not know what she was getting herself into. She had just volunteered to be Rafe's training partner. It had been quite some time since he'd trained his unarmed combat skill.
