Chapter 76: Chapter 71 – Determination

“Athena…”, I spoke out the name of my ‘opponent’, her silky silver hair that I could not forget, her silver eyes matching her hair gave a mystic air about her.

“Where have you been? I’ve been quite worried.”, I asked her, but she didn’t reply.

In the half blown away arena, albeit the heavy breathing was clearly indicating exhaustion, Athena stood up nevertheless.

“Actually, what are you doing here?”, this was the question that had intrigued me the most, why was she here? It wouldn’t be to stop me from winning, would it? No, that wouldn’t make sense according to her actions beforehand.

Then, what could it be? Was she here to help me? Was it a cruel twist of fate that she had been paired to fight against me? No, then she could’ve easily abdicated of the match by letting herself be defeated.

Athena, didn’t answer my question, and simply held up her sword.

“You’re not going to fight, right?”, now that I knew whom I sparred blades with, I felt reluctant to raise my blade against a friend.

Athena, however seemed to have something different in mind, by picking her sword she leaped full speed towards me with the clear intent to fight.

I threw away my unusable staff, and resorted to create another ice blade. This one was even cruder then the previous one, this one seemed blockier and more robust.

Athena imbued mana into her sword, thus causing it to burn like a magic sword.

Taking her attack head on, we clashed our swords.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you? Why are you doing this, if you wanted to fight you could’ve asked me somewhere else, but not here.”, though it was questionable why she would want to fight, I’d think about it, and maybe oblige.

“…”, her mouth did not move, not even produce as little as a sound. Her eyes on the other hand, showed something close to determination, to which made me confused.

“…fight.”, a little murmur escaped her soft lips.

Before I could answer, my ice sword finally broke down into fragments.

Athena took this opportunity to plunge her sword into me.

“‘Barrier’!”, I quickly casted a barrier, blocking her movement for a small moment. “What do you mean by ‘fight’?”

I used the little time left to produce two more blades made out of ice, I could make them out of water, but it would require more mana to maintain the shape and the solid sides.

Creating ice is easy, compared to using normal water which would still work but would need more control over it. In order to make ice, one would need to slowdown the movement of the atoms(h2o), the way that is done is mostly by lowering the temperature, thus solidifying the atoms, hence slowing their movements and creating ice.

However, I am able to manipulate liquid, thus I am able to manipulate the atoms within to create ice, though had it not been my high control in mana I probably wouldn’t be able to pull it off. Had it not been some of my knowledge from back on earth, I would’ve never been able to use ice this way too, so those two played an important factor.

The barrier broke down, hence making way for her to proceed.

I used both my swords to block her attack in a cross shape. “Tell me so that I can understand.”, I pushed her away, in the process breaking my swords once again.

“…”, Athena clenched her fist in frustration.

“Master, you always do everything by yourself!”

I stood there dumbfounded by her sudden remark, albeit I’m not denying her remark, I was still questioning the meaning behind her words.

“You always think you have to do everything by yourself! You don’t even ask others for help!”, her face on the verge of tearing up with tears forming on the corners of her eyes she pointed her sword to me.

“And on the occasion you do, it’s on a whim! For all I care, you could’ve done everything alone!”, suddenly the air around her began to change, her sword glowed brighter then before.

“The only time you relied on me was back in Dawnwell, and now I barely even exist to you!”, unlike her everyday expression I was used to, what she bore now was a face of determination. Her eyes now sharp, her tears gone, hence making a menacing aura about her now.

“I—“, she interrupted me in the start of my sentence.

“Have you ever considered relying on me!?”

The moment her words reached me, I began to realize what I had done.

Back on earth, I always believed I should do everything by myself, unless I truly needed help. Because, if I kept relying on people, I would become useless myself one day. Not being able to do anything without someone else’s hand to take.

“You haven’t, have you?! That is why I fought you back then! I felt so powerless not being able to do anything!”, Athena yelled.

“That’s not it—“

“I know! You believe that you need to do everything by yourself, it’s not that you don’t want to rely on us because we’re useless, but rather because you think you’d be bothering us…”

“…but you don’t even know how selfish you are being?!”

Her sword heating up even further, a swirl of fire began forming below her feet.

“Rely on me! Rely on us! If you won’t get that much, then I’ll beat it into you!”, she held her blade with both hands, and swung it down creating a tornado of fire about to engulf me.

“‘Barrier’”, I instantly fabricated a barrier out of mana, and created a small ice shield to cover me.

“I want you to rely on me, that’s why I’ll show you how strong I am!”, together with a determined look in her face, she stepped forward and prepared to attack.

“Damn it, I really am useless when it comes down to it…”, I muttered to myself in disappointment, I looked towards the blazing beauty before me.

‘I really am pathetic, she’s going so far just for me. And I don’t even acknowledge her!”

“Fine! If you want to fight then come at me! Show me how strong you are!”, my monotone voice carried over a tinge of irritation.

I wasn’t irritated by her actions, I was irritated by myself for being so damn pathetic!

“Let’s go!”

“Yes, Master!”

 

 

 

It felt like everything else didn’t matter anymore, it was just the two of us, and no one else.

“‘Dark Bullet’, ‘Dark Bullet’, ‘Dark Bullet’!”, casting multiple pitch black bullets, I no longer cared about people seeing them, if I was going all out I would do my best to meet her expectations. (And it wasn’t as if they’d be able to tell if it was a different attribute Magic from afar.)

Athena evaded them all, remembering the effects of my magic, taking them head on would not be a good decision.

However, I did not stop there.

“See if you can dodge this!”

Spheres of water began forming around me in tens of numbers, they soon became lance shaped with a sharp end, frozen and turned into ice lances.

They began raining down on Athena.

“‘Inferno’!”, the lances were absorbed by the flaming tornado surrounding her, but the question was how long would she last?

The lances kept coming, although the consumption was putting a heavy burden on my body, I instantly recovered mana from the Skill ‘Automatic Mana Recovery’.

“Let’s spice things up a little.”, the lances began changing shape, into swords from all kinds.

‘I really just wanted to see if I could imitate a certain character.’, my true thoughts crossed my mind.

The swords kept being absorbed by the flaming tornado, yet the tornado kept on becoming smaller and less potent as they came.

Soon the spell dispersed, from within eight shadows leaped out.

Seven of them were transparent while one maintained its full opacity.

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The eight shadows approached my location with no fear of the swords raining down on them. The shadows revealed to be clones of Athena, for a second I thought I was having a dream.

I specifically aimed for the shadow with a more solid form, but the clones sacrificed themselves.

The clone got pierced in multiple spots of its body and disappeared like dust, the remaining kept on taking the damage to protect the main body.

The reason I knew who was who, is because the clones seemed less existent, or rather more transparent.

The clones kept on sacrificing themselves, until she was close enough to reach me.

Athena smiled confidently, thinking she reached out to me, just to be betrayed by what awaited her.

A humongous bubble of water floated above the sky, soon splattered turning into thousands of spears of ice.

“Did you think I aimed those spears for no reason?”, I tempted her with an annoying remark.

Once again, they ran down upon Athena, this time in huge numbers.

“‘Barrier’, ‘Barrier’, ‘Barrier’.”, Athena casted the same spell I had spammed to protect myself from her onslaught.

The barriers easily broke down, since she didn’t chant, they were rapidly made and so making them weak.

She took her second sword, and used them to parry as many projectiles as she could.

Some grazed her clothes, thus revealing her soft white skin, while others were broken by her rapid and precise movements.

Both of us breathed heavily, we overused our mana thus leading to our exhaustion.

But we did not give up.

I unsheathed my two swords, materialized them and began stepping towards her.

“Let’s finish this!”, I ran towards her with my swords out, she in return did the same.

We both clashed our swords, upon collision of our blades, sparks were generated, like a light show in a fireworks festival.

“—“, Athena muttered something, and disappeared out of nowhere.

My ‘Intuition’ Skill alarmed behind me, my sword deflected hers, and soon she disappeared again.

‘What’s happening?’, I thought, confused by her sudden appearance and absence.

‘Intuition’ alarmed over and over, and in accordance, I deflected her every strike by a hairs breadth.

Out of nowhere, she appeared from above, about to land a inevitable strike by spinning.

Her blades cut into mine, furthering the cracks across my weapons.

I made use of the skill ‘Thread Reeling’, and glued her two swords. “‘Mana Bullet’”

Conjuring the one proper spell taught to me, a white sphere of mana plunged into her stomach, blowing her away.

Midair, she recalibrated her footing and landed safely back on the ground without much damage.

“Let’s end this!”, I proposed, Athena in agreement nodded. “I’ve been meaning to use this skill that I haven’t put much use into.”

Particles of dark blue light began swirling around me in turmoil, and my twin blades as well.

Athena retrieved one of her swords, and held her main one with both her hands.

My swords began accumulating a massive amount of mana, the air vibrated in accordance to the mass around me.

“Master!”, Athena held out her sword horizontally, mana gathering all around her. “I’ll show you how strong I’ve become!”

“Yeah, I too will go all out.”, with my plan ready, I dashed to her.

“‘Dual Soul Blade Technique: Soul Break’”

“‘Dimensional Cut’”

We reached the point of climax, our blades clashed each other, her sword had a weird flow of mana, it was the same as that complex feeling that came over me in the dungeon.

I pressed my sword even further, but that soon backfired.

crack

My two swords were broken, and Athena's blade had cut right through me.

I touched the part where I felt a slight pressure from, blood began dripping down from the massive cut on my chest. I could feel my vision blurry, my senses dulling. 

I fell down to my knees, then to the ground. I looked up to Athena, she wore a worried expression across her whole face.

'I'll be relying on you.', knowing my inevitable defeat, I departed with that thought in mind before losing consciousness.

'....Even worried, you look really cute.....'

 

<< The Skill 'Fast Healing' has evolved into 'Fast Regeneration' >>

<< The Skill 'Materialization' has evolved into 'Embodiment' >>

<< The Skill 'Surpass Limits' has evolved into 'Destroy Limits' >>

<< The Skill 'Automatic Mana Recovery' has evolved into 'Super Automatic Mana Recovery' >>

<< The Skill 'Flame Manipulation' has evolved into 'Dark Flame Manipulation' >>

<< The levels of 'Pain Nullification', 'Enhanced Agility', 'Augmented Mana', 'Materialization', 'Superhuman Strength', 'Magic Resistance', 'Dual Soul Blade Technique', 'Thread Reeling', 'Liquid Manipulation' and 'Soul Form' have increased >>

 

Name: Athena

Race: Human

Age: 15 Years Old

Titles: 'Masked Swordsman'

Job History: Ordinary Person, Swordsman, Fire Attribute Mage, Flame Sword User, Mage

Job: Space Attribute Mage

Job Level: 45

Passive Skills:

• Drug Resistance: Level 7 (LEVEL U!)
• Superhuman Strength: Level 2 (NEW!)
• Poison Resistance: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
• Mental Corruption: Level 5 
• Automatic Mana Recovery: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
• Intuition: Level 3 (NEW!)
• Chant Revocation: Level 6 (NEW!)
• Enhanced Agility: Level 4 (NEW!)
• Wind Attribute Resistance: Level 1 (NEW!)

Active Skills:

• Swordsmanship: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
• Detect Presence: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
• Etiquette: Level 2 
• Fire Attribute Magic: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
• Mana Control: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
• Dismantling: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
• Mining: Level 1 (NEW!)
• Alchemy: Level 1 (NEW!)
• Surpass Limits: Level 6 (NEW!)
• No-Attribute Magic: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
• Space Attribute Magic: Level 3 (NEW!)