Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Six-Armed Demon

Chapter 16: Six-Armed Demon

 

At an unseen signal, Don sprung at Parth with an agility that belied his age.

Just because he could fight up close and personal, it didn’t mean that he had to. Especially against someone who had multiple knives and guns on hand.

Hence, Parth let loose a burst of fire at Don.

The retired colonel struck the ground hard with both the polearms and vaulted over the fire easily, landing close to Parth. The moment he was within range, he swung a staff at Parth’s head.

Deftly, Parth ducked beneath the blow and unleashed a jab as he moved forward. He might have talked big in his head about a healer being nearby, but it seemed like his mind wasn't ready to follow through. Oh, his punch was infused with mana and would absolutely break the bones of a normal person. Yet, there was no fire. A part of him was hesitant to burn the person in front of him.

Don twirled away from the punch and swung the other polearm at Parth’s head in the same motion.

The hit impacted him on his jaw and forced him to turn a bit to take the bite away from the impact. Parth retaliated by attempting a counterpunch. Yet, the reach of the staff was longer than his arms, and his hit did not connect.

Before he could regain his bearings, Don viciously jammed the polearm into his stomach. The force of the hit threw him several feet backwards. Thankfully, he had reinforced his stomach with mana at the last moment. That had taken the brunt of the blow. So, the pain was manageable. But the timing was too close for comfort.

“If you keep holding back, you’re going to get your ass beat, boy,” the old man grumbled as his two free arms pulled out a knife and a gun each.

Without hesitation, the man pulled the trigger a couple of times and sent out multiple blasts of mana at Parth.

At such a close range, Parth could not dodge. Fortunately for him, his hands were already up, so he buckled down and tanked the projectiles with his gauntlets. Each hit was heavy and threatened to topple him over due to the force. It took him considerable concentration to boost his entire body and maintain his footing.

By the time the blasts had stopped, Don was back in close range once more. This time, he began attacking at the same time with his two staves and the knife. All from multiple angles.

Each hit was strong. It was apparent to Parth that Don was physically stronger than him. Even with the mana boost, the difference was still palpable. Each blow was comparable to that of the golems. He knew that he could not protect himself from each and every single attack. The opponent had six arms after all. So, he did his best to shield his vitals with his gauntlets and ignored the rest of the hits; tanking it all with mana reinforcing his body constantly. He parried some of the blows while he tried to block what he could.

All it resulted was him getting hit constantly for the next minute. There was even a mana bullet or two in the mixture, and he was holding on for dear life while he blocked those with high priority.

One mana blast, in particular, evaded his guard and clipped him in his collarbone. He hissed with pain as something inside him snapped at that moment.

He won’t be sitting and taking all this abuse. If Don got burnt, then he had it coming.

Gritting his teeth in anger, Parth let loose a controlled blast of fire at the arm that held the gun. It made contact and through his fire, he could feel the gun getting knocked away from Don's hand. That was another weird aspect of his magical fire. He could somehow feel what his fire was burning. The previous Pygilists left behind some notes that only the Pygilist could access. Only one dude three thousand years ago could feel the same. And he too was above ninety percent when it came to the sync rate.

The moment the gun flew out of Don’s hand, Parth focused on the fire and snuffed it with his mind.

The fingers that held the hand were redder than normal. Apart from that, there was no palpable damage to Don.

“Would you be doing the same when someone tries to kill you in the dungeon?” scoffed Don as he began circling Parth, the staves spinning with the help of four of his arms.

"Would that really happen? I can understand minor scuffles. But outright murders? We'll all be fighting monsters, won't we?" asked Parth as he too began walking in a circle slowly.

"It has happened. It will happen. You know that you have to fight other people if the dungeon forces you into a trap. Some people just don't stop at fighting. Monsters are not your only foes out there. There are many walking, wearing human skin."

"That's speciesist, you know," Parth japed. Meanwhile, his mind was ablaze with possibilities. This whole conversation was a distraction. The truth, it may be, but in a fight, all conversations were diversions. Don would be thinking the same. That's why they were still walking cautiously in a circle, after all. Waiting for a chance to pounce.

"Okay, anthropomorphic skin then. Happy now? Or do-"

Parth didn't let him finish, as he chose that moment to move his hand in a sweeping motion, and send out a wide arc of fire.

The next moment, Don jumped through the fire. His free hand held the shield in front of him, and he used it to punch through the wall of fire.

Parth hadn’t been idle though. The moment he had unleashed the fire, he had broken out in a run.

The instant Don walked out of the fire, his shield was met with a gauntlet-clad punch. The glowing shield bent a little, as a loud gong-like sound reverbed throughout the arena.

Parth had pumped a lot of mana into the punch, and it showed. The force of the blow sent Don skidding several feet backwards, right into the fire. He didn't spend more than a second bathing in the fire, as he quickly rolled out of the way.

The old man straightened himself and bent the shield upwards to assess the damage. He then slapped at the small licks of fire clinging to his clothes, putting them out instantly.

"Impressive. This is mana augmented. But you still managed to make a dent. For a normal person, that level of attack would have taken a lot of mana. You, on the other hand…" Don trailed off.

“Still got a lot in my tank,” Parth responded as he got back into stance.

“Of course,” Don said as he holstered the knife and took out his one remaining gun. Four of his arms held the two staves. One arm held the shield. The final one held the gun. This loadout was more troublesome than the previous one.

True to Parth’s thoughts, Don brought up the shield in front of him and began advancing. As he advanced, the other arm was perched atop the shield and began firing mana blasts with the gun.

Parth jumped diagonally to the side, and repeated it for a few seconds, putting more distance between them. With the shield in play, close combat was not exactly a bright idea. It was time to bring out the final trick in his bag.

The temperature spiked up around him as his gauntlets glowed red. He let out a deep breath, steam coming out of his mouth. He thrust his two fists forward, expelling two large streams of fire.

Right before the fire could reach Don, Parth extended his outstretched arms to the sides.

This caused the fire to spread out in front of Don.

Taking inspiration from the weird dream he previously had, he took control of the fire. Parth then clasped both his hands and concentrated hard, while spending a good chunk of mana into manipulating the fire. He had learned from the notes that at higher levels, none of these gestures were needed. He was nowhere near that level yet. Baby steps. Baby steps would lead him to colossal leaps.

The wall of flames expanded into a massive ring of fire, with Don trapped in the center. With a burst of mana, the fire intensified. The wall rose in height and then thickened. Don was inside a live oven. It took Parth a good amount of mana to do all that. He was still learning the ins and outs of control, after all. But mana, he had in spades. This was a marked improvement from his previous showing anyway.

There was not enough space inside the ring to do a proper run-up and smash through the fire with the shield. Even if he succeeded, he wouldn't come out unburnt. Parth knew that there was only one way out.

He didn’t waste time as he ran to the side, repositioning himself.

Right on time, he heard a solid thud as a figure leapt atop the ring of fire. Parth was sure that Don had used his polearms to vault the obstacle once more. Just as planned.

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Trying to catch Don in midair, Parth punched at the air, unleashing a concentrated cylinder of fire. There was no way to dodge it.

This exact thought caused Parth to open his mouth in surprise, as the old man twisted unnaturally and somehow managed to bring his shield to the fore.

The force of the collision threw Don several feet away as he landed on his back. But the old man rolled backwards and propped himself back to two feet with ease.

Don's hair was singed, and there were a few patches of burnt clothes and red skin on his body. Well, skin redder than it already was. Yet, that was the extent of it all. Parth knew that it was just superficial damage. He himself didn't have such visible damage, but he was sure that if he took off his shirt, there would be several bruises littering his torso and upper arms. 

Before they could continue, a loud buzzer rang throughout the arena, startling everyone except for Don.

"We can keep doing this, but the others need training too. So we'll stop for now," said Don as he relaxed. He holstered the weapons except for the polearms and walked towards the discarded gun.

Parth unsummoned his gauntlets and approached his team. As he was walking, a card flew towards Don, who snatched it out of the air, and nodded at Moira appreciatively. The next moment, the card glowed and covered Don with the green light.

Parth watched in astonishment as the red patches of skin darkened back to their original dark red. His hair was also back to normal. Apart from the burnt holes in the clothing, nobody could tell that Don was in a fight against a pyromancer.

Moira flicked through her deck in quick succession and handed Parth a card when he reached them.

He looked at the card, to see a green three of hearts. It shone with a bright light. The next moment, the aches in his body vanished. He lifted his shirt to see several bruises lightening before they disappeared completely. There were way more bruises than he had expected. It didn’t matter though. He was healed.

The pleasant surprise was that the mana he had expended began replenishing at an accelerated rate as well. So, that meant that the cards didn’t just heal the physical injuries.

“Thanks,” he said.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied.

"Thank you, young lady," Don said solemnly as he too returned to the group.

“No problem.”

“Okay. Time for assessment. Tell me what you could have done better,” said Don.

Parth didn’t reply immediately. Instead, he thought back to the fight to see if he could catch any mistakes. He did realize one particular flaw.

"I was hesitant. I let you get close at range and got thrashed by multiple weapons," he said, recalling the bit where he had gotten pummeled by the two staves, the knife, and the gun. He had somehow scraped through and only gotten direct hits from the staves. It was by a miracle that he had managed to block the major hits from the knife and the gun.

"That is one issue, yeah. Fundamentally, you fight differently than all the Pygilists that came before. All of them preferred to maintain distance and unleash fire from a distance. You put the physical attributes of the gauntlets to good use. But your problem is that you only depend on the fire as a last resort. You aren’t using it as your main weapon,” said Don.

"It's a deeply ingrained habit at this point," mumbled Parth.

"I get that. If someone told me to change the way I fight, I wouldn't be able to do it. I'm not asking you to completely change it. Keep doing what you are best at. The fact that you know how to fight is an advantage, don't let that go. What I'm saying is, don't depend on your fists alone. You have fire and an abundance of mana. Use it more."

“Got it,” he said.

“Also, why are you being overly cautious all the time? Not rushing into an unknown opponent is a good strategy, but at some moments it felt like you were not capitalizing,” said Don.

Parth sighed in frustration, recalling something sour.

"It wasn't a problem back in my amateur days. Tourneys had successive fights after each other and there was no time to prepare for specific opponents. We'd have to get in the ring each day and fight. After gauging my opponent for a little while, I'd get a measure and go on the offensive. The pro circuit was different. There was ample time to train for a specific opponent. I always found that hard. Kept overthinking it. That's a bad habit that seems to have stuck," he said.

"Well, it's time to go back to your roots. Also, forget about the rules. There are no penalties, no fouls. Just fights for survival. You need to use everything in your arsenal. I'll teach you later how to use your elbows and your legs. There's not enough time. But having other options would not hurt."

“Understood,” replied Parth. It was not like he was going to go back to boxing. His career had ended the moment he came here. From his talk with shopkeeper Viggo, he knew that as long as he did well in this Centurial Challenge, he’d be set for life. So, he couldn’t afford to be rigid.

“Good. Next time, I will bring proper spears and body armor. We will fight properly. Till then, I will give you time to train more and improve your skill with the fire,” said the old man with a glint in his eye.

Don then turned towards his two teammates and clapped all three pairs of hands.

“Now, we have to get busy. I will teach you two how to fight. We’ll figure out any weapons that you can use for melee,” he said. He then looked at Parth and raised his eyebrows in question.

"I wouldn't be needing anything, sir," he said. It would be a waste of time trying to learn how to use a weapon at this juncture. It would be half-assed at best. He had mana to burn, so he'd rather focus on getting better at what he did. He was already taking in a lot, if Don was to be believed. Elbows and legs, encroaching upon the territory of Muay Thai. It was not like he was going to learn and master the entire discipline in the short time he had. He was in the field enough to know that.

At best, he’d learn basic techniques to aid him in a clinch.

“Okay. You two, with me. Pygilist, that ring of fire trick was good. If someone does not have adequate mobility or defense, they'd be boxed in. The searing heat from all sides is a major distressing factor as well. Imagine if you shrunk the circle on the inside, closing in on them. Focus on getting better at stuff like that.

“I have sent you several instructions and have targets ready to go. These are all manipulation drills. The more you do, the easier it would be for you to manipulate fire once you’ve created it. If you have any doubts, ask me. We D’Raacs might not be physically able to manipulate mana outside our bodies, but that doesn't mean that we don't know how to control the mana within. In terms of control, the principles are all the same. Although, I suppose your fairy friends would have already drilled the basics into you. So keep at it," said Don as he marched Moira and Kwame to the other end of the training hall.

Parth wordlessly flipped through his holo screen. His eyes roved over the various instructions for the drills he had to do.

He was sure that he would be going at his for hours. He didn’t mind it though. Practice was good. Practice kept you on your feet. Practice kept you alive.

The fiery tattoos on his forearms glowed, and the two black gauntlets materialized on his arms. The red designs shone brightly and gave his entire arm a red tint due to the light.

A floating hologram appeared several feet in front of him. It was in the form of a twisting tube.

The drill was simple. He had to send fire into the hologram and mold it in the same shape as the hologram before it shot out from the other end.

Parth raised his hand and centered himself. He closed his eyes and went through the instructions that he had read. He also recalled the instructions the triplets had given him. His mind went back to all the training he had previously done.

He let out a loud breath and opened his eyes, fire forming in his hand.

It was time to get to work.

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