Chapter 37 | Practice Fight

Theo was full-speed dashing through the forest, dodging the branches on his way with inhuman visual acuity. Though, he had to admit, he was making more mistakes than he was comfortable with. Every five branches or so, one would harshly scrape against his skin. Although it would usually leave rather small scratches that healed on their own, he still didn’t like the feeling of pain.

His heart beat with a pang, shivers ran down his spine as he rolled to the side. A wooden, blunt dagger whizzed past where he just was. If that had hit him, he would have been immediately knocked out.

Running his hand through the ground, Theo picked up a handful of dirt. A burst of fire mana ran through his body, infused the dirt pieces and caused them to shine like sparks.

His eyes flicked from left to right, taking in the entirety of the forest in a single, wide arc. The shudders of some bushes made him frown and throw the dirt already sizzling in his hand toward that general direction.

And just a fraction of a second later, a man came out with blinding speed, colliding directly with the slew of super-heated dirt grains. It sizzled against his skin, causing him to grunt and falter in pain.

But it was momentary, not enough to disturb his rhythm. Theo could barely put his shoulder on the way in time and took a blow from the wooden dagger. He felt a blinding pain explode from his shoulder as he was blown backward, a deep dent left in his skin quite visible. If not for his endurance, his left side would have been blown apart.

Rolling for meters, he could only stop by crashing into a tree, knocking all the air out of his lungs. Still, he had fought too many mock battles to be done in easily like this. He knew instinctually, even with his eyes wet to the point of no vision and his ears ringing from literal shell-shock, the dagger was heading right for his head to knock him out.

So, he took the chance to reach down to a leather flask on his belt and opened it, dipping his hand into the thing. A wet feeling encompassed his hand. It was water. He had prepared it beforehand for a new spell.

Once again, the fire mana was spat out of the stone in his mind palace. It activated one of the spells, and the mana rushed out to latch onto the water. It coiled into a spiral shape and grabbed the water as Theo quickly pulled his hand out.

Suddenly, the coiling spiral-shaped water mass shone brightly and flash-evaporated into a cloud of searing gaseous steam, like a leak from a pipe. It rushed forward and encased his front. As Theo’s eyes cleared, he realized he had made the correct decision. The other party stepped away, as even he wouldn’t be able to get away unscathed from such an attack.

Getting up to his feet, Theo flipped the switch on his mana-core and hurled a couple of fireballs toward the opponent as he stepped backward. He skidded a couple of steps, pivoted on one foot, then turned around for a full dash.

A couple of seconds later, he could hear another set of footsteps following behind him. He was out of time. The distance he created was too small for him to be capable of escaping.

So, whatever he did, he had to do it right there and then. Stopping mid dash, crouching, and slowing to a stop while turning around mid-slide, Theo frowned and churned his fire gem for his ultimate attack. Up until now, he had never felt so close to winning one of these mock battles.

Even Satou had to get somewhat tired.

With a grin on his face, Theo let the mana core handle a single cast of the spell while he handled the other. He raised both of his hands and held their palms toward Satou. Then, fire poured in torrents from both his hands.

The dark forest was lit up with flames, the brilliant crimson shining in Theo’s eyes. His mouth widened into a grin as he kept dousing the surroundings with fire.

Not only were these flames good for area denial, the way it lit up the surroundings would let him see Satou when he approached.

And see he did. A shadow flickered from the edge of light and launched upward. It flew for meters in an arc, on a direct trajectory for Theo’s head.

Normally, this would have been the end of round 20, with his twentieth loss. But training with a man who was practically immortal against all the attacks he could muster, and could perfectly control his strength for non-lethal attacks was an unimaginable chance to improve.

Theo’s head snapped up, his eyes immediately locking onto Satou’s figure with terrifying precision. This was it.

Satou’s body finished its arc and dipped down, his body spread wide, two wooden daggers at hand. He was clearly aiming for the knock-out.

Just then, in that split second, Theo slammed both his hands onto the floor. A spire of dirt mixed with pebbles and stones rose. It was big, enough to drain Theo’s mana quite a lot, but his calculations were correct.

The spire rose as Satou fell. It aimed for a lethal hit, directly between his legs. Even in the dark, Theo could see the terror in Satou’s face as he shifted his body mid-air, barely managing to take the hit on his inner thigh. Combined with him having to make such a drastic move mid-air and the attack pushing him off balance, Satou started rolling rapidly and crashed face-first into the dirt. He did his best to dig himself out and dodge, but by the time he lifted his head, there were already two fireballs point-blank, ready to be launched.

“This one is my win,” Theo stepped back as he wiped the sweat off his head. He collapsed on his ass and took deep breaths. This was at least their twentieth duel with Satou, and it was only his first win. The worst part was, Satou was limiting himself to the level of a third-rate warrior. Admittedly, his battle senses and skills were enough to let him beat a second-rate warrior even in his restrained state.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

But still…

“You are a fast learner,” Satou commented, wiping a bead of sweat forming on his head. He wasn’t winded or tired; that sweat was probably out of fear. Fear for his future generations. “Why do you fight so dirty? Did you get into a lot of fights before?”

Theo frowned and thought back to his childhood. He definitely wasn’t a troublesome kid, he rarely got into fights or caused huge problems for his family. And he really wasn’t the type to fight dirty like this. But somehow, he felt that something about him had changed. When, where, or what? He didn’t know. But he seemed to lack that feeling of pain empathy for some reason.

“No. It’s just… I don’t know. Natural talent?” Theo tried answering.

“Yes, a natural scum,” Satou shook his head. “Anyway. Those spells were pretty good, strangely practical. Normally, the mages I have seen all used flashy spells. Fireballs, Earth Spikes, water jets.”

Theo’s mouth twitched. He didn’t know if Satou was somehow trying to compliment him. If he was, it was having the exact opposite effect.

“But just like you said, forest fires don’t seem to be an issue,” Theo said. Initially, he had been worried that casting fire-type spells would cause a lot of forest fires, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Mhm. Maybe in a much drier climate, but it isn’t that easy to set a forest on fire without special fuel or equipment,” Satou answered and pushed himself up from the ground, dusting his clothes. Theo took out two vials of his healing potion, gave one to Satou, and drank one himself.

Energy coursed through his body. Although it wasn’t that effective for him because of his vitality, it still did wonders when coupled with it. Especially that nasty dent in his shoulder. His bone had clearly been broken into pieces, but it seemed to magically settle back into place and heal, leaving only a faint feeling of brittleness in its wake.