Opposite sides of the training field, Rentaro and Roy stood side-by-side. Across from them stood Icrin, his grayish-colored eye giving off an ominous feeling, tugging at their heartstrings as uncertainty filled their hearts.
Icrin's breathing was heavy, like a wolf who had just found his prey, frightening the two.
While they were only having a spar, Icrin's thirst for battle put this spar on a completely different level than the spar between Rentaro and Roy. Roy even wondered if Icrin was the actual chimera and he himself was the young boy.
'Second Brother, will we be okay?' At this point in time, Roy had lost any lingering narcissism. His body slightly trembled under Icrin's overbearing aura which only seemed to continuously grow stronger as each second passed.
'Eh... We should be okay in the end. No matter what, Icrin will only go so far, this is a spar after all. The two of us only need to work together, finding our own ways to neutralize his techniques.' Rentaro couldn't help but display a bitter smile towards their current situation, his half-hearted tone clearly seen through by Roy.
Continuing their communication, which was consistent attempts to reassure one another and boost their morale via mental transmissions through the system, they awaited Icrin to make the first move, paying close attention to the finest details and movements of his body.
Suddenly, Icrin's toes on his left foot bent down, his heel going up as he sprung forward. While Rentaro and Roy lacked experience and may not understand the smallest of details, they could easily make out something as simple as a movement in their direction.
Just when they thought it would be simple to prepare for an offensive attack, Icrin's eye flashed blue, the light piercing into their eyes. Icrin's figure split into two identical figures, both taking on the same appearance and matching one another's movements, except for their eyes. One figure had a pair of blue eyes, while the other figure had a pair of gray-colored eyes.
The figure with blue eyes raised his hand, a spark of lightning rapidly manifesting in his hands, while the figure with grey eyes seemed to create and leave behind a strange aura with every step he took.
'Roy, seems like it will be a 2v2 battle, huh?'
'Ah, Second Brother, I don't even understand what the blue eyed Icrin is doing, let alone the grey-eyed Icrin!'
'Doesn't matter, all out defense for now! Even if we lose in the end, let's showcase everything we have!'
"Ahh, Alright! Grawr!" Roy roared as he took the front, unleashing his Obsidian-Scaled Armor, ready to block Icrin's attacks.
Strangely enough, only the blue-eyed Icrin continued to rush towards them, while the grey-eyed Icrin ran past them in a strange pattern, his footsteps constantly tapping parts of the ground with different levels of strength. Enthralled by the grey-eyed Icrin's movements, they were momentarily distracted.
"Never let yourself get distracted in battle! Stormcaller! Stage 1! Serpent of Lightning, Manifest!" The lightning in Icrin's hands rapidly condensed, taking on the form of a Bo Staff with what seemed to be a serpent-like creature coiled around it, though it was too blurry to clearly make out the serpent's characteristics.
'Roy, something's wrong with the situation. Are you able to handle the Icrin with blue eyes? The other Icrin is acting very strange, I'm worried he's plotting something.'
'Erm, I'll hold out for as long as I can. I still have some tricks up my sleeve.'
'Alright, I'll be back as soon as I can!' With that, Rentaro immediately started off in the direction of the grey-eyed figure, the blue-eyed figure lunging toward him with the lightning staff, swinging down at Rentaro only for Roy to block it.
"Hehe, Your opponent is me! I must say, that pole of yours needs to be even stronger if you wish to break my defense." Roy's eyes shined, casually tossing a remark out towards his opponent to distract him while boosting his own morale.
"Oh? My Stormcaller doesn't rely on brute force, but lightning elemental energy. The elemental energy can't be blocked alone by mere physical defense."
"Oh? I'd like to see for myself then!" Roy shouted before resuming the skirmish, his spikes extending from his spine and piercing towards his opponent.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On another side of the training field, Rentaro fiercely pursued the grey-eyed Icrin.
"Hey, wasn't your blood boiling for this battle? Why do you keep running away?"
Having chased after the grey-eyed Icrin, they were now far from Roy's battle with the blue-eyed Icrin, and a sense of uneasiness crept into Rentaro's mind. Running out of options, he decided to resort to toxicity in hopes of starting the battle between the two of them before the distance between him and Roy increased any further.
"Haha, I know what you're trying to do. I won't fall for such simple tricks.. Hm... Then again, I guess this is far enough already."
"Huh?" Rentaro noticed that he had chased the grey-eyed Icrin all the way to his and Roy's original position, whereas Roy was fighting the blue-eyed Icrin on the other side of the field. A feeling as if he made a mistake bubbled up inside of him as his mind raced on what he should do next.
"Confused? As this is merely a spar, let me teach you a little bit. I left my aura behind at every step I took and since you followed my footsteps, my aura slowly converged onto you. Naturally, I can control that aura as well." Icrin flashed a smile, as the uneasy feeling in Rentaro's heart only grew stronger.
Suddenly, his thinking was interrupted as he felt a strong pull towards the ground, as if the gravitational pull suddenly increased drastically. All sound outside of their current conversation became obscure, and Rentaro felt as if he and the grey-eyed Icrin were the only existences around.
Icrin maintained a devilish smile on his face, "Spectral Chains!" A ghastly aura revealed itself around Rentaro, slowly taking on the form of transparent, grey chains that tied around his torso, arms, and legs, before piercing into the ground below him. The chains sunk further down beneath the dirt, slowly pulling him onto the ground.
"Let's see if you can manage to break my technique. Then, we can have an actual battle." Icrin's grey eyes burned fervently, revealing glints of expectation as he turned and walked back in Roy's direction.
'Damn, I thought a battle fanatic like him would fight head-on, but instead of using brute strength he's using wits.' Rentaro realized his mistake by now. He was far too rash, judging his opponent's fighting style based off of his attitude, resulting in his failed calculations.
Struggling against the chains, Rentaro's mind raced as he tried to think of a solution. He thought back to Wilhelm's words, the Krose Clan seemed to be a demon clan that traditionally used mental energy techniques.
However, his thought process was obscured as he thought the blue-eyed Icrin used mental energy techniques, until he saw the lightning element from him. And instead of the grey-eyed Icrin using mental energy techniques, he unleashed a strange grey aura. This brought him to a series of questions.
What are mental energy techniques? Are they connected to any specific element? Are they elementless? Maybe they can be used with any element, having a specific strength depending on what element they are used with? He asked himself questions, hoping to find answers, but to no avail.
Echoing in his mind, he thought back to the phrase that Wilhelm spoke multiple times, the "Law of Balance".
'Wilhelm always speaks of balance, if I manage to disrupt the balance of this technique, then it should cause the technique to fall apart. How am I supposed to do that when I don't even understand what is going on though?'
'I can't control even a single muscle, let alone my body. This restriction feels even more uncomfortable than the times I experienced being in the strange space when my body was reconstructing and the time when I was completing my Affinity Awakening.'
As Rentaro made the connection between those two moments and his current situation, ideas filled his mind. 'When my body was reconstructing, I felt as if I had been in a strange space, but that was only because I was stuck in the form of my soul. When I was completing my Affinity Awakening, I was touching upon my heart, mind, and soul. Each of those events revolved around me touching base with the soul and my inner self. Right now, these restrictions are creating a similar sensation.'
'So, this is a type of mental energy technique after all? As for the grey aura, I can only imagine it's a type of element and Icrin is using it to boost his mental energy techniques.'
As he narrowed down his conclusions on Icrin's ability, a sigh resounded within his mind.
[Hah. Your understanding is close enough. I didn't expect you to encounter such a freakish situation so early, so I don't mind helping out a bit here. That grey elemental aura is from a unique element category, the element of illusion.]
[Icrin definitely doesn't possess a simple status in the Krose Clan, his right eye is a special bloodline awakening, known as the Eye of Apparition, according to the system database. Definitively speaking, the grey-eyed Icrin is just an apparition—a clone—thanks to one of his awakened bloodline's innate abilities.]
Slight shock appeared on Rentaro's face as he pondered over the fact that the grey-eyed Icrin was merely a clone, before he shook it off and listened to Wilhelm's further explanations.
[As the Eye of Apparition is of the illusionary element, it can be used alongside his mental energy techniques to pull off techniques that would generally require a higher cultivation and techniques used would have a higher quality than normal, thus making his illusion techniques much more realistic.]
[One day, he may even be able to pull off the concept of "turning Illusion into Reality". Of course, such a concept can only be pulled off to an extent.] Wilhelm zoned off into his thoughts.
'Alright, before you ramble off for too long, any idea on how I can get out of this predicament?' Rentaro's uneasiness diminished as he started to figure out the concept behind Icrin's technique and with Wilhelm's support alongside him, a smile formed on his face, astonishing the crowd who watched in the distance.
As the unknown began to be revealed, the fear too would dissipate.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
While Rentaro faced the complication of illusion and mental energy techniques, Roy had continued to go against the blue-eyed Icrin; Roy's defense appeared to be on par with Icrin's offense, his scales undamaged as he blocked Icrin's continuous attacks.
The flashes of lightning painted a beautiful picture for those spectating, whereas it painted a nightmare for Roy, forcing him to maintain a defensive position at all times.
As time passed, Roy felt as if he were entrapped in a prison, and Icrin unceasingly blocked any potential escape routes for Roy as he was always a step faster, as if he could read Roy's mind.
Roy's eyes flashed with irritation as lightning once again flashed across his body, when a sudden bolt flashed towards his underbody. Crouching, Roy pressed his underbody against the ground, the lightning only managing to flash across his scales, failing to inflict any damage.
Before Roy could smile, a sudden feeling of numbness rapidly spread across his body as he attempted to stand back up, only to fall back down again. Icrin took this chance as the lightning repeatedly struck and danced around Roy's powerless body.
"Remember, once you fall down, it's not so easy to stand back up. In battle, there are times where you must accept your opponents attacks, even if it will draw blood. The moment you fall is the moment you relinquish your ability to continue fighting. If you can't stand back up, then this match is over." The blue-eyed Icrin turned his head, walking in the grey-eyed Icrin's direction, revealing the same expression of expectation.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
'Roy! Can you hear me?' Rentaro once again used the system's method of communication with Roy.
'Huh? Yeah, hard to talk right now, Second Brother. I couldn't even use a single offensive technique against Icrin, he was too fast, forcing me to maintain a constant defense against him.' Icrin's voice transmitted across the system weakly.
'Roy, are you okay? What's your situation like right now?' Rentaro asked in worry, hoping he didn't put Roy in a dangerous situation by contacting him in the middle of the spar.
'I'm alright. He completely crushed me in our spar. His lightning abilities have numbed my entire body, and my scales can't absorb the lightning, only slightly weaken it. I can't even stand up right now. Oh yeah! Second Brother, you need to be careful! He went in your direction, so watch out!' Roy spoke in disappointment regarding his loss, until he reached the end of his sentence where it was laced with panic.
Sensing the panic in Roy's voice, Rentaro felt a warmth which made his current situation improve. Having Roy and Wilhelm on his side acted as a light for him to reach out towards, fueling his desires to push forward against the Spectral Chains that restricted and held him back.
'Hah. Don't worry, he's just meeting up with his clone. In fact, his clone was going in his direction as well. I've pretty much lost my spar as well.'
'You lost too?! And what do you mean, his clone...?'
'Ahem. The grey-eyed Icrin was merely his clone, but his abilities were mysterious. His grey eye is of the illusionary element and amplifies his mental energy techniques.'
'Second Brother, is it really over just like that?' Roy pouted.
'Why? Do you wish to give up just like that?'
'No! This is too... Too disappointing! I don't care if I lose this spar, I don't care about anyone's outlook on how humiliating we may appear to them. I only care about standing up, fighting with all my ability, and not feeling any regret!' Roy fumed.
'Exactly! Neither of us wish to give up, that's why we must push forward. We haven't even had a chance to fight together, a chance to use a single offensive technique! Before we manage to do something—anything—this spar won't end!'
Wilhelm thought to himself, 'I'm not merely a system and I too need to try harder. In the future, I'll give it my all. For the sake of myself and my brothers.'
As if smiling, Wilhelm's voice echoed in the two's minds, [I'm glad you two still have the desire to fight. Even if you lose in the end, you've grown stronger. That's what spars are all about.]
[Strengthening oneself, your abilities, your heart, soul, mind, resolve! This is the key to growth in the cultivation world! So strengthen your resolve, stand up even when you've lost, roar into the heavens if it brings you strength! Let out your bottled-up emotions and use them to fuel your rise! Do it for yourself, your companions, to reach a brighter future! Because the moment you stop fighting is the moment you've given up on pushing forward in life!]