The 'spar' between Gaia and Iron Alchemist was just starting to reach its peak, with Iron Alchemist destroying two of Gaia's manufactured stone giants.
Now, Gaia was using some strange method to fly just a bit below the ceiling of his cave.
"Did you think I would let you win so easily? There's still at least fifteen minutes left, stop being in such a hurry to finish things and enjoy your chances to attack me."
Iron Alchemist ignored his words and proceeded to carefully plan his next moves.
"Iron Serpents!"
Gaia wouldn't wait for another attack and tapped his wand against the air.
As for the students, this was the first time they'd ever heard Gaia call out a move.
'Damn, now I'm calling out names. I told Hugo I'd never do something so demeaning. These kids are too contagious.'
*HISS!*
Along with the clanging of metals, hissing sounds came from everywhere in the cave room
Iron Alchemist looked at the cave walls with apprehension, his protection processors were running at full capacity, ready to intercept any attack coming for him.
Until…
*CLANG!*
The bodies of two huge serpentine constructs intertwined with each other as they flew out of the walls, both seemingly racing to see who'd get to the target first.
*HISS!*
The jaw of one of the snakes opened up, revealing two long metal fangs that would probably tear into an ordinary person's body with a slight touch.
"It's not me you're tearing apart!"
Before the snake could snap its jaws down, Iron Alchemist had already found his way away from that side with the full power of his thrusters.
'It's likely my previous attacks won't work on these. So melee it is.'
He retracted his cannon barrels and activated one of the few melee weapons he'd developed. This weapon was also the product of Gaia's advice.
"Concentrated Energy Sword!"
The blue light of raw energy shone out from the part his right arm was located. His hand was now replaced with a blue, glowing energy blade.
"HAAAA!"
With a sudden flash of decisiveness, Iron Alchemist deactivated his thrusters and let gravity draw him in. And with the momentum gained from falling, he activated small thrusters on both elbows and spun very fast.
"Spinning Slash!"
It was a simple name, however; the effects were everything but simple.
The two metal constructs which had just slithered around with life a few moments ago dropped to the ground, reverting to what seemed to be several long piles of iron ore.
"Hmm?"
Iron Alchemist thought about this but after a few moments of thinking, he realized over-thinking would do no good in his situation.
Gaia saw this and chuckled under his breath.
"What you did now can be considered smart. After all… the less time you spend thinking about it, you can focus full attention on the basic attack, defence and retreat."
He was a constructive person, that was for sure. If he weren't one, there's no way Hugo would have acknowledged him as his master.
"I guess that's correct, but it's also wrong at the same time. In my opinion, the more energy I spend thinking of something as trivial as that, then the more likely that my brain would burst into flames."
Iron Alchemist said all this with a straight face, his hand-blade stood astute facing the old opponent.
To him, lack of understanding was a normal occurrence, and he even felt there was no need to be ashamed of ignorance.
"If I were ashamed of the number of times I didn't know something, then I'd have long committed suicide. And in this case, I feel no point in being ashamed. Magic, existing since even before the Great Awakening, obviously has some mysterious enhancements.
I, who just came into contact with the world of Awakenings a few months ago has no right to claim a lack of understanding. And for sure, magic has its pros and cons, there's probably a con to your enhancements. If I figure them out, then my lack of understanding would have been compensated for."
Iron Alchemist made sure to stress some certain words in fairly long durations, killing two birds with one stone. He shortly explained his entire being and even stalled a few minutes of the required time.
"Haha, I liked your speech kid. But if you thought that was enough to save yourself, then you're sorely mistaken. I once read a saying, it said 'Men who talked a lot in battle were either useless or had great ambition.' but to me, it only said the same thing, men with great ambition were once useless or still are!"
Gaia muttered random strings of sentences out loud and once again tapped his staff against the air he stood on.
"Diamond Lion!"
He yelled, but his words contained no emotion in them.
It was no shock to where the massive creatures appeared from; it was the ground!
Forming the entire anatomy of these things was a pure diamond, with no visible blemishes at all!
"Well, I see where we're going with this. What's the next one going to be, Vibranium?"
Iron Alchemist was, not to say the least, extremely amused.
But this wasn't to say the old man also wasn't amused, "I thought you said you didn't watch movies?"
"Eh, is Vibranium the name of a movie?"
Gaia suddenly regretted referencing that popular movie to this new-gen idiot.
"What about you guys, are you familiar with the term 'vibranium'."
Gaia's eyes contained a bit of hope in them, as he wished it was just the clueless tech-jockey who didn't know that famous term.
"Oh yeah, I've heard of it somewhere before. Isn't it that new element that was found in a secluded part of Africa?"
Alpha2 nodded and looked onto his communicator to confirm the accuracy of his information, meanwhile, Gaia was yelling internally.
'T'Challa is that you?'
This almost made Gaia quit on accounts of travelling to Africa to see it for himself. But upon consideration, he slapped his face twice.
"No! I'll wait till after the Re-ranking Event starts. Then, I'll go visit this Wakanda..."
His voice trailed off as he thought of all the possibilities available to him when he finally got there.
"Eh, you mean that place. It's called Ogbila or something like that."
"What..."
It took a while to register the commenter's sentence, but eventually, Gaia came to realize in what way his fantasies had been spoiled.
"Goddammit, Diamond Lions attack all of them!"
The creatures made of diamond lunged forward towards all three of what Gaia saw to be unfilial students.
*ROAR!*
It was unknown how he gave the creatures' voices, but the loud lion roars echoed everywhere in the forest and perhaps even farther.
And in an instant, an all-out brawl took place right in that tiny cave.
The two stagnant students were faced with an abrupt battle situation caused by some careless words and their teacher's strong-headed nature.
The diamond lions not only had terrifying defence but also an equally frightening attack. It was unknown what could be used to disable these creatures.
It seemed quite impossible for anything to harm the diamond, but the answer was in the words. It seemed so.
"Yo, you guys should step back, I have an idea!"
Alpha2 stepped forward confidently and slapped his hands against each other in a quite aggressive manner.
Beautiful blue flames took shape at the tips of his ten fingers and rushed elegantly to the unassuming diamond monsters, ready to take away their soulless existences, not unlike the grim reaper.
The lions released a brief cry of what seemed to be an artificially generated pain.
"That was quite fun. Can I take one of these things home in the form of dolls, please?"
Alpha2 muttered as he stared at the remains of the once menacing creatures. "Are you planning to give the old man a heart attack!"
Hyena glared at the cheeky kid and bared his claws, preparing for the next monster that Gaia might conjure.
"Humph, you took care of a few measly monsters. It's about time I bring out the big stone guns. Perhaps I'll even use my Magic for this one."
'Use his magic for the next move. Does that mean he'd been tricking us this entire time? It was his Awakening he'd been using to summon all those massive creatures?!'
"Heh, did you think that was my real power? For f*cks sake, I am literally earth incarnate itself. As long as the earth exists, my power will never run out."
"That is my Awakening; Earth Guardian!"
Gaia's stagnant face broke into a large grin, but to him, this explanation wasn't just enough.
"I wouldn't want people to challenge my strength because of minor power upgrades. This ain't an anime!" (Not yet, more support could guarantee this one day, don't skimp on your power stones)
"And before any of you have any second thoughts on my ability. My magic won't give me some extra fireballs, but if you're prepared for destruction on a planetary scale, get ready to dance with me!"
'What's with this weird dialogue, is there some hidden observer I don't know about?!'
Alpha2 looked around the cave, question marks popping up around his head.
'What is up with this weird world!'