Even though Amanori said to fight alone, I guess I can't fight this girl with Amanori, since it would make a fight to the death. Rather than that, I liked to fight barehanded when I was in a duel. Maybe figuring that out, Amanori said to not worry about her. She can be so thoughtful sometimes.
"Hngnn!!" Alice was getting riled up. I could see that many of the maids and workers had also come to watch my fight and Gramps and Granny were looking with much interest too. is this a show to them? and here I was afraid that they would think of me as a monster if I fought like this...
even though my concerns fell on deaf ears, it made my heart warm thinking how blessed I was with the family that I had been given.
Alice then came at me again, but this time she was faster than before. I tried to swiftly dodge again but this time she used her leg and came with a flying kick, of course she was fast like lighting. This was unexpected so I barely dodged it. I began to take this a little seriously. so she could kick too.
"What?! Too chicken to fight back?"
"No, not really, I just realized your power made you this type of snot nosed brat. earlier I thought you were just some fake." She wanted to taunt me but it needed more to taunt me but my single line made her strategy fall against her.
She rushed towards me again, this time she only released an explosion from her one hand but it was bigger and more forceful. It propelled her at me in full force. and I could see sparkles forming in her other hand that she was pointing towards me. She wanted to make a powerful explosion point blank on my face. I mean she was ruthless as hell and here I was thinking to spare her beautiful face.
System, body enhancement.
{Proceeding Spirit energy enhancement, all physical abilities increase by 100 %.}
I was just getting serious. If I used all my power all the time, my daily life could get a bit hard since the power would break stuff, so I used the system to limit it to any normal people's standards. If I could control my strength then I could let this enhanced state run all the time. All the more reason since at this point, I can recover more stamina than I am spending in this state. Back when I was on the edge of the world, I could use this power for barely.. This really tells how far I have come and my body has changed so much by this simple 2 years of journey. then again, my grandparents always did say Mana was like a cheat.
Her hand was near my face when I grasped it in a handshake and twisted it behind her back, since she was clearly throttling towards me. It was easy to flip her around, then I released her hand which was now behind her waist. The explosion that was supposed to happen had happened right now and with the force coming from her hand, she propelled forward again finally she was blown by her own force.
She thwacked to the ground pretty hard cause she was clearly off balance. But she got back up the next moment. she was angry at me, but she also realized that she had a powerful opponent, her stance that was offensive from all angles changed to a more reserved one.. and after that, her attacks and defense also improved. with her face and whole body filling up with scratches, I wondered if this girl ever thought about her own body.
She was skilled, had I not come from a life filled with battle, I may have been done in by her combat intuition, but my combat sense was refined to the point of perfection. The swift moves I made to use her force against her was a clear sign of our difference in experiences. where she was doing all she could just to get a handle on me, I was just toying with her, even though our strength wasn't that far apart, it was obvious that I was superior to her in terms of techniques and ability to wield my body to the best form possible. my moves were far from normal, these were honed after long years of fighting in the wild. even my evasiveness was a cultivated technique.
20 minutes passed like this. I was full on defense all this time and her behavior was changing even more. she still wasn't breaking any sweat, I was the same, I gotta say her stamina was top notch.
"Why are you only defending? are you not strong enough to hit me or are you afraid to hit a girl?!"
She was right. I wasn't attacking from the start but it was because I was getting excited... fighting strong opponents getting hit by them. Dodging was fun but I still was reluctant to fight her. Fighting to survive and fighting to prove yourself… they were completely different things…
And they expressed different feelings for me.
She looked strong and moved fast too. Still could she really take a hit? Ever since I opened my eyes in this world, I fought to kill. As soon as I thought of attacking her, ways to kill her the most efficient ways possible were being devised by my mind.
Years and years of killing monsters had a very grave down side it seems, even with her defenses at high alert, I could smash her left leg that was not matching her right leg, Since the moment she had thwacked to the ground, it seemed that her leg was injured, after smashing her left leg, I could take a hold of her neck and snap. Just like that the fight would be over… and a life too.. but I also wanted to attack without killing her...
"Alright I will attack too!" I gave her my word and she took a defensive position. I stopped thinking of all those ways I fought on the Edge of the world. My mind cleared up and I remembered the fighting sport that I was fond of in my first life.
Yes, the one thing where you punched your opponent straight on. Bare handed combat… I had practiced boxing in this world as a hobby too. All those hours of practice of shadow boxing… it was useless on the edge of the world but here.. heh hehe, it is time to bring out the fire.
[it's got no potential in a death match you know?]
but it has great potential in entertainment! if anything, it exhilarates your mind to enjoying a fight.
I firmed up my muscles and prepared to punch. I was standing 5 feet away from her but this punch would go much further. My punch utilizes 100% of my strength that my body could produce, I know it sounds obsessive, even with 100% could it be really that powerful? But remember this, in the Edge of the world, you can not use magic, it was sheer strength from the body alone that could help you fight those nightmare like monsters day after day.
After getting my ass handed off in that place… and surviving from that place, I am sure.. My100% strength is no exaggeration. The height of my power lies in my base strength, magic is only small pieces to make life much easier, you know? then gain, magic was also somthing that could increase my 100% power increase by another fold just like that.
"Be ready….." she smiled for the first time since I saw her. It was…..gorgeous... Who knew that annoyingly glaring face could also produce such an alluring expression. a face that wanted a fight, it seems a literal wild beast was locked inside her, so this was the girl Alice....
"....Full power... take this fist as your last!" as I threw my punch, I was grabbing the earth. The punch shattered the air around it and a powerful wave of raw force from the punch was released. It went straight for Alice. in front of the full power punch, she still didn't lose hope. She released an explosion towards my punch, but the force was too overwhelming, my punch blew the explosion like a house in a typhoon, she got flung by the force and crashed through the wall of the field. The after winds went on even further. As I saw it, I looked at my fist. It was releasing smoke but It was in top condition. and the stance from flash step that helped me bring out even more power...
{Notice: Analyze complete, Master's current body can hold and exert 100% even while enhanced no issues were found.}
My muscles normally swelled and even teared apart from the inside back at the Edge of the world, so I always had to hold myself back but the Cell to Cell remodeling had brought my body to shape and let it exert this much strength. Although the whole time I used the technique pain worse than death coursed through my body simultaneously it was all worth it. I still did it for most of my day whenever I had the time to concentrate.
And this was the result.
{Notice: Master's further enhancement is possible}
Heh well I think I'll have to get used to this pain for now.
[heh look at you who's the smug one now.]
Come on, it's fun to beat someone strong.
[That's true, nothing's more fun than fighting strong opponents. And overwhelming them.]
As I looked at the rubble far away, where the punch had lost its force, I could see that my Bratty opponent was starting to move "THIS BATTLES FAR FROM OVER!!!"
As a heaven defying scream rattled the grounds, Alice reborn looking like a blazing ball of flame came towards me again to fight again with a new found zeal.
....
As I was standing, from far away in the debris, I could see Alice. She was getting up, she slowly but surely got up and with an explosion she got high up, then propelled herself with an explosion straight at me, but something was different. this time her whole body was glowing and releasing some kind of energy. it wasn't like spirit energy but it wasn't like normal mana either. it felt more dense than that cause even if someone covered themselves with mana, it wouldn't be visible, sure once you changed mana into properties of elements like fire, it would hover around you. But this energy could clearly be seen and it wasn't any element.
She was rocketing towards me, I didn't move, I had made a decision that I would face her straight on just like how she had faced my attacked, I took on a combat position and tensed up my fist, it felt like slight electricity was traveling through my body and it could be seen dancing around my body.
On the other hand, Alice was getting closer by the second, and the gravity was making her move even faster like a big boulder dropping from the sky. I pushed my perception speed to the max.
"Feel the world getting slower, as I see it, let me be the only one standing." as I focused hard enough and made my mind at peace not thinking about anything at all, the world felt as if slowed down,
I observed Alice. she was pointing a fist towards me straight to my face. her aura that was now covering throughout her whole body and unlike my electric current like display, hers was more like waves of energy.
Like water covering her whole body in erratic display of many waves forming around her and hitting each other. it was completely uncontrolled. Her whole body was bleeding and the fine high quality battle oriented clothes of her were in tatters, shredded here and there. my last attack had wrecked her through and through, but she was still coming for more. My warrior instinct said she could take a couple more hits.
...….
The two of them were getting closer by the second. From the sky Alice was coming straight for Rekka. Merlin thought that if Rekka wanted, he could easily evade this attack but for the first time he saw that Rekka was smirking and holding his ground and steading himself to take the hit. Rekka's last punch had already wrecked half of the training field. the ground and the wall, everything was in tatters. it's not like Alice was holding back, after hundreds of explosion spells from her, the ground that was still left had become charred.
coming back to the fight, Merlin knew that Rekka could always display this type of explosive strength, in the 2 years they traveled together, he saw him use this strength only for a fraction of a second at a time but for the first time Merlin saw that Rekka had released his strength without any restraints.
Then comes Alice, the always high and mighty attitude and smug look which said she was beyond strong.
Until now only 3 people were stronger than her; it was Merlin, Melinda and Lilith. Other than that, no one in the country could rival her strength. But Rekka himself was irregular, he couldn't be categorized by any degree and today's display was the truth of that matter. still Alice herself had awakened some kind of new strength. Even to Merlin, he couldn't understand what type of energy it was.
Still, his thoughts wouldn't be given time cause the fight was still going on.
Rekka pulled his fist back and moved it in an uppercut motion, the uppercut made contact with Alice's fist but unlike last time, Alice didn't blow away nor did Rekka lose his ground. Both of their attacks crashed with each other, the surrounding air shattered and
BOOOOM!!
Noise vibrated as the violent air released in the middle exploded everywhere around them. The whole Training field was turned into a huge crater. the ground beneath Rekka cracked. As the smoke cleared, Alice and Rekka were still standing. Rekka's shirt was ripped apart by the force but he was breathing faster than before, it seems he was finally sweating, his hand that had just delivered an uppercut looked as if it was bleeding and looked torn. It may not have broken but the sheer attack power it sent and resisted had been enough to make the arm look like a mangled mess from the outside not to mention, it was smoking as if it had just been inside a fire pit. On the other hand, Alice was standing but she was looking breathless and was breathing hard, but the energy that she was releasing seemed to be holding her defense.
Both of them then started fighting again. Each punch was just as powerful as the last one. Alice was producing: an explosion around her whole body to move faster and hit harder from the energy around her. each of the punch impacted with an extra explosion which covered Rekka's line of sight.
Rekka took punches head on straight to his face then sometimes to his stomach but he defended some punches too, it couldn't be helped, Alice had used used smokes to cancel his evasive actions. On the other hand, Alice was full of offense; she threw out punches with such speed and force that her hands seemed to become blurry, she didn't give him enough time to even move from the spot, one could only evade so much just by standing at a place locked in.
Alice got hit by Rekka's powerful punches but didn't care to block any of them. She hit after taking a hit, even while she got hit she hit back. At some point, the whole fight turned into a brawl. Alice started to punch and kick which could only be done by pure instinct, her beautiful face was swollen to the point hardly any expression she made could be described, her body looked worse, unlike Rekka her defenses were meager, it was already full of bruises. It was a mystery that she could even see anything or even be standing like that. Rekka's face and whole body looked tattered and burned from the explosions, unlike back at the Edge of the world where acid, posion and physical force was prominent in a figth, here, extreme elemental spells that could freeze, burn or slash away at him were used, and Alice's fire infused punches did damage that his body couldn't defend properly. Their punches and kicks each were releasing immense power which shook the ground and even smashed the air.
BOOM! BANG! BOM!
The repeated sounds were very heavy. The power released from each of the two was nothing to scoff at.
"You really are going all out!"
"Of course I am! You snot nosed brat!"
"The hell that you called me!"
"If you don't like it, beat me down first!"
"...Hhhhh! You won't last long!"
"Look at yourself then call me out!"
Well no matter how they looked… Their mouths certainly were lively… although their argument was still ongoing, it seemed that they had come to understand one another too… since neither Alice nor even Rekka were taking one another lightly… it had turned into a fight to prove one's worth now. A new found zeal waking up, the struggle that each faced while facing one another. It was the essence of lust for battle.