Sion clenched his fists and smiled. All Sons were looking at him. He stood up and bowed down; " I won't disappoint you! ".
Balthazar looked at Santiago; " Don't we have any missions to attend? Especially you, you are supposed to be the most busy one. ". Santiago placed his hand on his chin and made a face of focus; " Hmm... No actually, I'm not hired right now.. also no one requested for our help recently. If anyone of you have personal affairs, you are free to leave. "
Noire and Yve stood up. " In that case, we are going I guess. Sion, you have our trust now, don't screw it up." Noire said. Slowly, both of them walked out of the room.
Lori stood up as well; " I'll go check up on Lucas, if anyone needs me I'll be upstairs ".
It was quiet. Too quiet. Nemma was sitting awkwardly and tapped her fingers on the table continually. Balthazar was looking at her with his cold eyes. Santiago looked at him; " Weren't you on East? I thought you were busy ". Balthazar sighed; " I'm done with my mission ".
It was quiet again.
Something broke the silence fairly quickly though. It was no one other than Santiago.
Santiago smiled and looked at Balthazar, then at Sion. Balthazar's eyes widened; " No.. don't even think about it ".
" I have an idea " Santiago said.
" Don't.. you.. dare! " Balthazar said through his teeth.
Santiago smiled wider; " Why don't you two do a sparring battle? ". Balthazar rolled his eyes. Sion blinked several times and looked at Balthazar. Sion thought he would die if they started battling.
[ Runes voice: It's not like that. Make good use of your abilities and it isn't impossible to beat him. You have more energy and stamina than him. At least stall him until he gives up. ]
~You think?
Sion stood up; " Fine by me! ".
Balthazar was still sitting; " You have no idea what you are doing kid... ".
Santiago laughed. He stood up and waved his hand at them, giving them a signal to follow him. Backyard of Lori's house was massive, it had few trees, small lake with few fish inside and stone walls as fence around the backyard. Santiago stopped and clapped his hands; " You two may start whenever you want! " he was smiling.
" You're only doing this for your entertainment you battle freak " Balthazar was looking tired already.
Sion was jumping in one spot, he was stretching and warming up.
~You really think I got a chance against this guy?
[ Runes voice: Yeah, just use your brain Sion ]
Balthazar reached for his back, as if to pull a weapon.. but there was nothing on his back.
Sion looked at him with confused expression. But to his surprise, blue particles gathered, and bow formed on his back as he was grabbing for it.
He swiftly aimed at Sion; " Two-.. " he said.
Blue arrow appeared on the bow, it was clearly made out of energy. He released the arrow and it flew through the air.
[ Abilities Right of The Weakest and Justice Ground activated ]
Sion focused with his eyes. He moved aside and arrow flew past him, upon hitting the wall, it made a crater size of a head. He looked back at the crater and smiled, he started turning back at Balthazar.
~Heh! It shouldn't be too hard to dodge these, I'm much faster than him!
[ ZAP ]
Like a wall, air between Sion and Balthazar was filled with hundreds of blue arrows. Sion gasped. " Two-.. " Balthazar said.
Sion panicked; " C-Collection! ".
[ Ability Collection activated, Gilanndi shield added ]
Giant 2 meter shield appeared in his hands.
[ CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG ]
Dozens of arrows partially pierced through his shield while others passed by and pierced the wall behind him.
Sion threw his shield aside and ran forward. He extended his arm and yelled " Collection! "
[ Ability Collection activated, steel dagger added ]
It was a most basic dagger, it wasn't strongly infused with energy.
Sion closed the distance between the two by several meters, but another arrow appeared on Balthazar's bow. He looked calm; " Three-... " he whispered.
As he released the arrow, Sion slashed with his dagger, aiming to cut it in two.
His dagger touched the arrow and.. snapped into two.
" What the-? " he had no time to finish, arrow pierced through his shoulder and hit the wall behind.
Balthazar was circling around him. He tried to find him but it was pointless, he saw ten, twenty different afterimages.
Arrow just got released from behind him. He turned around and tried to deflect it with his broken dagger. As he turned aroun, in his peripheral vision, he saw countless other arrows closing in on him from every side. He was neither quick nor skilled enough to deflect them all.
[ Ability Aura Freeze activated ]
They all stopped, he jumped as high as could. A fraction of second passed.
[ Ability Aura Freeze deactivated ]
They crashed in each other and vanished into particles. Sion didn't want to keep that ability activated for too long.
[ SNAP ]
A twig behind Sion snapped. Balthazar must've made his move! Sion swiftly turned around and threw his dagger, but no one was there.
~He did it on purpose?!?
" Three-.. " voice could be heard behind Sion. Shortly after, an arrow pierced his left palm. He clenched his teeth from pain. He turned his head and saw Balthazar crouching beneath one tree with his bow pointed at Sion.
Sion pulled out the arrow. He was looking at Balthazar with fury in his eyes.
[ Ability Collection activated, steel dagger added ]
Balthazar took cover behind the tree. Sion ran forward. He jumped and slashed behind the tree, yet again, no one was there. Shadow suddenly flashed on the ground, Sion raised his head up and saw that Balthazar was high in the air. He was stretching the bow and aiming with one eye opened; " Four-.. ".
As soon as he released, air got covered in arrows. Hundreds arrows covered the sky and were closing in fast. Their energy was greater than that of previous arrows. Sion just understood his ability.
Arrows with number 'Two' were weakest in energy amount, 'Three' was stronger and 'Four' is even more stronger than that.
Sion crouched and held his blade behind him, he waited for them to close in. Activating Aura Freeze again would drain him of energy.
As arrows got close, Sion slashed upwards, his slash released energy that crashed with arrows above. Sion jumped and kicked through the arrows above him. His energy slash meddled with arrows energy and dispersed it, causing the energy amounts in arrows to decrease, just enough so they don't damage him.
Both men were now in the air, their eyes locked on each other. Sion aimed his dagger at Balthazar.
" Five " Balthazar stretched the bow again.
[ Ability Collection activated, steel dagger added ]
~It's power increases by one huh? I'll just shield from it!
Sion was holding two daggers and crossed them in front of him. Balthazar released the arrow and in an instant it touched his daggers. As contact was made, Sion got pushed back and crashed into ground by force of the arrow. He heard a loud crack from inside of himself.
[ Runes voice: That would be your rib Sion ]
" Well thank you! " he said sarcastically.
Balthazar landed on his toes gently, without making a single sound. He was holding his bow behind his back and he stared at Sion; " Like I said, you're much too weak as of right now ".
Sion coughed up blood and smiled. He slowly raised his arm and pointed behind Balthazar.
Balthazar turned around and looked back. Stone wall was behind him, and a tree... nothing more. He turned back.
[ CRACK ]
Sion's hand was enveloped in dark green aura. With a fierce punch in the face, he sent Balthazar flying across the backyard.
[ CRASH, SPLASH ]
He was lying next to a fish. He stood up and shook the water off. He spinned the tongue inside his mouth few times and spit out quite some blood.
Sion placed his hand on his ribs from pain he felt; " You've felt that one huh? "
" You can land a nice punch, I'll give you that " he smiled. Sion bowed a bit in gratitude, but also slightly mockingly.
Both of them stared at each other again.
[ Ability Collection activated, 2 steel daggers stored ]
[ Ability Collection activated, spear added ]
In his arms, long spear spawned. Sion gripped it tightly. He pointed it at Balthazar; " You waiting for something? ".
" I'm a marksman, you expect me to just rush at you? " he asked him mockingly. Balthazar sighed; " Sure why not-.. " he said and vanished.
" Shit! " Sion lost sight of him.
[ CLANG, SNAP ]
Two arrows pierced his feet.
" AAaahh! " Sion yelled and looked up. Balthazar was in the air again with another arrow just to be fired.
" Five " he said.
Sion focused on the arrow. His energy got implanted in the spear and aura enveloped it.
As soon as Balthazar released the arrow, Sion started spinning the spear in front of himself. Upon contact with the spear, arrow got turned back to blue particles and dispersed into the air.
Sion's aura got ominous quickly. It felt cold and deep, a moment later, it became visible. Dark green aura appeared.
Sion bent backwards and gripped his spear tightly behind him. He was clearly focusing on Balthazar and planning to throw the spear at him.
" You aren't serious are you? " Balthazar giggled with a drop of sweat on his forehead. He was still midair, dodging might be difficult.
[ SILENCE ]
Sion's aura burst.
Entire backyard reflected the dark green colour. His aura engulfed the entire area. His spear was just a shining, compressed mass of energy at this point, the actual spear got erased from incredible quantity of energy inside of it.
" Dodge this-.. " Sion threw it.
Spear travelled too fast for Balthazar to dodge. He swiftly pointed his bow at the incoming weapon.
" Fiv-.. shit that won't work! " he gripped the bow tighter; " Seven-! "
Sion's spear and Balthazar's arrow quickly met midair. The bright light from the backyard caught the attention of all the citizens of the village. The energy enveloped entire village, the force of the attack was about to burst and destroy entire village... Sion and Balthazar gasped, neither wanted to go that far.
[ BLAST ]
Spear and arrow came in contact, their power was equal and hence exploded simultaneously. The point of contact released energy and heat so massive, it would swallow the village in its blast in mere moments... but it didn't..
[ OMINOUS WHISPERS ]
Sion opened his eyes, Balthazar was sweating.
Between two of them, like an red orb, blast was contained in Santiago's hands. He was literally holding the explosion in his hands.
It grew smaller and smaller, until it vanished completely.
Santiago fell to the ground on one knee, he looked exhausted. His hands were scorched and bloody.
" This... *cough* *cough*... was just.. a sparring.. remember? " he was out of breath.
Sion and Balthazar looked at him silently.
Sion bowed down; " Sorry! ".
Balthazar approached him and tapped his shoulder; " Go inside, let Lori check your wounds.. ".
Sion heard a gasp behind him. He turned around.
Nemma was standing there, her eyes were teary again. She was standing with her hands covering her mouth, she must've been there the entire time, watching the match.
Sion smiled; " Well.. dontcha' cry a lot-.. ". As he said those words, he fainted and fell down.