Hohenheim stayed in his place waiting the group to pass, while slowly observing the approaching adventurers
from using soul's perspective, he can tell that there incredibly powerful, might rival him at his peak, him who did not think he might have a rival in his life... well aside from the dwarf, so when he sense how strong they might be, his desire to regain his former height become stronger
soul's perspective accuracy depends on how much soul power the person have, and Hohenheim who has incredibly powerful one, can measure their level the high details,
the incoming group noticed his gaze before having good look on him, but never bothered as they always have this look , so it wasn't unusual,
well, that's only one a rather flat chest Amazonian had a better look and gasp!, "Ais-chan! Ais-chan! look! we found your long lost brother!" he said in teasing manner
the one who's named Ais look towards the location her teammate point at, and the usual calm and expressionless face had a surprise look briefly, two golden eyes stare at each other, one in interest, other in surprise, and with their similarly matching golden hair, coupled with their handsome and beautiful face, the two really looks like long a brother and sister
"... brother?" Ais muttered unconsciously, only to hear Hohenheim chuckle , "sorry to burst your bubble girlie, but as far as I know, I'm siblingless." he said to blonde sword princess
"aww, I thought Ais-chan would finally have some relative..." the previous bubbly dark skin beauty said in defeat, next to her extremely similar to her but more endowed girl said, "don't tease Ais! you might hurt her unknowingly."
"tione! don't be stiff!" the younger twin said
"and tiona, don't be insensitive!" tione retorts
the twin bickering together and were ignored, the leading adventure, a short looking blond with blue eyes, named Finn, looked at the two fellow golden hair with interest, 'Ais rarely had anything phase her, so it's rather interesting to see her interacting like that..'
"... what is your name?" Ais titled her head and Asked, to which Hohenheim replied, "isn't more appropriate to introduce yourself first?" he asked with a smile, of course he knows her, at least knows her looks and name, but seeing how she would reacts decided to to do this
"huh?! who do you think you are little bastard?!" before she even think about a response, a young man with wolf ears who was nearby said to the teen in disdain, "you don't have the right to even demand to know her name! you weaklings!"
"Bete! don't be rude!" a jade-haieed high elf beauty said to to him, which made the man clicked his tongue, but didn't do anything, the high elf though,'I doubt this young adventurer would say something stupid, let wait and see.'
Ais titled her head in confusion, and thought about for a bit and nodded, ".. you are right, my name is Ais, can I know yours now?"
"sure, it's Hohenheim." he said with a smile
"Hohenheim... Hohenheim..." she said to herself, a looked at him in the eyes, "... Can you be my brother?" she asked without much thought
this statement resulting in different reaction, Finn smiled in amusement, Riveria raised her eyebrows, Bete snorts and spits, Tiona bursted in laughing
Hohenheim smiled wryly, "why, do you want to be my sister?"
"I... don't know?" she said, losing her father early and having her mother kidnapped, was very traumatic to the half-spirit, and made her revenge driven to the point she can't express emotions very well..
"then, how about telling me what you want now?" Hohenheim asked, Ais look down and saw his sword, "a spar.."
"a spar?" He asked,
"yes... don't worry...I won't use skills or magic...and well control my stats to match your level" Ais said calmly
"why would you want to spar me?"
"...just a feeling.."
"well, I don't mind" he said with a smile, he felt Ikukei shaking from excitement facing a very strong opponent
"heh, do you think you can match our best swordman if you can match her looks? while she was level one she can beat early level 2 only with pure technique!" Bete sneered at the joke in front of him, but only received a silence as an answer, which caused him to be irritated
"that's really unusual of Ais to initiate a spar." Finn noted causing Riveria next to him to nod, "even purely technique, Ais is pure genius surpassing her father in talent."
"hmph! I agree! they is no way some nobody could beat Ais-san! even if he looks similar to her!" an orange hair elf said in confidence
"I don't know about that lefiya , that young lad seems pretty confident, hahaha!" a brown haired dwarf said with laugh
Ais didn't heard their comments as she pulled her reaper "desperate", "...the winner will be the one who can can't continue..." she said to the blond teen
"as you wish, Ais-chan~" He said as he pulled his katana causing the eyes of Loki familia to open in surprise
"A GROWTH WEAPON!" they said in union
"how can some little shit has a growth weapon!" Bete said in frustration, even he does not have one, and can't even steal his because growth weapon is connected to their owner
"hoh! interesting lad!" the dwarf who name is Gareth said
"S-so what! growth weapon will be as same level as their welder, so it's still level one weapon for now! isn't that right, captain?!" the orange haired elf said
the captain who was Finn, stared at Ikukei in seriousness and said , " while indeed growth weapons are the same level as their user, it's still alive, So while for now it is inferior to Desperate for now, it won't be in the future, Besides level one growth weapon is as good as 2nd rate weapon!"
Riveria didn't comment and looked at the weapons with contemplating look, 'where I have seen it before?...it can't be that can it?'
Hohenheim hold Ikukei tight and took a samurai stance, "since Ais-chan said that she will fight with technique only, I would do the same." he said with
His words have hidden meaning, and Finn and Riveria caught it , 'He has hidden cards! this young man is really interesting!' they thought the same
sadly Ais wasn't that sharp and titled her head, ".. that's what I said...goofy.." causing her party to facepalm
Hohenheim only smiled wryly and took a deap breath, "ready?" he hold a coin in his hand
Ais nodded, he throws the coin in the air, the two blondes watch the coin slowly falling, and in no time it fell on the ground...
πΎπ‘πππ
the two kicked the ground, holding their respective weapon, 'this reminds me how often Bradley asked for spars...' Hohenheim thought in amusement, and strike his Ikukei which clashed with desperate causing sparks in the air, then another one, and another, soon the two been clashing against the other
Hohenheim did a backflip dodging in stab to the heart, "ohh! close!" he said while countering with thurst of his own, aiming the thighs, Ais jumped dodging the Ikukei and in the air she used her high agility to spin in the air and striking a stab downwards only for Hohenheim to barely blocking it
"you are good, Ais-chan!" Hohenheim said with big smile, only Bradley can match up with him, so sparing him was a way to pass time, so fighting with Ais regain this lost feeling of thrill
"... you too..." Ais had an almost invisible smile on her face, causing her party members to open their eyes wide
"it's barely visible..." tione
"...but it's there.." Tiona continued
"Ais-san's smile is so beautiful!" Lefiya said with bright cheeks
"now that's something you don't see Everyday.." Finn said with a amused smile causing Riveria to nodd, "indeed, it's nice to see her show some emotions"
but Finn shake his head, "no, that's not what I meant, look at the young man there, do you notice something?"
Riveria focused her gaze, "not really, he is really good swordman but that it-" She opened her eyes wide, causing Finn to grin, "you noticed it, right?"
"how?" Riveria calm Domineer was broken for moment, "he been fighting for almost one hour!"
"what about that?" Bete asked in snort, causing Riveria to snort back , "you dumb wolf! look closely! have you seen anyone match Ais for whole hour, without breaking a sweat, while maintaining the same even not more vigor! and being the same level as her!"
only then Bete realized the implications! , "there is no way that brat hs the same talent as Ais!"
"yes! what bete-san said is right!" the elf next to them said in agreement
Finn unexpected also nodded, "yes, Ais talent seems a bit higher than Hohenheim-kun, but the reason he can match her is... well it doesn't make sense..." he smiled wryly
"huh? why?" Bete asked
"well, from what I can conclude...he looked like retired master who somehow regained his youth... since there some hits he decisively decided to take since he can't block or dodge..." and as evidence...
Hohenheim looked at the parts where his armor were sliced with wry smile, "this gear me needs in upgrade...at least I didn't bleed.." he did hit Ais almost the same number of times, but her gear seems Superior as only some scratches can be seen over it, and since they agreed on only techniques, he can't use alchemy to fix it
he then looked at Ais who is coming at him with rapid speed like released arrow, seeing that's he can't dodge not block, he decided to tank it, ais reaper reach quickly him, and in decisive moment, he took the sword to his shoulder! the sword penetrated his shoulder causing Ais's eye to open wide, since she didn't mean to hurt him like this, she immediately wanted to take desperate back and end the spar, but couldn't move
"gotcha!" Hohenheim smirked, and hold Ais by the waist, "you can't run away, little sister~" he said as he pulled a small knife from his pocket pointing it at her neck
"...it's my loss..." Ais said in down tone
"it's mine too..." Hohenheim chuckle, "you could Aim for more vital area but you didn't,thanks for sparing with me." he said as her removed the knife and put it back, but still holding her by the waist
"...why I'm the little sister? I'm 16 how old are you?" she asked with almost unnoticeable pout
"I'm 15.." he laughed
"...then I am the big sister..."
"well I'm taller that's makes me the big brother.." he said while giving her a headpat, forgetting that's there is a sword in his shoulder
"... cheater..." Ais pouts become more visible
Finn and the rest are already come near them, Finn apologized, "sorry about that, Hohenheim-kun, please, let Riveria heal you.." Riveria nodded as she thinks that's their responsibility for letting Ais being willful
"Ais remove your sword!" Riveria call wake up Ais, who for some reason lost herself and his touch, maybe because of their similar features causing her let her guard around him, she slowly pulled Desperate, causing the teen to wince a bit, and letting blood escape his wound , "that's hurt more than I thought it would be.."
"of course! it's sword wound! , not a needle! I don't know why even try to injurie yourself there!" Riveria scolded him like a mother, causing Hohenheim to chuckle, "you sound like a mother." causing Riveria to twitch her eyebrows , "are you calling me old??" he narrowed her eyes dangerously, causing Hohenheim to look confused since he never intended that, but he is an veteran to women nonsense and unreasonableness, so he said with a smile, "I prefer calling you mature rather than old." causing the high elf to actually smile! casually change one word will give a sentence a whole meaning!
"at least you have manners unlike others. now let me heal you." causing Hohenheim to let a laugh and said , "thanks, I appreciate it." while he can heal himself, he decided to let her, to have better understanding of what magic it
πππ π¬ππ ππ
Riveria muttered the magic name causing a green light to cover the wound, which it's starts to slowly closes, Hohenheim sighed in admiration, as even while magic entered his system, he couldn't analyze it with alchemy, but it's indeed faster than his way of healing, but at least doesn't cost mind to use it
Riveria noticed his look and asked, "are you interested in magic?" causing the teen to nodded, "I do, it's rather fascinating, don't you think? the ability to mysteriously use some words, and puff, something that's science can't explain it!"
Riveria nodded with slight smile, "indeed it is, but it rare to find people to have it, much less practice it, and even mages like me are rarier." and continue, "but I think that's science is equally fascinating, since it's even more mysterious than magic, and being able to do stuff using science without magic is always research on.."
Hohenheim looked in interest, "I have some ideas on science, do you want to exchange pointers at some day?" some scientist soul he had in the past is excited
(I'm going to abuse this soul absorbing thingy to the core lmao)
"oh? then I accept. but don't come wasting my time, it's precious to study more magic." she nodded and Shortly after the wound heals
"come on guys! we wasting enough time, Loki will give an earful if we are late." Finn said seeing the treatment is done
"hahaha! ya r a true madlad letting yer being stabbed like that! I like ya! maybe you can drink with this old dwarf!" Gareth laughed and patted Hohenheim healed shoulder
this caused Hohenheim eys to shine, "sure! I'm always down to a drink!"
Ais then give Hohenheim money, "...here...for you armor..."
Hohenheim smiled wryly, "I don't think my armor costs 100k vlais..."
"that's for agreeing to spar with me, and injuring you too.. please accept.."
Hohenheim only smiled and took the money, he won't refused he good will, "I'll spar with you anytime...it's fun, isn't it, Ais-chan?"
"..it is, you are good, rarely people can keep up with me.." Ais nodded
Hohenheim then said goodbye to the party, and after they gone, he looked at his destroyed gear, "maybe I should now add the loot I had..." he laughed and start to analyze the loot he got...