What happened this night was surprising and very much surprising for Teras, he seemed to win against Pecus for a moment when other times he utterly lost
He figured that the feelings he felt may have caused all that but that was far too unrealistic, strength does come from rage but from within one's body
The reality was that he was quite damaged from the fight but not from Pecus's attacks but from his own abilities
"You seem confused, are you thinking about how you kind of won yesterday?" Enyo asked the troubled Teras
'Is she reading my mind or something?' Teras wondered as he ate his breakfast
That's right! After returning from the fight Teras and Enyo slept like angels
"I kind of know the reason, I fought him the moment he woke up and I also ignored my body's defense and attacked like my life depended on it!" Teras replied as he took a big bite out of his food
"Well pretty much! But there is another reason why you did it, and that reason was that for a moment you stabilized your mana flow in your mana vessels, I don't know if I have told you this before but you are one, if not the quickest learners of mana I have seen, and with the other skills you have you can outgrow Pecus in a quick rate, so continue as you do now and you will complete the task I assigned you pretty quick!"
Enyo's words made Teras feel a certain type of happiness, one that comes only when someone completes another without expecting anything
…
"Hey, Enyo can I ask you something?" Teras asked as he was finishing his food
"Go on"
"What do you stand for? Why do you act the way you act? What's the reason behind you doing all this? Don't tell me the reason you helped me but why are you fighting overall, what made you become a card possessor?" Teras asked as he stared at Enyo's eyes
"Did what Pecus tell you earlier made you feel bad?" Enyo asked with a smile
"No that's not that... I just want to know your reasons..." Teras said with an unconvincing tone
"I see... The reason I fight is because I couldn't help the one person I loved..." Enyo said with a cold smile on her face
There was no emotion in her eyes or smile, it was like a corpse smiling
"I see... I feel sorry about you"
"Don't I was pathetic, the only thing I could do is cry to him about how weak I was compared to others while he was slowly dying from a disease, at the time I didn't know that he was dying and I couldn't help him either, "I have to practice" he said again and again, and I thought that the gloom face he had all the time was from that, I never questioned it deeper or probably cared, you see? I was selfish so the reason I became so "great" was because I was completely and utterly useless, not a moving reason right?"
Enyo said as she took both hers and Teras's dish off the table and right into the sink
'What do I say to her now? She is clearly under the weather after she told me that...' Teras thought as he watched Enyo humming while washing the dishes
"Hey, Enyo do you want to have a spar?"
"Why? Since you kind of won against Pecus you think you can take me on?" Enyo asked jokingly
That joke went over Teras's head
"No, no! That's not it, I just want to see how far I came, I know I'm not near as good as you but I want to see if I can at least harm you..." Teras said timidly
"Hmm, let me think about it..." Enyo said as she pretended to think
"If you tell me that I'm the most beautiful girl in the world then I will do it"
'What is this feeling? Why did I feel this weird feeling in my stomach?' Teras thought as soon as he heard her words
"I'm sorry I can't say that..."
Enyo was surprised by the straight-up answer from Teras
"Come on! I'm not THAT ugly..." Enyo said disappointed
"It's not like that! You are okay, it's just that I can't bring myself to say that for a reason..."
"It's okay, how about simply calling me pretty?" Enyo said with a smile right in front of Teras's face
She tried to cheer him up since he looked sad
"You got to find yourself a man Miss Enyo..." Teras said as he slightly giggled
Enyo's eyes opened wide open and she started jumping left and right from happiness
"W-What's wrong?" Teras asked confused
"You kind of laughed for once! I tried to make you smile for so long but you finally did it... Oh and don't worry I will ignore the comment you just said earlier for your own sake, but don't expect me to go easy on you at the spar!" Enyo said with a devilish smile
…
After getting ready and setting up a place to spar Teras and Enyo got into fighting positions, both of them stared at each other and waited for the timer to end
What was the timer? A falling rock out of the sky that Enyo teleported high into the air
BANG
As soon as it touched the ground Teras activated his mana overflow and charged at Enyo
'What is he thinking charging at a cared possessor like that?' Enyo thought as she too started running toward Teras
The two of them reached a close distance and suddenly Teras ducked down revealing a pointing mana shield that was coming fast toward the accelerating Enyo
BLINK
She switched spots with the shield and created a shield like Teras's and threw it at him, Teras thankfully dodged it by jumping back
"Do you think you can get me with my own trick? I used to do this and at the moment the shield touched my hair I swapped places with the shield, that way the shield NEVER missed" Enyo said with a smile
Her combat experience was alarming for Teras
'She is a genius card possessor, did I really expect nobody to have come up with a trick like that?' Tears thought as he created a smoke screen with his explosions
"Come on after imitating my tricks I didn't expect you to hide in a smoke screen!" Enyo said as her eyes shined a bright blue light
She was using mana vision to see past the smoke
She then got a clean hit, it was a punch that launched Teras away making him clash with a tree
'Damn... I guess she is really an impossible target to win against, but I can try my best, if I won Tokkou then that means I can win her too' Teras thought as he confidently stood up
'But for that, I will have to use something I used THEN... I have to use the long-range explosion!' Teras thought as he started preparing a mana overload, but this time he analyzed how it worked
To create a mana overload the mana user creates a mana package that barely fits inside the mana vessel, and essentially squeezes through the vessel, and then is released as an explosion from any extraction point of mana (hands, legs, mouth? eyes???), the main thing creating the explosion is essentially the tight place all this mana is stored at
So creating a traveling mana overload requires only one thing...
Teras threw an air slice toward Enyo, she swapped places with the slice and attempted to attack Teras once again but this time Teras used a mana overload to launch both him and Enyo in the air and then took his chances...
He threw his dagger at Enyo and also tried to create a ranged mana overload, he threw this experimental attack at the nearest and biggest flying rock
BLINK
Enyo switched places with that rock and saw a blue light right before her eyes
BOOOM
The attack worked
'It was that easy? No way...' Teras thought as he landed
How did he manage to create that attack? By using mana shields of course, by retaining the piled-up mana into the same narrow space with a mana shield Teras was able to keep the same explosive power he creates with his hands by using more mana but completely vanishing the need to put mana on the defense, the only downside of this attack was that the enemy could destroy it and that he needs to be precise, the attack doesn't magically fly toward the enemy but works more like a mana shield, meaning Teras has to control all of its movement, this control in a fight can become quite hard
"Enyo?" Teras wondered out loud, he was still on the air
Suddenly he saw Enyo fly through the smoke toward him at an alarming rate
Teras mana charged his sword and swung at Enyo but she blinked
She was behind him and threw a powerful punch, but thankfully she stopped herself right before meeting Teras's face, the effect of the punch was insane
She created a strong wind that blew the smoke behind Teras and also sent Teras some meters away
Teras unsuccessfully fell down with his face facing the sky
'If I had gotten hit I would have died...' Teras thought with his eyes wide open
Enyo appeared in his sight offering a helping hand, she was also smiling
"Did you realize what you did?" She asked Teras while helping him get up
"Ranged explosion?"
"RANGED EXPLOSION!!!"
They answered in sync and from the look on their face it was clear who was more excited (Enyo)
"Ah, I see you are sad that you lost but you have to acknowledge what you just did! Ranged explosion? Creating an explosion alone is unreal but using it as a ranged weapon is two times cooler! It's like you use the power of a card even though you don't!" Enyo said as he cleaned up the dust off Teras, at that moment she also gave him his dagger back
"This attack of yours... was super amazing..."
That was not what Teras wanted to say
"Your hair combined with your aura made you shine like the morning sun..."
That's what Teras wanted to say but he was too shocked by what he and Enyo did that he couldn't talk
"Thank you but you forgot something..." Enyo said as she whistled and looked away
…
"You are beautiful..."
"Ahh come on! Don't say it like that in my face, you are too sweet!" Enyo said as she slightly pushed Teras's shoulder
'I think I figured out why she doesn't have a man...' Teras thought as he looked at her with a dead expression on his face
"If it's okay I will now leave! I have to get back to woodcutting or else Droe will kill me!" Teras said as he quickly left Enyo behind
"Sure..." She replied
'What the hell was that, she totally got serious back there but she then hid it by acting goofy and super girly, did my attack really make her use her true strength? That also brings this question, Tokkou and Enyo were totally playing with me so "if one of them used their true strength how long would I have lasted?" it's kind of scary that we can have such wide gaps, so what would have happened if that punch connected? I wonder, she can do that to anybody, even me at any moment... Scary...'
Teras thought as he was walking toward Droe's house
'This kid... Even though he still had injuries from his battle with Pecus he still managed to put out a good fight and also predict my teleportation... A little number of people have ever done that, but was it because I didn't consider him a big enough threat or did he truly predict me? This kid is a monster, I understand Tokkou now, he has the potential to wield a card, and when he does he will be... Scary...'
Enyo thought as she started walking toward her house
…
"Hey, no cheating! Give me your dagger..." Droe said when he saw Teras cut thin trees with his air slash
"Come on! Why does it matter how I cut them? I'm doing the job nonetheless so what's your deal?" Teras whined as he saw his dagger get taken away
"Hey, Teras hurry up and finish so we can train!" Tom said, he was lying on top of a cut tree trunk
"We barely practiced back then Tom and I told you I won't teach you how to fight unless your father approves it!" Teras said as he started cutting trees with an axe
"Come oooooon! He doesn't need to know!" Tom whispered
"Don't even think about it!" Droe yelled from inside the house
"Ahh...."
"See? I told you to stop bothering me about that, now you can wait for me to finish or you can go into town by yourself, I will go to take the goods alone after this so I can come along but if you are too bored to watch then I don't mind you leaving..." Teras said as he continued to slice down a tree
"No, I will wait..." Tom said as he closely watched Teras's moves
It was clear he started liking Teras...