"Combat is when the mind finds out it can't live on its own."
-Carsius, the Wandering Ghost
***
There was a distinct difference in overall ability between mundane and Awakened humans.
So far Max had only faced mundane humans. When he was mundane, even then, they weren't much of a challenge. Probably because he never fought particularily strong mundanes like the Morning Knights. Not until he was an Awakened himself.
But the man standing across from him right now is a fellow Awakened. He had red hair in a ponytail. A handsome face, dark brown eyes and wide shoulders. He was as tall as Max.
The captain of the city guard.
Max had to prove that he was an Awakened by demonstrating his aura flow and physical ability in the realm of speed and strength.
When he did prove what he was, the guards and the captain took him seriously.
They accepted his wishes to spar because Max wouldn't be the only benefiting party. Awakened were quite rare in this world. There were only a few hundred of them.
"I haven't had the chance to spar with someone that matches me in a while. Thank you." The captain said.
"This is my first time sparring with someone of your might."
"Interesting." The red hair said, with raised eyebrows.
Max used two swords. Not his own. Dull swords meant for sparring. The red hair used a spear and a shield. Also sparring gear.
His heart was pounding. He was excited and nervous. It's his first time facing an Awakened. He looked at the mountain chain surrounding the seaside city to calm himself down a bit, the distant trees, greenery and human friendly monsters on the nearby mountains.
He took a deep breath.
"Ready?" Max asked.
"When you are." A reply came.
"Go." The player said to the NPC.
They both dashed forwards to meet in the middle.
'Can't let him use the range.' Max thought to himself.
As he approached, he prepared to answer to the attack that would come from the spearman.
He was completely focused.
He did slow down a tad bit just before entering the range of the spearman.
The spearman lunged fast, but Max parried the attack with one of his dummy swords.
He stepped in but the spearman leapt away.
After that, as Max approached, the spearman feinted an attack, provocating a parry from Max and then hitting him in the armor after. Max leapt away immediately after the exchange.
They were incredibly quick, superhumanly quick. Ordinary real life sword versus spear fights are not comparable to this at all.
The spearman slashed horizontally and Max already knew he was just slightly out of range and simply didn't move, but then the NPC did something crazy.
He didn't stop the swing and used it as added momentum to jump and flip in the air all the while targeting Max.
Max barely dodged and stepped in at the same time that the spearman leapt away again.
"You're not taking me very seriously." Said Max.
They exchanged attacks at a superhuman speed.
Max leapt into the air at the spearman but the warrior didn't intend to meet Max's momentum and force so he simply stepped away.
"You're too flashy." Said the NPC mid-combat.
Max landed and knowing a counter would come, he lunged into the knight while parrying a sniping strike to his head.
The knight blocked Max's right sword while also performing a roundhouse kick, using the momentum of his spear being parried to the side for extra power.
The armored leg blocked Max's strike from the left sword while hitting Max in the skull.
Which sent him down.
"I held back on that one. You should be fine."
"Yeah. I am." Max said, though he still felt dazed.
"Had enough?" The knight asked the player.
"No, sir."
The two soon slowed down in their next fight.
Waiting for the other to make the move.
Max had sweat in his eyes. His palms were wet.
The spearman was the one to make it.
He lunged at an incredible speed with only one hand on the spear and Max met him with a parry of the sword in his left hand.
The player stepped in to hit the NPC with his right sword. Wary of the kick that happened in this exact pattern.
But something happened.
Right as the spear was parried, the Awakened NPC warrior let go of the spear, went into Max, put the shield up to stop the player's right hand and tripped Max, taking him down.
The spearman stood over the player, disabling both arms and winning the fight.
"Nice. That was unexpected." Said Max.
"May I know your name?" Asked the spearman.
"Max Veritas. Yours?"
"Levent Ivor. We're gonna have to use aura to really make this interesting. You up for it? No abilities of course."
"Sure."
Even without aura, their speed was superhuman. With it, it was twice as fast. Twice as powerful.
Now things were immensely different.
The soldiers nearby all watched fight with open mouths.
***
Max lost all four rounds he did with the Awakened knight. Two he did with aura, the last he did without due to exhaustion and some damage.
The knight was usually sniping the player from afar. And even when he wasn't, he had something up his sleeve. Max, knowing this, lunged explosively fast at the spear knight after dodging a snipe in expectation that the NPC would leap back.
And he did. Levent did leap back. And Max met him almost perfectly where the knight landed to. But it wasn't enough. The spear knight recovered during the leap back and handled Max expertly.
In the last round, the player managed to land some superficial, minor hits to the knight's arm, shoulders and hands after realizing that going for a more serious blow was never going to work out for him. He tried to play the longer game.
Which he was commended for. But it simply wasn't enough. He adapted to the master quite well and quite fast, but that didn't stop the force of experience and battle-hardened wisdom from defeating the young sprout.
Max went back after the fourth round, utterly defeated and humbled, to speak with his squad mates.
"Eliyah, I met a mage lady recently. Maybe you could learn something from her." Max said, wincing as he sat down in the chair. He had some pain and damage from the sparring sessions. His headache was the worst of it though. His face was seriously bruised too. But nothing worrying. Super regeneration will take care of everything overnight easily.
"Oh? Not even the sophisticated mages are safe from an animal like you."
Ignoring the comment, Max looked towards Manuel.
"How long can we afford to stay in this town? I found a fellow Awakened training partner and would like to get some more sessions from him."
"No more than a week." Replied the knight.
"A week? Can I even beat him once by the end of it?" Max asked, not expecting an answer.
"You literally killed a main boss caliber monster with one other guy. The best player in the game had dozens of players with him." Thomas answered.
Max smiled.
"It couldn't have been that powerful." He said, humbly.
"Maybe you were just that smart and adaptable. Cutting its legs to make it fall. As it was regenerating."
"Who knows. Plus that companion of mine was an Awakened. Would definitely sweep many second floor players, I bet. What have you been doing these days, Thomas? We didn't really get much from you." Max asked the archer.
"Archery training for half the day. I climb a mountain and shoot birds. Or whatever those fucking small creatures are in this game."
"Wow. You don't get bored?" Eliyah asked.
"Not everyone is hungry like you Eliyah, being in a prison for however long you've been."
"Only three weeks!"
"Okay? How did a noble even attack you in the first place?" Manuel asked.
"Son of a Royal Guard." Eliyah said.
"Tasmon is a noble from what I know. Earned it being the best warrior in this part of the continent." Manuel responded.
"He was a psycho. I stole his field boss kill and he was demented. Nobles are obssesed with merit and glory everywhere here."
"You're fucking stupid." Manuel commented.
"I know. Him and his company chased me around the forest and by a fucking miracle things linked up perfectly and I managed to kill him and escaped the others. He wasn't anything like his father though. I saw Tasmon once and it was crazy. Not even Max has a chance.
"How the hell did you kill him?" Thomas asked.
"Nearby monsters came at us, the noble got seperated from his squad, the environment itself...My squad mates died fighting that idiot's team. If I was ganged up on, I wouldn't be here."
The squad all linked up today to have a long talk about what they've been up to in this town at the bottom of the world.
The sunset was making the sky red, contrasting against the sea visible from the wooden balcony of the teahouse they were in.
"What if Tasmon...is looking for us?" Eliyah asked the group.
"He probably is." Manuel answered, coldly.
Eliyah gulped.
"You see those wanted posters in the square and at the entrance of the city? We could appear there. Even though we're in another kingdom." The knight added.
Max's expression began to darken. He probably didn't even have a week.
Manuel continued.
"Once the people see us and recognize us, the guards will hunt us."
The archer spoke up.
"But they don't have cameras! They can't have our faces."
"Idiot. They definitely have a description of us from witnesses and survivors there. If anyone matches it they will be arrested and brought to the kingdom and placed in front of the faces of the witnesses." Manuel answered.
"It's only a matter of time before a notice reaches this place. We did commit a crime serious enough to be looked for even in other kingdoms." Max said.
He continued.
"Our wings and me carrying Eliyah in flight certainly makes us much faster than cavalry but we've probably only got a few more days."
Manuel looked towards Eliyah.
"Eliyah, you're gonna be checking the main wanted boards every morning and every evening."
"Why me?"
"You barely did anything in Rinea besides fucking and drinking yourself to half-death." The knight answered, with a slight frown.
"Alright, alright."
Thomas spoke up after.
"Let's say we have three days. What will we do on the third? Will we go the island first?"
It was a serious question that needed serious consideration and thought.
The group was silent for a while.