I thought that what would cause me a problem in this fight would be to manage to win without the hero being able to guess my power level, or guess my intentions about him.
I was wrong, I didn't even imagine how wrong I was just when I started cause I took my opinion as the most easy thing right now, but I couldn't have been more wrong.
A teacher : "He is not gonna win"
The examiner : "He is not taking it well"
A teacher : "And his opponent isn't gonna let him win"
The examiner : "Yeah and their is more to it"
Initially I thought I would do nothing and let the opponent launch a few attacks in the air like all my enemies until now, but that was without counting on 2 things, already the envy of the enemy and his precise talent (chapter 6 or 7 for that).
Depending on the talent of the person, depending luck and genetics, the system then gives them powers more or less proportional to the needs for this occupation and talent, Mage gives more mana, knight more physical strength…
So I had then, without realising it, to come across either a mage Darthos for exemple or a fighter, Lapeil for exemple and now another annoying adversary.
Darthos : "You seem to be an annoying ennemy"
Darthos' enemy : "Yeah I am not gonna do what you are waiting for, so you better come yourself"
Darthos : "Why not then, I dont have much to lose anyway"
Darthos' enemy : "I didn't know you would go close combat, it's gonna be fun"
Thanks to my training against Vector, a rather novice fighter cannot even reach me, so I could be pretty good even in going that close to him
Adding that to the continuous reading of the mana flows in the air and in him and suffice to say that I could avoid his attacks quite well even though I definitely found it quite weird.
Darthos : "I wanted more excitement for this fight but I guess no"
Darthos ennemy : "Don't worry we are just playing for no, why don't we accelerate a bit"
Darthos : "Sure"
Here we are talking about an apprentice knight from his clothes, a guy whose body mana amplification is his specialty, in his second year, so with experience, I won't get away with it as easily as I did against Lapeil for long.
And I was quite right about that as he started to gradually increase the rate of attack and it became amso much more complex to avoid them, he really started to become annoying to beat.
??? : "I am very interested in you, you know since your fight I wondered if you will be just as able to avoid my attacks as you did with the fire guy, I am not that disappointed"
Darthos : "All this for so few points"
??? : "Come on give it your everything or else it's not gonna be real fun"
Darthos : "Not like its gonna be fun anytile soon"
The system ensures that if a student with an extra year or a level too high faces a weaker one then he will have very little, if not no points even by winning.
But some people having fun martyring the weakest of the students just for fun did it anyways, it seems like it's falling on me for today, with what I did, I kinda deserved it.
??? : "Why don't we continue we seem to have a bored audience"
Darthos : "Not like they can understand what we are doing"
??? : "Yeah but I wakt to show the Hero what I am able to do, and you are the perfect target"
Darthos : "I kinda don't care but I also have some stuff to try out"
He did attack contrary to what I thought at the beginning, no he was watching and waiting like me, but the audience was booing us even if I don't care a bit.
I admit that it crossed my mind for a short moment to try to put him in the water sphere like all my opponents so far but I was pretty sure that it wouldn't work so I did not try.
And hhaving tested my mana a mot with a lot of different opponent on what I could do or notI pretty much preffered to try hand to hand anyways.
Darthos : "You seem to really take it easy"
??? : "Well if you don't want to take the opportunity I'm giving you"
He sometimes let some blank spaces, little opening that any martial artists would jump on but apart from being total bait or traps I was not liking it.
When I tried to go for it, no matter the angle or the way I did it, he had a counter which made me instantly go back to my original position.
Darthos : "I dont like your offerings"
??? : "Then I will take things myself, after all its better to take than to give"
Darthos : "You wish"
He launched himself at me, I didn't even really have time to react that he was already on my right flank, something that I did not see coming.
He is fast, very fast, plus his mana is already in his feet and hands, so there was no mana movement, he preapred it without me seeing it too much just by avoiding me.
My mana is also on the ends of my body almost all the time which meant that I didn't take all his attack with full force, I'm also 'lucky' that he didn't put all his strength into it and that half of his mana is in his feet to hence his own speed.
Darthos : "I really didn't appreciate your las attack, hurts a lot now"
??? : "You are already hurt with only this, I don't give a lot of chance of surviving for your skin"
Darthos: "I dont really care about marks"
??? : "Nice I am gonna hurt you more then"
He had retreated almost immediately after his attack perhaps in reaction to a possible counterattack, something that would have been impossible, having moved all my mana to protect my body it would have been complicated.
I was speedier than him to move my mana from one place to another as I trained a lot to defend my body but he had much more mana than me and was more trained in general.
??? : "Well, since you're still standing, let's keep going"
Darthos : "Can't even catch a breath"
??? : "No I want to test the limit of your body"
I imagine he must have knocked a lot of the inexperienced 3 stars out in one fell swoop to be that confindent and excited about that, but I am a little more resistant and I still wanted to win.
Something I realized when I was fighting the spirits was that I was losing blood, but no matter what blows I suffered, I won't die when normally all normal humans should have died of blood loss.
Darthos : "I am telling you, you wont kill me with your attacks"
??? : "Killing is not my intention"
Darthos : "Judt telling you, but your attacks doesn't even stings a bit"
??? : "Ah, I like your eyes, nice..."
When I asked Hypnos, he told me that demons only need their brains to live, the brain that controls everything, the rest of the organs exist only to look pretty and in a real demon they are replaced by mana hearts, which allows them to store mana.
This is actually one of the only advantages of demons is that no matter the blows received as long as their heads are not severed or being vut in half, they can still live pretty well and not feel the difference.
The blood I was losing was therefore just the one in my body before transformation as it never went really anywhere, from the moment I had lost all this blood, it was replaced by liquid mana controlled by the heart which is the same color as mana so it goes good with the little "blood" I was losing right now.
??? : "You are losing so much blood that it's not even funny"
Darthos : "You think that's enough to make me pass out or something"
??? : "It seems like it isn't but you shuld stip before it become too much"
Darthos : "What you becoming scared now big kitty cat, come on try to knock me out, I would live to see you try"
As a demon I slightly became more detached from my previous humans feelings even though I still had them in me.
And the training with the beasts and also my past made me forget all about pain and everything that could arguably annoy me during a fight, I became without a doubt pretty monstrous.
Teacher : "You sure you aren't gonna stop that ?"
Examiner: "Yeah I am, I know he won't die from that, only if it gets too tricky I will intervene"
Teacher : "Your student almost looks as crazy as you when you are fighting"
Examiner : "That even surprise me, he really make it more and more interesting"
Another thing that could not be more important, the higher spirits were partially sealed in the statues, which is also equivalent for their mana, so their level is not really four stars, otherwise who would make a pact with them in fact.
Their presence has really only one purpose, to test people who want to try to make a contract with them, so their power adapts according to the enemy and progresses until reaching the maximum.
(the most attentive readers will notice that this is exactly what happened for the scolopendra, who didn't reach it's maximum level and was progressing in the fight).
I was well aware of this thing when I was fighting them, which is also why I was doing it because it allowed me to follow my progress without risking too much to get one-shot.
Darthos : "So what, not continuing ?"
??? : "Stop being so thoughtful, you're leaving too many openings"
It didn't seems to be the case here even if mureders where clearly banned I could still be in big trouble but compared to those thing it was much more safe.
That's why I was laughing, even getting completely destroyed bould not be even close to what those annoying demons made me endure.
Darthos : "Sorry, it's that I'm wondering what I'm going to do"
??? : "Just do it"
Darthos : "Nah"
??? : "Then I will continue even harder"
For what seemed like an eternity for me but which was probably only a few seconds, he still hit me while laughing, while I knew very well that the only chance of not ending up with the organs in shamble was just to block and wait for a breach.
Even if I can't die from his blows and I don't risk anything, the pain he inflicts on me is there, and if I can't move after this fight it would be a very big loss.
??? : "What now ?"
Darthos : "Nothing I am just waiting for you to get bored"
??? : "You are much more waiting for an opportunity to strike"
Darthos : "Can't hide you anything"
??? : "Anyway that's just not gonna happen"
In addition, the hero who was watching the fight until then did not seem to take his eyes off me, it seems that I can't do anything, I'm going to have to lose.
I don't like it, even if I lose a few points, I will really be in a very bad position for the rest especially since his blows have well narrowed my amount of movement, he hit me quite hard on the side so I will have a hard time to just move, ah really annoying.
--- On the hero side (his friend perspective)
I am just bored, I wanted to make it fun by having the hero with me, making him read the mana and betting on people to get a lot of money but this fihgt was just too fricking long.
A 4 stars really close to being a knight to fight with a commonner anyone would know the end of that fight, it was just a loss of times, I don't really know what Arther see in it to stay his eyes fixed on it.
Friend of the hero: "Why watch this fight, it's just another humiliation"
Hero: "You're not looking in the right place, he manages to move his mana fast enough on each side so as not to take too much damage, he sees the attack coming"
Friend: "But he doesn't do anything about it"
Okay he is quick but if he can just defend, he is not gonna go really far with only that, sure that's already a lot to ask for a commoner but still.
Certainly it's not gonna be enough givien the qtate he is in and his oponent, that's not changing much, he is just a big loser like all others.
Hero: "He doesn't have enough mana, if they had the same amount of mana, then the fight would be interesting"
Friend: "Something else weird about him? »
Hero: "Looks like he's not really a 3 star"
Friend: "What do you mean? »
Now that's interesting, I knew something had to be wrong for Arther to be just constantly analysing everything that is happening.
But what he suggested made it seems like this commoner even lied and deceived everyone about his talent which would explain a lot.
Hero: "There are several types of mana in him, if I had to evaluate it individually they are around 2-3 stars, together he seems like a good star"
It seems like Arther could also see the mana so precisely inside an invidual, I did not know anyone besides the archmage could even do it but what did you expect, it was the hero.
--- Back to the fight (Narrator's POV)
Meanwhile the fight had been stopped by the referee by Lucian's outright forfeit, the hero sighed a little but left, knowing very well anyway what to expect and he had what he wanted so he just stayed to lose time.
As for Lucian, he was biting his lip until he bled (it's not blood but whatever), he didn't stay long in the middle of the arena and just left for the infirmary, he certainly didn't expect his opponent to be right behind him.
??? : "Well I expected better from you than just forfeiting, I am kinda disappointed"
Darthos : "I don't care about your remarks"
??? : "But hey you may be the one who has been tanking the longest"
Darthos : "That's not really a compliment"
??? : "If you want we can train together, me to attack and you to tank"
So he clearly wanted a target on which he could test his attacks, in other words, Lucian could say yes but the spirits where more useful and as they are progressive they still are easier to fight.
Darthos : "You must be dreaming"
??? : "Oh come on don't say no so quickly, my name is Randal, if you want to train, ask my name at the second year building"
On these words he left as quickly as he had arrived by sprinting, finally one less nuisance for Lucian, either his help was of no interest but to make himself friend who has information on future knights and on the 2nd years, that could become interesting.
He just had to see how slowly but surely he was going to get him to tell him all of his information about everyone without moving a finger, but for now had another problem, much more pressing than that, how was he going to get points in his physical condition, even with the great regenerative faculties of demons, he only have a very short time left, he seems to be in great troubles, once more.
Next chapter: "The people's Hero"