As Ragna and Layla stepped outside, the air was still thick with heat, but the village had a lively atmosphere despite the scorching desert.
People were busy tending to daily tasks like rebuilding sandstone wall, gathering sparse desert plans or crafting items.
The two walked aimlessly at first, just looking around and getting used to this place but soon Mario, probably the leader of this place, interrupted their thoughts with his voice.
"Hey you two ! Over here."
Marios friendly demeanor felt slightly out of place since they didn't know for how long he had been in this hellhole but it was still nice to have someone enthusiastic like him on their side.
"I figured I might introduce you to someone."
Ragna and Layla exchanged a glance before walking over to him.
"Who do you want us to meet ?", asked Ragna as both him and Layla started following Mario while he led them to one of the bigger buildings in this area.
As Mario les them inside the bigger hut, they saw a, maybe in his mid twenties man, working one something on a table. As the man noticed us entering he turned around and smiled friendly.
"Meet Isaac, he's the smartest brain we got here and the one who thinks of our plans. If you got any questions he's the man to ask. He has also been stuck in this hellhole of a place for longer than anyone so you can trust his sources.
After saying that Mario excused himself and left them alone with Isaac.
"So, you're the new ones, right ? The ones from this winter solstice."
"Yeah, that's right. There are probably more that landed in this place but we haven't found them yet. Soo, Mario said we can ask you stuff, right ? So could you maybe tell us more about the creature that is guarding the Gateway ?"
"Uhm sure. I haven't seen it personally yet since im not made for fighting but I've been told that it's completly fighting oriented Fallen Devil. They were only lucky to survive because after a certain distance from the gateway it stopped attacking the explorers. As of right now we have no idea or chance to kill it somehow. As far as I know it uses powers connected to light and reflections but I can't really tell more about that. Anything else you wanna know ?"
'Light and Reflections powers, huh ? I can surely think of something against that. I also got that Memory that reflects light so maybe something with that.'
"No, it's alright. That everything I wanted to know for now. Thanks"
After Ragna and Layla excused them selves and left, they decided to go to what looked like a training plaza.
"Hey, Layla. Since we got information now, how about we spar here ?"
Layla didn't say anything forma few seconds before answering calmly.
"We can do that if you want. But no Memories allowed. Just fists and Aspect"
"Alright, that's fine with me."
As both of them got ready, getting into their stance, Ragna augmenting his body and Layla covering her fists with Ink, they gave eachother one nod and started.
Because how his augmentation, Ragna was faster and stronger than Layla so he started off by dashing towards her. He punched with his right fist yet feinted into his left one but what he didn't expect was for Layla to just take the hit. Well, actually she didn't "just" take the hit because just before Ragna hit her, she covered her whole body in the ink, making Ragna go in contact with it since he didn't know that she could also do that.
He now expected her to disable his Aspect because Ragna forgot that she could also give him different debuffs so in the next second his world suddenly went black because Layla made him temporarily go blind.
'Shit, this is bad. I've never fought like this.'
Layla now had the upper hand. If this wasn't a spar but a real battle he probably would've died today but since it wasn't a real fight, Layla started to toy with the blind boy. She grazed him from behind, from the side, sometimes from the front but Ragna just couldn't do anything against it.
He tried relying on his ears but Layla moved so quietly that he didn't her her steps.
'There must be something I can do ..."
Sadly there wasn't tho except for keeping up till the effects wore off but what would stop her to just make him blind again ?
'Fucking overpowered Aspect. How is it only of the supreme rank ?"
Thankfully the effects started to wear off. He would've already lost if Layla didn't just play with him but really punched him. Since she didn't tho he now had the chance to change the course of the battle again.
He augmented his feet and quickly dashed towards her. Attacking her wouldn't do anything, except if he could win with a singular shot.
He decided to pick up some sand while running and then throw it at her face.
" who's blind now ?"
He took the opportunity and kicked her ankles since they weren't covered by the ink. Sadly while doing so she just splashed some ink at him while blind and made his physical stats go down so the kick didn't do much.
But before the fight could continue they suddenly heard panic and screams as a huge sandstorm descended upon the village. From one to another second they were completly engulfed and couldn't even see further than a few meters.
Ragna and Layla heard some grunts and sounds of fighting from the distance so they quickly stopped their spar and ran towards the sounds.
They saw dozens, if not hundreds of fist sized insects flying through the sand, buzzing and attacking anything they saw. Many also moved towards them. Laylas debuff from the spar was still active so he struggled killing the flying creatures that attacked him but by augmenting his fists he somehow managed to kill a few by squishing them inside of his hands.
[You have slain a dormant Demon, stone bug]
[You have slain ...]
[You have slain ...]
Ragna ignored the next messages and just continued killing them left snd right, just like how Layla did the same a few meters away from him. After around 3 minutes he finally felt the effects of Laylas debuff wear off so now it was even easier, at least for him. He still heard screams from time to time as skin could be heard tearing off.
But just as quickly as they came they also went. It was like a sand Lavigne just went over the city and disappeared. As the sand dropped down and the vision appeared again he saw other people. Some dead and laying on the ground, some injured and some uninjured like him and Layla. As everyone slowly calmed down from the unexpected event. They suddenly heard Marios voice echo throughout the village.
"MEDICS, HEAL THE DEADLY INJURED. WE CANNOT LET MORE PEOPLE DIE!"
***
After the events Layla and Ragna went to their room. They didn't speak for a while because of the atmosphere and corpses outside but after a while Layla spoke.
"By the way, I would have won the spar if we didn't get interrupted."
"Oh really ? Because I think I would've won. I had the slight edge at the end"
"That's only because I played with you. I still had an ace up my sleeve"
Ragna raised an eyebrow.
"Oh really, and what is that "ace", if I may ask ?"
"I would've kicked you in the nuts."
" ... yeah you would've won."
——-Author's Notes——-
Words: 1272
Short chapter again. I've just been feeling bad yesterday and today so I've been struggling to write. If I don't feel better by tomorrow I'll probably won't release the daily chapters by tomorrow because I don't want this to affect my creativity and writing in general.
Peace✌️