(Gimme Powerstones, this week's goal is 500 PS)
Luck immediately stopped, and so did Akeru in the next instant.
"Causing trouble just as you entered. It was my mistake to take you as a mature kid," Yami said after puffing some more smoke.
'But I didn't even start the fight,' Akeru felt wrong, so he decided to defend himself.
"It's not my fault for running away if an almost naked dude is rushing at me, right?"
"What if it was a naked lady?"
"I would run away twice as fast as that is probably a trap," Akeru honestly said.
It's not a natural occurrence for a naked lady to rush at him, right?
"Anyway, why don't we have a spar, Captain? I am also curious about how close I am to Captain level."
Though Akeru said it quite literally, others' thoughts weren't exactly about him being close to it.
"You really are strong for a newbie, though I wonder if you are worthy," Magna suddenly said, and Akeru found a baseball-sized fireball rushing at him at blinding speeds.
Akeru cocked his head back as the fire almost grazed him.
"Fine, I am also curious," Yami accepted his request for a spar while ignoring Magna's action which led to a hole in the wall.
"You should first get dressed, Captain. I don't think Akeru would risk fighting you while you are almost naked," Vanessa suggested to Yami.
The latter grumbled about something while going more into the building.
A minute later, he came out with an outfit.
"Let's have a fight deeper in the forest. I don't want to destroy the area around the base," Yami ordered, surprising the others present.
Though they were a bit surprised that the newbie was not caught by Luck going serious and dodged Magna's surprise attack, this made them think that the Captain was going serious.
"Heh, I have a feeling that this is going to be interesting," Vanessa said while taking another gulp from her bottle.
"I will create a portal," Finral immediately got to work when Yami looked at him like the former owed some money to the latter.
Others also decided to join as spectators as they were curious.
Akeru took a position opposite Yami.
"I would suggest you guys have more distance, as things are going to get messy," Akeru suggested to the six Black Bull members who had come to watch the battle.
Nobody protested and proceeded to do that.
"Wait, is he the newbie Captain mentioned 3 years back, a kid who can take out most magic knights without a grimoire?" Magna suddenly said.
"He did mention that it's been 3 years since he got the robe from the Captain, so it's highly likely," Finral said.
"No wonder he feels strong. I really want to have a serious battle with him," Luck said with his trademark smile.
At a distance away, Yami had one hand on his hilt while Akeru could be seen looking at him carefully.
Though it seemed they were staring each other down, the reality was far from what it appeared.
Akeru could see countless numbers of red lines disappearing and appearing while a number of blue lines on Yami also changed.
'This is like a match of chess, maybe advanced chess would be a more appropriate comparison. I know what would exactly happen if I choose one of the red lines and he knows that too, though this will also change based on known abilities by the other party. Luckily we both lack the exact knowledge about each other's abilities,' Akeru analyzed and decided to find a red line which was the best choice among the flawed choices.
"I have been thinking of this battle for quite a long time." A shell of water enclosed Akeru, with purple lightning flowing in that water.
If one person focused carefully, they would also sense an area around Akeru which was filled with some of his mana.
A purple robe appeared on Akeru's body with occasional sparks coming out of it.
Akeru was not lying with that statement.
He had simulated this battle countless times in the last three years, and one could even argue that his training direction was influenced by that too.
'I am confident in beating him,' Akeru internally thought, and in the next instant, he disappeared from everyone's view.
Yami's sword flickered multiple times in a second.
Black slashes met water shining with a purple hue.
BOOM
BOOM
Even though each of the attacks was the size of a bullet, their clash created a lot of noise.
'As expected, darkness magic is slow; however, he could overcome that by coating the wind with the magic. Though it slightly slows down the original speed of the slash, it still has significant speed,' Akeru analyzed with his focus spell.
The barrage of water bullets stopped; however, Yami didn't stop his slashes, and quite a number of them reached Akeru and entered his domain.
Akeru frowned while doing some dodging maneuvers.
'Darkness is interfering with my mana zone. The slashes were only reduced by half their original speed. Though I did consider this property of Dark magic previously, it comes under the worst-case scenario I prepared for.'
Akeru disappeared from the position, and so did Yami.
BOOM
BOOM
Though they were fighting from a range, their clashes were creating a lot of noise.
"Holy crap, I can't see them," Vanessa said while her hair was flowing back due to the wind blowing from the clash between the projectiles.
"That newbie is really strong," Magna said with surprise.
"I really want to participate in this battle." Luck was having a hard time holding back from creating his equipment and going into the battle.
"You would be a casualty if any of those attacks slightly altered out of course. I won't be able to save you as my reaction time is not that absurd," Finral warned him.
Back on the battlefield, Akeru continued testing Yami's slashes.
'Can he go faster, or is he at his max speed? I can't really judge. At the moment, he is around my speed, but I need to make sure to know his overall limits,' Akeru's world, which was slow at the moment, increased to normal speed.
Akeru suddenly stopped, and the page of his grimoire, which was attached with a locket to his neck, started flipping.
'Orion's Ordeal' Purple lightning on Akeru's body suddenly turned into red lightning, and Akeru disappeared from his position again.
Yami's eyes widened. 'His speed doubled just now.'
Yami's speed at which he flicked his sword increased slightly; however, that and his Ki also had limits.
Even if he saw an attack coming, he couldn't react if his body didn't allow him to.
'I can't sustain this spell for long. Even though my nerves are being fried and healed at the same time, the pain it causes is really high, plus it also might dull my instincts, which could impact my Ki,' Akeru decided that he needed to be quick.
Multiple water bullets hit Yami's body, but mana skin made of Dark magic took care of the lightning.
But the impact of the attack was enough to cause him damage, especially when multiple of those were landing on him.
For a few seconds, this trend happened until Akeru decided to go for an impactful hit.
He, for the first time since the battle started, closed the distance and reached a few meters away from Yami.
The red lightning cloak was replaced by purple lightning just as Akeru intended to engage in close combat with Yami.
'That red lightning increases his speed considerably, so why would he deactivate it now? Is it due to mana cost, or are there side effects of that spell? I wasn't even able to properly track him in the last few seconds,' Yami analyzed.
Due to Akeru's speed, Yami hadn't noticed that every time Akeru decided to change his direction, he deactivated his red-lightning cloak and activated it when his momentum stopped to minimize the damage.
Though the time gap in which this happened was very small, it was enough for Akeru to not only reactivate his spell but also think a bit with 'Still Spectator'.
Yami internally frowned as he noticed that his movements were slowed down by around 1/3.
'Is this technique what they call "Mana Zone"? I am slowed down in his zone,' he analyzed in a fraction of a second.
Suddenly, a few centimetres away from Yami from three sides, purple water balls manifested, all aiming for his vitals.
However, that was not the only thing that happened.
If one looked closely, one might notice that not only were lightning and water entangled very closely but also were vibrating.
***
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