"Erste Flare Aura!"
"Erste Wind Flare!"
Ben and I were training together to work on our own weaknesses. His magic affinities are Earth and Fire, so he's been trying to help me get over my fear of fire. So far it's worked pretty well. Now whenever I notice a fire attack coming at me I cast Wind Flare on reflex. Wind Flare is a spell that emits a shockwave of wind from all around me. It's a very good spell for repelling fire attacks. It turns out that if I don't get hit by the fire, I don't go into full on panic mode. My heart still races when I see a fire attack coming at me though. As for Ben, both me and the King came to the same conclusion that I would be the best training partner to help with Ben's weakness of grappling since using grabs is just a part of my natural fighting style, so it's better training for Ben than someone who is simply trying to grab him. He also developed a reflex to use Flare Aura whenever someone grabs him. Flare Aura is pretty much an offensive version of Wind Flare.
"I've grabbed you, and repelled your spell. What now?" I ask Ben. He currently has his Axe in its Great-axe form, and I've got one hand holding his axe away from me, and my other hand on his arm preventing him from putting all of his strength into his axe. Ben had a troubled expression on his face, until he suddenly broke out his signature grin.
"How about this?" He shouts, as he takes the hand I'm not grabbing off his axe, and grabs me with it. He pulls me into a shoulder throw, making sure to land right on me.
"OOOHF" Being the only sound I can make as all the air rushes out of my body. Ow, he was really going all out. Although if this is what our enemies have to face I guess I'm fine with it. Only this once though.
"Very good." Our supervisor says. The King has assigned each of us something like a personal trainer, who would oversee our progress, give advice, and report to the King our growth. While Ben and I were together though, the supervisors took turns watching.
"Haaahh… haaahhh" I'm trying to take air in after being winded really badly.
"Ah sorry about that. Guess I got too excited." Ben sheepishly responds. He helps me up. After a few minutes I catch my breath.
"Well, if I was your enemy, I wouldn't want to grab you after that." I joked.
"Ha ha ha!" Ben turns to the supervisor "So I guess we can scratch grappling off my list of weaknesses?"
"Yes we can. Just in time too." The supervisor noted. We were currently in the evening of our last day of training. Ben and I had been training on our own, and with our team too, but honestly sparring with him was very enjoyable.
In terms of training, Maria was focusing on her technique, and both Elzabell and Elias were working on their magic. I thought Elias would have been more inclined to practice his swordplay, but he was actually better than most of the knights, so he didn't really have anybody he could practice against. Speaking of swordplay, we should probably check on Katagi. Over the last three and a half days, he has been practicing nonstop, so we can expect him to have noticeably improved. Ben and I go over to the training room Katagi is in.
Crack! Whoosh! Clang!
We walk in to see Katagi's sword being a blur as he swings at the knight he's training against. Katagi's sword is moving incredibly fast! Even faster than when I buffed his speed. What happened?
"Woah! I can barely see the improvement, considering how fast you're swinging that thing!" Ben jokes.
Katagi stops his sparring with the exhausted looking knight, and faces us after catching his breath.
"Ah hello Ben, Ash. What brings you here?"
"We just finished our training for the day and were checking on you. How did you improve so fast?" I ask.
"I practiced Kendo when I was younger. Turns out all it took to reawaken it was some dedicated training."
"Ahem" The knight clears his throat to make sure he has our attention. "The Sword Hero has a bad habit of only targeting three areas. The wrist, neck, and body. My advice for future training is to be able to target any openings on your opponent, not just those three."
"I understand. I will work on that."
Ben and I look at each other. In our fight tomorrow, Katagi may just be a whole new monster.
All of us ate dinner, chatted a bit, then went to bed. Katagi looks a lot more healthy than he did when we first saw him four days ago. Compared to what he was doing before, training all day might actually be a vacation to him. At least here we're guaranteeing he's eating good food and getting a healthy amount of sleep. While he was in that town, I had no idea what he was eating.
All of us were up bright and early the next morning, and for the first time in a few days I got to meet up with all of my party. Before I'd gotten to chat with them a little individually, but now we're all together.
"Alright team, we're going to all fight the other heroes and their parties. Has everyone gotten stronger?"
"Really? 'Team'? I see a lack of creativity there." Elzabell sarcastically responds.
"Have you or have you not gotten stronger?" I annoyedly ask.
"I've gotten quite a bit stronger thank you very much." Elzabell flatly responds. Was something up with her today?
"I've gotten a lot better at healing, and I've worked out water enchant too, to help against fire attacks." Maria happily says, giving me a thumbs up. That will be very helpful.
"I've gotten better at using ranged attacks, and more comfortable with Zweite magic." Elias responds. A good steady improvement.
"I've gotten better at handling my fear of fire, and overall got some good workouts in." After I say that I begin to think I may have had the least improvement. I just got better at handling a weakness, rather than actually getting stronger.
"Don't worry! We're ready for whatever comes our way!" Maria gives me a confident smile and nod. Elias and Elzabell nod along with her.
Our opposition takes the field. Katagi is joined by two knights and a shadow, bringing his party total up to four. One of the knights has a wand, while the other has a sword and shield, while the shadow has a dagger. I guess it's easy to tell which of them does what. Ben's party all walk in perfect sync onto the field as well. Not like a rehearsed march, but in the way where they just look like such good friends they all walk in sync somehow. I don't think I understand how that's possible. The king takes his spot at the top of a stage high enough to overlook us.
"Heroes. Welcome to your team fight test. The only rules are no lethal blows, or attacks that may result in permanent injury. With healing magic, it may be much harder to inflict a permanent wound, but still try to avoid it."
Ben Katagi and I are all glancing between each other, as if to see who the biggest threat was. Once again, Ben likely has the most on us, as well as having a bigger party than last time. Katagi gives me the same signal as last time. Everybody changes to blunted weapons.
"Everybody ready?" The King asks. We all nod.
"Go!" Wait what? No countdown or anything?
Katagi and I are caught in the same panic, but everyone else seems to be expecting this, and begins chanting. Katagi and I shake off our shock and start chanting our starting spells too.
"Zweite Magic Power!" I finish the spell, putting it on Elzabell.
"Zweite Aquavolt Wall." Elzabell finishes. A wall similar to Water Wall forms around my party, except it's also coursing with electricity.
"Water Wall was weak to physical attacks, so I made it so anyone who physically attacks the wall gets hurt." Elzabell proudly explains.
"Zweite Magic Conduit" Maria finishes, and wraps her yoyos around Elias. From the looks of it, it was a more powerful buff spell than Magic Power, but requires that her yoyos are touching someone. Elias was holding off finishing his casting until Maria wrapped her yoyos around him.
"Zweite Bullet Swarm!" Elias shouts, as several small chunks of the ground are magically ripped from the ground, and sent at high speed towards Ben's party. While we're casting, Ben's party finishes their spells.
"Zweite Power, Magic Power, Guard, Magic Guard, Speed" Each of Ben's five party members cast a different buffing spell. I guess he really has some supportive friends? Maybe I should focus on the fight.
Elias' spell launched towards Ben's party, and Ben, now glowing with a light flicking between Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue leapt in front of the spell with his arms out, taking as many of the shots as he could. All of the rocks shattered on contact with his body. Granted, they all looked like they were hitting him pretty hard, but then…
"Ertse Heal!" x5
All of the injuries Ben may have received immediately disappeared. Was his party's strategy to buff Ben to the sky, keep healing him, then watch him trample all of us?
Katagi ran right at Ben, much to his party's dismay, and rushed to follow him. Once Katagi was in range, Ben used Great Quake, and Katagi pulled out a new skill.
"Red Moon Over Paradise"
Just before Ben's skill would have landed, Katagi disappeared in a flash of red, then reappeared over the back of Ben's party, and landed a direct hit on one of his party members' heads. He collapsed, and the King declared him out. Katagi landed directly behind Ben's party.
"Meteor Sword!" Katagi yells. It seems he's trying to take them all out in one move. Ben dashes in front of his party.
"Intercept Smash!" And disperses the stars before they reach his party. Katagi's party is running towards Ben's party, and the two parties begin clashing. Now that they're all grouped together…
"Elzabell, if you'd please." I say with a smile.
"Of course."
Maria wraps Magic Conduit around Elzabell, stacking with my buff.
"I am the source of great power. Combine two into one and strike my targets with my full power. Zweite Aquavolt Stream!." Elzabell fired a large beam of electrified water. It kind of looked like Final Kame-
"NO!" Ben yells, quickly turning around. Katagi leaps to the side out of the stream's path.
Katagi's party and all but one of Ben's party were struck by this powerful spell, hit by both a great force, and a high voltage. All seven of them laid groaning on the ground. Not quite out, but looking heavily damaged.
"Zweite Windstep." I finished casting. With my affinity for wind magic, I can produce more powerful speed buffs, so I applied that buff to myself for rushing in.
"Maria, Elzabell, finish off their parties. Elias, hold off Katagi!" I give those orders after seeing the way Ben and Katagi were looking at me, I think they decided to team up on me.
Maria focuses on the member of Ben's party that avoided the attack, preventing him from casting any healing magic on the others, while Elzabell prepared another AoE spell to take the rest of them out of the fight. Ben and Katagi rushed at me and Elias. Elias and Katagi clashed, swords clanging on each other. Katagi seems to be sticking with one sword this time, now being able to move it fast enough to contend with Elias' dual wielding. From the few seconds I got to see their clash before Ben would make it to me, Elias overall looked more skilled, but appeared to be struggling against a fighting style he'd never seen before. I think Elias would win currently, but if Katagi starts using skills Elias would lose.
Ben rushed at me, and ran into me, hitting me with the long handle of his axe. I attempted to brace myself against it, but was easily knocked over, sent back several meters. With Ben all buffed up, I don't think I could win either. Hell, I almost lost to Ben when he wasn't buffed. After knocking me over, Ben swung at Elias. Elias narrowly managed to dodge, and the swing instead knocked back Katagi. Ben swung again and this time Elias couldn't dodge it, and was sent flying back as well. Ben is incredibly dangerous. If we weren't fighting with blunted weapons, he likely would have killed those two. Ben had gotten electrocuted from our Aquavolt Walls, but it didn't seem to affect him much.
"Erste Lightning Bolt!" Elzabell hit Ben from behind with a lightning bolt. It appears she finished mopping up Ben and Katagi's parties. Maria was still fighting with the one member of Ben's party, striking around his defences with her yoyos, but unable to do more damage than he could keep healing. He would run out of mana soon, but we would likely need all hands on deck to deal with these two.
"Elias, can you move?"
"Somewhat." His voice comes out strained.
"Can you take care of that last guy?" I ask, pointing at the person Maria was fighting.
"No problem." Elias gets up and runs over to where Maria was fighting, trying to avoid Ben, however Ben didn't take kindly to his last party member being targeted, and lunged at Elias.
"Stardust Strike!" I yell, hoping the stream of stars will divert him from his path. I managed to hit him while he was dashing forward, and with a grunt he fell over from the force of the attack. He looked worryingly not injured though.
"Meteor Sword!" Katagi launched a skill at Elzabell. I leapt in front of her, and used a skill I had obtained from putting a shield into my Gauntlets.
"Great Guard II!" I put my arms together in front of Elzabell, and a wide light blue wall appears in front of me, with where my arms are in a blocking position being its centerpoint. I managed to completely block Katagi's skill, but the wall looked damaged. It definitely wouldn't be able to take another skill. I looked over to Maria. She had wrapped her yoyos around the guy's arms, preventing him from blocking Elias' attacks. It was down to 4 vs 2, and I had a plan to take down Ben.
"Everyone, do your best to take on Katagi. I'll take Ben myself. Ben looked at me, part rage, and part admiration in his eyes. His mouth curled into an angry smirk.
"You think you can beat me one on one? I won't be caught like last time, and I'm still buffed sky high right now!"
Elias, Maria, and Elzabell went into formation against Katagi, and I took my stance against Ben.
"Quick Rush II!" I ran towards Ben.
"Great Quake!" Ben attempted to disrupt my rush by destroying the ground I would run into, but with my speed buff I was able to avoid it, and leapt at him while his axe was in the ground. He jerked his axe upward, smacking me with the non-bladed side. Through the pain, I grabbed on to his axe, and with my other hand-
"Venom Jab!" Venom jab was the skill I got from the Chimera Viper Gauntlets. It was a spear hand strike that, when hitting a target's bare skin, would poison them. My strategy was cheap, but likely necessary for Ben. I would poison him, then run away. My strike landed. My actual hit didn't do much, and while my hand was sticking out, Ben grabbed it.
"Oh boy" I say moments before disaster.
"Yeah, this is gonna hurt." Ben agrees.
Ben proceeds to swing me into the ground by my arm, then again on the other side, and again, and again until he throws me forward, and rushes in for a finishing blow.
"Skyward Cleave!"
"Great Guard II!"
His upwards slash smashes right through my barrier, and hits me with enough force to send me flying again. I blocked the attack on my gauntlets, but pain is still shooting through my arms. After landing, I attempt to get up, but when I push off the ground-
"Ack!" Pain shoots through my arms when I try to put any force on them. I manage to get up with my legs, and run at Ben again. He tries to bash me with the handle again, but I leap up and jump off the handle of his axe and land a Lightning Kick to his face. I land on the other side of him, upon seeing him turn around to swing at me, I instinctually raise my arms to block it.
"STOP" I hear the King shout. Ben's swing lightly hits my arms, Ben having taken most of the power out of it. Even so, pain flares through my arms once again.
"Ash is out of the fight." The King beckons me to get away from the fight. I check on how my party is doing, and I see Elias, the last one standing in my party, being taken out by Katagi's Crimson Blade. Ben and Katagi begin fighting, exchanging skills until Ben closes the distance, and then expectedly, Ben knocks Katagi out, before shortly collapsing from both exhaustion and poison.
About half an hour later I got out of the bed the King's attendants put us in. All of his healers managed to patch us up pretty well. Apparently Ben's swing had fractured both of my arms, despite my gauntlets protecting them. I'm glad the legendary weapons are indestructible, or we might be one weapon down already. The venom from my skill was convenient, in the way that any common antidote worked on it. Ben was just napping in one of the beds, and Katagi had gotten up already.
"Good match Katagi! You were a whole new monster out there today!" Katagi turns to me, now noticing that I'm up.
"Oh, thank you. Honestly I was just lucky to get a skill that was perfect for fighting groups." Katagi is really underselling himself here. He likely hadn't noticed that I'd poisoned Ben, but if he did he would have won, despite Ben's buffs.
"You're talking about the Red Moon one, right?"
"Correct. I can easily move past the tank of the group and attack their support." That was probably how he beat my party so easily. Warp past Elias to take out Maria and Elzabell, then beat Elias one on one.
"What about Ben?"
"Oh I'm awake. Just didn't feel like getting up yet." Ben cheerily responds, still lying down on the bed with his eyes closed. "You've both improved quite a bit."
"Says the guy that turned a weakness into a strength." I retorted.
"Hey I didn't want to show all my goods in training. Especially since I knew we would all be fighting."
"Oh yeah, how strong is everyone? I'm just wondering how much of a factor our stats were." I asked. Ben and Katagi thought for a moment, then we all showed each other our stats.
Ash Kane | LVL 40
ATK: 132
DEF: 147
MAG: 90
MDEF: 121
SPE: 128
Sorezo Katagi | LVL 38
ATK: 156
DEF: 149
MAG: 143
MDEF: 141
SPE: 151
Ben Bernhard | LVL 42
ATK: 245
DEF: 191
MAG: 67
MDEF: 140
SPE: 86
Holy crap! I feel severely underpowered here. Katagi is a lower level, and yet all of his stats are higher than mine! Probably not enough to really affect the fight, but WHAT IS WITH BEN'S ATTACK STAT?
"Well Ash, at least your determination to fight is stronger than the pain of two broken arms." Ben says, sarcastically comforting me.
"Ben." Katagi starts.
"Yeeeeesss?" Ben asks with that obnoxious smile he had on our first day here.
"What's with your attack stat?" I say in a flat voice.
"Ahhhh well it's just my weapons power up method." Ben nonchalantly says. "I just get a few extra stat points every level up that I can allocate as I please. I put most of them into attack and defence since those were already my highest stats."
Well no wonder getting hit by him hurt so much, and also why most of my hits didn't do much to him.
"What are your other power up methods?" Katagi asks.
"Other?" Ben and I ask.
"Yes. You should have two other power up methods."
I look over my help menu, and I assume Ben does the same. I don't find anything about me having more power up methods.
"So you have three power up methods? What are they?" Ben asks.
"First, my weapons can gain Mastery as I use them. Having mastery will increase the stats they give me. Second, I can convert that Mastery into energy. Third, I can use that energy to increase the base stats my weapons give me, or upgrade their rarity, which can result in more stat boosts, or new skills being created."
Those kind of sound like they're all part of one power up method. Especially the second one. If you didn't have the first and third power up method, then the second one would be useless.
"Oh I think I get it. They're worse, so you get more." Ben flatly says.
"Don't just say that!" I told him.
"Don't worry about it. Personally I really like these methods. I can gain new skills out of old weapons, and I can keep enhancing weaker weapons I like wielding, so they won't be outpaced by a powerful weapon I may get later on."
This is making me think. Ben's power up method gives him extra stat points, and mine allows me to enhance my skills. Katagi's seem to almost be between those two methods, increasing the stats he gains, and gaining new skills without needing new items. I wonder if my power up method has a way to gain new skills? Given my method, it would probably be evolving skills rather than creating them.
"If I have two more power-up methods, I'd like to know!" I say with a laugh. Ben joins me in laughing.
"I assume your power up method is upgrading skills? Considering you kept shouting numbers after skill names." Katagi guesses.
Yep, that's right." I'm starting to think about our weapons. Was there a reason they all enhanced that way? From the looks of it, the Axe's fighting style is simply to hit hard, and survive hard hits, reflecting the power up method of extra stat points. The sword looked very flexible, having an answer for every situation, reflected in the power up method to gain new skills from nothing, as well as power up your stats all around. But what about the gauntlets? Based on my power up method, is it spamming skills? Given how much this world was like a video game, maybe I'm better off thinking of games from my world. In those kinds of games, simply spamming skills wouldn't lead to your victory, it was your ability to start a long combo that would guarantee you would do a lot of damage. I think back to the colosseum. I was able to produce an incredibly powerful strike from combining several abilities I had. Roar, Quick Rush, Zweite Power, just Flarefist V on its own might not have won me the fight. Even as far back as the Chimera, I was only able to stop its charge because I hit it with two skills at the same time. The Gauntlet's fighting style was supposed to be chaining together skills…
"Yo Ash, what's that smile for?" Ben asked.
"Don't worry. I just think I finally figured out how to use my weapon."
"You seemed to be fighting pretty well with it, but if you figured out a better way to fight, then I'm glad." Katagi says.
"Yeah. The King clearly wants us all to be really good at fighting for some reason, and I think it has to do with the countdown." Ben says.
"He implied it was going to be some kind of natural disaster, right?" I asked.
"I believe so. But if it were something like an earthquake, what would us being skilled fighters matter?" Ben nods at Katagi's statement and looks down.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous."
"Our parties will get class-ups tomorrow, and we'll have a full day to prepare however we can. If we have to fight something, I'm sure we'll be able to do it!" I say. Ben and Katagi get to smiling.
"Perhaps today we can pratice fighting together as a team?" Katagi asks.
"Yes! Lets!" Ben says, finally getting out of bed.
We spent the rest of the day working on team attacks. I'm not sure if we'll all be fighting together or separately, but I enjoyed working together with them.
Maria, Elzabell, Elias, and I were at the foot of the dragon hourglass. I met up with them a little yesterday, and they apologized for failing me. Only Maria used those exact words though, and with Elzabell it was a much smaller apology. Maria was the first to step towards the hourglass. At first she closed her eyes, and then threw them open.
"Ash! I see a menu in front of me!" Maria was still facing the hourglass. "It's like a tree… showing my future paths." Maria seemed to be in awe of what she was seeing.
"Just pick what you believe to be best."
"I understand."
The hourglass began glowing, and light began swirling around Maria, until it was completely absorbed into her. She opened her eyes, and checked her status.
"Ash! Look at my stats!"
Maria Alsely | LVL 40
ATK: 98
DEF: 68
MAG: 104
MDEF: 70
SPE: 106
I don't really understand what's impressive. Her defence seems pretty low.
"The path I selected increased my Attack, Magic, and Speed by thirty percent, and increased my affinity for support and healing magic."
Oh, that was actually a pretty significant boost. I guess I haven't checked her stats in a while, and after checking the other heroes stats hers were kind of underwhelming.
Elzabell and Elias also took their class-ups. They reported seeing the same thing. They ended up picking options that increased their stats more, but didn't provide any additional bonuses.
Elzabell Megidari | LVL 40
ATK: 68
DEF: 79
MAG: 158
MDEF: 113
SPE: 120
Elias Gorohald | LVL 40
ATK: 147
DEF: 121
MAG: 76
MDEF: 85
SPE: 117
After their class-ups, Elzabell and Elias were likely on par with me. Maria's stats were quite a bit behind, but if she's the support then that's probably fine. As long as she stays at the back hopefully she'll be okay. It also occurred to me that I didn't know Elzabell and Elias' last names. From what I've learned from my party about how class-ups work, is that it makes you more specialized. Whatever path you pick will make it easier to grow in that direction, and harder to grow in others. Also because Maria chose to gain a magic affinity, her raw stats went up by less than Elias and Elzabell.
"Are we gonna head out?" Elzabell asks. She didn't seem to want to stick around here after getting the class-up.
"Yep. Let's look around if there's anything that can help us."
Overall, Elzabell got a wand, and I got a bunch more miscellaneous materials to put into my weapons. The adventurers guild also sells monster parts, so I unlocked a TON of gauntlets today. I'll need a while to unlock all of them. Quite a few of them gave good skills too. The wand for Elzabell would be a big improvement. She was casting with her bare hands the entire time, and she already had really high firepower. Today really emptied our pockets…
It's the morning of the final day now. My timer is telling me there is only one hour left until the time runs out. Ben, Katagi, and our parties all met up in the castle. We didn't know what was going to happen, but we decided to all be together, and with the king when it happened. The King had mobilized every knight he had in the kingdom to be on high alert. We ate a good breakfast, and did some stretches and warm ups. There's nothing more we can do to prepare any more right now. We all nervously waited for the timer to run out.
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