65 – Ha Jinsung Test
[Kaleidus]
The four of us, after I called for Yihwa to come along, made our way to a large training facility.
I was in my actual appearance as Axion using my main body this time. The body that had survived Ha Jinsung's attack was just the same Canjon puppet which I'd modified to look like my Dr. Dua disguise on the outside while getting rid of a lot of unnecessary parts to replace them with Armoriont cells. Although I knew of Viole's teacher from the story, it wasn't clear how he'd react to me, and I obviously didn't want to put my real body in danger from a High Ranker without establishing friendly contact first.
"Mr. Ha has decided that he can let you guys stay as Viole's teammates, but because he's an FUG slayer candidate, there might be trouble in the future and you guys might not be able to handle it. The plan is for me to be around to help you guys for a while, but Mr. Ha wanted to test me as well. So that's why I need you," I explained to Yihwa. "He's a High Ranker in the top 100. You need to command me as my contractor, so I can use enough power to have a credible showing for this 'test' of his."
"Then if you pass, you'll be able to stay with us as we climb?" Yihwa asked.
I nodded.
"Does this mean I'll get to see you fighting seriously?" Yihwa asked excitedly.
"That's right. Well, it's just a friendly spar and he'll limit himself to make it fair because I'm still an E-Rank Regular, but he has fairly high expectations, so I'll have to fight suitably," I said.
"Got it. So what should I do exactly?"
Ha Jinsung went to the other side of the arena and waited while Hwa Ryun went to the side to referee.
"You don't need to give any specific commands for the fighting itself—just a general order to 'Defeat him!' is fine. Make sure that you mean it, and think about why you want me to defeat him while you give the order," I said. "You can also give out some variations of that order while we're fighting, to strengthen it."
"Okay, no problem!"
I met Jinsung in the center.
"Alright, I'm looking forward to this, so you better not disappoint me, kid," Jinsung said.
"I'll do my best. Do you want me to go all out from the start, or shall we warm up and raise the level over time?" I asked.
"I'll let you set the pace, unless I get bored. So do whatever you want. Surprise me if you can," he said.
Then we bowed to each other and stepped back a short distance away before turning and taking up stances.
My circuits were already primed, the water spirits were in sync with me, and Derflinger was already awake just waiting for the right time to act.
Unlike that time when Quant took me off guard, Derflinger no longer needed to be unsheathed to react, hanging off my wrist in Compressed form.
But since this was a battle to show my skills, I wasn't going to use him right away.
An Armoriont covered my chest, legs, and arms, but only as regenerative armor with some extra features rather than the fully integrated power suit version.
By now, my basic physical abilities had exceeded the Armoriont and it failed to grow with me, so it would only be a hindrance if used as a power suit on my main body.
"Defeat him Axion! Teach that slouching, lazy old man not to underestimate you!" Yihwa shouted with one fist raised.
"By your will, my lady," I said.
"Begin!" Hwa Ryun ordered.
I dashed forward with my full speed. Thanks to an improved base body and superior Mana Reinforcement plus an additional temporary burst of Shinsoo foot technique, it was almost as fast as I used to be with a full Derflinger Boost and the rest of my buffs added together.
The gap between us closed in an instant, though Jinsung didn't move. He blocked my first strike and counterattacked with a similar speed in close combat.
The high speed exchange quickly proved that Jinsung's mastery of martial arts was vastly superior to mine, with the old master easily handling all of my strikes, and each parry was so fast there was no time to even try a Reinforcement Break.
Suddenly he disappeared from view, and I barely dodged a flying high kick with a quick Burstshift out of the way.
He didn't let up though, with no sign of the movement surprising him, flashing over to me again to my side with another palm toward my shoulder.
Despite another Burstshift, I was unable to fully dodged and I was sent off course with a piece of the armor breaking off.
Still, I suffered no substantial damage and Jinsung was on me again.
Like this, he chased me around as I barely dodged each time.
"Come on, is that all you got? You're fast but this isn't enough to impress me! Viole could at least attack back while dodging!"
"Let's raise the level then!"
In our next exchange, as Jinsung caught up to me I fired beams from two Baangs to distract him, which he easily dodged before closing in on me, and then the Shinsoo cannon I took from Ren appeared a short distance away and fired a large beam at the spot where he was about to hit me.
The beam landed and knocked him aside.
"Not bad, but you know that level of attack isn't going to hurt me, right?" He asked, instead of resuming the chase.
"You're a High Ranker, I'd be surprised if I could hurt you," I said.
"That's true. Right now I'm limiting my Shinsoo so that you can at least knock me around a bit. But I still expect more than this. There's no way this was enough to defeat the Ranker on the Floor of Test," he said.
"There's still lots more you haven't seen, but I've also learned a lot of things since, and I don't often get to use them on any good opponents so I want to try them on you," I said.
"Well, I did say you could set the pace. Show me what else you got then!" He said, stretching a little before taking up another stance and waiting for me to make the next move.
I jumped into the air as wings Decompressed and erupted from my back out of the Armoriont armor.
Then my new E-Rank Arms Inventory appeared, with a section for holding Shinsoo ball capsules. I grabbed two extra large ones the size of soccer balls, one blue and one green, pressing the green one's unlock button as if it were actually Pokéballs, and creatures burst out of them, decompressing rapidly.
A huge swarm of a hundred of small cannon fodder Shinheuh appeared from the green one. All of them had been dominated by the water spirits' Shinsoo flow, and ranged from the size of dogs to people.
The water spirits began gathering Shinsoo into the arena at extremely high speed, creating a torrent of liquid Shinsoo.
Ha Jinsung met the swarm of fodder and easily killed multiple at a time, but they were mere distractions while I continued to set up.
"You know…I can fly as well, but I wasn't planning to use such a high level technique for this spar," said Jinsung while casually destroying another group of fodder. "That doesn't mean I can't get you from here though!"
Six silver Cubes appeared moving into formation around where Jinsung was fighting.
"Lighthouse Flow Control: Paralysis!" I gestured with one hand after putting the green ball away, and pressing the blue ball's release mechanism.
"Ha Jinsung Style: Shinsoo Piercer!"
The Lighthouse field created a pressure around the High Ranker attempting to restrict his movement even as more cannon fodder grabbed onto him. But with his own technique, a counteracting pulse of Shinsoo blasted out, the largest part concentrated at his legs, allowing him to blast into the air towards me.
The Shinsoo density around me was high enough now that it was suitable for my one good Shinheuh to come out.
The White Steel Eel burst out of the capsule at incredible speed, not only was it extremely fast in medium density Shinsoo, it was further enhanced by my Mana and Shinsoo Reinforcement and the water spirits selectively controlling the flow of Shinsoo around me to boost them even faster.
It outsped and intercepted Jinsung with a tail whip, smashing him back to the ground like a bullet.
The gigantic yet agile Eel coiled back around me in the air like a monstrous serpent dragon instead of pursuing, remaining inside the central area of my sphere of control. Similarly, my Lighthouse Cubes retreated around me in a defensive formation, ready to create a barrier at any time.
"I should've figured you were an Anima, given that you could control puppet bodies. No wonder Hansung likes you," Jinsung said after landing. "Though he never mentioned you were capable of it."
"This is a more recent development. I wasn't capable of it when I fought the Lo Po Bia family assassin," I said. "But since it seemed fun, I decided to copy that guy."
"Sheesh, and I thought Viole copying my move after seeing it once when I was trying to teach him was crazy, but this takes the cake. You managed to copy the Bia family Anima techniques in an actual fight?"
"Nothing that crazy, I didn't actually copy their special techniques, I simply learned my own way to be an Anima later on. Viole is the one that can copy the actual techniques mid-battle. You should've been there for our first fight against another Ranker, he copied Reverse Flow and then used it on the Ranker himself."
"So that's where he learned that? Cheeky brat…he let me think he learned it from me too! Ah…that must be what the Deep Sea Fish saw that convinced him the boy was worth it."
"So, are we still continuing?" I asked.
"Oh you bet, I'm just getting started!"
"Same here!"
O O O
[Interlude]
The remaining Shinheuh swarm attacked Ha Jinsung again.
"If you're this good, I'll have to loosen up some of my restrictions."
After saying that, Jinsung then disappeared with a burst of Shinsoo that cracked the ground.
"Floral Butterfly Flare Wave!"
The Shinheuh around him were instantly slaughtered by an exploding wave of Shinsoo that blasted outwards from Jinsung's palm at the point of impact, annihilating the Shinheuh in its way and also killing the surrounding Shinheuh from the shockwave alone.
While he was doing so, Axion rained smaller beams of Shinsoo down from five Baangs and occasionally a much larger beam from his Shinsoo cannon.
Jinsung dodged or swept aside the incoming beams easily, but each time one of the larger beams landed, it would leave the ground cratered after the explosion.
Yihwa watched as they moved into the next stage once the weaker Shinheuh were all killed, and the old monster burst into the air again, almost too fast to see, with an equally fast move from the Eel, whose fin was glowing in a white aura, crashing into him.
A series of lightning fast clashes happened in the air, as the Cubes reorganized themselves to create barriers or disruptions, and the Eel protected both Axion and the Cubes.
At this point Yihwa could barely keep track of what was happening.
"Is this really what a top E-Rank fight looks like?" Yihwa asked, talking to herself.
However, she received an answer from Hwa Ryun who was suddenly beside her. "No, this is already beyond the E-Rank. That Eel alone, without any enhancement, outside of its high-density natural habitat, is enough to be considered a difficult test for teams of Regulars at the E-Rank level. What Axion is doing with the Eel right now is far beyond that."
"What do you mean? What is he doing?"
"He is controlling the Shinsoo field around him to further accelerate the Eel while slowing down his opponent, and he also modified the Eel to be stronger, faster, and more durable than it normally is, while assisting it with his own attacks. Not only that, all of the damage that Mr. Jinsung is doing to the Eel, even though you can't see it, it's being regenerated at high speed."
"Extreme Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique!" A ray of Shinsoo erupted outwards at their next clash, destroying the Eel's left fin entirely and causing a severe wound down the whole length of its body, before crashing into the wall of the facility.
The strike was so intense that the whole arena shook, despite the protections of the facility against damage, which were only intended to be strong enough to resist E-Rank Regulars' attacks.
The Eel fell floating towards the ground, stunned.
"Derflinger, Ignite!"
"Finally!"
A yellow aura surrounded Axion just before Ha Jinsung launched another Floral Butterfly attack towards him.
The crystalline sword's outer layer was shattered on contact, but its true form underneath remained intact. The blast wave of the Floral Butterfly was diverted around the blade before an explosion knocked both fighters aside.
Yihwa noticed Axion's wings falling to the ground, seemingly discarded, as the two met in even more brutal clashes that she could no longer track, only seeing the aftereffects of the huge explosions that occurred with every contact, each shaking the arena.
"I can't see what's going on anymore," said Yihwa.
"He's not even using his full power, even now," said Hwa Ryun.
"But if this is how big the gap is, how am I supposed to be a good summoner for him? I don't want to be just a bystander while he fights. I want to be a proper teammate!"
"There comes a point where everyone faces the limit of their own potential. Leaving behind teammates that can't keep up is common in the Tower. But for Axion and Viole, it's an inevitability. Even the greatest of talents cannot compare to them, because Axion can simply break his own limits and Viole has no limit to begin with. But if you can unlock your 'true flame', maybe you would have the slightest chance to catch up."
"My true flame…?"
"A good opponent at last!" Derflinger's voice shouted in manic glee from somewhere.
"Not bad at all…!" Jinsung's voice returned. "Ha Jinsung Style: Blooming Crimson Flower!"
"Derflinger Style: Shinsoo Slash Wave!"
A red spiraling wave of Shinsoo burst from one side while a disorganized wave of Shinsoo went the other way.
Another explosion ensued forcing Yihwa to cover her eyes from the wind blowing dust and debris.
O O O
[Kaleidus]
"That's it! But you can still do more, can't you?" Jinsung's voice shouted with a laugh. "But let's see how you deal with this!"
I was suddenly hit by Reverse Flow. But it only affected me for a millisecond before Derflinger took control of my body and blocked the kick that came towards us.
"Hm? You broke it that easily?" Jinsung asked before retracting his leg and moving away quickly, also floating in the air now. "I was expecting to at least get you for a second with how much power I put into that. Even a low level Ranker would've probably been stunned for longer than you were."
"I have special defenses against Reverse Flow, because it's such a dangerous technique if you can stun the opponent for even a tiny amount of time," I said. After a lot of training Derf had learned to how to give me the Boost without necessarily controlling me, so that I could direct the fighting and coordinate better using my Burstshift spell, but he was still capable of taking control, overriding my "flow".
Even if he couldn't, the water spirits could very easily break the Fast Skip technique but they were generally a bit slower to react than Derflinger, unless I had them actively empowering me and negating all foreign flows.
"Unfortunately, I can't use it myself—it makes me quite jealous of Viole's talent," I continued.
"Yes, it normally takes many, many, years to train it…Fast Skip is actually harder than the Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique, and both use Reverse Flow principles," said Jinsung. "Well, you're definitely hell of a lot stronger than a Regular at your level should be, but I'm going to push you a little more, because I can feel that you're still holding back quite a bit. I won't make you show me all your secret moves, but I want to see what you used to defeat that Bia family Ranker, because this is definitely not enough."
"Very well, let's do this Derf!"
"You got it!"
Derf powered up a Sword Aura Level Ten, which was still his maximum magic attack strength, far superior to the Shinsoo techniques I could do with him. Concentrating the immense power of the same level of Slash Beam into a Sword Aura was extremely dangerous, and I'd rarely had a chance to use it on anything.
Jinsung came at me again with a crimson palm. I decided not to bother blocking and instead kept swinging.
"…!" He noticed and unleashed his own attack early, before moving back to dodge.
Derflinger Decompressed suddenly and crashed into him, instantly enlarging to the size of a building and gutted the arena wall, smashing Jinsung through it at the same time.
At the same time, I was blown away by the Crimson Flower technique and lost my grip on Derflinger.
The damage inflicted onto my body had been catastrophic on the surface but it did not manage to get through my Endbringer subdermal armor. Like with Yihwa's super powered flames, I simply healed at high speed, though Ha Jinsung's attack had managed to destroy some of the Endbringer flesh so I'd need to replace it later with more from Derf.
While I recovered, Derflinger continued to fight Ha Jinsung for a little bit, Compressing and Decompressing repeatedly while swinging himself around with Shinsoo, while Jinsung had flashed back into the arena and was now unleashing huge rays of Shinsoo everywhere trying to hit the sword, both fighters deftly dodging the other.
Derf's Decompression release was a lot less powerful than it might appear to be at first glance. The level of Shinsoo mastery, the quantity and density of Shinsoo required to Compress a huge mass like what Derflinger had was too high, and even with the water spirits' support he wouldn't be able to do it with his real mass.
The trick was that the Endbringer crystal functioned on a different principle, compacting or expanding physical volume in space with the same material mass, whereas Compression affected the essence of something, making it smaller or larger with a corresponding reduction or gain of mass.
So it was possible for Derf to expand only an outer layer of his blade to a flimsy, ultra-low density super size, that would be utterly useless/unstable without magical reinforcements and pathetically weak even then. However, that made Compressing that portion of the sword feasible.
This simply became a delivery mechanism for the powerful Sword Aura covering it.
Thus as we traded attacks the arena was completely destroyed and the ceiling collapsed.
Hwa Ryun called for a stop to the match. "We'd better get out of here! The Rankers are on this floor are all distracted right now, but they'll send someone soon."
The Eel swallowed the dead Shinheuh before I returned them all to their capsule Bowls and put away the Lighthouse,
As we all raced away from the place, Jinsung was by my side. "Kid, that last attack you did with the Ignition weapon…what the hell was that? It actually scratched me. I'm not that easy to hurt, even by a tiny bit. But it's like your attack went right through my Shinsoo Resistance, even though it wasn't just physical force either…"
"It's magic," I said. "I haven't had many chances to test it, but now that you explained it that way, that's probably why I was able to defeat Ren back then. He probably wasn't expecting it, and hadn't put up any defenses."
"That would explain how you won…magic…there's something different about your magic than the Spells most other people use in this Tower. I've seen and fought many Spellcasters before…but all their attacks controlled Shinsoo or created things out of Shinsoo with their magic. There are Spells that are a bit different, where the effects don't have much to do with Shinsoo, but I've never seen an energy attack just made of magic and nothing else."
"Is it really so incredible? It should be one of the most inefficient and basic uses of magic," I said.
"It's much crazier that you survived that with only a scratch," said Derflinger. "The power concentrated into my sword edge would have been enough to destroy a castle if I released it at once."
"Ha family martial arts makes our bodies all extremely durable, and I'm one of the strongest. There are High Rankers whose attacks I've survived without a scratch when I didn't use any Shinsoo barrier, and a mere Regular managed to hurt me."
"Does that mean I pass the test?"
"Haha, yeah you passed. I suppose I could teach you a little, though I still say you should consider being a Slayer candidate. The Elders would be clamoring to have you if they knew what you did just now. It's a good gig, we can get you whatever you want. Money, power, girls, the best training, you name it. We can get it all."
"It sounds tempting, but no thanks. Aside from what we talked about before, I just don't like getting that much attention from people and or all the complications attached to being a Slayer candidate. I'm happy with how things are right now, and Viole can keep the spotlight."
"Fine, fine. We'll get started after their test is over then. I'll need to get some things for your training and take care of a few other things first."
O O O
