(NARRATION) Sunny’s shadow observed the fight between Caster and Martin, and as it did, Sunny looked through it.
And only a single thought entered his mind.
‘Monsters…’ He had been watching since they started hitting the machine, and he wasn’t expecting to see anything crazy, but then, of course, the three Sleepers that were from the outskirts managed to outdo everyone.
‘Seriously, what the Spell!
How did he beat a bloody Legacy?!’ As his shadow moved to look at Martin, he shuddered.
If just one of them was able to relatively easily beat a Legacy, then what about the others?
Out of the four of them, he was the most unassuming, having gotten a pretty good score.
Sunny thought that was gonna be the best… but then the strange and terrifying girl managed to easily score far higher than anyone.
‘Not to mention that guy…’ Gloomy looked away from Martin and then to the one that broke the machine with a single strike.
He had gotten to know him a bit, if he remembered right his name was Liam.
And to think that the unassuming guy from the car ride was such a monster.
The moment he saw what he did, he made sure to not anger any of them, and by what the guy… Nathaniel was his name if Sunny remembered right, there were six of his friends.
And Sunny was pretty sure that all seven of them were extraordinary.
Sunny dismissed his connection to the Shadow for a bit and looked on.
Currently, he and Nathaniel were practicing swimming, which Sunny detested.
However, thankfully, there were two of them, so Sunny could actually catch a break, at least while Nathaniel was doing his training.
Glancing at him, he frowned.
That shadow of his was present on the bottom of the pool, but even with his Shadow being away, he still felt its terrifying presence.
The reason he had even bothered to send his Shadow away was due to it trembling while in it’s presence.
Seriously, what kind of Shadow trembles!?
Just the sight of such a thing made Sunny even more wary of the entire group.
‘If I see them in the Dream Realm, I’ll be sure to stay away.’ Nathaniel continued to swim, and Sunny was still baffled at just how much stamina he had.
While he lingered there in place, he sighed and decided to relax for a bit and sat rigidly on a small chair.
‘I might as well take combat training like this.
I’m sure I can learn a good bit from just watching.’ After making the decision, he glanced back at Nathaniel and focused on his Shadow.
His world turned colorless, and as he looked to the dojo, he raised a brow.
The ring was now occupied by another pair of people.
This time, it was the famous Changing Star… and the terrifying girl that made Sunny shiver.
*** Nephis looked on at her opponent silently and sized her up.
Her eyes locked onto the selcouth woman fully, and she exhaled in preparation.
Rock repeated the rules once more, and as he raised his hand, he looked to the two of them.
In those few seconds, Nephis looked at the strange Sleeper with hair that was golden at its roots.
And it seemed that he was deeply considering something that the silver-haired man beside him was offering.
She quickly dismissed them as, in the next second, Rock’s hand fell and the battle began.
Nephis quickly moved a step closer and placed her hands forward in a defensive manner.
Since her opponent was far stronger than her, she decided to take a defensive approach.
Amy held her gaze on Nephis and assessed what she could do.
She could easily sprint forward and release a barrage of strikes, however, she knew that Nephis was far more skilled than she was, even with her being a Sequence Nine Warrior.
‘If I rush her, she’ll probably use my own momentum against me.’ Amy was certain that getting into a prolonged exchange with her would be a bad idea, so she needed to be careful.
So instead of rushing forward, Amy simply stood there, and in response, Nephis narrowed her eyes slightly.
Rock rubbed his chin while watching them.
However, he quickly noticed what was happening between the two.
Nephis was waiting for Amy to make the first move, and Amy was waiting for a chance to rush at her.
‘She’s patient.’ Amy thought to herself while slightly shifting her footing.
‘Fine, I’ll just have to force her to move.’ Suddenly, Amy sprinted forward, and Nephis immediately reacted.
Her body shifted to the side, and she attempted to intercept Amy’s charge with a swift strike aimed at her ribs.
Amy expected as much, and she abruptly stopped her charge, causing Nephis’ fist to pass directly in front of her.
Amy stepped forward and swung her own fist, and Nephis quickly raised her arm and blocked.
*BAM!* The impact forced Nephis backward by several steps, and she instantly felt as if her arms and other parts of her body had grown weaker… no, it wasn’t weaker.
Rather, it was as if they were suppressed.
‘Her Aspect?’ Nephis questioned internally and quickly put a few meters of distance between herself and Amy.
A dull and terrible ache now permeated her arms, and she groaned in pain slightly.
‘Just from one strike?’ Her eyes widened by only a bit, and she looked as Amy slowly approached, clearly waiting for an opportunity to strike once more.
Amy didn’t give her any more time to recover and moved forward once more and threw three punches forward.
Nephis blocked the first and avoided the second, before ducking beneath the unexpected third.
She immediately retaliated and seized her opportunity to strike.
Her elbow moved towards Amy’s stomach, and Amy barely managed to tighten her abdomen before the strike connected.
*THUD!* A sharp pain spread through her body, and she stumbled backward, while Nephis followed up immediately.
Her foot swept toward Amy’s leg, attempting to knock her balance away.
Amy jumped over it and landed two meters away.
Amy stood away from her and massaged her stomach calmly.
‘Hmmm, that was less painful than I expected.
Is it because of my constitution as a Warrior?’ Of course, there was the fact that her core was nearly saturated, and also the fact that her entire body was a vessel of True Primordial Darkness, so that more than helped to lessen the pain and damage.
As the seconds passed, her pain was nearly completely gone.
She then looked outside the ring for a moment and saw Sammy and Liam in a seemingly important conversation, with only Martin looking at the battle keenly.
She raised her hands once more and stared at her for a moment before a grin appeared on her face.
In these few exchanges, she’d managed to grasp a bit of her fighting style.
It was refined and disciplined in every way, and its focus was mainly centered around parrying and counters, namely parrying attacks and using those same attacks to strike the opponent in a vital area.
The style was great, and it had a type of cunning that was difficult to grasp.
‘Hmm, I guess her dad really was an outskirts’ rat.’ Sure, he had become a refined Awakened later on, but it seemed that a bit of the cunning and underhanded methods that were engraved in all outskirts’ rats was still present in the fighting style he had taught her.
Exhaling and swiping her middle finger across her brows, she closed them three times and activated her Spirit Vision.
With it active, she managed to see Nephis’ body bathed in color, and these colors allowed her to perceive some of her intent.
Amy didn’t immediately move.
Instead, she watched Nephis carefully and focused on the strange colors that surrounded her body.
They were difficult to interpret, but after a few seconds, she started to notice subtle changes whenever Nephis moved her arms or shifted her footing.
‘So that’s it.’ Amy’s eyes narrowed slightly as she continued observing her.
‘Her intent changes before she actually moves.’ It wasn’t enough to perfectly predict what Nephis was going to do, but it was certainly enough to give Amy an advantage.
If she paid enough attention, then she could notice where Nephis was going to attack before the attack actually happened.
In theory at least.
Nephis, meanwhile, seemed to notice that something had changed.
She didn’t know exactly what Amy was doing, but she could tell that the young woman was looking at her differently.
‘She’s seeing something.’ Nephis thought while narrowing her eyes, guessing that she had maybe used her Aspect again.
She couldn’t afford to wait any longer sos he decided on what she’d do.
Without warning, Nephis dashed forward, her body moving quickly as she crossed the distance between them in a second.
Amy’s eyes followed her, and she moved her head slightly to the side.
Nephis’ fist passed beside her face, and a light smile graced her lips.
‘Then right.’ Amy lowered her body as another strike passed above her head.
‘Leg.’ She jumped backward as Nephis swept her leg toward her ankle, and so the attack missed.
Amy landed and immediately stepped forward, while Nephis’ eyes widened slightly.
‘How?’ Amy threw a punch, and in response, Nephis raised her arm to block it.
But the moment their limbs collided, Amy twisted her wrist and changed the direction of the strike.
Instead of hitting Nephis’ arm, her fist slammed directly into her shoulder.
*BAM!* Nephis stumbled backward as both the force of the strike sent her back and the strange sensation also made her weaker.
‘That ability again.’ Nephis gritted her teeth and forced herself to remain calm, but Amy didn’t give her the opportunity to recover as she moved forward and threw another punch.
The fight continued, and soon enough, a pattern grew apparent to everyone in the dojo.
Amy outclassed Nephis in strength, so Nephis could only parry and dodge every attack.
Rarely, she countered with her own strike.
However, Amy seemed to actually see where she was trying to strike.
Everyone in the dojo was focused on the fight… however, some of the Sleepers were more focused on the two ladies’ bodies.
“Changing Star has the figure, but Amy has a nice face…” one commented to his friend, who nodded.
Then the youth added on, “Changing Star does have a good bod, but look at Amy’s thighs.
They sure are nice.” The two nodded and smiled.
However, they soon shivered as a red-haired man looked at them with a sour expression, along with the two other guys that seemed close to Amy.
“For people that were sucking Caster’s dick not too long ago, you seem rather interested in women.” Martin said venomously, to which the two couldn’t muster a response.
“I’d suggest keeping your little fantasies to yourselves, you thirsty bitches.” Sammy added on from the side, equally grossed out.
The two guys decided to wisely shut it, and as they looked on at the battle, it seemed to have changed rather significantly from before.
Nephis was no longer able to properly parry Amy’s attacks, and with that, she was being pushed back constantly.
She was now centimeters away from being pushed out of the ring, and in a desperate bid to win, she ducked to the side slightly in order to get a good hit on her.
As she ducked, she sent a devastating uppercut towards Amy.
However, Amy’s hand shot forward, and she grabbed her wrist, in another fluid motion she pulled her upward.
Then she managed to reach and grab onto Nephis’ free hand.
As she pulled her, a light smile played on her lips and she whispered into the ears of the soon-to-be victim of the unpatched spin method.
“Ever heard of fernando3400?” Nephis retained her stoic expression, however, it faltered as she felt her body become weightless.
Soon, she was being helicopter-spun by Amy and was helplessly flailing around, trying to break free from her iron grip.
The Sleepers in the dojo looked on in bewilderment as they saw the last daughter of the Immortal Flame clan being spun around giddily by a random Sleeper from the outskirts.
Instructor Rock looked on in equal bewilderment, trying to decide if he should stop the match or let it go on.
Luckily for him, he didn’t need to intervene, as soon, Amy let go of Nephis, sending her flying through the air and into the crowd of onlookers.
Most of them got away, however, some couldn’t… and some wouldn’t for… certain reasons.
*CRASH* “Aggghhh, MY LEG!” a Sleeper yelled, and others groaned in pain as Nephis had crashed directly onto them.
Rock looked at the scene with an incredibly confused expression.
He then looked over his shoulder and glanced at the winner, who was looking at the sight with a strange look on her face.
“…Winner…
Sleeper Amy…” *** ‘What the… no, seriously, what the Spell!’ Sunny thought as he looked at the ridiculous battle that had just finished.
What he saw was Changing Star, a person with a True Name… get spun around like a bag of sand before being thrown to the side like nothing.
‘Monsters, all of them are monsters!’ Sunny was even more puzzled at just how strange these people were, if they could even be considered people, at least.
After the disaster was dealt with, and the Sleepers that were injured were taken away, Amy was chewed out by Instructor Rock and was seated once more.
Up next was the guy that had a terrifying shadow and Liam.
Sunny wasn’t too interested in this fight, since while he was looking at the fight between Nephis and Amy, he had gotten closer to the ring and was also close enough to hear that the two of them had already agreed on a plan.
That being that Liam would get the win so that he could digest the monster potion, whatever that meant.
The fight was short, as Liam managed to strike the guy only once, and apparently that one strike was enough to send him flying out of the ring.
‘How pointless, you could’ve at least tried to make it less obvious,’ Sunny thought, and as he was focused on Liam, his Shadow instantly felt strange.
Confused, Sunny instantly felt his intuition scream at him about danger.
He commanded his Shadow to run away, as just in time, while the loser of the match walked outside the ring with an exhausted and pained look, his Shadow seemed to almost look directly at his own.
And it stretched unnaturally, its clawed gloves swiping towards his Shadow.
Thankfully, Sunny was quick enough, and his Shadow narrowly dodged.
Shocked at what happened, his Shadow looked on at the dense and terrifying Shadow.
In response to his gaze, the Shadow peered directly at him, filling Sunny with a cold dread.
And after a moment of looking, the dense Shadow changed and returned to how it was before.
‘What… what the Spell was that.’ _________________________ Author’s Note: Hopefully this chap satisfied everyone, i put in a little ptsd for Neph and a little comentary from Sunny.
Anyway next chap will be on Friday, and maybe i’ll release another on the weekend, but just maybe.
Make sure to leave some comments to motivate me and have a good day :).