That was probably why women like Fay and Lin also caused my chest to flutter. Both had a strong will, projected auras of confidence, and appeared to be strong fighters. Well, I was sure that was part of the reason for my conflicted feelings of attraction, at least.
“It was thrilling, right?” I said. Fay’s cheeks turned an even more startling shade of red, until they matched her hair, but she nodded at me. I laughed. “It’s a unique feeling that can only be found in a competition like this, where combatants fight against each other in fair combat. The adrenaline pumping through your body, the feeling of clashing against someone of equal or greater strength, and the joy you feel after you’ve won… it’s not something you can find anywhere else.”
I felt my lips suddenly turn down as if gravity had taken hold of them. I looked at the arena as several Spiritualists with the earth element danced along the floor, repairing the damage done to it.
“Real combat is a lot different than this. It’s fast-paced and brutal. You fight with your very life on the line. There’s no honor or glory to be had in something like that. Just death.”
My mind became immersed in memories of the past, in the battles I had fought, where I had struggled merely to keep my own life, nevermind emerging victorious. So many times, death had come for me. So many times, I had barely managed to avoid it. I was honestly surprised I had lived long enough to challenge the Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm twice.
“Eryk?” Fay questioned me softly, and I realized I was becoming mopey.
I shook my head. This was a new life I had. I wasn’t sure how, but I had been sent back to the past, which meant I had a chance to do everything over again. There was no point in moping over what happened in my last life.
“I’m fine.” I smiled at her, but then I frowned when I realized the knuckles of her right hand were cracked and bleeding. “You’re injured.”
Fay glanced at her hand, then smiled as she hid it behind her back. “It was from the backlash of my own technique. I’m afraid I haven’t quite mastered it yet.”
I nodded. Spiritual Techniques generally took years to master. They weren’t something someone could perfect with two, three, or even six months’ worth of training.
“May I see your hand please?” I requested softly.
Fay bit her lower lip, but then slowly brought her hand from behind her back and presented it to me. I grabbed it, careful not to touch her knuckles or the parts that had been burned. Her skin was black, a multitude of cracks ran along the surface, and fresh blood was oozing from those cracks.
I placed my free hand over her hand, not touching it, but just letting it hover there. I trickled some of my Spiritual Power through my hand. The warm flow moved through my Spiritual Pathways, changing from a non-elemental Spiritual Power to the water element. I manipulated the element to move into Fay’s hand through her wounds, and then slowly repaired all the damage her own attack had done to her.
“A Spiritual Technique like the one you used is meant to be fired from a distance,” I said as her injuries healed before my eyes. “While attacking up close does give you more power, you also receive damage from the backlash. Of course, this could have been negated if you had unleashed your Spiritual Aura to protect yourself, but I am assuming you forgot about that when you attacked.”
“Er…” Fay suddenly looked down, unable to maintain eye contact with me. “Well… yes… I can’t activate my Spiritual Aura when I use the Flash Step, and the idea of reactivating it just… never occurred to me at the time, so…”
“Being able to reactivate your Spiritual Aura immediately after using the Flash Step is something that requires instinct,” I said, nodding. “It isn’t something you actively think about, so much as something you automatically do without thinking. I guess you could say it is like a form of muscle memory. Your body remembers to reactivate your aura so you can focus on the battle. If you’d like, after this tournament is over, we can focus on getting you some more experience so reactivating your Spiritual Aura becomes a habit.”
“After the tournament?” Fay looked up again, her eyes widening as her pretty mouth formed an O-shape. “You mean… you still want to train with me even after the tournament ends?”
My mind froze for a second as I wondered if I had overstepped my bounds.
“We don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course,” I assured her. “It is just that… well, I suppose you could say I’ve enjoyed the time we spent training together and would like to continue. You also have a lot of potential. I want to see how far you can go as a Spiritualist, but I obviously won’t force you to train with me if that isn’t what you want.”
“Oh, no. That isn’t what I meant.” Fay shook her head, causing her long ponytail to sway back and forth. “I really like training with you. I would love to keep doing it. It’s just that… you and Kari… um…”
I sucked in a breath. That’s right. Fay had confessed her feelings to me, but I was already in love with Kari. I had denied this girl, rejected her, but she still tried to win over my affection. She told me once that she hadn’t given up. However, from the way she’d spoken just now, I wondered if maybe she had finally decided to stop.
A strange sensation welled up in my chest, an almost physical pain that made me want to rub it. I didn’t like this feeling.
I finished healing her hand and let go. Fay took a step back, her eyes a little wet. Guilt slammed into me like a Spiritual Lightning Technique as I realized she was probably crying because I hadn’t denied my love for Kari.
For all the confidence she projected, Fay was a fragile young woman.
This silence lasted until someone came into the room and whispered something to Dante. The man nodded, stepped forward, and smiled at us.
“The arena has been repaired, so everyone with the number two parchment slips should head outside,” he said.
I looked back at Fay and gave her a shaky smile. “I drew a number two.”
“You should head to the arena then.” She smiled at me, but it didn’t look like her heart was in it. “Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
No longer able to bear Fay’s gaze, I turned toward the door and walked out alongside four other individuals.
Chapter 4
Eryk’s Strength
I stood at one point of a pentagon alongside four other combatants. Two of them were women, while the other two were men. I didn’t recognize anyone. This didn’t surprise me.
“I always knew you and I would meet each other in a competition like this. I hope you’re ready to lose.”
“Lose? Ha. The only one who is going to lose today is you. Please don’t take it personally when I beat you black and blue. I’m obviously coming out on top today.”
“Maybe when the Mares fly.”
Two of the people, a man with sandy-colored hair and a woman with dark blonde hair, seemed to know each other. They were trading banter back and forth about which one of them would win. They were wearing the leather armor of the Nevarian Spiritualists, which was like the standing army that protected Nevaria from Demon Beasts and kept the peace within the city’s walls.
Nevarian Spiritualists wore a form of light armor. It was made from the hardened leather of a C-Rank Demon Beast to form a chestplate, shoulder pads, vambraces, and greaves, which were worn over gray or black clothing. I couldn’t remember if the armor was made from a specific Demon Beast or not. There seemed to be some variations in their color. The woman’s armor contained a blue tint. The man’s armor was a light green. This led me to believe they were made from different Demon Beasts.
I glanced at the other two people I’d be battling and noticed that both of them were looking at me.
The woman was a gorgeous redhead with a voluptuous figure that seemed to spill from her outfit. Her large breasts were barely contained by the very small chestplate covering them. They spilled out from the top, which had been left completely exposed. A pair of leather straps running from the tips of the trian
gle-shaped plate kept her armor from falling off. Like her chest, her stomach and crotch were both basically bare. She had a small metal thong covering her most private area, but that was all. This allowed me and everyone else to see her shapely hips, soft waist, and milky breasts. Oddly enough, her arms and legs were completely covered in segmented metal armor.
She was wielding a pair of swords. They were a little smaller than the average broadsword, which made them easier to wield with one hand. The hilts were also smaller.
This woman’s armor seemed highly impractical, but I did realize, objectively, that armor didn’t offer as much protection as a Spiritual Aura. She could probably activate hers and therefore didn’t feel the need to conform to standard ideals of armor. Some members of the Battling Valkyries had similar armor designs.
While debating the merits of armor that didn’t actually protect anything, I glanced at the man next to her. Unlike the woman, he was not wearing skimpy armor, which I found myself grateful for. His chestplate covered his entire body. The silver color was offset by the gold designs running across it. Underneath the armor was a black suit that conformed to his muscular physique. He also had gauntlets and a pair of segmented armored greaves that went up to the middle of his thighs. He didn’t have a weapon, but I noticed that he had golden knuckles on his gauntlets. He was probably a brawler.
Rainer stood in the center of our arrangement. He was looking at us all with his calm, yet stern glance.
“Are all of you ready?” he asked. We nodded. “In that case, the battle will begin on my mark.”
He walked out of the circle, took his place on the side opposite of Valence, raised his hand, and swung it down.
“FIGHT!”
The moment Rainer signaled that the battle had begun, the two Nevarian Spiritualists attacked each other. Their respective weapons clashed in a shower of sparks. Both of them were wielding a sword, but the two weapons were still very different. The man had a standard broadsword, while the woman’s sword was curved, had a single-edge, and had a hook shape near the tip. I believe that was called a falchion.
“Looks like it’s finally time for you and me to see who the stronger Spiritualist is!” the man shouted.
The woman smiled. Her eyes contained a fierce fire blazing inside of them. Her blade was already locked with his, pushing against it and causing more sparks to scatter along the edge. It looked like the two of them were vying for dominance. At the same time, their Spiritual Auras had soared. The woman’s blue aura flowed around her like water. The man, on the other hand, seemed to have an ethereal green aura covering his body.
Wind.
“I agree! Let us decide today which of us is stronger!”
The two broke apart, shuffled across the ground as they spun around like dancers, and unleashed their respective Spiritual Techniques with a single swing of their swords. A wave of water rushed from the woman’s blade. It struck the green crescent-shaped spiritual attack that the man had unleashed. As the two attacks collided, the area around them became slightly warped as they battled for dominance. The attacks would have probably negated each other, but the man swung his blade again and unleashed another Spiritual Wind Technique to reinforce the first one.
With the second Spiritual Wind Technique reinforcing the first one, the wind won out, breaking through the water wave and flying toward the woman. It struck the ground and detonated with enough force to create a spider web of cracks. However, the woman had already leapt into the air. Not only did the technique not strike her, but she used the resulting gust of wind that rushed in all directions to launch herself over the man.
Her body spun in the air as she swung her sword multiple times. Each swing emitted a powerful cannonball of water that flew toward the man, who wore a grave expression as he dodged each attack. When one of the water cannonballs struck the ground, they exploded, sending water in all directions. The water itself didn’t seem harmful. However, when I looked at the large depressions that had formed in the ground, I realized anyone struck by those attacks would be in serious trouble. The man seemed to recognize that as well.
“It seems you’ve been improving for this day,” he called out as he swung his sword and unleashed another technique.
“So have you!” The woman laughed as she landed on the ground and met his technique head on.
While the battle between the two Nevarian Spiritualists was interesting, I didn’t have time to focus on their battle anymore. The other two Spiritualists had activated their Spiritual Auras and were rushing at me. The woman’s aura was a thick red like an ardent flame. The man’s aura was a sort of brownish green. I suspected he had a predominant affinity for earth with a minor one for wind.
“Have you two decided to team up on me?” I asked as I held my ruler in a single-handed grip over my shoulder.
“Hmph! Don’t take it personally,” the woman said.
“We were merely hired to teach you a lesson,” the man added.
So someone had hired these two? Was it Albert? I didn’t think so. He seemed a little too forthright for this. Maybe it was Grant? Either way, I felt like this was a good opportunity.
“Well, all right.” I grabbed my ruler with both hands. “You can come at me at the same time. I need a good battle to loosen my limbs.”
The two Spiritualists narrowed their eyes. Perhaps they sensed something in my words, but they both kept running toward me.
I shifted my feet along the ground, gripped my ruler tighter—leather handle creaking—and swung it. Spiritual Power flowed through my body like an electric current, charging up my arms and into the ruler. Pale arcs of lightning skittered across the ruler’s surface. Then the ruler’s eleven segments suddenly slid apart as the locking mechanism unlocked. Like the tail of a giant reptile, the eleven segments shot forward as I held each one together with a chain of lightning that stretched between them like a tether.
The woman’s eyes widened as she leapt to the side. My ruler’s segments shot past her. I twitched my hand and more Spiritual Power flowed through the ruler. Behind the two Spiritualists, the ruler’s segmented body curved around and attacked the woman from behind. It struck her in the middle of her back, sending her to the ground. Despite being knocked down, her Spiritual Aura was strong. She hadn’t actually been injured.
“What kind of weapon is that?!” the man asked in shock, though he didn’t stop running.
I stepped back as he thrust out his right fist in a straight jab. His attack didn’t reach me, but then he stomped on the ground ten times in a rhythm like that of a beating heart and several stakes shot up as though to skewer me. I retracted my ruler. The eleven segments quickly became one again, and I slammed it into the ground before me, using the ruler’s massive body to protect me from the stakes, which crashed into the ruler and broke apart.
By this point in time, the woman was back on her feet. She crossed her two swords over her head, then swung them down, unleashing a powerful burst of flames that formed the shape of an X. I pulled my ruler from the ground, spun around on the balls of my feet, and then swung my ruler now coated in the water element upward in a slash that split the X-shaped flames in half from bottom to top.
The two halves traveled along separate routes and exploded behind me. I ignored the heat surging against my back as I launched myself at the man, who had leapt back when his partner was attacking. My powerful, horizontal swing caused the air to whistle as the ruler cut through it. The man raised his right arm to block, and I could see that his entire arm was now covered in dense earth. A defense technique.
Just before the ruler met his arm, I channeled lightning through it.
I don’t think the man was expecting his defense technique to be completely useless. His eyes bulged as my ruler sliced through the densely packed earth covering his forearm like it was ground beef. A loud clanging sound echoed around us as my ruler hit the metal plating of his gauntlet, but then the gauntlet shattered into a thousand fragments. I didn’t stop my attack. The vei
ns in my arms popped as I continued through with my swing, causing the bones in his forearm to break as his arm was forced into his torso.
There was another loud cracking sound when my ruler slammed into his torso, followed by a powerful bang that resounded across the arena. The man was blasted through the air. He struck the ground several meters away, rolled across it like a ragdoll, and then slammed into the wall on the opposite side of the arena.
“Freystein!” the woman screamed. She turned to me with a fierce glare—only for her eyes to widen when she realized I was right in front of her.
“Sorry,” I apologized as I tucked my left hand into my torso, “but I’m gonna have to ask you to lose today.”
Rotating my torso and hips, I thrust out my left palm, which slammed into her solar plexus. My attack shattered her Spiritual Aura. Her mouth opened wide but no sound came out. I then channeled a small portion of lightning through her body, jolting her nervous system and knocking her unconscious.
The woman’s eyes rolled into the back of her head. Her body went limp and fell over my palm. I remained like that for a moment before turning the ruler in my right hand down and thrusting it into the ground. Once my hand was free, I grabbed this woman with both hands and gently laid her down on her back. Her eyes were still open, but they were sightless and glazed, so I closed them and stood back up.
I ignored Rainer as he announced that the two people I fought had been defeated and turned to the battle taking place between the two Nevarian Spiritualists. It looked like the fight was winding down. Their Spiritual Auras were flickering, a clear sign that they were running out of Spiritual Power. Should I intervene and knock them both out? I shook my head after giving the idea a second of consideration. It was bad form to interrupt a battle in a competition like this.
WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Volume 4 Page 6
