Before my vision could return to me, I heard loud shouts. It took me a short second to understand they weren’t screams of pain or fear but cheering. I opened my eyes and what I saw was surprising.
We were in the middle of a colosseum. Ground beneath us was rough sand. Imposing tall structures made to accommodate tens of thousands of spectators filled my vision. This place was packed to the brim.
But something was wrong. Using Enhanced Senses I borrowed from G?kb?rü I tried to look at the spectators but I couldn’t. Their faces were blurry and I couldn’t tell what clothes they were wearing. It was like… A dream? My process of thinking got interrupted when Nocturna tried to hide under my cloak.
“Are you okay?”
I asked, wondering if she suffered any damage.
“Too many people, too much noise.”
She meekly answered. Guess it was natural. I also got very nervous when I first appear on live TV. H?h, good days. I let her hide while I listened to the cheering. I couldn’t discern any words. The only thing I could say was it was cheering. I didn’t know why I came to the conclusion that it was cheering.
“My, my, my, look what we have in my humble place?”
Confident and loud were what came to my mind when I heard the voice addressing us. I turned my head to the voice and every hair on my body stood up.
She was tall, tall enough to look eye to eye with my super soldier self, which meant that I was only at her chest to stomach level. She was also muscular. Her entire body was chiseled to perfection, no doubt born out of years of intense training and life-or-death battles. I knew she had a lot of battles because her entire body was covered with scars. However, something felt wrong. Those scars were too wild to be made with human-made weaponry. They reminded me scars Horde gave to us…
Were they the result of her battles against monsters? I wasn’t sure.
She wore basically nothing. Only her chest and groin are was covered and what she wore were basically stuck to her body and left nothing to the imagination.
“Big muscle mommy.”
I slapped Lily.
“I agree but it is not the time.”
Her blonde hair was long enough to reach her hips but it wasn’t taken care of properly. It reminded me of a lion’s mane. Her green eyes were… unhinged. Just locking eyes with her once, I knew that she was dangerous.
I felt a gust of wind and she was in front of me. I felt panic slowly spread from my chest as I formed a shield and sword. I didn’t have time to swing them before her giant hand covered all of my vision. I took a step back while swinging my sword blindly.
I nearly dropped my sword because of the pain of hitting something hard as the front side of my helmet was torn off.
“Wow, it bit me. That’s a weird Spark.”
She tore off my armor with her bare hands? What the fuck?
“Poyraz!”
Lily jumped and swung his swords. I wanted to shout at him to not do it but before I could utter a word he was grabbed and flipped in the air.
“I am trying to talk to my junior follower of Zephyrian. Wait your turn.”
She sent Lily flying with a single move. Nocturna fired a blue mana bullet to her but she just deflected it with her forearm. She kicked the air. I didn’t expect that level of flexibility from her huge body. A gust of wind was created by her kick which knocked Nocturna down.
“I said I am trying to talk to my junior, you knuckleheads.”
She grabbed me from my armpits and raised me like a child. She moved me in the air while making weird faces before putting me down.
“Hmmm. You should know that you should put away your armor when you meet with your seniors. It is disrespectful.”
I released my armor while keeping my hair and eye as it is. One of the things I learned when my Spark grew a stage was I could keep nearly 70 percent of the stat boosts while I was on my “Fallen Knight Mode” even if I didn’t wear my armor. It meant that I still had grey hair and purple, animal-like eyes.
She touched all around me. Even though I didn’t like people touching me I endured it. ?f she wanted she could easily kill me.
“Hmmm. You are very skinny.”
This bitch. Really called me. Very skinny.
G?kb?rü pulled trousers to signal me to calm down.
“You must be traveling for some time. Your body lacks some important nutrients. Even if you have Aliera’s divine touch you should be careful about your diet. You don’t have a lot of muscles too… Then again, if you can swing that sword that means that you have at least passable strength…”
I calmed down a little when I noticed she was doing a “check-up” of my body and not insulting me. She stopped touching me and took a step back.
“You have a cool face. It is all that matters really. You can fix your body with training and good food but face?”
She laughed loud enough to hurt my ears.
“You must be the previous user of Sacred Sword of Selection?”
I asked, trying to pull the conversation in a meaningful direction. She laughed.
“Oh, right! I totally forgot about it! You guys are here for my approval aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
I answered with the most deadpan tone.
“My name is Valeria Battleheart! Amazon Queen and Champion of Aliera! The Monster Butcher!”
She started to list her nicknames as I got more and more annoyed. I cleared my throat to make her stop. She kept going and I cleared my throat louder. Lily put a hand on my shoulder. He leaned and whispered:
“Should I scream to make her stop?”
I shook my head. I had to do it.
“Oi, Lady! We don’t have all the time in the world! We have civilians we have to escort! Just give us the trial and go!”
Valeria''s laughter died down as she stared at me with a mixture of amusement and surprise. The Colosseum fell silent, and the spectators eagerly watched our exchange. I could feel Nocturna and G?kb?rü tense up, unsure of how Valeria would react to my straightforward approach.
To my surprise, Valeria burst into laughter again, clapping her hands together.
"Hah! You''ve got some guts, kid. I like that!"
She grinned widely, revealing a row of sharp teeth.
“Trial, huh? I am a very simple woman. You just need to prove your strength.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.She continued.
“Do we have to defeat you?”
I asked, wanting to be sure about the conditions of the trial. She started to laugh loudly again.
“Defeat me? Hahahahah! That’s funny, kid. You won’t last 5 seconds against me in a real fight.”
She put her right arm around her back.
“Here are the conditions: I can only use my left hand to defend or attack. I also can only use mana to strengthen my body, meaning no skills or military arts. You will pass if you are able to make me bleed.”
It sounded simple enough. But just looking at her made my body and mind scream danger.
“Are we going to start right away?”
Lily asked.
“Take as much time as you want. You are going to need it.”
“Alright. Check your items. Warm-up. We are going to start as soon as possible. We have people waiting for us.”
I pulled Nocturna and Lily to the opposite side of Valeria.
“I’ll be taking the aggro with G?kb?rü. Nocturna what is the longest distance you can cast your magic?”
“I can cast shield or buffs 3 or 4 steps away from you. I can attack from 10 to 15 meters away but they aren’t very strong.”
“It is okay. Before we start cast every supportive magic you have and stay as far away as possible. Attack to distract, not to injure. Lily-“
“I see. Drawing blood is my job.”
“Yes. I will keep her as busy as possible. Move to her back. Attack to kill and not injure.”
“So it is one of those battles.”
Lily puffed his cheeks. I looked back at Valeria. She was doing warm-up moves.
“Every cell in my body and every experience I had till now is screaming at me. Unless we give our 120 percent we will die.”
Nocturna tensed when I said it. Maybe choosing a different way to warn them about her danger would be better. Lily on the other hand stretched while yawning, causing his clothes to rise and expose more of his skin. Nocturna gulped when she saw that and I couldn’t help but laugh. Guess she was now less tense.
We moved forward.
“Oh, I forgot. I never asked for you guys’ name.”
“Poyraz Karabulut. This is G?kb?rü.”
“Name’s Lily but you can call me sweetheart.”
“I am Nocturna Blackmoon. Pleased to meet you.”
“Alright. I have to say this before we begin: This place is similar to a dream. So don’t worry about dying or being paralyzed. We can fight to our last drop of blood!”
That would explain why none of the spectators had discernable features.
Wolf King’s Fang had 41 uses left while Ring of Frost had 5 uses left. Shit.
I slowly walked forward. Every step I took was calculated.
(Your partner wants to share the skill “Enhanced Senses” with you.)
(Your partner wants to share the skill “Combat Instinct” with you.)
(Your partner wants to share the skill “Abnormal Status Resistance” with you.)
Was it because G?kb?rü grew? Or maybe our bond got deeper with the battles we got through together? He could share more skills with me. I felt a faint power grow inside me.
“Your pet can share its skills with you? Nice trick.”
“He is not a pet.”
“Moonlight Veil”
(You are buffed by magic Moonlight Veil. You won’t suffer from critical hits for 2 minutes. 20 percent of the next attack you will receive will be deflected back to the attacker. Your defense increases by 5 percent for 2 minutes.)
I rushed forward while focusing the mana on my legs. Even though I was in striking range of Valeria, I didn’t swing my sword. I ducked instead even though I saw no signs of an attack.
A punch passed just above my head, taking me back to days I had to suppress uprisings and had bullets flying over my head.
Yeah. Her punch was basically a bullet and not just any bullet. It was a bullet fired by an anti-material rifle. Even the wind caused by her swing made me nervous.
If she could use her right arm, she could have popped my head like a watermelon at this very moment. However, no matter how fast or strong she was, she had to pull her arm back after a punch.
I swung my sword to her side.
“Clang!”
Vibrations spread along my arm as she managed to block it with her forearm. A yellow aura covered it.
“Now that’s bullshit.”
She managed to block my sword with her mana-infused skin. Fuck that.
I tried to pull my sword back and back away. But she grabbed it at the last second. It was almost like my sword was stuck in a rock. I could let go of my sword and manifest another. However, I didn’t do that. The reason was simple: Lily was swinging his swords to her neck from her back.
“Nice try, kiddos.”
I couldn’t even come up with the thought of letting my sword before she threw me to Lily. I hit him and we both fell to the ground.
“Pain.”
Lily gasped.
“Magic Missile!”
Nocturna tried to keep Valeria busy but she dodged blue bullets which caused them to hit us. I managed to block them for both me and Lily.
“I am so sorry!”
Nocturna shouted. That stupid girl! She was too worried about hitting us that she didn’t have time to prepare for Valeria rushing to her position.
Shit! We were too far away. Even if I used all the buffs I had, I couldn’t reach her in time! Not only we were further away, but Valeria was also faster than me.
Unless I teleported-
(Shadow Walk: You can harness the power of darkness to sink and step into shadows by using mana and focus. You can travel between shadows after fully sinking. Traveling to people’s or places’ shadows you are familiar with uses less mana.)
I killed all the emotions I had. My fear, my hesitation, my pain.
I let it all go.
The world around me fell quiet.
The idea of doing something in the middle of combat without not training for it was laughable. Every skill I showed until now was things I trained for hours.
But it wasn’t whether I could do it or not.
It was just that I had to do it.
I sunk deeper and focused on Nocturna.
I exited out of her shadow and tackled her. Not a second later, Valeria’s fist hit the ground she was standing, creating a crater. I felt a headache envelop my skull as more than half of my mana was gone in an instant.
Mana Overload. Since I experienced it once, I could endure it.