011: Deja Vû

After some days, the pain stopped, and I found my cultivation growing much faster, and even when I wasn't cultivating, it still growed bit by bit. I created two foundations of the element of space (one of my favourite elements), and I created about 30 strings of each element. I had about 120 dots of each element too. 'Not that I am going to use all of them at the same time, but still, it is good to have replacements.' "Hey Akatsuki, can we have a little spar?" After undergoing through that torture, and understanding a little bit the change within me, I asked her. "It depends. Can I use my usual weapon?" Without stopping her training to look at me while we talked, she began asking about the rules of the spar "Of course" "Will the use of the cultivation base be allowed?" "I guess it will?" "You know how to count right?" Errr... I know that joke, and I won't fall for it again. "I won't count you out if you don't tell me why. At least explain yourself." "[A]*, the last time we fought me using our cultivation base, I had literally no chance, and it was just you toying with me, so I refuse." "Come on... In a real fight, your opponents will use their cultivation, so you should try to get used-" "Get used to using my cultivation base, or get used to getting crushed in fights?" She interrupted me playful tone. Now that I think about it, everytime we used our cultivation base, I ended up winning, and it became mostly a one sided match... "Let's do something then. I won't use my cultivation base." "What's the condition? I guess you won't just reduce your chances of winning like that." "Yes I will." "... Why?" "I just want to test something out." "And I am your guinea pig?" "Well..." I scratched the back of my head akwardly. When I was going to try to convince her, she interrupted my thoughts. "Challenge accepted, but since we are doing it, how about a little bet?" My whole body trembled at that notion. Whenever we did a bet, there was always the same thing at stake. "Please tell me you won't." "The loser has to give its food to the winner for one month." "Are you kidding?! Even if it is us, we still might die if we spend one month without food!" And not to mention that one month without eating anything would be hell. Watching the other eat your food... In fact, I never do that since the first time we betted like this since I know it is just torturing myself, and just resign myself to cultivate obediently. By the way, neither me or Akatsuki need much food. In fact, we have both been for an entire week without eating and we have had not much trouble, other than getting angry and jealous when the other is eating delightfully your food. When I asked Kuro and Shiro why, they told me it was because we had special constitutions. "Do you accept, or are you that sure that you aren't my match when you don't use your cultivation base?" She turned to face me for the first time in our exchange. "I accept" I replied. If one doesn't try, one will never know the result of such an action. I brought my hand near to a knive and got ready to dash as she positiones herself with her katana. When fighting her without using the cultivation base, the best approach is to use knives as you run to close the gap. After all, her cultivation base will allow her to use long distance attacks, and if I don't retaliate with the knives (which I have attached on my pants, hanging of a special belt).

Akatsuki was a cultivated the power of flames. But her flames... they weren't like mine. My flames were average, while hers froze anything they touched. I don't know how she created them, but we had an unspoken agreement of not asking for each other knowledge. It is possible that she obtained that knowledge from her books. Her elements and her cultivation base were way more overbearing than mine, but I always managed to overcome her with my wide variety of elements: fire, earth, wind, water, life darkness, light, death, and time and space, though I mostly used time and space elements. The others... they were just for special occasions. I would rather not train them at all, but Kuro and Shiro told me that they might come in handy one day. But today... Today things are a bit different than usual. Not having access to my cultivation base meant a need to get close, and she knew that. The thing about bangs is that most of them are invisible unless you use them(wind and space are actually invisible even when you use them). This is a double edged sword. While it is useful to abush an enemy, it also makes harder to pinpoint the exact location and move them precisely if they are far they are from the user.

In fact, the further you locate it, the less you will feel the dot, until you can no longer know where it is, just give it commands. The only way of solving this problem is to "show" the dot one way or another. It can be by emitting the element, absorbing it... The thing is that you cannot attack accurately from afar without showing to the opponent where the dot is. In other words, if Akatsuki wants to attack me before I close the gap, she would need to "manifest" the dot. And so, the plan was set. "3... 2...1... Go!" I grabbed my knife and pulled it out of its sheath, while she Manifested her dot through emission showing a ball of blue fire. The moment I saw its manifestation, I throwed the knife towards the do. To be more exact, I aimed at the center of the flame. While the fact that the knife will be frozen remains unchanged, my aim is to damage the core of the dot, making an explosion, harming her, and with a bit of luck, knocking her out. We have never used this before, but I know from experience that when a dot is slashed, pierced, hit, or even just touched, it can go off. There is two variables that affect that.

One: The density of the dot, and the severity of the damage. If a dot is too dense, even the friction with the air will make it explode, so both Akatsuki and me cover our dots with an extra layer of energy, so that wind doesn't affect the dot too much, but a good hit will still make it go off.

The knife flew towards the ball and hit its center and --- "BOOM!" And I think I can almost say the food is mine.

When I reached the zone where she was standing and where the core went off, I saw her, on the floor, hugging her knees, curled up in a ball, shivering non-stop. "Can we say I have won?" "Y-yes... N-Now he-help me!" I created a fire ball with a dot of fire and put it close to her to warm her up. "Better now?" "N-No... I-I am c-cold" and then, I saw her move fast towards the fire, as if wanting to embrace the fire "Stop!" I grabbed her from her clothes and stopped her from going. "That's fire, you big idiot! If you touch it you are gonna burn yourself!" "I-I-It's too c-c-cold... help me!" Even though she was telling me to help her, I had no idea on how to help her. 'Wait, could it be...' The last time I had something similar to that, it was due to something that wasn't a spirit severing... could this be another version of what I suffered? I created multiple fireballs around us, to radiate more heat, and to help her. "Akatsuki, listen." She looked at me. Her black eyes had azure blue markings, as if a professional painter was drawing a pattern onto her eyes. "You must absorb that cold within you into your dots of cold fire, and you also should circulate fire strings within you to lessen the cold feeling." "O-O-O-Okay" Everytime she spoke, it became harder to understand her. Just that already told me how cold she felt.

...

After a few minutes, she got a little bit better. We decided that due to this accident, the result of the match would be considered as a draw, so both of us got to keep our food for ourselves. And so, another day passed. This new day...

Was the day to recollect food.

I wonder... What kind of animal will I slaugter this time?

Author's Notes:I think that I need to give an explanation for the long break. I wanted to have vacations and not write during that time, but when I got back to the routine, my routine became a little bit more... Dense. And so, I have been having trouble to find moments to write. I will try to do chapter once a week, but in the worst case, I will only be able to do once every two weeks.