Chapter LXXVI - Taunts (part 2)

After cleaning his mouth from blood, Hod apologizes to Cony. He wanted Cony to know how powerful her wind slashes are, but since he can't take a hit from the wind blade, he just conjured ice walls to show the full scope of the skill.

"Then can you at least use ice walls to stop the wind slashes?"

"I can't."

"What?"

That time, Hod was already in the air. To conjure his ice magic, he needs to be in touch with the ground or with an item.

Though his other choice is the snow blizzard that freezes everything, it won't freeze wind slashes.

If anything, it makes it deadlier for him.

That might be a good idea for a combo between the two. I'll tell them later.

After that, Hod and Cony went to sit back down. Me and Valey went back to the field to go for another. This time, Valey is more controlled, and I'm much more prepared to the speed. We both had an insanely fast match where both of us are always faster than the other by the second.

Everyone watching couldn't even be called watching, since they can't even see anything that is happening. All they can sense are the sparking lightning from our movements, as well as the blur of blue magic energy emitted from my body. There's also the thunderous explosion and the ground being destroyed.

Valey started to get the hang of moving in this lightning mode. Her steps are becoming faster, and her eyes and senses are getting sharper. I also slowly kept up with her speed, and I could have gone faster if I wanted to, but I also wanted her to keep on growing faster.

I slowly make myself faster to accommodate Valey's growth. Due to that, she is slowly getting faster as well.

In the end, we made the ground a little bit charred thanks to Valey's lightning steps. That's nothing compared to the destroyed ground thanks to my footholds.

Not even Hod could follow this kind of speed. She is slowly becoming as fast as Prym.

"That's good! You are slowly becoming faster and faster!"

I said to her once we formed a distance from one another and took a slight pause. The two of us are staring at one another, and I noticed something odd about her.

"Heh... I also... know that..."

She suddenly fell on her knees. I just realized that it might be quite tiresome for her, so I turned to Hod.

"Okay. Let's take another break."

The training continued for another hour. Cony has mastered her flight mode perfectly and was able to fight airborne just fine. Though there wasn't anyone else who can fly here (since the ability to fly itself is very rare), she can only fight with others on the ground.

Maybe I could use flame bursts on my foot, but that would definitely burn my skin and hurt me, so that's not even an option.

I do remember using it to fight Prym, who was able to fly as well. His flight was around as fast as Cony now, too.

Who knew that wind magic can give you flight… if only I can use wind magic…

Reaching for the skies must be nice, you know…?

Once I tried putting myself with Cony, and let Hod spar against Valey. In the end, Cony was able to push me far away from her wind blades since I have no defence magic aside from my magic energy armour, but I was able to knock her down using my firebombs.

The explosion was big and loud, everyone in the arena turned their gazes at us and stopped what they were doing. Though, everyone was already aware that every single person on our team is just monsters, but it's just odd for them to see a fireball that can explode that big.

The spar between Hod and Valey was quite clear. It was Hod's lost.

His weakness was always speed, and Valey was able to close the gap in less than a second.

Barett suddenly stood and wanted a spar against me, so we had a go.

At first, I was pissed because he used taunting against me. What does he think of me as? Some monster?

Then he pointed out the fact that I got pissed means that the taunting works. I immediately slapped myself hard enough for my mouth to bleed, and not even heal it.

We both started moving. Barett is a heavy tanker type, meaning he was able to take any heavy damage head on, so I tried it on him.

My heavy punch.

BAMM!!!

It only pushed him back five meters, and his grin says it all. By reaction, I grinned myself too.

I'm not using my sword this time, totally barehanded. I acted as the tenacious augmenter who had strength of over ten elephants, while he moved as the tanker and the barbarian.

Because obviously the medic role isn't going to do anything in the middle of a battle like this, the only choice is to fight with your all, like a barbarian.

While I was dashing at him with a heavy punch on my left hand, he used taunt at the perfect time. My focus quickly dispersed as anger suddenly flowed through me.

Thanks to my focus disappearing, he was able to land a hit on me.

BAKKK!!!

The other side of his axe is like a hammer, and it smacked the middle of my stomach like a doll.

I flew meters away from him and landed on both feet, holding my stomach.

"Damn... this pain is unhealable, apparently."

A punch in the gut isn't something that can be healed, because it wasn't a heavy wound that can kill a person, but merely a sensation on the skin and muscles underneath.

Barett grinned at that, and he placed his axe on his shoulder. Seeing that he is enjoying himself, I should probably do the same.

"... Then I'll also… release a taunt."

A heavy pressure came out from my body, capturing everyone around me, especially Barett, in shock.

His moves become sluggish as fear slowly envelopes their muscles.

If Barett's taunt is anger, then my taunt is fear.

I dashed forward once again, and Barett's defences are weaker than before because of the taunt. I simply punched him upwards, and he flew twenty meters in the air.

"Ughh!!"

He grumbles as he crashes to the ground and creates a small crater. I walked towards him and lent him a hand.

"That was a good barbarian fight."

"Y-Yeah...!"

He grabbed my hand and lifted himself up. His hair becomes messy from the crash, and his face is filled with slight wounds.

I cast healing magic on him, and all of his wounds are healing.

"Thanks."

"No problemo."

As the two of us complimented each other from that spar, a powerful pressure was detected behind me.

A loud clap can be heard, coming from the entrance of the arena.

When we turned around, I could see the face of a person that I once went on a mission with. Seeing those faces, I felt slightly nostalgic and annoyed at the same time.

Along with his friends, the one walking towards us from the entrance is none other than Cane, the Light Slayer.