“Are you sure? Don’t you feel any pain?” Brendu still looks a bit worried, she keeps thinking that upgrading my ability right now might not have been a good idea.
“I’m fine, at the slightest symptom of any possible fracture or damage to my cube I will stop, I promise.” I try to calm her with a smile and a tight hug.
Today I have to fight the quarterfinals. My opponent is one of the stalkers from the second event, the stronger of the two. He endured until the end within the limits, he is definitely at the level of Shawu or Brendu.
“Good luck, you are forbidden to lose.” The princess gives me a firm pat on the back. All my friends already wished me luck and success, she was the only one who followed me to check once again if I’m in condition to fight.
“Start thinking about where you’ll take me to eat.” I shout to Brendu while walking toward the arena. She always buys food to have dinner together at home or chooses a restaurant to go after each elimination phase. When I tried to choose, she completely refused, so my dinner depends entirely on her.
I observe the guy with the same uniform in front of me, the difference is the bandages on his body. He is hiding almost everything, I can only see a bit of his fingers and his eyes, the rest is covered by all those bandages.
“Nice to meet you Maki, my name is Jairo.” He introduces himself calmly.
“Nice to meet you as well Jairo, we’ve already seen each other before.” I look directly at him trying to find any sign of confusion or something similar, it’s hard to differentiate his expressions with his face completely covered.
“Yes, we met during that mini game with the harpy. I was surprised by your performance, even now you seem stronger than at that moment.” He answers quickly without a hint of doubt.
“I had already seen you following me before that. Do you know it’s rude to spy on people?” For the first time I see a slight reaction in his eyes and fingers, it was so slight that without my Personal World I wouldn’t have been able to see it.
It surprises me how my sensory ability cannot see through the bandages, they are blocking my senses somehow, they shouldn’t be normal bandages.
“I’m sorry if we bothered you. We didn’t have the intention to attack you or harm you, we only wanted to follow you and learn a bit from you.” He shows me an insignia, in that moment several pieces connect and a puzzle is formed.
He belongs to that school led by the best information guild, they are in charge of collecting data and storing it. They are not a detestable guild, they know who to sell information to and what type, and it would probably cost you a fortune to get privileged information.
They rarely get into trouble, they always mind their own business, increasing their strength silently. In military power they shouldn’t be far from a count of the empire, and in terms of connections they are everywhere, they are an organization worth having as an ally.
I don’t respond, I simply wait until the bell starts the match. Both of us take position waiting for the other’s movement, this guy has an affinity with electricity just like me.
I can see how his body is enhanced with electricity, his mastery over our shared affinity is much higher. He can take lightning to the next level, I can see how the lightning turns bluish over his body. He hasn’t mastered that ability yet, the colors fluctuate between yellow and blue.
Electric affinity like most affinities can be enhanced if you have enough resources, knowledge and talent. Fire is the easiest to take to the next level, but one of the hardest if you want to push it to the limit, like that example there are several.
Lightning is equally a headache, I haven’t focused on improving the quality of my lightning because I already have my hands full with many things. Just trying to bring my ice affinity to absolute zero takes a lot of my free time.
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Today I want to show how much I’ve improved the frost of my ice. My Thundersnow Fangs absorb all my mana, Imra, Laws and Banner to strengthen themselves, Agudeza de la muerte has always been the strongest ability when I use my swords, today I will add much more ice mana into the equation.
I feel how the temperature of my swords drops visibly, even the cold around me starts becoming more intense. Everything without natural defense is being frozen or on its way to freeze, I’m pushing the cold to the maximum possible.
Around me frost moves rhythmically. I can only expand it in a radius of ten meters if I want to keep it stable and be able to use other abilities, but it’s already great progress. I release a strong gravity in the same radius, even if Crushing Zone is still at rank (III) it’s still very useful.
Jairo stayed observing for several seconds, surely taking note of my abilities. His first action was to launch dozens of powerful lightning strikes from different directions.
“So fast.” I murmur. He definitely has better control over the affinity, his constructs are faster than mine if we only consider electricity.
The lightning attacks weaken as they enter my pseudo domain. The ice tries to freeze them, gravity tries to break them by force and my own electric affinity attacks them from all directions.
I don’t need to do anything, all his attacks are neutralized before reaching my body. My three-layer defense network managed to break his first attack.
There are two problems when using this type of domain. The first is mana consumption, this combination of abilities drains mana excessively, and the second is that it greatly limits my offensive options, my brain won’t be able to handle the use of so many abilities, my body will suffer damage if I try.
Jairo uses a sword the same size as mine and the other is shorter like a dagger, he is also a close combat fighter. That makes things easier, I feel very comfortable if I have to fight at close range.
A massive spear of blue and yellow lightning forms above his head, I could have stopped his construction or teleported, but I decide to do something stupid, to receive the attack directly. I let him finish adding everything necessary and that powerful spear shoots toward me.
It’s fast, very fast. In an instant it disappeared from its place, I could only follow its movement thanks to my sensory ability. When it collides with my pseudo domain I feel how all my abilities try to stop that spear.
Its power and speed decrease noticeably, but that construction is still more than my defensive abilities can handle. I use my two swords overloaded with power to strike the massive spear.
The ice concentrated in my swords begins freezing the construction at an impressive speed. My ice affinity is still more powerful when it’s in my hands and not in a construct, the cold is much more intense if I have it in my body.
Between the three layers of defense, my strength, my Imra and the freezing of my swords I manage to stop the lightning spear to a certain extent. Almost a second later it already lost most of its power, I feel how Jairo tries to inject more mana into his construction, but my Imra doesn’t allow it, my willpower stops his attempts.
The spear finally explodes into small lightning fragments, it couldn’t withstand the pressure of my abilities. The lightning manages to tear my ice armor and make small wounds, that’s how strong his attack was. Even after so many defenses he managed to injure me.
I won’t let him do something like that again, I launch myself directly at him as fast as I can. On the way my wounds are already healed. He must have noticed my intentions and also comes directly.
I’m only enhancing my body with electricity right now, we are tied in speed. He is faster if we only consider one affinity, because he is being slowed by gravity over his whole body and the ice trying to freeze him.
When Gravity Overload comes into action everything changes, my first movement decided everything. The first cut was very fast, he didn’t have time to see it and a huge slash appears from his shoulder to his waist. The pressure is very strong, I don’t let him advance or do anything at all.
He doesn’t give up at any moment, he keeps trying to injure me or analyze my movement pattern. His eyes never show a sign of defeat, for his bad luck his body is no longer responding as he wants, he has lost a good amount of blood and my last cut left him with only one arm.
My sword pierces the center of his stomach, that strike was the last and definitive one. His body is surrounded by the typical light and my body along with my sword are pushed away.
Jairo is very skilled, he managed to endure and fight even inside the area where I have the most advantage. His movements are very agile and fast, he is very focused on speed. His movements remind me a lot of a special type of style, one dedicated to assassinations.
It has definitely been a very entertaining fight, I’ve learned a lot about his way of using the electric affinity. Now I have another idea stored in my mind to use when I have enough time. I have a huge list of pending tasks.
I offer him my hand, I intend to start some kind of friendly relationship with him. His future is very promising and his relationship with his guild can be useful for both of us in the future.