Arc#3 Chapter 51: A Healthy Spar (Patreon)

[Author Note]

Hello, hello~ I have recently started to figure out how to format stuff over at Patreon because they don't support tables here. Not even line breaks. Fuck Patreon. Jk. lol.

I love you, Patreon. Don't kick me... And please lower your fees!

Anyway, sorry about being slightly inconsistent with them. Stuff's weird here.

I hope you enjoy the chapter! We have moved forward by one year!

─┉┈◈◉◈┈┉─

Reivan calmly stepped back just in time to avoid Helen’s saber from turning his neck into a stump. Lightning danced around his legs before he leaped back with greater force, creating distance between himself and his monstrous sparring partner.

“Stop running,” Helen grumbled with a frown before a light breeze surrounded her body. Her ponytail danced erratically behind her.

In the blink of an eye, her blade was inches away from Reivan’s face.

‘Why are you always going for my face!?’

Feeling slightly annoyed, Reivan blocked with the vambrace on his left arm while also sending a kick toward her stomach. His own blade was ready to strike her down no matter how she decided to respond.

Perhaps anticipating his counter, Helen’s body moved back as the edge of her saber glowed with green light. With a flourish of her sword, an extremely thin but fast blade of magic power was sent flying toward Reivan, aiming to part his upper body from the lower one.

With practiced ease, the prince held his left hand forward, materializing a small but dense strip of ice floating in front of him.

The sound of glass shattering filled the palace garden as the tiny piece of ice collided perfectly with the thin blade of green magic power, successfully keeping Reivan’s body whole.

‘How’s that!?’

Reivan smirked in pride, having pulled out the trump card he’d been practicing inside [Glimpse of Eternity].

His race meant that despite his superior physical potential, he had a much smaller mana pool than a pure human. That’s why, to save up on the precious resource, Reivan thought to decrease the energy he expended on defense by condensing the wall of ice he usually made, making it smaller but much more resilient.

Of course, this presented the problem that if the wall was too small, the enemy’s attack might pass by and hit him anyway.

But Reivan had all the tools he needed to perfect this technique!

His kinetic vision and reaction time were trained intensively by a certain bald old man after all. Repetitive practice through [Glimpse of Eternity] to help build muscle memory was an overpowered cheat skill for anyone crazy enough to spend so much time training.

‘With this, you’ll have to fight close up!’

Helen had recently evolved her fighting style by weaving ranged attacks whenever she could. Previously, she’d just used her superior speed and rapid omnidirectional movement to overwhelm him with a constant barrage of attacks.

In the end, she must’ve gotten fed up from losing to him all the time, so she upped her game.

“Cool.” Instead of the surprise or frustration he was expecting, Helen wore an expression of interest. “I’ll try to do that too.”

Reivan’s cheek twitched. “... It’s not that easy, okay?”

“Mhm. I’ll have you teach me.”

“...I mean, sure. Why not.”

Helen smiled before wind and lightning danced around her entire body. “Then let’s finish this.”

“Yep.” Reivan knew she would start fighting for real now, so he also got serious.

{Your [Beast Gate] has activated!}

{Might: 100 → 200}

{Bodily Reinforcement through Magic Power application has been detected.}

{Your manipulation of Magic Power has resulted in a Perfection Rate of 50%}

{Perfection Rate becomes 100% due to [Formless Will]!!}

{Your Might has been increased by 300 points.}

{A perfection bonus of 100% has increased the bonus to 600 points.}

{Might: 200 → 800}

{Armament Energy surges through your veins!}

{Your Might has been increased by 300 points}

{Might: 800 → 1100}

Reivan grew drunk with the force he now commanded. But he knew that it was still nothing compared to the monstrous girl in front of him.

─┉┈◈◉◈┈┉─

Helen Mercer

Might: 440 → 2150

─┉┈◈◉◈┈┉─

‘I can never get used to how impossibly high it always gets…’

This past year, Helen’s might had grown from somewhere in the three-hundred twenties… to a whopping four hundred forty.

Her [Overwhelm] — which boosted her by a hundred and fifty percent of her base might stat — added 660 to that, bringing her up to 1100, which was coincidentally Reivan's peak.

Then Qi Reinforcement, Mana Augmentation, and the Armament Energy from the Soul Armament she’d been awarded at some point added another 900 to that, bringing her up to 2000.

And her perfection rate of fifty percent added another 150 to that, giving birth to the ridiculous stat Reivan was looking at.

Despite this, Reivan had never lost against Helen in real life.

Because he wasn’t alone.

“Zouros!” Reivan called out the name of the friend living in his soul.

An extremely dark plume of smoke was released from Reivan’s body, soon forming a massive serpent with a body as thick as the width of a grown man’s shoulder.

Zouros’s forked tongue licked the air as its hissing spread throughout the garden, creeping its way into the minds of all who listened. The serpent’s golden eyes glowed menacingly while the bright rays of the sun provided a stark contrast to the purple light leaking out of the gaps in its scales.

Helen wasn’t the only one who’d experienced a meteoric rise in power over the past year,

After seemingly hibernating for some time, Zouros awoke with a thousand points in its base might and a pair of black feathered wings.

─┉┈◈◉◈┈┉─

Name: Zouros

Species: Archon Fragment (World Devouring Serpent)

Realm: Mortal (Degraded Archon)

Age: 12

Sex: N/A

Might:1000

Special Abilities:

[World Devouring]

[Wings of Desolation]

Extra Skills:

[Chaos Origin]

[Qi: Unleashed]

[Contract: Reivan Aizenwald]

Elemental Affinities:

[Chaos]

[Darkness]

Favor:

100 / 100

(Loyalty / Protectiveness / Familial Love)

Threat Level:

N/A (This unit's favor is too high)

─┉┈◈◉◈┈┉─

‘I just wish I knew what the wings actually did.’

Using [Supreme Insight] on the ability gave him the same result when he tried using it on [World Devouring] — meaning he may as well have stared at a pure white wall. That’s why he was still stuck wondering what significance the wings held other than looking slightly cool.

After all, Zouros could already fly even without the wings — though, after testing them out, the snake’s new limbs actually increased his speed by a few notches.

“Sick ‘em!” Reivan pointed at Helen, shamelessly letting his bigger friend loose on another friend. He didn't have the leeway to feel shame though, since it would take everything he had to triumph against the little genius.

Zouros opened its huge mouth and breathed out toxic fumes that headed straight for Helen. As if competing with the speed of its own attack, the massive serpent then charged forward, all while Qi, magic power, and even armament energy began to fill its ghostly body.

─┉┈◈◉◈┈┉─

Zouros

Might: 1000 → 2200

─┉┈◈◉◈┈┉─

Entities like Zorous apparently had a hundred percent perfection rate when it came to magic power manipulation because supernatural energy was literally what they were made of. As such, Qi reinforcement, mana augmentation, and the boost from armament energy infusion added 1200 points to the massive serpent’s might.

With this, his beastly companion alone had higher stats than Helen.

‘This isn’t cheating or ganging up on someone! Zouros is a part of me, after all!’

While yelling excuses in his heart, Reivan molded his soul armament into eight metallic marbles that immediately began to slowly revolve around his body.

Four of the marbles grew slightly larger and became sharp blades before joining the massive serpent in charging at Helen — even bypassing the serpent entirely.

Reivan had discovered that by focusing his [Formless Will] on controlling smaller objects, he could significantly increase the force that they were controlled with.

Meaning the small objects flew faster and hit harder.

Helen lazily tilted her head to the side, evading one of the blades while swatting away two with her saber. A slight shift of her leg caused the last blade to miss entirely.

‘Again!’

Unlike a turn-based RPG game, Reivan could potentially have unlimited turns in real life, not giving Helen any leeway by constantly attacking her with the four blades no matter how much she dodged or parried.

And soon enough, Zouros and the toxic fumes reached their target.

A mouth full of fangs almost clamped on the small girl’s hips, but then her body was jerked upward by a sudden gust of wind. With a flourish of her left arm, a torrential gale was summoned to blow away the serpent’s poisonous attack.

Zouros was relentless though, pursuing her no matter where she tried to run.

However, the giant snake just couldn't catch up to her — even when its movement speed was significantly increased by the wings sprouting on its back.

'Damn. Agility-based builds are so annoying to deal with!'

Once Helen decided to run, there was nothing Reivan could do but throw his hands in the air. After all, he didn’t have an attack that could catch her and have any actual effect.

‘That said, this isn’t good for her and she knows it.’

Normally, Reivan’s innately lower mana pool would mean that fighting a battle of attrition with Helen was a foolish thing to do. Sure, he could continuously heal himself, but the gap in stats meant that he would lose if Helen so much as grazed him.

However, Reivan barely used any of his magic power by attacking with blades controlled by his willpower and letting Zouros act as a bodyguard.

Helen, on the other hand, had to constantly utilize her movement-based aetherblade art.

‘Furthermore…’

Giving up on catching the girl, Zouros returned to Reivan’s side, protectively surrounding him with its spectral body. It then opened its large mouth — much like when it breathed out toxic fumes — and inhaled.

Instead of air getting sucked in, the ambient energy in the garden formed a vortex as it was funneled into the serpent’s stomach. The suction force grew stronger over time, and Reivan’s eyes could see how even Helen’s magic power was being extracted from her.

Reivan couldn’t help but liken his scaly companion to a vacuum cleaner.

‘I wonder what she’s got planned…’

Just like the last time they sparred, Reivan had employed a waiting strategy as well, forcing her to use her mana for evasion. To make things harder for her, Reivan had unleashed the power of Zouros's [World Devouring] — a skill he’d known about from the start, but had only been made aware of its effects recently.

Since today’s sparring session had been proposed by Helen, it was obvious that she had already thought of a way to break the unfavorable position.

Reivan got the answer to his question when Helen’s sword transformed into a spear. Bolts of electricity snaked around the polearm before the little genius threw it at Zouros’s conveniently opened mouth.

Through their soul bond, Reivan could feel the serpent’s disdain for the attack. Despite having the ability to dodge it, Zouros stayed its ground, aiming to devour the spear whole.

‘Uh, this doesn’t feel too good…!’

A tingle at the back of Reivan’s neck told him that he should kick the snake into moving immediately.

But it was too late.

Zouros’s pained screeching could shatter eardrums. It immediately backed off and shook its head to regain its bearings after the spear literally exploded just before the projectile entered its mouth.

Reivan didn’t miss the stiffness in his companion’s movements, realizing that Helen’s attack had paralyzed it.

‘Fuck.’

The two of them had refrained from utilizing their lightning attribute for anything except mobility since they were both resistant to the element. Still, this resistance did not extend to his serpentine companion. Zouros had always been prepared whenever Helen attacked it with lightning in the past, but the giant serpent was caught with its pants down while eating.

Hence, the current situation.

With his “meat shield” temporarily out of commission, Reivan was in a whole lot of danger.

“Damnit!” He immediately recalled the four blades that had been chasing after Helen’s afterimages. They disappeared before quickly reappearing at Reivan’s sides as marbles — his favorite defensive tool against anything humanoid.

It was just in time too, since Helen wasted no time in weaving past the paralyzed serpent, appearing right in front of him like some kind of horror movie ghost.

Reivan had been killed in this exact way countless times in his dreams, so he remained calm as he mentally directed one of the marbles to strike Helen’s blade from below, causing it to sail harmlessly above his head while he dashed backward with electricity arcing through his feet.

In response, Helen chased after him but her attacks were always stopped just short of succeeding because it would be redirected away from Reivan every time. Whenever she tried to swing or stab at him, her joints would be struck from multiple angles, making her miss or forcing her to avoid them.

As Helen’s frustration grew, Zouros finally recovered from his paralysis.

‘This is my chance!’

Reivan slapped his hands together and focused on an aetherblade art his mother recently taught him. The eight marbles formed a wide circle around Helen before they all glowed with an icy blue light. Within a fraction of a second, the surrounding temperature dropped rapidly and everything in the middle of the circle was covered in a layer of frost.

Helen struggled to break free, and her stats all but assured that she would do so very soon, but all Reivan wanted was an opening.

“Mashed potatoes! Now!” Reivan called out.

Following his cry, Zouros grew even larger, its large serpentine body surrounding the two children… before it tightened around them.

'Gotcha!'

It was common in movies and anime for creatures with long bodies like snakes and worms to have some kind of move to constrict an opponent, preventing their prey from moving while gradually suffocating it and crushing its bones over time.

But with a body as big as Zouros’, there was no need to wait long.

Reivan’s body harmlessly passed through Zouro’s ethereal body, leaving Helen stuck in the middle of the tightening serpent coil.

With her normally unmatched movement speed, Helen would have never gotten caught in such a trap, but Reivan had thought of multiple combat scenarios that would force her into it.

And this was just one of them.

'Her paralyzing Zouros wasn't part of the plan though! But I can work with it!'

Helen’s strength was put on full display as she struggled against Zouros’ constriction. Electricity constantly erupted from her body in an attempt to fend the giant monster off, but it was no use.

Zouros was caught unprepared last time, but not this time. All of its Qi reinforcement was focused on protecting the area that was in contact with the little genius. Furthermore, an ominous haze emanated from its large body, constantly eroding Helen’s magic power and stamina.

If that wasn’t enough, the giant serpent’s wide open mouth hovered over the clump of its body that held the girl prisoner, reactivating [World Devouring] to speed up the depletion of her energy resources.

‘Phew. It’s over.’

Within a minute, Helen could no longer resist. Her Qi reinforcement fell off and so did her mana augmentation.

“That’s enough,” Valter called out from way above them all.

Zouros acquiesced, releasing its captive and returning to a more manageable size. It flew over to Reivan and draped its body over his shoulders.

Helen lay panting on the grass, completely exhausted but totally unharmed due to Valter’s energy surrounding her frail-looking body. Her eyes stared blankly up at the afternoon sky as if contemplating what had just happened.

“Think you’ll survive?” Reivan chuckled wearily as he walked over and sat next to Helen.

“I’ll manage,” she said through ragged breaths. “You?”

With a sigh, Reivan let his body collapse right next to her, using Zouros’ body as a pillow. “I think I’ll manage too.”

The ice attribute aetherblade art that stopped her had pretty much depleted his mana pool, so he felt mentally drained. On top of that, controlling eight marbles while also watching out for attacks on his main body wasn’t as easy as he made it look.

‘Even with a helper, dealing with Helen is so hard…’

Although the gap had been gradually closing recently, Zouros always had a might stat that surpassed Helen when they were both fully boosted by all of their buffs.

Despite this, a stalemate was the only result when the two fought one on one.

This was because Zouros’ might was apparently focused more on defense and resilience, as well as muscle power. In game terms, Zouros was a tank or a bruiser.

On the other hand, Helen had abysmal defensive capabilities and unparalleled movement speed for her level.

This made it so that Zouros could never catch Helen, and Helen could never really deal significant damage to Zouros. The wings hadn’t been enough to close the gap between speed either, while Helen’s lightning attacks only ever managed to stun the giant snake for a moment.

Reivan was the one to break the stalemate.

Helen would instantly win if she took him out, giving her a target she could actually damage, while Reivan would win if he could stop Helen long enough for Zouros to land a hit.

‘It’s like I’m a summoner or something.’

He idly recalled a profession that frequently appeared in games — one where a magic user of some kind could summon all sorts of entities to fight for him. According to his memory, most games gave summoners a skill set that focused on support, having them create opportunities for their summoned partners to shine rather than dealing damage directly.

‘It’s not a bad fighting style, I guess…’

But he wanted to fight directly too. It would be a waste of his training otherwise.

‘In time, in time…’

Reivan knew he wouldn’t stay this weak forever. Some day, he would have enough power to fight Helen one on one.

‘I’m thirteen now, so it should be about time too.’

A smile crept up his face when he thought of how he’d be able to unlock his Qi soon. Though the exact details were never discussed, his uncle Viktor had talked about how he’d be able to do it once he was thirteen.

‘My birthday was a few months ago, so what the hell is taking so long!?’

Everybody seemed busy, even his little sisters, so he’d been reluctant to bring it up. But the Helen within his dreams always beat the crap out of him whenever he fought without Zouros, and it was getting old by now.

Dream Helen always seemed to go after his face too, which was not enjoyable at all.

While he was thinking about these things, Valter had walked over to the two of them with his arms behind his back.

“Your Highness, should I carry you to your room?”

“I’ll be fine. A nap in the grass is fine once in a while…” Reivan dismissed with a lazy wave of his hand but then he realized something. “I don’t think I have anything lined up this afternoon, but am I remembering correctly?”

Spending too much time in [Glimpse of Eternity] was really messing with his memory, it seemed. Karuna would really rake him over the coals once he saw her again.

“That’s right. You freed up the whole afternoon for this spar and…” Valter gave him a meaningful look. “Your little side project.”

Reivan nodded in understanding.

‘I guess it should be about that time here…’

“Great. Nap time it is. It's the fastest way to recover magic power, after all. Oh, and you can go for now. Let’s meet back up later tonight.”

“Understood, Your Highness.”

As Valter left through a puddle of black sludge, Reivan pulled the sleepy Helen over and let her head rest on Zouros’ wings before curling up next to her.

Zouros — the kind-hearted creature that it was — helped by enlarging its body a bit to make it easier for the two youths. It then laid down for a nap too, enjoying the heat of the sun shining on its purple-tinted black scales.

‘Man, I always feel sleepy after these spars… even in dreams. I should make a stronger version of coffee…’

As a yawn escaped his lips, Reivan settled into a comfortable position, asking his scaly companion to wake him up in about an hour before succumbing to the sweet embrace of sleep.