As per usual.

Ebony fell back into the routine called daily life.

Morning physical training. A little spar with Hector as well.

Back for magic training. Multitasking as he restarted on a new notebook. Leaving space for personal notes if any.

Breakfast made by Scarlet. They ate both their meals together so he never joined Hector or Mallory for meals.

The whole day was just writing and magic training till dinner.

Then another round of training and a bath.

That was it. Rinse and repeat.

Scarlet could usually be found in the inn’s kitchen. She was basically one of the inn’s chefs. Spending the entire day with the head chef.

He didn’t say anything about it. She had her own hobbies.

She really never sparred with him once. Not even picking up her swords. That was worrisome but she could really just be tired of fighting.

❅❅❅

In just two days, Kong Jing arrived silently.

Well, it was her hand that teleported in front of Ebony’s face. The punch was about to reach him as he glowed blue and slapped the hand aside.

The punch landed on the pillow instead.

Clearly surprised, Kong Jing continued but Ebony defended himself. Still asleep.

Annoyed, she sped up and gave a hard knock on his head.

Ebony sat up and looked around but didn’t see anything or anyone. His head throbbed with pain.

Having been alarmed, he meditated and stayed awake but nothing showed up even when the sun rose.

Already familiar with Scarlet’s usual routine, he waited till she exited the room before exiting at the same time. Wanting to bump into her more often.

He opened the door to see her door being opened at the same time.

A different mask entered his sight. It was a grey haired lady standing slightly taller than him with Scarlet behind her.

“What do we have here? Ungrateful punk.” The lady tried to hold back the smile that was forming.

Unlike Scarlet, Kong Jing didn’t always hide her mouth. He knew that the truth was that she didn’t bother because it was troublesome when she had to eat.

“Sister Jing. Nice to see you again too.” Ebony figured out what hit him when he saw her.

“Sister?” Scarlet blanked out.

“Oh yes. Hold on.” Ebony just remembered he had a small gift for Scarlet.

He had imagined giving soap might seem a little weird. What if she thought that he was saying she smelled bad?

Giving them both should make it seem more casual wouldn’t it? Ebony didn’t know.

The lousy gravity ring he made seemed too weak for her if all her stuff was made by Sister Jing.

When he gets to Teld city he should make some time to practise his craft. The forge in his bag was still around and had been unused since he left Sister Jing.

Passing the ice cold boxes to them as casually as he could.

“I’ll leave you two lovers alone. I’ll bring your clothes and swords back in a few days.” Sister Jing disappeared from the inn after she looked at Scarlet’s stunned look. Well aware of what this little sister of hers was thinking.

“...Sister? Isn’t she your master…? Calling her sister is erm…inappropriate.” Scarlet spoke up the moment Sister Jing disappeared.

“Mmm. She treats me as her brother so I treat her as my sister.” Ebony replied.

He couldn’t see what kind of expression Scarlet was making but nowadays, she rarely looked him in the eyes.

“Do you want to walk the streets and try the food around town?” Ebony invited. He did not think things through, that must have been random.

“...Okay.” Scarlet agreed to the allure of food.

They started by visiting the fish sandwich stall. From there, Ebony just bought whatever Scarlet had her eyes on.

Basically everything from every street stall they passed by. He had to suggest going back to consume it as they might go bad before they bought too much for just breakfast.

It was a lousy excuse as they don’t go bad so quickly in his bag. One that she fell for because she knew food was best eaten as quickly as possible.

They ate in his room again.

It was clear to him that her appetite was huge. And that she was eating more and more.

“You need to eat more. You got so skinny.” was one of the excuses she gave. Ebony didn’t think so much at that time but she still ate more than he did.

For the next few days, he brought her out for both breakfast and dinner.

Getting an individual room for meals at restaurants. Or just getting take away.

Ebony was going to find a barber or someone who had a beautician Profession to cut his hair but Scarlet stopped him and cut his hair for him. She also cut her own till they only reached her thighs or around her knees.

Sister Jing came again with all of Scarlet’s stuff.

Outfitted in red from head to toe again. She looked more natural this way.

When Ebony asked for a spar again, he was rejected. This time he sensed it. The look in her eyes.

It was in between pity and fear.

“Scarlet. You’re afraid you would beat me too badly aren’t you?”

Sister Jing laughed so loud the whole inn could hear her. Her laugh had her Vitality and Wisdom mixed in and no one dared to come out of their rooms to scold her. That was pretty good technique. Ebony should try learning it with his sound magic.

Of course, he didn’t know that was just Sister Jing’s normal laugh.

“Yes.” Scarlet affirmed. Confidently looking at Ebony this time round.

“Why don’t we have a spar after all?”

Ebony didn’t realise the slight smile on his face when he proposed to fight one more time.

Scarlet’s heartbeat could be heard accelerating.

He took that as a yes to the spar.

The three of them disappeared from the hallway of the inn as Kong Jing teleported them outside the town. In the middle of the Plains with nothing else in sight but the grass, sky and each other.

Hector who returned from who knows where was peeking at the grandmaster craftsman quickly ran out when he saw the exchange and then them disappearing. They shouldn’t be too far from the town.

Mallory, who heard the whole thing while she was in her room, also followed. Seeing a Xeng in action? That was rare.

Sister Jing floated in the sky. She was ‘lying’ down in the air, pouring herself some colourless wine.

Ebony understood that Scarlet got stronger as time passed. He needed to go full power as fast as possible.

His explosive increase in speed since the last time they sparred was going to be one of the few things that should catch her off guard.

With Frostblaze Augmentation, his tactics changed completely anyway. No longer anywhere as sustainable in battle in exchange for higher maximum output.

In terms of movement speed alone. Ebony didn’t even think she was as fast as him if she didn't build up her Core Skill for long enough. Unless she had also gotten her movement skill to tier 2 which was honestly pretty damn likely.

With Agility at 250 and movement speed equivalent to 500 Agility. Treading Stride at lvl 152 to increase his movement speed by 380%, he would be as fast as someone with 2400 Agility.

Even with the gentle nature of his movement skill, his base Constitution may not be enough to withstand his speed.

Frostblaze Augmentation increases his Agility by 20% + (2.5% x 155) of his Intelligence of 376. Around 1908.

Without any burst of speed from Chaotic Repulsive Membrane and also excluding his mana compression of 147%.

For as long as his tiny mana pool that contains compressed mana lasts, Frostblaze Augmentation at maximum output would give Ebony 5688 Constitution, 5456 Strength and Endurance and 4713 Agility.

Ebony didn’t believe the numbers he calculated. It was no wonder why there were such large differences in power between people of the same level. Power rises exponentially with skill tiers and he could see why lineages were important.

Treading Stride or movement skills in general increased based on Agility. With an enhanced Agility of 4713 + 250 or movement speed equivalent to 9926 Agility, did it mean he could move at speeds at 47,644 Agility?

The thing about compressing enhancement magic was that his weakness was also strengthened. In the past, his Agility suffered more than a static of 20%. He suspects that damage taken from heat was increased even more than the skill description suggested but he should barely even feel heat once he started putting himself aflame. The only problem he imagined having was her burning through his mana even faster.

He was depending on the chill of his ice mana and the improvement in their ability to resist melting.

‘She’s either extremely confident she has gotten a lot more powerful than me or she’s getting arrogant.’ Ebony hoped her confidence wasn’t unfounded.

“Scarlet. I’m not going to go easy.” Ebony gave her time to build her enhancement up. He didn’t want to accidentally kill her.

She never thought Ebony was weak, was she really getting overconfident?

Scarlet drew her blades in reply.

Her opponent and hidden spectators watched as she slit herself on one of her wrists. Her blood not absorbed by her sword or falling to the ground.

Instead, the slow trickle of blood rose up above her head, drop by drop.

A halo formed above her head before her cut stopped bleeding. A blood halo.

Ebony wasn’t just watching but casting a Layered Ice Carapace using the mana in his robe. His robe and Icicle appeared beside him when they were teleported.

It felt a little bit like cheating so he didn’t use much mana from his robe.

Besides, ice mana in his robe can’t be used for his enhancement magic. It could still be used to combust so FrostBlaze Cladding was possible to use but he hoped he didn’t have to use it.

While the surrounding temperature around Scarlet rose and her blood halo started to glow brighter red, his shield was already compressed to the max as he moulded durability runes into the middle layers and heat resistance runes on the outer layers.

Taking one layer as a whole instead of moulding each individual scale as he wasn’t that good yet.

It was mental muscles that he moved before.

Although he moulded runes internally, he only used it as a flat surface. Those were the only runes he could mould consistently.

Sister Jing also taught him that the complexity of runes like the ones in Icicle that was 3 dimensional was not something he could just cast on the spot and hope it would work. He needed more study, research and tests before he could do that.

Using Sister Jing’s knowledge, the runes that he moulded on were the simplest and weakest of them all. She wouldn’t even classify them to have much effect.

Ebony had compared the effect of her rune language with the equivalent runes of other languages but they couldn’t even be compared. Others are at least twice as complicated and half as effective.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

If what he moulded was considered untiered which can increase a material's natural durability by a little over 20%, what Sister Jing classified as ‘low’ or ‘basic’ had the minimum effect of 100% and higher.

Ebony personally preferred to classify them according to tiers like skills. The rewriting of the language also included his input.

No matter the runes, they had a limitation. Many limitations actually.

The main one being, the effect of the rune itself depended on the material it's inscribed, or engraved onto. Of course, the power source which is usually mana plays a big part too. Highly dependent on the type of rune as well.

So moulding durability runes in his Layered Ice Carapace increased each layer’s total toughness or hardness by 20% while the increase in heat resistance was really not much.

Ebony also found the heat resistance runes to fade or corrode after a short time. Probably the ice element that isn’t compatible or accepting of the magical powers of the rune.

The damage done to the Layered Ice Carapace itself with the runes was not much and nothing he couldn’t solve with a little more mana.

While sparing with Hector or fighting most other creatures, Ebony might let his Chaotic Repulsive Membrane to push his flames out to spread the chill to the area but against Scarlet that would just be a waste of mana.

He would have to be careful not to let his flames burn too strong since he didn’t have the mana to sustain them.

Keeping it just over his skin was also a protective layer from her fire and heat.

Sister Jing was bored from waiting.

Already having finished one of her strain relievers, she threw the butt down.

Ebony sensed the tiny vibrations from that movement.

Scarlet sensed the residual heat from the strain reliever butt.

The strain reliever or cigarette touched the ground.

❅❅❅

Scarlet only reacted through reflex, both her arms barely brought Ignite and Flare up enough to defend her from the incoming greatsword.

Not expecting so much power in that attack, her swords were almost knocked out of her hands. Ebony took the initiative to attack her in their duel and he actually put force behind his attack! A pleasant surprise.

Sent somersaulting dozens of times as she attempted to get her bearings and land on her feet. She wasn’t given the chance.

Her dizzying view spotted blue chasing after her, leaping and stabbing at her without pause as she was still spinning.

The blood halo was actually already rotating like a chainsaw, it flattened out into a large thin disc and flew to meet the attack but missed miserably since she didn’t even know where was up and where was down.

Instinctually moving her longswords to the obvious difference in her Heat Perception.

The greatsword slid against her repaired and strengthened Ignite and Flare. The force behind the stab was far greater than she expected. Pushing her to roll against the grassy ground.

Ebony so smoothly twisted his body weight to spin and pluck the sword that was deeply embedded into the ground. As fast and smooth as he did, she had gained the opportunity to regain her bearings.

It might only have been a few years since their last spar but Scarlet had forgotten. Forgotten that her opponent was one that she hasn’t comfortably defeated before.

She sparked with both joy and lightning mana running through her. Ebony was too naive if he thought he could ever have the upper hand against her in terms of speed.

Other than the sheer force behind his movement speed, his attacks were still as slow as a turtle in her eyes.

Clearly, his massive increase in speed and power only meant his mana consumption was increased just as explosively.

He had always known that she gets stronger as the battle goes and would want to finish the battle as soon as possible.

Although the possibly smarter method would be to buy time and run him dry that was not Scarlet’s way. This wasn’t the purpose of the duel.

Ebony still covered the tiny distance in an instant as he continued his charge when Scarlet was busy getting back onto her feet.

Unfortunately for him, the initial surprise was over.

His Onslaught was met with numerous Pinpoint Perforations. Both of them empowered by many skills.

Their flames perfectly counter each other. Ebony’s cold flames couldn’t even latch on but the same was for Scarlet’s. However, Scarlet could tell that the surrounding temperature was slowly rising.

Her disc of heated blood came boomeranging back, the loud grinding reverberated through the plains. Cutting halfway into his thick ice shield, she didn’t stop trying to saw through it while she was equalled in the efforts to stop the shield from being sliced.

Clearly back on the offensive, her arms were getting numb from the impacts against the defensive swordsman. The vibrations tickled her muscles and bones every time their swords touched.

The biggest difference she noticed was the sheer strength behind his swings. The knockback was too strong and constantly disrupted her Mastery and rush of attacks.

Ebony was gaining momentum fast but she was already at the limit of the buffs and enhancement she could get from Blood Boil. Violent Heart Acceleration could push her further but she was already at where the safe limits were due to her increase in speed in getting it to full power.

The pull of gravity increased on her in pulses to further irritate and disrupt her Cascade Dual Longsword Mastery and Cascading Laceration which both were further refined since they last fought.

She had constantly eaten till she was reasonably full and still had the reserves to keep going but one thing that she thinks hasn’t changed was that she was not going to outlast him in terms of mana. At the rate she was consuming mana, she wouldn’t last long.

The fire mana in her blood disc bubbled as she conjured more into it. The disc exploded into flames and splattered all over the destroyed shield. Burning the ground where it landed.

The blood and flames gathered, putting the fires out and reforming into a blood halo. Returning back above her head.

She would usually have the ring of burning blood expand and rotate around her with Revolving Razorwind Film cast as well so nothing large can come close but she didn’t like the chances of her blood meeting Ebony’s greatsword. It would vibrate and also get scattered by his repulsion spell. She already knew her film of wind isn’t enough against his sound and gravity spell.

Instead, she pulsed out all the fire mana in her blood halo as a substitute for Sphere of Immolation. He was clearly very affected by the rise in temperature.

The blood halo acted as her defensive spell. Mainly used to distract him at first. Then, to fight off the ice sculpture that was fighting just like how he did.

Both understood that she couldn’t cast or control as many spells as Ebony and he didn’t take advantage of the fact. He was more beast-like in terms of magical prowess than any other beast she had seen. She wasn’t even sure if the talented Elves could do the same. Was it the perks of being a mana being?

They started to burn the plains as it would scorch over before being frozen as Ebony passed by and then turned to ashes again.

Scarlet was very happy. She was getting arrogant indeed. Although she didn’t drink any blood recently, the strength Ebony showed already humbled her by a notch.

She already let her control over the blood in her heart go as her heart rate constantly rose to meet Ebony’s fervour. The weight behind his attacks only increased along with her getting used to the force of his strikes. Letting her build up even more power and speed as she was no longer disrupted.

Ebony’s swordsmanship improved noticeably but she could still tell he was not very used to fighting another swordsman or swordswoman in this case. Just like her, they haven’t been fighting against another user of the sword for a long time.

Both of them were slowly changing their tactics from monster slaying to duelling.

Scarlet was at a disadvantage because she couldn’t imagine cutting Ebony up into parts and cooking them into dishes.

Ebony was at a disadvantage because he didn’t want to hurt Scarlet accidentally as they both kept adding onto the pressure and were seriously going at it.

❅❅❅

Ebony understood that he had lost the moment he gave Scarlet the chance to recover and fight back. His explosive start still wasn’t strong enough to instantly defeat her. But something felt weird, it definitely wasn't his imagination but it felt like she wasn't fighting at her fullest.

The blood disc and halo was surprisingly strong. It sliced his compressed Layered Ice Carapace like with considerable ease.

He had the upper hand in the beginning as the heavy Icicle was great for Ceaseless Onslaught as the build-up of momentum was both faster and stronger. Constantly breaking her stance and not giving her the chance to get faster.

She definitely got the enhancement spell that she asked Hector about and it was likely also tier 2.

It still wasn’t enough to challenge his compressed enhancement but she had that unreasonable Core Skill of hers that didn’t have reasonable limits to keep up.

When she was no longer pushed back by his strikes, he already knew it was his loss.

She wasn’t even out of breath when he was more than halfway into his mana pool. Although that changed pretty quickly as her usage of stamina increased along with her increase in physical stats. Ebony didn’t know that her Blood Boil also consumes stamina as the energy in her blood is burned along with mana.

He was most affected by the surrounding temperature that constantly rose. As if his mana consumption wasn’t high enough, the rise in temperature ate even more into his mana. He momentarily forgot that although his mana was consumed when ice melts and he conjures more, she was also consuming mana to ward off the chill.

His mana peppered off together with his flames as Scarlet who was at the limits of her speed and power landed a slash on the back of his hand. She didn’t expect Ebony to slow down all of a sudden.

Fortunately, the timing must have been so perfect that part of his enhancement hasn't died off yet. Only cutting him a little but Scarlet was also at the limits of her endurance. She was already pushing it after all.

The tension left her body the moment she landed that attack and the little mana she had left quickly slowed her heart down with her heart muscles working in tandem.

Ebony saw her falling over and was reaching to catch her but Scarlet was not falling over. She reached out for him, letting her swords go uncharacteristically.

Thinking that the duel was over, he had let his guard down against her. She grabbed the hand she cut with enough force to snap his unenhanced bones like twigs and pulled him towards her.

Ebony felt the burning sensation on the back of his hand again.

It was soft.

Scarlet lost the energy to stand and just pulled him to sit as she couldn’t control her urge to drink his blood.

‘...’ Ebony didn’t know how to react. Only thinking about the soft but dry and burning lips trying to suck his blood out.

She already retracted the lower part of her mouth before he could react. As a reflex, he started freezing his wound but it melted the moment her burning lips touched it.

He just watched in stunned silence before Sister Jing came and strangled Scarlet out with a chokehold.

They didn’t know what came over Scarlet but she screamed and elbowed Sister Jing off. Sister Jing wasn’t even phased by it but she truly didn’t expect resistance and let go so that she didn’t accidentally snap her head off.

Scarlet once again burst with speed with her swords that somehow got back into her hands. The ground buckled under the force they were put under as she raced for Ebony again.

Swiftly planted into the ground by Sister Jing before getting him to retreat. Her full mask was back on which protected her jaws.

Scarlet who should’ve been out of both stamina and mana had another blood halo formed above her head and Sister Jing’s hand which was faceplanting her into the ground.

Brimming with mana, it spun and expanded outwards.

Ebony sensed the approaching blade of blood and dived into the ground. The thin wave of blood flew over his fallen body and sliced deep into the earth ahead of him. Smoke was coming out of the ground moments later.

Sister Jing merely frowned as the blood halo which was sent exploding outwards landed on her belly like a splash of water. It then evaporated quickly but it didn’t even leave a mark on her clothes or skin.

“This is troublesome.” Sister Jing raised Scarlet's head up only to flip it around to smash her down again. With just enough force to knock her out without the mask in the way.

“...what happened to her?” Sister Jing murmured to herself.

Ebony made his way back to them only to see Scarlet’s body convulse as foam escaped from under her mask.

“Did you have to hit her so hard?” Ebony asked as he already squatted down to check on her.

“Healer girl, quick!” Sister Jing teleported Mallory right beside Scarlet before Ebony even asked the redundant question.

She already knew there were some people watching, and recognised the healer that Scarlet had told her about.

Mallory wasn’t anxious. She already knew what was happening to Scarlet.

Her heart was cramping.

It was of little difficulty for Mallory to relax one’s heart muscles. At least that was what she thought.

Scarlet’s heart wasn’t like any other humans she had treated or diagnosed. Her heart was larger and the muscles were thick. It was also cramping more than she imagined was possible.

Still, it didn’t complicate things for the healer. Only making it more difficult. The healer welcomed it.

She had to soothe the heart muscles first. Gentle was unlikely going to shock her heart back to relax but she didn’t have the physical strength to tackle the convulsing beast.

Mallory’s invisible barriers held Scarlet’s limbs down and Ebony could see her attempting something similar to cpr. She was doing chest compressions.

Scarlet’s chest wouldn’t even depress from the skinny princess noodle arms.

Ebony took over. First aid for heart problems was not a very rare skill to have on earth.

“Just once, hard enough to completely shock her heart muscles then get lost.” Mallory, who got pushed aside, didn't complain. Ebony seemed confident enough. Was chest compressions really the right thing to do first? Ebony trusted the healer.

Mindlessly but with intense focus, he enhanced himself a little and used just enough force to crack her ribs in one go before Mallory pushed him away.

After that, it was just watching Scarlet slowly stop convulsing. She probably fell asleep at some point or was just unconscious from the start which was more likely.

He didn’t know what kind of healing magic she used and wasn’t really interested as long as it was working.

❅❅❅

Scarlet opened her eyes soon enough as it wasn’t the first time her heart cramped up.

The first thing she did was wash the foam and vomit away.

The faint but delicious smell entered her nose again but it was covered by her stinky bodily fluids. She noticed the amount of energy and mana she had was pretty high. That was a potent tonic.

‘No wonder the dungeon creatures are so attracted to him.’ Scarlet was enlightened. The partial mana being was easy to digest, filled with mana and vitality. His blood was also cooling and didn’t have such a strong taste of iron. She could even taste the faint sweetness as she licked her lips only to wash it off again due to the sourness of whatever she expelled.

It was weird that she had memories of what happened after drinking his blood. After her Physique changed a little, drinking the blood of whatever she found lets her recover both stamina and mana. Although it wasn’t much, it had helped her survive.

The problem was mostly her getting very aggressive and losing both control of herself, and the memories of that short period of time. It was always her finding herself in the middle of bloody puddles and corpses.

She had guessed that she also absorbed the creatures' instincts or at least the ‘slaughter everything in sight’ portion of their instincts. She had no choice but to rely on this ability to regain energy and the fact that nothing but her survived let her continue depending on it.

She got varying strengthenings from different creatures too.

Ebony’s was just incredibly dense energy, both stamina and mana. But, most importantly she didn’t lose complete control of herself. She was pretty sure she only went after him again just to drink more of his blood and not to injure or kill him.

Drinking the chilled blood made her…relaxed.

Her mental state was probably more messed up than she thought. Must have been the constant drinking of the blood of those filthy creatures.

She shouldn’t fully trust her weak Physique’s ability to cleanse and digest essence, she might consume too much and have irreversible consequences. It would be pathetic if she had turned herself into a fiend or demon.

Then she noticed the concerned looks she was getting.

Remembering what happened, her heart rate rose again as blood rushed to her face and head. She turned and sprinted away but was teleported back to the same spot over and over again.

How was she going to face him again?

One, she grabbed his hand like a slutty rabbit beastman.

Two, she basically kissed him and then sucked his blood out.

Three, she somewhat remembered his hands on her chest. Although it was to help her and it did crack her ribs a little she just couldn’t get the images out of her head now.

Four, she could still feel the cooling and calming force inside her belly and also quickly circulating through her body. There was so much energy in that bit of blood…how much did she suck out? Ebony didn’t stop her at all and she probably drank quite a bit.

The partial mana being was probably regenerating and producing blood as fast if not faster than she drank.

She secretly licked her lips again, thinking about her new blood source. An unending source of blood that’s full of energy that tastes a little sweet and is even chilled…

‘Nononono.’ Scarlet shook her head and tried to erase her evil thoughts.

‘Yesyesyes.’ Her belly and appetite argued.