Chapter 144: A Conclusion of Passion
The team didn’t linger in Huxin for too long, passing just two easy days in the heart of Fenhu to see the sights and experience the local culture. The region had its own big families, as they grew further from the influence of the other five. The whispers of their fame were carried by the volcanic breeze, but the rise and fall of other great families mattered not to the locals who had their own local politics to care about, save for the Arlang, who had their ‘paws’ in almost every nation of interest as reputable adventurers around the world. Erras was a world still far from the inscrutable interconnected global politics of Earth, with the potential collaboration between the De Luca and Sanshi pioneering the practice.
These matters were far from mind for non-essence users, who, aside from the well-educated city folks with alert ears listening for the next big news, spent their days as they always did until they had to prepare for the next monster surge, hopefully still years away. The undercurrents of The Advent were still weak, but ne’er-do-wells always took advantage of the window of vulnerability of monster surges when the protective wrap of adventurers was stretched thin.
The team picked up a sea-based escort contract; They haven’t done one before, or any escort contract at all, and Nara was excited to try it out. She left the flask in her inventory, the nebula construct contained back in its glowing, swirling form.
Initially, Nara had been worried she would get seasick. She didn’t know if her lack of a stomach and brain in the first place, or if essence users had resistance provided by their rank, but she did not feel a thing. When she saw Aliyah run to the railing to steady her stomach, it must have been the former, and not the latter. Aliya’s stomach had held strong against flying acrobatics, yet the rhythmic pulsations of the vast ocean rocked her stomach like a toddler with a duck in a bathtub. She stood no chance. Aliyah couldn’t wait until she had no stomach at all.
The ship was a majestic sailing vessel, a galleon with brilliant, unfurled sails of white. The sails escaped the whimsies of nature, wind-generation rituals encouraged the air to a living stream, with natural wind as a boon to their speed. The hull was strongly reinforced, to defend from river and ocean monsters that lurked below to attack anything that moved in the wrong way, like gangsters waiting at a shadowy corner.
The strait the ship traveled on bobbed with other sea traffic, reminding Nara of the Panama Canal, although this passageway was far wider, and naturally formed. Other sailing ships, large and small, followed the strait together. The monsters were light here, due to the high density of adventure escorts regularly clearing them out. When the strait widened back into the inland sea, the monsters would increase.
Together with Sen’s team was two other teams, a team of three and a team of four; both of which typically escorted trading vessels traveling back and forth from the Rona Kingdom to Huxin. Their sea-based familiars were already summoned into the ocean, destroying monsters that ventured too close. Any flying monsters were handled by the familiars of Sen’s team, which had a lot of long-range attacks and flying familiars.
After she had spent long enough to appease her sense of relaxation and fulfill her appreciation of the ocean, boredom, ever high maintenance, demanded she find something else to occupy her time, so she began to spar with Encio and Sen on the deck of the ship. It was mostly light sparring, to feel out their new bronze rank attributes. They couldn’t use suppression collars since they were on the job, and just had to abstain from using abilities.
Sen’s fighting style was difficult for her. His attacks were heavy and impactful, and she relied on swift and flowing movements and lethal surprises. an actual battle, her abilities allowed her to bypass his heavy attacks, but that was not the case in sparring. How unfair, that he was always strong, although, she was not without her own advantage of reflexes, spatial awareness, and balance.
Nara always kept practice weapons on hand, which the two of them were using. Some of the sailors that had free time as the ship was cruising were watching, free with easy seas to lean against railings and cheer them on. They were their chosen entertainment for today, and Nara savored the friendly energy of contest and relaxation. Should inspiration hit, maybe she’d use her lute and play a song or two. Her aura control with the lute had vastly improved since Laius’ additional lessons about subtle aura control, and she could produce a tone that didn’t feel like prolonged expose would wipe the mind with the weight of uncountable stars singing about their entire existence in an infinite cosmic chorus.
Sen swung his staff down, hard and fast. Nara knew better than to try to parry it with her light wooden sword. She sidestepped it, bringing her sword in low and fast for a quick slash. Sen twisted the staff, stopping her sword in its tracks. She transitioned, sliding her sword up the length of the staff to bash in his fingers.
“Really?” Sen grimaced. His fingers were red with pain, but his grip on his weapon never faltered.
“I’ll take what I can get.”
Sen’s expression was a comical combination of agreement and annoyance.
He stepped back, freeing the length of his staff, then used his higher strength to push his staff through Nara’s guard. Sen leveraged his superior height and strength in his style, able to force apart defenses with a combination of technique and might.
For now, John was the tallest member of the team, but Sen was still in his growth phase, as the youngest member. His bronze rank had boosted his height, as it had for all members of the team.
Nara flowed with the force, twisting her stance to flow back into her own striking range. Her sword swung out, but Sen blocked it with his forearm. That counted as a blow, and Sen was temporarily stunned.
“If this was a real fight, that would’ve gotten you afflicted,” Nara taunted.
“My ability would cleanse it.”
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“Would you? Or would it be too late once you reach equilibrium?”
His grin was calm yet competitive, but his eyes belied his hidden fire.
Nara had been learning to provoke Sen, both more comfortable with each other.
Sen transitioned to lighter, stabbing jabs, which Nara felt was more difficult to work with than the previous, as he abused his range advantage. Without her usual abilities to literally get around the problem, she had no choice but to confront his new strategy. His stabs pushed her around the deck as she continually backed out of the way.
As a last-ditch strategy, she threw her sword at his head while his staff was mid-jab.
“Hey!”
“You have more strength and range than me. Don’t say it’s unfair!”
In the moment of distraction, she slammed her foot down on his, catching him in place for a moment while he parried her thrown sword, her weapon was flung away onto the deck. She made her escape, diving away for it as Sen brought his own weapon down.
His weapon caught her back, pinning her onto the deck.
“Ow ow ow ow ow. I give, I give!”
Sen offered his hand, helping her up off the deck.
“If I had my weapon, range wouldn’t have been such an issue.” Nara complained, a sore loser.
“That’s true.” Sen admitted, “But you will almost always fight those taller than you. It’s good practice.”
She grumbled a petulant response. “I’m not even short, I’m above average.”
“You seem dissatisfied. How about we practice staff techniques, work that displeasure out of you?”
“What? We just sparred a whole bunch.”
“Do you have something better to do? I didn’t think so.”
“You sure are getting cheeky. Fine, bring it.”
Their sparring attracted the other adventurers on board, who all wanted to go against Sen. Nara wasn’t a popular request, apparently unimpressive against Sen’s polished yet mighty technique. Despite sparring against two leonids, one of the few races stronger and taller than Sen, Sen remained undefeated.
Other adventurers were closer to Aliyah’s skill level, who was below Nara in weapon fighting. Like Aliyah, they weren’t taught as soon as they could walk how to handle a weapon, nor could they use a skill book to jumpstart their mastery. Nara found her spars against them far more comfortable, although she was their second choice while they waited for Sen to free up from his matches. The leonids were the few that pulled a win over her; Nara couldn’t always handle their astounding speed, reach, and strength without her abilities. But she did pull wins, reminding Nara of the progress she had made in less than a year, as well as earning a few energetic demands for a rematch.
The two rested on the deck on conjured recliners, Nara passing a refreshing drink to Sen, who gladly accepted it. Other sparring matches were still occurring, and the sailors had taken to making minor bets between themselves over matchups.
“You know, back on my world I was never much of a fitness enthusiast.”
“I’m surprised,” so he said, though his face didn’t show it. “You seem to quite like sparring.”
Nara shrugged, “Not much to do in this world.” Although she spoke from a position of privilege here. Working a normal job would have filled her time—unless she considered sparring as working… her antiwork sensibilities itched.
Without video games nor computers, Nara found herself at a loss to spend her free time. Her lute was the other hobby she indulged in, but she had ample time to fill, and practice, sparring, and magic theory had been the best uses. There were performances and competitions she could watch, but Nara was, fundamentally, an introvert. Sparring was accessible from home and only needed one other person, which Chrome could do when she had no one else.
“How about you Sen, what do you like to do?”
John liked to volunteer and was attempting to learn alchemy. Eufemia had her acting, song and dance. Encio was also a dancer and liked to play betting board and card games. Aliyah had her research, but generally liked to read almost anything (and chase older ladies, if that counted as a pastime). Nara may have spied some raunchy novels in her bookshelf…
Nara didn’t know much about what Sen liked to do.
“I haven’t thought about it,” Sen said, his voice contemplative, curious, in a question he’s never asked himself. “What I like to do beyond adventuring.”
Encio sauntered by, briefly interrupting their conversation, “If you’re not careful you’ll end up like my grandfather; a diamond ranker with no special skills.”
“Diamond rank is a special skill,” countered Eufemia, who could never not argue with Encio. “Didn’t you learn to dance from your family? What specialty do you have if you aren’t counting that?”
“She’s got you there.” Nara said.
“I’m not diamond rank yet,” Encio said, unconcerned. “I have time.”
The two left, on their way to participate in the sparring as well. Eufemia was excited to sharpen up her own skills against opponents that were her level, versus Nara, Sen, and Encio, the three of which she had never won against yet.
Nara muttered as she watched Encio join in on the fun, beautifully unassuming at first glance. Perhaps, they’d assume, more pretty face than actual skill. Eufemia and Encio should really not be left together, that was far too much undiluted manipulation per square mile to be healthy.
“He’s about to upset those betting odds.”
Sen pondered, running over his mind, what he had learned in his nineteen years of life. The obvious—strategy, fighting, adventuring, languages, external magic—as well as some skills expected of a noble scion: formal dance, finance, traditions, etiquette.
“I don’t know,” Sen finally said. “I don’t know what I like to do beside fighting and adventuring. I have never doubted that this was the path for me. I enjoy it. I have been fortunate that my interests have never conflicted with the goals of my family.”
Nara looked at Sen, who was silent and pensive.
“There’s no rush. You have your whole life ahead of you. A lot of people in my world don’t discover their hobbies until their fifties. It’s the same here, right? A lot of people wait until silver rank.” She felt a bit guilty; she had never been so put together at his age, still stumbling on what she’d have to commit to studying for the rest of her life, despite a lack of interest in any particular subject.
“They do,” Sen nodded slowly. “You’re right. I do want to find other interests. I have been apathetic in my studies.”
“I mean you’ve always seemed an earnest learner. Don’t discount yourself there. You’re not half bad at ritual magic, even if you don’t like to use it. And it doesn’t have to be a useful skill either. Something like dancing—nah, that’s useful.”
“For formal events, I can see how dancing would be useful. Dancing is often used as a method of building relationships or initiating discussions.”
“No, Sen, for picking up dudes and chicks—whatever floats your boat. Give them the old razzle dazzle and some happy feet.” She flashed an uncharismatic smile with her twirl.
Sen looked at her demonstration, unimpressed.
“You used a skill book,” he said accusingly.
“Duh. I’d suck at dancing otherwise. I still suck at dancing, but at least I’m better than you at it.”
He arched an eyebrow. She’d better relent, or she’d find her subject to another sparring gauntlet.
“Or you know, cooking. I know we have Chrome, but you could learn from him. There’s no better breakfast than breakfast in bed, especially when you have crystal wash to wipe away the sins of messy eating. No one saw me spill that hot sauce on my white blankets.”
“Just the sins of messy eating?”
“Get your mind out of the gutter Sen.”
His expression was of mild offense, his crossed arms clearly disapproving.
“My point, Sen, is not everything has to be a useful skill. You don’t have to craft anything or learn something for combat, or politics, or even for romance—as much as I joked about it. Maybe something like wood carving, writing, or painting. Maybe photography—with John’s camera or an image crystal. Not sure how that translates here, but photography is a popular hobby on Earth.”
She paused.
“Or nothing at all. Maybe training is your passion, and that’s good enough. But you should think about it, whatever your conclusion may be.”