A Yin-Yang Blast here, a Yin-Yang Blast there, a Yin-Yang Blast everywhere. Explosions of Yin-Yang symbols showered the sparring room, as Alwin attempted to blast away Tess and that stupid impenetrable shield. A Yin-Yang Blast above her, a Yin-Yang Blast to the left of her, and a Yin-Yang Blast to the right of her, all simultaneously burst into that iconic Yin-Yang symbol.
Unfortunately, he wasn't strong enough to tunnel underneath the sparring room so that he could lay a blast for her right there. It would have been a special quad Yin-Yang Blast for her, but tri was his max—if Tess could fly it would've been a quad. Actually, it was a good thing Tess couldn't fly because attempting to hit her would have been an even larger pain in the posterior.
Anyway, Alwin had spent the next few days blasting away at Tess, while she maneuvered that darn Impenetrable Shield of hers to intercept each and every one of his blasts—except for the last few blasts. Alwin had gotten bored and decided to spend one round practicing for his backup fireworks job in case he couldn't cut it as a human hunter. Maybe he should have a backup plan in case that backup fireworks launcher job didn't pan out as well. What else was he good at? Writing tales of his daydreams might end up as a lucrative profession—just maybe.
Now that he got that fun blast out of his system and definitely not because Tess was furrowing those leafy green eyebrows of hers at him, it was time to get back to blasting the crap out of that Lotus Turtle and segue into a little rundown into what Alwin had been up to the past few days.
Other than the obvious battle against his eyelids as Milvus went on and on about the Art of Ambushes—something that Alwin practiced firsthand inside all of those bushes in the Forest of Beginnings—he had also been sparring against Tess in the afternoons. No idea where Gus ran off to in the afternoon because the training grounds classroom was Fluffpaw free. Okay, Alwin did have an inkling about where the food-obsessed monster may have run off to. That slacker! At least there was less competition for the coveted Valedictorian position.
Speaking of Valedictorian, Uchronia was the current forerunner for Valedictorian with Alwin being the second contender—probably. Alwin wasn't exactly keeping track of who was gunning for that position neither was he keeping track of his classmates' capabilities. He may have lost the battle of information but the war wasn't over yet!
After that quick sidetrack into what his squad mates have been up to, it was back to Alwin detailing what had transpired throughout his sparring sessions with Tess. The benefit of using Yin-Yang Blast and only Yin-Yang Blast non-stop for the past few days meant that he had a source of dopamine being injected straight into that gelatinous body of his each time his mastery over the skill increased. Just imagine this.
Ding!
Skill Mastery Increased: Yin-Yang Blast(E) → Yin-Yang Blast(D)
Ding!
Skill Mastery Increased: Yin-Yang Blast(D) → Yin-Yang Blast(C)
Ding!
Skill Mastery Increased: Yin-Yang Blast(C) → Yin-Yang Blast(B)
Ding!
Skill Mastery Increased: Yin-Yang Blast(B) → Yin-Yang Blast(A)
In a matter of days, he had increased his mastery of his Yin-Yang Blast all the way to an A-Rank. That all came with the added bonus of reduced mana usage, increased damage, and more refined control. The best part? The fact that it was a species skill meant that each time his mastery over the skill increased he gained an innate understanding of it. No need to think about the best practices to craft it or how to dry it faster—lousy paper mache. Nope, he just had to will it and there she blows!
Back to the fight! Today was the day he would land a blow on Tess, he could feel it in his jiggly jelly slimy body—either that or the Taco Supreme Crunch he had for lunch wasn't agreeing with him. Alwin's control over his Yin-Yang Blast had soared by leaps and bounds. Here's an example.
Alwin used the skill, the mana in his Core forming into two identical orbs of light and dark mana. They orbited around each other as they left his core, manifesting right in front of him. No longer did they fly straight towards Tess—they could if Alwin willed it so, but that wasn't the plan—they curved towards her right.
Of course, if the plan was to defeat Tess by simply throwing a curveball, that would have been a horrible plan even by Alwin's standards. That's why he threw two curved balls! Another Yin-Yang Blast manifested in front of him, this time curving towards her left.
Now one might wonder, couldn't Tess move her shield to block the first blast then move it again to block the second incoming blast. For those who thought of that, well so did Alwin—okay he lied, he had tried that before and it failed so hard that the Yin-Yang explosions created by slamming into that shield of hers felt like they were celebrating Tess' brilliance and his idiocy.
But that was in the past, now his control over his Yin-Yang Blast had risen to such a degree that he could modify its launch velocity. The first Yin-Yang Blast traveled slower than his regular ones while the second traveled at a much faster pace. In the end they were both going to collide with Tess at the same time. A genius move by a genius slime.
Tess turned her head back and forth, examining the incoming blasts that spelled her demise. She moved to the left. She moved to the left! That simple move ensured that both blasts wouldn't hit her at the same time. Moving her shield, she placed it right in front of her, blocking the first projectile that erupted into a brilliant blaze of Yin and Yang. She followed up by moving her shield behind her to block the second blast that once again celebrated her geniusness and mocked Alwin's intelligence.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Back to the drawing board. You know what? Screw that jazz. Time to default to his usual plan—overwhelm his enemy with blasts. Planning was not in Alwin's blood. No matter how much he wanted it to be, all of his attack strategies almost always failed. That's why he was giving up on coming up with a better plan. From now on he would work on the 'overwhelming' part of 'overwhelm his enemy with blasts'. To do that he needed a greater arsenal at his disposal and to do that he needed more skills and to get more skills he would dive into the library—and maybe he would go read a book or something because there were way too many 'ands' in that sentence.
Although he did say he was going to overwhelm her with blasts that didn't mean that it'd have to be boring for him. No. Alwin was going to go for style points. Alwin launched two Yin-Yang Blasts at Tess again, both of them curving towards her, going to blast her at the same time—that's if she didn't move, but we all knew she was going to. That's why Alwin launched a third Yin-Yang Blast into the air, before it started to curve downwards right where Tess currently stood.
Then Tess the Lotus Turtle performed an even more devastating move. She walked forward! The three blasts all exploded at the same time behind her, forming three perfect Yin-Yang symbols, as she walked forward slowly. Her lotus leaf shell fluttered back as the wind from the explosion pushed it forward. Dammit all! Alwin had accidentally given Tess a cool girl moment. If she was wearing sunglasses, it would have caused Alwin to give up right there just from how cool she looked.
Alwin continued to launch three curving Yin-Yang Blasts at Tess, each one arcing towards her and exploding at where she stood. Unfortunately for him, she just walked out of the way, not even bothering to use her shield this time around. At least block it! Each time she dodged out of the way—by walking—Alwin felt his ego being bruised, battered, and beaten until all that remained was a crumpled piece of paper that served as his confidence.
Tess was playing him for a fool, a laughingstock, a—you get the gist of it—because she didn't even bother to raise her shield. It wasn't a fast walk or even a quick jog, it was a casual walk like she was walking down the street and not evading imminent danger.
Good thing he still had a few tricks up his sleeve. If those failed, then he would truly overwhelm her with blasts. The special thing about the Yin-Yang Blast was that it was actually two separate blasts that when mixed together formed a large explosion in the shape of the Yin-Yang symbol.
The even more special thing about Alwin is that he inadvertently became a blasts specialist. Alwin threw out another three Yin-Yang Blasts, but these ones were different. The white and black orbs no longer orbited around each other—okay they still orbited around each other, but Alwin had increased the orbital distance between them. Three black yin orbs curved to the right, while three white yang orbs curved to the left, hurtling towards Tess' current location.
As always, Tess simply walked forward past the blast's point of convergence, not even bothering to look back. But this time the blasts were different. It wasn't three simultaneous explosions. It was one big one! The three black yin orbs merged into one large black orb while the white yang orbs formed into an equally large white sphere. The two orbs crashed into each, forming a ginormous Yin-Yang symbol, three times the size of a regular one.
Tess didn't walk fast enough, the resulting explosion expanded to the point where Tess' behind was on the fringe of the black half of the Yang symbol. She yelled out in pain, while Alwin shouted out a triumphant 'yes!', as he finally landed a hit on her.
"Nice shot," Tess said, shaking her tail to get rid of the smoke and the burning black embers. "Here I thought I wasn't going to get any more practice out of you."
"You thought wrong. Now, I'm going to destroy that shield of yours."
"I'd like to see you try."
Alwin began to launch his Yin-Yang Blast at Tess, separating the Yin and the Yang side of his blasts. They coalesced into two gigantic spheres much larger than the one from before. Black yin orb curving on the right, white yang orb curving on the right. Alwin had lost count of how many Yin-Yang blasts he had separated to form those two gigantic black and white spheres traveling towards Tess.
Tess stared wide-eyed at the sight before her, two ginormous blasts heading her way. She was running away and Alwin couldn't blame her. He was already hightailing it out of the sparring room, his body jiggling with every hop he took—he might have overdone it. Tess was running as fast as a turtle could—which was surprisingly fast. Here Alwin thought she'd be as slow as molasses but she was just as fast as him. Did that mean Alwin was slow? He looked at her, scrutinizing her every step, grayish legs pounding against the pristine white floor as she ran out of the room.
They stood at the doorway, heads peeking into the sparring, garnering the attention of the rest of their classmates who were wondering what they were doing. Right now, they weren't the focus. The two enormous orbs were seconds away from crashing into each other. It was almost time to test out Tess' Impenetrable Shield.
The two orbs collided with each other, creating an explosion that shook the very room that they stood in. Blasts of wind gushed out of the open door, blowing back both Alwin and Tess. While the rest of the class covered their ears from the resounding shockwave. Once everything had stopped shaking and his ears had stopped ringing, Alwin finally rolled himself right side up. The same couldn't be said for Tess. She was stuck upside down, legs flailing as she tried to rock herself right side up.
Alwin, ever the gentleman, summoned his Spirit Hands to roll her back up. In any other circumstance, he would have waited for a 'thanks' to boost his ego, but right now he wanted nothing more than to discover the fate of Tess' shield. He hopped his way back into the sparring room, along with Tess leading the rest of his classmates who were curious about the cause of the explosion.
The sparring room was as pristine as ever. As if a gigantic explosion that literally shook the room and blew them away had never occurred. Standing in the middle of the room was Tess' shield. Well, half of it. The top half of the shield had exploded off. Singe marks marred the edge of the shield that had been separated. YES! Alwin was stronger than that Impenetrable Shield—granted that it took almost all of his mana and required his opponent to stand very still.
"You actually broke my shield?" Tess screamed.
"Of course," Alwin replied, a smug expression forming on his gelatinous body as he started to do his victory dance. A jiggle to the left and a jiggle to the right. Ripples formed on his slimy body with every shake of his blobby form.
With that Alwin had completed what he had set out to do, destroy Tess' shield. Maybe he could finally destroy that blasted wooden dummy once and for all. Or maybe he should take a nap after using up nearly all of his mana. Okay, nap first then destroy his arch foe.
As Alwin walked out of the training ground classroom, his whole worldview shifted. Blurs filled his vision for a split second before he found himself in another white room. No, it wasn't the sparring room, because that room had the spell of body odor mixed with the charred smell that accompanied his Yin-Yang Blast. This room smelled like chocolate cake.
That could only mean one thing. Lapis