Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 87. Heaven and Earth.
The thirteen-year-old couldn’t help but frown at Laien’s overconfident attitude, but he refrained from making any comments about it. “Of course I won’t back down, I’m not scared of you,” he said a bit grudgingly. Serving as a servant and guide for a few weeks would be shameful, but it was comparatively worth less than the things he had tried to offer beforehand. He could still bear this much… but to begin with, it wasn’t like he was planning to lose!
“No one is saying you are scared,” Laien said with a helpless laugh. Although this youth looked like he was a year or two older than him, his attitude really was a bit too childish.
“Whatever,” the thirteen-year-old snorted, thinking that he would never be able to become friends with a person like Laien. “Before we begin, I’m Luca. Since you two aren’t planning to reveal your names, be sure to remember mine,” he said challengingly, planning to make sure that this ‘Ice Devil’ wouldn’t easily forget who had brought him down to the ground.
In response, Laien revealed a surprised look. However, the surprise on his face quickly changed into understanding. He smiled and glanced at Jasmine, who in turn smiled back at him. So those people knowing only those Ikarian titles and not their names was her doing? He needed to admit it was a good idea in principle, but he doubted whether it was truly necessary. If someone really wanted to learn his identity, then he would only need to do a bit of investigation before learning everything; he had left way too many tracks while traveling with Arslan for it to matter at this point.
Additionally… he seriously doubted there would be many people who would claim him to be the ‘Ice Devil’ even if they saw that their names matched.
“Luca, huh?” Laien looked the half a head taller youth in the eye. The beginning of their relationship, for the lack of better word, wasn’t all that great. Yet, he didn’t feel like this guy was all that bad of a person; and he could sense that Yin had similar thoughts. As such, he spoke up conciliatorily. “I’m Laien. Let’s have a nice fight,” he said with a smile and reached out with his hand.
Met with this sudden change in attitude, Luca ended up being caught totally off-guard. Weren’t the two of them pretty much jabbing at each other with words from the very beginning? He stared at Laien for a good second before coming back to his senses; he hesitated briefly, then shook Laien’s hand.
“Wow~” Luca’s older sister chuckled quietly. “What a heartwarming scene. Is my little brother finally going to make a friend of his own?” she asked teasingly and sent Luca a meaningful smile.
“Lea!” Luca turned to his older sister abruptly, his face already flushing a little. “Please, stop doing that in front of people! Also, I do have friends!”
“But weren’t they all introduced to you by me?” Lea asked playfully. “Right, everyone?” she inquired, directing this question to the five youths around her.
“True,” the older boy who seemed to be around Lea’s age said with a wry smile. “Luca, when your whole family moved here three years ago so you could join Lea in the army, didn’t you immediately get into a big fight with those in your squad and end up beating them all into a pulp? You were always such a problem child,” he reminded and laughed at the memory. The officers had all been furious to find the youths they had been intending to put through a rough day of training in an unusable state. However, they had decided to punish those who had gotten beaten up despite ganging up on a new kid; what in addition to Luca’s hard-to-approach character caused him to be ostracized by most of his peers.
“Yeah, yeah,” the ten, eleven years old girl supported eagerly. “You were so rude and boring in the beginning. You are nice now, but do you think we would have been so patient if not for your sister’s requests?” she pointed out poutingly. Out of the seven of them, she had probably been getting along with Luca the least well; however, with time she came to like him. Well, more or less like him.
“Don’t be so hard on him,” the boy looking to be the same age as Luca spoke with a laugh. “He’s great once you get to know him. It’s just hard for anyone to be patient enough to actually do that,” he said with a smirk and exchanged a glance with Luca, who looked like he was about to start looking for a solid rock so he could smash his head against it. The two of them were now good friends, but on the very first day they met, they had gotten into a huge argument, which quickly escalated into a fight and then a brawl. It all ended well thanks to Lea playing the role of an intermediary between the two of them later on, but sometimes Luca was just too stubborn for his own sake.
“Okay, okay, enough already…!” Luca pleaded helplessly, the amused smile on Laien’s face and the chuckles of the adults around him causing him to feel all the more embarrassed. He loved his older sister a lot, but he absolutely hated when she teased him in front of so many people!
“Come,” Laien said with a smile, taking pity on Luca. “Let’s see if we can become friends,” he said with a laugh and began walking towards the closest empty area.
Luca welcomed the helping hand and quickly followed after Laien, all the while trying to pretend he didn’t hear the laughs of his older sister and his friends coming from behind his back. “Thanks,” he said quietly. Despite the not so good first impression, which now that he thought about it was probably provoked by his own attitude, he was beginning to feel more well-disposed toward Laien.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Laien said wryly and when he saw the somewhat confused look on Luca’s face, he added playfully. “I’m about to make you my guide.”
More flabbergasted than angered, Luca felt like asking Laien why he was so confident. He simply couldn’t understand it. Even if Laien didn’t know about his achievements in the Ruishi Federation, he had displayed his cultivation base to him very openly. In the beginning, he had assumed it was because Laien was arrogant… but could it be that in truth, Laien was simply incredibly strong?
“Could that story really be true…? No, that’s impossible,” he mused anxiously but refused to start doubting his own strength before the fight even began.
“Say, is your friend really that strong?” A dozen of steps behind Laien and Luca, Lea approached Yin and inquired with an amiable smile.
“He is strong,” Yin said confidently. There was no questioning that, Laien was strong; and the story Jasmine told them was true to begin with.
“Between the two of you, which is stronger?” Lea asked straightforwardly, curious to see how this green-haired youth would respond to a question like that.
“I guess I am? Just by a little,” Yin replied with a light chuckle. “But it really depends on the situation. I’m better at dueling, but he’s better at dealing with many enemies at once,” he elaborated lightheartedly and smirked just a little. Why was it that when he was with Laien, this question would pop up with a strangely regular frequency?
“Hoh,” Lea raised her eyebrows slightly. She had always been good at getting along with people, but that was mainly because she understood people well. She could usually tell what a person was thinking from the small gimmicks like their body language, the tone of their voice, where they looked while speaking and such. Asking certain key questions and observing one’s reaction to them was one of the basic methods she employed… and this time around, she was pleasantly surprised.
Not many of those young practitioners she was acquainted with could speak so casually about the strength of others. She had heard that those two Devils were friends with each other, so she wondered how this way too beautiful boy would respond when asked. However, she didn’t expect to come to a conclusion that the youth was approaching this subject with a perfect cool. To her, that could mean only two things; either this youth had an extremely healthy approach towards his own prowess in comparison to that of others, or he was so self-centered that he couldn’t imagine the world in which he wouldn’t emerge on top of everything in spite of all circumstances.
In this particular case, she was willing to concede that the latter of those two options was extremely unlikely. Thus, her own conclusions led her to hold a very positive impression of this green-haired youth. As for Laien, she already had a feeling that he was a good kid and hoped that he would get along with her little brother well.
“Here should be good enough,” Laien said after a moment of walking. Thankfully, the vast majority of the carriages from their caravan had gathered in one place for the sake of convenience, so they didn’t need to look hard to find a suitable spot to fight at. “Whenever you are ready,” he said with a smile and took out his white spear. Since the two of them were dual practitioners, the starting range didn’t matter much; as such, he left the decision to Luca without fretting over it all that much.
“… How can you be so leisure and confident?” Luca asked resignedly. “I’m one of the three strongest people my age in this country, you know?” he brought up in a soft voice. He could see his older sister, his friends and a bunch of other people gathering to watch the fight and in particular, he didn’t want Lea to hear him say so as to not be reprimanded by her for being too conceited later.
“Hm.” Laien took a few seconds to think about this matter, then answered seriously. “A part of it is just that this fight doesn’t really matter that much? I mean, sure it’s some prestige and all of that, but who cares? The other part is that I went through much scarier things than a spar.” Having said so, Laien chortled in amusement. When he looked back to all those times he fought in the past, a mere sparring truly looked nothing else but inconsequential. The only way it could be dangerous was if his opponent was similarly skilled and their fight got very serious and dragged on, but he honestly doubted that Luca could prove to be that much of a challenge to him.
Unlike the other times, the casual attitude of Laien’s caused Luca to feel more pressured than angered or confused. Seeing a spar with him as something unimportant, inconsequential… wasn’t Laien even younger than him? Just what had he gone through to have a viewpoint like that? “There’s only one way to find out,” he mused quietly and took out a simple sword from his interspatial ring.
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“Enough talking?” Laien asked with a smile and took his usual, defensive stance. He was confident, but it didn’t mean he would be careless; he roused his Qi and prepared to draw upon his spiritual energy, anticipating the attack that was sure to come. And indeed, a second later he felt spiritual energy converge in the air in front of Luca and saw a small wave of flames taking shape and almost immediately afterward, being hurled at him.
“Those are… Aspects? So many!” Laien was a little shocked to discovered traces of at least five different Aspects in Luca’s fire. Of those he could recognize, there was Wrath, Desire and Pride; and in addition to those three, there were still two other ones mixed into the incoming flames. “That’s much more than I expected, but…” he mused silently and released a small amount of his own spiritual energy, mixing it with all his various insights. He brought forth a layer of icy mist, which effortlessly extinguished the incoming flames the instant they touched it.
“Another chant? He sure is taking his time,” Laien thought with some disappointment. There had been about ten meters between the two of them when the fight began, which now transformed into twenty as Luca had jumped back after releasing his first attack. However, taking time to cast spells in a battle between strong martial practitioners… well, he could at least see what Luca was planning to do. It wasn’t like he was worried about being overwhelmed by him if he gave up the initiative.
“He isn’t coming after me?” Luca noticed and in the back of his mind, start feeling rather angry. “You are underestimating me too much!” he thought angrily and manifested six large fireballs behind his back. Compared to that clumsy attack through the Guardian, those flames were at least five or six times stronger! Even Raphael, who had defeated him in the semifinals of the last nation-wide tournament, suffered after trying to receive this magic head-on!
With a though, he sent the six fireballs curving through the air. Three of them went through the left, three through the right, all of them aiming to hit Laien from the sides and from the back! “And now, quickly!” Luca forced his Qi to surge forth and pushed out the remnant spiritual energy that lingered in his body. He winced from the discomfort this abrupt change caused him, but he managed to bear with it and slashed out with his sword, releasing a simple, but very fast and dangerous fire-element martial technique!
The spectators on the ground and on the walls of the Fortress-City of Lugna alike held their breaths. Laien hadn’t moved or attempted to counterattack from the beginning and as a result, he found himself in a peril! None of those warriors of the Eagle Pass believed Laien would come out unscratched; they were sure he would pay for his arrogance with blood, alas… reality rarely held up to people’s expectations.
“There are many Aspects in his magic, but each one of them is at a fairly mediocre level,” Laien analyzed calmly as the fireballs and the blade of fire approached. “I don’t think it’s because he didn’t put in the effort… it’s probably that none of those Aspects have any foundations, even half-complete ones,” he sighed at the thought. His heart had skipped a beat at first when he sensed the presence of five Aspects, but now, he was quite disappointed.
“Moreover…” he murmured to himself and once again, used his Guardian to create some grey mist. At the same time, he took a swing with his spear. “Hah!” he clenched his hand a little tighter and struck out from downward, slashing at the incoming blade of fire. Just as he expected, his spear clashed with the martial technique and shattered it into little bits and pieces, while the grey mist around him received the six fireballs in the same manner it had stopped the small wave of fire in the beginning; the flames were stronger now, but they shared the exact same fate of being easily extinguished by the extreme cold.
“His Qi is strong for a martial practitioner of the seventh rank, but his spiritual energy…” Laien let out a sigh. “Isn’t he a spiritual practitioner of the ninth rank? Forget the matter of insights, his spiritual energy is extremely weak and unstable,” he judged silently, looking how Luca was retreating even further back. By the looks of it, he was preparing to use a magic with either a medium or a long chant.
“So pointless… with the quality of his spiritual energy, he won’t be able to compress it enough to increase the power significantly. After seeing that much, he should have understood he won’t be able to harm me with magic.” Laien shook his head. This fight wasn’t even enough to be considered a warm-up; Luca’s weaknesses were too big and too apparent. Against someone else, Luca could have possibly put up a good fight, but against him? It was absolutely hopeless.
“You stopped my attacks two times… but now, try to stop that!” Luca gnashed his teeth and forced as much spiritual energy as he could out of his body all at once, what all in all amounted to a little more than one-third of his full reservoir. In consequence, blood poured out of his nose and eyes and many spots all over his body turned purple, but he ignored the pain and finished the chant.
“Intensive Einäscherung,” he called out in a low voice and swung his fist forward, causing the amassed spiritual energy to cascade forward as it turned into a gigantic wave of raging fire. The flames washed past him and rolled through the ground, heading straight towards Laien in their full might.
“He’s improved so much since three months ago…” Julien nodded in approval. He had been shocked to see the first serious attack of Luca’s be stopped to effortlessly, but this time around, it wouldn’t be so easy for his opponent to come out unharmed. The level of this spell was already comparable to that of an average spiritual master of the second or third rank; it was quite a frightening accomplishment for a thirteen-year-old youth!
“This level is…” At the same time Julien marveled over Luca’s strength, Jasmine let out a little sigh of disappointment. What were the spiritual masters of this county thinking, allowing a talented youth to be wasted in this manner? This was a full-chant spell of over a dozen words, and yet the results were so disappointing! Was this boy’s master a fool, or was he purposely impeding the boy’s growth? This magic he released couldn’t be even said to be at the level of an elite spiritual master of the first rank! It was a disgrace considering that she could sense the presence of multiple Secret Arts within it.
“Well, it’s just this much.” Laien didn’t move from his original spot at all. Admittedly, this magic was much stronger than those fireballs from a moment ago, but ultimately, it was an area-of-effect attack. It made it hard for a single target to evade it, but its destructive might wasn’t all that high. “Freeze for me,” Laien waved his hand lazily and produced a defensive layer of mist around himself. The next second, the wave of flames swallowed him… but it ended up being akin to water washing over a stone on the riverbed, unable to breach his defenses in the slightest.
The thousands of spectators on the ground and the hundreds on the walls let out a collective gasp when Laien’s figure disappeared within the mass of flames. Those members of the caravan knew that Laien was strong, but they hadn’t seen his fight against Yimar Furi’s men too clearly. As for those soldiers of the Fortress-City of Lugna, they heard the stories, but they didn’t quite believe them. Thus, almost everyone ended up being worried for Laien’s well-being… with the exception of Yin, Arslan and the other members of their small group.
“They are all so calm,” Lea couldn’t help but notice. After Laien was hit by Luca’s last spell, she turned her gaze away for a little bit and discovered something alarming. That green-haired youth, those White Guards and even Arslan… they were all relaxed, maybe even a bit amused. “Can it be that this story really is…?” she asked herself, the thought alone causing a shiver to run down her spine. If what Jasmine told them was true, then those two youths weren’t Devils just in name, but in reality!
“Now, I have to attack!” Luca forced himself to charge forward. He didn’t know how much damage his magic did to Laien, but he understood that he wouldn’t win if he didn’t make use of this opportunity he had created for himself. With the sword in hand, he ran forward as the dissipating flames; thanks to his battle sense, he could tell to a degree where Laien was. He engulfed his sword in flames, wondering if his body would hold up for more than two of his strongest martial techniques. However, when his vision cleared fully and when he saw Laien a few meters ahead, he almost tripped over his own legs.
“Completely unharmed?!” he cried out in his heart. He would still understand it if Laien was only slightly wounded, but the ground around him wasn’t as much as scorched! Did Laien start chanting a spell of his own and he didn’t notice? He couldn’t have stopped his full-chant spell with only Guardian! That was too ridiculous! That would be at the level of… stopping a Grand Spell on his own.
“Damn it!” Frustrated by the overwhelming strength of his opponent and his own weakness, Luca refused to give up and attacked Laien with his sword. Yet, how could he, who had only ever fought people in random bouts, during sparrings and in tournaments, could match up to Laien?
“Wow, he’s full of openings.” Laien felt like sighing but had little time for that since Luca was about to slash at him. Still, he didn’t bother to employ his Elemental Spear Arts; he simply picked the exact moment Luca stepped into the range of his spear and thrust forward swiftly and lightly. With how aggravated his opponent was, the thrust went right through the hastily put-up guard of Luca’s and pierced his shoulder right through, the spear etching itself firmly in the bones and muscles.
“It’s over,” Laien thought to himself. Had he actually put any serious amount of Qi or spiritual energy into this attack, he would have killed Luca on the spot. He still could do just that by transferring energy along the spear whenever he wanted. In a fight between martial practitioners, a direct hit like that was usually lethal; unless the party on the receiving side had powerful inner defenses or unless a large gap in strength existed, being pierced through by a weapon your enemy was holding would usually be the end of it.
Yet, Laien never expected Luca to actually force himself a step forward while skewering the spear through his own shoulder. “Really?” Laien frowned when he saw the flaming sword slashing down at his head. Wasn’t this only sparing? Wasn’t Luca totally overdoing it?
“No!” Julien and Lea shouted simultaneously when they saw what Luca was doing. What in the world was he thinking, refusing to admit defeat and going for the mutual kill! This wasn’t a life-or-death battle! The two of them wanted to stop him, but being so far away, they couldn’t possibly intervene in time. If both Luca and Laien got seriously wounded as a result of this madness, then it would be a disaster!
“Calm down a little,” Laien said grudgingly after blocking Luca’s slash with a layer of ice. There was a huge sense of disappointment present in his voice.
The simple words instantly brought Luca back to reality. When he understood what he had just done, he hurriedly calmed his Qi down and relaxed his body. He groaned quietly when Laien put his spear back into his interspatial ring, but given how ashamed he was feeling, he focused on gritting his teeth and bearing with the radiating pain. He was about to try and suppress the blood loss with his Qi when he heard Laien speak up.
“Withdraw your Qi, I will heal you.”
Having been injured on many occasions in the past, Luca quickly caught onto Laien’s intentions. His fire-element Qi was the worst match possible for the water-element spiritual energy of Laien’s, so its presence would make healing any wounds nigh impossible. He did as he was told and unwillingly displayed a relieved expression on his face when a layer of water covered the gaping hole in his shoulder. That degree of pain was something he had been having trouble bearing with, so he was glad it was beginning to subside.
“I’m sorry,” he said weakly and raised his head, then looked Laien in the eye. “I didn’t think I would lose myself so easily to my frustration. The Secret Arts I’m using make it hard for me to keep clarity of mind when I fight, but I know it’s not an excuse. I apologize… and thanks,” he explained, making a great deal of effort not to avoid Laien’s gaze. To his relief, the scornful look Laien had been giving him slowly changed into a look of understanding as he was explaining himself.
“Eh, so pathetic. I lost to Raphael this year and to Chris three years ago. Now, I did something so stupid…” he admonished himself silently, only waiting for his sister and everyone else to come over and start berating him for what he did. He knew he deserved every little bit of scolding this time around… but it wasn’t making him feel any better about the prospect of receiving it.