It's been 3 days since I met Bleach and got him as a pet… I'm already at my wits end with how much he talks. Days of making awful jokes and constantly messing with Gray's training. I should have really thought more about gaining him as a pet. Today I let him stay and help with the village reconstruction. Which most likely means he's going to be bothering someone else. The kids seem to like his jokes and he is actually pretty good at keeping their attention. I'm sore all over from the training. I think if I was any weaker my bones would have been constantly broken like what happened during my other training. The few good hits I've gotten on him were only the first day when Wrath took over…
I'm slowly realizing that Wrath might be a much better fighter than me. It just seems like he understands combat at a base level while I over think things he rolls with the punches. His body… My body reacts naturally to everything almost instinctively. I think I might put too much thought into my fighting and that makes me easier to predict to masters of fighting. Masters who know how to fight almost as easy as breathing… I just cannot beat them without using all of my spells and skills. It frustrates me a little… I hear Wrath snicker inside my head.
We take a break for 5 minutes before getting back to sparring and Leaf shows up riding her automaton dragon. She lands and gives it a thorough check to see if everything is still in working order. The children and even Gray look on in amazement. She hasn't visited me often since I've started training. Mostly because she's been focused on learning more of engineering and automaton creation from the reading material I've given her. She's also been sort of a wary director for the creation of the village. Without me there they took their questions to her. Leaf turns around and yells back at the dragon.
“Go to sleep Sugar.”
And with that the dragon deactivates itself while she isn't riding it. Leaf has taught it a few more commands. The first things she was focused on learning were the maintenance and improvement of her automaton… It amazes me how fast she learns things compared to other people. I mean I did design it from scratch but I've had years of testing and practice to think of this… I think if Leaf learned automaton creation at the same time as me she would be further progressed in it than I am.
Everything seems fine until I see the look on her face. I'm worried as she walks over and starts to talk.
“Blue just returned from checking on Red. He was almost killed and it seems that she was put under some type of hypnosis to keep her there.”
“WHAT!?”
I can't believe this! What does she mean. Why would that elemental lord of fire capture other fire elementals? Now I've got too many questions, I have to figure this entire thing out from Blue now.
“Sorry grandpa, going to have to leave from here on out. I wish I could help more with the farming and learn more from you but...”
He only waves me off while saying.
“Yea I get it go. That sounds more important than that.”
I start to walk towards Leaf's automaton to hitch a ride but my feet stop themselves. I hear a familiar voice in my head.
“No! You don't get to decide we aren't training with Gray anymore! You get to be embarrassed by him all day and I only get one good fight with him! Are you kidding me!? I want one more fight or I'm not moving.”
I could fight against him and try to control my body back to the village it would probably take me longer and he could cause problems later on… I reluctantly let him take over. He swings my body around with a big smile on his face and yells.
“Before I leave we got to fight one more time old man. This time you better not hold back like you did the first fight.”
A smirk forms across Gray's face as he says.
“Oh you could tell? I didn't want to break my dear grandson with our first fight.”
Gray takes his normal fighting stance while Wrath removes the weighted bracers. Wrath then takes a stance I've never seen before… Has Wrath been thinking of how to beat Gray? Sort of like an amalgamation of all the fighting styles I've seen over my lifetime. One hand reached out towards Gray the other clenched near his face, his body is turned to the side away from Gray and is hunched over to make a spring like action similar to Lance's style. All the time I though Wrath was just focused on destroying things he was actually learning along with me. Wrath starts circle walking around making Gray wary to approach. He mocks Gray now.
“What's the matter old man? Afraid you can't handle me now?”
Both Wrath and Gray aren't the patient or defensive type so that was all it took for Gray to charge at him. Once Gray got close enough to Wrath he grabbed him with his outstretched arm. Wrath has a longer reach than Gray, Gray must have thought that Wrath was going to make a swing at him, the grapple off put him. Wrath pulls him in and punches him with a heavy force, the force doubly strong from the pulling motion of the grapple and the punch put together. Wrath letting go once the punch connected but Gray managed to grab my shirt ripping the front completely open. He was still forced back 10 feet by the punch. Wrath quickly removes the torn ruined shirt then takes up Gray's normal fighting style before saying.
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“I hoped to finish it with that first attack. I know it wont work a second time so this fight just got much harder to win.”
Gray wasn't knocked off his feet, leaving huge lines in the ground from the drag marks of his feet. He wipes the bit of blood from his nose and gives a big bloody smile before spitting the blood out of his mouth and charging back in.
The carefully planned first attack is now completely gone. Wrath and Gray are just trading blows now. Heavy blows, each hit leaving a lasting feeling of pain. The trading of hits so fast they are almost unnoticeable. Both running almost purely on instinct, dodging, blocking and parrying each others attacks while trying to make sure their hits land. This only lasted 10 seconds before Gray and Wrath jumped away from each other. Shit, Wrath broke my right arm. If this was a real fight I could start to heal it but this is just a sparring match. Gray also looks in a similar shape. Judging by his shallow breathing he broke a rib at some point.
He spits up more blood. If I had to say who walked away in better shape I would say it was Wrath. Now Wrath only has a single arm to attack with though. This next flurry of blows will determine the victor. Neither are deterred by the heavy damage both has taken. Gray now putting forth even more effort than before finally realizing just how strong Wrath is he was forced to put everything into this final assault.
Neither wanting to lose so both do anything they can to win. Headbutting, kneeing, eye gouging and even biting are employed. If I had been training with all of my gear still on I have no doubt that Wrath would have used some of my weapons. Gray somehow pulls ahead though, grasping the unbroken hand and breaking 3 of its fingers before Wrath managed to slip his hand out just as he catches a blow to the throat that drops him unconscious for a few moments.
With that I gain some of my control back… None of my body parts moves without pain though. Just as I'm about to get up Gray drops down onto me. With the fear that he is about to continue his attack I elbow him off me and roll onto my back waiting for him to attack me. My bones have been strengthened from them constantly being broken and repaired and yet they still managed to be broken again during this fight.
A few seconds pass and nothing happens, I lean forwards a bit and realize that some of my ribs are also broken now as well. I expect to see Gray standing up waiting to continue the fight or attack me but he isn't. He's laying on his back now breathing very raggedly. Leaf rushes over and starts healing him, first slowly then more as she gets bones set correctly. If he is healed without taking proper precautions you could hurt the person more than you're helping. I start going through the same procedure that she is, making sure my bones are set correctly before healing them, I've actually done this to myself more than I'd like to admit.
The children who had been watching come over now and gather around Gray. They had a worried look on their faces but once they seen Leaf healing him they calmed down some. One of the younger boys was crying but quickly stopped once he realized that Gray was going to be fine. Wrath woke up from being knocked unconscious while Gray was still getting healed. With a very flustered tone he asks.
“Wh- what happened?”
“Gray knocked you unconscious, I took over but at that point the fight was over with. His last attack was the last bit of power he still had left and he collapsed right on top of you... Or us rather.”
I expect Wrath to yell and complain about losing in such a close manner. He just remains silent. Gray starts to look better but he still doesn't have any energy left after that fight. For the first time since we've started I think I finally see how old he actually is. He coughs up the last bit of blood as Leaf finishes healing him and he stands up. He walks over and offers me a hand to help me up. He almost whispers in my ear.
“Thanks for the fight. I don't really know why you wanted me to teach you but I think I've had enough of teaching someone as strong as you.”
I start to walk towards my weighted bracers to put them back on and I head towards Leaf's dragon. She yells out.
“Time to wake up Sugar!”
The dragon reactivates and whirs back to life. At that moment I hear Wrath speak in my head again.
“Can I say goodbye to Gray before we leave.”
I give Wrath control back. He turns towards Gray and says.
“Thanks for teaching me even though you had so much you still needed to do… I'm sorry I couldn't be more of a help. I promise to come back and visit once this war is over so just stay alive until then old man… We need to have another rematch once I get stronger.”
Wrath turns around with my body and I hear Gray yell behind us now.
“Speaking of which. If you find yourself in a jam dealing with any of those higher ups just mention my name. It might still have some pull left.”
We both jump onto Leaf's dragon. I could fly back in dragon form but I could also use this time to see some of the changes Leaf made to her dragon. As we're flying off I realized that while Wrath was controlling my body some of my stats changed.
Wrath has unlocked new hidden fighting style
Wrath has unlocked new hidden fighting style
Wrath has unlocked hidden stat boost
Wrath has unlocked hidden skill
Wrath has unlocked hidden skill
Wrath has unlocked hidden skill
Wrath has unlocked hidden skill
Wrath has unlocked hidden title
Wrath has unlocked hidden title
Wrath has unlocked hidden achievement
Wrath has unlocked hidden secret skill
Well… Fuck me I guess. I guess I'll ask him later what all that was about… Now that I think about it Wrath has already gained some skills for himself back the first time he had taken over. The moment I think about that I notice that all of the notices for Wrath unlocking things start disappear. It finally dawns on me that Wrath has been gaining stats for himself while he's been in control and has been hiding it… That's why I haven't been getting any stronger when he's taken control. I shudder when I hear in my head.
“So you figured it out now… I was hoping you wouldn't for at least awhile longer. Well, I mean there isn't anything you can do about it but it would have been better if you didn't find out. When the time comes for you to be stronger than you are you know to rely on me.”
Leaf yells out.
“Go ahead and steady off Sugar!”
The flight back to town is only a few seconds longer after that. It was within walking distance of the village so flying to and from seems like overkill. Everything looks normal except for the panicking Blue pacing back in forth in front of the door to our house.