Alnea stared at Yuri, illuminated by the light of his Aspects, in silence, before turning towards Cecilia, only to find her turning towards him with a grin on her face. And within the reflection of her eyes, he saw his own grinning face. Fighting against advanced phase Oren Beasts… that meant only one thing.
“Finally!”
“We did it!”
“We are going to act as a true team!”
“Quiet down, you two,” Yuri said, in a stern voice, shaking her head. However, even she was not able to stop the grin from coming to her face. Still, she controlled herself, and added, “We are still in the Night Canyons. You two need to control yourselves.”
Alnea, and Cecilia contained their excited yells, but they failed to stop their excited laughter from escaping their lips. After all, Yuri proposing that they fight advanced phase Oren Beasts meant that they had gained her approval. That they were finally a true team. That she…
“As I was saying, our strength has increased enough for us to no longer worry about intermediate phase Oren Beasts. Focussing our energy on dealing with them would only be a waste of our time. Only when we fight against stronger enemies can we keep honing our fighting skills. Fighting against intermediate phase Oren Beasts would only dull our senses, wasting months of our efforts. And so, it is time for us to start fighting against advanced phase Oren Beasts.”
“There is no need to go through such a lengthy explanation,” Alnea said, grinning with confidence, and with a slight pride, and anticipation in his voice. “Just saying that it is time for us to fight advanced phase Oren Beasts is enough.”
“How can that be enough?” Yuri said, expressing her dissatisfaction through her eyes. “As the leader of the team, it is my duty to ensure that both of you feel that my decisions are justified.”
“We trust your judgement, Yuri,” Cecilia said, with her voice too carrying a sense of confidence, and anticipation. “Or else, we would have insisted on fighting advanced phase Oren Beasts after we had dealt with that pack of Green Wind Wolves.”
“That is not the same thing… forget it. Both of you are fools.”
“Fools… that is nice name for our team, don’t you think so?”
“Absolutely not!”
“Do not even think about it.”
“…I was just joking,” Alnea said with an awkward laugh, before replacing it with a grin, as he turned towards Yuri. “You are not forgetting the most important thing, right?”
“Of course not,” Yuri said, with a smile that made her look several times brighter than before. “I still remember what I had said. That when, and if I feel that your strength, and our cooperation has reached a certain point, I will reveal all my abilities to you, and then we will start challenging advanced phase Oren Beasts as a true team. Since I have decided that it is time for us to challenge advanced phase Oren Beasts, then it is also naturally time for me reveal all my abilities to you two.
“However, since we have all improved over the past few months, let us use this chance to introduce our abilities to each other once again. And I know what you want to say, that you two already know about each other’s abilities. But I am sure that you must have kept a few abilities hidden to yourself. We cannot have that in a team. Though keeping your strength hidden is a good tactic, and one that you should always employ, being in a team is different. When you fight as a team, you trust your lives in each other’s hands. If you do not even have enough trust to tell each other about your abilities, how can you trust each other with your lives?”
“Who said we cannot trust each other with our abilities?” Alnea said with a fake scoff, before turning towards Cecilia. “Who is going first?”
“Let me do it,” Cecilia said, smiling at his overly dramatic behaviour. “As both of your already know, I have reached the Intermediate Stage of the False Rank just a few days ago. But only in Spirit Power. I have yet to tame any Aspect from the deeper region of the Origin Sea, or comprehend any Intermediate Stage Mystery.
“Still, in the past few days, as I have digested the Good Fortune from the Fire Clawed Mole’s burrows, I have managed to increase my Spirit Power significantly. That should have increased my strength comprehensively. At the very least, I will be able to last longer in battles, and use some of the more Oren draining Martial Styles, and Arcanas.
“Speaking of Arcanas, I have created four Initial Stage False Ranked Arcanas. You two already know about the ‘Blade of Darkness’, my first Arcana, that creates blades of darkness to attack my enemies. Then there is the ‘Fortune Flip’, which allows me to flip my fortune with my enemy for a few moments. It drains my Spirit Power a lot, but it can prove handy in difficult situations.
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“Other than the two, there is also the ‘Dark Breath’, which allows me to hide our presence in the darkness, and the ‘Dark Sense’, which allows me to sense enemies in the darkness. These two Arcanas are not too draining on my Spirit Power, and I can use them for quite a while, especially with my increased Spirit Power. But as you can guess, except for my first Arcana, the other Arcanas are not suited for a frontal battle.”
“…You are becoming more, and more like a support Arcanist, rather than a Warrior.”
“Shut up,” Cecilia said, glaring at Alnea. “It was not like I wanted to create those support type Arcanas either. But I don’t have any control over what Mysteries I encounter in the Origin Sea. And I could not have comprehended a Mystery, and then just forget about it, right? That would have been downright disrespectful to the Mysteries. And it would also have affected my path as an Arcanist. Besides, something is better than nothing…”
“That is why you should think even more about becoming a support type Arcanist,” Alnea said, grinning at his green robed friend. “What if all the Mysteries that you encounter are going to be support oriented? It would be better to just become a support type Arcanist.”
“You…”
“Alright, stop teasing her, Alnea,” Yuri said, smiling at his antics, before turning towards Cecilia. “He is not completely wrong though. You can think about becoming a support type Arcanist in the future.”
“…But I am from the Serpia clan…”
“That is all the more reason why you should seriously consider this option,” Yuri said. “What is the path that you wish to focus on?”
“…Warrior.”
“Then ask yourself this question. Does being a support type Arcanist conflicts with your path as a Warrior?”
“…No, it does not.”
“Then will it provide any help to your path of a Warrior?”
“…Maybe.”
“Not maybe, but surely,” Yuri said, giving Cecilia a reassuring smile. “Being a support type Arcanist will help you fill up your deficiencies as a Warrior. Sure, no one would complain having a few great offensive Arcanas, but having some support type Arcanas will help you just as much, or maybe even more than some offensive Arcanas would. Do not get me wrong though. I am not asking you to become a support type Arcanist. I am just saying that it is an option for you. After all, you are not walking on just one path. You should always keep yourself open to different possibilities, and opportunities.”
“…I will think about it.”
“Good, then let us continue with we were discussing.”
“…I have already told you about my Arcanas,” Cecilia said, beginning with a mumble, before returning to her usual voice. “Next, about my Aspects. When we started out as a team, I had tamed only one Aspect, which you already know of. However, recently, my luck with the Aspects has been slightly better than before, and I have gained recognition from a few more Aspects, bringing the total number of my Aspects to seven.
“Of those seven Aspects, two of them can help me strengthen my body, while three focus completely on my speed, and agility. Of the remaining two, one can take on the form of claws, while the other can take on the form of a snake. And with these, my collection of Aspects can be said to be relatively complete. At least, with these Aspects, I can finally use some of High Grade Martial Styles of my clan.”
“Your Aspects really do form a complete whole with each other,” Yuri said, nodding along with Cecilia’s words. “And the fact that you can use High Grade Martial Styles now is a great news for the team. However, the concepts involved in High Grade Martial Styles are beyond our control, at least at our current levels. You should use the High Grade Martial Styles sparingly, and try to not let yourself get lost in the concept of those Martial Styles.”
“Don’t worry,” Cecilia said, stealing guilty glances of him, with an embarrassed look on her face. “I know the consequences of using Martial Styles beyond my control.”
“Are you still thinking about that?” Alnea said, laughing to dismiss Cecilia’s concerns. “It has already been around a year since that event.”
“A year…” Cecilia mumbled to herself. “That’s right. Inkah’s month should be almost around the corner. But that does not mean that I can forget that day.”
“Then according to your logic, shouldn’t I also be brooding over the time that I hurt you?”
“That’s different… Even when taken over by the concept of the Martial Style, you still managed to stop in time. But I…”
“The end result was still the same. I ended up almost killing you…”
“…That was because I was being careless back then. You never managed to beat me after that!”
“Oh? Now that you mention it, we haven’t really fought in a long time. What do you say? Should we have another round?”
“Who is afraid of you? Bring it on!”
“This sounds fun,” Yuri said from the side, looking at them with amusement. “Should I join in as well?”
“…On second thought, we area a team. We should not fight.”
“…If there is anything we need to prove, we can do it against the Oren Beasts.”
A brief moment of silence descended in the cave, before all three of them burst out laughing at the same time, dispersing all the solemn air that had been building up in the cave.
“You two… We are talking about something serious here.”
“But you laughed as well!”
“And you also wanted to join in on the fun!”
“…You must have heard incorrectly,” Yuri said, feigning ignorance, before turning to look at him with a curious, and innocent gaze. “Now, continuing from where we had left off, since Cecilia has introduced her abilities, it is our turn next. Will you go first, or should I?”