Valorie was exploding with anger right now. All she wanted right now is to punch her stupid husband who has the gall to call himself a mage. Weren’t mages all about caution and careful study?
Yet here he went, experimenting on poor Zeke by literally carving runes into his flesh, which was probably the most ludicrous idea she ever heard. If she heard it first, she would’ve immediately stopped Zeke right then and there.
But apparently her husband thought differently. She always knew the two were doing something strange at those times. Even when Cloud would explain he was giving the boy some pointers, she knew that the two always appeared haggard and tired that there was something strange going on. Mikella also caught this, but like her, she didn’t mention it.
Now, she only wished she could turn back time. As of right now, Cloud was at her mercy as he pleaded with her to calm down, which was honestly only exacerbating the problem.
“How can you tell me to calm down!?” Val shouted, and wanted to punch the wall of a nearby building. She refrained because the soldiers worked hard creating the buildings and it would be rude.
“Zeke has made a lot of gains from this,” Cloud said, but all she heard were just excuses to avoid getting smacked, and no matter what, this man will get smacked. “And more importantly, he wanted this.”
“Yes, but to carve his own flesh? You actually think that’s wise to do?” Val retorted. “And on someone so young and inexperienced?”
“It’s precisely this,” Cloud said, his tone steady compared to before. “They’re young and inexperienced, yes, but they need to. How else can they make that ridiculous mission a success by becoming Journeymen within two years?”
Val pressed her lips tight at that. When she heard of this mission, she couldn’t believe it. It took her and Cloud several years to become Journeyman, and only stopped when it seemed impossible to keep moving forward with their current resources. That was half the reason why they created Eve Glade, after all.
To make a good connection with the king of Sham-la, and to receive resources based on their contribution. Of course, they always planned on taking care of the people, but being able to advance was also part of the plans. However, to reach Master-stage would take years, if not decades, which they never planned on rushing to.
However, these poor kids, sent here against their will from an entirely different world, not only reached Expert stage in just a few months after initialization, were now expected to be Journeyman in just a few short years? It was ridiculous. How can the gods be so cruel to these children, including possessing a little girl with their angel to act as some sort of hands-off guardian?
The more she thought about it, the more she could understand Zeke’s logic. How else can he grow stronger other than to do what he can with his runes? Still, was there such a reason to push himself to gain stats like a warrior when his support skills were more than enough?
“Even if it was for the sake of becoming a Journeyman, how does pouring stats into your body temporarily be a good thing? Stats don’t make or break fights.”
“Of course,” Cloud nodded in agreement. “You and I both know that stats aren’t everything. Even Zeke knows this.”
“Then why–?”
“But it opens a path for him,” Cloud intervened, knowing exactly what Val might say. “Now, he can only mimic high stats–but what else can he do with those rune enhancements? What’s his limit from achieving that? That’s what I wanted him to learn. Before, he was dissatisfied with being a Support mage. But instead of opting to get out of it, he circumvents it by creating an entirely new form of fighting!”
There was that clear glee and madness in his eyes, as she first saw him whenever he got excited for new knowledge. However, considering that it’s for Zeke’s new method of combat, it was rather interesting for Val as well.
“Now that he knows what he’s capable of, what else could he do? He already can do this much, and with Mikella’s constant improvement, their potential is limitless! Val…”
Cloud grasped her shoulders, and stared at her intensely. She looked up at him, wondering what he was about to say that made him so serious.
“We can find a way to help you advance with their help.”
Val paused, her mouth left open. It felt so off, considering the struggle to get to where she was now. But if what Cloud said was true…
She shook her head. “Cloud, I don’t want to use them for my own goals.”
“That’s fine,” Cloud said. “We’re not using them. If anything, we’re helping them get along their path. So what if we take a ride ourselves? Nobody has to lose anything.”
“But…” Val looked away..
“Val, don’t worry. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. We did way worse things before we reached Journeyman, you know? How many bandits did we kill or how many houses did we rob to get to where we were now?”
“God, please don’t mention that…” Val shook her head. Her palm was pressed to her face as memories resurfaced. “We were so young and desperate.”
“And we still are,” Cloud winked. “We just got some back-up now. I see Zeke as an equal, to be honest. And who knows? At the rate Mikella is going, she might even give you a run for your money.”
“Oh please, that girl’s got nothing on me.”
Val said, but she chuckled softly. In the end, Cloud was right. Still, she glared hard at him.
“But I’m still gonna smack you for acting so irresponsible.”
“That’s fine, that’s fine,” Cloud said, taking his hands off of her shoulders. “But before we do that, how about we watch the match? They should be getting started right about now.”
Val heard that Zeke was gonna ask Mikella for a duel. While she was still miffed, she couldn't help herself any longer.
What kind of path those kids–no, those two fighters would take? And if possible… would there be room for more to go along?
…..
Mikella breathed heavily as she launched strike after strike at her partner, known for not being much of a fighter. It caught her off guard, but clearly Zeke poured in a lot of effort in this secret training of his.
She didn’t know, not yet anyways, on how Zeke was able to nearly overpower her strikes with his own. His Strength should be at the lowest like her Intelligence, but clearly there was something strange going on. But she put all that to the back of her mind.
She lunged her sword forward, expecting him to block the attack with his barrier. Instead, he just slapped it away, the hard wood hitting his skin and barely making a scratch on it as it was deflected. There was a sign of a glaring red mark on his hand, but a quick heal from his Recovery eased the pain as he pushed forward.
Mikella wanted to tackle, but decided against it. While Zeke normally didn’t attack, she always knew that Zeke wasn’t strong enough, so she always opted to surprise him with such close-ranged tackles and blows from her fists or kicks. However, she knew then that if she did so now, she would be pushed back or worse–get trampled on.
Her heart paced faster as she backed away, allowing Zeke more ground as he stomped on the dirt again. This time, it only made a small quake, disrupting her balance slightly from the sudden shift in momentum. Zeke took the advantage and tried to swing his fist at her.
She ducked, at least knowing that he wasn’t fast enough to keep up with her reactions. She swung her sword with a spin, trying to hit him with the butt of the hilt. But this time, rather than deflecting it, he defended himself with a small barrier, as promised, without even looking as he kicked her straight at the abdomen and launched her away.
She hit the ground a few times before skidding to a stop, her sword scraping the ground to catch herself. She breathed rapidly, her mind working overdrive.
This was… unexpected. She knew that most of the time, she was the one training Zeke, so her getting countered like this was soon to happen if Zeke got a little stronger. But it happened faster than she expected. Even when she tried to react as fast as she could, the way he suddenly uses magic once again catches her off guard. She thought if she could trick him into fighting physically, she could win with a single strike, but he surprised her by going all out physically for the past few seconds.
This entire fight lasted only a few seconds, yet she was already winded. Her muscles ached from the blows he dealt to her, and her sweat was beginning to cloud her eyes as she fluttered them away with the lids. She stared back at Zeke who was also breathing frantically.
Despite being able to hit him as often as she could, as even he couldn’t keep up with her speed and tenacity, the damn bastard didn’t look even slightly injured. He kept healing himself, making him appear like nothing even happened.
It felt so unfair, she wanted to call it out. She never felt so backed against a corner like this.
Yet despite it all, she found herself smiling. Her heart was racing and bubbling in anticipation. What is he gonna do next? Would she be able to block it? Would he use his barriers for something? What if he uses his runes?
These kept running in her head as she got back into the fight, once again getting into close-combat with Zeke of all people. She didn’t even care that the crowd was becoming bigger and bigger, the news of Zeke actually managing to keep up with Mikella reaching everyone’s ears.
She didn’t even care that the Bastion soldiers were out there, ready to screw them over whenever they wanted. All she saw right now was Zeke and the battlefield, and right now, Zeke was in charge.
But not for long.
This time, she didn’t hold back as lightning coursed through her veins. Not only did it make her faster, it also increased her reaction time, allowing her to see through Zeke’s tactics with ease. Every time she struck him, he either defended himself or used his barrier. Each method has its own pros and cons. It made her wary of how strong each of her attacks should be, as pouring all her power into one strike against a barrier would disrupt her blows, while not putting everything into a chance attack as he blocked it with his arms or hands would only make the fight last longer in his favor.
So she tried to randomize her attacks. Each weak blow is charged with electricity, and each strong strike with her own. As the fight continued, she felt her Mana evaporating each second as charging herself with her lightning used up quite a bit. But Zeke somehow managed to keep up, though there was a hint of anxiety on his face.
He stopped using his hands after taking too many electrified hits as he slowly started backing away. Mikella rushed forward, taking the momentum back into her favor. She was just about to use her Lightning Strike art, her wooden sword charged with electricity and kinetic energy, before Zeke summoned a barrier–but he didn’t defend against her attack.
Instead, a flying pen flew in as quickly as her lightning and drew runes. Suddenly a flock of butterbirds appeared in front of her, causing her vision to become riddled with crystalline feathers. Her mind whirled, but she focused harder on the fight. She stopped moving, allowing herself to sense her surroundings. Before anything could happen, she sent out a wave of electricity to cover her surroundings, stopping or destroying the butterbirds in her path as she swung her sword backwards.
Zeke was there, but he managed to defend himself with his barrier and launched a palm strike right across her face. At the time, she thought Zeke wanted to avoid outright punching her. But that palm strike was clearly stronger than it looked.
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It made her vision blurry, and her sense of balance was broken. Before she could do much else, she backed away, holding her head to her hands.
They never once spoke or bantered like they usually did. Whenever she landed a strong hit on him, she would joke at his misfortune and Zeke took it in stride. But this time, they were utterly silent.
Mikella looked up to see him haggard. It wasn’t the exhaustion of the fight, but the mental fatigue. While she was getting her ass handed to her, he was keeping up the entire time, putting more strain.
But there was still that sense of security in his fighting style. That underlying emotion of never being able to break through no matter how hard she fought.
She grinned. Her heart felt like it was about to flutter out of her chest as she rose to her feet. Her eyes kept widening, and she felt her chest tightening and gasping for air.
She let out harsh breaths, but she wasn’t panicking–she was filled with unbridled excitement.
Her Class, her attunement, her very core–they all agreed with her sentiments. Right now, she was being pushed to her very limits, all done by her own partner.
Her fingers grasped onto her sword hilt tighter, and an idea formed in her mind. Without even giving it a second thought, she dashed forward, roaring like a madwoman hellbent on slaughter. She flared Draconic Fury, her class’s only buff skill as her body became enhanced in a similar way to Zeke’s. Her eyes glowed with her Hawk Eyes, all the power she could muster flowing out of her.
Zeke’s eyes widened in alarm before activating his barrier, but she didn’t even care about the little game they were playing. All she wanted was to bring her full force as she not only held her sword in her right hand, she summoned her spear out of her storage pack.
Then her axe, then her hammer. She just flung them out into the air and let them fly over for a second. That alone caused Zeke to stop for a second to figure out exactly what she was planning on doing.
Oh, the look on his face when he would find out. Her attunement roared by her order as electricity coiled out of her body, and blasted at her weapons.
But instead of just blowing them away, she held them tight. Both axe and hammer were now in the air, wielded by none other than her electricity.
It was then that Zeke realized it. But it was too late for him to reconsider his actions.
She slammed against his barrier over and over and over again. slashing the barrier with her sword, piercing it with her spear, chopping it with her axe, and bashing it with her hammer. She poured all she had into breaking through his barrier which was a lot bigger than what was normally agreed on.
But she didn’t care. That just meant she pushed him to his limits. And she planned on breaking through. She roared defiantly, no longer caring about her form and her training.
All she wanted was to pour every single bit of energy she had into her weapons, her stamina and mana be damned. Her sword’s blade flowed with her Lightning Strike to cut through the barrier, and with her spear being in her hand, it got the same treatment.
Considering that the weapons she were using now were actual weapons and not wooden, her spear became fully charged with more power contrary to her sword. She could hear dings in the back of her mind, but she didn’t focus on it. Instead, she saw the barrier crack ever so slowly, with Zeke trying to reinforce it with all of his mana.
Zeke gritted his teeth as his pens drew runes from inside his barrier, trying to bombard her with his Runic Spells. Fireballs, Ice Spikes , Earth Bullets, and many, many Wind Slices were thrown at her, but her electricity blasted them apart and turned them into particles. Some managed to hit her, but as she kept attacking the barrier, her Forced Regeneration picked up the slack by recovering her resources.
She needed more. She needed more power. Her stamina waned as her mana flared in response, becoming more prominent in her mind. Her electricity became stronger as a result, as though something just clicked.
Then she spotted the barrier changing in her eyes. Not in her physical eyes, but in her mind. She felt the barrier break little by little, and little bits of magical energy trying to pour their way into it. She knew Zeke’s barriers more than anyone else, and she knew there were spots where even Zeke can’t recover from easily.
Her mana charged her spear as she raised it up and chucked it with all her might. The lightning and kinetic energy flowing into it changed compared to when she charged her sword. The shape prolonged itself, becoming denser as it flew like an arrow straight at the bottom left of the barrier, where it was the weakest.
All that power pinpointed into a single target smashed through the barrier, breaking it apart. Zeke looked aghast, his face pale as Mikella launched herself at him before he could summon another barrier.
She rushed at him, forcing him to keep focus and try to batter her away with his hands. One strike after another, Zeke refused to let Mikella through. As the electricity shocked him, his robes burnt away to reveal exposed skin marked with strange tattoos that glowed brighter than ever before. They were charged with intense mana, and were being charged even at this moment as he roared along with Mikella’s crazed fervor.
But as her body took the blows that could’ve–rather should have–taken her down, she refused to give in. She swung her sword at him one more time, taking the chance to attack right after he dealt a powerful blow to her abdomen.
It struck at his shoulder blades, gasping air before she kicked him on the stomach then pushed him down by tackling and straddling over his torso.
She raised her wooden sword, now charred as though it was used as kindle for a campfire. Electricity not only hit Zeke, but also willed her other weapons to form behind her.
There was a solemn moment between the two before eventually Mikella grinned, blood trailing from her lips and sweat beating her brow.
“I… win,” She said, her voice husky with exhaustion.
Zeke breathed heavily as the electricity trickled down, and her weapons fell to the ground. They were burnt and smoking, trails of hot smoke traveling up to the air. She lowered her sword as her chest heaved.
“Yeah… yeah you did,” Zeke nodded. “Damn…”
He sounded disappointed, and she was glad for that. That meant that he wanted to continue, to be better.
What else is going to happen if Zeke got better at it? Would she get pushed back even harder? That idea alone set her heart ablaze with anticipation.
“Whoa! Hey! Mikky, take it easy!”
Mikella was driven out of her daydreams of her and Zeke nearly fighting to the death when she noticed Myra running up towards her with Piker in tow. There was also Philip and Jackie behind them, worried looks on their faces.
Both Zeke and Mikella looked confused at the response, but when they noticed the scene around them, they realized it.
Each soldier watched with awe in their eyes. Looks of awe as well as concern were in their eyes as they watched the fight unfold.
It looked like they were worried that they might actually kill each other in this supposed sparring match. Embarrassment flushed her face as she realized that she was the one that took it too far.
She got off of Zeke, but he didn’t even move. When she noticed why, she gasped. His body was riddled with burns and cuts and… why were his legs bent in an odd angle?
“Oh my god, Zeke!” Mikella backed away, her eyes widening. “Did I break your legs?!”
“Ain’t that kinda obvious?” Myra said, her stare flaring disbelief at her.
She didn’t even realize just how far she was going at the fight. Not only did she wail at him with her weapons–her actual weapons–she even went as far as charging her tackle with enough force from her lightning and kinetic energy to literally break his legs from the force.
Hell, she almost outright killed him. It was no wonder the soldiers looked tense all over.
“Hey, it’s fine,” Zeke said, and that got everyone, including Mikella, to look back at him as though he lost his head. “Seriously, look.”
Zeke was already at work, using his mana to heal his injuries. Though his legs took a while to ‘unbent’ themselves and return. Sounds of bones smashing together into place made everyone cringe, and some with weaker wills just hurled or fainted right then and there. The healers were already there, but seeing Zeke healing himself just fine, decided to just back away with Cacia almost losing the color on her face at the sight of him.
“See?” Zeke said, smiling as though this really wasn’t a huge deal.
“Zeke, don’t you feel… something?” Piker asked, furrowing his brow. “Wouldn’t that be extremely painful?”
“Oh, right,” Zeke nodded, understanding the issue. “Umm, well, my secret training got my Pain Resistance to max out, so that’s probably why I don’t feel much except… well, it’s still painful, but doable?”
He asked as though he didn’t even know how to explain, but that got everyone who listened to gasp in shock.
“You got your Pain Resistance to max?” Mikella asked, and then slowly pointed at herself. “Was that…?”
“Oh, I already got it before we fought. But man, am I glad I got it in time. You just destroyed me!”
Zeke chuckled like this was all just a fun game to play. Even though everyone can clearly see that his legs were still in the recovery process as they were slowly shifting back into form. It was such a grotesque scene that if Zeke wasn’t laughing like a prank gone off on him, she would’ve thought she was seeing a horror movie.
Myra, however, placed her hands on her hips with a scowl.
“How can you say that when she left you in this state? And Mikky, what the fuck?!”
Myra turned back on Mikella so hard that it left her silent for a while.
“I get that you were excited, but even we didn’t go that far to train,” Myra gestured at herself and Piker, who nodded in approval. “Even if you’re a Berserker, that doesn’t mean you can just go apeshit and nearly kill our only Runist and, do I really need to remind you?--Your own partner?”
Mikella’s cheeks burned hotter as Myra, the usual hotheaded girl with a penchant for overtraining herself, was now scolding Mikella that she took training too far. Honestly, it was a little humiliating. Still, Myra made a lot of good points.
“Hah… you’re right. Zeke, I’m sorry.”
“Hey, no problem,” Zeke said with a wave, using his favorite catchphrase. Somehow that made her feel even worse.
“Alright, alright, that’s enough,” Val’s voice entered the scene, getting everyone to look back at the Lords coming in with the general in tow. “Mikky had enough. She’s reflecting on this and will learn her lesson in due time. For now, return to your activities before this and leave them be. Show’s over!”
The crowd that watched quickly settled off due to Val’s orders. There were murmurs of excitement and whispers of disbelief among everyone, still thinking about the battle that just occured. As the scene cleared, only the Journeymen and the group remaining were left behind. Cloud came over and offered a hand to Zeke, getting the barrier mage up onto his feet.
“You did well, even if it went a little too far,” Cloud said, smiling. “But damn, that was a good fight.”
“Right?” Zeke grinned. “I almost got her, but I didn’t think she would go so far!”
She cringed at how excited Zeke was, as though he only just challenged her in a PVP match in a game. Considering that he was just a Runist with no skills meant for combat, she only felt worse as a result.
That finally got Piker to ask what was on everyone’s minds. “Zeke, what exactly did you do to keep up with Mikella? And… what are those on your body?”
Mikella realized what Piker meant as she noticed the now exposed skin on Zeke’s arms and the bottom half of his torso. There were rune markings on his body, or on his skin. Almost like tattoos except that they were deeper than normal.
Strangely enough, she could notice the mana pouring through them even now, but it was vastly faint compared to when she first spotted them.
Zeke preened like a peacock after that question was asked, with Cloud following along with a small smile behind him.
He explained everything on how he received the massive gains before returning to the base camp. Mikella was shocked to find out that the reason for his Pain Resistance advancing was due to him tattooing runes into his body. That also got the others to gape in surprise and horror, and that only increased when Zeke continued.
Val didn’t look at all pleased on the side, especially after seeing Zeke not even looking traumatized, but ecstatic at his gains. Then, he showed his notifications to everyone, but he mostly showed all of it to Mikella, including another maxed skill and even a title.
“A title, two maxed skills, and a way to increase your stats however you like…” Mikella muttered in awe after seeing how much he had improved.
He truly had improved so much, in a way that she didn’t think was possible. He did all this to avoid changing his path from being a supporter, only becoming a new existence she nor anybody else has ever seen before.
She even noticed Zacharia’s usually stoic face change to that of awe. If that wasn’t enough to impress him, she didn’t know what would.
“I had to make a lot of revisions while I was working on them,” Zeke said, looking delighted as he showed his runes to everyone.
He showed his arms, One forearm had a rune, and his other two different runes. He even showed runes on his ankles and forelegs, on top of his torso, showing just how motivated he was. Mikella can’t even imagine the kind of pain he went through, considering that his Pain Resistance maxed out when she still only has hers at level 8.
Everyone just stared slack jawed at his revelation. He had to make… revisions? If Mikella heard right, that meant that Zeke had to re-do his rune tattoos to make them better? That just meant repeating the same painful process of carving runes.
And with a healing skill on hand…
“I’m just glad that doing this doesn’t cost me as much mana as fighting with Rune spells. I spent so much mana into my barrier that I thought my collar might act up.”
Zeke tugged on his collar, which looked so worn down at that point that Mikella can’t even imagine Zeke without wearing it. Putting aside the fact that he can even use magic so effectively at all which stumped everyone else but her.
“Still, that fight proved that I still have a long way to go to get used to fighting like a warrior. I know that I’ll never be as strong as Mikella, with her own class skills to back her up, but at least this way I can keep up with everyone else. I’m still not sure if I wanna use a weapon though…”
Zeke chuckled wryly at that. Despite how bad she felt before, knowing that Zeke will continue doing this only made her more excited. So far, he’s the only one that was able to push her to the brink. She had no other choice but to keep getting stronger–at the least, to avoid getting shown up by Zeke of all people.
“On that note…” Val said, interrupting the fun as she stared at Mikella. Mikella quickly shivered under her sight, expecting to get yelled at. “Mikella, you improved, didn’t you? What did you increase this time?”
At first, she was confused. But after remembering the ding from earlier, she looked up her notification only for her brows to reach the top of her head.
“Oh shit.”
She was actually more afraid of revealing this info to everyone, but clearly everyone was looking at her in expectation after her tiny remark. She grinned sheepishly, but mostly at Myra and Piker who somehow noticed, their eyes widening in response.
“Well… my Hawk Eyes maxed. And uhh… so did my Spear Mastery. So… Yay?”
Zeke only tilted his head upwards, avoiding the flabbergasted look on Piker and Myra’s faces while the Journeymen could only look at them pitifully.