Joram hadn’t felt such a sense of imminent danger and death since he’d hidden away from that titan crossing the valley shortly after he left his lone mountaintop.
He could feel not just Alicia’s eyes on him, but also those of Bai Lian and Mo Yu from where they stood near the kitchen. The weight of those stares combined with Emily’s breasts lightly brushing his chest as she stood on tiptoe to stare at him nearly made him shift away right then and there. Screw the consequences.
The next urge that he had to beat down with a crowbar was the urge to snatch Emily up and carry her away so that he could relieve the insane amount of tension she’d generated in him. It was very hard staring into her huge, cat-like eyes as she looked up at him, a provocative smile on her face.
It was so bad that he pulled M3 from cultivation duty to help him regulate his pulse along with everything else.
“I’m flattered Miss Hornwood,” he said, holding his ground for some stupid reason. “The only thing that I could possibly tutor you in is hand-to-hand combat. Unfortunately, since you’re two years ahead of me, I’m not sure how much you’d get out of it.”
If anything, his response seemed to excite her further. He watched as her smile grew wider, turning slightly predatory with a hint of eagerness, as her eyes dilated bit by bit until she looked like a cat that had gotten into the bag of catnip.
“I’m not so sure about that,” she said as she reached her arms up so that she could place her hands on his shoulders, giving him a light squeeze. “It seems that you’re very fit for an Alchemist. Why don’t we try going a few rounds to see how well you do?”
Joram then pulled M4 off [Genesis] duty to do something he very much didn’t like doing, but might just save his life.
M4 manifested [Read Thoughts], a much lower level power than [Mind Probe] which he’d been about to use. [Read Thoughts], though, wasn’t invasive at all, merely allowing him to read the surface thoughts of anyone within range.
What he read from Emily’s surface thoughts made him grin, then pass along his findings to Alicia, Bai Lian, and Mo Yu.
“Then if you have some time, why don’t we head to one of the sparring grounds right now? I’m all done with the interviews for today,” he asked with a smile as he tilted his head down slightly so that their faces were just inches apart.
“Then follow me,” she said, swaying forward first to press herself a bit more into him before swaying back, spinning on her heel, then making her way out the front door.
A few minutes of running later, he found himself across from Emily in one of the sparring arenas, surrounded by a cheering crowd. Alicia, Bai Lian, Mo Yu, and Wentian had followed him out the house. What surprised him was Renna’s presence, on the other side of the arena standing behind Emily, until the words “Renna-chi” came back into his mind.
He hoped that Renna wouldn’t hold this spar against him. He was sure that Emily was a late Tier 3 Mage, though one who seemed to specialize in melee combat if her excitement for the match and the long Wolverine style claws she was putting on here any indication.
‘Are you sure that this is a good idea?’ Avi asked as she saw the claws literally go on.
‘I don’t think that they’re adamantium, nor are they enchanted above Tier 3,’ he sent as he squinted as the lethal-looking blades. ‘It shouldn’t be too hard to finish this without shredding my clothes,’ he finished, sending Avi a wink.
‘Har-har,’ she sent back. ‘If you hadn’t used [Read Thoughts] on her, I was about to skin that frisky cat for getting too close. I’m also sure that the girls would have joined me,’ she sent with the image of a hungry grin.
“Aren’t you going to take out a weapon?” Emily called over, holding up her claws to show them off.
“I told you, I’m only really proficient in hand-to-hand combat,” he yelled back, getting not a few people in the crowd to yell for him to go home and stop bothering their goddess. “But you won’t have to worry about me using any combat spells or arrays. Let’s just keep things physical,” he finished with a smirk, finally getting a reaction out of her.
It wasn’t a blush for his blatant inuendo, but a frown.
“You should use any body strengthening spells you know,” she said seriously. “I also practice a body refining technique, so I’m much stronger than I look.”
His opinion of the battle junky improved after hearing her say that. Most people would keep their cards close to their chest so that they could surprise their opponent.
What an honest/dishonest kid, he thought as a smile unknowingly crept onto his face.
“Don’t worry, I do too,” he said, then started walking to the middle of the arena as she gawked at him for a moment before she started to move.
Emily shot forward, her left arm extended in a simple thrust, likely to test his words.
Joram easily side-stepped the thrust before grabbing at her extended left arm. He stopped just before her other claw could connect with his hand, drawing them back to narrowly avoid her parry.
He slid back to avoid a back-handed claw to the midsection, then continued dodging left and right as she did her best impression of Wolverine’s “Berserker Barrage”. He was impressed with the speed of her attacks, guessing that her body refining technique focusses on speed and dexterity.
At the end of her attack sequence, she surprised him by leaping forward into a combination of a forward flip and an ax kick aimed at his head. He barely had time to slide mostly out of the way, her heel still connecting with the edge of his shoulder.
The astonishingly heavy impact knocked him off balance, allowing Emily to perform as sweep kick as she landed, taking out his feet from under him. He watched her as he fell, the world feeling like it was in slow motion. She came up after the sweep kick using her centripetal motion to add power to her two-armed upward slash aimed at his kidneys.
Did I manage to really piss her off, or is she always this crazy during a spar? He asked himself as he began to twist in the air. As the claws came closer, he could see that they were dull. Well, given how hard she was swinging, he was sure that she could still cut through a normal Tier 3 Mage with that strike.
Joram shot a hand out and slapped the side of her left arm, making it divert into her right arm and causing not only her attack to fail, but it also made her lose her balance. He used his other hand to spring off the ground, flipping over Emily as she regained her balance.
He could feel his blood rising now, the call of a fight making it surge. He didn’t know, but his smile got wider.
He dashed forward as Emily finally spun to face him, bringing her claws to bear. Instead of allowing her to regain the initiative, he began throwing out jabs and kicks so fast that it put her on the back foot.
* * * * *
“Hey, isn’t that the kid who fought the honour duel on his first day?” Avi heard someone off to her left ask his friend.
“Now that you mention it, he does kind of look like that guy.”
“Didn’t he take down a Tier 4 Magic Swordsman?”
“Nah, the guy tripped before getting to the kid and stunned himself. The kid just needed to pick up the Swordsman’s fallen blade to end the fight. Heard he decapitated the guy.”
“Isn’t that still hard to do to someone a whole Tier above you? Their bodies are a lot stronger.”
“That’s true…” the guy trailed off as he watched Joram’s mid-air counter and dodge. “Wouldn’t that mean that our White Princess is in trouble?”
Avi noticed that the crowd around the two grew very quiet as they processed that information. In the meantime, she could see Joram’s smile growing wider and wider as he attacked Emily. She could also feel his fighting spirit growing by the second.
From what she’d read, Emily was only in Tier 3. Sure, she seemed like a very talented woman, but she was no match for Joram, even before his most recent assimilation and training.
Now? She was sure that Joram could end the fight at any time given the vast disparity in their raw power. But as she studied his attacks, she found that he was keeping the speed of his attacks just a bit faster than her own occasional counterattack.
From the way he baited her into attacking to how he kept her every-so-slightly off balance, she came to the conclusion that he was doing exactly as he’d promised her. He was training her.
With that thought came the release of any tension she’d unconsciously been holding onto as she watched the fight. Even though she’d told Joram that she’d been about to skin Emily for her audacious flirting, she’d been genuinely worried for the girl when she both saw Joram’s smile and felt his rising fighting spirit.
They hadn’t yet tested the legendary battle lust of their new heritage. She’d worried that he wouldn’t be able to hold back as the fight progressed, resulting in Emily being seriously injured. It was no joke for a Tier 5 cultivator who also refined their body to spar with a mere Tier 3 cultivator. One wrong move and the lower Tier combatant would instantly die.
She refocussed on the fight then, resolving to intercede should things get out of hand.
The attacks they were exchanging were so swift and powerful that the near hits started to fray their clothing due to the wind pressure created by the attacks. Joram looked the worst of the two, probably because of Emily’s blades allowed for more efficient air compression than Joram’s fists did. Not that she’d complain at seeing Joram’s shirt being torn off during the fight.
That said, Alicia might step in soon anyway just to save Emily’s modesty. Her body suit had more than a few holes forming along her sides and hips, their edges fraying more and more as the wind pulled at the edges.
The two spectators who’d identified Joram suddenly started yelling for their “White Princess” to finish off Joram. Soon, the spectators surrounding them picked up the chant, filling the arena with their devotion to their White Princess.
Bai Lian and Mo Yu had their eyes glued to the fight along with Wentian. Alicia looked over to where Renna was watching and found that she was staring back at her.
Alicia grinned at the woman before turning back to watch the fight.
Her grin slowly faded as she watched Emily slowly start to emit a visible aura that looked like blood-red flames. As she launched attack after attack, Alicia saw that her eyes were slowly growing redder and redder until they, too, started to glow slightly.
Alicia started to unconsciously chew her bottom lip as she tried to keep up with their increasing speed. What was worse was that Joram was also starting to emit a visible aura, though his looked like fire made of jade lightning. Not only that, but their attacks were getting so fast that they were blurring in her vision.
There was no way that she could stop an accident from occurring now.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
‘Joram?’ She sent him urgently, now very worried that he might accidentally kill the young woman.
‘Joram?!’ She sent again, this time more urgently than before, now getting very scared of what might happen.
She looked over to Renna and found that she, too, looked incredibly worried.
‘Kinkade?!’ In desperation, she tried Kinkade and almost fell over in relief when he responded.
‘Hey, yeah, this is a thing,’ he sent, sounding a bit concerned. ‘I’m not sure if he’s in some for of intense battle focus or if he’s lost himself in the fight. Either way, he’s not responding.’
‘That’s a bad thing!’
‘Well, maybe. That girl seems to have an interesting bloodline that’s allowing her to fight well above her weight-class,’ he sent, pointing out the obvious. ‘If I was the one fighting, I’d likely choose to exhaust her instead of trying to break away as she’s more than likely to just follow him anywhere he went.’
‘And that might get people hurt or killed,’ Alicia finished the thought for him, getting a mental nod of acknowledgement in return.
‘So, we just pray that he doesn’t slip up?’ She asked, still worried about Emily.
‘Yup,’ Kinkade replied in a blasé tone. ‘But don’t worry, we can easily keep up with this pace and jump in if needed.’
Alicia heaved a sigh of relief, catching Bai Lian and Mo Yu’s attention in the process.
‘Do you know something we don’t?’ Mo Yu sent, her concern also plain to see and feel.
‘He’d going to try to tire her out,’ she sent back, refocussing on the fight.
‘That could work,’ Wentian piped in. ‘But that kid isn’t going to stop for a while. May as well make ourselves comfortable then.’
Then, much to the astonishment of those watching the fight across from him, he retrieved a chair from his storage ring along with some snacks. She was about to join him when she remembered something.
She looked back to the two battle maniacs and saw what she’d feared would come to pass.
Joram was fighting in the remnants of his pants that now looked more like Daisy-Duke’s than shorts, his shirt entirely gone. Not only that, but even his shorts wouldn’t last long as his aura was now so potent that the shorts were smouldering.
She focussed on Emily and saw that she was in almost the same state of undress as Joram. The only stiches of clothing remaining on her was the bottom portion of her skin suit that also happened to be smouldering from her own fiery aura, leaving the rest of her exposed to the hungry eyes of the audience.
Then she started to get mad at Joram. Couldn’t he have stopped this long before it got to this point? So what if he’d said that he would tutor/train her. That the fight progressed to the point that a young woman was exposed to the lecherous gazes of the audience was beyond unreasonable to her.
Joram and Emily didn’t have some great animosity between them. No, it was just a stupid sparring match. How would Emily be able to show her face after this?
‘Kinkade. Why didn’t Joram stop this before it got to this point,’ she asked, keeping her rising anger under control… for now.
‘Yeah, we tried that. It seems that she’d got one hell of a will save in that state,’ he sent back, sounding distracted.
Ah.
* * * * *
Jae-Eun couldn’t believe her eyes. Well, what she could see when she dodged around Aya’s hand to catch a glimpse of Joram’s spar with Miss Hornwood.
Not that she was trying to sneak a peak at Joram’s naked form. Well, mostly not. But she was genuinely invested in the fight. She hadn’t seen something like this since before she’d come to the Academy.
Well, not like this. People sparring back home had the presence of mind to wear clothing that could stand up to a spar. And their auras.
That she was seeing aura manifestation right now shocked her more than a little bit. As far as she knew, the phenomenon was primarily found amongst practitioners, not cultivators. Well, people with unique bloodlines could also manifest an aura when they grew powerful enough. But seeing Miss Hornwood’s aura when she as only in the Human Realm astonished her.
And if that was enough to shake her, seeing Joram with such a unique aura nearly made her faint.
She looked to Aya again and found that her eyes were glued to the blur of a fight in front of her.
“What do you suppose his bloodline is,” she asked her guardian as quietly as she could in the cacophony made by the spectators.
“…”
Jae-Eun nearly ground her teeth together in frustration. Not only wasn’t Aya going to answer her, but she was still trying to block her view of the amazing fight.
After another moment, she managed to dodge around Aya’s hand just in time to see the last two seconds of the fight.
She couldn’t quite make out what happened, but she definitely saw the results.
Miss Hornwood had leapt forward and as Joram started to step back, his foot slipped slightly. This not only caused him to miss the timing of his dodge, but resulted in him dropping down slightly, coming even with Miss Hornwood’s face.
The resulting collision of her head meeting his cracked through the arena, instantly silencing everyone present. She watched as her head snapped back while her body continued on to slam into Joram, sending them both flying.
She winced as Joram landed on his back and slid across the damaged stone floor of the arena, Miss Hornwood laying on top of him for the ride. She was glad that Miss Hornwood wouldn’t have to go through the pain of having her skin peeled off by the stage like Joram… but still felt sorry for him. Better that he got a few good-looking scars than Miss Hornwood suffer the same fate.
Scars just look better on men, she thought, the blushed furiously as she saw how the two of them were laying on the stage.
“Time to go,” Aya said, clapping her hand over Jae-Eun’s eyes and hauling her away.
* * * * *
Man, what a blunder, Joram thought as Emily’s face smacked into his, knocking her out cold. He would have been glad that the fight had finally ended if Newton’s First Law hadn’t gotten involved.
No, instead he found himself flying through the air with Emily’s body pressed against his in a way that almost nobody else would appreciate, especially Emily. So, as they flew through the air, he had Kinkade sent an augmented [Mend Body] into Emily to heal her cracked scull before they landed. Which brought up another good point.
If Emily were to land by herself, she’d suffer some epic road rash. Which might lead to a disfiguring injury, which also might then lead to her insane fanboys coming after his head. Not to mention how Emily might feel about such an injury.
So, he subtly adjusted his posture and the placement of his hands before he landed, ensuring that he would cushion her fall and protect her from further injury.
He was about to congratulate himself on a job well done when Kinkade piped in.
Kinkade: Hey, you realize that we’re both naked, right?
Well, shit.
Now that Kinkade pointed out that inconvenient fact, he couldn’t not feel her skin on his. Just as their slide across the arena floor ended, he saw the looks on Alicia’s, Bai Lian’s, and Mo Yu’s faces and knew that he was in for it.
So, doing the right and good thing, he summoned a sheet from his miraculously intact storage ring and draped it over them. Then, as he rolled over with Emily in his arms, he summoned another to cover his backside as he quickly wrapped Emily up like the most delicate thing in the world before wrapping his sheet around his waist like a sarong.
All told, it took less than two seconds to get them both wrapped up, giving him plenty of time to see the stunned faces of the audience as he picked Emily up in a princess carry.
The girls were still mad at him, so that wasn’t a surprise. But seeing Renna’s astonished look was more than a little bit gratifying. He started walking over to her before the audience had recovered from their shock. But seeing him approach her, Renna managed to snap out of it and got moving.
They met halfway and stopped there to awkwardly stare at each other for a moment before he cleared his throat.
“Um, she said you were friends,” he started, then cleared his throat again. “Could you, ah, take her home or something?”
Renna soon got over her own awkwardness and nodded, accepting Emily into her arms.
“I’ll see you later then,” Renna said before she turned and hurried off, Emily held tightly in her arms.
“Are you going to put a shirt on?” Alicia asked kindly from behind him.
Not bothering to waste time by answering, he retrieved a spare lace-up shirt and pulled it on, then a pair of cargo shorts that he quickly wiggled into under the sheet. By then, the audience had grown more than a bit heated, so he allowed Alicia to pull him through the gathering crowd as the Trio acted as wave cutters.
Once they’d broken through the encirclement, Joram scooped Alicia up and ran the rest of the way home with the Trio. He was very glad that they’d all reached Tier 5, as they were all able to run at the same speed.
A minute later, they were all sitting in the living room quietly sipping tea.
“So,” Alicia said, shedding her disguise and appearing as Avi. “What was that?”
“I have no excuse,” Joram replied immediately, hanging his head in shame.
“That’s not what I asked,” Avi said quietly as she looked at him.
“Looks like I’m not the only battle junky here,” Wentian said with a grin, then wilted under the combined glares of the three women present.
“So?” Avi asked, now leaning back in her chair, arms crossed across her chest and legs crossed at the knee. With her raised chin, she very much looked like a tsundere queen passing judgement on him.
“I,” he started, but stopped to gulp back the words he was about to say for he didn’t want to admit it. “I… I think that I’m a… a battle maniac,” he finally managed to say, shamed beyond belief.
Even back on Earth, he’d prided himself on his levelheadedness. Even when being mugged one time after work, he’d kept his cool to the point where the two muggers were so flustered, they eventually just took off. Heck, even when drunks picked fights with him, he hadn’t bothered to do anything to them, instead choosing to persuade their friends to have a good talk with the drunk after they’d sobered up.
But now?
He’d been so intent and focussed on the fight that he’d gotten tunnel vision; he hadn’t even realized that they’d literally blown each other’s clothes off during the fight.
He was sagged so low that his elbows rested on his knees as his head hung limply. But he could still “see” their reactions.
Wentian looked like the cat who proudly brought back a kill for their beloved master. Bai Lian and Mo Yu both looked… conflicted. There was a mix of weariness, disbelief, and oddly understanding. For Avi, well, she looked more guilty than anything else, even if she was trying to keep an angry expression plastered to her face.
“I’ll also go apologize to Emily later,” he said to the floor, feeling especially bad about how she’d ended up.
That… didn’t get the reaction he expected. All three women’s eyes suddenly light up with a fiery intensity as they glared at him again.
What the hell? Am I not supposed to apologize?
“We’ll take care of the apology,” Avi said cooly. “You just need to work on… curbing your battle-lust.”
The way she said that made it sound dirty to him, but he agreed with what was said.
“I’ll begin training more,” he said, still feeling like crap even though the fight had made him feel so alive just a little while ago.
“I can help with that,” Wentian courageously piped in. “Even though I saw your evaluation at the Quest Hall, I didn’t think that you’d reached such a level yet,” he said, nodding to himself. “I’m not sure if I’ll be a good enough to push you, but I do specialize in hand-to-hand combat.”
“Ah, perfect!” Bai Lian said happily, clapping her hands together. “I was going to offer, but I’m not very good with that sort of thing,” she said sheepishly.
Mo Yu looked over at her, an appraising look in her eye, but said nothing.
“Good!” Joram said, glad to have some help. “I’ll even make some training gear so that… incident won’t repeat itself…” he said, trailing off when the image of Emily flashed across him mind.
“Please do,” Avi said lightly, though her frosty look told him everything.
“Well, I’ll just head off and get to work!” He announced as he stood up and gave them a quick salute.
The Trio looked confused before he shifted away, but that didn’t matter.
In his workshop once again, he started going through his stock of materials. It had been a long time since he’d made something new, so he was looking forward to the challenge.
* * * * *
She watched her friend slowly rousing, hands coming up to rub her eyes as she yawned.
It was a bit surreal to her. From the sound their heads had made when they’d rammed together had made her think that Emily’s brain would have been jellied from the impact.
But not only did she not have anything more than a slight bruise on her forehead, that was fading already due to the salve she’d administered, but Emily was already waking up.
“What happened?” Emily asked drowsily as she looked around.
“You lost control,” she stated seriously.
Emily’s already milky-white skin lost even more of its colour as her eyes widened in fright, then drooped with guilt.
“How many?” She asked listlessly.
“None.”
“I see. I’ll apolog-,” Emily started to reply automatically until her response sunk in. “Wait! How?! Wasn’t I fighting with that first-year?”
Renna could understand Emily’s confusion. The last time that she’d lost control in a spar, not only had her sparring partner been grievously wounded, but also several others when they’d gone to recue their friend. In the end, one of the Martial Combat instructors had needed to intervene and subdue Emily.
Even then, it was a narrow victory for the Tier 5 Pugilist.
“It seems that our junior isn’t as simple as he seems,” Renna thoughtfully replied as her head tilted to the side, her index finger now tapping her lips.
“Isn’t he supposed to be a Mentalist?” Emily asked, confusion written all over her face.
“He is, isn’t he?” Renna said, a smile growing on her face.
“So,” Emily said slowly, quickly working through her thoughts as she spoke. “If he’s a Mentalist, he must be strong. Wait, didn’t he say that he’s also a body refiner? What a weird kid,” she finished with a shake of her head.
“That he is,” Renna said, then got a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “He also seems to be more gentlemanly than I’d initially assessed him at,” she finished with a teasing smile.
“What’re you on about?” Emily asked, a suspicious look settling on her face.
“Well, your… exchanges were so energetic and vigorous that your clothing, and his, didn’t survive the fight.”
Emily gave her a weird look before speaking.
“And? Clothes usually get ruined in a fight like that,” she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“True,” she said, her smile growing wider, causing Emily’s eyes to start to widen. “I was shocked to see both of you manifesting such intense battle auras. They were so strong, in fact, that both of your outfits disintegrated, leaving you both completely naked for all to see!”
“Ah, so you’re saying that he didn’t try anything funny while we were both naked?” Emily asked bluntly.
“Not only that, but I’m certain that he used his body to protect you from the fall at the end,” she said, then described how the fight had come to an unexpected end. “Not only that! But he also covered you up as fast as he could! Ah~~~, how gallant!” Renna sighed happily as she clutched her hands close to her heart.
“So, what you’re saying is that I won’t likely be able to distract him with a ‘wardrobe malfunction’ during a fight,” Emily asked flatly, bringing Renna back to the moment like ice water to the face.
“What?”
“Damn, that usually works,” she muttered to herself, looking vexed.
“What?”
“Well, I’ll just have to fight him fair and square then,” she continued mumbling to herself. “Yeah, nothing else would do for someone respectable like that.”