With the exchange haven taken place Ron was quite happy with what he had obtained, the stealth technique could come in handy later on or even as future trade deals. The body forging technique was necessary for being able to use the kindling state longer and minimising the damage it did to him. The movement technique was something Ron needed more than he originally thought, with a sudden burst of movement he could go from medium range whip attacks to close range in an instant even the opposite could be said to be possible, going from close range to long range in an instant.
Once Ankhtakelot got his hands on the crook and flail it shone brightly, the change was unexpected and abrupt yet nobody moved; they all felt the power of the crook and flail. The light coagulated into a giant figure, Ron recognised the figure as the same man in the chair during the ceremony. The figure looked at Ankhtakelot and pointed at his heart, a black wisp of smoke escaped from Ankhtakelot’s heart. Everyone recognised the feeling that the black wisp emitted, it was the same as the evil spirit. ('Was this the curse?') Ron thought as the black wisp emitted a scream as the figure consumed the wisp, then it gave a quick glance to Ron as the figure seemed entertained and disappeared again into the crook and flail.
Everyone was silent as they processed what they had just witnessed, Ankhtakelot and the old man seemed to be in awe; the former even looked like he had more colour in his face. The rest seemed to be shocked at the display, it took a little bit before Ron said "I think you misunderstood the curse", these words provoked a thoughtful expression on Ankhtakelot .
"What do you mean?" The old man asked as Ankhtakelot seemed to process Ron’s words.
"Ankhtakelot wasn’t cursed by the gods, he and the bloodline were cursed by the ancestor himself. The ancestor cursed his own bloodline to leave a trace behind so he could take them over at any time when he was out, and the god just now lifted the curse and took out the trace on the bloodline" Ron voiced his theory, in hindsight it made more sense than the gods punishing an entire bloodline for a hundred generations for the mistakes of one pharaoh.
"All this time I thought Osiris punished us, yet here he was taking out a trace of that foolish ancestor" Ankhtakelot was stunned, his entire comprehension of the entire story was suddenly turned upside down. Ron learned that the god was actually Osiris.
"Are you okay sir?" The old man was concerned about Ankhtakelot’s health, something like that being inside a person couldn't be good.
Ankhtakelot took a deep breath "I feel like an invisible weight has been lifted off my shoulders" Ron noticed something off about the man and focused, he was shocked once he realised what was off. Ron looked around and saw Scarlett looking at him before nodding at him, ('So she noticed it too?') Ron nodded and steeled his expression. Ankhtakelot had changed, it was his bloodlust, it was less chaotic than before. Did the evil spirit’s trace influence it as well?
"Now that business has been completed shall we have our spar?" Scarlett spoke up snapping Ankhtakelot out his thoughts, he grinned at Scarlett and seemed more ready than when he opened the door. "Excellent! Follow me" He said to Scarlett before turning to Ron and Sabrina "You’re free to watch if you want" Ron wasn’t going to miss this match and Sabrina was also interested to see how strong Scarlett and Ankhtakelot were.
While they walked to where Ankhtakelot was leading them Ron decided to take a cursory glance at the techniques he had obtained. First off was the soundless walking technique or ‘Shadow steps’ as it was named in the booklet, the theory behind the technique was simple; stepping as lightly as possible yet for normal humans it was close to impossible because it required incredible control over one's own body down to even their breathing.
The second technique Ron obtained was the body forging technique or as it was called in the booklet ‘Three metals one body’ it was a three stage technique where one would need to make a medicinal bath containing a different molten metal with every stage. For the first stage one would need molten copper along with a long list of other herbs and soak in the bath until everything was absorbed in the skin. The second stage needed iron for one's bones and the final stage needed gold for the insides. It sounded insane to Ron and now he knew why nobody ever dared to even attempt it, he was beginning to doubt if the technique was even tested.
Ron hoped the final technique wasn’t as diabolical in the training regime while taking out the final technique. The third and final technique was simply called ‘Multi-step’ and it was exactly like it sounded, one would need to step twice in an extremely short time frame to accelerate and maintain higher speeds. Ron felt like he had seen a technique like this before and began to recall where he had seen it before coming to the answer. This technique was kind of like ‘Soru’ or ‘Shave’ as it was called from One Piece where one needed to kick off ten times in an instant to gain super speeds, yet this one was a much more dumbed down version. Ron wondered if he could upscale it to ten later on.
That thought led to more similar thoughts, why couldn’t Ron try and copy techniques from other shows that he had seen or read about? Well for starters copying something from a different fantasy setting was more difficult that one could imagine, it was like trying to make an exact copy of the Mona Lisa while one was still beginning to paint it just wasn’t possible now. But in the future? It was certainly possible, yet Ron needed more experience with other training methods and techniques.
While Ron was in his thoughts about the future they had walked quite deep in the mansion and even went underground, it was a different entrance than the dungeon but still underground. Once they came to an open room with a simple stone platform which served as a sparring ring and some stands at the sides, there were multiple people on the platform sparring with one another and even some watching from the stands. Ankhtakelot explained that these were the guards' training grounds away from prying eyes, having your guards train in plain view wasn’t the most optimal when it came to spies.
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Ankhtakelot cleared the ring with one simple command, there wasn’t a guard who complained instead they all looked forward to the fight as they all went to the stands. Ron and Sabrina also went to the stands as Scarlett and Ankhtakelot jumped into the ring, Ankhtakelot took off his robe and simply stood there in a shirt and shorts with sandals. Scarlett didn’t have to get ready as she was always ready for combat.
"No need for a weapon?" Scarlett asked Ankhtakelot as she focused her mind on Ankhtakelot and zoned everything else out, slowly she got into her preferred fighting stance.
"You must be joking" Ankhtakelot said as he too focused only on Scarlett and got ready for combat. From the stands Ron could see and feel the tension warp the field as if a heatwave suddenly appeared from nowhere.
The silence and tension lasted for what seemed like an eternity before Scarlett moved in, she kicked off the ground with enough force to crack the tiles underneath her feet and threw a simple straight punch at Ankhtakelot’s face, Ankhtakelot responded by catching the fist head with his left hand causing a loud collision. Ankhtakelot also threw out a fist to Scarlett’s face who also blocked the fist, they seemed to be on even match as they exchanged moves at a rapid pace neither party getting a clean hit in.
Eventually they separated and Ankhtakelot shouted from the ring "That should do for the warm up right?" as he suddenly changed, the figurative heatwave became a reality as his hands and feet spontaneously combusted. ('Is this magic?') Ron thought it was a magic skill that allowed Ankhtakelot to literally use fire, it wasn’t some half assed heat he was giving off either if Ron could feel it all the way from the stands.
"Is this the magic I’ve heard so much about? I hope it doesn’t disappoint me" Scarlett said as this was indeed the first time she had encountered someone with magic. A red hue gathered around Scarlett as she activated the second stage of the kindling state, the red hue was the same colour as her flame and covered her body it empowered and protected her from the negative effects of the kindling state.
Scarlett’s change intrigued Ankhtakelot as he recognised it wasn’t magic that empowered her. Before he could ask her however Scarlett blurred from her original position as she threw a sharp claw at Ankhtakelot, Ankhtakelot quickly arched his back and dodged the claw and retaliated with a fast fist. Ankhtakelot’s speed also seemed to have improved along with the fire, Scarlett couldn’t dodge in time and quickly put a guard up. When the punch landed on Scarlett a muffled sound was heard before a sizzling one, Ron recognised the sound as the muscle guard technique that he had been trying to learn however that one had been on the back burner while in the city.
Scarlett frowned as she backed off and saw the burns on her arm yet she wasn’t the only one who was hurt, Ankhtakelot also frowned as he felt like he had just punched a plate of steel. Scarlett charged in once more with another claw, Ankhtakelot was a little confused wouldn’t this create the same outcome? Ankhtakelot saw the claw coming and arched his back again to dodge the attack however Scarlett suddenly halted her attack and changed to a swiping motion at Ankhtakelot exposed chest, Ankhtakelot didn’t expect her to change abruptly and thus was half a second too late pulling in his chest causing a large gash to appear.
Ron could swear Scarlett was out to kill Ankhtakelot with that swipe just now, was she actually trying to kill him in the middle of a spar? Ankhtakelot however retaliated by punching however his position caused him to only punch the air, but then the fire on Ankhtakelot’s fist shot out towards Scarlett’s face. Scarlett was able to put up a hasty guard however it still burned her arms. Ankhtakelot took the opportunity to jump back, Ron noticed how he used the flames under his feet to propel him back faster.
Standing in a orthodox boxing style Ankhtakelot threw out punches and with every punch thrown out a fireball would quickly follow. Scarlett ducked and weaved inbetween the barrage of fireballs trying to get closer to Ankhtakelot, suddenly Ankhtakelot shot forwards using the flames at his feet like boosters. In an instant he was close to Scarlett and punched forwards the fist however went straight through Scarlett, Ron recognised the technique as the one that caused him to lose. Scarlett appeared behind Ankhtakelot and threw out a tornado roundhouse kick Ankhtakelot tried to use his flame boosters to get out of the way however he still got clipped by Scarlett’s kick as a massive gust of wind followed the kick.
Ankhtakelot went flying across the ring mainly because of the flame boosters and a little from Scarlett’s kick, that didn’t mean he was unscathed as he felt the gust of wind that followed smash into him like a house. Ankhtakelot was breathing heavily from the bleeding at his chest and from Scarlett’s last attack. Scarlett didn’t look great either as she had multiple burn wounds over her body and breathed heavily, even at the second level the kindling state was not kind to its user as side effects followed the longer one used it.
"Let’s end this shall we" Ankhtakelot proclaimed as he underwent another change, the flames that covered his hands and feet climbed to his entire body as his hair turned from black to a red colour, the flames on his hands and feet changed from a red flame to a more orange flame.
"Alright then" Scarlett complied as the red hue on her body intensified, Ron was paying more attention to the changes as this was the third stage of the kindling state. The red hue slowly shifted on Scarlett’s body and became more vibrant in colour, eventually they all settled in a weird pattern all over her body becoming something akin to tattoo’s. Scarlett’s muscles bulged from the raw power they were trying to contain and one look at Scarlett confirmed this was anything but easy to contain.
('Were they actually going to fight to the death?') Ron thought this had gone too far yet he was in no position to actually stop them. There were some spectators who thought the same as they seemed to be looking for someone to stop them. A moment later Scarlett disappeared, it wasn’t some trick she literally exceeded everyone’s perception with pure speed. Everyone except for Ankhtakelot who narrowed his eyes and waited, suddenly he punched out and a giant flame of orange flames emitted from his fist.
Scarlett blurred back into vision and slipped past the flame and came to Ankhtakelot’s face who had a shocked expression on his face, Scarlett winded back a punch and threw it out. Just when Ron thought she had killed Ankhtakelot it stopped right before his face. A massive gust of wind followed that knocked Ankhtakelot off the platform and slammed him into the wall, everyone present had a shocked expression. The old man that was with them at the exchange quickly blurred himself and went to Ankhtakelot, however before he could reach him Ankhtakelot was already out of the wall and knelt on one knee.
"I lost, you held back that last punch. If you hadn’t I would’ve died" Ankhtakelot said to Scarlett who breathed heavily and also knelt down on one knee while she deactivated the kindling state.
"The same could be said to you, I feel like you could’ve covered a much wider range with your flames, '' Scarlett said as she heaved and twitched from her muscle spasms.
The third stage of the kindling state was no joke and extreme pain would come for a long time, however that wasn’t the only memento she had kept from the battle. Ron could see her left shoulder had blackened in colour, she literally gave up her shoulder to slip in between the fire and claim the win that way. That wouldn’t heal no matter how much time passed, that would remain a permanent scar on her body.