Auvrey

I started enhancing as soon as I could after the handshake, making my body pump into my bloodstream whatever I remembered that could give me an edge, painting my whole body with mana to give me better focus. Phi looks at me weird, either he doesn’t know what I’m doing or didn’t expect for me to have already know magic enchanting, while Drekfew was looking intensely at me, trying to pry anything that I may have learned, though luckily it is impossible to gather that just by looking, as the detail of the cast was too intricate to properly identify by sight alone. I knew spell exchanges were the only way to get something out of their hands, so I walked to my corner of the ring just in case they got something, as the only thing I had developed on my own that could be new to them was my enhancements.

Of course they knew what I was doing, Drekfew was the person who taught the basis of all I know, and as a 12 year old I thought they were really generous. Basic medicine, self-defense and simple enhancements were all taught by other members of the gym, with the intention of being paid back with some spell you developed in the future, the most promising receiving help directly from Drekfew. I hope that I paid back enough and this wasn’t some kind of elaborate punishment.

In a normal state, seeing the massive group of people slowly coming here would put my nerves at a maximum, though the concoction I was making in my blood made me weirdly excited. As my opponent wasn’t enhancing himself, he had the normal reaction of getting anxious, which was another advantage I was going to take. The front of the parade reached the ring, spreading out in a circle as they realized a fight was going to happen, especially when it was different people than they were expecting. There were even some people directing themselves to go to the group that didn’t make the walk around, since from what I could gather of the talks and actions around there, they were hosting gambling on the results of our fight. It confirmed my suspicion when I saw someone dragging a plank of wood and writing “Auvrey vs Phi”, and I still don’t know if Phi is his actual full name, or if it is just because the lettering wasn’t well planned and it just didn’t fit.

When most of the crowd arrived, Drekfew went to the middle of the ring, picking a coin and looking at me. “Are you ready?” they asked and I just nodded since I wasn’t confident the soup I was making in my body was going to allow for me to speak coherently, then after repeating the question to Phi and receiving a verbal confirmation I saw mana concentrating in their hand. I knew what came next, as they placed the coin at the palm of their hand and shot it up to the sky with position magic. It was similar to what I was doing coming here, though with an unbelievable amount of power and precision, as the coin soared to the air, going so high that Drekfew walked out of the ring and only after some more moments the coin hit the ground in a pleasant sound on the same spot it was launched from.

I went in, knowing enhancements came at a cost in the long run the more you used them, as the human body wasn’t designed to handle this. I at least knew I could keep speeding up every move with magic, and it seemed he could as well, so at least I could keep up. I rush forwards, giving a quick jab to prod his defenses, feeling all the rust of inaction corroding my coordination. The jab was slow, leaving me more vulnerable than I should be, though the surprise of the early aggression must have taken him off balance, so he didn’t capitalize on it too fast. I raised my guard in time for the counter.

They attacked doing a classic jab-cross combination that I was well prepared for, blocking the hit with relatively little damage. It still hurt bad, since some of the enhancements gave a hypersensitivity in order to improve coordination, having the big drawback of increasing pain. I had some spells for pain, with most of the good ones giving terrible side effects like drowsiness, so I had to settle for the slow acting and weak one I was currently using, which resulted in a net-neutral to net-negative resistance to pain. His move was a bit slow to recuperate and my battle sense wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t pounce in his open right side.

I made a jab-cross combination back, using the first to exploit the open right flank, which caused him to overreact, throwing his defense too much to the right, so the cross hit the exposed chest. Chest shots were better than nothing, as any significant damage you could fix with basic casting, though making a dent in someone's mana reserves was good if the fight was going long. He fell back and fixed his guard, faking punches to see if I would overreact back, which I saw right through it. What I didn’t see coming was when he throws his left hand in a weak jab, partially covering my vision and following up with a rear hook, circling my defenses and hitting at the side of my head, blackening my vision and stunning me for a moment, though I manage to throw a weak jab back to get some time to compose myself.

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All this is really bad, headshots can’t be healed, as the brain was not to be touched by mana. The only good news was that the hit would be so much worse if it were powered by pushing it forwards, which didn’t happen since the casting would alert me of his plans. I compose myself, throwing weak prodding punches and realizing I had to finish this fast or the overall better technique of his would win over me, specially when the enhancement's side effects started. He did struggle to react to my fast start, so I pulled a bit of a trick to try to get him unstable. I stop focusing on speeding my moves directly, gathering all I could get in a short time and using it all in a push behind me, which causes me to fly forwards. The force causes me to get into the air and in his direction.

Clearly not prepared, he doesn’t react, just raising his guard a little more, while I throw a rear uppercut aimed lower than usual, though since I was in the air, it hits his hands covering his face with enough force to pass through whatever last minute block he managed. I pushed the floor a bit before crashing down on it again, rolling to reduce the impact and getting up as soon as I could to see if he was there to punish my dirty trick. It seems I connected better than I expected, since even after the time it took to get my bearings he still looked shaken up, so I rushed in.

As I got closer, he got a better grip, raising his floppy guard. I felt bad for using such a dirty trick, though I knew I wouldn’t win if I kept playing fair unless I got insanely lucky. And I also knew I would feel even worse after what I was about to do, since fighting is especially a game of deception, so while my opponent isn’t fully aware, I stop speeding my movements again. He tries to predict how I was going to launch, raising the guard to protect a shot to the face and bearing for impact, which is unfortunately for him exactly what I expected.

I don’t throw myself, instead putting all that mana into a launch, I use all that mana to throw a low lead uppercut aimed at the liver. It connects with no defenses, making him buckle in two at the unexpected pain, lowering his guard and leaving him open to my followed up rear hook with all the force I could gather and a bit more than that. I hit with so much force he spins like a top and falls to the floor. I look at the body in front of me and for a moment I fear I just killed someone, though seeing him try to get up was comforting. He assumed a dazed guard while on the floor, clearly not having the mental capacity to give up, let alone keep fighting.

“The fight is over, Auvrey wins.” Drekfew shouted with no emotion, not happy or sad with the fight, just stating a fact, causing it to take a while for people to understand what happened. After a moment, the crowd floods the stage, picking me up like they did the woman's last fight, carrying me across the gym, leaving behind the people who betted on me to collect their money. I was sure there were many more gamblers, so I was seen as unfavored, meaning the ones who put their coins on my back just made some heavy cash and were pretty happy.

As I finish being paraded around, I return to the fighting ring and get dropped in front of Drekfew, the crowd dispersing to find good spots for the next fight. As I look at their face, I know I missed the mark, as they didn’t announce the end of the fight in the typical stating facts, they were annoyed for sure. “You claim to have acquired strength through other means and when you come back have to resort to cheap tricks to win against someone who just started training,” they say, not phrasing as a question, hints of disappointment coloring their voice, which in a normal person would be the equivalent of heavy disappointment, “you will go punch the bag until your technique is at least decent.” And they turn their back on me, like a parent putting a kid in a room to think what it has done.

“Wait, I don’t know if I want to train unarmed anymore.” I say before thinking for too long, which I know is a mistake the moment it leaves my mind, confirmed by seeing their face when they stop and turn. “You will not make me repeat myself, will you?” they speak, with a dangerous edge that made me feel scared like I haven’t felt since being a kid. “I will not make you repeat yourself, sir” I respond, going towards the punching bags before they decide to kick me out.