Ebony's Fable

“Ice hybrid swordsman. Quadra freaking elemental mage. Heavy archer. Stone mage. And of course, a Xeng who’s also a hybrid swordswoman. All of them are kids less than half my age. What a party. Interesting.” Panic Attack’s leader spoke to himself.

“Hey boys!” He stood up and put his helmet on. Not shouting too loud to attract any unwanted attention or wake up the remaining people who were resting.

“Hmm? What’s up?” Hector stopped sidestepping. He was practising his movement on sand.

“You’re an interesting party. This floor is dangerous enough, the next would be worse. How about a small duel? Let me see what a party of journeymen on a floor with monsters that reach level 140 can do, how ‘bout it?”

“Heh. Sure. I’ll go first.” Hector smashed his fist together, but without any magic. It was just a habit.

“Haahahahaha! I’m sure none of you kids are normal but aren’t you underestimating me too much? Whatever, I’ll humour you. Don’t disappoint me, okay!” The man guffawed but still sensible enough to keep his volume down. It still woke some people up who went right back to sleep. He meant to ask both of them to come at him but the young kids actually thought he was duelling them one at a time.

Hector didn’t underestimate a Master Warrior. He understood the staggering difference in power between him and a Master Warrior or any Master Classed. The stat difference was hard enough to cover, not to mention the Fortification buff difference.

Hector hammered his fist and got all four of his usual enhancements on. With his recent stat distribution that caused him to not build for power but for endurance, he could last much longer in this state without too much pain. His sudden burst of speed to rush into the Master Warrior surprised the man.

It was not enough to catch him off guard. The man kept his round metal shield close to his body and tilted himself a little. Hector's opening punch landed on the edge of the man’s shield and slid to the side. The man took the chance to bring a knee to Hector’s open torso. Not expecting the boy to fall flat onto the ground and roll away to dodge his strike.

‘Quadra elemental mage who fights in close combat? Another hybrid. Interesting! His Strength is not much lower than mine and his speed is about the same as mine. INSANE!’ The man grinned, he had over 900 stat points over a fully level 100 journeyman of all three of their classes. Not to mention his mastery and Fortifications. He followed up with an overhead strike with his sheathed one-handed sword. The rolling boy pushed himself off the ground just in time to dodge his sword strike but not his backspin and shield smash.

Or so he thought but it didn’t feel like he rammed the boy away. The impact on his shield arm sends numb shocks through it, the Master Warrior steadfast enough to keep his shield in place.

Hector had jabbed out at the incoming shield bash with a twin Coalesce Punch just before it managed to land on him. He was still knocked back but stayed on his feet without getting hit. The Master Warrior was good.

Hector increased his pace, he didn’t like the pain of so many elements running in his body. The Master Warrior dodged his powered punches, deflected his quick punches and blocked and hunkered down against his numerous punches with precise judgement. Hector realised that he also adjusted the angle of his sword after Hector punched a few strikes away.

It ended with Hector’s natural defeat after a few minutes. Hector couldn’t get the upper hand throughout the exchange. He wasn’t trying to kill the guy so a super or mega punch would be overkill. The Master Warrior may not give him the chance to do that even if Hector tried. Hector was out of breath and exhausted from the duel but the Master Warrior didn’t look any different from when they started the duel. It just wasn’t a matter of power and speed.

“Enhancement mage? You obviously trained very hard in close combat too! You’ll be a rising star after you evolve and have a dozen or so more years of experience.” The man could easily tell from the impressive display of strength and speed, a quadra elemental enhancement mage was completely unheard of but it was right in front of him. He believed it wouldn’t be unheard off for long either. He attributed Hector’s loss to his young age and inexperience in fighting and he wasn’t wrong.

“Thanks! You’re pretty damn good yourself!” Hector replied while lying on the floor, huffing.

“I have to ask. With your ridiculous strength, is the Xeng Miss in your party still stronger than you? Or are you the party’s leader?” The man asked with honest curiosity. The strengths of those people are a known legend, the individual didn’t matter. Every story had been told that not a single Xeng was weak. Yet, the man couldn’t believe that the quadra elemental mage boy could lose to anyone with buffed stats that could rival his.

He had no doubt about their ability to cross this floor of the dungeon already.

“She is far stronger, but I can still beat her if I really need to. Besides, in a normal setup. I’m only number 3 in this party. The leader is the archer.”

‘Far stronger? Only the third strongest? Well, he can’t hold up so many enhancements for long so that should be the reason. So the archer and the Xeng are that strong?’

“Normal setup?” He asked for clarification. Hector replied with a large grin that the man liked to see together with a laugh. Looks like he could only guess what that meant.

“My turn?” Ebony asked. Ebony was pretty impressed with Panic Attack’s leader. It wasn’t just the skill with the blade and shield. The man had loads of battle experience, it was easy to tell from how he handled Hector without getting touched. The kind of person Ebony would be itching to duel with.

On the other hand,

‘The ex-mana slave and another hybrid.’ The Master Warrior already felt that it was odd enough to see such a young mana slave as much as he knew how odd it was he didn’t ask and wasn’t interested. Human hybrids were mostly a mish-mash, with no real strong points, at least as a Journeyman. He wondered if the meditative part would bridge the gap.

The Master Warrior readied himself. Never underestimating anyone was common sense after living and fighting on the field for long enough. He had seen enough deaths of arrogant and prideful people who never respected their opponents.

The impassive look of his opponent’s face was exactly what he heard most if not all ex-mana slaves had. What a pity. Children or really anyone of all ages should know the joy of smiling.

Ebony looked at the Master Warrior who was in stance and perhaps giving him the first move. Icebody Enhancement crept up to max as his uncovered face and right hands turned a little translucent blue. His facial muscles locked even further, looking colder than ever.

Ebony wanted to see how far just his swordsmanship could bring him so he met the bigger man with an exchange of sword strikes.

Panic Attack’s leader was not very impressed, he stayed on the defensive. While the ice enhancement used to that degree was a little surprising, it was nothing much. The boy’s strikes were a lot lighter than the first one, not to mention his slow speed. Though he did get faster and faster and his strikes were slightly heavier each time it just wasn’t enough.

Deciding that he had seen enough, he switched to attacking the boy. It didn’t take a minute for him to change his impressions of the boy. He couldn’t land a good blow. His lips rose a little as he raised the pressure on the ex-mana slave.

‘It’s not even his pretty random sword style. This little guy knows how to fight…’

His smile stiffened when he realised that the amount of power or speed he put didn’t cause his opponent to falter much. He knew he was still hurting the boy from the shocks of their exchange so he had to take care not to go too far. He already put the boy in a couple of dangerous situations that he narrowly avoided. The boy was as impassive and calm as before.

Panic Attack’s leader was put on the spot and wanted to end the battle. It was not easy to control and he couldn’t tell whether the boy could take any more hits before he had irreparable damage to his arms. They didn’t have a healer and he didn’t think their party had one either. Yet, he couldn’t decisively end the battle without severely injuring the boy and the boy couldn’t do anything to him either.

The boy was obviously very good at seeing opportunities to attack and taking them at full force. Nothing the Master Warrior couldn’t handle but it was stressful when dragged out, mistakes could be made easily in an extended exchange of such intensity.

‘I’ll just wear his enhancement out I guess.’ The man thought.

Ebony hit the peak of his ability to gain and maintain momentum but he couldn’t even tilt the Master Warrior’s sword away. All his attempts to get into his blind spots were seen and countered. It was quite fun, a different kind of fun none of his party members could give him. Speed and power even built up to his limit were insufficient too. He wanted to learn more about how the man was fighting against his self made style of sword fighting. So he kept going and going.

Sadly for him, the man called for a stop when he got tired.

Panic Attack’s leader did hear that those older ex-mana slave were all pretty creepy to be around. He always thought the rumours and stories were just exaggerations, it was just their class and skill. They were people all the same. But now he knew that the stories were cute in comparison. Relentless.

No better words described the boy. The endless ball of energy and mana stopped at nothing. Focus never running out, not missing a single opportunity to push him further. The cold look he had looked colder and colder as he stared at it during their duel.

“Impressive. The name’s Michael, you can call me Mike. I would’ve liked to spar with the others but this young man here tired me out and there’s still a whole day left for my party and I to explore and hunt.” Mike introduced himself before excusing himself. Hector and Ebony gave their introductions as well.

Hector was going to go to rest after wiping his body down and getting Scarlet to take over but he found her awake already. He quickly hopped off to Panic Attack’s camp.

“Hey hey Mike, you don’t want to miss this. The number 1 and 2.” Hector whispered.

“Oh? So Ebony is number 2? You can’t beat him?” Mike thought that Xeng and the leader would be number 1 and 2. While Ebony was a relentless fighter and a genius at fighting, Mike was still holding back a lot. He was one who evolved with level 150 skills, they were currently close to hitting 200 and he didn’t have a lack of tier 2 skills either. He couldn’t show some stranger all of his abilities from the get-go. Not that he wanted to kill the boy either.

“Do you think I can after fighting both of us? He didn’t even use magic other than ice enhancement against you.” Hector seriously asked. Ebony had been using Mike to train his swordsmanship, Hector was not unfamiliar with him. The sad and infuriating part for Scarlet was that Ebony was not trying to mock them. Hector could only sympathise with Scarlet, glad he didn’t use a sword.

“Perhaps… You’re saying he didn’t show me everything in our duel.” Mike pondered on Hector’s reply. It was true that in terms of stats and absolute power Hector was leagues above Ebony. However, with the genius’s ability, he could probably keep himself alive until Hector was weakened. But Hector was no slouch either, Mike could see that he was trained from a young age, definitely a noble no doubt. A nice hearty and energetic boy despite being a noble, he must have come from a more decent noble family.

“Of course not. He’s a gravity and sound mage as well, though the most annoying part has got to be his ice magic. Or rather his practically limitless mana pool.”

“Just who got him brainwashed and become a mana slave. What a pity. Imagine if he had proper training and what he could become in future.”

“Dunno. Never asked. I used to think he was one too, but now I doubt he was ever a mana slave.”

“What do you mean? Are you saying he’s purely got a Meditative Class as a young human, not even an elf? He looks no older than 30 or 40 years old.” With a lifespan of 150 to 200 years, humans don’t usually show signs of ageing from the age they Classed till they turn 40. It really depends on person to person, some don’t show any signs of ageing till they are over 100 years old.

“Yeah. I also assumed he was a mana slave like everyone but he has memories of his childhood and all that. Never talked about his time as a mana slave. Haha, I get the feeling that with his surprising lack of common sense he might not even know what a mana slave is. And he’s only 16 years old. As for whether he’s really human? I don’t know either but he’s human to me.” Hector had long had his suspicions about Ebony's background. He just didn’t really care. Ebony was a chill guy, fun to be with. No one really played pranks with him before. Or on him.

“...I can’t really believe what I’m hearing, 16 year old Meditator, Ice hybrid swordsman, gravity and sound mage that lacks common sense. What else are you going to tell me? He came from another world?!” Mike was dumbfounded by the many unbelievable revelations.

“Heheh I think so.” Hector chuckled.

“...”

“Okay okay, enough of unimportant things. They’re starting.”

“Why are they going so far away?”

“No shit.” Hector heard the stupidest question of the day. They were 2 mages that none of them could tell who was stronger. Hector placed his bets on Scarlet being the strongest but Ebony being the toughest. The problem about being near or fighting Scarlet was the lack of oxygen, which he had been wondering how Ebony handled.

Ebony had 2 of his Layered Ice Carapace with him, not wanting to waste so much of his ice mana.

His mana pool is mostly full since he didn’t dip into it from his battle against Mike. Compressed Icebody Enhancement, Chaotic Repulsive Membrane, mana regenerative meditative Battle Song that gave him a buff of roughly 3.72 wisdom now only the regeneration and not the increased mana pool though.

A short 1-second burst of Frost Mist to distract her was cast before diving into his Onslaught. Scarlet already expected that and had Sphere of Immolation on a low burn to melt the mist in the air.

She had Heated Blade on at about 5 mana per minute. Lightning Inoculation sparked and Revolving Razorwind Film enveloped her twin blades, Ignite and Flare. Violent Heart Acceleration was flipped the moment she saw him anyway. Her body pulsed with electricity as Pulsating Lightning Enhancement was controlled to stay in her lower belly until she was ready to burst with speed. Streamline Wind Enhancement helped lower any wind resistance on her body from her intense speed. It was practically always on when she fought. Keeping her hair from getting damaged even though it was so long and tied in a ponytail was just a minor control training and an awe factor or so her grandmother called it.

Scarlet just kept doing it till it was effortless and instinctual. She didn’t like the desert, it made her sweat more than she already did with her Core Skill. Then there was the fact that she couldn’t copy Ebony and have her wind enhancement all the time. Washing sand out of her long and voluminous hair was not easy and took time.

Being the only woman in the party was inconvenient in many senses. She couldn’t bathe like the enviable Ebony who just used his shields to cover himself and had to make do with wiping her body down. She even had to go pee in secret. ‘Ahhhh!’ Scarlet screamed at the memory of how embarrassing that was. It was shame that she could never erase, she couldn’t even get angry because he came and protected her…

She really didn’t sense the Giant Sandworm, Heat Perception was iffy with them under the hot sand. Their scent was also covered by the sand. Scarlet couldn’t bring herself to blame Ebony for…seeing.

Even unable to see well in the steam from the melting ice mist, Scarlet easily perceived where he was with her Heat Perception and his low body temperature. She also long recognised his smell with Scent Tracing.

Several Spear of Flame formed in the air above the both of them and Scarlet released them onto the ground with as much mental force as she could. All while rushing in with Pinpoint Perforation which got stuck halfway into his huge shields of ice that steamed and melted.

Ebony was forced to use one of his shields to scatter into a few bigger lumps to block the incoming spears. Kicking up Frost Mist Perception Sphere many times to cool and keep himself alive. This was Scarlet’s latest method of wasting his mana. She already found out that he didn’t have limitless mana long ago.

The spears exploded on impact and the intense heat spread across the cold desert night. It was quickly combated with steam and then mist formed again and he let Frost Mist Perception Sphere go. He was dodging Scarlet’s quickly increasing speed and Cascading Lacerations.

Ebony took a step forward and Magnified Gravity Field kicked in at full force. Disrupting and resetting her build-up in combos, yet her increasing power and speed from Violent Heart Acceleration didn’t stop. Her recent rise in Constitution let her handle an even higher increase in heart rate and physical buff.

His Ceaseless Onslaught was hardly sufficient to combat her rise in speed and power. The amount of mana he was putting into Frost Injection was way more than Scarlet was putting into Heated Blade yet it was only enough to not let his own greatsword melt. Because once again, his greatsword was in bad condition. Like the blacksmith, Balke said. It was better to just get a change of weapon. The price of upgrading his current one wasn’t really worth it.

He had realised when he put his greatsword under combusting ice mana. It couldn’t handle it, it almost froze and shattered during that battle itself.

He focused on dodging for a fair bit and had Ice Swords forming from his increasingly cut apart Layered Ice Carapace to save mana and fired them at Scarlet’s feet to keep her off him for a short while. It quickly decreased the size of his shield but the ice swords were tough enough to withstand 2 swings from her as they were made from the already compressed Layered Ice Carapace.

Ebony had icy mist gather right over his greatsword and under his membrane before giving a good swing and a light blue crescent wave shot right out and across the sands. It was a random use of what he was thinking about the other day, letting ice mana shoot right out with his swing force and the force of Chaotic Repulsive Membrane speeding it up massively. Some of the ice mana just flew out from the flat part of his blade so the attempt wasn’t perfect.

The flying slash was epic to see through, it was a whole lot faster than he expected it to be. However, Scarlet was still faster. Despite the short distance between them and the speed of the slash of ice mana flying over, she managed to get a Spear of Flame formed. It was 2m long as usual and it spun and rotated like a fan blade. The ice wave just faded into nothing upon contact.

Ebony used the blocking of her own sight to charge right in with what he used to call a power stab. Scarlet wasn’t going to get caught off guard with such a lousy attempt. She was used to some of his tricks already. Bringing Ignite down to deflect the blow and Flare to stab out in exchange. A light swing was enough for her as she was at the limit of how much enhancement her body could handle. Using Blood Mana Manipulation to suppress herself from getting any stronger or faster. Her body was already steaming long ago, she was always thirsty after a fight this intense. The water ore under her mask was really useful but drinking while fighting was not advisable.

His balance was knocked aside along with his body. He let go of his left hand and let his right glide along with his greatsword and pushed as much mana as he had into his spell glove to cast Layered Ice Carapace. He didn’t have much mana left so only a 3 plus layer shield was cast.

It was cleanly pierced through as the pointy end aimed at his neck. Ebony shifted his shield to the side as fast as he could the moment Scarlet’s sword pierced into it. It pulled her sword to the side along with her body that was charging towards him. He ended up catching her literally burning body in his arms, hugging her. It was only for a second before they pushed each other away. Another draw, but he was inwardly happy at tonight’s spars outcome.

Scarlet also didn’t have any more mana and she was more than exhausted. She quickly ran off to the other side of their camp and tried to rest and calm her Violent Heart Acceleration down so that she could rest properly. It took her a long while before she could calm her heart and relax.

Ebony was also out of mana but he was not tired. Meditating in silence.

“So? What do you think?” Hector asked Mike as he smirked to himself. It was a ridiculous exchange no matter how many times he saw it.

“...Magical abilities that rival a young adult Elf or a human one with about 50 to 80 years of experience. Genius…doesn’t even begin to describe what I just saw…Who are you people?” Mike gave a random estimate, he had actually never seen many mages fight so it was largely based on what he felt. These two flirtatious kids weren’t even purely mages and had just as much talent in close combat. How old were they? How old was he? Comparison really was the devil of depression.

“Just a random group of young men and women the Quest Hall put together~ Alright, I’m gonna go sleep. See ya around!” Hector waved but didn’t look back.