After getting used to Charles’s sudden change of speed, and finally being able to get his timing right to accelerate his perception and teleport away, Edward put the fight to an end. The aim wasn’t to see who was better than who but to familiarize himself with their fighting techniques to improve himself. This way he wouldn’t be surprised and he would know how to deal with the local monsters having this set of powers.

While Charles and Edward went to the spectator benches to rest, Brian and Norte took their place in the arena. They both had a sword but didn’t take it out immediately, instead facing each other with their bare hands. Their powers enabled them to attack from a distance, they were both long-range users, even though they still knew how to fight at close range.

The fight began with them blasting wind and water at each other. Brian’s water jets were having more power than Norte’s wind. Norte was able to stop a stream of water coming at him for a short period of time, but he couldn’t push through it. Nonetheless, he wasn’t at a disadvantage. He didn’t stay in place to avoid being pinned down by the water streams coming at him, and he was sending his own counterattacks.

Even though his attacks had less strength he was able to produce blades of wind that could cut through Brian’s water. It was now the latter that had to move out of the way. Moreover, those attacks were tricky as they were hard to notice due to their transparency. As he could not send Norte to the floor with his water streams, Brian changed his tactics. Just like Norte, he concentrated his water in blades.

The fight seemed roughly equal until Norte raised a cloud of sand with his wind. Since the arena floor was made of sand, the visibility quickly became null. Both the fighters and the spectators weren’t able to see what was going on anymore. However, as any awaken, the loss of their vision didn’t prevent them to use their aura to sense their surroundings.

Brian sent his water blades where he sensed Norte’s aura from. However, to everybody’s bewilderment, the blades simply cut through the dust without encountering any resistance. The next moment, Norte’s aura reappeared right next to Brian. Norte had drawn his sword and was resting it directly onto Brian’s neck.

“How did you do that?!” The latter complained. “I clearly sensed your aura from that spot when I sent my blades.”

Norte smiled brightly. “This is what I call an aura lure. We can all manipulate our aura. What’s preventing us from suppressing our aura and flaring it where we are not?”

Brian and the rest of the group were dumbfounded. Even though what Norte said sounded simple, it wasn’t something easy to do at all. Flaring and suppressing one’s aura were opposite processes, doing both at the same time seemed impossible.

Seeing everyone’s expression as the sand cloud was dissipating, Norte provided more information. “I simply left a trace of my aura where I was standing while suppressing mine. This way I could move out of the way while you thought I was still standing at the same place.”

Edward’s face brightened at this explanation. That’s a neat trick. But one must first have broken the opponent’s vision for it to work. This could be useful to me. Usually, I simply suppress my aura to prevent others to sense me thanks to it. But with this, I could trick my opponent into thinking I am in another place. I can see an escape situation where it could have helped me in the past.

Norte had just fought but Edward asked him to stay in the arena to spar with him. They were an uneven number, so one of them had to fight twice in a row. And since it was just a spar, it was of no real concern. Edward still gave him a few minutes to recuperate, he had booked the arena for the whole morning so they had time.

When Norte got ready, the spar began. It started at a slow pace, Edward probing him without using his teleportation to feel the strength behind his gales of winds. When it was sent as a gale and not in the blade form, it was enough to halt his momentum but it wasn’t of any danger to him. This was an ability that could help control the flow of battle, but which wasn’t inflicting any real damage on the enemy.

Then things started to heat up, and Norte switched to wind blades. Edward first evaded them by teleporting outside of their trajectories. Being in the arena, and not having a bird view, he was realizing that he had underestimated them. When Norte was sending several at the same time it was hard to see all of them since they were transparent.

Seeing the speed at which he was sending them, and how long they stayed in the air, Edward realized that Norte wasn’t using his full strength. It made sense since getting injured if he didn’t evade one in time was a real possibility.

Realizing this fact, Edward decided to test how the wind blades behaved if he stopped them. He put his daggers in front of him to cut the wind blade, and stayed in place, purposefully letting himself get hit. The blade was cut by the dagger, separated in smaller cutting winds. The area behind his daggers was safe from any damage but there was a faint mark on his armor where he didn’t protect his chest.

I see, this is really something that you are supposed to avoid. Even if you manage to intercept the blade, it will only separate into smaller blades and you will still get wounded.

Beholding Edward getting voluntarily hit, Norte smiled stiffly. “Please don’t do that, I’m not using all of my strength to avoid unnecessary injuries, but I would advise against this move in a real fight.”

Edward nodded. “Yes, I just wanted to test what would happen if I tried to stop it. Better to try it now than in a real fight.”

“Fair enough,” Norte replied.

“Can you do another sand tempest and use your aura trick? I want to see how you are doing it.” Edward asked him now that he had evaluated what the wind blast and wind blades were able to do.

“You are asking me to show you all of my trump cards,” Norte complained while still performing a whirlwind of wind sending sand everywhere and clouding the arena.

Edward was monitoring with his aura, but all he could sense was Norte’s aura staying in place, and sand flying everywhere. And yet, Norte soon appeared behind him, even though his aura hadn’t moved.

“Again!” Edward shouted.

Just like that, Norte repeated the process several times, appearing and disappearing from the dust cloud, while his aura was dissociated from him, only revealing his previous position.

Paying close attention to his surrounding, Edward realized that although he couldn’t sense Norte’s aura, if he was attentive enough, he could notice that some of the sand wasn’t behaving normally, seemingly having been stopped by an invisible object.

Even though I’m not able to perceive him directly, I can ascertain his position from the anomalies in the sand billow. This time Edward was able to avoid Norte and instead surprised him by teleporting behind him.

For the next half an hour, the process was reversed, Edward was attempting to use the same trick as Norte. Leaving a mark of his aura in one position, before suppressing his own aura and moving away. The results were passable according to Norte even though it was useless against him. He was able to guess Edward’s position thanks to his winds even when his aura was suppressed and the visibility nulled due to the sand cloud. After all, Edward couldn’t create his own sand cloud, and it was Norte that had to produce it.

Next, came the spar between Aquamarine and Edward. Since the fight with Norte hadn’t been particularly intensive, Edward having sometimes stopped the fight to try Norte’s trick, he wasn’t exhausted and was ready to begin another spar.

Edward had already experienced how a long-range fighter behaved thanks to Norte. This fight began in the same way with Aquamarine trying to keep Edward had a distance, even though the latter could teleport right to her if he wanted to. The spar’s objective was for him to get used to fighting the powers of the local adventurers and not to win the fight

The noticeable difference with Norte was that the water thrown everywhere was affecting the field. The sand went from dry to wet. Edward also let himself get hit by a stream of water to test its strength and he ended naturally completely drenched. Just like the wind, the water’s force wasn’t presenting a real danger but it was enough to stop his charge. Edward had never fought while being soaked with water, and he didn’t appreciate the feeling, especially in a sand area, where the sand was sticking to him. He had to make an effort to refocus on the fight and ignore those distractions.

It's just water, but it makes me think back to those stupid acid beetles. With an opponent that can change the nature of the field, the best move is to defeat them as fast as possible. This field is at her disadvantage right now since the sand is absorbing the water but it won’t stay that way for long and I can consider other fields where the situation would be reversed. If I’m ever fighting a water user while being on a boat, things could become tricky to deal with.

Aquamarine then changed to water blades. Edward simply avoided them, since they were visible it was easier than for the win blades. He charged toward Aquamarine, but seeing as she was only able to delay him and not stop him, she began to run too. She may be a long-ranged user, but that didn’t mean that her physical capacities were weak. Her body had been enhanced by the monster’s blood just like any other awaken.

Norte didn’t react that way since he can hide in a sand cloud. This is good that I’m fighting different people, not everyone has the same fighting style. It’s a good remember I shouldn’t assume everybody with the same power will fight the same way.

After some time, Edward put an end to the fight, teleporting directly next to her. His power set was the bane of long-ranged users and there wasn’t much that Aquamarine could do to stop such a move.

Since they still had some time before noon. Edward let the group continue sparing with each other, not using the arena while it was still reserved would be a waste. Edward didn’t participate in any more spars but he observed them to see if he could pick anything else from the tactics they used. In the end, everybody fought each other but Brian and Edward, who still couldn’t bear one another.