Growth

Nayra used [Ethereal Burst] to move out of the way of the wave of Oblivion coming at her. Her body flickered through the dimensional barrier, evading the attack. That action pushed her even further away from her opponent. Ryun stood on top of a slim disk that was a hole in space that flickered in her vision, high in the sky above her.

He didn’t move while they fought, instead he took shots at her from a distance. It wasn’t a bad tactic, as she well knew. She was stronger and faster than he was, unless he moved all his stats to strength and dexterity at least. But then again, she could do something similar too. Though he rarely did that against her, it left him too vulnerable to her attacks. So he just played on his strengths, attacking from a distance, keeping her away as he tried to trap her for a big blow.

The times she got close to him, he didn’t even bother to block anything, he just let his body regenerate the damage while he pummeled her with a big technique right to her face. It was annoying.

Neither of them was at their best, of course. There was no death around them to feed her power, nor were there any people or monsters to feed his. The territory was abandoned, or at least it was by now, they had used it as a training ground for years. At least that meant that they were equally matched in that manner at least.

They had been at this for a while now, and finally she lost her patience. She pulled back Er’ishi Resav and activated God-killing Spear as she stabbed forward with strength boosted by her own {Mantle}. Her spear extended range, blasting through the air and straight at Ryun. Against mundane weapons, he would probably just wash the attack in Oblivion and destroy it, her attack was different. An Awakened Object that was bonded to someone was nigh near indestructible for as long as the bond between the object and wielder held.

Her golden spear extended at the speed far beyond either of them to dodge, not that Ryun even tried. Resav pierced through his chest and she cut out then across with [Death’s Slash] cutting him in half. His body flickered as Essence of Oblivion spilled out of the wound, and she acted before his regeneration made him whole.

She retracted Resav and with Deathfire Blink she crossed the distance, leaving her spear behind, her body shrouded in the pale green flames of her [Deathfire Immolation]. The moment she arrived, a blast of green fire explode around her, washing over Ryun and burning his clothes and skin in an instant. The world around him wavered as if she was looking at a heat mirage. Deathfire battled Oblivion in the sky. Oblivion would win, she knew it, so she didn’t give it time to.

There was no use trying to use her [Deathfire Mirage] or {Mesmerizing Mirage} on Ryun, he saw right through such illusions. Instead, she took a page out of his book. She manifested her Aura in direct confrontation with his own, then released {Mist of the Scorching End}. Her Qi battled through his, pushing, scorching his skin that regenerated instantly. It bought her time to prepare, she summoned Resav back to her hand, now more manageable size, and she stabbed. Her spear cut through the wall of Oblivion he put in front of himself. It robbed her spear of momentum, but it couldn’t quite stop her weapon from advancing, the source of the momentum was her hand pushing it forward, and her technique and aura had created enough room around her so that the Oblivion couldn’t touch her.

If she had a normal spear in her hand, it would undoubtedly have shattered as it hit a wall that stopped its forward momentum while it was still being pushed from behind, basically forcing it to contract between two unyielding forces. An Awakened Object was different, it could withstand and push through. Her attack was slowed, but not enough.

She stabbed the tip of her spear into Ryun’s chest and then activated her new bond ability. Titan-slaying Spear activated and the tip of her spear expanded, growing in size so quickly that it literally burst Ryun apart from the inside. His body tore aside and turned into a mist of Oblivion, that flew over her spear.

Nayra pulled back, the wings on her back holding her in the air as she turned off all her boosting powers and waited. The air in front of her was hazy, the Oblivion interacting with it in strange ways as the mist pulled back together and coalesced into a Ryun shaped hole in space. She could feel the Essence around her being pulled in, and then slowly the hole was replaced by an outer shell that then took on color and appearance of Ryun’s body. A moment later, he clothed himself with a second robe as she had destroyed the other one. They didn’t fight with armor this time, though sometimes they did. Ryun would lend her one of his copies when they fought in that manner so that when they inevitably destroyed them it wasn’t a waste.

Slowly they made their way to the ground.

“You are dead,” Nayra said once they landed.

Ryun tilted his head. “That was rash,” he said slowly. “I could’ve touched you.”

Nayra shrugged. He was right, of course, they didn’t fight with all of their powers, it was impossible to do that. If he touched her, he could’ve used Ayin to kill her. Not that there weren’t a dozen other things that he could’ve done also.

“You would still be dead,” Nayra added. But that also applied to her too, there were things that she could’ve done too, things that would’ve done more damage. And her attack would’ve killed him if they were fighting for real, her level 510 perk, Death is Inevitable would’ve made certain of it. It would’ve shut down all of his regeneration, made him unable to survive getting exploded from the inside.

“To win, you need to survive,” Ryun told her.

“What does it matter?” Nayra said, some anger seeping into her tone. “It’s not like this was for real. It’s not like we can fight for real.”

They were too strong, both of them knew it. Training on how to use their powers was hard. There were no places that could handle them. The territory around them was the proof of that. It was a wasteland, demolished over just a few years as the Sect powerhouses used it to train and spar. Nothing lived here, there were no plants, no animals, nothing but ravaged dirt long since cracked and cratered in equal measure.

“You are right,” Ryun said. “But at the point where we are now, understanding of the concepts behind our power is what gives us more strength. Sparring is just another way to let us get into that mindset.”

Nayra grimaced. It’s been a month since her father had died. And she… she wanted to grow stronger, she needed to. But she just didn’t have any idea how to go about it. The last week had been frustrating. “What does it matter? My father understood his power, it didn’t help him.”

Ryun walked up to her then raised a hand and before she could react tapped her on the forehead with two fingers.

Nayra blinked, then glared down at him.

“Your father was a horticulturist for most of his life. He was strong, but he wasn’t a fighter. And the enemy he fought was one of, if not the oldest being in the Infinite Realm. I promised you that we will find him, and we will. But we need to be ready for that confrontation. We aren’t now.”

Nayra closed her eyes, but didn’t speak.

“I am not a Classer like you,” Ryun continued. “I can’t teach you how to use your power better. I can only advise on the things that I know and feel. There are depths to power in this world that are shared amongst all focuses, you know it. You need to deepen your understanding of them. What is your power about?”

Nayra opened her eyes and looked down at her hands. She was in the eight tier of her Class, just a step away from the last and final Class. She even had one available, though she didn’t feel like it fit. She had switched Class trees, from her Valkyrie related Chooser of the Slain to Herald of Death. What she was looking for was a Class that married the two trees. She knew that those Classes existed, her family had records of them, but her build didn’t follow the exact steps, she didn’t know how to get it.

Still, her power did revolve around Death, the transition from one life to another, one realm to the next. She had ferried many souls, some had given her perks, others had no perks that she could use so she just escorted them to the afterlife. Others had no perks that she didn’t already have. Still, her power had grown with every contract with the soul she had made, mostly she asked for passive perks as her family had advised. There came a point where having too many active perks became a cumbersome weight.

But… she had slowed down her trips to the Ethereal in the last few years since the war. There just wasn’t much death since then. Nor had she visited the warrior afterlife yet. It had always seemed like there was something more pressing to do.

Ryun was ultimately right, Nayra knew it. There wasn’t much that she could learn to push her power forward here. Ryun could only provide advice and the ability to fight with someone without worrying about killing them even with a fraction of her power.

Perhaps she could learn more in the afterlife.

“I think that I know what I need to do,” Nayra said finally.

Ryun just smiled, there wasn’t much to say. She would get stronger, and once they found her father’s killer, she would be there and ready.