(Monday, 26/10/1058)
(3rd Person PoV)
"Hey" Loki announced her presence while approaching Henryk. Normally, she would sneak up behind her familia members and play pranks on them or surprise them as a greeting, but Henryk was different. She witnessed how he reacts to such stimuli, namely by attacking the source of the stimuli. She did not want her face to be bashed in by an unexpectant Henryk. Heck, she even saw him bite the wolves back and run on all four while chasing them with surprising dexterity. In these moments, he seemed more of an animal than a human.
Case in point, he and Ouros were pulling two ends of a rope, with their teeth. Henryk soon gave up, stating that should he continue, his gums may give out and loosen around his teeth, letting them fall out of his mouth, or that his teeth might be broken from the pull.
'Does he not care about what others say?' Loki still respected his choices. He acted as a proper human should when he was not goofing around with Fey and the wolves.
"Hey there, Loki" Henryk said after casting his magic to realign his teeth correctly and recover his gums and jaws.
"You really are wild!" Loki whistled. "I'm here to tell you that, as I looked inside myself and saw a great amount of mercy, I decided to count the month starting from Friday instead of when we made the bet!"
Henryk snorted as he looked at her questioningly. His green eyes were practically asking her if she seriously just said those words.
"Yeah" Loki said with an unimpressed face.
"I didn't ask yet" Henryk said.
"Your eyes did, though?" Loki said, shrugging. "Ah, well, where is Shira?" She wanted to check on her. There was no telling what that "bastard" Heimdall did with the changes he made to the race.
"She should be in our room, napping on the windowsill" 'cute kitty' "That was the state she was in when I left the room an hour ago" Henryk said. He swatted Platina in the face with his tail as she approached him from behind. It was slow and weak, and Platina had to make an effort to not evade it, but it was progress. Henryk was starting to grasp how to move this new limb.
'It should have been a little more restrictive, but it seems likely that my genetics changed slightly as I crossed space and came to this world. Reconstruction of my body is likely, resulting in me becoming a human of this world and not one from my old world. That also explains how my body did not get sick from every little microbe that came in contact with it. The microbes in this world evolved in a separate world from mine, in a space where magic and mana, or rather mind, are real. There is no telling how quickly I would have died should I have stayed a human from my previous world' While Henryk thought that, he had to actively not think of a situation when Fey could have suffered the same consequences he did not. His mind would not have taken it well if he imagined Fey getting sick. The thought of it would throw him into a fit of uncontrollable panic.
"Well, it is still morning. She could rest all she wants" Loki said, looking at their window and seeing Shira's ears twitching. "But what about you? What will you do to accomplish such a thing as gaining nearly 400 points in each parameter in the span of a month?" Loki said, righting herself after Prata nudged her incessantly.
Henryk smiled confidently, head raised high. "Push myself to the absolute limits and dare to go beyond. What else is there to do?"
His expression twisted with unease. "I regret getting married" He sighed. "Don't get me wrong, I'd choose to get married to her whether I knew of my present regrets or not, but I just feel that way now. I feel like my sense of responsibility to return to Shira alive, and preferably safe, is holding me back from pushing myself nearly enough" A flash of Shira's worried face from three days prior came to the forefront of Henryk's mind. 'Damn you brain! You didn't have to remind me!' He protested internally.
"Well, we could arrange sparring matches with Ais" Loki pointed at Ais, who was not putting in any sort of effort not to be noticed. "She looks eager to test her skills against yours" 'Having born witness to his spar with Bete, it's only natural to want to fight him'
'That... surprisingly enough, it's a viable thing. Seeing as the brain already limits itself, I could simply apply some magic to make hers limit her body even further' Henryk reasoned.
"Well, I have an idea. An experiment, let's say" Henryk cupped his chin in thought. "What if I temporarily limited her strength, speed, perception and much more to that of my level using my magic? Would that work?"
"..." Out of the blue, Ais appeared closer after he blinked once. She just stood there, curious about how effective that would be.
"You wanna try?" Henryk raised an eyebrow.
"Uhm" Ais nodded.
One round of magic later, and Ais wobbled slightly. She felt her energy drain from her, her progress from all those years of hard work disappearing.
"Don't worry too much. The effect ends at the same time as our match does" Henryk said reassuringly.
"Uhm" Ais nodded again. She soon regained full control of her body and readjusted.
"Just a reminder, skills and magic, as well as their effects, are unrestricted. Use your magic if you saw fit to do so" Henryk said, fully expecting to be bodied by her. 'All of my fighting experience against another human is from facing off with Norman. That's very limited' He readied his spear nonetheless.
Henryk opted to using a spear since a great sword of the desired length was not present. Even this spear was slightly shorter than one designed to fit his height.
"Be merciless. I want to raise my endurance as much as possible" Henryk said before initiating combat with what looked like an overstretched thrust.
Seeing Henryk presenting his right side forward, she evaded to be behind his right side. Just as she intended to close the distance between them, she had to jump out of the way of his spear. Henryk used some footwork to shift his weight around and transition from an overcommitment in a thrust into a swipe attack.
As she jumped back, Henryk winded his swipe into a lunge.
Ais had to hold her blade out to deflect the lunge, reinforcing the other side of her blade with the forearm of her other arm.
Henryk stepped back.
'Being aggressive would not be helpful past the first surprise, unless I assess her skill level first. Let's observe for now' He waited in a defensive position.
Ais, not seeing many openings, decided to wait for a brief moment to see if an opportunity would present itself.
Henryk saw her cautious disposition and decided to feint an attack that he knew would be deflected, a thrust. He made a weak yet quick thrust, his right hand loose on the middle of the spear's shaft.
As Ais beat the spearhead as expected, Henryk pretended to have lost grip with his right hand.
When Ais saw that, she closed in to take advantage before he recovered. That was a mistake.
As she has beat the spear to her left, which Henryk baited out, Henryk got an opportunity to forego using his right hand before the spear veered to his right. He rotated his wrist so that his left hand is still has a pronated grip near the butt of the spear but his right hand has a supinated grip on the shaft, using his right hand as a pivot to slash upwards by pulling the butt down.
While Ais avoided the spearhead, she was still forced to the side as Henryk stepped away from her. They were back at a stalemate.
'I should just go back to the long stick go poke technique' Henryk relented. He wanted to use as many grips and techniques as possible, but that was not as effective as simply stabbing repeatedly.
He went back to the standard grip relatively quickly as he started stabbing time after another, forcing Ais to step out of the way or deflect some blows.
'This will do' Henryk thought as he finished a short burst of thrusts. He was matching Ais's steps. If she stepped back, he stepped forward. If she stepped forward, he stepped back. 'Going like this until she loses patience is key'
They went like this until Ais realized that Henryk would not lose focus anytime soon. She herself was getting tired from avoiding blows or beating them away.
Observing Ais's facial expression from time to time while primarily observing how she moves her body to read her intent, Henryk looked away from her face and failed to notice her patience starting to waver. Nonetheless, he assumed that giving her some believable bait was a good thing after a few minutes.
As Henryk released another burst of thrusts, he overextended the last a little, just enough for her to see an opening.
Ais did not take the bait this time, electing to continue stepping back and away.
Henryk added another thrust to the burst, extending this one a bit more.
This time, Ais tried to beat it to the side and invade his space.
As Ais moved to beat Henryk's spear away, he tightened his grip around the spear, stepping forward to keep the spear relatively in place but return his right hand to its place around the middle of the shaft. He only pulled it slightly back to put the tip in the path of Ais's sword, quickly striking it away before pushing the butt away while pulling the shaft back into place to present the tip towards Ais.
{Awaken, Tempest} A sudden gust of wind pushed the spear away from Ais.
Henryk jumped away, trying to assess the situation.
"There you go, your trump card!" He was gleeful. Rightfully so. He managed to corner Ais to where she was forced to use {Ariel} to get him away from her. 'I really shouldn't be as careless as I was against that last war shadow. It's beneath me to be injured in that manner'
Being absorbed into the match, neither of them noticed the small crowd that gathered around to watch the spectacle.
The bystanders were puzzled on why Ais was not using more strength or moving faster already. They collectively agreed that Ais was limiting herself to make it fair to Henryk, which was true to an extent.
Back to the two. Henryk was now taking a fully defensive position, always pointing out the tip where Ais stood and ready to shift it to the side should she try to sidestep it to get inside his space.
Ais, on the other hand, was taking calculated steps to gauge which direction Henryk was more likely to defend more quickly.
She snapped to Henryk's left before going to his right just as he thrusted in her direction.
As Henryk spent half a second assessing the situation, he decided to overcommit, letting go of the grip in his left hand. Once he did that, he continued with his momentum, stepping away from Ais in an arc as he turned around.
Henryk's memory flashed an image of his father demonstrating situational techniques within their family's manual. He elected to test the technique he just remembered as he started moving.
Turning around with the spear still going in the same direction, Henryk repositioned himself so that he held the shaft in his left hand instead, keeping his right hand at the end of the spear.
Ais tried to reach him with that hit, she did not want to lose a golden opportunity such as this one. She committed to her attack, allowing Henryk to slip away. As she slashed down with Henryk dodging to her right, she transitioned her downward slash into a diagonal slash aimed at him.
Henryk pulled the spear so that his right hand was back on the middle, and his left was near the spear's head. He angled the butt of the spear away from him so that Ais's sword is angled towards the ground as the spear's head was heading for Ais's head.
"I believe this is enough" Gareth interfered, stopping both sword and spear from reaching their intended targets. "While you would have risked sacrificing a leg," Gareth addressed the danger of this technique. The length of the spear meant that it was at such an angle that pulling the sword a little closer could have let it slip under the shaft and into a leg. He then looked at Ais. "you would have lost the lower half of your face" He then let go of their weapons.
Henryk collapsed on the ground, tired and panting. "That was supposed to be performed while fully armored, both throwing the opponent a little off balance and potentially cutting their face. Due to the armour I was supposed to be wearing, there was no risk to my legs" He flopped on his back. "Also, it came out instinctively. I had no thoughts or control of myself at that moment"
"Then you should get some armor!" Gareth said mirthfully with a smile on his face, hand on his hips. "Should I personally introduce you to a blacksmith?"
"Nah" Henryk said as Ais pulled him up halfway. "I know someone promising. I bet he'll surpass the blacksmith you know soon enough" Henryk said nonchalantly.
"I like your spirits, lad!" Gareth started laughing a bit.
The crowd was stunned to silence by Gareth's judgement and subsequent offer, and further by Henryk's casual attitude towards a superior.
Cutting the silence, Finn started clapping. 'If I was not so sure before, this cuts any doubt. We need to keep this talent in our familia. He had the upper hand against someone of the same strength as him. His skills are not to be let go of no matter what'
The crowd, knowing that Henryk is a familia member of theirs, started cheering and celebrating the addition of a skilled member to the familia. Henryk only noticed the crowd now, as his back was turned towards them when the spar finished.
"... Only if you were of a higher level..." Ais murmured, her voice quiet enough for only Gareth's sharpened senses to pick up. Gareth gave her a pitying look. Henryk catching up, all the way up to her level, was not something he expected to happen soon.
"Go rest" Loki gave Henryk an understanding look laced with a touch of mischief. "Your skin is redder than my hair right now" She exaggerated.
"I should recover by noon" Henryk said while looking at the sun's position. It was around an hour before noon.
Hiding among the crowd, Carillon was helping close Bell's gaping mouth. Bell was both awed by the match and stunned by Ais's beauty.
'Some things, as it seems, are inevitable' Carillon guessed that Bell would fall for Ais at first sight no matter what, but not in a situation like this, and definitely not this badly.
Later, around the afternoon, Shira woke up from her nap and Henryk told her of his plans for the day.
'Sorry, Bell. I have to meet Welf as soon as possible if I wanted his skills in making my new armor and weapons, adjusted to my height' Henryk apologized internally. 'I should help train him until Ais comes back from the next expedition and starts training him herself. That ought to pay him back for skewing his first encounter with Welf over a month later'