Battle: Jaeger vs Paradise
"Come on, Eden," Hunter taunted. "This session is pointless if you won't come at me with everything you've got."
He tossed his coat to the ground and started rolling up his sleeves. The entire I could already feel his mana building up. And the pressure that came from it sent shivers down my spine.
"There's really no need for this," I tried to negotiate my way out. "Besides, fighting each other is pointless. You said you need me at full strength if we're going to fight Tolkien, right?"
My words seemed to have struck a chord within Hunter as his eyebrows twitched just the slightest bit. He shook his head in denial then glared at me.
"True, I do need you at full strength. But first I need to see with my own eyes what that 'full strength is like." He cracked his knuckles before taking on a fighting stance.
I turned from Hunter, the dark-haired battle maniac, and addressed his partner, Scarlett, who was currently working her fingers through my partner's hair.
"Scarlett, talk sense into him. Please." I begged
"Nothing I can do," she shrugged. "He's made up his mind. Just make sure to keep it down. Hailey's already started her nap and if you two wake her up it'll be on you to put her back to sleep again."
She was awfully calm about letting her husband fight a general from a different country. Hunter was a king; I figured that meant there'd be special procedures he had to follow if he wanted to spar. Especially if his opponent is a high-ranking soldier from another nation. Maybe I was wrong.
Nope, not fighting him. Let's ask Reiya to talk sense into him.
"Um...sweetie?" my voice cracked at the very thought of calling Reiya.
"You know, visiting Astrologue wasn't such a bad idea…." The sheer sarcasm in her voice was breathing.
"Oh man."
"I mean, Catherine and I wanted to go home, but unfortunately for the two of us, our husband wanted to stop by and see his old friend."
He sent a letter asking for help, what was I supposed to do!?
I made sure to keep those thoughts in my head. If I'd said them out loud, Reiya would've served my insides on a platter. I didn't want that.
"I'm sorry." I apologized.
"No, dear, it's quite alright. You've made your bed." She shot me a knowing glare. "Now lie in it."
While I tried to negotiate my way out of fighting Hunter, the maniac in question leapt at me in a blinding speed. I felt my body tilt back and Hunter's fist shot mere inches awake from my face. I felt the force behind his fist through my nostrils.
"Hey!" I complained. "I wasn't even ready yet!"
"Too bad," he shot back. "I am."
The second time around, he was faster. More calculated. His first attack was less of an attack and more of a warning- a wake-up call really. The fight was happening, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Okay, fine! I concluded.
Hunter unleashed a barrage of fists all aiming at the same spot; my lower abdomen. I ducked, parried, blocked and tried every which way to keep his fists from connecting to my stomach. And each time I was able to fend him off he responded with a faster strike. We continued our back and forth till he managed to connect a blow on my lower ribs.
"Kgh!" I coughed.
I felt saliva and yesterday's dinner climbing up my esophagus, but I managed to land a counter on Hunter's face. An uppercut that sent him reeling backwards.
"Yeah, that's more like it." He snickered.
My jacket came off naturally without my moving. That was a lie, I'd taken it off without even realizing it. I was…I was actually starting to enjoy myself a bit. Hunter was too.
"Let's go. Devil Star; Respond!" he started chanting, a silver hue covering his body. "Release First Pentagram!"
His mana suddenly shot up. I was familiar with the technique. As a Morningstar, Hunter had the rare ability to absorb the natural mana around the air. Not the kind that came naturally though, it was more akin to the mana generated by solar radiation. Sun Made Mana, as Scarlett called it. The amount of mana a Morningstar could absorb was determined by the number of Pentagram seals they had. The more seals they unlocked, the more mana they could absorb and the stronger they'd become.
Scarlett also said that some Morningstars had pentagram abilities that were exclusive only to them, but I'd never seen Hunter use any of them. I took our sparring match as an opportunity to see just what Hunter Lucifer Morningstar was capable of.
"Alright!" I cheered. "Water Titan; First Gear. Ocean Master!"
It had been two or three weeks since I'd used any of my Water Titan forms. To be honest, part of me wanted to jump straight to Dragon Drive; Dragon Borne- that part of me was mostly the dragon that was nestled within my body. But a constructive part of me wanted to see how I'd fare against Hunter in my Titan forms.
"I've seen that form before," Hunter remarked. "Not gonna turn Dragon God?"
"What's done on the left must be done on the right."
"What?"
"What I mean is, turning Dragon God against you wouldn't be fair to me. If you're gonna use minimum power then I'll respond with minimum power. First Pentagram gets First Gear, it's only fair that way."
"Right…" Hunter sighed.
All he did was lean forward, yet I was already preparing to launch a counter. He was baiting me and it worked. I jumped before I could stop myself, a rookie mistake really, one that gave Hunter the opening he was poking for. With a single leap, he was on top of me, ready to launch a brutal strike.
He raised his foot to my face, focusing as much force as possible on his leg then swung it down at full speed. Ok raised my arm to block, creating a coat of ice on my forearm. The ice and Hunter's foot collided and the ice shattered into mere atoms. While my ice absorbed most of the force, whatever was left of it was unleashed onto my arm, and it sent me tittering back.
Before I could get my bearings, Hunter was ok n me again, this time with a right hook.
He's faster than before.
It finally sunk it just how dangerous one pentagram truly was. It boosted his physical stats to an unprecedented degree amping up his strength, speed and agility.
I created a sphere of water around myself and turned tiny pikes of ice all around it. Hunter stopped halfway into his assault. His face was the definition to elated.
I've only just started.
I expanded the sphere of water till it engulfed Hunter in it's atmosphere. The two of us were at a stand off in an arena that fit my advantage. My next move was childish, yes, but it was painfully effect, so, in hindsight, it would plain stupid not to use it.
"One Million Pillars." I chanted.
The sphere around us started sprouting pillars of water inside, all of which were aimed at Hunter. When the first pillar sprouted, he dodged easily enough. A step to the side and he was out of the pillar's path. And that's when the second pillar came in, which he dodged with ease too. Then came the third and fourth; the two of them together posed a slight problem but he dodged both safely enough.
Soon came the fifth, six and seventh, and that's where he really started working.
With each new pillar that sprouted, the speed in which they sprouted increased. By the time the tenth pillar emerged, Hunter was started to take tiny scratched across his body. He was struggling to keep up with their speed. Or at least that's what I wanted to believe.
My attention was too focused on my pillars landing; I didn't even notice the path he was carving up with each dodge. He was nearly a few meters away when I finally noticed but it was too late. I felt a freight train hit my chest; only that train was Hunter's knee, and it sent me flying so far, I was tossed outside the sphere. My magnificent creation collapsed and it created a false rain on the arena.
"Let's call that round one," Hunter said, slicking back his wet hair. "How about round two? Ready to God yet?"
"WE SHOULD HONOR HIS REQUEST", Leviathan said from within me. "I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED HOW WE'D FAIR AGAINST A MORNINGSTAR."
"Levi, we only ascended three weeks ago. When'd you get the time to wonder such things?"
"FIVE MINUTES AGO."
"Of course... there's still a few things I wanna test out. Let me run my experiments then we'll have a crack at him together, agreed?"
"VERY WELL..." he sighed.
Levi kept mumbling under his breath but I just ignored him and focused my attention on Hunter. I picked myself up from the ground, dusted off my pants and clutched my hands together. Water Titan; Second Gear needed a lot of concentration. One miscalculation and I could rupture my blood vessels. My heart wouldn't be far off too.
"Ok," I inhaled a deep breath. "Water Titan, Second Gear; Full Titan."
"What!?" Reiya snapped.
"You sure about that?" Hunter raised an eyebrow. "The last time you used that 'form' you sprained a few muscles."
True. I thought back to the time when I was younger. Back when I first discovered how to use my Water Titan. First Gear was impressive enough. I mean, I could already control water without expending any mana, but the amount of water I could control was always limited. First Gear shot way past that restriction. It allowed me to control enough water to full an entire lake. So, while First Gear was about power, Second Gear was about control. Serious control. Like, control water at a subatomic level- control.
Now imagine that amount of control applied into my own body. Every hydrogen oxide atom in my body bent to my will. Didn't matter where they were, in my muscles, my veins, organs, heart, each one at the mercy of my control. Needless to say why I was adamant on maintaining high levels of concentration.
"Eden!" Reiya barked. "Don't even think about- "
"Shh…." Scarlett cut in.
"Why?"
"Look at them. They're having fun."
"Their 'fun' will end with several broken bones." Reiya snarked.
"That may be true but we'll just patch them up after they've hurt each other. Okay?"
I decided to mute out the rest of Reiya and Scarlett's conversation. Mostly because I didn't wanna hear the threats Reiya muttered under her breath, I would do just fine without all the distractions and promises of death. My muscles began tensing up as I sped the flow of water around my body. From the bottom of my feet to the top of my head, my body started to emit steam. No doubt it was a result of the increased water flow which led to a rapid rise in temperature. At least that's the explanation I came up with to keep myself calm under all the stress my body was experiencing.
"Alright." I muttered. "I'm ready!"
"Let's go!!" Hunter screamed, his aura already building up around his body.
His mana pool somehow expanded from what it was two seconds prior. His eyes started to take a silver like hue too, unusual from his standard almond eyes.
"LOOKS LIKE HE'S RAISING HIS BAR AS WELL." Levi commented.
I felt my heart race, not from the after effects of Second Gear, but from the prospect of fighting an amped up Hunter. Maybe Levi had a small part to play, but that was irrelevant.
"Bring it-. " his lips read, up close.
I couldn't tell when or how for that matter, but I'd somehow closed the gap between Hunter and myself. A second later, my palm connected with his ribs and sent him flying into the other side of the arena.
Hunter stumbled back for a bit, but he quickly recovered and rushed at me at full speed. We found ourselves locked in straight hand to hand combat, neither of us daring to take our eyes off each other, let alone breathe the wrong way. Hunter's strikes grew more and more sharp, but my Second Gear was more than able to keep up with him. That said, I didn't account for the difference in stamina between us. My breathing was already getting labored, but Hunter was still keeping pace.
With a kick to his lower leg, I grabbed his shoulder then placed my foot on it, launching myself off it like a springboard. As I got airborne, I crossed my arms together, creating sharp disks on both my palms.
"Water Style Severance!" I launched the disks at Hunter.
He shot me a smirk as he clenched both his fists. A pillar of steam rose from both hands almost like Hunter's palms were cooking something.
"Fire Fist!" he chanted, knocking both my disks into highly concentrated vapor.
Fire Magic!? I exclaimed. Internally of course.
Hiding my shock was impossible. After I landed, Hunter snickered at my expression, like all the questions in my head were printed all over my face. It was demeaning to say the least.
"Okay, I began," since when can you use fire magic?"
"Since I left your university. And for the record, it's not just fire," almost like he was trying to prove his point, he spawned a ball of water in his hand. The irony of that choice was not lost on me.
Cocky shit.
"As you can see," he continued, "I can conjure water too. Of course there's also earth, wind, shadow and light."
"So, all of them." I concluded.
"Yup. But it's only up to second generation so don't feel too overwhelmed."
"Don't get too cocky!" I snapped, leaping at Hunter.
I launched a high kick at him, but he blocked and grabbed my leg then started twirling I constantly circles. I couldn't tell if he was acting on instinct or if he was planning that move, but the circling-built nausea in my stomach.
"Enough!" I exclaimed.
I aimed my hand at Hunter and threw a high-pressure water bullet at him. The projectile shot from my hand scratched at Hunter's cheek before making impact on the ground. It was a desperate move that was doomed to fail, obviously, but at least it got him to let go of my foot.
Having been released I continued my onslaught on Hunter, making sure not to give him any room to cast any magic. Elemental magic needed an incantation; incantations usually took fifteen seconds or less. All Hunter did was call out the spells name and there it was, no long winded speech needed.
"That's right, bring it on!" he sneered. "Show me what you got!"
"With pleasure!" I grabbed both of Hunter's arms.
"What?" he gasped.
My arms and legs were the biggest threats to Hunter since I used them to block, attack and counter. Grabbing both Hunter's arms essentially immobilized both my arms. All I could use to attack were my feet, or so he thought.
"Pressure Shot," I chanted. "Dragon's Breath."
With that, a concentrated, fine point needle shot from my mouth to Hunter's face. I stopped it just short of his nose. If I accidentally killed the king of Morningstars during a sparring match it'd be a whole fiasco. I wanted to avoid that by any means necessary.
"Nice trick." He sighed. "Still though, didn't think you were capable of stooping so low."
"Really?" I was genuinely surprised. There was no underlying sarcasm for once, just pure shock.
"I concede. Round two is yours."
"Thank you kindly."
I let go of Hunter's hands then deactivated my Titan Gear. My body was hurting in places I never knew I had, but the pain wasn't paralyzing per se. Just significantly annoying. Ok, it was painfully annoying. I'd never tell that to Reiya though. She served me a fat plate of "I told you so."
"Alright, I'm ready to go all out." Hunter took a few steps away from me. "Just give me a minute. It takes a while to get my fourth pentagram going."
Fourth!
"FOURTH!?"
Levi and I both exclaimed in unison. Seemed he was shocked as I was that Hunter already had four pentagrams. But besides that.
"We're still going?"
"Of course we are," he started stretching. "Best two out of three. This'll be the last round."
Best two out of three? Awfully modern for…. Nevermind. There are still plenty of things I don't know about this world.
I settled my thoughts into a neat mental box. I box I wouldn't bother myself with anytime soon.
"Of course…."
While I mumbled, the air around us cooled. Hunter's mana, the same mana that raged like a burning sun, settled into an eerie calm. It was creepy to say the very least. Don't even get me started on how much mana he had flowing through him.
"Devil Star, Respond. Dawning Star. Morningstar."
A watery aura coated his body; his hair took on a strange style too. It was almost as if he was underwater. His eyes completely changed as well. Before they were silver like, this time they were purely silver, much like the aura surrounding him.
"This is it, Eden," his voice drowned in the pressure he exerted. "You finally gonna turn God now?"
No sooner had he finished asking his question did he disappear only to reappear right in front of me. All I did was blink and he was already pulling disappearing acts.
"Well…" he gasped.
"F-fine…" I stuttered. "Levi…."
"AT LONG LAST."
My spine straightened itself on its own. Levi's handiwork I assumed.
"Just…. try to make it less…... strenuous this time."
Levi completely ignored my request and started pumping my spine full of mana. His mana started flowing freely across my body, from my spine to my ribs, heart, eyes- everything. It was a procedure that Levi had to perform to alter my physical body to prepare for the true power of Dragon Borne. I started focusing my own mana around my heart, where I steeled it in order to simulate a lake. Levi's mana slowly fed into that lake, changing it from a fresh lake to a salt water lake.
I couldn't find any better words to describe the process, only the results that came from it. A feeling of relief washed over me, the same way the sea bed calmed right before a tsunami. I closed my eyes and took in a sharp breath.
One… I counted.
Two….
Three…. Levi and I thought in unison.
"Dragon Drive!" I- we, chanted. "Dragon Borne!"
A stifling roar erupted from my mouth. One so primal it earned me a spot right beside the lions and jaguars in the wild. My once snow-white hair, stood on it's end and took on an ocean blue hue. My eyes glowed with the will of the seas and the ferocity of a dragon. I felt my heart thump louder than ever before, my skin grew thick, almost scale-like. Even my teeth were less human teeth and more beast like. It'd been three weeks since I'd last took on this form. And even then, I was pretty desperate to survive. I couldn't really breathe in how it felt.
"Morningstar, satisfied?" the question came from my mouth, but it felt more like Levi was asking, not me.
"Who am I talking to right now? The Leviathan or Eden."
"You're talking to the Dragon God. Isn't that what you wanted?"
"I guess it is. Nevermind, it doesn't matter who I'm talking to." Hunter took a fighting stance. "I'll beat you down all the same."
"Confidence is a good thing." I found myself taking on a fighting stance too. "Just be sure it doesn't spiral into arrogance."