...Next morning.
Bell woke up in a tent. A quilt slipping down from his torso as he sat up. His eyes were filled with shock.
'Where am I? I remember falling asleep besides Ais. But what happened afterwards?' He wondered with cautious confusion while taking in his surroundings.
He cautiously got up from the bed and found his sachet and liberator kept at a corner of the tent. Which he swiftly fastened across his body. Getting ready to scram the hell out of here if things went south.
His steps became cautious as he opened the flaps of the tent and walked out. Adventurers were moving around the encampment. Every single one of them gave him a feeling of danger.
All of them were at least Level 3 and some even felt even more dangerous, Level 4 probably.
'Fuck!' Bell cursed inwardly. Anyone here could fold him in half if he kept his [Ittou Shura] under wraps.
Only now did he understand. If it wasn't a life and death battle... then there was an enormous gap between him and other veteran adventurers.
He was just mulling over his weak strength when the flaps of his adjacent tent were pulled aside as the Sword Princess walked out.
Their gazes collided in the air between them. His gaze filled with confused mulling. Her gaze filled with a burning resolve for strength.
Ais walked in front of him without dilly dallying. She spoke with her stoic expression. Though there was a hint of eagerness beneath the stoicism.
"I want to fight you." Her words were to the point as always.
Bell was baffled for a moment. But then he understood. She or her instincts might have caught a flaw in his harmless persona. And at the streets earlier, he had dodged her kick at point blank range. That was not something possible for a Level 1 adventurer.
'She might be thinking that I'm hiding my strength and can give her a serious fight.' Bell concluded in his thoughts with lightning speed.
It was a little problematic to be on her crosshairs. But what was done was done. He had already come under the Loki Familia's scrutiny by now.
"I accept but have a condition." Bell spoke after weighing the pros and cons. Finding a way to save his own hide.
"Hm?" Ais tilted her head. Confusion written over her face.
"We spar at someplace private...And you need to promise me that you'd not tell anyone about my strength or skills. Even your Familia. If they ask... Just tell them that you're training a promising newbie." He spoke without a change in his expression as he stated his condition.
Her face flashed with a brief struggle. Hiding something from her Familia made her feel uncomfortable. In the end though, her hunger for strength won out and she nodded.
"Let's go then, there is no need to delay." Bell spoke and gestured for her to lead them out of the Loki Familia camp and take them to an isolated place.
"Follow me." Ais spoke with an impassive face while starting to walk out of the Loki Familia camp.
Bell followed behind without another word.
Many surrounding adventurers of the Loki Familia looked at them with curiosity but didn't have the guts to question them or rather...her.
They left the Loki Familia encampment under the blushing gaze of Tiona, and the resentful eyes of Lefiya. Who both had just watched the scene after coming out of their tents.
Though before vanishing from their vision, Bell once looked back at the resentful eyes of Lefiya and murmured inwardly in confusion.
'Sister...Why are you looking at me like that? Did I somehow murder your whole family and forgot about that affair?'
Bell soon however forgot about her and followed Ais towards a forested area. The reason he had accepted her offer was twofold.
One was to get acquainted with Ais. After all, she was a Level 5 adventurer who would soon ascend to Level 6. Having her help during the troubles ahead would make things ten times easier for him.
Second was that he was curious about how his wheel would adapt against her [Ariel] and generally against a peak Level 5 adventurer. He might gain something game changing if he had a spar with her seriously enough.
Ais stopped at a forested clearing as Bell concluded his thoughts.
She created some distance between them and spoke with her usual calm.
"Start."
Her voice was followed by a gust of wind as the space between them shrunk under her speed. One moment she was standing 10 meters away...The next, her sword—desperate, was already heading for his heart.
His wheel started to materialise over his head. But Bell did not want to reveal that. It was his greatest secret after all. Hence he focused and willed.
*Clunk*
Was heard as the wheel dematerialised, now working in the background without materialising above his head.
[Instinct (A)] roared like supercharged turbine in his ears.
VROOM!
Golden paths flashed and collapsed across his vision. Gold flashed and dissolved across his awareness as countless pathways to victory were synthetised...and then dissolved rapidly.
Liberator was unsheathed in a heartbeat. It's tip heading for the side of desperate. Meanwhile, Bell created some space between his underarm.
Desperate heading for his heart was pushed off course by liberator. Her sword ended up stabbing the empty space he created between his underarm a moment ago instead of his heart.
Ais suddenly changed her stab into a horizontal swing after desperate stabbed the empty space between his underarm.
If her swing landed...then he'd be split in two from the chest.
His face flashed with gravity. Yet, Before she could start the horizontal swing, his leg moved before his thoughts, kicking her brutally in the stomach.
She was launched backwards. Desperate pulled back with her. Saving Bell from following in a certain Honored One's footsteps.
"Hm. Acceptable. I'll get serious now." Ais spoke after shrugging off the kick like nothing.
The moment she said the word 'serious,' her whole aura changed. The golden paths to victory in his vision started to shake under her declaration.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Her movements were another beast altogether now. Continuous sonic booms were heard as the sound barrier was torn apart continuously like a piece of fragile paper by her.
Desperate headed for his head from the right. Yet, a moment had not passed when it headed for him from the left, then right again, front, back and even above.
Liberator flashed in response, moving before she even decided where to attack from.
Desperate and Liberator danced against each other in a symphony of colliding swords.
Clank. Clack. Clink. Shing. Clank.
Bell was barley able to keep up by peering some seconds into the future with [Instinct (A)] running in overdrive.
Yet, her speed kept escalating upwards without an end in sight. Desperate became a living hurricane of swords trying to drown him under their sheer speed.
He still saw where her sword would head for. But his body was starting to fail to keep up with her speed.
Clank. Clank. Clank. Clink.
Finally...[Ittou Shura] whirred to the first gear when he was about to be overwhelmed under her gale of swords.
His strength climbed upwards. Peak Level 1—Level 2—Mid Level 2.
Golden paths in his vision fluctuated violently as he dodged, deflected and counterattacked.
Liberator sung against the backdrop of a storm of swords. His awareness searching for a slim path to victory even as a tempest of swords tried to swallow him whole.
Desperate headed for his chest with mindboggling speed, which he deflected with liberator. Instead of his chest, desperate tore a gnash across his should. He was barley able to turn major injuries into minor ones now.
Many similar wounds had started to accumulate over his body.
[Super Regeneration] hummed to life and started to close his wounds by working overtime.
But this was the moment the wheel had been waiting for.
*Clunk*
All the places where she slashed were rewoven into a new framework of muscles and proteins. These new muscle were slightly resistant to slash damage. This was probably the wheel adapting the good ol' way like Mahoraga from *JJK*.
'Hahahaha.' Bell cackled inwardly with dawning understanding and started to act like an absolute madman.
Each slash of desperate was deflected by liberator to instead slash at any point of uninjured skin across his body. New gnashes opening across his body.
[Ittou Shura] rumbled to a higher gear as Ais continued to release more of her strength.
Mid Level 2—Peak Level 2—Half Step Level 3.
His strength soared upwards like a comet. His speed increasing as logic became a suggestion.
Countless sword wounds were carved across his skin. But the wheel worked along with [Super Regeneration] to heal and adapt his skin to slashes in general.
If anyone saw Bell right now, they would think he was a madman, since he was smiling while every inch of his skin was being slashed apart.
They kept going at it like that for some time. Only when Bell felt his wheel's adaptation against her slashes reach minor resistance...did he push her away to create some distance.
"Let's finish this with one last move..." Bell spoke as the injuries over his body scrabbed over. [Super Regeneration] being so broken that it felt like cheating.
He finally let go. [Ittou Shura] boomed into the highest gear. His strength ascended upwards ruthlessly. His speed conversely climbing even higher.
Half Step Level 3—Level 3—Low Level 3—Mid Level 3.
"Ariel..." Ais activated her [Ariel] in response. A tempest of compressed air now surrounding her and desperate. Her speed and strength skyrocketing to unseen heights.
Bell knew he would lose. Because the moment she activated [Ariel], every golden path to victory vanished from his awareness.
No... There was still a trump card left. [Astra-Vesta Calibur] could turn the tide. But it was his strongest trump card. It was better to save it for Evilus. After all...this was merely a spar, not a life and death battle.
Still a win might be out of the question. But he could still give her a pleasant surprise.
A single moment was all he needed to end this in a draw.
Bell started to walk towards her. His walk turning into a run moments later.
With each step.
He could hear his heart beat. Yet, he didn't need his ears.
He could see Ais clearly. Yet, he didn't need his vision.
He could feel the cool touch of air on his skin. Yet, he didn't even need that.
He could smell the faint fragrance of the forest. Yet, he didn't need it either.
He could taste the atmosphere on the tip of his tongue. Yet, even it wasn't needed to dance.
The world bled into a monochrome colour for him. His strength and speed transcending everything for a single moment.
He passed by Ais.
Only his quiet words were left behind.
"Ittou Rasetsu."
It was a draw.
He never doubted himself.
Even for a moment.