Chapter 62 Duel of Friends 1
After Vicente's question, Rory looked at his friend strangely. "Are you crazy? If we train together now, you'll hurt me! We should at least wait for you to get better control of your ability."
This was indeed a problem to think about.
Just as Vicente had learned to control his body with the new characteristics after his Awakening, he needed to control the power coming from his Pentagram.
But since that was a power more connected to him than using his mana to strengthen his body because it was ingrained in his being, Vicente felt he could quickly control that ability.
"Hmm, you think so? How about this? I won't attack. I'll just defend myself while you attack me. That should be enough for me to understand my abilities better.
By the end of this six-hour period, I'll probably be able to control myself well enough. Then we can have an actual confrontation."
Rory thought silently about this proposal and agreed after a moment.
Vicente was smarter than him in terms of combat, use of magic, and ability to understand and read the world's reality.
Since Rory himself had mastered the power of his Pentagram in less than a day, he judged that by the end of those hours of training, Vicente would have enough control to not put him in danger.
"Alright."
With that said, the minutes passed, and when Vice had recovered enough to expose his combat skills again, he and Rory positioned themselves in opposite corners of the room.
When one looked at the other and indicated he was ready, Vicente tossed a wooden sphere into the air, something his powers could not interfere with.
He and Rory circulated the mana in their bodies, making their Magical Gems glow brighter while their Red Pentagrams appeared.
The metallic items from earlier floated in Vicente's surroundings while an inexplicable wind arose inside that totally closed room, from where only an air duct ventilated the place.
But this was a wind that felt like the gaseous displacement during a storm, not the airflow coming from a duct.
Along with that wind, orange flames appeared in Rory's hands as he positioned himself to attack Vicente.
When the wooden sphere touched the ground, the looks on both their faces changed, and they both moved!
Vicente already knew Rory's skill, so he promptly manipulated those metal items in his surroundings to create shields.
On the other hand, Rory did not delay and soon exposed the power of his magical form, Explosion!
When Air and Fire merged, a glow appeared. Flames exploded strongly in front of Vicente, raising the temperature of the entire room, while small orange blades formed from the explosion, heading in different directions under Rory's control.
Rory's ability was Explosion, something related to his Magical Gem. But with his first Pentagram, that power showed itself through the formation of small blades of fire, a mixture of Air and Fire that could create micro explosions when it hit its target.
Vicente had yet to feel Rory's power in combat, but almost instantly, upon the activation of his friend's ability, he realized how destructive that was.
From one hour to the next, a strong explosion hit one of his shields, destroying part of its structure, while fragments flew toward Vicente.
Noticing this, Vice did not stop to admire the destructive power of his friend nor the structural weakness of the defenses he had formed.
He knew that if he were hit by one of these arrows, he would suffer much pain even if his life was not in danger.
Vicente immediately moved his hands and controlled the fragments flying towards him, putting some of his attention on moving the other shields flying in his surroundings, making them shift.
Vicente would not attack Rory at this time, but even limited, he could greatly improve his understanding of his own powers just by defending himself.
Noticing that his items were fragile despite looking strong, Vicente focused more on increasing the complexity of those structures, making each shield vibrate and subtly change shape.
He saw that some of his friend's flame arrows passed through the spaces between their shields and moved, dodging so fast at the last moment to get hit that Rory couldn't intervene and change the direction of his blades.
They all missed Vice and hit the ground, exploding in different parts of that combat area, but destroying nothing, given the power level of that attack was lower than what the room could handle.
"You sure are fast!" Rory commented aloud, seeing that his friend's magical ability was powerful and Vice's physical features had evolved much more than he thought.
"But how will you dodge that, Vice?" Rory smiled as he joined several of his small blades together, forming one as large as a normal-sized spear.
Seeing that thing moving towards him under Rory's control, Vice stopped moving and concentrated all his defenses in front of his body.
He felt drops of sweat forming on his face and placed his two hands forward, slightly above his head, while controlling his power with his hands.
All of his shields merged into a single metal barrier, 10 centimeters thick.
Unfortunately, there was no more free metal in the surroundings. Otherwise, Vicente felt he could demonstrate a much thicker barrier!]
Boom!
Then, attack and defense collided, and when the strong explosion of that Rory blade came, Vicente shouted while holding the shield in front of him.
"Aaagh!"
He felt parts of his shield being destroyed as the explosion changed the metallic elements, decreasing the amount of matter Vice had at his disposal.
"That's a good skill, Rory!" He shouted amidst the explosion, holding his defenses as best he could.
...
Hours after Rory attacking and Vicente defending himself inside one of The Archdemon Arena's training rooms, they finally reached the last 30 minutes they had before their time was up.
After hours of 'fighting,' both had improved their skills, one having understood more of his powers and skyrocketed his control over them and the other having noticed several problems he had to improve.
Throughout the fight, Vicente learned to better control his powers to strengthen the structures he created.
He had a lot of potential with his ability. Still, without good initial control over it, he had suffered in the early moments of the fight.
But throughout the fight, Vicente significantly improved his control, bringing his defensive capabilities up to the level of offensive power he had previously demonstrated.
By the end of the last fight, or rather the last attack and defense session, he had managed to completely exhaust his friend just by defending himself!
Vice had not suffered any injuries in that last fight, and even though he had not attacked once, he looked like the real winner of the fight!
As for Rory, he had lost his edge throughout the fight, but it had shown him important points he needed to improve, something very good for a young magician to realize early on in his journey.
He looked at Vice after recovering and asked. "You still need a bit more challenge to finish controlling your powers, right? Shall we fight at least once for real?"
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