"Alstair! Right!" Lucian shouted as he skidded back from the rebound of the attack he had just done on Zeydris.
"On it!" Alstair replied as he ran to the right of Zeydris.
Lucian shot up from his previous location again and launched himself towards Zeydris again.
He had imbued his sword with his wind mana.
He slashed horizontally. Zeydris blocked the attack instead of dodging it.
"That's not enough to take me down." He said.
"I know."
"But you made a mistake giving us a handicap that you wouldn't use mana or one of your arms," Lucian said as he applied more force to his sword.
"Lucian!" As soon as Alstair called out to Lucian, he repelled himself back to dodge the attack.
At that exact moment, an arrow came to attack Zeydris, but before it could hit him, he jumped back to dodge it.
But that wasn't enough; as soon as the arrow hit the ground by missing Zeydris, it exploded.
The grey sand absorbed most of the explosion and minimised its radius of impact, but it still created some dust that made it hard to see through it.
"We got him!" Alstair cried out in joy.
"Fool! Look behind you!" Lucian called out to him as he lunged forward to deflect the attack from Zeydris that was going to hit Alstair.
At that moment, Alstair's weapon broke into two parts and converted into daggers.
Using those daggers, Alstair made an X shape with it to block the attack from Zeydris's sword strike.
He managed to block it off, but as a result of taking a full, blunt hit, he was pushed back, rolling.
Lucian stopped in his tracks.
He analysed their situation.
'He isn't counter-attacking as long as we don't attack him.' Lucian thought as he saw Zeydris's laid-back attitude.
"Ughh….his attacks sure are powerful even without using one of his arms and mana," Alstair grumbled as he came back and stood side by side with Lucian.
"Any plan, dude?" he asked, wiping off the small blood drop from the side of his mouth.
"....Yeah. Use your bow for now and cover me. When I give the signal, you will rush at him." Lucian ordered as he started to walk towards Zeydris.
Zeydris noticed him, and he also started to walk towards him.
When both of them were a metre apart, they both started to walk in circles, their eyes locked, their movements slow yet calculating.
"So, is it gonna be another defeat for you both, or do you have something else to show me?" Zeydris nonchalantly spewed.
Lucian didn't reply to his mocking.
Lucian closed his eyes and took deep breaths. He stood in his place for a moment and then opened his eyes.
"Omen"
As soon as Lucian mumbled that, a strong gush of wind enveloped him.
Before anyone could make any sense of it, Lucian disappeared from his location and directly appeared from the right side of Zeydris.
His movements were silent, they didn't even produce a bit of sound.
He slashed in an arc to Zeydris.
Zeydris, just in time blocked it.
But that didn't stop Lucian, as he continued to attack in a chain, not giving Zeydris a chance to counter.
Though the tables turned quite fast, Zeydris soon counter-attacked; now Lucian was on the receiving end.
Their spar was blur furry. Both of their figures are a blur.
Sparks flew every time their blades clashed.
Then, in one attack of Zeydris, Lucian was sent flying, but he managed to stabilise himself as he lunged towards Zeydris again.
Lucian's eyes were changing colors rapidly; one time, it was his natural eye color of purple, then the other second, it turned to golden.
Lucian's expression was like he was in a trance, and he was fighting with instincts, not consciously.
'He is going to break through the 1st star, huh….' Zeydris thought.
'But how is he using that? It ain't no where perfect if even it doesn't compare to the one he used when he was 1 star.'
'I can see why Lucian is called the genius of this generation…..even two years before when he asked for help with this skill, I was surprised that he figured it out so soon.'
' I guess there was a reason why he chose Lucian. Lucian surely does resemble his fighting style in many aspects.'
Zeydris's thoughts wandered as a smirk etched on his face.
"Time to break you out of your trance…..it ain't time for you to use that skill," Zeydris muttered.
He was about to increase his power and forget about the restriction he placed on himself to break Lucian out of his trance.
He coated his sword in mana and was about attack Lucian when he felt something flying towards him from the side.
"Not so soon!" Alstair shouted.
He quickly grabbed the arrow before it could land a hit on him by using the arm he had restricted to use in this spar.
Then, using his other arm in which he was holding his blade, he blocked off Lucian's attack and pushed him way back!
Swish!
Thud!
Lucian was sent flying away, but he soon dropped to the sand.
Clarity returned as his eyes turned back to their original purple color.
He clutched his head, groaning.
Alstair came to him to support him.
Alstair helped to get him back on his feet.
"I guess we won't this one….."
"But we didn't even go all about….or at least I didn't," Alstair said, looking at Zeydris and then at Lucian.
"But hey! Didn't you both get carried away way too much that you completely forgot about me?! And what the hell was that, Lucian? I never saw you use that kinda skill," Alstair curiously stated.
".....I don't know myself…..it just happened that I tried to copy a skill I saw in my dreams…..and that skill matched the skill I told you about two years ago….I tried to copy it here, but then suddenly, my mind went blank when I did that. After that, I don't even remember what happened, and the next thing I knew was I was beaten and was sent here flying." Lucian said, trying to piece together what had happened.
"Don't try to use that skill before you unlock your 1st star Lucian, You have reached Ascendant rank but that isn't enough to use that skill…..if you hadn't used that skill, you might have lasted longer."
"But it was a good spar, I must say this," Zeydris spoke to them, warning Lucian a bit and praising them too.
"You didn't do much this time, Alstair, but your reflexes and your aim have improved., You have also improved in dual-wielding your daggers. That's good."
"As for you, Lucian, you need to be conscious of yourself; try not to use new things in a battle. It is fine since this was a spark, but imagine if you were in a life-threatening battle. You would have lost your life if you went into a trance like that."
Lucian and Alstair kept listening and nodded. From the two years together, both of them had grown stronger due to Zeydris. Though they couldn't show their full potential in this spar, they knew how far they came compared to two years ago and how far they still have to go to at least make Zeydris sweat.
Zeydris then kept on pointing out the places where they could improve and what they both had to do.
"Okay. I guess you both are ready to go out of this abyss now." Zeydris announced suddenly.
This caught both Lucian and Alstair off guard.
"Y-you are telling you won't train us anymore?" Alstair asked.
Though they had suffered way too miserably in the name of training, like being beaten the crap out of them by Zeydris, or forcefully making a sigil, then being thrown to fight monsters one rank above them without proper weapons, that thing broke their bones, and had left them imobilised for weeks.
But their suffering didn't end there. Both Lucian and Alstair got shivers when they recalled what they went through for these past 2 years.
"For now, yes. You both deserve a little vacation." Zeydris said, folding his arms.
"....does that mean I can go back to my family?" Lucian asked with a glimmer of hope.
"Yes. And you both won't have to return to the abyss anymore. But before I send you both back, there is just a final test you have to clear. Lucian, you reached Ascendant rank and Alstair, you are in Mid-Adept rank right now. That's good progress for two years of training."
"So for this final test, you just have to kill a Mid-Tyrant rank monster. Simple, isn't it?"
Zeydris said as he smiled with his head tilted.
All the glimmer of hope Lucian and Alstair had was crushed.
'Aghhh! Of course, there had to be a catch! How the fuck are we supposed to do that?! Last time we tried to hunt a monster one rank above us, left us crippled for days! And this time, a mid-tyrant rank?! One rank and a sub-rank higher than me and whole two ranks higher than Alstair?!' Lucian cursed inwardsly
"Don't worry, it won't be like in the past. Trust your training and efforts." Zeydris said seriously.
Lucian and Alstair had no choice but to nod hesitantly.
'Trust our hardwork my ass! We are going to die!' Alstair thought.
"Now go and get a good rest, then prepare for it. I'll give you guys 10 days to prepare." Zeydris said as he dismissed both of them and started to leave.