Spar

I of course arrive before Ottar but not by much sooner. I easily shifted back into my normal form as he looked at me with bright excited eyes. Even if only in a race and even if I had cheated slightly I DID beat him here. For someone starved of any form of decent competition for nearly a decade now this was exhilarating. This was proof I wasn’t just blowing smoke, I truly was close to his power level. He didn’t even seem to care that he lost the race as he immediately got in a stance to fight.-

I raised a hand at him though “Hold up a minute, gotta set some rules here or this will go from a friendly spar to a grudge match and one of us won’t walk away from that.” I said seriously.

He frowned but soon enough conceded that I was probably right and agreed “Fine, what do you propose?” he asked seriously.

“First neither of us can use lethal or malicious natured abilities. While I don’t know if you even have something like that I absolutely fucking do and I’m sorry to say there is no point in this spar if I use it. The very nature of it means if I touch you for even the briefest moment I can twist your body like clay. ” I say seriously.

“I don’t like that you must hold back but understand the necessity.” he said with a displeased look.

“Yeah I know it sucks but that’s just kinda the way things are. Anyways the second thing is that we need to keep any usages of magic small scale. I could probably cover all of Orario in my magics and even if some destruction is inevitable we should try and keep it at least a little smaller.” I said and he nodded.

“Makes sense.” he said calmly.

“Finally this isn’t a fight to the death so if it looks like either of us are going to lose neither of us are to try and desperately change that. This is a spar after all and we need it to stay that way.” I said firmly.

He frowned deeply at this part “I don’t like it, feels cheap. Incomplete.” he said seriously.

“I know but like I said, spar not grudge match.” I say with a helpless shrug.

He did end up agreeing in the end and we could finally start this spar of ours. He took a fighting stance but I did not. Instead I spat out a stream of hellfire that he dodged and ran past to throw a strong right at my face. I casually stopped spitting fire and rolled my head to the left across my shoulder making his punch hit nothing but air as I grabbed his arm and focused all of my bodies muscles power into my free arm before throwing the mother of all haymakers right into his chest.-

“THWUMP!”

The sound that rang out was a hollow dull thing as his eyes bulged and his body shot backwards into a hill that exploded on impact. I shrugged popping my head back into it’s normal location on my body as I waited for him to come out of the dust cloud. He didn’t disappoint as he launched himself at me with a feral grin on his face and a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth. I didn’t use any gimmicks this time and met his punch with one of my own.

“BOOM!”

The air erupted as the two massive forces collided head on and I ended up losing this time as I slid back several meters. There was a sting in my hand that I didn’t have time to deal with as Ottar rushed me with a flurry of punches. I flat out chose to ignore dodging them at all and ate them with gusto as I rained down my own blows on him. He quickly noticed something however and distanced himself from me with a grave expression.-

“You are unharmed.” he stated with an undertone of questioning.

“Not quite, more along the lines of I fix all the damage you cause almost instantly after you cause it. Much like how I could twist your body like clay I can do the same to my own far more easily. I wonder then how you will overcome this since out enduring me isn’t viable?” I said with a grin.

He didn’t actually seem bothered by this at all but took a wide, powerful stance “Stortus Ottar! Vana Arganture!” he yelled as a dense red energy rose from his body.

His body began to shift as he grew larger and more muscular while his hair became thicker and hard. Tusks grew out of his bottom jaw as his breath steamed from the raw primal heat coming from his body.-

My grin was gone at this as even I felt a bead of sweat roll down my forehead as my instincts for the first time since fighting Amphisbaena were warning me of a danger to my life. I didn’t back down however and activated my own buffing ability.

“Peccatum Superbiae!” I yelled as dense blue and black cursed energy rolled off of me.

My whole body tightened as the buff took hold and I felt fucking invincible. It was a lie though, a side effect of the technique itself. The name “sin of pride” was not a joke as using the cursed technique gave the one effected with it an inflated sense of pride. The only thing that kept me from falling into arrogance was the fact I knew even with the buff I wasn’t on Ottars level. He proved it as one moment he was powering up and the next I had a fist cratering my face before snapping my neck backwards. I fixed the damage at the same time a second fist fell on my chest sending me into a hill that exploded on impact.-

I wasn’t allowed time to get up and recover though as Ottar was right behind me the moment his blow sent me flying and he was already in mid swing with his fist with glowing red eyes and a savage snarl on his face. My senses sharpened and I was barely able to keep up with his movements as I erupted with dense spikes of ice that he dodged instantly despite being mid swing. Still this gave me the split second I needed to recover and press the counter attack.

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