NOVEL WEB Chapter 71 - Sparring Part 2
Tesilim and Arelion walked back to the rest of the party after Tesilim had given up once Arelion pulled his shadow teleportation move. Everyone congratulated them on a nice fight and gave props to Arelion for coming out on top. The whole thing had been a nice display of all their abilities, and Rose had been able to see just how flexible Tesilim could be in a fight. It was the same thing Arelion was thinking about as they returned to the party. The purple and yellow-haired elf had many spells that he could sling around without chanting. He was even decent at melee combat and had plenty of mana to use.
On the other hand, Arelion himself wasn't bad, as he definitely had more skill than Teslim did. It helped that he focused on debilitating enemies and could pull out some good moves when needed. All in all, he was more accustomed to combat than Teslim had been, which made sense as Tesilim had only been fighting in this manner for a few months. Even then, most of the fights that he had been in were mostly with monsters, and he had yet to fight a humanoid other than Lili.
Next up in the sparring session was a two versus one. Rose and Alyx were going to fight Lili, who was going to ramp up things until she was fully powered up. It would be a good matchup, as Lili would be more of the skirmishing type. And she would be trying to get past Rose in order to get it to Alyx, who was the caster. Naturally, it would be different from most setups with adventurers since Alyx could hold himself against Lili for a little while compared to most casters.
Rose stood around a dozen feet in front of Alyx, who himself was already shielded. For the fight, the redhead did not put on her helmet as she wasn't going to be in actual mortal danger.
Once again, the fight began with a whistle, though this time it came from Tesilim.
Alyx began a chant as he knew Rose and Lili were enhancing their bodies. Then, just after his chant finished, roots burst out of the ground, trying to grasp Lili. However, the elf was already moving to engage Rose. That was already a good sign for Rose since she had stayed back, defending Alyx instead of attempting to remove Lili from the fight. It showed that the redhead knew her task and would not be hot-blooded in combat. Either way, Lili, who was only starting at D rank enhancement, clashed with Rose, who blocked both daggers with her shield before slashing at the white hair elf, who dodged back.
Meanwhile, Alyx, who still had not let go of the spell he had been holding, called more roots to appear from the ground, attempting to hold the retreating Lili. Of course, Lili was no joke, and she cut some of them apart or nimbly dodged out of the way.
The fight went on in this manner for the next half a minute when Alyx noticed what Lili was trying to accomplish. She would engage the redhead, causing her to move forward a little by little as she baited the warrior further away from Alyx. Naturally, he could have called out to Rose but decided that it would be a good teaching moment for the warrior. He knew that she was in town in order to get better in combat, and this was exactly what he intended to help her with.
The same scene repeated many times as Lili attempted to stab Rose, trying to get past her defense. Meanwhile, Rose was able to block, parry, or just dodge the strikes. However, whenever Lili went in, she brought Rose further from Alyx. It was only a foot at a time as Rose moved one step forward, attempting to slash at the white-haired elf, but every single bit counted. Meanwhile, Alyx hadn’t switched the strategy and was still trying to support Rose by hampering Lili with his roots.
Finally, the fight's tempo changed when Lili felt like she had brought Rose far enough from Alyx. The white hair elf rushed forward once more, cutting and dodging through the roots that Alyx had formed. And right as she was about to strike the redhead, she increased her enhancement just a bit, catching the redhead by surprise. Rose, who attempted to block the strikes, put her shield in front of her and was even more surprised when the strikes never landed. Instead, Lili used the fact that Rose lost sight of her to move past the redhead and toward Alyx as she enhanced her body even more.
Responding to this, the quiet rose, who had simply been grunting as she took hits or dodged, roared as her sword glowed and sent out slashes of golden light at Lili. For her part, Lili simply dodged or sent her own dark slashes of energy without even losing her stride. Seeing this, Rose snapped out of her slight rage and began chasing Lili once again.
Having already seen this coming from a mile away, Alyx was ready. Due to his training and general magical knowledge, he could do things that many were not able to do until higher ranks. Of course, that was also only possible due to his patrons and their blessings. Either way, he was about to switch his current spell from just targeting one creature with vines to summoning an entire wall of roots.
Spending the mana as he saw Lili rush him, he summoned the wall of roots between them. The wall was high enough that it would cost the elf a few seconds to climb over and was thick enough to give him a bit of a respite from any incoming attacks while also shielding him from sight. However, more importantly, it would delay Lili enough so that Rose could catch up with her. At least, that was the plan until Lili unleashed her consuming slash technique but at a much weaker level. Even if it was weaker, it was still strong enough to eat through the wall, surprising Alyx. He had not been expecting Lili to use that ability or anything for that matter. Thankfully, it didn't strike him directly.
Rose wasn't too far behind her, as the redhead's body was slightly glowing with power, no doubt having been infused with more energy. Lili was still able to strike him a total of four times before Rose was already upon her, slashing away. Alyx used this time to back away from the two fighters and decided it was best to use his concentration on something else.
The best thing to use the concentration on was a boosting spell for Rose. It took him a few seconds to release the spell, and he even used a magical circle to empower it further. Once the spell hit Rose, she gained a boost in her speed and strength, and the redheaded caught up to Lili in speed and power. The white-haired elf was surprised for a second before she, too, boosted her power all the way to her low C rank status, once again surpassing Rose by a fair margin.
Still, Rose was not going to be undeterred, and she poured even more mana into her enhancement. Of course, Alyx, not wanting to let Rose down, began throwing regular spells at Lili. He sent out blasts of forces, elemental projectiles of many kinds. He also attempted to influence the C ranker's mind, but they were just annoyances to the veteran fighter. The only good thing was that Rose was still able to somewhat keep up with Lili, though it was only because the elf was holding her punches.
Eventually, after trading blows back and forth and realizing he was starting to run low on mana, he called the fight to an end. Honestly, Alyx knew that everybody was still holding back their powers. Tesilim was holding back his Chaos Mana since, with it, he probably would have been able to beat Arelion without issue. He was certain that the twins were also holding themselves back from fully showing their celestial powers.
Naturally, as a warrior, Rose had some techniques hidden away, and she had barely spent any of her deity's mana. Heck, Alyx himself hadn't used many of his most dangerous spells, as this wasn't a fight to the death but more of a sparring session. Another great example of holding back was Lili. She could definitely take down at least three of them before she was put down herself. The white-haired elf had just enjoyed the fight with the redhead; otherwise, the redhead wouldn't have stood a chance.
Overall, the sparring session was precisely what Alyx wanted it to be. They now knew what each other was capable of, more or less, and they could use it to plan some strategies. Even then, one thing the party was still missing was trust, as half of them had literally just met. Alyx also had to be realistic, as there was a good chance that Rose and Arelion would not be joining them once they left the island. Still, any practice was good practice.
And now that they were all a tad more comfortable with each other, Alyx felt like the next part of the plan was for all of them to do a few easy missions from the Adventurers Guild to get a better grip on each other. Though he imagined they might hold a couple more sparring sessions before then. However, that was going to be for another day. Alyx wanted to continue the bonding experience and decided to treat all of them to some food and drinks back in the city.
Walking back to the city, the party naturally argued good-naturedly about which tavern or restaurant served the best and most expensive food since Alyx was the one paying.