Free Web NovelChapter 217: Chapter 216 - Results(Part 1)
Point-of-View: Aurora Pretorius
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"Whenever you’re ready, come at me," I remarked, as I manifested my Shadow Cat.
"Alright, got it," Nodded Zoraiz in response, as he took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, looking a bit nervous.
Today’s the 3rd of November, and a couple of days ago, Bastet decides that his training of Zoraiz and Alexis was complete. They weren’t too happy about it, but he was pretty adamant about being done with it.
Harmony has located several Deities, and after convincing Bastet to give them information on what each of those Deities are like, in exchange for premium high quality cat food, they’ve begun determining which Deities are most likely to help us.
But first, we need to find out whenever training with Deities is really all that effective, and exactly how effective that it is. And to determine that, Zoraiz was going to spar with me, while Alexis was doing the same with Fenris, who had finally learnt to trigger his Crimson Werewolf form successfully and without losing total control.
He can only hold the form for a short while, and despite being in control, it still puts him in a pretty aggressive state of mind. So he’s been working on keeping his cool even when provoked while in that state.
Because otherwise, all an opponent has to do is insult him till he snaps and attacks blindly. His current training involved him transforming while the rest of us take turns provoking and hurling insults at him, and his job is to stay calm while that’s happening.
He’s lost it several times already though, which is my cue to step in and restrain him. Knocking him out undoes the transformation, and while he is getting better at keeping his cool, it’s been pretty slow progress.
Bastet will be stepping in today though, since I’m occupied with sparring against Zoraiz. We managed to convince him by pointing out that he should see firsthand how effective his training was, appealing to his natural curiosity.
Well, anyway, getting back to Zoraiz, we were starting off a bit slow, with me on the defensive and him attacking. He’s best at dodging, so I figured it’d be a better challenge for him to attack first instead.
"Any day now! What’s wrong, you scared?" I grinned tauntingly.
"You know, I think all those insults you’ve been throwing at Fenris has affected you," He responded wryly, before suddenly kicking at the ground and sending bits of dirt and grass flying my way.
He then zipped across as I batted away the dirt with my Shadow Cat...woah, he’s gotten a lot faster, is that his maximum output with his Physical Skill?
"Huh, so you’re finally able to use your maximum output continuously, are you?" I smirked, as he zipped in towards my right.
"What do you mean? This is only half my maximum output!" He exclaimed, as he suddenly put on a sharp burst of speed and closed in on me sooner than I was anticipating.
Wait, what?
I quickly sprang away in alarm as he swung a kick up at me, his foot hitting the shoulder of my Shadow Cat...and breaking through it with a single hit, the sole of his boot grazing my own shoulder as I jumped off to the side.
He broke through my Shadow Cat? I mean, it wasn’t at full density, but still, he’s never been able to do that before, let alone actually land a hit on me, even if it was just a graze.
He wasn’t bluffing, his speed really did double right as he closed in...but can he maintain it continuously or only for a brief instant like before? Guess I’ll find out.
I took aim and fired out a Negative Blast at him, which to my surprise, he shot straight towards instead of leaping away to the sides. What’s he doing?
Right as he closed in on my blast, he swiftly shuffled his feet across and spun himself around the blast in the blink of an eye, before stomping on the ground with his right foot with immense force, kicking up several small stones and bits of dirt.
He then swung his arms out before rapidly swinging them in, slamming his palms together and creating a shockwave, sending all the bits of gravel and dirt he’d kicked up shooting towards me.
I increased the density of my Shadow Cat as his projectiles closed in on me, deflecting them off as he shot towards me at top speed. No doubt about it, he’s able to maintain his maximum output continuously now.
But that’s not all there is to it...his movements are a lot sharper than before, and his reaction time has drastically improved too. And there’s more to it...he’s significantly faster now than he was before even with his maximum output.
Which means that his base physical abilities are higher than they used to be. It’s too significant a difference to have naturally acquired in just a month under any normal circumstances...so, this must be the result of training with a Deity for a month, huh?
As he closed in on me, he suddenly went low and unleashed a rapid sweeping kick at my feet. I sprang up as quickly as I could while simultaneously swinging my tail down, using it to prop myself up.
His kick struck the soles of my feet, and as his foot swept across the ground, he used the momentum to keep going, spinning around in a circle before raising his foot as he spun all the way around, aiming a kick at my waist.
I began to use my tail to spring back, but his foot struck the middle of my waist, breaking through my Shadow Cat and lightly hitting me directly, as I jumped back just in time to avoid taking it on the full.
That had a lot more force to it than his punch earlier...was he just testing the waters and getting warmed up? His movements are growing sharper and sharper the longer this goes on.
I increased the density of my Shadow Cat, and while it did absorb a fair bit of the momentum of his kick, he still managed to break through it. And even with the force of his kick weakened, not to mention that he didn’t fully land the kick on me directly, I still felt that.
The spot on my waist that he struck is a bit sore, I wouldn’t say it’s painful exactly, but that could’ve really hurt if he’d properly landed it.
Hm...I might have to start taking this more seriously. His current physical abilities...they’re more or less on par with my own while Shadow Cat is active, maybe even slightly superior.
I then shot towards him as I extended out several shadowy streaks in his direction, whipping them at him. He sprang back as one of my streaks zipped in front of him, before twisting his body across and kicking away another streak that shot up behind him.
As he began to land, two of my streaks converged in on him from either side, but he didn’t move. Right as they closed in on him, he swiftly swung his arms out and grabbed them, grimacing as the debilitating effect of my shadowy manifestations hit him.
Undeterred, he powerfully yanked them back, starting to pull me towards him before I quickly dissipated them in alarm, the force of his pull throwing me a bit off balance.
My eyes then widened as he shot towards me and closed in rapidly, his arm drawn back while I was still off balance. I quickly extended the legs of my Shadow Cat to shoot myself straight up into the air, contracting them as he began to try and kick them.
I then fired down a barrage of small but rapid Negative Blasts at him from above, and as they rained down towards him, he quickly tore up a big chunk of the ground and flung it up, blocking some of my projectiles as he zipped away to avoid the rest.
I’m not holding back anymore, but he’s still more than holding his own...if he had ranged attacks on top of his speed and strength, he might even have had the advantage here. Hm, maybe I should suggest that he adds some throwing or projectile weapons to his arsenal.
As I began to plummet, I curled myself up as I changed the shape of my Shadow Cat into a sphere with several sharp spikes extending out from it, and as I hit the ground, I began rapidly spinning and zipping towards him at a breakneck speed.
I can’t see him while spinning this fast, but I’ve locked onto his scent, so I know exactly where he is!
I chased after him at top speed while he ran away, turning and weaving to evade me. Uh, wait, if I actually hit him with this, it’ll tear him apart and kill him. And with all this momentum, it’ll be hard to stop short, I’ll have to completely dissipate my Shadow Cat upon contact.
Another thing, this is a new technique, and I haven’t used it for this long before, and uh...I’m starting to get kinda dizzy.
I then abruptly increased the elasticity of the sphere to bounce up in the air, returning it to its normal cat shape, before heaving slightly as I felt nauseous...okay, that was a bad idea, I think I’m gonna be sick...
"Gotcha!" Suddenly came Zoraiz’s voice from behind me.
Oh, crap! In my dizzy state, I was slow to react, as I felt a powerful force hit my back after breaking through my Shadow Cat with ease and sent me flying down rapidly, crashing onto the ground on my front as I let out a groan. It felt like he kicked my back, that really hurt...
"Ow, that’s gonna leave a mark," I muttered to myself, as I rubbed the spot he’d struck gingerly.
"And now for the finisher!" He exclaimed, as he balled his fists together and closed in on me from above.
Hate to say it, but he’s won this...unfortunately for him, I’m a sore loser. He may have just beaten me in my Shadow Cat form, so I’ll take it to the next level.
"Sorry, but I’m not letting you beat me that easily," I smirked, as I swiftly activated my Dark Cheetah form, wrapping several streaks around his torso and pointing a couple of streaks with sharpened edges at his vital spots.
Before we started, I said I’ll only be using Shadow Cat, so this is kinda cheating, but that’s fine.
"Hey, no fair, I thought you said you weren’t gonna use Dark Cheetah," He grumbled in response.
"Oh, did I? Weird, I don’t remember that."
"You liar."
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