Chapter 159: Little Tyrant


    “Where the hell are you stepping? Do you want to die?” Agni grunted as she struggled to push herself upwards. This proved to be impossible for one very good reason, Sh’s foot was pressed firmly against the side of her face. The blonde haired impughed maniacally, which pushed Agni even further to new heights of anger. Finally after several moments of struggling in vain, Agni gave up — she was tuckered. This, coupled with a trickle of blood dripping from her mouth, was enough to cause Agni to throw in the towel.


    *I know where you sleep.* Agni thought as she gritted her teeth and sighed.


    — Five minutes earlier—-


    “Okay. It’s time. Are you ready? I don’t want you to whine if you get punched in the nose again.”


    *And I will punch you in the nose again, and again..* Agni thought inwardly.


    “Ha. Today’s going to be different.” Sh said as she folded her arms and began to hover, just a few centimeters above the ground. The others were all gathered around the campsite in some fashion, most were busy doing their own thing — conversing , sleeping or preparing forter this evening. As usual, only Katrin watched the two square off seriously. Although it was wee to have herpany, this had be a point of contention for Agni. This wasrgely due to Sh’s habit of embellishing practically anytime Agni got the better of her.


    “So no excuses today then? After all, you’re at level 21. You’re not THAT far behind me now.”


    It was true, in less than a week’s time Sh had managed to reach level 21. This was due to their schedule of sparring, then hunting Grimlock. The past few evenings, much to Gates’ disapproval, they had even ventured into red shards. Despite this, it was nothing that eight experienced adventurers couldn’t handle. These factors contributed to Sh’s elerated growth rate, along with the fact that she also gained additional experience when Agni did as well.


    “You’re just jealous. Bring it.” Sh remarked as she cautiously circled the subus.


    “I’m– so– JEALOUS!” Agni shouted as she dashed forward,swinging a fist at Sh in the process.


    *I want wings too!* She thought as the fight began in earnest. Hand to handbat wasn’t Agni’s forte. In fact, she was terrible at it — and that was the point. If someone unskilled in hand to handbat could continually strike her familiar, it was a problem! The past few days had been spent honing Sh’s reflexes. She could now dodge basic thrusts and swipes with no issue. Sh swayed to avoid the first few blows and flitted backwards, creating distance between herself and Agni.


    “So you did actually get better. Not bad.” Agni said with a smirk. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.


    “Oi. No magic. You promised.” Sh warned as she cut her eyes.


    “I don’t need magic.” Agni replied with a smirk. She leveled her hand towards Sh, pointing her fingers outward in a very deliberate motion. Both the pointer and middle finger thrust forward, extending unbelievably fast as they moved. Sh was a secondte to react, partially because she was caught off guard. One of the spear-like fingertips grazed her shoulder, causing her to wince. The wound was enough to draw blood, which in turn caused Katrin to shoot Agni a disapproving nce.


    “She’ll never learn if you keep babying her. I’m not holding back today.” Agni replied, uncaring of Katrin’s increasingly intense gaze. Her fingers reached their maximum length and quickly snapped back, almost like a rubber band. As if the remark were a deeply personal one, Katrin turned up her nose and continued her task of practicing her Scribe runes.


    “Mama can’t save you now. Tsk tsk.” Agni taunted with the wagging of her finger. Katrin frowned while Shughed.


    “You’re just jealous because you don’t get to drown yourself in her luscious, soft, silky mou–” Sh was so busy teasing Agni that she forgot about the battle. Several more spear-like fingers extended towards her, one after another forcing Sh to circle to her left. When she did so Agni was waiting.


    “Gotcha!” Agni said as she used her free hand to extend an attack, catching Sh in her abdomen. This time she used a second ability in conjunction with Extend, called Iron w, Iron Fang. This particr technique hardened Agni’s skin, it had the added benefit of working particrly well on fingernails and teeth. The end result was near metallic ws or fangs. This time one of the blows struck Sh in the upper thigh and pierced the skin. The blood spurted out in healthy amounts as Agni retracted her finger.


    “You can’t expect your enemy to take it easy on you. Let me know when you’re ready to be serious.” Agni admonished. Frankly, Sh’sckadaisical attitude was beginning to grate on the Subus. Over the past few days she had been racking her brain to piece together a style that could be considered “natural” to her. This wasrgely due to the advice given by Gates and Gigi, both of whom were rank two adventurers.


    With that in mind, initially fixated on her Whisper ability. After some time, she realized the two skills she’d just used were more practical forbat. Extend would allow her to send her digits outwards, while Iron w, Iron Fang could be used to enhance the attack. In order topensate for what Agni herself perceived as a weakness, she also opted not to use magic or weapons. She quickly realized that her ss seemed to focus on mid rangebat. She had no long range weapons to speak of, and all of her weapons could be wielded beyond arm’s length.


    Thus, she felt her two greatest weaknesses were long and close rangedbat. Of the two, she felt agile enough to evade most long range attacks and perhaps even counter attack with magic or Whisper. That led her to cast away her weapons and focus on improving her own striking.


    The result was that Agni was now bing much morefortable being up close and personal, but due to Sh’sck of effort, Agni felt that she wasn’t really being pushed. This drove her crazy in a sense, as she felt that the next step mighte with a little nudge.


    She was beginning to regret her choice to “kill two birds with one stone”. Ariadna and Merri would have been much more suitable for training with close rangebat. Gigi might have even been overkill, but Agni would still have learned more than battling against Sh. All of these thoughts raced through her mind, forming into a single spear called annoyance.


    *I hate wasting my time.* She thought as she frowned and began walking towards the imp.


    “If you’re not going to take it seriously, all bets are off.” Agni said as she lifted her right hand, coating it in mes. Before Sh could react she dashed forward. Sh attempted to fly away, moving upwards to avoid the sudden burst of speed — only to be grabbed by the ankle. Agni smirked as she yanked downward and thrust her ming fist into Sh’s face. She then released a st of mes which red up, consuming Sh’s face at point nk range.


    The attack wasn’t meant to hurt, but it was enough to disorient Sh, who felt all of the oxygen dissipate around her for the briefest of moments. On reflex Sh thrust her foot outward, catching Agni on the jaw. The blow was so unexpected that Agni was forced to loosen her grip considerably. Sh managed to pull away at this moment but rather than fly away, she circled around and kicked Agni in the abdomen. The blow was well aimed, and due to Sh’s momentum it carried enough weight to make Agni stagger.


    She released a grunt as all air was forced out of her lungs. Finally after a moment to catch her breath, Agni nced over at the imp.


    “Why did you stop?” She asked. Straightening her posture as she did so.


    Sh offered no response, which made Agni even more agitated.


    “Do you understand that we could have diedst week? Doesn’t that bother you?” She asked as she wiped the dirt from Sh’s shoes away from her cheek and resumed her advance.


    Once again the fight was on. Agni chose to harden her fingernails, extending them until they looked like ws protruding from her fingers. She bridged the gap almost effortlessly and began a series of swipes at Sh. Despite her bravado, Agni was taking it easy as well. An adventurer’s body could withstand quite a lot. Gouged eyes, internal bleeding, broken bones — all of these would heal simply by being left alone for an hour, sometimes less.


    Yet she only attacked Sh in rtively “safe” ces. The chest, the outer arms, the thighs. All the cuts were shallow and superficial enough to heal within minutes. After several more swipes Sh flew upwards, just out of reach and gazed down at Agni.


    After studying the subus for a moment she sighed loudly before saying a single word.


    “Fine.” Sh floated downwards andnded on the ground. She wiped her cheek, a stream of blood dribbling along her skin, before she lifted her hand to taunt Agni into action.


    “Come on. And don’t hold back. I won’t.” Sh said, offering a cocky smirk. The mood had shifted considerably, thus Agni felt a bit better about pushing her familiar previously.


    “Good.” Agni said as she dashed forward once more. The next few moments were hazy for the subus, as she had little idea what happened. Her vision began to blur and fade, a few stepster she found herself falling face forward. She hit the ground with a loud thud, but Agni had no clue — she was out before she hit the ground.


    Sh walked over towards the fallen subus and stared down for a moment before lifting her heel.


    “S-Sh- wait. The spar is ove–” Katrin said as she got to her feet, but it was toote. Sh brought her heel down against Agni’s face, causing blood to issue from her busted lips.


    Sh then looked up to find everyone gazing at her with an obvious hint of disgust in their eyes.


    “What? She said no mercy.” Sh remarked, suddenly her ears were burning.


    “Ugh. What the hell?” Agni whispered. Prompting a surprised look from Sh.


    “You’re awake already? Really? Hmm.” She said as she knelt down, driving her foot into Agni’s temple.


    “Where the hell are you stepping? Do you want to die?” Agni grunted as she struggled to push herself upwards. This proved to be impossible for one very good reason, Sh’s foot was pressed firmly against the side of her face. The blonde haired impughed maniacally, which pushed Agni even further to new heights of anger.


    “Oh well. At least now I know my new skill works.” Sh said with a smile as a thoroughly drowsy Subus attempted to grab at her in vain.


    “Sh, that’s enough.” Katrin said as she marched towards the two.


    “Oi. Wait, Katrin.” Sh said, holding up a hand — but it was toote. Katrin took one too many steps forward and fell prey to Sh’s new ability — Sleep Mine. One whiff of the near invisible cloud of sleep vapors caused Katrin to fall face forward with a thud.


    “That’s…probably going to hurt when she wakes up.” Sh said.


    “Move your damn foot!” Agni shouted.