12 Another Spar; Rentaro And Roy Vs Icrin (1/2)

Opposite sides of the training field, Rentaro and Roy stood side-by-side, across from them stood Icrin, his grayish-colored eye giving off an ominous feeling, tugging at their heartstrings as uncertainty filled their hearts. Icrin's breathing was heavy, like a wolf who had just found his prey, frightening the two.

While they were only having a spar, Icrin's thirst for battle put this spar on a completely different level than the spar between Rentaro and Roy. Roy even wondered if Icrin was the actual chimera and he himself were the young boy.

'Second Brother, will we be okay?' At this point in time, Roy had lost his earlier narcissism. His body slightly trembled under Icrin's overbearing aura which seemed to continuously grow stronger.

'Eh... We should be okay in the end. No matter what, Icrin will only go so far, this is a spar after all. The two of us only need to work together, finding our own ways to neutralize his techniques.' Rentaro couldn't help but display a bitter smile towards their current situation, his half-hearted tone clearly seen through by Roy.

Continuing their communication, which was mainly them constantly attempting to rea.s.sure one another and boost their morale, via mental transmissions through the system, they awaited Icrin to make the first move, paying close attention to the finest details and movements of his body.

Suddenly, Icrin's toes on his left foot bent down, his heel going up as he sprung forward. While Rentaro and Roy lacked experience and may not understand the smallest of details, they could easily make out something as simple as a movement in their direction.

Just when they thought it would be simple to prepare for an offensive attack, Icrin's eye flashed blue, the light piercing into their eyes. Icrin's figure split into two identical figures, both taking on the same appearance and matching one another's movements, except for their eyes. One figure had a pair of blue eyes, while the other figure had a pair of gray-colored eyes.

The figure with blue eyes raised his hand, a spark of lightning seemed to rapidly manifest in his hands. The figure with grey eyes seemed to create and leave behind a strange aura with every step he took.

'Roy, seems like it will be a 2v2 battle, huh?'

'Ah, Second Brother, I don't even understand what the blue eyed Icrin is doing, let alone the grey-eyed Icrin!'

'Doesn't matter, all out defense for now! Even if we lose in the end, let's showcase everything we have!'

”Ahh, Alright! Grawr!” Roy roared as he took the front, unleas.h.i.+ng his Obsidian-Scaled Armor, ready to block Icrin's attacks.

Strangely enough, only the blue-eyed Icrin continued to rush towards them, while the grey-eyed Icrin ran past them in a strange pattern, his footsteps constantly tapping parts of the ground with different levels of strength. Slightly distracted by the grey-eyed Icrin's movements, they were momentarily distracted.

”Never let yourself get distracted in battle! Storm Caller! Stage 1! Serpent of Lightning, Manifest!” The lightning in Icrin's hands rapidly condensed, taking on the form of a Bo Staff with what seemed to be a serpent-like creature coiled around it, but it was too blurry to make out the creature's characteristics.

'Roy, something's wrong with the situation. Are you able to handle the Icrin with blue eyes? The other figure is acing very strange, I'm worried he's plotting something.'

'Em, I'll hold out for as long as I can. I have some tricks up my sleeves still.'

'Alright, I'll be back as soon as I can!' With that, Rentaro immediately started off in the direction of the grey-eyed figure, the blue-eyed figure lunging toward him with the lightning staff, swinging down at Rentaro only for Roy to block it.

”Hehe, Your opponent is me! I must say, that pole of yours needs to be even stronger if you wish to break my defense.” Roy's eyes s.h.i.+ned, casually tossing a remark out towards his opponent to distract him while boosting his own morale.

”Oh? My Storm Caller doesn't rely on brute force, but lightning elemental energy. The elemental energy can't be blocked alone by mere physical defense.”

”Oh? I'd like to see for myself then!” Roy shouted, before resuming his skirmish between the two of them. His spikes extended from his spine, piercing towards his opponent.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On another side of the training field, Rentaro fiercely pursued the grey-eyed Icrin.

”Hey, wasn't your blood boiling for this battle? Why do you keep running away?” Having chased after the grey-eyed Icrin, they were no rather far from Roy's battle with the blue-eyed Icrin, Rentaro felt a sense of uneasiness. Running out of options, he decided to resort to toxicity in hopes of starting the battle between the two of them before he got too far away from Roy.

”Haha, I know what you're trying to do. I won't fall for any of your tricks. Hm... Then again, I guess this is far enough already.”

”Huh?” Rentaro noticed that he had chased the grey-eyed Icrin all the way into his original side, whereas Roy was fighting the blue-eyed Icrin in their starting side of the training field. A feeling as if he made a mistake bubbled up inside of him as his mind raced on what he should do next.

”Confused? As this is merely a spar, let me teach you a little bit. I left my aura behind at every step I took and since you followed my footsteps, my aura slowly converged onto you. Naturally, I can control that aura as well.” Icrin flashed a smile, as the uneasy feeling in Rentaro's heart grew. He suddenly felt a strong pull towards the ground, as if the gravitational pull was suddenly increased.

All sound outside of their current conversation seemed to become obscure, Rentaro felt as if he and the grey-eyed Icrin were the only existences around.

Maintaining the smile on his face, ”Spectral Chains!” The aura around Rentaro slowly took on the form of transparent, grey chains that tied around his torso, arms, and legs, while it attached itself to the ground below him, sinking further down beneath the dirt. The chains slowly pulled him down onto the ground.

”Let's see if you can manage to break my technique. Then, we can have an actual battle.” Icrin's grey eyes burned fervently, revealing glints of expectation as he turned and walked back in Roy's direction.

'd.a.m.n, I thought a battle fanatic like him would fight head-on, instead of using brute strength he's using wits.' Rentaro realized his mistake by now, he was too quick to judge his opponent's fighting style based off of his att.i.tude, resulting in his failed calculations.

Struggling against the chains, Rentaro's mind raced as he tried to think of a solution. He thought back to Wilhelm's words, the Krose Clan being known for their mental energy techniques. Rentaro's thought process was that the blue-eyed Icrin used mental energy techniques, until he saw the lightning element from him. And instead of the grey-eyed Icrin using mental energy techniques, he unleashed a strange grey aura. This brought him to a series of questions.

What are mental energy techniques? Are they connected to any specific element? Are they elementless? Maybe they can be used with any element, having a specific strength depending on what element they are used with? He asked himself questions, hoping to think of answers, but to no avail.

Echoing in his mind, he thought back to the phrase that Wilhelm spoke multiple times, the ”Law of Balance”.

'Wilhelm always speaks of balance, if I manage to disrupt the balance of this technique, then it should cause the technique to fall apart. How am I supposed to do that when I don't even understand what is going on though?'