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A beautiful Squirrel woman with a body covered in glossy chocolate-skinned muscles and scars, short brown hair, an eye patch, and a prosthetic leg, wielding a long and dark axe, Anna, the Squirrel Blacksmith, rushed towards Ervas with immense strength.
?
"Here I go, boy!"
Her axe clashed against the young boy's shield as a thunderous sound was released, she was not going easy on him despite being a youngling.
Clash!
"Iron Wall, Iron Protection!"
Although Ervas has not learned the techniques, he kept on chanting their names, to make himself believe that he already possessed the techniques. This was usually used by many apprentices when they were still developing their abilities and skills, which might end up letting them learn such techniques faster than conventionally.
"Convincing yourself that you have them is the best way to actually get them," thought Ervas as he received Anna's powerful Axe Technique attack, strong enough to create a slight crack in the shield made out of Veronica's mineral, which had been recently transformed into a Cursed Shield by having many Dead Spirits inhabit it.
Veronica's mind however remained within the Cursed Shield, and slowly merged with the Dead Spirits, creating something similar to an Alter Ego.
"Ouch! Did I just get a scratch? Anna, you're really strong!" said the Cursed Shield.
Anna flushed as she loosened her tension.
"Eh? R-Really, Veronica? Hehe… I'm glad you think that"
"It's time for me to retaliate as well, Rocket Punch," said Ervas, controlling the Cursed Gauntlets he was equipped with by expanding his Spectral Soul, generating rocket punches similar to the ones Veronica was able to do with the help of Aqua.
"Ah! T-That was very cheap, you know?"
Anna was caught off guard due to the Cursed Shield's praise. However, her reflexes were way higher than Ervas. Using her large axe as a shield, she guarded against Ervas rocket punches while charging on an attack.
"Even after having trained… without my Telekinesis, fighting physically is still taxing" muttered Ervas, as he began to enhance his body capacity with Life Attribute Magic, and 'Hardworking', constantly pushing his body over his limits while barely holding on to it bursting into pieces due to the immense pressure that the bones and muscles of a two-year-old boy had to take.
"Piercing Axe!" roared Anna, tightening the muscles of her arms, shoulders, triceps, and biceps, sweat flying around creating an alluring and fierce picture. Her axe coated itself with her own mana as its sharpness and weight increased momentarily, clashing against Ervas's shield and splitting it in half.
Clash!
"Ah, you split me in half!" said the Cursed Shield.
"Ugh…"
"Oops!"
Ervas was sent flying through the air like the arms he was using to take on the shield and the hit's weight broke down. His bones cracked inside of his arms flesh and his muscles exploded.
Bump!
"Boy! Are you okay?" asked Anna as Ismene appeared from the sides of the battlefield, which was a few meters outside of their tribe.
"He's fine, don't worry," she said.
"But I am sure that his little bones…!"
"No, I'm fine," said Ervas, getting up from the ground, showing Anna that his arms were as good as new.
Thanks to his 'Rapid Healing' Skill coupled with his Life Attribute Spirit Magic and No-Attribute Magic healings spells and an immense amount of Mana, Ervas constantly healed himself from any damage. Although his body could easily break apart, he would just regenerate back in a few seconds. He had grown to be accustomed to the pain by this point.
"A-Are you sure?" asked Anna, unlike Amelia, Pekorina, and Acathea, she was even stronger than them, perhaps only second to Veronica herself. She was the perfect sparring partner when Veronica's main body was not responsible. However, this was the first time she was fighting against Ervas and only accepted because Veronica asked her.
She began fighting against him and quickly learned that despite his appearance, he was incredibly resilient and slowly began to go all out on him, unleashing more of the techniques she had learned before she became an artisan and a blacksmith.
"Yes, can we continue? I feel like I might be getting closer now…" said Ervas.
Seeing Ervas' determination in his eyes, Anna nodded.
"Alright!"
Clash! Clash!
Anna and Ervas kept fighting, clashing their own attacks. Ervas rocket punches held quite the strength when he used his mana to feed on his spectral soul, which did not count as using magic in the sense of the word and was approved by Veronica.
Meanwhile, Anna's Axe Techniques were as high as Level 5, its strength was perhaps comparable only to Veronica's Unarmed Fighting Technique.
As Ervas and Anna kept fighting, Ervas discovered that he was slowly getting better at resisting hits. He was only getting thrown into the air once every ten hits or even more, and the Cursed Shield was able to regenerate no matter how much damage it took by molding itself like liquid metal, so it never took really any damage.
Ismene and Amelia were currently glancing at the situation from the sides, while sitting over a carrier-type clone that was transformed into a golem, similarly to the Cursed Shield, becoming a metallic, spider-shaped golem that contained an alter ego of Veronica combined with many Dead Spirits.
"Ervas is getting fairly good now, I remember that he couldn't even resist one hit before getting thrown into the air!" said Amelia with a bright smile while eating a fruit similar to a watermelon with her mother.
"Indeed, the boy is getting stronger, he might only be two years old, but his appearance is almost like a fives years old boy… he's slowly catching up to your height, Amelia," said Ismene with a chuckle, as she ate a piece of the watermelon-like fruit, which was instead of crimson red completely green, but had similar seeds and outside appearance.
This fruit was one of Ervas's experiments created through the 'Fruit Production' Skill of the Accursed Malevolent Trees, Ainsley, and Alder. By using this skill and Ervas's Life Attribute Spirit Magic spells and Mana Manipulation, while also gathering the knowledge about plants he acquired and about genetics, he created a new fruit never seen before, similar in flavor and appearance to the juicy watermelon of the earth by using a different fruit as the mutation subject.
After gathering the seeds of this mutated plant, the Trees had an easy time replicating them when they consumed them. This way, Ervas had been recreating many plants, seeds, and vegetables from Earth, which are delicious and nutritious. He wanted to recreate peanuts next and make peanut butter and also rice to eat with curry, whose spices were already replicated.
Clash!
"Come one, you can do it, boy!" said Anna while raising Ervas spirits.
Ervas arms and shoulders began to tighten and break apart constantly. Regenerating every time, it did almost instantly.
"Kuh… Rocket Punch,"
Flash! Flash! Flash!
Imitating Aqua's techniques, Ervas began to unleash powerful blows that Anna saw easily through, using her Axe to block them while administrating her own blows in between, showcasing just how good she was as a warrior.
"She is really the strongest warrior of the tribe… Well, aside from Veronica herself… not even Acathea compares to Anna yet" thought Ervas using his shield and armor to defend.
Ervas began to fill his spectral soul with his mana as it entered his muscles, blood vessels, bones, and bone marrow, enhancing them greatly, giving him a strength surpassing what could be expected of a young two-year-old boy.
He filled his gauntlets with his spectral soul until they bulged and resembled cannonballs, firing them against Anna.
Anna smirked as she enhanced her body and slashed through the attacks with her axe.
"Haahh! Super Body Enhancement, Maddening Axe Slash!" roared Anna, firing away the gauntlets fired a then directing her axe towards Ervas.
"Iron Wall! Iron Protection!"
Ervas used his mana to coat his equipment, imitating what a technique does, and received the attacks, his armor cracked due to Anna's incredibly strong blows and then his bone sand muscles began to loosen.
"This… unless I don't breakthrough in this very moment, it might take me years to learn these techniques, and I really want to use them alongside my Telekinesis…"
Ervas purpose in learning these techniques was not that he wanted to go in front of the battlefield like a battle junkie and smile while destroying the bodies of others with his own fists, he wanted to use them alongside his Telekinesis in new and innovative ways, but to do it, he needed to learn them the conventional way, as the system did not saw his telekinesis as his own body neither a shield nor an armor to acquire these skills with it.
Ervas was decided to finally break through this very day, putting his spectral soul to his limits, his entire body was covered in the resplendent yellow and white aura, even Anna was surprised.
"I'm sorry, but I will not lose today," said Ervas, receiving the attacks and using his bare fists, covered on his very soul like claws, similar to Veronica to slash through Anna's axe and defend himself alongside his Cursed Shield.
The axe's blade cut through his flesh as Anna was about to stop, but due to his words, she saw in the boy a strong determination to finally break through this progression wall of his.
"Very well, don't die on me though!" roared Anna, giving her all as well.
Both axe and spectral claws clashed against each other. Ervas suddenly began to use his legs as well, enhancing them in the same way.
His flesh was torn off but quickly regenerated, surprising the spectators present.
Clash! Clash! Clash!
Anna began to feel the pressure of Ervas's counterattack, she was slowly getting overwhelmed by him.
She thought that if he were to just go all out with his magic, she would have been dead long ago.
Spectral white and golden claws surged from within his body, his crimson eyes suddenly flashed in an eerie light. Anna instinctively felt the pressure, the sight of a voracious being awakening within the young boy.
Her body suddenly lost its balance, and her spine stiffened.
However, she smiled, forcing her own muscles and paralyzed body to continue fighting!
"Good, it wouldn't be a good fight if you didn't go all out!" she roared, laughing like a true battle junkie, awakening her old nature, her axe moved swiftly through the air, but she knew that Ervas was about to finish her off…
"Spectral Claw, Rocket Punch, Piercing Blow"
The boy chanted many techniques he had just created, as his spectral soul resembled a maddening specter from the abyss, glowing brightly in gold colors and white splendor.
"T-This!"
Clash! Clash! Clash! Clash! Clash!
"Ungh…! Ugaaah!"
Anna's entire body, which was covered in light chainmail began to weaken… Her hands stiffened due to the pressure that Ervas naturally exerted and Anna fell to the ground. Her axe split into pieces.
Clash!
The large body, probably of the strongest Squirrel-kin women of the entire continent, fell to the ground as her muscles were completely torn off, and most of her bones were on the verge of cracking.
"Ugh… That was… amazing, boy! Well done!" laughed Anna as her entire body was in so much pain that she felt dizzy.
Suddenly, she felt glowing yellow light cover her entire body her muscles warmed and her bones as well, the wounds closed, and her muscles and bones began to repair themselves at an outstanding pace.
In a few seconds, she was completely healed.
"Thanks, Anna, I managed to learn the techniques… at last…" said Ervas, as he fell on the ground after healing Anna.
After going through so much stress, no matter how much he healed himself, his body seemed to have become paralyzed. He had already reached the limits of his limits, and could not move an inch.
But on his pale-white face and his doll-like appearance, there was a mild smile.
"I really did it…"
[You acquired the [Shield Technique; Level 1], [Armor Technique; Level 1], and [Unarmed Fighting Technique; Level 1] Skills!]
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