Chapter 209 Another Spar
"Professor said to take this seriously." Rio said, as he withdrew his staff.
Katherine closed his eyes, throwing all thoughts aside and took two steps back. She went and picked another sword and prepared to fight seriously this time. She coated her sword in aura, making it more sturdy, so that his tricks don't cut it easily like last time.
Instead of saying anything they both charged at each other, swinging their weapons at each other.
While fighting with Katherine, Rio Kept his focus on the other battles too. Currently Amelia and Rebecca were against each other. Leon was fighting with Valtor, while Amaya was fighting with Alaric.
From the corner of his eyes, he kept looking at all the techniques and skills all of them used. He wanted to compare their progress with what was written in the novel. For now he only knew little about Leon, Rebecca and Amelia.
He hadn't even met with Alaric and Valtor even once yet.
This academy was the first time Alaric appeared openly, because he would always be hunted and attacked whenever he was found outside.
Being the hybrid of vampire and werewolf bloodline, his existence alone was a taboo to both races. He was an unclaimed prized trophy that could salivate any random vampire and werewolf walking around.
How this guy survived all this time without any backing, Rio could only blame it on the plot armor and novel's setting.
Valtor was simply a training maniac since his childhood. So Rio didn't especially look for him himself.
Amaya on the other hand, though Rio had seen her multiple times at social events or at royal banquets, he never took the initiative to be friends with her too. Because of her descriptions in the novel, which never stopped praising her for the genius brain she possessed.
According to the descriptions in the novel, if Rio had to list out the smartest characters from beginning to the end, Amaya Stormswill would obviously be ranked in the top 10.
Don't think top 10 is lousy, and she's nothing much. One should know there were several hundreds of named characters in the novel, many villains, heroines and villainesses. And the time she appeared was still only till the middle stages of the novel story.
After that, she was killed by Amelia's hands. Yet her ranking is still there. Which should be enough to say about her.
Rio didn't want to appear in front of her, and give her some clues or doubts, plus he didn't like the vibe she gives off. So he avoided her till now.
Amelia and Rebecca, well he knew about them pretty well, but he still wasn't sure how much the past two years had changed both of them. Like now Amelia's relationship with Goddess Gauri isn't good, and she doesn't like her or respect her, as much as she did in the novel. Rebecca too, she doesn't stick around with Alfred much, and she doesn't avoid Bernhardt now. Same was the case with their fighting abilities and skills, both of them are stronger then they were in the novel. With new Trump cards and new skills to back them up.
Seeing that Rio wasn't even paying attention to her, Katherine started swinging her sword in even more fervor, yet every time she thought she found an opening and could hit him, he would just dodge it or use that weird trick where her sword would get stuck in place, giving him enough time to move out of the attack's range.
Katherine flared his mana, turning the area around her frosty. Feeling the sudden decrease in temperature, Rio glanced at Katherine and saw she was creating daggers made of ice.
"Take this seriously." She said, as she started to send them hurling towards his direction.
Since the professor didn't set any rules and they didn't discuss it before starting the spar, anything and everything was free to use.
Seeing the daggers that came towards him, Rio just dodged and moved out of the way. The ones he couldn't avoid, he just used the threads to change their direction a little, to set them off course.
"Don't use mana. Let's fight using aura." Rio said and stopped using his blessings. Dispersing the invisible threads he created all around him, Rio felt a surge of mana back into his body. It felt refreshing.
Katherine didn't say anything in response, and canceled her spell too. She coated her sword with aura, giving it a little silvery glow, before swinging at his neck.
They fought for a moment but the results were still obvious. Rio, who had reached the level of aura manifestation, had created his own shadow made of aura who went forward to fight in his place while he assisted from behind. Katherine was only at the level of aura formation, and could only use the aura to coat the weapons and give her some physical boost, facing the aura manifestation which seemed to swallow all her attacks, chipping away at her aura each time they clashed, she gave up on this useless battle too.
In the Aura Manifestation stage one can move their aura to manifest it into a form or an avatar of their choice and personality. Just like awakening an element it depends on luck and is random. For most it is in their own form or in the form of animals.
For Rio his aura form was simply the manifestation of his shadow.
With his high control over darkness, shadows became a thing he could play around with easily. After making a form of aura with the shadow, he used a secret method created by a villain in the later stages of the novel, to bind a blessing to the non-living avatar.
For this he chose the skill of one of the seven sins, Beelzebub's Devour. He had received this blessing after he managed to attract the attention of Den of Devils and entered the towers of hell for the first time 2 years ago.
As the name suggests, with this blessing he could Devour anything and everything. This blessing was also the reason he could survive in the dungeon when he was first trapped there.
Due to the less amounts of edible food he could find in that failed world, he would've been dead from various reasons, had it not been for this blessing.
So when he started to lose his mana fighting zombies, and knew he wouldn't be able to hold on for long using his aura or pure physical strength, in desperation he chose to use this method to create a clone, and managed to recreate it after failing for a dozen times over several months.
After creating an aura avatar with the blessing of Devour attached to it, the clone did half his job and fought in his place. The aura avatar could devour anything it ate and turn it into aura and make the avatar stronger. And when Rio canceled his aura and dispersed the manifestation, he could get back part of the remaining aura energy from the clone. Filling up his aura reserves again, and sometimes even boosting his strength.
This method was a bad move, and Rio didn't want to do it, as he had other plans for the skill of gluttony. But he had no choice.
He originally wanted to get the blessings from all the seven sins and merge them to create something new and powerful..
Yet after binding the skill with his aura avatar using the secret method, he lost the blessing himself. This was the price he had to pay for in return.
So even if his aura manifestation was much stronger than everybody else, to Rio he suffered a huge loss in this regard. As in his eyes, he got a mid stupid clone instead of getting a godly skill.
Obviously he only felt regret till a few days ago, after the system came online and he saw the skills name in the shop function, Rio just bought the skill again from the system. Though his previous mastery was all gone and he would have to start from scratch again, but this was already enough for him.
After seeing that beating Rio using aura was no use, Katherine threw away her sword and decided to use pure physical strength. There was no thinking that a girl is physically weaker than boys, because everything changed after awakening and physical strength too got enhanced with each rank up and level.
Though seeing Rio's mastery over aura, it was also clear that she'll lose this way too, but she still wanted to try and see the difference between them.
With that she moved towards Rio with her fists clenched tightly and making a boxing type stance. Rio smiled and threw his staff away too.
They circled each other, fists raised and bodies poised for action. Katherine lunged first, her punches quick and precise. But Rio's reflexes were unparalleled. He dodged her strikes effortlessly, responding with a series of light slaps that seemed to not hurt but were more humiliating.
Katherine moved again, launching a swift jab toward Rio's face. He deftly ducked, her fist grazing the air above him. With a fluid motion, Rio retaliated, delivering a lightning-fast kick to Katherine's side.
Katherine grunted in pain but didn't back down. She responded with a series of punches and kicks, aiming for Rio's stomach. He skillfully blocked and evaded her attacks, his movements fluid and controlled leaving no opening for her to attack.
Their movements were a blur of speed and agility. Katherine's determination was evident, as she even began to use her aura unknowingly to boost her speed, but the difference between them was too big. Katherine was only at D rank while Rio was at C+ , four minor ranks higher than her.
With a spinning kick, he swept Katherine off her feet, sending her crashing to the ground. She grunted in defeat as the air rushed out of her lungs.
"It's over." Rio said, looking at the time. He stood over her, extending a hand to help her up. "You were good," he acknowledged.
Her forehead filled with sweat, adding a touch of beauty to her smooth skin, almost making it shine in the sunlight, yet Rio stood there with his hand stretched, not looking at her.
Katherine accepted his hand, "But not enough to hit you even once," she admitted, a mix of frustration and respect in her eyes.
She knew her strength well, that's why she knew how strong the boy in front of her would have to be for him to handle her so easily.
Rio looked around and saw that the other spars had ended some time ago and currently all the other 6 students were looking at him with different expressions. Some with awe and admiration, some confused and curious, and some hungry.
Huh hungry
Rio looked at Amelia and saw him looking at him with eyes that seemed angry yet her expression pitiful.
"Looks like my points are going to be wasted again." He thought, already knowing that he gotta pay for dinner again.
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