The gang of Asyria gathered around the front yard of the tavern forming a circle.
Some of the customers also came outside intrigued.
Altarin was standing inside on one side of the circle and Asyria on the opposite.
The crowd started making cheering noises and Queetz,
completely misinterpreting the situation, joined them.
Altarin looking at his friend, who had completely lost it, felt even more exposed.
However he tried to remain focused and calm.
This attitude was key to achieve the best possible outcome in combat,
the one year in the military taught him that.
Asyria was smiling widely, walking around and entertaining the crowd with words like
“Let’s make it fun!” and “Are you ready for a show?”
She then looked directly at Altarin and asked joyfully. “So, what weapon will you choose?”
Altarin stared for a while. “Is she talking about real weapons or training ones?
Surely, not real, right?”.
At any rate, there was only one choice for Altarin at that point,
the only kind of weapon he had training with. “I’ll take a sword.”
Suddenly a small person, equal to Queetz’s size, popped out of the circle of the crowd.
He was walking funny,
leaning with exaggeration to each side of his body every time he made a step.
Eventually, he approached Altarin with a wooden sword,
holding it with two hands like a serving plate.
He then spoke with a goofish formality. “Here you are, sir.”
“T-Thanks…” responded Altarin and the short aged looking man made a bow
and disappeared into the crowd.
Asyria grabbed a wooden pole from one of the members of her crew near her.
Then started swinging and rotating it around like a toy, showcasing great expertise.
Finally she slammed it to the ground and took a very relaxing pose
with her right palm on top of the pole and the left on her waist, while her legs were casually crossed.
She was tall and bulky but not big enough to be considered a mega-somaii.
However her standing pose was in a sensed contrast to Altarnin’s more rounded silhouette.
Being alerted and realizing the power of his opponent, Altarin had much more of a combat-like attitude.
He had one foot front and one back, balancing somewhat low at the center.
His body was leaning a bit forward and his right hand holding the sword was at the back,
while he had the other hand in front to balance his pose.
Standing there in readiness but also in lingering fear, he looked directly at Asyria’s face,
analyzing her intentions. It looked like she mostly wanted to entertain herself and the crowd
and wasn’t exactly seeking to explode her anger of being insulted by beating her opponent senselessly.
By this analysis Altarin was not in grave danger of his body integrity,
however he did not know the length of her satisfaction level.
How far she would go in order to have some fun was something that worried Altarin
and so he approached the situation like he was in a real battle.
Nonetheless he did not intend to make the first move and so he took a defensive stance instead.
“You’re the cautious type, huh?” She swung the pole one to the right and then to the left.
“Well that’s the smartest approach when facing me.”
She then lowered her body forwards eyes directly at Altarin and her smile widened.
The crowd began to become more silent as she was preparing for an attack.
There she goes! Asyria dashes, stretching her body horizontally parallel to the floor
with the pole extended backwards.
She stops sharply in front of Altarin lifting dust with the force of her speed.
Now uses the right hand to strike with the pole from her right side.
Altarin sees this motion and rushes to block from his left side.
However Asyria tricks him.
Instead of aiming at his body, she passes the pole over his head,
making initially seem like a miss attack.
But then quickly she uses her left arm to catch it again and force it to return the swing back at Altarin
but now from his other side.
Altarin was caught so off guard by her speed and decisive maneuver,
that by the time he realized the shifting of the attack the pole was already next to his head’s right.
However the pole did not hit him but had stopped just before.
Altarin’s eyes rolled to his right side as the head was already too slow to follow.
If this had hit it would have caused big pain.
Asyria lowered the pole and started walking away with arrogance
dragging the weapon to the floor and having her back exposed at Altarin.
He on the other hand did not make any move and tried to calm himself in order to keep his focus.
Asyria makes a couple of steps and stops.
Now turns her head back at Altarin and lifts her weapon.
Altarin reads her intentions and prepares.
The tall woman suddenly turns around performing a low sweeping attack aiming at Altarin’s feet.
The young man this time reads the attack correctly and jumps above the pole.
If he hadn’t evaded he would have toppled to the ground,
finding himself in a very disadvantageous position.
As she was turning by the motion of the sweep,
Asyria stopped suddenly facing away from her opponent.
She now quickly brings the pole to her left side, turning it around,
stabilizing it with her left arm and pointing one end towards Altarin.
She then used her right palm to push it from the other end and perform a soft and rapid thrust.
Like a snake, the wooden weapon bursted towards Altarin, surprising him and hitting his abdomen.
It was a relatively soft strike but had enough force to shock his body and make him feel warm.
He folded and lowered his knees, arms fell to the ground and wrists loosened
almost dropping his weapon.
Queetz, seeing his friend actually being hit, suddenly snapped and realized the situation.
He yelled his name and was about to rush to Altarin’s side
but felt a strong grip on his shoulder stopping his movement. “Do not interfere with the fight, yer.”
The small guy felt a cold sweat all over his body while the effect of the alcohol was fading away,
being replaced by a rush of adrenaline.
“It’s okay. I can handle this.” said Altarin with an aching voice. Queetz was unable to act at that point,
but the fact that he finally became aware of the situation encouraged Altarin.
Queetz started yelling to stop the fight but Altarin saw the irritation at Asyria’s face,
understanding that they were willing to use violence in order to neutralize him.
He used the sword as a cane to help him stand tall again and spoke with a sharp and decisive voice.
“Queetz! As I said, I can handle this.”
His tone was harsh at first but then smiled at his friend making him realize that he should let this flow.
Feeling now the support of Queetz, Altarin took a fighting pose again and smiled toward her opponent.
Asyria got excited and joyful again, praising his willingness and recovery speed.
“Hehe, I hope you can take it cause we’re only getting started,”
she said as she tossed the pole towards her gang.
Then, as she asked, Asyria was given some twin wooden curvy-like swords.
“Round two, huh?” thought Altarin as he prepared himself taking the same stance as before.
He did recall hearing back in the plaza,
as the crowd was commenting on how Asyria is a weapon master with various skills and dexterities.
That was why she was considered a favorite to win the Games of the Mighty.
Asyria now walks tall towards Altarin
with each sword in her hand extending to the side and low to the floor.
Her silhouette was menacing and scary to look at
and Altarin was reminded again of her big size falling just below the limits of a mega-somaii.
He makes some small back steps as he sees her approaching, buying as much free space as possible.
However Asyria now rushes and lowers her body performing a side slashing attack with her left arm.
Altarin jumps backwards and evades.
Then she quickly slashes again with the right dashing forwards to close the distance.
Altarin jumps back again immediately as soon as his feet land.
He now was almost at the outer limits of the circle where the crowd was,
meaning there was no more space to retreat and he had to block the next upcoming attack.
Asyria smiles knowing that she cornered him.
She curls her body, lowering chest almost to the knees and hands extended out and upwards.
Then bursts into a spinning attack in the air like a hurricane.
Altarin hadn’t seen an attack like that before.
He puts the sword horizontally in front of his face to block.
The short swords of the opponent strike his own rapidly and consecutively one after the other
as Asyria spins.
Every impact has such force that ejects multiple tiny wooden particles out of Altarin’s weapon’s surface,
while himself is slightly pushed backwards sliding his feet to the ground.
Asyria had spun five times in the air with every spin hitting two times, one with each sword.
Altarin had received ten rapid hits on his sword,
while the final one broke his pose,
forcing his holding hand back and away from his body and leaving him exposed.
Now Asyria lands on her one leg and uses her spinning momentum to turn again
and carry out a powerful kick attack as her other leg straightens explosively towards Altarin
hitting his abdomen again.
That was another hit in the same place and Altarin was thrown onto the crowd receiving a sharp pain.
He had closed his eyes momentarily feeling a weird sense of floating as he was kicked in the air.
When he had opened them again he was between multiple arms from the crowd
who were holding him absorbing his velocity.
Altarin was then pushed back inside the circle with a mixed shouting from the people around.
Some were yelling a sarcastic “Go get her!” accompanied by a laugh,
while others were more supportive shouting “You can do it!” with sincere worry.
“Ah, this isn’t fun. You will not get away with just taking on the defensive.
Tell you what. Show’s over when you manage to strike me once.”
Spoke Asyria and the crowd became more energetic yearning for a more balanced duel
and not just a one-sided smacking. “Just once and you win, sounds good?” Then she laughed.
Now Asyria withdrew the twin swords and grabbed a wooden club.
“Damn, this looks heavy,” thought Altarin as he was recovering himself.
“Come at me!” she said with a loud voice as she was inviting him to make a move
by doing a gesture with her hand.
“Hey, where’s the small one, ah?”, one of the gangsters spoke with an angry voice
that almost got lost amidst the uproar.
“What ya mean, yer? I’m holding him..., huh?”
The other man of Asyria’s gang turned around his head to see that he was holding a mere cloak
and the short guy had disappeared from the spot.
“You let him go, ah? You dumbass…”
“I….I….what? He used magic, yer!”
The technique that Queetz used to escape was simple.
Something he learned during his training and was quick to master.
By managing his breath, he was able to control the astral energy flow on his body,
shifting the concentration of the various parts of his body.
This had not only the ability to change the power of a muscle but also the shape of it, to some extent.
Queetz had gradually subtracted astral energy from his shoulder,
so that to a non focused observer the slow shifting of the pressure became unnoticed.
Then the small scout focused the energy to the lower part of his body
becoming so squished towards the ground that he dove under his coat and slipped inside the masses.
He was now parkouring like a shadow on the nearby structures that were very close to each other
and were forming a small circular yard, with the treasure house being the one that stood out the most.
Altarin and Asyria were facing each other parallel to the treasure house,
which was standing on the right of the former and the left of the latter.
Queetz was positioning himself above and behind Asyria preparing his move.
Altarin at that time hadn’t noticed his friend missing from the crowd,
as he was feeling his adrenaline growing higher,
while the rest of the day, his whole excursion, seemed to have faded away
and his whole being and thinking concentrated in this specific fight.
There was only the lingering recollection of the conversation with Comiter.
“If I want to make it to the top, I must be able to take challenges like these,”
he thought and gathered his confidence.
This fight was desperate but Altarin had an ace on his sleeves.
“Come at me!” yelled Asyria again.
She clearly wanted Altarin to start being more aggressive.
The young man answered the call by moving forwards, yet still making small and cautious steps.
He had a plan, but he only had one shot.
It would require a great deal of his last remaining energy and a little bit of acting.
Now he walks faster with serious eyes fixed on his opponent, looking like he had the intention to attack.
Asyria was standing there smiling anticipating his next sudden move.
A few more steps, now he stands at arms length before her.
His free hand is in front, while the sword is extended backwards and low towards the ground.
His pose indicates that he is about to perform a horizontal slash,
but Altarin remains there unmoving, looking directly up at Asyria’s face.
Asyria’s wide smile starts to fade to an ugly angry face,
as her long waiting for an attack comes to no fruition.
Initially it seemed like Altarin was indeed about to attack,
but ended up going idle in front of her, almost mocking her.
Asyria gets really mad lifting her club. Then she strikes down with fury and strength.
Altarin raised his sword to block. “I-said-start-being-offensive!”
Every word she pronounced loudly was accompanied with a heavy strike downwards at Altarin,
hitting his sword. Every hit was so heavy that the defendant was barely able to withstand it,
slowly lowering his knees and body like he was being impaled to the ground.
Asyria is furious, exercising her right arm mindlessly, satisfying her rage,
feeling the resistance of the block slowly giving up.
Her final strike however had missed, as her opponent had disappeared from the spot.
Everyone in the crowd was taken aback and Asyria was also genuinely surprised.
Astral Burst! Altarin hadn’t disappeared completely from the scene
but he had actually translated his position a few feet further at Asyria’s left side.
This technique that he used was a really powerful move that,
if used correctly, could give one a great advantage in battle.
It was something that only a few gyarii could develop and was always a surprise to see someone use it.
During the course of the day, a gyarii passively absorbs astral energy by being exposed to the atmosphere.
This energy is essential for their primary body functions and can also be stored to a certain degree,
working as an energy deposit.
However, too much storage can make a gyarii feel heavy and uncomfortable.
A common method for balancing this overload is to restrict the exposure to the light.
Another one is to perform Astra Call, which is an act of astral energy release,
also used for interaction with living organisms, while enabling the user to slightly float in the air.
Unlike Astra Call though, which is an action of general purpose,
Astral Burst was mostly an aggressive move that required draining a large amount of astral energy.
This could grant the user a momentary burst of their potential,
but would leave them vulnerable afterwards with exhaustion.
Altarin had dashed with extreme speed to the side by using Astral Burst.
His body became all blue and it took the shape of a sharp bolt with sparkling edges,
while his sensors gleamed for an instant.
Before the next eye blink, he was at Asyria’s side
and his stretched body full of bursting energy concentrated into a solid shiny form.
Altarin’s eyes rolled to the left at Asyria as his head was too slow to follow this fast momentum.
With a subtle voice but great inner strength Altarin slashes,
while the astral particles follow the curve of the sword leaving a sparkling trail.
Asyria clenches her teeth.
She had been taken by surprise
but at the last moment managed to react and attempted to jump backwards.
The sword passed through the surface of her abdomen,
so close that the naked eye couldn’t tell if it was a hit or not.
Asyria felt the force of the sword winding the air around that spot
but during the adrenaline of the moment she wasn’t sure if it connected or not.
On the other hand, from Altarin's perspective it seemed that the hit didn’t connect.
He didn’t feel any resistance caused by the impact with the enemy’s body
and the sword swung over to his other side with uncompromised speed throwing him off balance.
“Shit…that was my only chance,” he thought while clenching his teeth and widening his eyes.
However the force of the strike flapped Asyria's cloak revealing the inside where she kept various things,
such as weapons and small treasures.
Altarin momentarily glimpsed a very peculiar shiny rock that made a great impression on him.
It was a purple crystal!
So far the only crystals known to gyarii were the blue astral crystals of Astral Cave,
the orange wild crystals of Inmaar
and the pink pure crystals of Yolenthia,
along with the white one that Altarin discovered in the desert cave and had kept a secret since.
“How many types of energy crystals are there?” he wondered.
The crowd went wild with the neutral observers being impressed by the spectacle and cheering,
discussing between them whether the hit connected or not.
Asyria’s gang members among the circle however were feeling uneasy
looking at Asyria’s expression that had changed to an irritated crooked mouth,
showing teeth on one side.
She was there standing, looking at Altarin with angry eyes but was mostly upset with herself,
allowing to be taken by surprise.
On the other hand, the young man at that moment ignored all his frustration of failing
and focused his mind on what he saw.
This purple crystal was something that had never been mentioned by anyone before
and was likely to be a mystery to the general knowledge of the gyarii.
Moreover Asyria’s crystal had one of the colors that Altarin saw inside his own white crystal.
The cloak had only floated for a few seconds and the crystal soon vanished out of Altarin’s vision.
“Was that…?” He was certain of what he saw and so he had spontaneously asked Asyria about it.
Asyria got mad. She hated being asked questions of interrogation character,
even worse in the middle of a fight.
She clenched her fist and hit the weakened Altarin with the hand’s outer surface
pushing him away and making him fall sideways to the ground. He was clearly out of the fight.
“We’re done here.”
She growled and the gang began following immediately with apprehension of her edgy behavior.
Queetz, who was hiding on the rooftop of a building above, rushed towards his friend's side.
“Altarin, are you okay?” The fallen man left out soft sounds of pain as he tried to recover himself.
“I was about to use one of my escape techniques but I guess the fight ended before I acted,”
said the short guy now that he was completely sobered up.
The crowd started to scatter while murmuring,
with some of them returning back to the tavern and others leaving the place.
Among them, a relatively short and chubby old man appeared
and was making hasty steps towards Altarin with a worried face.
It was the bartender and owner of the place. “Kid, are you alright?”
Altarin, who had recovered to a more seated position,
looked up towards the man with an aching expression.
“I’m sorry, Asyria can get aggressive like that sometimes but hopefully she didn’t cause much pain.”
The two young men looked at him questioningly, wondering why he had to apologize on her behalf.
They didn’t know that Asyria’s troublemaking was a common thing in this place.
It was something that some considered entertaining and others worrisome.
However it could not be easily avoided.
Technickly, it was Asyria that ran this place behind the scenes.
With all the materials and treasures she brought from the outside lands, especially the Forest of Spirits,
she provided the financial support that a fancy place like this needed
by having business in the black market. Given that, the owner could hardly escape her co-operation,
otherwise the treasure house would collapse, let alone he would have to confront the gang of Asyria.
The chubby old man told the two friends that their table’s bill was on him and he apologized again.
Queetz was helping Altarin to recover, also feeling guilty for his drunk behavior.
Now the latter, although in pain, had his mind on the purple crystal that he saw.
“Where was it found and what mysteries does it hold?
Surely this woman knew stuff that most Gyarii didn’t.”
And that woman was now walking away with her gang around her and Altarin watched her as she vanished into the alley. Asyria touched her belly where the sword of Altarin flew by and pressed her fingers right there. She then lifted her hand close to her face, noticing a small trace of blood. She then smiled faintly to herself as she was walking. “Not bad, kid!”
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