Shades of the New World

Chapter 55: Illusions and trickery

Soon, another commotion appeared on the training grounds. The previous fight made the audience's blood boil, so another one of them was bound to garner the people's interest.

The young lady of the house was surprisingly going for another spar, and it was with the so-called Child of the Empress of the town. Evin was a bit of a celebrity in the town of Smallwall, after all.

Bellaslayn consumed a tonic to restore her stamina and body. Her fight with Arza was exciting, but not really damaging. Mages usually have better bodies that commoners because of the World energies that invigorate their flesh.

Before the fight, Aran came to give Evin something. It was some sort of dried, crunched animal tissue bottled in some kind of murky liquid and Evin couldn't help but feel revolted at the sight.

"What's that?"

"It's what I fed Arza before. It will help you hide your World energies for a day or two depending on your body. It's the dried skin of a World chameleon," Aran explained and handed the bottle to Evin.

Evin eyed the bottle warily and opened the lid.

'What the hell kind of name is a World chameleon?' he grumbled.

A salty smell invaded Evin's nose alongside the distinct smell of something bile.

Evin looked at Aran, like he couldn't believe the man was suggesting him to eat the thing.

"Just pinch your nose and swallow it, the faster you do it the better," Aran urged.

Evin pinched his nose as told and slurped the thing as quickly as he could. He instantly regretted his decision. A foul feeling took over his entire body. His whole body convulsed with rejection due to the repugnant abomination that slid down his throat. He felt like he just swallowed salted vomit. He gagged a few times and finally got the chance to breathe without his body spasming.

"Aren't there better ways to do this?" he grunted out.

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"You'll have to get used to it," Aran could only shrug at the pathetic state of the boy. It definitely wouldn't be the last time.

It took Evin a good ten minutes to get rid of the aftertaste of what he just swallowed.

Bella was kind enough to wait patiently on the sidelines. She went through the same thing herself, so she could definitely relate to Evin's reaction. Her first time wasn't any better as well.

Evin was finally ready for the fight. Instead of an enhanced wooden sword that both Arza and Bellaslayn used, he was using an enhanced dagger.

"Let's do a best of three, whoever wins twice will be the winner. I'm not that idiot over there, so you don't have to knock me out to win the fight," Evin joked.

"Okay, that's fine by me," Bella replied.

The earl then asked the servant to start the match. The servant threw the same green cloth to the air. Right as it fell, Evin disappeared from Bellaslayn's eyes and merged into the shadow of a building.

Bella instantly took out a piece of metal from her pockets and imbued it with Luminous energy. She threw the object at the shadows that Evin disappeared into. She looked for any shimmering or other visual disturbances so she could know where Evin was.

But just as she was thinking about such things, she realized she was surrounded from all sides by towering blue flames. And the most terrifying thing was that she didn't notice a thing before the flames appeared in front of her face.

"My first win," Evin's voice resounded in right next to her ears. The boy materialized out of thin air next to her with his dagger stuck to her throat.

Bella finally realized what happened and was speechless at how dumbly she was defeated.

The audience was even more confused with the fight.

Right after the fight started, Bella suddenly threw a glowing metal ball at the shadows of a nearby building, while Evin simply walked towards her and created scorching hot blue flames right next to her. He then held his dagger to the girl's throat and declared his victory. Bellaslayn didn't seem to realize anything until the last second, either.

Obviously, the girl fell to Evin's illusion.

The soldiers shivered at the sight. How terrifying would it be when you just die in battle without even understanding what happened to you?

It was a simple mistake on the girl's par. There were a few methods to check if something's an illusion or not. Her mind subconsciously focused on the fact that Evin disappeared into the shadows, so she automatically responded with a counter to the Dark World. It showed how properly disciplines and knowledgeable she was, which Evin admired. But she was just a bit nave, and Evin gave her a simple reminder.

"Well, using illusions are a bit boring, so I won't use them in my next round," Evin said to Bella.

The girl didn't reply and indicated that she was ready to fight again.

The two went back to their starting spots, and the servant was asked to throw the cloth once more. The fluttering of the cloth was elegant while also random, so it served as a good way to keep tension up in these friendly spars.

As soon as the match started, Evin started floating towards Bella at impossible speeds. The girl, on the other hand, muttered something under her breath and an illusory third eye appeared on her forehead. With its assistance, she could see that the real Evin was calmly walking towards her in the same manner he did previously.

Evin smirked when he realized that he was found out. He canceled his illusions and floated towards Bella for real this time. His speed wasn't as exaggerated as his illusions, but it was still fast for most beginner mages.

Bella tried to exchange blows with the boy, but found him too fast to keep up with. Evin was also using air bullets between his attacks to harass Bella. She couldn't see them, so they were extremely difficult to avoid. But she did feel glad that Evin's attacks were much weaker compared to Arza. It was like the difference between someone hitting you with a hammer and someone else hitting you with a wooden stick. Sure, it hurt, but the two's powers simply couldn't compare.

She took out her signature mud armor and protected herself with it. The fight started to fare much better for her. Evin's air bullets also started to lose their efficiency. Bella was feeling a bit more confident. Evin was also showing a few mistakes here and there. They weren't big ones, but they weren't small either. Although she couldn't make use of them for the time being, she would definitely manage to punish Evin soon enough.

Because of the fight that was much less intense than Arza's, Bella even got the leisure to think about unrelated things. She thought that since Evin focused on illusions, Arza would definitely have a hard time fighting. Arza seemed like a straightforward individual, so people like Evin were his worst enemies. So even though Evin was weaker than Arza in a straight up fight, he could still easily take care of a hot-headed boy.

Just like this, the fight continued unremarkably. Even though Evin's offence was sorely lacking, his defense was as solid as a veteran. Bella couldn't find a single successful offence when she initiated it.

Bella then started looking for a chance to take advantage of one of Evin's mistakes. After a few exchanges of blows, Evin tried to perform a downward swing with his long dagger after building up some impact with his floating dash. Evin's torso was wide open since his hands were above his head. Bella felt like she could score a few heavy hits thanks to his mistake. She decided to tank the swing with her mud armor and go crazy on the offensive.

But just as Evin's dagger hit her mud armor, it pressed down on it with the force of two hammers, much heavier than any of Arza's blows, directly bending the armor and hitting the cowl muscle next to her neck. She staggered from the pain and lurched sideways, her hand uncontrollably reaching towards her neck to hold it. Her concentration was broken, so the mud armor that was protecting her body gave away completely. The very next second, a powerful blow came at her solar plexus, forcing her to lurch forward now. Evin then hit the back of her neck in a practiced manner, hitting three spots where it would deal the most damage with surgical precision. Evin then held his knife to Bella's throat for dramatic effect.

Evin used the Heavy World to make his dagger much heavier in the last second, so Bella didn't expect the strike to go through her armor. Evin felt that perhaps he overdid it, since the mud armor was pretty effective. Since it was basically liquid earth, the thing absorbed impact shock very efficiently, so Evin had to apply enough force so that his strike bends her mud wall and then slams down to her neck. Evin was feeling worried about the girl, since she seemed to blank out.

Just as he was about to call Rith for help, Bella came back to herself. Evin could see her warily eyeing her own family, like someone who did something embarrassing or bad, then looking around to see if someone saw her.

"I concede" she managed to mutter out with a groan.

'What a tough little girl Can't even afford to pass out in her own house,' Evin sighed.