Shades of the New World

Chapter 142: The fight's start

"Weapons?" he then asked. Arza was slightly surprised that the subject was brought up. Evin would usually always use weapons, since it was a surefire way to force Arza to surrender. The two had an agreement that having their heart or throat threatened was an automatic loss. 

'Does he have something else in store?' Arza pondered. He knew to be careful of his suffocation spell and his shadows. But Arza wasn't that scared of Evin's shadow, as he had prepared something special to counter it and he was very excited to try it in real battle. After countless hours of training, he finally had a response to Evin's Dark Room. 

But from the way Evin was acting, there was definitely something new in his arsenal. 

'Judging from how his other spells work, it's probably super annoying like Karan's nagging,' Arza grimaced and then realized: 'Wait, he was showing me that book of illusions. It must be a World of Thoughts spell!' 

"No weapons and no illusions," Arza declared and wondered how Evin would react. To his surprise, Evin didn't seem to mind too much, and casually nodded.

"Swear it on your Oath," Arza demanded. Experience told him that trusting Evin was not something that he should do. Evin chuckled at the demand and recited loudly.

"I, Eviendra of Smallwall town, vow in the names of my Oaths to not use any kind of illusions in the following fight"

Arza was flabbergasted. 

'What kind of spell did he create?' he wondered anxiously. The other's complete confidence scared Arza greatly. But he also realized that this was a chance. A chance to fight Evin on his own terms!

"Win and Loss is decided by knockout!" he declared loudly. If he could turn this fight into a test of stamina, then his chances of winning would become much bigger compared to before.

"That, or voluntarily," Evin answered smilingly.

'Is that really Evin?' Arza couldn't help but wonder. 

'Urgh, I hate growing up! If it was three months ago, I would've just dashed at him without even thinking much! Now I have to worry about every little thing like a goddamn coward. Let's just get this over with,' he decided.

"Are you ready?" Evin asked as he assumed a weirdly formal, yet casual martial stance. 

Arza nodded resolutely. All his hesitation and worry was tucked away nicely into a little corner in his mind. He then absorbed plentiful Life energy into his body again. The red-haired boy was proud of this ability of his to quickly change shifts. 

The two eyed each other warily for a few seconds as Arza circled around Evin slowly. In the North, they didn't use a colored cloth to start the battle. They didn't really use anything to indicate the beginning of a fight. Both sides agreed to fight and they would both wait for each other's first move. 

The first move of a spar was very important in the North. It represented the will, patience, and experience of the fighters. The first move could be anything, even sucker punches were allowed, although it was considered quite dishonorable.

After a while, Arza's patience ran out and he dashed at Evin with a shout. Evin didn't seem panicked, as he snapped his right-hand finger, his index finger to be exact. Arza was slightly confused, but the next thing shocked him even greatly. He could see Evin taking on a transparent and dark-purple hue! 

'He didn't swallow a Chameleon skin! So he couldn't even be bothered to hide his cards in front me, huh!?' Arza was very irritated.

Evin then took on a more serious stance and threw an air punch towards Arza. As Arza was wondering what the hell was wrong with Evin today, an invisible force hit him in the guts suddenly. Its strength was so powerful, that it could be compared to getting hit in the guts with a giant wooden hammer, while you're sprawled on the ground with your limbs tied to wooden stakes. 

And weirdly, after he received the punch, Arza realized that Evin took on a transparent hue for a second before it was all used up due to the invisible punch. 

This meant that that even before Arza processed what had happened, Evin was able to fully cast a spell without any preparations.

Arza was thoroughly shocked, but he wasn't a defenseless commoner. Even if he was hit with an absurd attack like that, he could tank it with his body to a certain degree. Arza was pushed back half a step, sure, but he stabilized himself almost immediately. Even as he received the blow, his eyes never lost vision of Evin, so he could see his sparring partner snapping his left-hand index finger now. 

'What next?'

The next moment, Arza could feel his weight becoming unbearably heavy. It wasn't crushing, but it could definitely affect the course of the fight. But Arza got used to this new weight and resolutely ran at Evin, but with each step, he could feel the pressure on him increasing. 

'My weight becomes bigger the closer I get to him! Such a strong spell!' Arza thought with some admiration as he gazed at the black-haired boy who was leisurely eyeing him back. But this didn't demoralize the boy, instead it brought out his fighting spirit. He was getting too bored of always having the upper hand in these battles between children. Only Evin could make him feel threatened like this. Only he could make his blood boil with fire!

Then, Evin began to throw out random air punches towards Arza. Sometimes it would be straight jabs, sometimes it would be side sweeps, or sometimes Evin would just move his hands downwards. Correspondingly, a force of air would hit Arza from either his bottom, top, or either sides. 

Arza wasn't able to dodge the first few ones, but after receiving the same attack a few times, Arza learned how to anticipate it. There would always be an either one to two second delay after Evin's punch and the air around him would shimmer ever so slightly each time. Evin would also take on a transparent hue, before the attack came, so it was very telegraphed. 

In about two minutes, Arza was able to dodge the attacks consistently, so he began to search for ways to get closer to Evin. 

When Arza got close enough, he suddenly sped up like the heavy weight on him was nonexistent. He obviously used the Heavy World to turn himself lighter again as a countermeasure. This move took a small toll on his body's total strength, but it was a worthy tradeoff in Arza's judgement. He also managed to make it so that the spell's intensity could be adjusted freely. Thanks to this, he could feel the same amount of pressure at any distance from Evin. Moreover, making something heavier was always more harder than making something lighter, this was the undoubted truth of the Heavy World. In terms of energy usage, Arza should have the advantage. 

Confidently, Arza began to trade blows with Evin after he closed the distance. Every punch was strong enough to knock Evin unconscious, but sadly, none of them hit its mark. Evin was using some sort of unknown martial art and Arza was having trouble grasping it. Arza's blows were unrelenting and violent like hail, but Evin was like a body of water, no matter how much ripples appeared in his surface due to the hail, in the end, he was left unharmed. 

Not only that, Arza could clearly feel that Evin wasn't taking this fight seriously at all. He didn't try to fight back, he wasn't using any spells, he was just reactively countering Arza's blows like his mind was focused on something else. This pissed Arza off greatly, so he decided to take the melee up a notch.