Lord Of Puppets

Chapter 247 – Friendly duel – Part 4.

(Gun? I did saw some in his workshops.... And this one looks specifically made for that monster hand of his to use.) – thought Porai as the barrel of the gun was aimed at Porai.

(That means he already knows how to make guns.)

(But that isn’t the main problem.)

(Where the hell did, he took out that gun and bomb?)

(When I was observing him from close up while dodging, I didn’t noticed him "carrying" anything.)

(Does that mean he had the weapons hid inside of body?)

"..."

(What do I do now?) – thought nervous Thauma.

(I didn’t used some weak explosion to break free.)

(I used a powerful one!)

(TWICE!)

(And those walls were also not easily destroyed, forcing me to use specific spell I’ve learned to destroy the footing around me.)

(Honestly, why I haven’t thought about using it before straight up surprised me.)

(Still, I still have "that" and "that".... I can maybe rip her apart... But again, the wounds I’ve had afflicted on her are already gone.)

(The pure vampire regenerative ability is astonishing.)

(But.... Maybe I can bait her.)

(...No... She may expect that.)

(So-)

"AND STOP RIGHT THERE!" – shouted Ariava as she suddenly appeared right between the two as Thauma was about to rush at the vampire.

"This is enough."

"The match is over."

"..."

"You for real?" – asked Porai who still had her combat stance up.

"Yeb." – replied Ariava with a smile.

"Any problem?"

"..."

"No." – said Porai as she relaxed.

"But still, what the hell?"

"You said that we should aim to kill each other and that you will be on standby."

"I thought you would intervene if one of us ends up in messed up state or something."

"Or like lose few limbs."

"Why the hell now?"

"Hm? I mean, it was more than enough to tell how things would go." – said Ariava.

"Don’t you agree, both of you?"

(Well, I do wanted to see Thauma show few more tricks if I’m honest.) – thought annoyed Porai.

(Things started heating up and getting interesting.... So why the hell did you suddenly killed fun like this?!)

(I maybe not some sort of battle maniac or anything, but I really started enjoying this fight.)

*Sigh*

"Okay... Fine." – said Porai as she grabbed her head in annoyance.

"However, you should ask Thauma first what he thinks about it."

"That is what you want, don’t you?"

"So, what is Thauma? Do you think you would had won against me?"

"..."

(No.) – thought Thauma.

(If I’m being honest.... There is no way I could had won.)

(If she were a human, I could maybe leave her some wounds that could possibly make her bleed out a lot, weakening her and giving me opening.... But her vampiric regenerative ability... It would make it impossible.)

(The only way I could possible even won would be to use [Earthly Forged Blades] to rip apart her body.)

(But... She used ice magic to instantly cover her body, creating a defensive measure right on the spot where she didn’t had any time.)

(Not only that, there is also her own speed and power of her magic.)

(My trump card would had been shattered.)

(That means one thing-)

{"I would had lost the fight no matter what."} – Thauma used its claws to write on the ground.

"..."

{"The chances of me losing are overwhelming."}

"Oh? So, you could tell that you would lose? Like no matter what?" – asked Ariva.

"Please explain."

{"I had few tricks left, but I don’t think they may had worked."}

{"Not only that, all the wounds I had inflicted on her are already gone."}

{"Her magic control is also stronger than mine."}

{"And I can tell that she also has some tricks up her own sleeve."}

{"She may had not been going all out, even when restricting herself."}

{"Not only that, some of my tricks didn’t worked. For example, this gun can only shot one time and I aimed at her heart, but she was too fast for me. I thought if I fire before she dodged, I would had scored a hit, but again, she was faster that my reaction."}

{"Even if I did used all of my tricks, I don’t think I would had been able to deal enough damage to put her in real proper danger."}

"I see... I see... And you? What do you say about this?" – asked Ariava as she turned towards Porai.

"..."

"Honestly... He is right. I still have some tricks up my sleeve." - replied Porai.

(And the fact that he could tell that I wasn’t going all out even when being nerfed, makes it interesting... How did he figured it out?) – thought Porai.

"..."

"Can I speak honestly? Like fully?" – asked Porai.

"Where is the problem in that? I want your answer." – replied Ariava.

"..."

"No offence." – said Porai.

"But I would had defeated Thauma even without having to use any blood or metal magic."

"That is the conclusion I came at my end."

"I don’t mean to say that you are weak... But I’m straight up above your league." – said Porai as she looked towards Thauma.

"And if we were to fight with no hold bars, I would straight up destroy Thauma with ease."

"To be more specific, Thauma wouldn’t be able to wound me even once and I would destroy him instantly on the spot, the exact moment the fight would had started."

"That is my conclusion."

{"I agree."}

{"If I couldn’t beaten her while she wasn’t fighting at her full strength, then there was no physical way for me to win against her if she were to go full power."}

"..."

(So, he fully understand the difference.) – thought Porai and Ariva after reading Thauma’s reply.

"..."

"Still..." – said Porai as she continued talking.

"I’m honestly impressed you could do some stuff in specific moments."

"You honestly caught me several times off guard and exploited the openings."

"For example that strike with the fist, which I thought was aimed at me was instead aimed at the ground all this time, which ended up with me dodging the attack from the first, but not from the AOE attack that you had fired."

"Was it your plan from the get go?"

{"Yes. As I’ve ran, I’ve prepared my spell before unleashing that strike."}

"Did you predicted me dodging and that is why you prepared that attack?" – asked Porai.

{"Yes."}

{"I didn’t knew which direction you would go, so I decided to unleash my spell which would hit everything around me."}

(Motherfucker... He really did predicted me.) – thought interested Porai.

"I see..." – said Porai.

"..."

"By the way... This." – said Porai as she pointed at the gun still held in Thauma’s hands.

"This is a pistole... Isn’t it?"

"You also thrown something at me, a bomb."

"Where the hell did you took them out? I checked your body while you were trying to do a close-range combat, but I didn’t seen anything."

"Oh, I can explain this." – said Ariava.

"Back them, when he fired off that blade of earth, he did 3 things at the same time."

"He used two of his hands to manifest that arm of earth to cover up your vision."

"While he used another two hands to manipulate earth and create that axe."

"But both of these attacks were fakes."

"Nah."

"What he was aiming at was when he hid his hands behind his back."

"He opened up a private space while you had your vision covered and took out both the bomb and the gun."

"If I were to guess, he probably figured out that you would be expecting either magic or claws, but not some sort of new weapons that would end up appearing in the combat."

"..."

"Wait... Slow down." – said Porai.

"Did you said something about a private space?"

"Like from a thing air kind of thing?"

"The space magic?"

"Are you saying it had access to it?" – said Porai as the two women stared at the golem.

"..."

"Item skill [Space Bag], or learned skill, [Pocket Space]?" – asked Porai with... Conflicted expression.

"Did you used your own ability or did you had an item with a special ability?"

"..."

{"[Pocket Space]."}

{"My own skill."}

"?!"

"Wait, but to get that, you need space magic!" – said the vampire.

"Heh... You little bastard." – said Ariava.

"So, you did learned it!"

"Space magic?"

{"Yes."}

"..."

"You taught him that?" – asked Porai.

"Hm... Nope. I just made a book personally written by me on how to use the space magic and how to learn it." – said Ariava.

"But still, it is surprising."

"I mean, space magic is extremely hard magic to get, and even using it requires quiet amount of time before you can even do a single thing with it."

(Yeah... Even I can’t use it.) – thought Porai.

(Space magic isn’t joke.)

(People say that you can learn any element out there, be it ability to control fire or straight up metal.)

(But that isn’t the case.)

(Understanding, talent, affinity, creativity, mindset and what not.)

(There are many things that needs to be taken into consideration.)

(Sometimes some people may train for over a year and they wouldn’t manage to obtain even a smallest form of a gate/affinity.)

(Or some people are born with a powerful affinity, but they completely suck or cannot comprehend their element, straight up making their powerful affinity be completely useless.)

(Some affinities are easier to obtain, for example water, wind, earth or fire.)

(For basic affinities.)

(However, there are also some affinities that are much harder to learn.)

(For example my metal magic isn’t something you can easily learn.)

(You can somewhat get better understanding of it with earth magic... But that doesn’t necessary means you would be able to easily obtain metal magic.)

(Heck. It could be like this.)

(A newbie mage could learn metal magic, while the arch mage that specializes in the earth magic could never obtain the metal magic.)

(And space magic?)

(It is honestly one of those very hard affinities... Many people call it even one of the hardest.)

(...But what about him?)

(How long did it took him to not only learn but understand how to use space magic.)

"Question.... Did... Did Thauma learned space magic all by itself?" – asked Porai.

"Hm? Well.... I only left him the book... So technically... Correct, but at the same time not?" – replied Ariva.

"Honestly, I also want to learn how much he had managed to advance his space magic... But I think we will finally do a solid break."

"How about it?"