A moment passed, lasting longer than it should’ve. Finally, Caelus rushed in, still new to fighting; he worked best by refining his techniques and overwhelming his opponents, not by facing someone with experience. This would be a learning experience for him. His hand flew forward, about to punch Minerva, who looked down, noticing she wasn’t blocking. He didn’t hesitate, using the same technique he’d used with Tellus in this area.
His punch landed right before it even made contact, sending her flying back. Something he was embarrassed about back then and didn’t use after that, at least until now.
"Looks like you aren’t as Naive, still hiding a few techniques, though you know none of mine," Minerva spoke; her Mana spiraled around her like a storm. In what looked like a flash, she appeared behind Caelus and hit him right on the shoulder, sending him flying, though his scales still survived the attack.
Still not revealing her technique despite it being stronger if she did. Yet as Caelus regained his footing, he wasn’t given time to reach, getting pushed back as spheres of Mana flew towards him, his natural Mana barrier blocking most of them, though it wouldn’t hold for much longer if he continued staying passive.
Instinctively, he was ready to use burning temptation and finish the fight, but since he knew that would be overkill, especially for a spar. He pointed his finger at Minerva, sending out a barrage of rends, only to point to the right and create a net shape with his Rend to catch her off guard since he’d seen her go right whenever she expected an attack before.
"...Ah, Rend, well, I’ll just dodge these as they get here then." Waiting for a second, she focused on the rends in front of her, only to side step incredibly quickly, the rends flying past her as they missed, only for her to have stepped to the right, which meant right into the Advanced Rend.
Crashing into her, she felt her skin cut apart, though they were shallow because they were in a spar, she knew at its full power it would’ve cut her apart.
Since she gave him no time to react, he wouldn’t either, as she healed the tiny cuts. Caelus pointed his hand, sending out a wave, leaving openings in a different area than when he did with Tellus, trying to make sure she couldn’t predict him.
"Disjunction, huh? Well, he’s probably going to use the Reversal." Minerva reacted quickly, jumping up and launching forward towards Caelus, who, finally at this point, used the Auxiliary path he’d been keeping away since he didn’t know how to use it.
"Paradox Movement!"
His voice rang out, Minerva expecting another attack from him using Disjunction. Still, instead it disappeared; he’d used it to get her closer, meanwhile Paradox movement caused her approach to him to go on indefinitely, the more she moved forward, the more she was pushed back, an equal force which went against her. Stopping her right where she was.
Minerva retreated somewhat, looking at him as he made eye contact with her. Since he still had some tricks up his sleeve, she knew she couldn’t go in expecting something she knew. "I’ll give credit, you made me believe you were just telling all your techniques to anyone near you." She paused. "At least you have some common sense."
Caelus heard her and turned a little red, embarrassed. She pointed out that he was naive enough to share it loudly. But even if he was, he owned up to it. And he wouldn’t do something like that again.
"Indeed, I was new to cultivation, so I just told my techniques since no one really taught me that I shouldn’t. But I should’ve seen that coming with how little people actually said their techniques’ names." Caelus replied. Almost forgetting he was in the middle of a spar.
Caelus is only noticed now because the mist covers the surrounding area. Though Caelus tried to detect using his Infrared vision, She was masking her body heat with the mist, so he couldn’t just find her.
In that moment, Caelus got hit right in the chest, sending him flying back as he held in vomit from the sheer force, due to the strength of the attack alongside the speed.
Flying back, Caelus fell out of the ring, landing on his butt. He looked up and let out some of his stomach acid, only to finally get up right after, looking down at the acid, which had melted through the grass and dirt. He noticed they weren’t ’green’ in the sense of being on earth; they were more blackish in color.
[That’s because the Star this planet orbits is vastly different from your old worlds. I won’t elaborate on that, but the light it sends is warmer and some other technical stuff you won’t like.]
"Ah." Caelus did not want to know that, so at least Aphro didn’t begin explaining, though he wondered what the other reincarnator was feeling due to them getting the mechanical one, which wouldn’t really care about how he left.
"Being explained something for probably an hour or a half on end would be incredibly annoying, good thing that isn’t me." Caelus blinked, realizing he was thinking a bit too hard already, and it’d been only a little.
"Oops."
Minerva walked up and looked at Caelus. "You okay? Did I knock the wind out of you or something?"
"No, I’m fine, I was just thinking about someone I knew, don’t worry," Caelus spoke. He wasn’t wrong; he knew there was another reincarnator, just not anything about them other than their existence.
"Ah, probably Tellus then, well, what do you say this spar ends right now? Or should we fight once more, this time a bit more seriously? Especially from your attacks." Minerva replied, a smile on her face.
"We can fight once more. I do want to get more experience fighting since I only started this cultivation a month ago." Caelus replied, being very honest about it, since he genuinely didn’t know how fighting worked. He was just trying to fight back in whatever way he could remember from the novels he read.
Only now was he trying to do things his own way, which people couldn’t predict from others, but his other strategy also worked, so he wondered if it was an actual fighting style in whatever he’d read.
"Oh? Well, no wonder you reveal your techniques, you’re still a newbie." Minerva sighed. "Then we can’t spar right now, I’d rather you get enough techniques, so about fifteen before we fight, but also make sure to hide the techniques you’ve made."
"Well, that’s a lot, but I’ll do that then, I just need to be sure not to deal with the Yun family on my way to do that." Caelus sighed. "I also need to test out the techniques, so I don’t mess them up or use up extra Mana when I can do it with less Mana and more efficiently." He replied to Minerva.
"Well, that’s a problem... I guess you can go to like Tianyun Peak or the Ocean to test it out instead-"
"Absolutely not the Ocean. There are animals there." Caelus interrupted.
"Ah, yeah, I forgot, sorry about that," Minerva replied, looking nervous.
"Well, anyway, it’s time for me to go then, I’ll be making more techniques, I’ll tell you when I’m close enough to getting what I need."
[A few hours later]
Caelus stood at the beach, only a few kilometers from where the Arena was, the blubbery creatures nearby, which Aphro said were ’Seals’. Slept, Caelus thought to himself.
"...More techniques, I guess that makes sense, by now I should have at least ten, yet I only have seven."
"No, I’m just going at my own pace, but I guess I should go faster... And I should probably face the Yun Family myself." He knows Yun Li started the Entire thing, but it wouldn’t be resolved until they got their revenge, so he might as well go for the first person ever to be killed in this world.
It was natural for people to die, especially to others. He saw a cultivator get bitten by an undead while he was fighting in the invasion. He didn’t look at it because it felt too much for him at the time. But it was normal here; he might as well get used to it instead of dying due to naivety.
"FINALLY. FOUND YOU!" A voice rang from afar. Yun Li stood as he looked at Caelus, who didn’t turn to them but used Mana and caused the water to splash the seals, so they left.
"Now. We can fight, since you’re so willing to go after me like you have some sort of... Obsession for me." Caelus replied with an exasperated sigh as he realized he felt really old now.
Yet he wasn’t given time to think. Yun Li’s sword flew down, crashing into Caelus’s head and piercing through it into his brain, causing him to fall down and catch himself. Getting up, Caelus pulled out the blade, looking at it and... "Bad Idea."
Caelus spoke once. He was more than annoyed. Instead, he was angry, and he resorted to doing that. Seeing what was written on the blade, ’Sky Splitter’, alongside blood that wasn’t his, and the smell of someone he knew.
"What? Are you gonna cry because I killed that little girl you protected?" Yun Li spoke, a laugh ringing from his voice.
"..." a moment too long filled with silence. Caelus couldn’t reverse a death like this, and because of him, because she even knew him, Yun Li killed her.
"Paradox Movement."
Yun Li was frozen in place, his legs trying to move, yet an equal and opposite force was pushing back. Caelus’s hand moved as if he were shaping the air into something, creating an arrow shape, with flames burning brighter than ever.
"Burning Temptation."
The Temperature rose, the glass below him. And the water nearby beginning to evaporate into the air. Yun Li couldn’t move.
"YOU CO-"
"Shut up," Caelus replied.
The heat from the technique rose higher and higher, finally firing as it finished forming. Yun Li finally regained his ability to move, yet right as he could, the arrow fired, flying towards him.
"PROTECTION OF THE HEAVENS!" Yun Li proclaimed, a barrier forming around him of Mana-
Right as it touched the barrier, the area around them, city wide now, all burst into flames, Caelus at full speed got out of it’s range in a near instant, the arrow turned into a sphere and flew out, the barrier caused the damage to become worse, Yun Li’s body burned and began disintegration despite being a stage above Caelus.
Finally, compressing once more as Yun Li’s body came back, regenerating completely, only for the damage to persistently cause him to use up Mana again and again to bring his body back.
The sphere finally compressed, turning into a beam of pure flame reaching up past the clouds. And once the pillar of flames disappeared, Caelus reappeared, looking towards Yun Li, who was completely regenerated... But clearly a lot weaker now.
"...How much Mana has he lost, Aphro?"
[72% of his Mana Pool. He has 28% of his Mana left.]
"...I assumed she was dead, she’s still at the foundation, and I know she isn’t dumb."
Caelus paused. "...She could’ve played dead with how Yun Li acts, he probably would’ve just thought she died without checking. And she can regenerate very quickly."
Caelus finally spoke.
"Hey. Did you behead Helel?" Caelus’s voice was low, yet sharp.
"...Why should I? She’d probably die from bleeding out after I removed her A-" Yun Li still tried acting cocky, thinking some elder would come and help him.
"...Then she might actually be dead." Caelus thought he wasn’t sure on that, but he hoped she was alive.
"...Though I could use Rend to make you actually die..."
A barrage of Rends flew out.