Standing Tall in the Face of Defeat

[As you two have such a strong resolve, I'll give you some advice on how to get out of your current predicaments. Roy, based on your current situation, it seems Icrin injected a large quantity of lightning inside of you. The lightning is currently flowing throughout your entire body, causing the numbing sensation. It won't harm you, but as long as it's not expelled, you'll be stuck in your current position.]

[You need to employ the physical characteristics you were born with! Your obsidian-scaled armor along with your flames happen to be a perfect counter to lightning. Use your primal flames to heat your obsidian scales until they soften, almost to the point of melting, and then subtly channel the excess lightning from your body into your obsidian scales. In doing so, the numbness should dissipate and you should be able to regain control of your body.]

Listening wholeheartedly to Wilhelm, Roy immediately used his innate Yin-Yang Flame Embrace skill, centering the flames on his own obsidian scales. If one inspected his scales, they would see distinctive black and white flames burning lightly on the surface. His scales slowly warped, as they took on a seemingly soft characteristic and appeared to be close to melting entirely, while a system notification popped up.

[New Bloodline Skill Unlocked] [Hard-Soft Scale Transitioning]—[Ability to transition scales between the state of hard and soft.]

Surprise flickered in Rentaro and Roy's eyes, as the system notifications had echoed in their minds. Thereafter, alarm filled Roy's eyes.

'Whose voice is that Second Brother? That didn't sound like Eldest Brother.'

'Ahh, that was the system's automatic functions. Wilhelm is a soul that acts as a guide, but the other voice was created to follow the system's programming by the creator.'

Wilhelm grumbled, [Yeah, yeah. Now, let's get back on track. Roy, pay attention to what you're doing, while I give Rentaro some advice.]

'Okay!' Roy's eyes sparkled with eagerness as he continued expelling the lightning residing within his body.

[Back to what I was saying, you are trapped by a mental energy technique that is boosted by the illusion element. At the end of the day, the Spectral Chains don't truly exist, they are in between the planes of illusion and reality. Remember, mental energy techniques take advantage of the opponent's mind and soul. Ponder over this, think about cleansing yourself of the false reality imprinted within.]

'Used on the opponent's mind and soul... cleansing oneself... My soul's desire is sincerity and takes the form of light, a light that cleanses all lies, allowing me to focus on the truth. With light, I shall resist the false reality imprinted into my mind!'

'The chains give off similar feelings to when my body was reconstructing, but it feels much weaker. Thanks to the Soul Bindings and Soul Contract, I have personally experienced channeling energy to my mind and soul. If I can replicate that....'

Rentaro focused, a brilliant golden aura taking form around his body like a blanket of warmth. The spectral chains that wrapped around his body crumbled under the blanket, ultimately disintegrating into bits that scattered into the wind altogether.

'So, that's how you deal with mental energy techniques and illusions?'

[Good work! But don't get arrogant! Your success is largely thanks to Icrin taking it easy.]

'Of course!' Standing up, Rentaro's eyes glowed with relentless desire for battle as he looked in the direction Icrin walked in.

Across the field, Roy had also stood up by now and followed the same course of action as Rentaro, clearly two cut from the same tree. 'Wilhelm, turn all automated system notifications offline for now.'

[System Notifications] [Status: Offline]

Between their line of site was a young boy... A young, yet powerful opponent they had to face. His eyes were closed until he felt the battle-hungry stares targeting him. Suddenly, his eyes shot open to reveal his left eye ice-blue and right eye of a grayish-hue, showing that he had resumed his default form.

A smile formed on Icrin's face, while the distant spectators maintained their silence as they watched the two guests in curiosity. Everyone had a clear understanding as to what the outcome of the battle would be, thus their curiosity leaning to how quickly the battle would end. Would the two guests give up, lose miserably, or go down with everything they had?

Wilhelm remained quiet as he watched the scene, feelings of admiration fluttered within his heart as he watched a scene that would generally be seen as heroic in a story, while sighing as he thought about the current scene occurring in a mere spar. 'Ah. One day, Rentaro will surely give off such a feeling in a matter of crucial importance. I await such a day, a day where he makes his debut in the cultivation world and his name strikes heavy emotions into the hearts of others.'

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Not only the Krose Clan and Wilhelm, even the spirits of the Grimoire of Twilight were watching the spar in expectation from within the grimoire. They had not seen any action in a long time, and couldn't help but cheer for the grimoire's inheritor to fight with everything he had.

"Hmph, they better not give up miserably after this, or I'll never accept Rentaro as the inheritor of master's grimoire." Auron pouted within the grimoire's world.

"We-We already know their attitude. Jus-Just look at them Auron, that-that's enough to understand their-their fighting spirit!" Eremic's shy voice followed, but with a tinge of displeasure against Auron's tone.

"Hah. Don't get angry, Eremic. You and I both know that this is just a face Auron puts on to act tough. Don't mind him." Anu yawned as he spoke out in his usual lazy and cool manner.

Aside from the trio of light, fire, and dark spirits, multiple other elemental spirits and summons chattered about, inspecting the inheritor of the grimoire with discerning eyes.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Rentaro and Roy walked in Icrin's direction, taking slow and steady footsteps. The spectators, Wilhelm... Everything except the fight was erased from their train of thought. They had entered a state of pure desire for battle, as if their thoughts had been branded by it.

Soon enough, the duo arrived just opposite of each other with Icrin standing in between, his face sprouting a broad smile of enjoyment.

"I knew the both of you would find a way out of my control techniques. Heh heh. Let's have some actual combat now." Icrin snickered, taking a close-combat pose as a blue and grey aura mixed together, surging alongside his body.

"Here, try out my Close Combat Style!"

Icrin rushed towards Rentaro, sending out what seemed like a simple punch. Rentaro shot his palm out to grab the ever-nearing fist, only for it to suddenly split into two.

Rentaro succeeded in grabbing one of Icrin's fist, at least it seemed so. The fist he grabbed suddenly dissipated into a cloud of gray aura, while the other fist collided with Rentaro's stomach.

Bang!

Rentaro's body crashed onto the ground as he was thrown into a coughing fit.

Luckily, his body had been reconstructed to fit this world's standards, otherwise his previous physique would have suffered a few fractured—if not broken—ribs from that simple punch.

"Argh! *Cough* *Cough* An illusion *Cough* style close combat technique, huh? Damn..."

Icrin looked as if he was about to attack again, but Roy followed shortly after, his tail slithering around Rentaro, pulling him up from the ground.

"Thanks, Roy." Rentaro placed his hand on Roy's scaled-back as he steadied his body out.

"Hehe, no need for thanks, Second Brother. We are companions, are we not?"

Rentaro let out a small smile from Roy's comfort despite having just taken a punch, "Uh-hm, you're right. Alone, we'd lose miserably after such a battle, but we're both fighting alongside one another, standing shoulder-to-shoulder. If we win, we win together and if we lose, we lose together. Let's do this!"

Icrin's smile widened, "Hm, good! Illusion Style - Phantom Twins!"

Icrin's body split apart once again, this time however, both Icrins had the same pair of eyes, one ice-blue and one gray.

"Roy, watch out. Based on his illusion style, one of the clones is fake. Use a fire-type skill that encompasses a wider range to hit both of them, revealing which of the two is real."

"Already on it!"

A seamless red flair formed in Roy's mouth, slowly condensing into a small ball of fire.

Boom!

He spit the ball of fire from his mouth towards the two Icrins, exploding upon contact with the ground and encompassing the two Icrins who seemed to continue rushing forward rather than dodging.

One Icrin dissipated in the flames, clearly a clone. The other was scorched along the right side of his body, its right arm vanished without a single mark or injury, leaving the duo confused.

"Huh? Second Brother, wha—"

"Roy, left side!" Rentaro yelled as he cast a golden elemental aura into the grimoire, a Shield of Light quickly encompassing Roy's front underbody.

A third Icrin had thrown a punch but, strangely enough, it didn't cause any damage to the protective shield.

In sequence, Rentaro unleashed two fire bolts towards Icrin, while Roy retaliated as the spikes alongside his back extended from his body, piercing towards Icrin—who once again didn't bother to dodge.

Icrin's body was immediately bombarded as he was caught in the flames and pierced through by Roy's spikes.

However, like the other two clones, there was no blood or anything to show injury—Icrin's body merely dissipated away.

"A trap?" Rentaro and Roy voiced out their thoughts simultaneously, their worries proven true before they could even act out a plan of resistance.

A foot caught Rentaro's attention, kicking into his stomach which was already injured from earlier.

"Guh—"

The turn of events was too sudden and Roy could only respond by piercing his spikes towards Icrin who retreated in a calm manner, while his tail reached out to catch Rentaro.

"Hmph, I could have attacked much more harshly than that, so we can count this spar as having ended for today. You see, my manner of fighting is as a 'Trickster". From the beginning, I orchestrated this series of events. I said I was using the technique Phantom Twins, and you assumed one twin was fake while the other was real."

"When both were revealed to be phantoms, you assumed that my third appearance was the real me, but I tricked you yet again. I used Phantom Triplets and the third me was also a phantom, allowing the real me to attack you in surprise!"

Icrin's current appearance made him seem like an old fox, he had incredible wit, a mischievous smile on his face, and lived up to the title of a "Trickster," only for his child-like bragging to shatter such an image.

"Although the battle was a bit anticlimactic for me, I'm glad you showed up when you did, Rentaro. Had I not found you in the forest, I'd be sitting around training on my lonesome. You are very strange, but in a good way of course! When I found you that day, I knew you were a potential opponent! The three of us can continue training together from now on, we'll spar each and every day, as I turn you into a fighting machine! I see so much potential in you after all!"

Icrin's tone slowly bubbled with more and more excited as he neared the end of his words, in contrast to Rentaro and Roy whose eyes practically popped out, startled as Icrin practically declared them as his punching bags, or in nicer words, training dummies. Icrin continued his little "speech" before the two could interrupt him.

"That day, I asked myself. Who would enter a forest without anything? Without supplies or even a weapon to hunt and protect themselves with? Heck, you didn't even bring any clothing with you, no extra clothing in a bag or even on your own body, Rentaro! You're a true man and I can't help but look up to you, hoping to be like you one day!"

In response to Icrin's words, Rentaro held his head in embarrassment, while Roy turned his head in doubt.

All the spectators from the Krose Clan and the ones in the grimoire widened their eyes in astonishment, giving off questioning glances as they focused their sight on Rentaro.

Elder Astrona too nodded in the distance, 'Traveling a dangerous forest without clothes, having no knowledge of his location, talking to himself, then he ends up being a summoner... Truly a strange kiddo. As an elder, I suppose it's my job to properly educate him sometime, huh?'

"Tha-That was merely a misunderstanding!" Rentaro immediately refuted him in embarrassment, only to realize that he affirmed for everyone else that it truly happened, causing his face to blush an even brighter shade of red.

"Ah? It's okay, Rentaro. The two of us have no need to hide anything. Such bold actions are what make us different from the everyday folk, we're true men! From this day forth, I'll even consider you two as my sworn brothers. Everyone else in the village cowers from my sight, afraid as if I'll hurt them or something."

Hearing Icrin's words, Rentaro and Roy arrived at the same train of thought and felt like spitting blood, their words echoing through the system interface, 'Yeah, I wonder why?'

"Sworn brothers, huh?" Rentaro flashed a slight smile, but immediately hid it as he questioned with mock ridicule, "But who are you to talk about being a man? I'm eighteen so I guess you can consider me to be a man, but how old are you anyway?"

"Huh? I'm fourteen years old. Only four years younger than you which isn't a very large margin as many people live for hundreds of years old. I'm also quite strong and intelligent, so I automatically bypass the barrier of age to be considered a man. Let's go get some food, it's getting late and I'm rather hungry after our spar, hehe."

"Hah? By your logic, wouldn't we be considered mere children to all the people who've lived for hundreds of years?"

Rentaro's question failed to enter Icrin's ears, as he already rushed back towards the village, leaving Rentaro behind. Looking to his side, Roy was gone as well, his footsteps side-by-side with Icrin's.

"Haha. Alright, I'll catch up with you two." Rentaro rushed after the two, creating an amusing scene as all the spectators watched the trio in bewilderment and astonishment.