Refinement of Skill

Bailey smiled bitterly as the thought crossed his mind, he'd laid his spear to rest in a bundle with the other weaponry in one of the dorm rooms.

They hadn't expected any sort of danger after all so carrying their weapons around was just an unnecessary restriction, or so they'd thought.

Bailey was already severely regretting his decision at this moment, the puppet was too durable to be injured by unarmed attacks although he was sure that even with his spear his chances wouldn't be any better.

The durability of the metal the puppet was made of was insane after all.

He'd have to hack and slash for days before he could even begin to chip it, it was processed at dangerously high temperatures and needed a special tool to be moulded.

Evidently, Bailey had neither heat nor equipment to destroy the thing so a head-on battle was his only option.

Of course, it was wrong to say that he was completely without a weapon but he wasn't even sure if it was possible for him to create 'that.'

If he could create 'that' in reality, it would be right to say that he'd never be defenceless even without a weapon in hand.

The thing that he was thinking of was, of course, the spear of light he'd created in that weird space.

If it was possible for him to use his Light Elementa in such a way outside of that space he had no doubt that it'd be better than the spear given to him by the military: A common stock, steel spear, used by most of the soldiers on the frontline.

Dodging another one of the puppets attacks Bailey concentrated on the Light Elementa in his body, no doubt it would draw Lewis's attention but he would need his full force to deal with this thing.

He could only silently pray that Lewis knew better than to get any closer.

'You've really got to respect the idiots foolish enough to fight these things and win…' He thought to himself.

The Puppet had god-like reflexes yet it was recorded that First-class Adventurers had been able to defeat these things in frontal combat without relying on Elementa.

They'd truly been people who'd pushed the very limits of what it meant to be 'human.' The tenacity of such people was worthy of respect regardless of how you viewed them.

Of course, even with such strong bodies, they'd easily fall to a Level-Two Elementa Wielder due to the simple fact that they had the advantage of using the power of an Element in combat.

No matter how strong the human body was could skin resist fire without a barrier protecting it? No.

Even if they stood in full body armour would it not be easy for someone with Fire Elementa to boil them in their own suit?

Or with Water Elementa to slow their movements?

It wasn't possible for humans to make up for this basic weakness regardless of how much they trained their own body.

During this time Bailey had already grasped his Light Elementa whilst occasionally dodging an attack or two from the Puppet in the process, it seemingly slowed down the closer he got to the wall as if toying with him.

But this was all the time he needed, during his time in that space he'd become so familiar with the process of forging the spear that it'd become practically engraved into his mind.

The formation of the spear came as natural as breathing to him.

Within seconds the radiance of Light spread from his hand and slowly took form into a pole, in only a couple of seconds the blade had become fully formed.

The newly formed spear that'd for the first time been brought into reality by himself felt as if it was a part of him much like it had in the mysterious space he'd created it in.

It felt like an extension of his own arm and even when he wasn't holding it he felt as if he'd be able to control it.

There was an invisible thread tying the both of them together, the threat took the form of Light Elementa and he could clearly 'see' it but it wasn't 'physically' present.

Confidence filled him as he felt his hand grasp the spear, he couldn't explain it but with a weapon in hand, it felt like everything was possible – even the Puppet that posed a seemingly insurmountable threat felt insignificant in his eyes now.

The movements of the Puppet seemed sluggish in his eyes now, no it would be better to say that instead of the Puppet slowing down his speed had increased drastically but he could feel his energy being drained at an incredibly fast pace as it dispersed into the spear.

Taking a few steps backward to avoid the incoming swing of the Puppets' sword he focused on the energy pouring into the spear and slowly began to try and decrease the amount flowing out of his body.

Surprisingly it was easy for him to limit the amount of Light Elementa that was used as consumption for the spear, slowly everything began to 'speed-up' once more, but only enough for the Puppet to seemingly move at a 'normal' speed.

Bailey grinned as he started to keep pace with the Puppet and traded it blow for blow when it struck he'd deflect and return an attack – surprisingly the spear of light he was wielding easily chipped the metal casing of the Puppet.

Bailey was sure that with a better technique he'd be able to easily destroy the Puppet in a few moves instead of the stalemate he was currently stuck in.

The Spear-style taught to him was simply called Basic Spear Style which was a basic style taught throughout the Empire as the foundation for learning other styles in the future.

It was said that mastering this Basic Style would provide a substantial advantage when trying to learn other Spear Styles in the future.

With this in mind Bailey continued to spar with the Puppet exchanging several blows back and forth, he could feel the flow between his moves becoming more refined as he exchanged blows with the Puppet.

He had no idea how long he was fighting for but after several jabs, on one point of the Puppets' shoulder, the mechanics behind it were already slightly exposed.

The Puppet moved to strike at Baileys' neck decisively, he was sure that if he wasn't fast enough in this moment he'd surely have ended up dying in the hands of this Puppet with no one but himself to blame.

Obviously, there had to be a way to shut off the Puppet but other than disrupting its mechanics he had no way of knowing how in the moment.

Deflecting this 'final' strike towards his neck Bailey parried with his spear and performed a jab into the exposed gears of the Puppet.

"Tch…" The gears clicked as they struggled to try and move but were blocked by the Spear.

"It's over…" Bailey sighed and withdrew his spear after he was sure the gears had completely stopped, he held the spear ready just in case the Puppet reactivated.

A minute later of tense anticipation and he'd finally confirmed that the Puppet wouldn't reactivate himself he breathed another sigh of relief and watched as the Spear 'disappeared' from his hand.

The Light Elementa it was made of re-joined the Elementa in his body and then began to cycle through his body once more.

"Holy crap!" Two figures walked through the entrance of the door, one of them limping slightly as if in pain and the other almost running over to him.