CHAPTER 107(The Distance Between Us)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

Discord: https://discord.gg/K7f8qGpvuk

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CHAPTER START---

"So..." Yang looks toward Bete, Tiona, Tione, and Ais. A smile on his face as he eyes the new challengers, Tiona and Tione both had their weapons drawn, Urga and two Kukri knives respectively, seeing Bete unarmed he turns toward the campsite and raises his voice," anyone else wanna join the fun!" his question rings out.

Thalie yells down to him with a manic smile, "I asked Finn to raise the pressure, you looked a bit too relaxed there, as your teacher I'd rather see you surpass your limits!"

'I should have expected this bullshit from her, sigh, whatever,' he resigns himself to just roll with the new situation.

Turning back to the challengers, he raises his hands to signal a challenge," well, don't keep me waiting, let's go..." small flames flicker across his body, his gauntlets light up with a circuit like pattern of light blue as his feet have the same small flames. Purple lightning crackles within the flames, dancing around his body.

His mage armor provides overall stat boosts outside of just adding magic damage, he focused on keeping the elements at a minimum just to trigger the physical boosts provided by the skill. At its current state, his level 5 opponents had nothing to worry about in terms of severe elemental damage.

"Ariel," Ais short chant isn't interrupted this time, the wind armor forms around her as her allies take a step away from it. This is the only time they've ever seen her use magic against another person, they weren't sure how to feel about it.

Casting a glance at Bete, Ais directs her wind into his boots, the Mythril magic item built into his boots absorbs the magic, effectively giving both of them her 'Ariel' as she pours more magic into reforming her own armor.

"Huh, hey wait how'd you do that, can Welf make items like tha---" Yang's words are cut short as Bete and Ais charge at him.

Bete pulls ahead with his speed advantage, without magic only Ottar and Allen would be faster than him, with Ais's magic he was faster than normal.

His skills increase his movement speed and use it to increase his attack power just like Yang's kinetics skill, all of this comes together in the form of a flying kick to Yang's head.

A moment after his foot leaves the ground he's already in Yang's face.

Yang dodges the kick only to be met with a barrage of fists and kicks.

Using his superior stats he clumsily bats away all the strikes while taking a step back, a second later and a sword is swung down at him.

Reacting quickly he dodges it causing Ais to land where he was just standing, he moves around Bete to place the wolf between himself and the princess.

In one quick motion Ais pushes magic into her wind armor, darting around Bete she assaults Yang with a flurry of thrusts.

Yang was losing ground, the tides had shifted. Both Bete and Ais being enhanced by her wind came together to push him back. They couldn't land any proper hits but he was effectively pinned.

A few more seconds of this and a new challenge showed up.

"HEYAA!"

Hearing it before seeing it he jumps into the air, narrowly avoiding Urga as it was swung at his shins.

'Too loud,' he thinks to himself.

"Ugh!" he groans as he feels two feet slam into his back, knocking him into the ground hard enough to carve out a trench for a dozen meters face first.

"That... well played, getting me to jump so you can catch me by surprise..." he points out, rising to his feet faster than they'd of liked and keeping them all in his sight.

Ais's wind had just run out until she casts it again, they were all sizing each other up once more.

"He's hard!" Tione complains as she rubs her feet, the bones rattling from dropkicking him.

"Thanks," Yang gives her a playful wink," but don't worry, don't think you'll be hitting me much more, fighting four versus one is a lot harder than I thought, you guys are way too far ahead in fighting skill, sorry but I can't keep up like that," he gives a resigned shrug, frowning slightly as he acknowledges the differences between them.

"Are you giving up?" Ais asks, her eyes sharp, displeased by the idea of him quitting.

"Mmm, nah," he looks back to the campsite before yelling, "shields up!"

Confusion spreads around everyone, all but two.

"Gotcha!" Welf says, drawing his sword and stabbing it into the ground, ready to absorb any extra heat.

"I can't out skill you, but I can definitely overpower you," Yang's face twists into a manic smile as the flames on his body flare up, his mage armor coming into its natural state instead of being suppressed.

(A/N; His mage armor looks like Endeavour from MHA flames on his body but blue)

"Ariel," Ais's wind armor comes to life once more, she immediately directs some of it to Bete before bolstering it on herself once more, "tempest," her extended chant, the armor focuses around her sword more than her own body to raise her attacking power to absurd levels.

"Huh, wind blade, cool," he jokes.

In an instant, they all rush forward.

Ais is the first to strike, her attacking speed being the fastest among her side.

As they get within ten meters of each other(30 ft) a veil of weak blue flames explodes out from Yang. Not strong enough to really hurt their high-level bodies, but a neat trick Welf used to block Balor's vision.

Disappearing within the flames he sees his target, her massive clunky weapon makes her stand out. Putting his focus into a charge, the ground beneath his feet shatters and explodes as he arrives in front of Tiona.

Urga was simply too big for her to react properly, as the flames are dissipated they all see her swing down as best she can, only for him to perform an uppercut, punching the blade of her weapon with enough force that they can hear it crack.

"Wha," she cries out. The force knocks the weapons and hands holding it up and above her, reeling back he lands a solid right hook to her face, knocking her across the safe zone toward the nearest wall.

Before he can even take a moment to enjoy what he'd done, he's forced on the back foot while dodging strikes from Ais, Bete, and Tione.

Unlike before, this time he wasn't struggling as much. He could carefully guide their hits away with much less stress.

Stalling for a few rounds of blows, his moment finally appears.

Abruptly Bete's borrowed wind runs out, his speed and power drop, not enough to be weak but just enough to throw off their rhythm.

Seizing the chance he knocks aside Ais's blade, flaring up his mage armor to lower the damage from the strikes Tione would land, he lunges forward and punches Bete right in the face.

In an instant he runs forward, ignoring both girls and their shocked expressions as he pushes them aside.

"Ugh," Bete groans as he digs his fingers into the ground to stop himself from flying further away, the moment he looks up a boot slams into his face.

Feeling Tione and Ais rushing toward them, Yang begins a flurry of blows on the wolf.

His arm rising up feebly to defend himself.

With every hit, he felt his bones quake and his arms go numb, all while the heat was trying to sear them.

"ARRRGGHHH!" He cries out while reaching his limit, his rage boils over. Dropping his guard he takes a hit in the face while landing a hit on Yang, but Yang doesn't move.

Bete feels his jaw crack, his body rises off the ground and is about to be launched across the area, but Yang grabs his outstretched hand as it passes him and immediately swings him, tossing him into the nearby treeline before leaping directly up, barely dodging the blades and wind at his back from Tione and Ais's attacks.

As trees snap and break in the background he lands back on his feet on the other side of the girls, giving them a playful smile.

"You guys really aren't good one on one huh..." he teases them, Tione feels her blood boil at the comment, Ais tightens the grip on her blade in frustration, he was right, she couldn't win in a duel, she was weak. At least that's how she thinks about it.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE ASSHOLE!" Tione screams out as she unleashes her primal fury. Her berserker skill activates as she charges in, Yang raises a brow at the sudden change in demeanor.

"I was playing with you till now but, you're annoying..." Yang says as he matches her charge.

Raising one of her knives she swings at his head, he responds in kind by striking at the Adamantite blade, putting his back into a hit for once.

Her weapons shatter feebly under the force of his strike, as if sobering her from the angered state her eyes go wide in realization, too late.

His fist slams into her cheek, instead of knocking her away he stomps down, directing her skull into the ground, sandwiched between the stone and his fist.

Her entire head is buried into the floor, as he removes his hands a bloodied Tione is seen below, burns on her face.

"C-cap-tain..." her voice feebly calls out as her eyes close, immediately going to sleep.

"You..." Ais was shocked, she expected him to be stronger than her, expected there to be a difference between them. But to shatter adamantite and immediately knock out Tione, someone who was just a strong as Ais in stats while being buffed by the Berserker skill. She was suddenly doubting the point of this fight. Why was she in the dungeon if people like this exist...

"Relax, I'm not a dick, eh, not much," Yang says while ignoring the horrified looks everyone was giving him. Taking an elixir out of his storage he pours it out onto Tione's face, the moment she begins to stir awake he reaches down grabbing her by the shoulder and lifts her up.

Her hair is caked with dirt and stone as he pulls her head out of the ground. Unceremoniously he throws her all the way over to the campsite, right into the arms of her beloved captain.

Looking back toward Ais he gives her a devious smile, " your turn."

*CRASH*

Something lands behind him as he's about to rush forward, "I'M BACK!" Tiona cries out, "I got stuck in a wall," she casually explains while twirling her now cracked Urga.

"Should of stayed there," Yang says as he ignores her, rushing toward Ais.

He was a blur to all but the level 6 adventurers. His team was used to fighting alongside him so they never had to keep close track of his movements, they had their own enemies to deal with, but seeing him from the sidelines, he's a monster.

He avoided every hit from Ais and Tiona, he matches their strikes with his cloaked fists. He was pushing them both back at once.

As Tiona brings down her Urga in a heavy overhead strike, Yang rushes forward and presses his body into hers, not tackling her but staying out of her weapons swing zone.

Taking the chance Ais thrusts forward with her wind focused to strike.

Pushing Tiona away by the face he spins on his heel and narrowly avoids the thrust, pushing more magic into his mage armored gauntlet he grabs her blade, holding it in place and again shocking everyone while swinging a strong hook into Ais's face with his right hand.

Her wind armor can completely block most things and soften others, but he didn't feel like dragging this fight out.

His fist shatters her wind, slamming into her face and knocking her toward the treeline. Her body rolls across the floor before slamming into a thick tree, with a pained "UGH!" she lays on the ground, awake and struggling to get up.

"Wow..." Tiona stares in amazement before she shifts her focus from Ais back to Yang.

"Uh-huh, so, wanna keep going?" he casually asks the amazon.

Looking around at her allies, Tione was unconscious being checked on by Riveria, Bete was nowhere to be found, Ais was already on all fours trying to stand up but failing, and Yang... he looked completely fine and ready for more.

"My Urga got cracked, and my team is pretty beat up. Can we stop here?" she asks, realizing where this fight was going.

"Cool, might wanna go find Bete, he got a full combo," Yang jokes as his magic dissipates, revealing his body, now fully healed from the strikes Tiona landed when he rushed Bete.

"Uh, got it!" Tiona says as she runs off toward the forest.

"Impressive fight," Finn compliments as he lands beside Yang.

"Yeah, please don't tell me you wanna fight too...really not a fan of fighting people," Yang groans, seeing Finn holding his spear.

'He seems more annoyed than worried at fighting a level 6...' Finn takes mental note as he gives Yang a small smile.

"Nothing of the sort, hopefully now Ais won't want to challenge you again for a while, at least until she thinks it won't end like that," he points his spear to the girl under the tree with Riveria at her side.

As Ais tried to stand up, her hands crumpled under her own weight, dropping her face-first into the floor again. Her balled fists pounded the ground in frustration as Riveria tried to calm her down.

Realization finally set it, she couldn't even understand how far ahead Yang was, as her sobs of frustration barely reached him, Riveria holding the girl closely, Yang couldn't stay there anymore.

As he began walking away, Finn fell in line beside him as they made their way toward the stairs.

"She's not the only one who feels like that you know, that's why we were so adamant on figuring out what makes YOU so special..." the Pallum explains.

"Years of training, only to be surpassed by some moron who didn't have a Falna a few months ago, I'd of done the same thing in your shoes."

"I'm glad you understand, don't worry we won't bother you again after this, hopefully we can build a better working relationship from this point onward."

"Thanks, but unless you want to end up dead, don't try to copy me, alright," Yang spares a glance at Finn as they begin walking up the stairs.

"Hmm, even if you're a special case, your team is also progressing quickly, whatever system you have is working," Finn made a good point, in a few months Thalie went from mid-level 4 to level 5, and Welf improved much more than that relative to his level, his system works.

"What we do can't work for your team, sorry, it's not a skill or anything to do with Falna, it's just about the kind of person you are," Yang's voice was quiet, his thoughts running through countless scenarios of what can go wrong.

"Shouldn't we be the ones to decide that?"

"Don't need to, I know you can't do it because," Yang stops walking up the stairs and looks at Finn," you aren't willing to watch your allies die for what they believe in, because you're the proud Loki familia, that's not how you operate, you aren't willing to challenge impossible odds in the way we do, walk past death and overcome everything, because that means people you care about will die, your strong, you know you're strong, and that's why it won't work for you," Yang says in a serious tone before walking up the stairs into the camp.

"Finn," Riveria calls out from a few steps below, both she and Ais heard the end of that conversation, the girl's face stained with streaks from her tears of frustration as she ponders what she just heard. He said it was impossible for her, because of who they were...impossible.

"How is everyone?"

"They'll be fine, we need some time for repairs after that fight," Riveria informs him.

"Right, all executives into the main tent immediately."

Arriving at the campsite, Yang sees Welf, Thalie, and Tsubaki waiting for him with amused smiles.

"Well, how'd I do?" He asks Thalie.

"Swordsmanship is still shit but good enough for monsters, we'll be alright with that, saw you focused on just brawling..."

"Yeah well can't learn much from bombing everything, either it dies or it doesn't with that approach anyway, was definitely gonna do that if they pushed me, good thing it didn't come to that," he gives a small smile while retrieving his greatsword.

"She actually chipped it, pretty impressive...but then again you punched through adamantite knives," Welf points out as he and Tsubaki inspect the blade.

"Yeah fighting multiple people was annoying and I got fed up," he releases a deep sight.

"Got me lots of valis at least, made some nice bets with some of their members, it's amazing how much they believe in Ais," Tsubaki says with a hearty laugh as she just imagines all the money she has to collect, Raul and Aki would be in debt for months.

"Right... I'm hungry so let's get some food, I think I'm done training for today, that fight was more annoying than anything else..." Yang complains.

---Loki Familia Main Tent...

"So, did we learn anything new?" Finn asks, all the executives currently gathered in the tent to discuss the spar.

"Tch," Bete couldn't properly speak just yet, his chin had been split and jaw dislocated from the hit he took, his mouth was still bandaged up.

"That he's an asshole," Tione grumbles out, rubbing a hand over her cheek, still throbbing even after the cracked bones and burnt flesh was healed.

"Too strong..." was all Ais could say, her mind seemingly elsewhere at the moment.

"He's better with brawling than swords, right? I think he's pretty cool," Tiona adds, raising her hand and waving it around to get Finn's attention.

"Aye," Gareth agrees.

"But...why didn't he just use those big attacks he normally uses?" The amazon questioned.

"Well," Finn begins to explain, "I believe he planned on using them if needed, that's why his friend Welf got ready to block it, but it simply never came to that, his monstrous strength was apparently enough."

"Monstrous is right," Gareth adds," kid might be as strong as me if he really goes all out, and he's still a new level 5, as far as we know."

"Thankfully he kept it to simple brawling," Riveria finally speaks up," his wide range magic tends to be instant like all his other attacks, I'm not sure my shield would have been cast in time to block it."

"H-how is he...so strong..." Lefiya asks, her voice shakey.

Giving the girl a careful look, seeing her kneading the edge of her skirt, Finn decides to keep everyone to the routine they had, it's been working so far so best not rock the boat, especially if what Yang said was true.

"He wouldn't say, and I think it's best we leave it at that everyone---"

"He said," Ais interrupts him, drawing everyone's eyes onto herself immediately.

"Ais," Finn's voice was low, an obvious warning, but she continued.

"To face death and overcome it, he said it can't work for us because we're a strong familia..." her voice became a whisper at the end.

"That's enough Ais, our familia doesn't indulge in reckless tactics, what's the point of being strong if everyone dies alone the way, we fight together to improve as one, for we are the---" Finn cuts himself off, realizing what he's about to say, "because, we are the proud Loki familia..." Yang was right, his way really wouldn't work for them, Finn now realizes.

'Impossible odds, face death and overcome, people will die,' Ais chants over and over in her mind as their little debrief ends...

END CHAPTER---

Since it's a simple spar I didn't think it necessary for Yang to show out against them. Fights like these are hard to write, the Freya familia vs Deviljho was super hard to write too with so many moving parts.

Ais actually showed some emotion about something that isn't Bell...weird...