Captain V/S Kenji

I had returned to the palace and saw people running in the same direction. Wondering, I, too, followed along to backyard where Ace was on the ground panting and Captain dusting off his clothes.

"You fought well, Ace." He said but Ace pouted.

"No fair!" He stood up and clicked his tongue. Despite being an ascendant, he still acts like a child. There's something likable about it. He is so carefree or at least he acts that way.

"If it isn't Kenji. We are doing a practice match. Want to join in on the fun?" Ace wasn't asking... he pulled me in the arena anyways as everyone cheered to see the fight. Of course I would win against Ace now that I'm way stronger than him. Everyone wants me to fight the captain. The number one of the ascendants. The strongest man on this planet. There are even rumors that he might be stronger than Jeoma and I can't say that for sure.

"I'm interested too. We have never fought before." Captain said.

"Of course. Fighting amongst Ascendants is forbidden." I responded. "Fine."

Ace left the fighting area to sit on the sidelines and watch.

Captain is the strongest and I will lose but I have to do my best. I've seen him fight a couple of times in the past but I could never make out his strength or why he is the way he is. Exactly why is he regarded as the strongest man.

I activated my shield first and launched a charged arrow at him with my Polaris. It was the strongest bow I had. I used wind magic to create a pressurized collapse. It would also shred his defense stat by roughly 15%. I don't know how much defense stat he has but it should amount to something. He is at a level where he can hide his stats altogether. He prefers keeping it that way to avoid unwanted attention during his missions. The pressure from the arrow should've staggered him but it did nothing. The collapse can pull together multiple humans to the point of contact of the arrow yet captain stood unharmed and unfazed.

"Fine!" I flew up in the sky and finally used all my stats and cheat like abilities to land a proper hit. I charged towards the captain but I phased through him. I stopped mid-air confused what had just happened. I landed trying to think of why I couldn't touch him. Is it some kind of skill? Skills are specialized but they're bounded to elements. My mirror of honesty is wind magic while my healing ability is water magic and my shield is dark magic. Is it water magic's skill? Have I seen it anywhere before?

As I was collecting my thoughts Jeoma walked in.

"Oh? What do we have here?" He said with a smile. He raised his left hand and created a shield around the arena. "Kenji and Captain in a practice match? I want to see the end of it."

This guy...

I looked at the captain but he disappeared?! I tried looking around but saw nothing. He couldn't have left the arena whatsoever and he can't use skill to make himself invisible.

As I was trying to figure things out, a punch sent me flying up in the air. It was captain?! I activated my skill and stayed in the air. So it is water magic. He can make his body tangible by converting it into water. But he has complete control so when I passed through him, I didn't get wet because of his precision. Had I gotten wet, I would've learned his secret but my doubts were cleared when he appeared from below me. He had turned into a water and was charging towards me. That's why he had disappeared like that.

I have to use ice magic and freeze him. Or maybe fire magic since I've gotten better at it.

I landed and created a ball of ice and suspended it in the air. It would keep shooting ice shards at the captain so if he tries to convert his body to water, he will freeze.

I used mirror of honesty and stomped on the land to create twin vortex that consisted of fire and ice magic. Combined with my attack boost, the boost from magic and defense shred on him, I could win. But my hopes were torn apart as he stood there and tanked the entire attack.

"How?!" I was shocked. The vortex does 5,000 damage per second for a whole minute to a normal human. And a normal human barely has 2000 HP... This attack can kill a person within a second yet the captain stood.

Reaction! That would work on literally anything. Reactions make already strong attacks even stronger. Fire and water create steam reaction that causes intense burning in shorter period of time and causing two times more damage.

I charged at him with a cloak of fire and as I was about to phase through him again I unleashed the fire magic setting him on fire. I jumped away and saw him tank that attack too.

"No! How?!" I cried. "This is not fair- wait... deja vu..."

"You are quite strong. Maybe try a bit more."

"Fine!" I flew up again and activated my corruption. I shot my arrow and created a pressurized collapse that applied corruption to him slowly chipping away his HP.

"Now we are taking." He looked up and maybe he was getting excited too. I can't tell since he wears a helmet like a knight... even though he is not one. He teleported in front of me and punched me away.

Teleport...? He can't tele- oh... he moved too fast that I assumed he teleported.

I'm fucked.

My shield was somehow holding up so I had taken no damage so far but I wonder how long I can hold up. I reactivated my shield since I was worried it would break anytime soon.

"So, a shield like that is interesting but you're forgetting that it scales from your HP while all your attacks are based on your attack stat and your reactions are based of magic mastery and your magic points. You're spreading yourself too thin. In terms of a normal human, you're in fact strong but..." He launched a water ball at me and it went through my shield hitting me and making me fly back into the shield created by Jeoma. I fell to the ground panting and holding onto my chest. I was thinking he was just not strong enough to break my shield in one go but he was holding back that much!?

He charged up and the corruption stat got removed from him.

"Come on. I know this isn't all you got." Captain said. "Try everything you got."

I got up and took a deep breath. Pure brute strength is the only option. I activated records of Azure and calmed myself. Every attack I do now will be wind magic. I ran up to him and punched him but he stopped it midway. I parried it with a kick which was stopped too. This should've cause some sort of knock back because of wind magic but it did nothing.

Water lotus.

It made him leave my limbs and take a couple steps back.

"This will hurt." I said as I electro charged the water causing him to be electrocuted. It started staggering him and stopped him from moving as he pleased.

"This will work!" I kept electrocuting him but he then blew up!?

...

I woke up panting and scanned the room. What? Where am I?

"In your chamber..." Lizette poured me a glass of water.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Captain got a bit serious with you and we needed healing magic from Verga and also professor's medicines." She sighed and sat next to me on the bed.

"I wonder how strong captain, Charlotte and Ezekiel are as top three."

"Top three have lived the longest and hence the strongest. They've participated in countless battles and honed their prowess over centuries while you have barely started fighting a year or two ago."

"How can I save everyone if I'm not even the strongest amongst my teammates." I sighed.

She side hugged me and rubbed my arm.

"Don't worry too much because all these teammates you can't defeat are your teammates regardless so please, depend on us. We are in this together." She said with a soft smile.

I leaned into the hug and nodded. We have to find the winter's constellation. With this, I hope I can win against at least the captain.

"I checked up on Kristine for you. She is currently in the kingdom of Shulian. There is a massive turmoil in the kingdom due to some radical plans of the king. They are working on their military to wage war against every nation and creating a single nation that he can rule. He wants to make sure he can win against the non-humans in case they attack the human world."

"Thanks for looking after me." This information was important to me.

"I know that king ripped you away from the world you were from and you deserved a better life. I want to do everything I can to help you be less stressed."

"My life?" I looked at her confused. My life... 

"Is something wrong?" She asked and I nodded.

"My life... Back then, I had hoped I had been killed. But I'm glad I didn't. Ascendants are my new family and I feel so much safer here."

"What happened if you don't mind me prying more into your past. You are the apostle, so, there must be a reason."

"I grew up in a religious family. Everything I did was monitored and 'corrected'. What I ate, how I looked, Who I made friends with... Everything was controlled. Whenever I broke a rule, my parents took strict actions. For example, dragging me to balcony threatening to throw me off from fifth floor... I was so scared of them. I did my best in school. Failure was never an option not only because of my parents but because I wanted to disappear to a different country. I never believed in existence of Gods. I hated such concept too. As I grew up, I realized how wrong I was about my view on religion altogether. I don't want it to not exist but I hoped... I hoped for safety. In my last life, I couldn't even save myself and now I'm supposed to save entire humanity. How can I do it..." I teared up but she wiped my tears and just held me tightly.

Her not saying anything made things more comfortable for me. I had never received any sort of comfort and support. Receiving words of comfort are unfamiliar hence, I would prefer not hearing any sort of supportive words.

Starting tomorrow we will again be busy so for tonight I want let my emotions run wild so I don't get too overwhelmed on my mission with her.