Chapter 6

"You took your time, you get lost or something?" Jabel instantly questioned me once I got to the cave but that isn't anything new.

He was still sitting in the same spot he had been when I left. I don't know why he chose to sit there, or why he always had a fire going. He was definitely better at using the breathing exercise than me and he was also an archmage level demon. It just didn't make sense.

"Wait." Jabel stopped me once I had gotten close enough to him, "You went up a level. I guess I should congratulate you, but I won't this time."

He was still an ass even though I had reached this level, not that his recognition would change anything, he'll still be killed by me.

I, still not having fully recovered from the fight with the bear, went to lay down. I didn't use the breathing exercise since it becomes somewhat inefficient when you have additional holes in your body. This time I just wanted to sleep.

I was expecting Jabel to say something, but he just let me sleep. This was unusual, but I didn't hate it.

When I woke up Jabel was sitting in the same spot, but he seemed pretty tense like something just made him mad. I didn't care to ask him what was wrong, but I stayed on guard just in case he did something.

"Forcian, come here." He didn't sound as uncaring as he usually did when he said it, but seeing him like that I knew it wasn't safe to move slowly.

When I got to him he put his hand out and created a spell circle. I was going to dodge, but he grabbed my leg holding me in place. Once he released the spell I felt a warm energy flow throughout me.

Once the feeling had faded I noticed the pain from the fight yesterday was gone entirely and all of my wounds had healed.

"Feel better now?"

I didn't get a chance to answer before he reeled me back and threw me at the wall of ice that sealed the cave. I was going so fast that I didn't have a chance to react before I broke through the ice.

I landed and rolled for a bit before I came to a full stop. Luckily I had no major injuries, but that wall was pretty strong so I still took some damage.

I didn't know why Jabel had chosen to fight me right now but knowing why would stop him. I started preparing myself, creating the spell circle for the armor again, but Jabel wouldn't give me that chance.

I saw him sprint out of the cave reaching me before the spell circle was even half complete. I planned to dodge whatever he threw at me, but I hadn't anticipated his full speed to be so fast. He threw a punch at me faster than I could see. It easily connected, sending me flying, but I was able to keep the spell circle going.

Once the spell was done I was once again wrapped in a block of ice but to Jabel it might as well have been made of air. He ran up to the ice and punched a hole through it, grabbing me, and slamming me to the ground.

I was only partially covered with the armor, not like the rest would have helped much. He then kicked me into the air before jumping up to catch me. Once he got to me he brought his hands together and then slammed them on my back causing me to crash to the ground.

At this point, my whole body was in pain and I was laying in a crater in the snow. I had nothing broken on me at the moment, but if I didn't do anything I knew that wasn't going to be true for long.

I started making the spell circle while still laying in the crater planning for the worst-case scenario. Soon Jabel landed, kicking up snow as he did. Seeing me he didn't waste any time and ran straight at me ready to crush me with his fist.

Luckily I was expecting this and once his fist connected my body turned into mist. Acting quickly I chose to reform somewhere pretty far away from him so I could get a second to prepare my next spell.

Once I reformed I made a spell circle planning to trick him with a combination of spells.

Once he found me, Jabel ran straight at me getting pretty close before I used an incantation, sending shards of ice at him. He easily blocked that, but I knew that would happen. Before he took another step I released the spell circle firing more shards of ice.

He shrugged this off again, but he wasn't expecting to see another spell circle I placed behind the first one. Once I released it, a spear of ice was fired at him and though it didn't do any damage, it did make him slide back a bit.

I took this chance to use my spell to bring out my halberd. I didn't explain it earlier, but this was what Jabel was talking about when he said I would get a weapon. Though I didn't really know how to use a halberd, it was still helpful.

I ran up to Jabel, trying to take control of the situation, swinging the halberd at his side. Seeing this he used an incantation to create a shield-shaped piece of ice to block it.

I released the halberd from my mouth and used an incantation of my own to create spikes of ice under him.

I expected this to hurt him somehow, but instead, he just dodged everything by running forward. I didn't think he would do something like that, so once he got right in front of me I had no plan to stop him.

For a while he continued to punch and kick me, flinging me all over. By the end of it, I was bleeding in multiple areas and had some of my ribs along with my leg broken.

I wasn't sure why, but he seemed to want me awake since he kept waking me up if I ever passed out like I was close to doing now.

He walked up to my tattered body before squatting down to my level.

"You've grown pretty cocky, so I had to remind you of your place. I'm not dumb enough to think you fully trusted me, your too smart to not have a grudge." He pointed his hand at me and created a spell circle. I felt that warm feeling wash over me again, but this time it felt like eating after starving yourself for months.

"You've been here long enough, but now you should leave. If you ever want to get your chance to kill me, you won't find it here, because from this point on I will teach you nothing else." He stood up and started walking back to the cave, "The next time I see you I won't be kind enough to let you live, and if you want your revenge, you know where to find me." Saying that he walked back into the cave .before sealing the entrance again.

For a while, I just lay there. I had been outclassed so easily after thinking I had gotten so much stronger. I knew I was no match for him, but that was way worse than I thought it would be.

When I was done wallowing I got up and looked around. The whole area was filled with holes and I would call it destroyed if there was anything around to destroy in the first place.

Taking Jabel's word to heart I planned to leave these icy plains. I had gotten too comfortable fighting somewhere I knew, now I needed to see if the rest of the world would provide the growth I needed.

The problem was I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go, but I just chose to start walking since I would reach an edge eventually.

After walking for what seemed like hours I finally saw something I hadn't seen before. Grass. Jabel talked about it, but since most plants couldn't like there, the ones that did were demon beasts that were white in an attempt to blend in like everything else there.

Walking slowly I stepped onto it and it felt weird. It was soft but kept its shape. Kind of like fur, but bigger. After feeling it my speed slowly increased, until I was running and enjoying the new view.

Back in the cave, Jabel was sitting next to the fire as he always did, thinking out loud.

"Become strong Forcian, the seat of Demon Lord isn't something easy to fill." He reached into the fire, pulling out a medallion in the shape of an intricate snowflake, "You'll bring glory to the Tartarus name if you want to or not."

Seemingly in response to Jabel the medallion started glowing bright blue until the light washed over the entire cave.