85 Mimir's Knowledge

Riku did his best to remain positive despite the utterly useless power that he just got from the System. Well, maybe he was a bit too harsh on such an assessment. After all, the ability to create shockwaves with every step he took could be useful here... assuming he could control them in terms of strength and when they would come out. But just as that thought came to him, he immediately struck it down.

After all, knowing how Nyx's domain is quite literally over chaos, he just knew that he would have no control over when and how the shockwaves would come out.

"Ah, back from your impromptu bath, I see," Luke chuckled at him with an amused smile. "I honestly thought you would never climb back up. Is the water that good for a swim?"

"It was good enough," Riku humorlessly replied, his eyes narrowed at the opponent. "And as for your earlier question, I'm just a simply sushi now. I'm just very good at what I do."

Rolling forward, the supposedly humble sushi chef deftly dodged another volley of pages coming right at him. Even more, a concentrated stream of wind and fire suddenly shot past him, his earlier actions saving him from an early grave as he stood up and-

*boom*

-immediately lost his balance as the shockwave from his feet almost disintegrated the ice beneath him. Riku didn't like that one bit. It would seem that his earlier estimate of being unable to control his new power was correct.

"Your words insinuate that being a chef isn't all that you've done, however," the professor curiously added, his tone a stark contrast to the current rate of his elemental attacks. "Perhaps I worded my question wrong. What did you do before being a sushi chef then?"

The former assassin gritted his teeth as he clenched the blade if his knife in between his teeth as he was forced to use his hands to flip through the ice, not trusting his feet to keep the ice beneath them stable enough as he dodged through the constant barrage of attacks being throw at him. Wind, fire, and the occasional ice kept shooting past him as his built up speed and power came in clutch, allowing him to do acrobatics that he would've normally been unable to do so before if not for the power of [Chaotic Tempering].

'Thank goodness I actually farmed fish,' he inwardly thanked himself. 'I would've been dead several times over by now...'

Using his momentum, Riku flipped from cover to cover, keeping his feet off the ground as much as possible as to keep the ice from disappearing right from underneath him. Luke was still standing casually in front of him, however, almost seemingly taunting him with how easily he was being kept at bay with nothing for him to do other than to dodge for his life.

"Not going to answer? Then perhaps I can make you, young man."

Riku blinked as the barrage of attacks ceased. Instead, Luke looked like he was starting to manipulate the pages himself by waving his hands. The pieces of paper around him danced to his tune, elements and what looked to be numbers starting to hover around him like he was some kind of wizard as he looked at his general direction.

"I'm sure you're a former assassin, young man," Luke began, his tone having little of the amusement he had shown before. "Criminals like you should be behind bars, but clearly whatever government you were under failed to put you to justice."

The former assassin kept silent. Of course the government would let him live. He did their dirty work, and he got his just compensation for all of the things that he had done. That was just the way the world worked, and it was surprising that a genius like Luke Hamilton wouldn't get that.

"Still not going to deign me an answer? Very well. Let's make things more interesting."

Peeking out from his cover, Riku held onto his knife as he watched the papers begin to form shapes that his mind could barely comprehend. It was almost like looking at non-Euclidean space as lines and numbers started forming around the old man. He could barely recognize some of them, but what he did know was that he shouldn't approach this without thinking things through.

"The power of knowledge is the most powerful of them all," Luke began, a brown glow now covering him and his pages as the numbers and lines began to coalesce into a single entity. "Did you know that Mathematics is the language of the universe for a reason? If not, then you're about to find out why."

*CRASH!*

Riku felt the ice around them shake and stir as Luke kept up with his magical handwaving. Using his hands and knees, the former assassin kept his ground as the world around them spun and twisted, water and ice quickly crashing around them as they jutted out to form a circular barrier of some kind. All of a sudden, what was once a vast desert of ice and sea became a makeshift arena as lines and numbers flew all around them. In the center of it all, Luke was radiating with energy as he eyes glowed a foreboding brown, his arms spread out wide as pages upon pages flew away from the shaking book in front of him.

"I, as the benefactor of [Mimir's Knowledge], have command of the universe through the careful application of the laws of physics," Luke declared, his eyes twinkling with both power and knowing as he stared him straight in the eye. "The world can be controlled through careful calculations. Numbers can explain even the most complicated of phenomena, and it is through understanding that we are able to manipulate things as they see fit!"

The world exploded around them, chunks of ice floating and orbiting around the arena in such unnatural ways that it almost felt like he was transported to a world that didn't make sense.

"My understanding of knowledge shall see things through," the Champion of Mimir stated with utter confidence. "Of that, I am sure."