A Gamble

「Reischneid, how does my mana hold up in comparison to his with the seal?」[Nova]

Nova was immediately put on the defensive from Rai's aggressive swings.

「It doesn't affect you. Both of you are perfectly level. Show me a good fight!」[Reischneid]

Nova caught one of Rai's swings with his hand before leveraging it into an over the shoulder throw.

「Will do!」[Nova]

『H-Hey!』[Rai]

『Tsukikaze Style: Waxing Moon!』[Nova]

Rai's body went sailing through the air.

『Tch!』[Rai]

Rai's arm moved in a strange way, maneuvering the rest of his body to land on his feet.

『...No way!』[Nova]

Nova quickly let go of Rai's arm, allowing Rai to make some more space.

『Hey, dude! I thought we were just fist fighting! Where did the Waxing Moon come from?!』[Rai]

『...I'm tired, so I thought that if I used it, I could have got this done faster...』[Nova]

Rai smirked.

『Haha… no.』[Rai]

Rai shifted to a different stance that seemed to be a lot more profound than his other stance.

『...If you want to use martial arts, let's do it!』[Rai]

Rai pressed a point on his legs with his fingers.

『Speed point, release!』[Rai]

In the blink of an eye, Rai was already in front of Nova.

『Sh-』[Nova]

Nova pulled up a mana shield with a repulsion modifier just as Rai punched Nova in the stomach.

The mana shield broke, along with the sound of something else breaking.

Rai punched Nova again in the face, sending him flying a couple of feet backwards.

『...You didn't get flung..?!』[Nova]

Rai stayed there and raised his fist up, allowing Nova to get up.

『I'm not gonna fall for that trick again!』[Rai]

He pointed the fist towards Nova, allowing Nova to see a fragmented mana shield.

『If you coat your fist with the same modifier, it completely cancels out! Did you think I was gonna let you put me in the dust?!』[Rai]

Nova couldn't help but break into a grin.

『...Not once.』[Nova]

He stood up slowly.

『Even though I've been blessed by great teachers, by wonderful seniors, by the best of friends, or even the world itself...』[Nova]

His eyes glinted a bright blue for a moment.

『I never once thought that you would ever fall behind me!』[Nova]

He raised his hand toward Rai.

『Bind! Area!』[Nova]

Blue chains enveloped Rai's legs, keeping them stuck in one place.

Rai had a wide smirk on his face.

『That's more I like it!』[Rai]

An Area appeared in front of Nova as he jumped into it.

Rai looked around, but couldn't find a single trace of an Area.

『...No...』[Rai]

In a split second, Nova appeared a couple of feet above Rai with his hand laid flat.

『Impact Form: True Gale!』[Nova]

Rai quickly moved his hand towards Nova's hand and pinched Nova's palm in between his fingers.

『...Huh?』[Nova]

He could feel the momentum of his attack being shifted away from the destination.

『Tsukikaze Style: Fleeting Wind!』[Rai]

Nova's hand was sent into the floor, causing a massive plume of dust to come bellowing into the sky.

Once Nova felt his feet land on the floor, he immediately opened up a portal.

『Area!』[Nova]

He jumped into it, allowing himself to look at the dust plume from afar.

『...Hey! Did Hanzo and Derenne teach you some new tricks?!』[Nova]

『You have a few new ones too!』[Rai]

Rai's voice came from within the dust cloud, but Nova couldn't tell where.

『Just some tricks from Reischneid… Is this spar in preparation for that tourney?』[Nova]

『Of course! They're betting on us, so they're trying their best! Haven't you been learning anything new?!』[Rai]

『Nope. They've been pretty quiet for a while now… 』[Nova]

『Well, I've heard about your new teacher. Maybe they figured that he would teach you everything they learned.』[Rai]

Nova pulled out his new gun, making sure that it was in nonlethal mode.

『He's taught me some stuff, alright..』[Nova]

『Hey, is that a gun?! No fair!』[Rai]

Nova squinted his eyes, trying to peer into the smoke.

『...You can see me?』[Nova]

Rai's voice strained, as if he was focusing on something.

『...No way I couldn't!』[Rai]

A red light came out of the dust plume.

『Unleash, Zhulong!』[Rai]

An ominous static voice was coming out of the cloud.

『...Buster Cannon!』[Rai]

『Another new trick?!』[Nova]

A bright red light shone towards Nova, prompting him to immediately raise his gun towards it and fire several times.

All of the dust was sent blowing far away as a flash of light and lightning came flying out towards Nova, revealing Rai standing there.

A few of the mana projectiles clinked off of the bright light as it came towards him.

『H..Hey!』[Nova]

He willed the projectiles to redirect themselves back into the clouds, causing a few grunts of pain to sound out.

He then pulled up a multilayered mana shield that caught the red light in front of him, causing red lightning to arc around everywhere.

『...You caught Zhulong earlier, so maybe a physical and magical attack would work better!』[Rai]

Inside of the red light was a small marble that was shaped a little like a bullet.

『...Your mana control is getting better! Is this something you manifested?』[Nova]

『I figured that I needed some ranged attacks in my mix! What do you say we stop playing these games and we finish this?!』[Rai]

『I did say the sooner the better, right?』[Nova]

Although Nova said that, he had just realized something.

「...Oh crap, I don't have a finishing move...」[Nova]

Just as he was worried about not having a way to match up with Rai's destructive power, Reischneid chimed into his head.

「Hey, kid! I've heard your plea! Let's do a gamble- you master this next technique in one try, you win. You mess it up, then… your loss.」[Reischneid]

Nova automatically assumed the Torrential Rain Fist stance.

「...Deal.」[Nova]