The Summoner And Contractor System - Chapter 13 Standing Tall In The Face Of Defea

[As you two have such a strong resolve, I’ll give you some advice to get out of your current predicaments. Roy, as I can sense your current condition, I’ll tell you this. Icrin left a large quantity of lightning within your body, it’s currently flowing throughout your body and causing the numbing sensation. The lightning won’t harm you, but if you don’t expel it, you’ll be stuck in your current position.]

[Roy, you need to employ the physical characteristics you were born with. Your obsidian-scaled armor along with your flames happen to be a perfect counter to lightning. Use your primal flames to heat your obsidian scales until they soften, then subtly channel the excess lightning from your body into your obsidian scales. In doing so, the numbness should dissipate and you should be able to regain control and movement of your body.]

Listening wholeheartedly to Wilhelm, Roy immediately used his innate Yin Yang Flame Embrace skill, centering the flames on his obsidian scales. If one inspected his scales, they would see distinctive black and white flames burning lightly on the surface. His scales slowly warped, as they took on a seemingly soft characteristic, while a system notification popped up.

[New Ability Unlocked] [Hard-Soft Scale Transitioning] [Novice 1] – [The state of hard scales decreases mobility, while allowing the user to administer their force to directly take on an offensive move, breaking the opposition’s attack flow. The state of soft scales increases mobility, but requires precision, allowing the user to exert minimal force to deflect an attack and off-balance the opponent, while counter-attacking when the opponent loses their balance.]

Surprise flickered in Rentaro and Roy’s eyes, as the system notifications had echoed in their minds. Thereafter, alarm filled Roy’s eyes.

‘Whose voice is that Second Brother? That didn’t sound like Eldest Brother.’

‘Ahh, that. Don’t worry about that for now, Roy. That was the system’s automatic controller voice, Wilhelm was given a soul as a guide, but the other voice is created to follow the system’s programming by the creator.’

[Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, let’s get back in track. Roy, pay attention to what you’re doing, while I give Rentaro some advice.]

‘Okay!’ Roy’s eyes sparkled with eagerness as he resumed his expelling of the residing lightning in his body

Wilhelm continued his advice as he ignored Roy, [Back to what I was saying, Rentaro, you are trapped by a mental energy technique that is boosted by the illusion element. At the end of the day, the Spectral Chains don’t exist materialistically, they are in between the planes of illusion and reality. Remember, mental energy techniques are used on the opponent’s mind. Ponder over this, think about cleansing your mind of the false reality imprinted in it.]

‘Used on the opponent’s mind… cleansing your mind… I already know what my mind has desired, I just need to to embrace it, fill my mind with thoughts of its desire. My mind’s desire is sincerity and takes the form of light, a light that cleanses my mind of all lies, allowing me to focus on truth.’

As Rentaro focused on his mind’s desire which awakened his element of light, a golden aura slowly glowed around his body. The spectral chains that wrapped around Rentaro’s body slowly crumbled, until they altogether disintegrated into bits that scattered into the wind.

Standing up, Rentaro’s eyes glowed with relentless desire for battle as he looked in the direction Icrin walked in. Across the field, Roy had also stood up by now and followed the same course of action as Rentaro, clearly two cut from the same tree. ‘System, turn all notifications offline for now.’

[System Notifications] [Status: Offline]

Between their line of site was a young boy, young yet a powerful opponent they had to face. His eyes were closed until he felt the battle-hungry stares targeting him. Suddenly, his eyes shot open revealing his left eye ice-blue and right eye of a grayish-hue, showing that he had resumed his default form.

A smile formed on Icrin’s face, while the distant spectators had maintained their silence as they watched the two guests in curiosity. Everyone had a clear understanding as to what the outcome of the battle would be like, their curiosity was tied to how the battle would end. Would the two guests give up, lose miserably, or go down with everything they had?

Wilhelm remained quiet as he watched the scene, feelings of admiration within his heart as he watched a scene that would generally be seen as heroic in a story, while sighing as he thought about the current scene occurring in a mere spar. ‘Ah, One day, Rentaro will give off such a feeling in an important battle. I await such a day, a day where he makes his debut in the cultivation world and his name strikes heavy emotions into the hearts of others.’

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Not only the Krose Clan and Wilhelm, even the spirits of the Grimoire of Twilight were watching the spar in expectation from within the grimoire. They had not seen any action in a long time, and couldn’t help but cheer for the grimoire’s inheritor to fight with everything he had.

“Hmph, they better not give up miserably after this, or I’ll never accept Rentaro as the inheritor of master’s grimoire.” Auron’s voice rang out within the grimoire.

“We-we already know their attitude. Jus-just look at them Auron, that’s-that’s enough to understand their-their fighting spirit!” Eremic’s shy voice followed, but with a tinge of displeasure against Auron’s tone.

“Hah, Don’t get angry, Eremic. You and I both know that this is just a face Auron puts on to act tough. Don’t mind him.” Anu yawned as he spoke out in his usual lazy and cool manner.

Aside from the light, fire, and dark spirits, multiple other elemental spirits and summons watched quietly from the background, inspecting the inheritor of the grimoire personally with their discerning eyes.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Rentaro and Roy walked in Icrin’s direction, taking slow and steady footsteps. The spectators, Wilhelm, everything except the fight was erased from their thoughts. They had entered a state of pure desire for battle, their thoughts seemed to be branded by the desire for battle.

Soon enough, they arrived just opposite of each other, with Icrin standing in between, his face sprouting a broad smile of enjoyment.

“I knew the both of you would find a way out of my control techniques. Heh heh, let’s have some actual combat now.”

Icrin took up a close-combat pose as a blue and grey aura mixed alongside each other surged alongside his body.

“Here, try out my Spectral Close Combat Style!”

Icrin suddenly rushed towards Rentaro, sending out what seemed like a simple punch. As the punch neared Rentaro, Rentaro shot his hand out to grab his fist, only for Icrin’s fist to suddenly split into two.

Rentaro succeeded in grabbing one of Icrin’s fist, at least it seemed so. Icrin’s fist suddenly vanished into a cloud of gray aura, while the other fist hit upon Rentaro’s stomach.

Rentaro’s body crashed onto the ground as he was thrown into a coughing fit. Luckily, his body had been reconstructed to fit this world’s standards, otherwise his previous physique would have suffered a few fractured, if not broken, ribs from that simple punch.

“*Cough* *Cough* An illusion *Cough* style close combat technique, huh? Damn…”

Icrin looked as if he was about to attack again, but Roy followed shortly after, preventing any follow up attacks on Rentaro. Roy’s tail slithered towards Rentaro, helping to pull him up from the ground.

“Thanks, Roy.” Rentaro placed his hand on Roy’s scaled-back as he steadied his body out.

“Hehe, no need for thanks, Second Brother. We are companions, are we not?”

Rentaro let out a small smile from Roy’s comfort despite having just been punched by Icrin, “Uh-hm, you’re right. Alone, we’d lose miserably after such a battle, but we’re both fight alongside one another, standing shoulder-to-shoulder. If we win, we win together and if we lose, we lose together. Let’s do this, Roy!”

“Hm, good! Illusion Style – Phantom Twins!”

Icrin’s body split apart once again, this time however, both Icrins had the same ice-blue and gray pair of eyes.

“Roy, watch out. Based off of his illusion style, one of the clones is fake. Use a fire-type skill that encompasses a range to hit both of them, revealing which one is real.”

“Already on it!”

A seamless red flair formed in Roy’s mouth, slowly condensing into a small ball of fire. Roy launched the ball of fire from his mouth towards the two Icrins, with the small ball of fire exploding and encompassing the two Icrins who seemed to continue rushing forward rather than dodging.

One Icrin dissipated in the flames, while the other one was merely scored on the right side of his body from the flames, but Rentaro and Roy realized his arm had vanished, causing confusion.

“Huh? Second Brother, wha-”

“Roy, left side!” Rentaro yelled as he filled the grimoire with a golden elemental aura, casting a Shield of Light that encompassed Roy’s front underbody, blocking Roy’s punch which strangely enough, didn’t cause in damage to the light shield. In sequence, Rentaro unleashed flaming arrows towards Icrin and Roy retaliated as the spikes alongside his back extended from his body, piercing towards Icrin who once again, didn’t bother to dodge.

Icrin’s body was immediately bombarded as he was caught in the flames and pierced through, but like the other two clones there was no blood or anything to show injury. Icrin’s body merely dissipated away.

“A trap?” Rentaro and Roy voiced out their thoughts simultaneously, but their thoughts were proven true before they could come up with a plan as a foot appeared in front of Rentaro, kicking his stomach which was already injured from earlier.

The turn of events was too sudden and Roy could only respond by piercing his spikes towards Icrin who retreated in a calm manner, as his tail reached out to catch Rentaro.

“Hmph, I could have attacked much more harshly than that, so we can count this spar as having ended for today. You see, my manner of fighting is as a ‘Trickster”. From the beginning, I orchestrated this series of events. I said I was using the technique Phantom Twins, and you assumed one twin was fake while the other was real.”

“When both were revealed to be phantoms, you assumed that my third appearance was the real me, but I tricked you again. I used Phantom Triplets and the third me was also a phantom, allowing the real me to attack you in surprise!”

Icrin’s current appearance made him seem like an old fox, he had incredible wit, a mischievous smile on his face, and lived up to the title of a “Trickster”.

“I’m glad you showed up when you did, Rentaro. Had I not found you in the forest, I’d be sitting around training on my lonesome. You are very strange, but in a good way! When I found you that day, I knew you were a potential opponent! The three of us can continue training together from now on, we’ll spar each and every day!”

Icrin’s tone slowly became more and more excited as he reached the end of his words, while Rentaro and Roy’s eyes practically popped out, startled as Icrin practically made them his punching bag, or in nicer words a training dummy. Icrin continued his little “speech” before the two could interrupt him.

“That day, I asked myself. Who would enter a forest without anything? Without supplies or even a weapon to hunt and protect themselves with? Heck, you didn’t even bring any clothing with you, no extra clothing in a bag or even on your own body! You’re a true man and I can’t help but look up to you!”

In response to Icrin’s words, Rentaro held his head in embarrassment, while Roy turned his head in doubt, followed by all the spectators from the Krose Clan and the ones in the grimoire widening their eyes in astonishment and giving off questioning glances as they focused their sight on Rentaro.

“Tha-That was merely a misunderstanding!” Rentaro immediately refuted him in embarrassment, only to realize that he affirmed for everyone else that it truly happened, causing his face to blush even more red.

“Ah? It’s okay, Rentaro. The two of us have no need to hide anything. Such bold actions are what make us different from the everyday man, from this day forth I’ll even consider you my sworn brother. Everyone else in the village cowers from my sight, afraid as if I’ll hurt them or something.”

Hearing Icrin’s words, Rentaro and Roy arrived at the same train of thought and felt like spitting blood, their words echoing through the system interface, ‘Yeah, I wonder why?’

“Sworn brothers, huh?” Rentaro flashed a slight smile, but immediately hid it as he questioned with mock ridicule, “Who are you to talk about being a man? I’m eighteen so I guess you can consider me to be a man, but how old are you anyway?”

“Huh? I’m fourteen years old. Only four years younger than you which isn’t a very large margin as many people live for hundreds of years old. I’m also quite strong and intelligent, so I automatically bypass any such barriers of age to be considered a man. Let’s go get some food, it’s getting late and I’m rather hungry after our spar, Hehe.”

“Hah, By your logic, wouldn’t we be considered mere children to all the people who’ve lived for hundreds of years?”

Rentaro’s question failed to enter Icrin’s ears, as he already rushed back towards the village, leaving Rentaro behind. Looking to his side, he realized Roy was gone as well, Roy’s footsteps side-by-side with Icrin’s footsteps.

“Haha, Alright, I’ll catch up with you two.” Rentaro rushed after the two, creating an amusing scene as all the spectators watched the trio in bewilderment and astonishment.