The World Cataclysm - Chapter 64: Sparring

Giving them time to rest and plan their roles in coming sparring, Dave waited patiently as he kept checking his surrounding for any dangers with Mana Sensing. Although his skill’s range wasn’t as large as Brian’s Life Pulse, it was enough for him, considering he could expand his senses in one line compared to Brian…though it was exhausting. Expanding one’s senses wasn’t pleasant at all…like his consciousness was slowly slipping from him.

Ten minutes later, Dave decided he already gave them more than enough time to plan everything, so he said loudly, “Okay, we’re gonna start our sparring session now. Get ready!” Making a slight pause, Dave waited till they got into their positions and shouted, “Start!”

At the same time as he finished the last word, Dave already sprang forward. Sprinting towards them, Dave dashed towards the closest one to him and so happened that it was Adrian. Just behind him, Adam and Rachel followed after Adrian, while Brian and Rebecca stood at the back of others.

Smiling lightly at the choice of positions, Dave immediately understood that Adam was the one who thought about it. Rachel and Adrian had no way of attacking from the distance compared to the other three, so they were located further on the forward.

Adam followed closely behind them since he had his Telekinesis which was multifunctional and was stronger closer he was to his target. Smiling lightly and quickly reaching Adrian, Dave directly slammed at him.

“Arrgh…” Adrian fell on the ground with the groan as the blue threads appeared out of Dave’s fingertips, quickly wrapping around stunned Adrian.

“One down,” Dave said with a smile on his face.

However, the next moment, catching on a bright light on his right, Dave hurriedly sprang back as he used Flash Step to instantly reappear a meter away from his previous location. Reappearing, he chuckled softly, “Not bad, Rebecca. But don’t change the trajectory of your light blade at the last moment in the battle. I’ll be fine,” Dave shouted as he shook his head.

Although he was giving pointers to Rebecca, he still dashed towards the next opponent. Immediately nearing Rachel, Dave faked sending a punch at Rachel as he quickly dashed towards Adam who was sprinting towards them to help Rachel.

Dave understood that Rachel was of little danger since she didn’t have anything to threaten him, so he decided to take Adam first. His Telekinesis was quite a troublesome ability and might have caused a lot of trouble for him in the battle. However, he didn’t expect any resistance from Adam since he had successfully caught him by surprise, yet…

Caught off guard, Adam lifted his hand in panic at the last moment, sending Dave flying backwards. However, Dave didn’t get flustered over it as he kept his cool, making a flip in the air and landing on his legs. As he landed on the ground, he wanted to comment on Adam’s quite convenient powers, yet he heard quite angered Brian shouting from the distance, “Take this!”

Having no time to say anything, Dave quickly raised a mana barrier before him and flash stepped out of its way. Dave thought inwardly, ‘Damn, Brian! He’s quite vicious! He didn’t hesitate at all, though it was quite stupid to shout the last line.’

However, he praised Brian deep inside since he was able to correctly judge the situation and catch the right moment to send his fireball. Probably, the weakest point of his spell, except for the long chanting, was the fact that he could miss a target when casting a magic spell, so he needed to catch the moment, which was simpler with dull zombies.

Glancing behind his back, Dave caught sight of flames dancing behind his back five meters away from him. Amazed by the destructive power of the fireball, Dave also desired to learn magic, yet up to now, he was struggling to have progress on his own. Perhaps, he should truly learn it with the help of the System.

***

“Damn! He dodged it.” Brian exclaimed in anger as glanced at Dave with hidden fear in his eyes. Adding the fire dancing behind him, Dave seemed quite intimidating as he trudged towards them. Brian shivered slightly at this sight yet started chanting immediately afterwards, preparing another fireball.

‘I knew his battle senses are much higher than mine, but when did he become so strong? And when did he even learned how to flip in the air?’ Adam thought in amazement as he gripped the spear in his hands. Catching a breath, he focused on Adrian’s Rusty Sword lying on the ground as he knew that he needed it much more than Adrian.

Although his control was still dull and not smooth enough, Adam had gotten better with his innate ability. However, he immediately felt the weight of the sword with his mind which was much heavier than eating utensils.

Glancing at his best buddy, Adam decisively sent the sword flying towards Dave as he kept a safe distance from him. At the same time, Dave was dodging Rebecca’s light blades, Brian’s fireball and Adam’s sword, even then, he didn’t even get scratched once, not to say getting hit. Now, Adam didn’t doubt his friend’s words that they couldn’t harm him…and that ignited his competitive spirit as he didn’t want to fall behind Dave. Learning that he won’t harm him, Adam didn’t hold his powers back as he made the sword closely follow after Dave.

Avoiding their attacks and blocking some of them with mana barriers, Dave decided to wrap everything up as he dashed at Adam, blatantly ignoring Rachel. With Battle Focus switched on, Dave noticed another fireball flying towards him as he flash stepped per usual. But, the next moment he wanted to move, he was unable to do so.

“Gotcha!” Adam exclaimed loudly as he held his hands directed towards Dave, who was floating slightly above the ground. Adam had been waiting for the right moment all along and when he noticed Dave reappearing again, he caught him with his Telekinesis. However, he felt that he couldn’t last much longer since floating Dave even a bit put a lot of strain on his mind.

“Brian, Rebecca, attack him faster while I still can restrict him!” However, Adam’s face quickly changed in colour as he stared at Dave. A blue mana plate had magically appeared right below him, the same mana barrier that he used to defend himself, allowing him to use it as a platform.

Dave grinned like he was having fun from Adam’s reaction as he chuckled loudly and said, “Sorry, that’s not gonna work on me.” Saying it Dave sprang towards stunned Adam, who was having a rebound as Dave broke free from his powers, and quickly thrown Adam on the ground as he quickly wrapped his friend with mana threads.

“…” Rebecca and Rachel stared blankly at it, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Rebecca even doubted if it was the right choice to join them from the start.

“…Shit!” Brian exclaimed as he was ready to concede a losing fight. He understood that they didn’t have any chances now and wanted to give up, yet just when he was trying to come up with the right words he caught a glance of Adam flying towards him and Rebecca, who was standing close to him.

Wrapped in mana threads, Adam helplessly slammed on Brian and Rebecca as all three of them groaned in pain. They could hear Dave’s voice from the distance, “Three down. One left.” Saying it, Dave turned to dumbstruck Rachel.

Quickly coming to herself, Rachel shouted in panic, “I concede…I concede. Please, don’t harm me!” She obviously understood that she couldn’t confront Dave all alone when her whole team was down already.

“Okay, then, it’s the end for today. We’re gonna have such sparring sessions every morning, so don’t forget to learn from your mistakes.” Dave said as he approached the lying trio and helped them up, releasing Adam from his mana threads.

“Argh…Damn, I feel like I was run by a truck.” Brian complained as he pressed his head with his right hand, trying to cope with the ringing in his head.

“Dave, that’s unfair! We all had the same starting point. Why are you much stronger than any of us? And from where do you even get those blue threads and blue screens?” Adam said as he rubbed his wrists.

‘Well, we haven’t gotten the same starting point.’ Dave thought inwardly as he replied to him, “I said you should learn how to control mana. Were you able to feel mana in the air?”

“No…” Adam paused slightly. “Hey, but I tried to do as you said. Yet, I didn’t feel anything! You must be just talented in that stuff.” Adam said, trying to explain himself.

‘Yeah, if so…’ Dave chuckled softly as tried to imagine if that was true. If he was talented in it, if he had even a bit higher magic affinity, he wouldn’t have wasted so much time trying to learn it in his past life.