51: The Hall of the Luminous, Part Sixteen

The Hall of the Luminous, Part Sixteen

"Where is your ally?" Carlen asked as Neve and Ahlakan followed her, moving behind the ministress's office building. 

"Uh, she's right around here, let me go get her." 

"Alright." 

Neve then went out of sight, wandering behind a building, and summoned Erin next to her. Taking the lamia by her left wrist, she all but dragged her back to Carlen. 

"She's here!" Neve told the nulin woman. 

"Hm?" Erin arched a brow, looking back and forth between Neve and the spear-using warrior. "Am I being punished, or something?" 

"What? No, no. Her name's Carlen. She's going to teach us, more likely just you, some techniques." 

"Ah. I see." Erin replied, sounding a little bored. 

"I am pleased to see our heroes are so eager," Carlen said with some amusement. 

"Whatever, can you just show us?" 

"Yeah, yeah. This way." 

Somewhat apathetically, perhaps because like Jia this guard still believed that Neve and Erin would not be able to clear the Infested Hall, she led them behind Jia's building to a ring where some guards were squaring off.

Judging by the fact that these people had no enemies to fight, as they'd long since given up on clearing the Infested Hall themselves, she guessed they were doing so for fun. 

"Alright, which of you is going first?" Carlen asked. 

"Her," Neve said, gesturing at Erin. 

Techniques were different from skills in three ways. 

First, they did not use mana.

Second, they had cooldowns, like the ability Thomas had used to disappear after killing Stella and Uriel. 

And third, they had skill requirements. In addition to being class-locked like spells were. 

That meant that, for example, if one wanted to use the skill, Parry, they would need to be part of any of the Warrior classes and have a Blocking skill of at least 25. 

Unfortunately, Neve had not worked on her physical combat skills at all, so they were all at 5. She had no reason to, she was a healer. 

She could never have predicted that she'd be in a situation like this. 

All of this meant that this would be Erin's moment to learn. 

Neve's moment would come once they went to go research those spells. For now, she'd simply sit by and watch. 

Erin slithered to the center of the ring, following Carlen. The others there stopped what they were doing at her behest, as she waved them away. 

"Warrior," Carlen said, turning toward the lamia. "What do you specialize in?" 

Above Erin's head, Neve saw a message that no one else did. 

{Training}

Another prompt appeared once Erin answered.

"I prefer wielding two blades at once, though I can use my claws as well." 

{Dual Wielding}

"Very well," Carlen replied with a nod. Two guards walked forward and provided her with swords to use, as she tossed her spear away. "Care to show me what you can do? I would like to get a read on your capabilities. Not that I expect much," she muttered. 

Erin, who up until this moment had been the epitome of melancholic, tilted her head then. Her stoicism gave way to confusion as she looked back at the guard. 

"Really? Might I ask why?" 

"You have no legs," Carlen quickly replied, pointing down at her lower half. Erin's brows shot up. "Footwork is half a warrior's skills." 

"I don't know who taught you that, but I beg to differ." 

"That so?" Carlen asked, smirking. "As I said then, show me what you can do." 

"I will do my best to hold myself back for your sake," Erin replied as she conjured the blades Neve had given to her. 

Naturally, as they appeared to fall into her hands out of thin air, the others there pulled back. Shocked chatter spread throughout them as Neve watched with a little smile on her face, crossing her arms. 

Erin reared back, holding her swords by her sides. 

[Is this going to count as "combat"? Will Erin disappear after a minute? It might end up being noisy here if she does... I kinda wanna see it happen now just to see their reactions.] 

Carlen held her own swords a short distance away, waiting patiently. She didn't need to wait long, as Erin soon dashed forward. 

The nulin guard was shocked. She flinched, bringing her blades up in a hurry to block an overhead slash that came from Erin before the lamia followed up with attacks aimed at her midsection.

Carlen was being pushed back. The other guards reacted with great surprise, awed by the spectacle that formed in front of them. Neve was just amused. 

"Oh my~" Erin said, and for a moment Neve could sense that familiar teasing tone she'd taken so many times since they'd met. "Hey, where's that footwork you mentioned? Are your legs only good for moving *away* from enemies? Seems rather strange to me~" 

"... Oh, you're asking to get your ass kicked," Carlen replied with a dry chuckle. 

Suddenly, she charged at Erin. The lamia stumbled for only an instant before she reacted to the admittedly impressive speed of her opponent. Their blades crashed against each other a series of times and, although Neve was watching carefully, she wasn't sure she had caught every single swing. 

They were both quite skilled. 

Erin was better, though. That much was evident. 

"To be honest, I wasn't expecting much either, but this has been disappointing all the same," the lamia said as they stopped trading blows for a moment. 

"How the hell are you moving so fast?" Carlen asked.

Instead of answering the question, Erin put more of her speed on display, and, with two quick moves Neve's eyes failed to register, she disarmed her opponent. 

Carlen's blades were thrown up into the air, landing beside her and embedding themselves in the dirt as Erin put her own swords up to Carlen's neck. 

"I win." 

"Yeah," Carlen admitted, as Erin pulled her blades away. "You win." 

As the other guards clapped for the lamia, she simply turned toward Neve with a cocky smile on her face. 

Neve nodded. 

[Yeah, you're a badass. I know.] 

"She might be a better fighter than you, but you still have some Techniques we'd like to learn. Care to show us?" Neve asked Carlen as the nulin warrior picked her weapons up. 

"Sure," Carlen replied. Her tone had changed now that her ego had suffered a hit. But, she still stood before the two of them with a straight, confident posture. Just one that was not quite as confident. "Here, I'll teach you-"

The System cut her off. She kept talking, but no words came out.  2

Above, this message appeared. 

{Technique: Rorvan's Flurry} 

{Cooldown: 30 seconds}

{Skill Req: Dual Wielding - 50}

{Become a whirlwind of steel. Attack all nearby foes with a series of slashes, dealing more damage with each hit that lands. The technique ends with the first miss.}

Neve was pleasantly surprised. 

[That sounds really useful for dealing with groups,] she thought. [If the technique ends as soon as she misses an attack, though, it might be best to use this after slowing enemies down with {Iceball}, I think.] 

Carlen then began explaining the skill to Erin, moving her swords in practiced, slow motions as the bar above Erin's head began slowly filling. 

[Hm. Seems like it'll be done in a while.] 

"Erin," Neve called out. 

"Yes?" The lamia looked back. The bar paused. 

"I'm going to go check out those spells. See you in a bit." 

[Actually, I can do that, right? She's not gonna, like, disappear or whatever?] Neve asked Tamira.

"Yes, you can. She will not," the assistant answered. 

"Alright," Erin replied with a nod. "I will train for a bit." 

[... You could at least try not to look so excited,] Neve replied as she saw how Erin was practically glowing, holding back some giggles. [Guess she really likes fighting. Well, if she functions identically to a real person, maybe some time without me around would do her some good. I hope so, anyway.] 

Neve then began making her way to the magician's shop that Jia had told her about. 

She made a beeline for it, ignoring the looks she received on the way. Being treated like some famous hero was already getting tiring. 

It didn't take too long to reach the building Jia had mentioned, though. It was as inconspicuous as her own office which, going off that fact, might have meant that this person was actually quite important. 

The wooden door creaked open as Neve walked in slowly. 

"Uh, hello?" She called out. 

"Yes?" A voice quickly replied. 

An old nulin man was sitting by a fire, reading a book. As he turned toward the open front door, Neve got a better look at him. His skin was smooth but his forehead carried the same black marks that Minerva's did. Quite a few more, actually. He was dressed in black garb, and there was a simple wooden staff on the table in front of him that looked just as ancient as he did. 

"Ah..." He said, nodding slowly. "You must be the foreigner." 

As soon as he said that, he picked up his staff and aimed it at her. 

[Hm?] 

Without warning, the man shot out a sphere of flames at her so massive it may as well have been a tiny sun conjured and launched toward her. 

Neve couldn't react in time. 

[WHAT THE FUCK!?] 

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