Initially, the sight of their opponents hadn’t left Percy particularly impressed.
A Green mage – any Green mage, even a young and inexperienced one – would have made quick work of a bunch of Yellow beasts. Thus, he hadn’t thought the ensuing battle would have posed much of a threat to his host’s survival. Percy had simply assumed the boy had spent this long searching for the perfect sparring partners – just strong enough that they wouldn’t die from the very first blow, but weak enough that Duwa could disregard them with impunity.
Well, he couldn’t have been more wrong.
As soon as the first of the three centipedes lunged at the boy, Percy realized that his host had no intention of unleashing his magic on the creatures. Side-stepping the blow, he barely avoided the pincer-like mandibles of the oversized bug, letting it cleave a wide path through the undergrowth. Yet, the Green-born didn’t get a chance to catch his breath, as the other two creatures were already upon him.
Dodging attack after attack, the child looked for an opening of his own. By the time the third centipede’s lunge had missed, the first one had already recovered, beginning the cycle anew.
The boy did an admirable job avoiding the deadly stabs of the creatures. He even put a lot of effort into stepping around the puddles of venom they left in their wake, the acidic substance making sizzling sounds as it burned the dry plants.
Finding an opportunity to land his own blows proved hard. Duwa handled his body better than most mages on Remior did, but he wasn’t nearly as skilled in close combat as somebody like Percy or Micky either.
It wasn’t until a couple minutes later that he managed to slam his fist onto one of their carapaces. The serpentine monster merely bent to absorb the blow, however, before snapping back in place, deflecting the boy’s clumsy punch without as much as a scratch or dent on its shell. The only thing that Duwa had achieved, had been to tear the scabs off his knuckles, leaving a bloody imprint on the beast’s smooth exoskeleton.
‘Why isn’t he using his magic?’ Percy wondered, though he kept the thoughts to himself, knowing it wasn’t his place to question Duwa’s approach, nor to distract the boy during the fight.
The Green-born would have won already, had he unleashed his spells against the creatures. Even if the scorching flames had failed to melt right through their glossy shells, they would have certainly cooked the soft flesh lingering within. Let alone three Yellow centipedes, Duwa should have been capable of fighting five if he hadn’t handicapped himself.
The problem was that the child would be hard-pressed to achieve the same level of success with his bare hands. A sapient’s power was mostly concentrated in their core. Sure, each advancement empowered one’s body and sublimated their mind and soul, but the improvements couldn’t compare with those that beasts experienced during their evolutions. Fuelled entirely by their peculiar affinity, the bodies of magical creatures were essentially no different from spells themselves, after all.
Even with a higher grade, Duwa was at a severe disadvantage fighting like this. It certainly didn’t help that he still had the body of a child, and that his opponents’ exoskeletons were harder than those of other creatures at their level.
‘Is he not allowed to use magic? In any form?’
Percy couldn’t help but think back to the past few days. He had never once seen Duwa release a single spark of fire mana from his core. At the time, he’d assumed that the Green-born hadn’t deemed it necessary, since he’d been able to deal with the weaker critters just fine.
In hindsight, it seemed to go much deeper than that.
Was that why they’d eaten everything raw? Percy had chalked that up to some cultural preference or, perhaps, to his host not knowing how to cook. The boy didn’t even carry a spatial storage device with him. It would have made everything so much simpler, and Gallimus definitely looked advanced enough to have those. And if they did, they should have equipped their Green-borns with them, before anyone else.
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If Percy’s conclusion was correct, it would explain so much.
Then again, Duwa had already cheated somewhat, by allowing Percy to bring him back to life. Soul Stitching was magic after all, as was the Insomnia trait that had eliminated the boy’s need for sleep.
‘Actually, is that why he didn’t seem all that excited when I offered to save him? Or when I told him about the trait?’
As stubborn and fixated on his people’s ways as Duwa was, it appeared he was still flexible enough to compromise when necessary. There wasn’t a point to sticking to the rules if he was dead, after all. At the same time, he clearly intended not to indulge more than he had to.
Thinking that his guess was spot on, Percy shifted his attention back to the fight. He wanted to see how the boy intended to get out of the mess. And why he’d chosen to get into it in the first place. Over the next hour or so, the child continued to avoid the deadly lunges of his harrowing opponents, finding more chances to land his own blows. While his body was a fair bit weaker than the creatures’, the superior reflexes afforded to him by his higher grade still saved his life countless times.
By now, the hard shells were more red than white, as Duwa’s desperate punches had done little more than slowly smearing them in blood. Percy was a little surprised that the boy hadn’t changed tactics yet, as it didn’t look like he would be penetrating the centipedes’ defences anytime this century.
‘Maybe that’s not what he’s trying to do…’
Percy could have offered a hand, of course, but he understood his host would have probably rejected his help. Instead, he racked his brain to decipher the child’s intentions. To see how the brawl was related to Obatala’s Approval, and the year-long trial to earn it. Eventually, he noticed something strange happening inside the boy’s core. It was subtle – which was why he hadn’t felt this earlier – but it seemed to repeat at certain moments.
Observing his host carefully, Percy tried to figure out the pattern.
Two centipedes closed into Duwa from either side. He leapt back to avoid them. Failing to find purchase, he tripped, sliding down the steep slope with the three creatures right behind him. The child didn’t slow down until he neared the foot of the hill, at which point he managed to push himself up just in time to dodge another deadly blow aimed at his neck.
‘Nothing.’
Throughout the – arguably perilous – exchange, the Green-born’s core had remained still as a lake. It wasn’t until Duwa moved to attack again that its contents trembled once more. Right when his fist was about to connect, some mana tried to ooze out of the organ, to spill into the channels leading to the boy’s hand. But Duwa didn’t let it, ultimately keeping the mana firmly contained within his sternum.
‘It’s not whenever he moves. Only when he tries to attack. But what is it? Indecision?’
Had the kid simply grown tired of the exhausting battle? Of the impossible trial the titan had imposed on him? Was he considering violating the rules once more, to end the centipedes swiftly with a fireball?
Having spent a lot of time talking to the boy, Percy somehow doubted that was it. But if it wasn’t, it meant there had to be a deeper purpose behind the child’s actions – something directly related to Duwa’s goal. Watching the fight some more, he soon came up with another guess.
‘Maybe it’s not the mana that he’s trying to extract from his core. He’s not allowed magic, so mana is just a nuance. Is he trying to separate his willpower from it?’
It certainly looked like Duwa was trying to pull something out of his core, and mana just got in the way by sticking to it. Since the Decree had something to do with domains, it wasn’t all that surprising that the requirement would be related to them in some way.
Then again, manipulating willpower on its own was precisely what a domain was. This was something only Blues should be capable of. Didn’t Duwa need to earn the Approval first, before he could do this?
The fight continued until well past noon. The boy was panting heavily by then. Luckily, his opponents had also grown tired, their black, compound eyes glaring at Duwa with caution. They had halted their offensive at some point, no longer in a rush to attack.
Sighing, the child turned away, finally deciding to call this a draw. The centipedes didn’t chase either, seemingly agreeing that they weren’t getting anywhere.
‘Care to explain what that was all about? What were you doing with your mana back there?’ Percy asked.
Duwa didn’t reply immediately. Putting some distance from the Yellow beasts, he reached the outskirts of their territory, picking a few of the mundane variants up from the bushes to munch on. At least, the Red and Orange bugs hadn’t dared to bother him. Not after watching him spend the whole day sparring with their leaders. Only once the child had caught his breath did he respond.
‘What else? I’m trying to awaken my domain.’