Chapter 348: Fighting style

Percy was more than happy with his new spell upgrade, but this was merely the appetizer.

Before entering the Thirsty Valley, he had resolved himself to upgrade his boosting art by the time he was out. And sure enough, he had tried his hardest to accomplish precisely that, spending every waking second working on some aspect of the spell. Only, the way he viewed the Dance was different from how someone like Rhaziel or Metatron did.

For them, its only value was in supercharging one’s core and channels, allowing them to wield more mana. And sure, this was admittedly a huge part of it. But it wasn’t even close to the full extent of what Micky had shown him in that blood-stained coliseum all those years ago. The

true

Dance of the Savage Gods was a

fighting style –

first and foremost

.

The circulating mana, the elegant footwork, the skilful use of his weapons… everything was merely a tiny part of a greater whole, meant to come together into the full technique.

Granted, Percy had already surpassed his friend in pretty much every single area.

He had already mastered the final version of the Dance that Micky himself had never learned, and he’d even done so for both of his affinities. His Quarterstaff had originally been inspired by his friend’s staves, though he had since upgraded it several times, through Reinforcement, affinity fusion, runecrafting and even the things Sol had recently taught him on Melodia. As for his movements, he had also adapted them extensively to his situation, first by incorporating the sharpness of Takeo’s style into his own, and later by using his mutated eyes to both hone his skill and decipher his opponents’ intentions.

Percy had always meant to not only push all these spells to their absolute limit, but to eventually fuse them together.

This was why he hadn’t stopped pitting himself against the onslaught of beasts, using the overwhelming rush of monstrosities to hammer his magic into perfection, one battle at a time. Following that first bloodbath, he continued fighting against the surge of creatures whenever the Root dumped a fresh batch into the Valley, risking his life every single time.

Sure, he grew noticeably stronger after each fight, but that didn’t mean it was no longer dangerous. His offensive power kept climbing, but a single moment of inattention could easily prove his last.

By the third battle, Percy was comfortable enough with the soul component of the Dance to keep the pure version active at the same time. The cyan ribbons now extended out of his body, fluttering next to the silver wisps, pushing his strength and speed even higher as he danced through the battlefield. The increase of pure mana allowed him to fuse more of the teal substance, letting him forge his scythes faster, and to better fuel the enchantments on his armour.

Nesha and Elaine hadn’t slacked off either. Though they preferred to practice their spells against the lone stragglers that survived Percy’s massacres, not daring to copy him in his madness.

Two months in, he began circulating fused mana again, turning both the flaming orbs and the whirlpools teal, along with many of the glowing lines on his body. That said, he still had trouble preventing his cores from stripping the mana from the second element, so it was debatable whether his spell was any stronger.

Regardless, he knew this was a necessary step into achieving his vision, so he pressed on.

A few weeks after that, Elaine finally made it to Blue!

This was the single most important milestone before their fight against Acton’s group, as she shouldn’t have much trouble holding her own against multiple people at the same grade – after practicing a little with her domain, of course.

Even better, it turned out that there was a second Orange-born among the Holy Child’s guards!

This meant that he would be stuck at Green too for the foreseeable future, leaving only four Blues for Percy’s group to fight. It was still going to be tough, but more than manageable. Especially after all of Percy’s recent upgrades following his clone’s return.

Or, at least, that

should

have been the case…

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Sadly, their side wasn’t the only one to have received an unexpected injection of power from outside the Valley. A second Holy Child had entered Kronos’s Decree at some point!

The globules were still both numerous and small, indicating that the slow season had yet to end. It appeared to be little more than an unfortunate coincidence. Perhaps, the Green-born had grown impatient like Acton, hoping to get a head-start over his rivals.

At least, the new Holy Child was still in his late teens – not much older than his colleague had been upon entering the Decree. This meant he was decades from Violet. All five of his guards were at Green too, so Percy didn’t expect any of them to advance in the next few months.

For better or for worse, the newcomer –

Femel, according to Micky

– had decided to stick with Acton’s group. Probably to socialize, as spending years training here could get quite tedious.

Whatever his reason was, Percy’s feelings on the matter were mixed. On one hand, it was good that Micky could keep track of both the Green-borns. Had they split up, Percy’s group would have easily stumbled upon Femel’s at some point. Then again, that might have been for the best, as it would have allowed them to take them down separately. Now, they had no choice but to face both groups at once.

They considered waiting a bit longer, since Acton was still some time away from Violet. Plus, all his guards who

would

advance already

had

. Then again, there was no guarantee Femel would leave soon, and it was only a matter of time before his own guards started advancing too. Not to mention that more Holy Children would start appearing the closer they got to the faster season.

So, the battle was pretty much inevitable at this point. Just like that, they now had to fight against five Blues, and seven Greens!

This was already the kind of force that could besiege a Violet!

Gritting his teeth, Percy was left with no choice but to dive back into his training, hoping to get as strong as possible before his next advancement. And sure enough, his Status registered yet another massive upgrade about a month later.

[Congratulations! Your spells have merged: Wild Art: Greater Foresight – Refined + Wild Art: Grim Dance – Refined -> Wild Art: Grim Battlefield – Masterful!]

The new spell allowed him to better understand how his opponents’ moves would be affected by his own and vice versa. Essentially, it blended the two sets of projections seamlessly, into a more cohesive picture of the future. He could peer a little farther and with greater accuracy, or he could forgo that to see a couple of alternative possibilities at once.

It might not sound like much, but it raised his strength even more than the Infinite Harvest. This was one of the spells that formed a positive feedback loop with his mutation, so merely the fact that he had registered it had enhanced it even more.

‘Almost there…’

Looking at his Status again, he focused on his list of spells. It had shrunk a little since the last time he checked, but the quality of the entries had risen sharply.

___

Spells:

[Wild Art: Alchemist’s Intuition – Crude]

[Concussive Blast – Crude]

[Soul-to-soul – Crude]

[Secret Art: Soul Resonance – Refined]

[Spiritforged Cauldron – Refined]

[Soul Conversion – Refined]

[Reinforcement – Refined]

[Synchronization – Refined]

[Spectral Art: Phantomscale Regalia – Masterful]

[Hybrid Art: Core Bestowal – Masterful]

[Dance of the Savage Gods – Masterful]

[Wild Art: Grim Battlefield – Masterful]

[Infinite Harvest of Souls – Masterful]

___

Registering two Masterful spells in quick succession was certainly impressive, but this was the culmination of over a decade’s worth of efforts. He had no idea what the final upgrade would look like – a fusion of three Masterful spells and one Refined was certainly going to be extremely powerful, though he didn’t think it would change classification.

He'd never heard of a tier above it, and he very much doubted there even was one.

At least, not for mortals

. Considering that the Refined tier was already quite extensive – his armour having upgraded several times before going past it – he was sure the final upgrade of his boosting art would land somewhere in the upper range of Masterful spells.

Other than the new entries, Percy had made some progress with his fused mana too. The teal lines now reached closer to his cores, and he was able to preserve more of it through the conversion. By now, the extra mana he packed inside his body was starting to make up for the loss in efficiency.

Another change was that he had finally outgrown the bloodbaths he was using to train. But that was okay, as he now had a better option. A safer one too.

Sparring against Elaine every single day, he helped her get used to her domain, while simultaneously learning to fight inside one. His promotion helped him do much better against her than he had against Galahad, though he knew he owed part of his success to her inexperience.

Still, after a few more months of this, and once his second core caught up, he was confident he would be able to fight one of the Blues, lifting some pressure off his cousin.

‘And I already know which one I’ll pick…’

Weeks passed, until the fateful day arrived. Or, well… the first of a series of fateful days.

His second core reached Yellow.