CHAPTER 40: THE PORCUPINE’S SKIN

Opal grinned, excitement blazing in her eyes. She stretched her free hand forward for balance, her sword held in a tight, shortened guard beside her hip. She crouched, ready for action.

Eric thought it was a bad idea that he was going at Opal with twin daggers, a weapon he’d never used in his life. He didn’t expect that to end well for him, but he dashed forward all the same.

Opal met his dash halfway and swung her sword at his head, but Eric already expected this. He leaned back, evading the slash by a hair’s breadth, his run breaking into a defensive crouch.

Opal’s attack was too powerful, and her arm followed the movement of the sword, leaving her body wide open for a counter. Eric saw the opening and moved to capitalize on it.

He leaned forward and drove his right-hand dagger at her chest region. It was a powerful strike and it looked like it was going to make impact, but Eric found himself staggering forward, stabbing nothing but thin air, while the dagger almost slipped out of his hand.

Her slow reaction had been a feint, a lure tailored to his short-range weapon. As he committed to the strike, she moved with sudden, blinding speed, sidestepping so the dagger sliced nothing but air.

While Eric staggered, she grabbed his outstretched arm and pulled him in. Then, with a swift movement, she drove her knee into Eric’s stomach, hitting him badly and punching the air out of his lungs.

Eric wheezed a little, then stood upright immediately after regaining balance. They had now switched positions.

[HP: -1]

"Slow reaction. Reckless attack. Easy prey," said Opal as she circled Eric.

Eric turned, mind on alert while following Opal’s movements. He realized Opal was somehow controlling him, moving him where she wanted but there was little he could do, lest he lost sight of her and suffered a back attack.

"Is this actually what you wanted?" Eric asked. "The reason you were stalking me dangerously ever since I got here? Is this it!?"

"I needed to stalk you so you don’t stalk me," she replied. "And I also needed to confirm something."

Eric turned after her but was slowly losing focus. "Stalking me to stop me from stalking you? That’s backwards. You must prize yourself too highly to think you are on my to-do list."

He crouched, left dagger extended toward her, the right held close to his chest in a guarding position.

"Weak stance," she taunted as she dashed forward suddenly, planting her sword high upward at the top of her head. It was obvious she was going for a downward slash. But Eric knew that the forward dash was going to be a feint again. She wouldn’t run recklessly at her opponent like that.

Eric’s instincts were right because as soon as she got close to his striking distance, she changed the position of her sword to her right side and redirected her movement to the left. It was just like how he saw Master Lancel perform on his first day of training.

It was a special move, but there was no real block for it. Eric fell back on his greatest assets—agility and speed—throwing himself sideways to put distance between them.

But the moment he turned to face her, Opal shot forward again, closing the distance with ease. The training ground was big enough for Eric to run, and he was making good use of his faster speed. He wasn’t proud of running, but it was the only way he could have enough time to regain himself and plan a careful attack, not a reckless one like he first did.

But Opal was a fast learner, and she knew Eric was most likely going to run again, so she prepared for the slightest movement from him while she attacked. The moment she saw Eric press his body to the left, she changed direction and went after him.

But Eric immediately changed plans and dashed to his right because he decided a quick body movement would throw Opal off track. So he dashed away.

As soon as he saw that Opal had lost direction and wouldn’t recover that quickly, he pivoted on his heels and bounded after her, daggers held low.

Opal gasped, sensing movement, and spun to see Eric already in the air, knees tucked, twin daggers raised high for a devastating downward stab. He was coming at her from above.

She reacted fast and crouched low, and after lowering herself more on one knee, she rolled away a short moment before Eric came down with the daggers. He stabbed the ground instead.

"Nice feint and even nicer counter. I must give you that," Opal piped. "But your reckless attacks will be the end of you."

Eric wasn’t going to run again. He moved in closer to Opal, ready to make good use of his agile body and his quick mind. He hated the way he was being lectured by her.

Eric realized something, however, after the jump attack.

First, he had jumped higher than he intended during the aerial stab—a height he’d never reached before. As he’d pushed off, he’d felt a slight boost from the soles of his boots.

Secondly, he realized he could hear Opal’s footsteps—her boots scraping against the training ground’s rough surface—but he couldn’t hear his own footsteps quite well. It felt weird to him because it made him feel like he wasn’t moving well enough, so he had to push more energy into his runs, but this only made him run faster than he imagined.

And finally, he felt nimbler on his feet. His reaction time was sharper.

He had questions for his observations, but he knew the answer already.

It was the furry boots he got from Silk. A scout’s power tool, through and true.

’So the boots work. That sly old scout wasn’t joking.’

He stepped closer to Opal with renewed confidence. Opal smiled, realizing the change in his aura.

"You’ve decided to man up after all."

The combat went for quite a while, with Eric able to match up with Opal for the most part, blocking most of her attacks precisely with his short weapons while stepping away from the ones he couldn’t block.

But every one of Opal’s hits that connected was brutal. The fight had left him with bruised lips, a bleeding slash across his forehead, and ribs that groaned in pain from Opal’s powerful hits.

But what worried him the most was that he hadn’t succeeded in hitting Opal at least once. Eric deduced it was because he was carrying a short weapon, but he still had his doubts, seeing how dexterous Opal was with her sword. There was also no assurance that he would have recorded a hit if he’d used a sword.

Opal was getting bored of the fight, so she knocked one of Eric’s daggers away with her sword.

Eric saw that his free hand was too far away to make a proper attack, so for the first time, he swung his leg high at Opal, aiming for a direct side kick.

It caught Opal completely off guard. But as his leg snapped upward into the kick, the boot vibrated. Instantly, the fur around it sprang erect, hardening into a dense array of needle-sharp spines that punched outward. It was as if his foot had become a porcupine.

Opal’s eyes grew wide as she saw the boot of thorns approaching. There was no way to dodge the flying kick with proper means. So, she let her body give in and she fell hard on the floor, hitting her head against the hard ground.

"Is... is that a Porcupine’s skin?" she asked weakly. She wouldn’t say anything else, no matter how hard Eric shook her.

She had passed out.