Chapter 386 - Days MDCLXIX - MDCLXXXV

A bit more than two weeks passed before The Great One contacted me again. During that time I wrote and read a lot since It was calming me down. I also enjoyed tons of junk food and practiced with the long polearm I got. It was not the same as my weapon. The length was just so damn uncomfortable. Even my skills, oriented on weapon mastery, didn't really work with it.

It made me anxious about the next fight, which ultimately led to more writing. I still stayed diligent with the training though, to get as much used to that gift from The Great One, as I could.

Eventually, I heard his voice in my head, asking if I'm ready because he found something. I couldn't answer right away, as a sudden burst of fear grabbed me by the stomach. I could feel the anxiety building up, and adrenaline already circulating in my body.

I quick flash of my past self passed by my mind, and anger kicked in. Thet Peter was dead, and the person he became now was not afraid of anything, at least that's what I told myself.

- Yes, I'm ready - I said, using 'Shadow fusion'.

I immediately found myself in a garden located on one of the familiar terraces. It was beautiful like somebody was still working to keep it in perfect condition. The flowers of many colors, slightly dewy, with the light glittering in the drops of water, were everywhere around me, as I stood in the middle of not so wide pathway.

I learned my lesson, though, and didn't pay too much attention to all of that. I needed to locate the enemy. I found him quick, on the other side of the street, located between two golden towers on which terraces we both were standing. Just two or maybe three dozen meters apart.

Nice, light blue robes were hanging on his tiny frame. The bald head with skin tightly wrapped on the skull looked kinda comical with the rest of the body. He looked like a cloth hanger with a head.

For a second the time felt like frozen as we both spotted each other. Then the ghost rose his hand in a motion, like he was suppressing something from above, and pushing towards me. It was fluid, definitely practiced move.

I immediately shadow walked to the edge of the terrace, like a tidal wave out of nowhere washed most of the garden destroying the vegetation. Trees somehow survived, but I had to shadow walk again, as the water reached the edges and spilled over.

Just as I did it a bolt of water hit my shoulder like a bullet from a gun. The clothes got ripped, but my body barely got any damage.

I kept shadow walking, and he kept shooting at me, as I attempted to close the distance. It was hard and annoying since my side was flooded. I needed to get myself on the other one, but that wasn't easy either with him using magic on me.

- Fuck you - escaped my mouth, and I shoot few firebolts at him.

Those immediately got neutralized by the opposite element, and on top of that something grabbed my foot. The water trapped inside the terrace started to move, and gather in few spots that started to rise and move.

I forced my leg out, slapped the water using 'Telekinesis', and doubled down to cross to the other terrace. I succeeded with a long shadow walk. Emerged in a midswing, but he blocked with a bubble of water, that was ripped apart by my attack, but it gave him time to escape. He levitated around a meter above the ground and flew away.

It caught me off guard, but I was already too experienced for it to have too big of an impact. I immediately send a few fireballs at him, and shadow walked again, to recover the tempo, and flank him.

He interrupted me with a wall of water, that he sent to block me, so I had to dodge it instead of landing an attack.

It was soo damn frustrating. Those ghosts were really good at fighting. Clever, and unconventional compared to the monsters I was used to fighting. There was something exciting in that, but also incredibly irritating when I was used to my hits landing, even if it cost me a bit of struggle initially.

Now I didn't have that. I had to be clever, and not just go with the flow like I used to.

I tried to yank him down using 'Telekinesis' but he was too frim with his own powers, so I just had to give up on that.

The fight went on for a long time and turned into a battle of attrition. Without putting all my skills behind the new weapon, I couldn't really deliver as much damage with my hits as I would normally do. Also, my fire magic wasn't that effective with his water magic, but I landed a few firebolts eventually.

I tried chained explosions before that, but he would just envelop himself in a bubble of water and survive easily. For some reason I didn't nuke him with a scorching attack, but instead just slowly chipped away, eventually killing him. Both terraces got completely devastated.

Pieces of gold were lying everywhere around the dirt, torn apart trees, and reminiscents of the flowers.

Then The Great One pulled me back to Loistavadvaar, and I sold the red crystal. I could go for a second round, but there was no suitable target, so I had to wait again.

I earned 95 944 433 000 regular points and 791 class ones on that day. Then spend the rest of it relaxing and thinking that maybe my approach to the fighting should be different. I needed to start abusing my powers to make the fights shorter since I had so few of them anyway, but there was also a part of me wanting to train on the ghosts.

It was a way to develop new tactics, and dig deeper into my skill set, especially when my close combat skills were pretty much useless now, and I always relied on them heavily.

Another period of time spent in Loistavadvaar came to an end with 272 303 279 060 regular points and 2 141 class ones.