Chapter 159: Little Tyrant

"Where the hell are you stepping? Do you want to die?" Agni grunted as she struggled to push herself upwards. This proved to be impossible for one very good reason, Shula's foot was pressed firmly against the side of her face. The blonde haired imp laughed maniacally, which pushed Agni even further to new heights of anger. Finally after several moments of struggling in vain, Agni gave up -- she was tuckered. This, coupled with a trickle of blood dripping from her mouth, was enough to cause Agni to throw in the towel.

*I know where you sleep.* Agni thought as she gritted her teeth and sighed.

--- Five minutes earlier----

"Okay. It's time. Are you ready? I don't want you to whine if you get punched in the nose again."

*And I will punch you in the nose again, and again..* Agni thought inwardly.

"Ha. Today's going to be different." Shula said as she folded her arms and began to hover, just a few centimeters above the ground. The others were all gathered around the campsite in some fashion, most were busy doing their own thing -- conversing , sleeping or preparing for later this evening. As usual, only Katrin watched the two square off seriously. Although it was welcome to have her company, this had become a point of contention for Agni. This was largely due to Shula's habit of embellishing practically anytime Agni got the better of her.

"So no excuses today then? After all, you're at level 21. You're not THAT far behind me now."

It was true, in less than a week's time Shula had managed to reach level 21. This was due to their schedule of sparring, then hunting Grimlock. The past few evenings, much to Gates' disapproval, they had even ventured into red shards. Despite this, it was nothing that eight experienced adventurers couldn't handle. These factors contributed to Shula's accelerated growth rate, along with the fact that she also gained additional experience when Agni did as well.

"You're just jealous. Bring it." Shula remarked as she cautiously circled the succubus.

"I'm-- so-- JEALOUS!" Agni shouted as she dashed forward,swinging a fist at Shula in the process.

*I want wings too!* She thought as the fight began in earnest. Hand to hand combat wasn't Agni's forte. In fact, she was terrible at it -- and that was the point. If someone unskilled in hand to hand combat could continually strike her familiar, it was a problem! The past few days had been spent honing Shula's reflexes. She could now dodge basic thrusts and swipes with no issue. Shula swayed to avoid the first few blows and flitted backwards, creating distance between herself and Agni.

"So you did actually get better. Not bad." Agni said with a smirk. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Oi. No magic. You promised." Shula warned as she cut her eyes.

"I don't need magic." Agni replied with a smirk. She leveled her hand towards Shula, pointing her fingers outward in a very deliberate motion. Both the pointer and middle finger thrust forward, extending unbelievably fast as they moved. Shula was a second late to react, partially because she was caught off guard. One of the spear-like fingertips grazed her shoulder, causing her to wince. The wound was enough to draw blood, which in turn caused Katrin to shoot Agni a disapproving glance.

"She'll never learn if you keep babying her. I'm not holding back today." Agni replied, uncaring of Katrin's increasingly intense gaze. Her fingers reached their maximum length and quickly snapped back, almost like a rubber band. As if the remark were a deeply personal one, Katrin turned up her nose and continued her task of practicing her Scribe runes.

"Mama can't save you now. Tsk tsk." Agni taunted with the wagging of her finger. Katrin frowned while Shula laughed.

"You're just jealous because you don't get to drown yourself in her luscious, soft, silky mou--" Shula was so busy teasing Agni that she forgot about the battle. Several more spear-like fingers extended towards her, one after another forcing Shula to circle to her left. When she did so Agni was waiting.

"Gotcha!" Agni said as she used her free hand to extend an attack, catching Shula in her abdomen. This time she used a second ability in conjunction with Extend, called Iron Claw, Iron Fang. This particular technique hardened Agni's skin, it had the added benefit of working particularly well on fingernails and teeth. The end result was near metallic claws or fangs. This time one of the blows struck Shula in the upper thigh and pierced the skin. The blood spurted out in healthy amounts as Agni retracted her finger.

"You can't expect your enemy to take it easy on you. Let me know when you're ready to be serious." Agni admonished. Frankly, Shula's lackadaisical attitude was beginning to grate on the Succubus. Over the past few days she had been racking her brain to piece together a style that could be considered "natural" to her. This was largely due to the advice given by Gates and Gigi, both of whom were rank two adventurers.

With that in mind, initially fixated on her Whisper ability. After some time, she realized the two skills she'd just used were more practical for combat. Extend would allow her to send her digits outwards, while Iron Claw, Iron Fang could be used to enhance the attack. In order to compensate for what Agni herself perceived as a weakness, she also opted not to use magic or weapons. She quickly realized that her class seemed to focus on mid range combat. She had no long range weapons to speak of, and all of her weapons could be wielded beyond arm's length.

Thus, she felt her two greatest weaknesses were long and close ranged combat. Of the two, she felt agile enough to evade most long range attacks and perhaps even counter attack with magic or Whisper. That led her to cast away her weapons and focus on improving her own striking.

The result was that Agni was now becoming much more comfortable being up close and personal, but due to Shula's lack of effort, Agni felt that she wasn't really being pushed. This drove her crazy in a sense, as she felt that the next step might come with a little nudge.

She was beginning to regret her choice to "kill two birds with one stone". Ariadna and Merri would have been much more suitable for training with close range combat. Gigi might have even been overkill, but Agni would still have learned more than battling against Shula. All of these thoughts raced through her mind, forming into a single spear called annoyance.

*I hate wasting my time.* She thought as she frowned and began walking towards the imp.

"If you're not going to take it seriously, all bets are off." Agni said as she lifted her right hand, coating it in flames. Before Shula could react she dashed forward. Shula attempted to fly away, moving upwards to avoid the sudden burst of speed -- only to be grabbed by the ankle. Agni smirked as she yanked downward and thrust her flaming fist into Shula's face. She then released a blast of flames which flared up, consuming Shula's face at point blank range.

The attack wasn't meant to hurt, but it was enough to disorient Shula, who felt all of the oxygen dissipate around her for the briefest of moments. On reflex Shula thrust her foot outward, catching Agni on the jaw. The blow was so unexpected that Agni was forced to loosen her grip considerably. Shula managed to pull away at this moment but rather than fly away, she circled around and kicked Agni in the abdomen. The blow was well aimed, and due to Shula's momentum it carried enough weight to make Agni stagger.

She released a grunt as all air was forced out of her lungs. Finally after a moment to catch her breath, Agni glanced over at the imp.

"Why did you stop?" She asked. Straightening her posture as she did so.

Shula offered no response, which made Agni even more agitated.

"Do you understand that we could have died last week? Doesn't that bother you?" She asked as she wiped the dirt from Shula's shoes away from her cheek and resumed her advance.

Once again the fight was on. Agni chose to harden her fingernails, extending them until they looked like claws protruding from her fingers. She bridged the gap almost effortlessly and began a series of swipes at Shula. Despite her bravado, Agni was taking it easy as well. An adventurer's body could withstand quite a lot. Gouged eyes, internal bleeding, broken bones -- all of these would heal simply by being left alone for an hour, sometimes less.

Yet she only attacked Shula in relatively "safe" places. The chest, the outer arms, the thighs. All the cuts were shallow and superficial enough to heal within minutes. After several more swipes Shula flew upwards, just out of reach and gazed down at Agni.

After studying the succubus for a moment she sighed loudly before saying a single word.

"Fine." Shula floated downwards and landed on the ground. She wiped her cheek, a stream of blood dribbling along her skin, before she lifted her hand to taunt Agni into action.

"Come on. And don't hold back. I won't." Shula said, offering a cocky smirk. The mood had shifted considerably, thus Agni felt a bit better about pushing her familiar previously.

"Good." Agni said as she dashed forward once more. The next few moments were hazy for the succubus, as she had little idea what happened. Her vision began to blur and fade, a few steps later she found herself falling face forward. She hit the ground with a loud thud, but Agni had no clue -- she was out before she hit the ground.

Shula walked over towards the fallen succubus and stared down for a moment before lifting her heel.

"S-Shula- wait. The spar is ove--" Katrin said as she got to her feet, but it was too late. Shula brought her heel down against Agni's face, causing blood to issue from her busted lips.

Shula then looked up to find everyone gazing at her with an obvious hint of disgust in their eyes.

"What? She said no mercy." Shula remarked, suddenly her ears were burning.

"Ugh. What the hell?" Agni whispered. Prompting a surprised look from Shula.

"You're awake already? Really? Hmm." She said as she knelt down, driving her foot into Agni's temple.

"Where the hell are you stepping? Do you want to die?" Agni grunted as she struggled to push herself upwards. This proved to be impossible for one very good reason, Shula's foot was pressed firmly against the side of her face. The blonde haired imp laughed maniacally, which pushed Agni even further to new heights of anger.

"Oh well. At least now I know my new skill works." Shula said with a smile as a thoroughly drowsy Succubus attempted to grab at her in vain.

"Shula, that's enough." Katrin said as she marched towards the two.

"Oi. Wait, Katrin." Shula said, holding up a hand -- but it was too late. Katrin took one too many steps forward and fell prey to Shula's new ability -- Sleep Mine. One whiff of the near invisible cloud of sleep vapors caused Katrin to fall face forward with a thud.

"That's...probably going to hurt when she wakes up." Shula said.

"Move your damn foot!" Agni shouted.