Chapter 15: Beatdown

Yr'Arl strode confidently out into the centre of the room.

"It is common knowledge, Jacob Lyre, that you underwent some form of metamorphosis at the closing edge of the Battle Royale," Yr'Arl said, whirling around to face me.

"Yeah, I uh…" I was uncertain how to explain the job system, it didn't seem like something that everyone had access to in this universe. "I guess you could say I levelled up?"

"It is rare to see someone's manna act in such flexible ways… You show the growth of a newborn babe on my homeworld, accelerating your knowledge and abilities in ways unprecedented for an adult- especially a human."

"Why a human especially?" I asked.

"The human race tends to be weak with Manna, of course," Yr'Arl said, a confused lilt in his voice as if that were something I should have known already. "Nevertheless, before using your new abilities in the heat of battle tomorrow, you should test them out on a worthy opponent."

I stepped into the room and bounced on the balls of my feet. "Sounding a little cocky there Yr'Arl," I said playfully. "Who was it that gave you a beatdown in the Battle Royale again?"

"Please, if Akash had not been there to render assistance with his vines my armour would have made short work of your unrefined attacks," Yr'Arl responded haughtily. I was unsure if he understood I was trying to be funny. Maybe human humour didn't translate to his species very well.

Yr'Arl had already started up his chant, the white glow of power from the first time we had fought forging themselves into complicated runes in front of his hands. Before long, the golden warrior emerged once more, a full set of medieval armour.

I rolled my shoulders and drew my sword from its sheath on my back. The blade thrummed with power. This was going to be fun.

Last time I had encountered the armour I had jumped back and out of the way to avoid its opening salvo of attacks. This time I felt more confident and rushed in with my newfound knowledge of how to sword fight.

I dashed forward with a propulsion enhanced spring and rushed around the side of the armour. I slashed from my right, but the armour simply pivoted away from my sword strike. The momentum of the slash carried me forward and out of position, so I was only just able to dodge the returning jab with a roll.

I sprung back up to my feet and jabbed forward with a sharp thrust, only to have it deflected by the blade of the animated armour. My sword arm went wide, leaving my chest open, which was something the armour was all too ready to exploit with a riposte of its own.

I wasn't going to go out that easily. I hopped a few centimetres off the ground and blasted my propulsion hard with my free hand while activating my anti-gravity field. The result was a fast spin away from the armour, which I cancelled almost immediately.

I shook the dizziness off and went on the attack again. Clearly, sword attacks alone weren't going to work. The flavour text of the ability had been very clear in stating that I was essentially only a beginner with the sword, in other words, my inexperience was holding me back once again. I'd have to improvise if I wanted to gain an edge.

I dipped in low before thrusting upward in an attempt to break through the Armour's guard, at least that's how I'd made it seem. All the while I had charged up a small energy beam, thin but concentrated, and set it to shoot up through the construct while it was distracted by my assault.

But somehow it knew. In one fluid movement, the armour deflected my blow and spun out of the way, my energy beam blasted harmlessly upward and was absorbed by the white ceiling without even a burn mark. But now I had broken the armour's footing, so I kept up the pressure.

I transferred the gravity field from myself to the left leg of the armour, created a small cube of manna, and then flung it straight at the leg. At the same time, I moved in for an attack on the right-hand side of the armour. No matter what, this would bring it down a peg.

The armour raised to block and attempted to move its leg out of the way of my projectile, but with no gravity to rely on when it brought its foot back down, it slipped as if it had stepped on a banana skin and was brought down to one knee. Despite that, it was still able to fend off my attack, resting its weight on its knee rather than its foot.

However, from its downed position, there was no way it would be able to avoid a point-blank attack from my energy beams, which was exactly what had done it in the first time around.

I charged up a colossal amount of energy in my palms, deflected a blow with my sword, and used the momentum from the deflection to plunge my sword deep between the cracks in the armour. With a yell, I pushed as much energy through the blade of the sword as I could. Just like before the construct spasmed, and then fell apart as whatever power that animated it was burned away by my own.

[DEFEATED ARCANE CONSTRUCT]

[YOU HAVE NOW LEVELLED UP]

[LEVEL: 7]

[HP: 850/850]

[ACTIVE ABILITY POINTS: 11]

[PASSIVE ABILITY POINTS:1]

I allowed myself to drop to a knee, sheathed my sword in its back holster once more, and then panted to catch my breath.

"Most impressive, Jacob Lyre," Yr'Arl remarked. "While previously you relied on the help of the Eldrani, with your sword you were able to keep up the pressure yourself and eventually landed a finishing blow on my construct."

"It… wasn't easy," I panted, finally able to stand.

"Indeed, it was still a struggle. If I were to use some of my other manna abilities in conjunction with my construct, it would have been even harder," Yr'Arl flashed me a smile, and I realised he had learned a lot more from me than I had from him.

Hopefully that wouldn't cost me too dearly in the one on ones.