Chapter 167 - 167 Assessment

167 Assessment

Loki and Michael were at a deserted shrine just outside the city. This was one of the many forgotten shrines in the world. Loki had been using this place to practice some of his bigger moves, unfortunately even now when he has been in this world for quite some time he still had insufficient mana. On the bright side, because of the lesser mana, Loki learned to control the output of his spells better than before and even created new spells and techniques. Today he invited Michael here to train the other party.

Loki couldn’t help but sigh as he remembered the talk he had a few days ago. At first, he didn’t want to teach Michael any fighting techniques, as most of his skills were designed to kill a person as efficiently as possible. Still, in the end, because of Michael and the Spirit’s annoying persistence, Loki agreed to teach Michael a nonlethal form of his techniques.

It took Loki a few days for him to make a few adjustments to his way of figthing. The school had already reopened, and Michael kept on coming to the library to ask when he would teach him. Loki knew that Michael wasn’t so straightforward, and was most likely the Spirit that kept on pushing Michael to bother him. There was also the fact, that Loki saw the expression on Michael’s face the first time he asked Loki to teach him. Seeing that expression on his face, Loki had unconsciously decided to teach him at that point.

...

“So how are we going to start?” Michael spoke eagerly wanting to learn.

“First I need to assess your current abilities. The fastest way to do that is through combat. Use any means necessary to try and hit me, you can use spells if you wish. So come and show me what you’ve got.”

“Huh?” Michael did not move as he was in a state of confusion. ‘DODGE YOU FOOL!’ The spirit suddenly shouted in his mind, Michael was surprised that Loki who was a few meters away from him suddenly appeared before him. Michael saw Loki’s fist was coming at him so he instinctively blocked it.

Loki’s punch was rather heavy pushing Michael back. Loki did not do a follow-up attack and looked at Michael waiting for him to make a move.

‘This b*stard is underestimating you so much, telegraphing his attack like that!’

.....

‘Huh, telegraphing his attack?’ Michael who was still a little startled by the sudden attack was confused as to what the Spirit meant.

‘I have no time to explain things to you, just focus on the fight and attack already!’ Hearing what the Spirit said, Michael, put all the questions he had at the back of his mind and finally focused on the battle at hand. Michael got into his most comfortable stance and made a fist.

Seeing the sudden change in Michael’s demeanor Loki nodded his head in approval as he made a hand gesture telling Michael to come at him. This time Michael was fully awake and was concentrating as hard as he could.

After becoming the host of the Spirit of the Akashic Records Michael has gained a ton of experience, especially in regard to battle. When he was looking for the missing parts of the Akashic Records he had to battle other people who had gained knowledge beyond their understanding.

...

Even someone like Michael knew that the gap between him and Loki was like heaven and earth, but since this was just a test he just needed to focus on dealing damage to Loki.

“Fireball!”

Michael used a basic spell and a burst of fire came out of his palms heading toward Loki. Seeing the incoming spell Loki simply swiped his arm with a combination of his enhancement spell and his own control of mana, it was easy to negate such a weak spell. After Loki negated the spell, Michael had already gotten so close to him that he could strike him.

Michael did a simple forward punch, Loki redirected the strike by pushing Michael’s forearm making him lose his balance a bit, but that didn’t stop Michael as he used his falling stance and did a backward kick which Loki easily evaded. Michael fell down and used that momentum to do a forward flip creating some space between him and Loki.

“Quicksand!”

Michael who had limited mana used another low-level spell, but now he only had enough mana to use one more spell before being depleted of mana, Loki was also able to perceive this.

Loki did not evade the spell and was slowly sinking into the quicksand but due to Michael’s weak mana supply, the quicksand was not able to sink Loki too deep, so before Loki can escape the quicksand Michael quickly used another spell.

“Freeze touch!”

Michael reacted fast and quickly dashed toward Loki and slid on the ground tapping the area of Loki’s feet which froze them, Michael then initiated his next move and did a roundhouse kick, Loki blocked the strike and caught Michael’s leg but then to Loki’s surprise Michael’s strength was better than he expected and his arm that was under the enhancement spell was pushed a little.

Michael who had his right leg held by Loki used that to make another move by swinging his entire body to kick with his left leg. Loki released Michael’s leg and swayed his upper body backward easily evading the attack.

Michael who was on the ground was already panting a bit as he had used almost all of his mana and his inner energy which was not that large was difficult to use. He knew that he wouldn’t win against Loki so he went ahead and used his strongest combination, but it failed to hit Loki. As Michael was thinking about what to do next, he heard Loki’s voice.

“That’s enough, I already have an understanding of your current level. So the first thing we need to do is-”

Michael who was looking at Loki’s serious face gulped, he felt a little overwhelmed by the pressure Loki was emitting, but, at the same time, he also felt excited.

‘Alright, no matter what kind of hellish training will come I’ll do my best to overcome it.’

“Run.”

“Huh?”

“What you need to do now is run.”