Chapter 24: Territory!

"ARGH, YOU BASTARD!" cried Colt as he let go of Jay's wrist and rubbed his eyes because of the terrible pain he was feeling.

Jay didn't miss this opportunity and kick reinforced with wind towards the most vulnerable part of Colt at this point.

His crotch.

"-!"

A rather loud but short pained scream came from Colt's mouth before he fell to his knees, not knowing what part of his body to grab.

His eyes were incredibly irritated, to the point that he could not bear to open them.

As for his crotch, he had received a really strong kick that even made him see stars.

"Y-You...alright, if you want to play like this..." Colt said as he stood up, his legs a little unsteady, although the kick he received was strong and still hurting, as a rank (D) pugilist, he was more resistant to physical blows, so he recovered relatively quickly.

The most worrisome thing for him was the red dust that had gotten into his eyes, he wanted to open his eyes so he could see where Jay was, but his eyes just wouldn't listen.

But even though he couldn't see, he got up anyway, as he had other ways of locating the hooded man besides vision.

"Let's play then!" he shouted as he clenched his fists and both were suddenly engulfed in flames.

This was the famous "Fire Fists" technique, a martial technique known by almost all pugilists for being as simple as effective.

Of course, this was to do more damage to the hooded man, not to locate him, that came next.

Colt then entered a state of total concentration, sharpening all his senses, while he had temporarily lost his sight, not everything was lost, he had a perfect technique for a moment like this after all.

'Territory!'

The moment he finished thinking that, an imaginary circle extended around him, until it reached 6 ft around where he was standing, giving him a clear vision of everything within the circle!

Territory, it was a (B) rank martial technique which used the senses of smell, hearing and touch to the maximum of a pugilist to detect the surrounding areas, extending for tens or even hundreds of ft, giving the fighter an understanding and control over their surroundings incredibly superior to what they would get if they only used their sight.

It was a pretty strong and convenient technique, there was even a saying about such a martial technique, "As long as I use Territory, everything is within my reach!"

Of course, the skill could only show its full potential if used by at least a (B) rank pugilist, so Colt was pretty limited in that respect, only being able to cover about 6 ft around him.

However, that was scary enough considering that those 6 ft were a space that was totally under his control, not even a fly could pass through his Territory without being discovered by him!

This ability was also one of the reasons why Colt had decided to stay in Metal Body, even though he was only a rank (D) pugilist, the boss saw potential in him and decided to give it to him as an investment, although only an incomplete part, promising that if he improved, he would give him the complete technique.

*SPLASH*

Just then, the sound of liquid hitting the ground sounded, and the area of the Territory diminished a little.

"..."

Colt didn't need to think much to find out what had happened, the hooded man had broken another of the balloons, worsening his sense of smell!

Because Territory used Colt's senses to detect his surroundings, a worse sense of smell meant a reduction in the controlled area.

It was clear, if the hooded kept on breaking more balloons, soon the area of his Territory would be greatly reduced, leaving him truly blind.

For some reason, the only thing he could hear were the balloons being burst, but not the steps of the hooded man.

Deciding that thinking about it would not fix anything, Colt rushed again to the place where he had heard the balloon burst, his fists covered with fire ready to finish off the enemy.

Unfortunately, when he arrived he couldn't feel anything in the place except for the hot sauce and the broken balloon on the ground.

*SPLASH*

Colt did not have much time to observe them as once again the noise of a balloon being burst was heard, diminishing for the second time the area of his Territory.

This time Colt used his top speed to get to where the balloon had burst, but the result was still the same.

'...This won't do, I'll have to switch the Territory.' thought Colt as he saw that he wasn't making any progress at all.

Then he stopped concentrating on his smell and touch to give priority to his hearing, staying still so he could hear better.

'Auditory Territory!'

Again he heard the sound of a balloon being burst, but he decided to ignore it for the moment.

Although the martial technique "Territory" was normally used with all the senses of a pugilist, it could also be used in such a way that only one of the senses was used, in this case the hearing, making his ears incredibly sensitive to any kind of noise.

At this point, although Colt couldn't see, feel or smell anything, there wasn't a single sound he couldn't hear!

*Tap, tap, tap*

'This guy...' thought Colt as his mouth twitched.

He managed to hear his footsteps, yes, but he also discovered why he had not been able to hear them before.

The hooded man had actually taken off his shoes so that Colt couldn't hear him!

'Well, never mind, it all ends here!' Colt shouted in his mind as a smile formed on his face

Then, using his maximum speed again, he ran towards the hooded man and threw another blow, this time with his full force.

Right at that moment, Jay's cry resonated strongly in the surroundings.

***

In the West Zone of the city, specifically in the mansion of Sarah's aunt, there was a huge courtyard that could even be mistaken for a meadow if it weren't for the dozens of complicated magical glowing circles of different sizes that were inscribed on the ground.

These circles were not only there for decoration, but also served different functions.

Those measuring a few meters were there as a security measure, those measuring several meters served to facilitate the use of mana and there were even some, the largest, measuring tens of meters, that were in charge of collecting the mana from the surroundings and accumulating it in the backyard, turning it into an area rich in mana.

It was, with no doubt, a perfect area for any magician below the (B) rank to train.

"Haa..."

Sarah was standing and moving her wand from time to time in the center of one of the magic circles that facilitated the use of mana, around her were several iron spheres the size of a basketball floating in an orderly fashion.

"Very good, it seems you have no problem controlling this amount, as expected of you~" Said her aunt, who was next to her supervising her training.

"Thank you auntie~" Replied Sarah, who was focused on controlling the iron spheres, although her tone of voice was normal, there were a few drops of sweat on her face, showing that this was demanding even for her.

Although she had been somewhat reluctant to leave Jay's house, thanks to the fact that she had left him the bandages and the fact that her aunt told her that before she left she gave him a recovery pill, Sarah felt more relieved.

"Well, it's time to increase the difficulty."

After saying that, Iris snapped her fingers and suddenly all the iron balls became much heavier than before.

"Urgh!"

Sarah let out a groan due to the sudden increase in weight, causing the iron balls to stop momentarily and start shaking in the air, as if they were going to fall at any moment.

"Fuuu...I...can...do it!"

However, after taking a deep breath and saying that, Sarah quickly stabilized the iron spheres in the air, and although they were now moving much slower than before, she had managed to keep them floating.

"Well done!"

Iris congratulated Sarah again, writing "Well done" in the air using a spell.

Although it might not seem much, in reality it was considerably difficult to manage to stabilize such a sudden change in the weight of an object, not to mention that she had to concentrate not only on one, but several iron balls.

"We'll keep training like this until you can move them at the same speed as before, then I'll increase the weight again."

"Hm, alright!" Replied Sarah, determined to continue the training.

The reason Sarah always trained with heavy objects was because they were the spells in which she specialized.

They belonged to a particular branch of magic, which was called Heterodox Magic, this branch had all kinds of spells and was considered the most versatile branch of magic of all.

While it's power paled in comparison to other branches of magic that specialized in attack or defense, it still was an extremely useful branch.

It's versatility was mainly due to the fact that the spells available in this branch were not only focused on attacking, defending, healing or something like that, but varied greatly in their uses.

An example of this would be the spells that Sarah was currently using, which also were her specialty, "Levitate" and "Move", thanks to them, Sarah was able to mimic an effect similar to "Telekinesis", an esper skill.

"If we continue like this, you will definitely be able to reach the rank (C-) before the Eitsirc Academy exam~!" Said her aunt cheerfully as a cup full of tea floated towards her from the kitchen, "And to think that 2 years ago you were just a little rank (E) mage." She added with a slightly nostalgic voice.

"Well, it's all thanks to you, Aunt Iris~" Said Sarah with a smile.

Although she was still worried about Jay, she knew that worrying would not help, so she decided to put even more effort into her training.

That way, Sarah continued trying her best.