Hina closed her eyes, unwilling to watch Mana's face caved in while a satisfied glint appeared in Drake's eyes.
*Crash*
"Ow!" Mana groaned. He never closed his eyes. He was taught the hard way to never look away from an attack.
Still, he saw Rogue's fist descending to the side and smashing into the ground while chips of concrete scratched past Mana's cheek.
"Care to give up now?" Rogue inquired with a grin.
"Will you recall the main objective of this spar?" Mana inquired curiously.
"To cover up for the extensive use of my disciple credit card…" Rogue whispered equally softly.
"And… you just caused damage to sect property. And this isn't even a battle stage."
Rogue's grin froze as he observed his damnable fist penetrating the concrete pavement.
"Aw… fuck."
"But since we are already sparring, no point in caring about damages. Say, did you learn to fight in your family?" Rogue inquired, his other hand still grasping Mana's collars.
"My mom, yeah," Mana nodded.
"And… Why did you allow the use of qi? We all know that an origin requires an extensive amount of time to fill up the first time and a 99 rpm talent like you would need 4 hours. This time increases once we consider your compound element to which your origin needs to refine the natural qi into."
Not replying to Rogue, Mana sighed and grumbled.
"I really wasn't planning on being injured."
Not many could see what happened next, not with Rogue's body covering Mana.
Only Rogue, Chrome, and the Heart Masters could observe, a little surprised and impressed, as Mana's cut cheek glowed a golden light.
'His wound—'
*Bam*
Mana's fist struck Rogue squarely in the face once again, but this time, Rogue's body registered pain.
Piercing.
Pricking pain.
"You—"
Rogue stammered, his butt on the floor while Mana coughed softly and slowly sat up. Both of their gazes met while Rogue finally understood that somehow, Mana already had gained the use of qi.
'I get it… this was supposed to be a trump card of this battle. He would have caught me off guard and used a qi skill to set the match. The fact that his injury was healed unintentionally supports this line of reasoning…
He also said that his element is a rare compound version. I don't know how many elements he has at the moment, but one of them should be wood. Not only is he Green Heart's disciple, but he also has heightened healing capabilities. As for the remaining elements, at least one of them should have body enhancing capabilities now that his punch has started to sting a little more.'
Using all the information he had available on Mana, Rogue came to the conclusion he could best achieve and based his further actions around them.
"Are you going to save it even now?" Rogue inquired, standing up as his limbs seemed to be slowly covering up in pitch black slime that turned into a gas at the edge, giving Rogue a frightening appearance, to say the least.
Not replying to Rogue, Mana looked at his arm.
'So, extremely shallow injuries can be taken care of within seconds. But since my shoulder is dislocated, the wood element won't work and just pull my bones back up.'
With Rogue's pitch black splatter of blood, the use of his left arm was still limited so leaving his arm hanging like a pendulum, Mana readied himself once again.
'His arms and legs are covered in qi, too. Three qi skills at once.
But…
Did he interpret all his qi skills as a heavy concept? If yes, will he be able to move?'
While Mana observed carefully, trying to find how Rogue's skill works, the opposing man issued a light-hearted chuckle.
"I've already revealed all 9 of my qi skills. What I didn't reveal is the number of qi skills I can use at once and how I interpret the runes of my origin."
Seeing Mana's calm expression, Rogue continued, "Want me to tell you? The fight would be far easier that way."
Suddenly chuckling, Mana shook his head and issued a deep sigh.
"I never told you the index number of my PX 8, right?"
The surroundings quietened down while many frowned.
"Still with the console? Sure, only 800 of them are made but is it really worth fighting for?"
"I know right, this is getting tedious!"
"I don't even like video games…" The one who said this was instantly isolated.
'Index number of his PX? Out of 800, the last seven hundred and fifty were sold in auctions. The first fifty were…' Dharma suddenly gaped, an astounding amount of respect bubbling in his heart.
Even Rogue seemed to have realized this and he carefully inquired.
"What is it?"
"I kind of scratched it out but if you look real close on the back…you will see a number written on it.
1."
Rogue's gaze widened.
"You're… that—"
"You saw that?" Mana inquired with a slight blush over his cheeks, feeling a little giddy.
"I saw the competition live!" Rogue shouted.
Meanwhile, Big Mac remained stunned.
He had a PX 8, too, but it was numbered 452.
"Understood. You'll have more fun finding my interpretation yourself," Rogue rubbed his nose while Mana nodded.
"What does he mean? I think PX 8 issue 1 is rare but is it really worth making a fuss over?" One of the disciples inquired while the other few surrounding her held a reverent gaze towards Mana.
"God… Ossop…"
They chanted under their breath as Drake and his sisters noted the change, too.
"I finally am acquainted with a celebrity!" Dharma's face was flushed with excitement.
Slowly making their way towards each other, Mana and Rogue entered their stance once again.
Right now, Rogue had every motivation to get serious.
Not only is Mana capable of wielding qi, but he also turned out to be one of the most famous gamers on the continent.
This was worth going all out for.
'I wonder how they'll react once they know that granny won the first issued PX 8 gifted the console to me,' Mana mused, 'Although, my record against granny is 76-79…'
Not minding the fake fame since it would be worth winning over many cultured women, Mana came back to reality when a pitch-black spike emerged from the black qi covering Rogue.
'Four simultaneous skills,' Mana gulped.
'This is getting dangerous.'
"He can do more!" A bulky dark-skinned individual gazed at Rogue's back with irritation and as expected, Rogue's gaze turned pitch black alongside his skin.
Gasps rang among the group of disciples while Drake's eyelids twitched. This monstrous form…
He knew it all too well.
"Can we really defeat him this year?" One of Rogue's current classmates inquired while his old classmates already felt their skin crawling.
They couldn't defeat him.
Not in this monstrous form at least.
"Why is that idiot going all out?" Lilia furrowed.
"I think… it's because of a video game," Chrome replied.
Stunned, Lilia looked at Chrome, and seeing him so focused on the match, she returned her gaze.
"It doesn't look like it but my muscles are strengthened and more elastic as of this moment," Rogue growled, pitch-black gas fuming out of his body as his malevolent gaze hid within the cloak of darkness.
"All 9 of your skills?" Mana grew dazed.
"Yea… please don't take it out on me if you get hospitalized…" Rogue smiled, his jaws opening only to reveal more darkness.
"Sure," smilingly, Mana revealed his origin and many instantly found something strange.
"Oi, look at his arm!" A girl yelped in surprise.
Sprouting from Mana's arm was a metallic vine with many spikes on the outer side of the vine. The vine wrapped around Mana's left hand as he readied himself for close-quarter combat.
"Is this a…" Chrome looked impressed.
"Compound Element."
"You knew?" Chrome inquired.
"Just the element. Not the fact that he can already use his qi skill," Lilia pouted.
"So?" Chrome inquired further.
"So what?" Lilia looked towards him.
"What's the element?"
"Not telling," Lilia grinned and crossed her arms.
"I'll find it myself then," Chrome's yellow-gold pupils turned vertical while the battle grew its peak stage.
"Ready?" Rogue inquired.
"My mother named me Mana 'Born Ready' Krien."
"... That's a cool middle name," Rogue shot forward while a mischievous smile spread across Mana's lips.
"Psych!"
Whipping his hand forward, the vine latched onto his arm shot forward, startling Rogue and before he could evade, his fist was already caught by the vine, the spikes on the vine digging into his wrist as Mana grinned and grabbed the vine to rotate.
"Huh?" Much to Rogue's surprise, his entire weight was easily shifted as Mana began rotating the man at a greater pace.
"Get back!" Big Mac yelled at the freshmen as all retreated quickly, giving Mana a greater area to spin Rogue around.
'Yeah… this is dangerous. The structures of the sect are far sturdier and if I end up crashing into them…' Rogue shivered while he felt a little nauseous.
'But I have to take the risk.'
"Huh?"
The cheerful Hina instantly felt something wrong as the speed at which Mana spun Rogue around grew weaker before Mana ended up calling unconscious.
"Disciple Rodger Growsky wins this match. As the President of the sect, I take part as the witness of the spar. From this day forth until the next thirty days, the victor will have an exclusive right to the loser's limited edition, first issue PX 8!"
His loud declaration stunned all the disciples and even Dharma grew confused.
Meanwhile, with his head still not in the right place and his vision swimming, Rogue couldn't fight Big Mac for not calling his real name. Instead, he continued to move like a drunkard while all his skills slowly vanished, and just like Mana's origin, his origin disappeared, too.
"What happened?!" Hina growled and stepped forward, her furious gaze boring into Big Mac as she continued, "Why did Mana fall unconscious?!"
"Hina, don't lose your control!" Mina pleaded to her younger sister and quickly pulled her back as Drake scratched the back of his head. Although he knew what transpired, he wasn't willing to praise Rogue.
"Hmm? You didn't see that?" The pudgy sect president inquired before shrugging.
"If you didn't witness it, that's none of my concern. I won't describe Rodger's techniques just because you're angry or—"
Big Mac came to stunned silence as he glanced towards Hina and seeing the bestial expression on the pretty freshman's face, he thought better and refrained from insulting the crazy within the girl.
"Ehm… it's not ethical to discuss other's abilities in front of a crowd. If you wish to find out, ask Mana when he wakes up or Rodger… see, that brute right there who actually hurt your boyfriend."
This time, Drake's expression morphed into that of a deadly animal while Hina blinked and grew silent.
"It's… ehm, yeah, as long as that's clear," Hina smiled proudly while Mina bit her lower lip in frustration, her furtive glance towards innocent meemaw tamer making him sweat.
"I'm taking Mana to the healing ward!" Dharma spoke quickly and left Rogue to fend off the crazy siblings.
Blob neutral
The end of this chapter is... confusing. Who is saying what to whom and why is... uh, I dunno. There were things said. That's about all I got out of it.