"You want to fight me?" Gray blinked, pointing his finger at his face.
"I meant spar."
"Same thing. Come at me." He waved his hands.
"Ahh..." Kazu looked around. They were still in the tavern.
Now, he was sure that the master wouldn't mind if a bit of property damage they caused, as compared to what occurs due to daily brawls, it would be a drop in the ocean.
"Let's do it outside. I don't want to destroy things here."
"Fine. If that makes you comfortable." Gray shrugged. He didn't care about the property damage. When he starts taking missions, he will pay back all the damage he has caused.
He had even told the master, and he is even maintaining a record of the damage he had caused. The master had been astonished at the kid. Gray didn't even think of stopping himself from causing damage like a true Fairy Tail member.
"I will be the referee then." Cana volunteered to be the middle girl. She stood in the middle of the clearing.
"Don't cry when you lose." Gray provoked.
Kazu didn't respond as if Gray's provocation hit a wall.
"On count of 3, you guys will start." Seeing the silence, Cana spoke. Gray and Kazu were staring at each other, ready to take action at any moment.
"3!"
Gray rolled his eyes, 'Old trick.' He clasped his hands together, fingers interlocked.
THUMP
Kazu kicked the ground and appeared in front of Gray, his arm already cocked back.
'I will end this quickly.' Kazu thought while his fist shot toward Gray.
He had enhanced his leg muscles for such a supernatural feat.
"Not bad." Gray raised an eyebrow. Ice emanated from his hands.
Suddenly, Kazu's eyes shot up. An ice hammer was falling, intending to turn him into meat paste.
His fist, which was heading towards Gray changed directions. Kazu punched up.
BOOOOM.
The hammer broke into pieces. Ice shards fell on the ground.
"Good Strength. Though it's useless if you can't hit me." An ice lance formed in front of Gray, shooting towards Kazu point-blank.
He was barely able to move his enhanced left fist, deflecting the lance.
"That hurts," Kazu muttered, stumbling backwards.
His eyes widened when he saw nearly a dozen weapons ranging from arrows to lances.
'Active Instincts.' He decided to use trumph card.
The world suddenly became colourless. Everything started making sense—becoming predictable.
He could see the exact path that he would need to take to not only dodge all these projectiles but also reach Gray and get a hit.
So, he kicked the ground, this time jumping high.
With the help of some ethernano bursts, he kicked at a lance mid-air.
'Ugh.' His face contorted due to the pain of getting partially stabbed in that leg.
"Cool." The disturbed lance collided with another lance, successfully able to deflect the trajectory of the weapons in front of Kazu enough for him to dodge.
Three completely passed by him. Two grazed him on the sides, and one stabbed him in his gut.
"Fuck." He was now bleeding from two places. 'Should I surrender? I don't think I will be fine if I lose blood for a few more seconds.'
Cana's breath hitched. She took a step forward—then stopped herself.
Kazu gritted his teeth as he pushed back the pain. He quickly grabbed one lance that passed by him and then hurled it at another wave of weapons that Gray had released.
The lance hit another lance, which hit another, causing a domino effect.
As Kazu expected, none of the quickly created projectiles were able to hit him. He landed on the ground and rushed at Gray.
"Got you." Kazu punched at Gray, the latter creating a shield on the spot.
'Oh.' Kazu saw the entire formation of shield and his punch approaching it.
The world slowed down.
'I can see the weak point.' For a second, he thought he saw a weak point. However, the next instant, the entire ice shield became uniform, devoid of structural weak points.
BOOOM
Fist met ice.
Ice shattered like glass, Kazu's punch hit Gray in the gut, sending him flying like a ragdoll.
"I lost." Kazu frowned. He noticed that Gray didn't lose consciousness due to Kazu's punch. 'If the fight continues, I will be in serious danger.' Kazu thought while looking at the ground, which was dyed red.
An ice-hammer, which was forming in the sky, mid-way, paused. So, were the lances that Gray made mid-air.
Gray slammed into a tree, "Grhh..."
A few seconds later, he got up with a frown on his face.
He then walked towards Kazu and opened his mouth to protest.
"Let's go to the infirmary. You come too. Who knows if something broke?" Cana told the two before dragging them.
"I am fine," Gray muttered. Even though he said that, he still let himself be dragged.
"That was a good fight," Kazu said, looking at Gray.
"Maybe you should say that after meeting people in the eye," Gray muttered.
"Pardon? I didn't hear that."
"I said, you were quite good for a guy who just watches people all day." Gray furrowed his eyebrow.
"I see. Thank you."
"...That was an insult." Gray gave him a deadpan expression.
"Oh." Kazu blinked. He then shrugged.
They reached the infirmary.
"Do we have a healing mage in our guild?" Kazu asked, intrigued.
"Not that I know of... Well, there's a scary granny, but that's for very serious cases. I am going to fix you guys up." Cana smirked.
"...I see." Kazu just stared.
Surprisingly, Cana was well-versed in using the magic equipment and treating his injuries. Gray was no different.
'Passive Instincts.' Kazu decided that he might as well learn the skill, too.
---
"Well, time to grind."
'It's been so long since I did a proper grind. Last time I did it was in a game to brag about my global rankings to my friends.' Kazu sighed, remembering his previous life.
Living without internet is pretty hard, especially if you were an iPad kid like Kyle, who was used to it from birth.
"Yosh." He slapped his cheeks and then began his grind.
In the last few months, he had been grinding his people analysis ability, but he didn't acknowledge it as a grind 'coz most of the time he was distracted by his thoughts.
'Rule Number 1: Don't think too much about what task you are doing. Just Do it.' He started his morning with physical conditioning.
Nothing complex, just basic Saitama routine. He was doing something in the guild's backyard.
"Let's take a break." After realising that he was at his limit, he lay down on the ground and closed his eyes. Soon, he entered a meditative state.
This time, he just observed what ethernano was doing inside his body.
'Is it trying to relieve my fatigue? How is it doing that? Last time I checked, I didn't have any recovery-related abilities. Guess, I will need to check that later.' He decided to help in the process by consciously mimicking what was being done, increasing the speed of recovery by multiple folds.
"Cool. Now time for Round 2." Kazu got up and started doing some flexibility training. This didn't tire him out as the previous round, so after finishing what he intended, he moved on to the next round— some image training.
Kazu took a deep breath and then exhaled. He closed his eyes and imagined a shadowy figure in front of him.
The latter punched, and Kazu dodged. Kazu punched him and later dodged. Just like that, Kazu started working on his fighting skills. His instinct magic was pretty versatile, and it was useful even here.
"Those 2 hours of physical training were long," Kazu muttered. He decided to take a bath in the guild's bathroom. He had extra clothes with him at the moment.
"Next on the agenda is some theory. 2 hours too." Kazu grinned. He wouldn't have been that excited in his previous life if he had been told to study. But things were now different.
'I could just absorb the knowledge like a sponge. Is this what a genius feels? Different breed.'
He opened the book and started writing and scribbling in the notebook.
BEEP BEEP BEEP
"Oh." Kazu looked at the alarm clock, his expression confused. 'Didn't I just start the session now? Is the clock broken?'
"Can you turn that thing off?" Kazu flinched, his eyes darting to his right. He relaxed after confirming that it was just Cana.
"Sorry, my bad." He quickly turned off the alarm.
"I was going to greet you before, but you seemed too absorbed, so I didn't interrupt you. So, you are finally training seriously?" She asked.
Kazu nodded. He looked at the stacks of books he had just finished, along with the notes he had made.
"Yeah. I need to become strong. Super strong if I want to accomplish my goal." He closed his notebook and got up from his seat.
"And what's that?"
"I was to kill somebody," Kazu said in a normal tone.
"Oh... cool." 'So, he finally moved towards revenge...'
Kazu glanced at the book Cana was reading.
[ Elemental Magic Made Easy. Even babies could Learn! ]
"I hope you have a productive session." With that, Kazu left the library.
He then went to have lunch in the tavern. It was pretty cheap, and the kids belonged to the guild and even got a bit of a discount.
After having his lunch, he sat there and decided to observe people for half an hour before moving back to the backyard.
'Oof. I need a good way to block things.' He recalled the fight with Gray. He could see how different things would have been if he had a defensive magic with him.
He closed his eyes and focused on his affinities—specifically the third affinity.
Barrier magic.
'The intensity of it is pretty less compared to the other two. So, it would take me too long to get visible progress, but barrier magic is special.' He opened his eyes and got up.
Ethernano released from his body, taking a shape—square. However, mid-way, it got unstable, dissipating.
'Things would be hard to create a foundation. The advanced applications would be heavily dependent on wisdom, which my instincts would help develop. So, it's a long-term investment in something versatile.' He nodded at himself and started his next round of training.
Due to being engrossed in his training, he failed to notice a figure observing him from a distance.
***
Join my Patreon to support me and get up to 20 advanced chapters:
- DESIRE96
(search it up)
Check out my other works.