Rise of the Devourer

Book 3: Chapter 23 — Solo Spar

By the time afternoon had rolled around, the party had split up into different groups. Zax had already left with Valros. Aurelia had decided to take a mid-day nap by herself, Snow and Seraphina were in the library reading books, and Erwest had gone somewhere with Valeria. Kaelan, similarly, was busy with some work. Noah, finding himself without much to do, had decided to spend some time training.

Hed found a sparring chamber relatively quickly out in the training fields. A dojo-like space with wooden board floors and mage lighting setup on the walls. The marks and dents on the floor denoted that the place was used to practice hand to hand combat, and other similar sparring sessions. Noah had been slightly concerned that a wooden floor would break if he was too rough with things, but to his surprise had found the floor extremely sturdy, despite the lack of any visible magical spell fortifying it.

Tony shifted at his command, his black overcoat sleeves receding, leaving him topless as he stretched his muscles, feeling them quiver in anticipation. The training Kaelan had put them through had certainly not been gentle, and with all the overtime sparring sessions Noah had done with Aurelia and the others, even his modified body had demanded he rest.

But now that he had given himself that much needed rest, he was in better physical shape than ever before. There was a mirror in the sparring room, mounted on the wall with what seemed like a spell to keep the surface clean. Noah walked in front of the mirror to look at himself.

There were no scars on his body despite everything he had put it through. No marks, and no indications of the torture he regularly put himself under. His muscles looked both firm and soft at the same time, but for how lean his body and build was, he filled out his figure quite well.

He also couldnt be too certain, but he had a sinking suspicion that he was becoming more attractive the more he leveled up. His jawline was more refined, and his abs were firm enough to bend steel. It was a little surreal to look at himself right now. Noah had never been unfit. Never been fat. But there was a world of difference between being fit and having the body of a model. His proportions didnt exactly make sense either, the strongest of people didnt look like this, and he had to wonder if the system adjusted his physique to suit what he thought looked good. His charisma sub attribute had also gone up by one to D7.

Quite the introspection. Are you gonna kiss yourself now? His shadow specter swirled, manifesting in front of him. Noah rolled his eyes. He didnt particularly care how he looked, and neither did any monster that would be looking to make him into a good meal.

But it doesnt hurt to be hot, the shadow added, reading his thoughts.

You unnerve me sometimes, Noah said, looking at his shadow.

Probably because Im you. Its weird to hear your own voice from someone else isnt it? Now imagine knowing that you arent actually yourself but instead just a copy, its definitely an experience, Ill tell you that, the shadow said, an evil glint flashing across its eyes, like it was sayingIll murder you if you arent on your toesbut Noah knew the jokes for what they were by now. The shadow specter was bound to him, they were part of the same entity. If Noah died, the shadow would die with him.

And hed had a dozen or more chances to kill him already. But had never made any indications of doing so. The specter had been very docile and had mostly kept to himself. Although every now and then when they were alone, he would come out to chat.

Ignoring the specter, Noah opened up his Astral Script.

Astral Script:

Name: Noah Brown

Race: Draconian Humanoid

Rank: D

Title: [Titan Slayer]

Paths:

Wyrmblood Guardian (Legendary) - level 129

Runebody Arcanist (Legendary) - level 128

Abyssal Predator (Legendary) - level 130

Attributes:

Power: 938 [1125]

Agility: 808 [969]

Constitution: 853 [1151]

Mystic: 878 [1185]

Attribute points: 0

Skill Points: 1

All four of his attributes were nearing the thousand mark as their base. The amount of attributes he gained per level was downright insane. Just in raw power, he was already stronger than Aurelia unless she was using her berserker abilities, and even then, Noahs metamorphosis meant in nine out of ten matches, he would most likely win. Erwest was trickier, the paladins holy powers countering his void abilities quite thoroughly, but Noah still didnt see himself losing in a confrontation.

The fact that just a month ago, winning against either wouldve been a difficult task told him just how fast he was growing. It wasnt like the others had stopped progressing either. He was simply that much faster than them.

Noah pulled up his skill and ability upgrades. A myriad of notifications appeared, almost every ability having gone up by a few levels since last time. Having three full sets of legendary abilities meant it took that much more work to level each of them up, but Noah had managed to keep his pace up.

He ignored most of the abilities, picking out the one he was most interested in.

Weapon Mastery level 13 18

That was the biggest change that had happened so far. Training with Kaelan and focusing on his spear had made his weapon mastery go up by five levels in a single month, pushing it faster than ever before.

Noah had distinctly felt the difference as well. His connection to his spear had increased, and he was much more in tune with the weapon. But, due to the broad nature of the skill, it wasnt just his spear skills that had increased. As weapon mastery went up, Noah had automatically found himself gaining insights on how to better use others weapons.

Armaments could summon any weapon, and Noah had found himself using swords, bows, shields, gauntlets, daggers and anything and everything in between with a much greater degree of skill, like the skill itself was guiding him and correcting any mistakes he might be making.

It made him excited. As much as he liked his spear, he definitely would not mind expanding his arsenal a little bit more. Right now the only two primary weapons he used were his spear and his claws, with everything else acting as a support role, or his clones using the weapons to act as distractions. But if he could master multiple weapons, he could switch between them with ease and vary his fighting style drastically.

Noah looked down at his arms, summoning his runic chains. The chains unraveled from his forearms, manifested with glowing runes as they glistened in power. An idea began to bud in his head, but there would be more testing and practice required before he could really put it to good use.

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He de-summoned the chains, looking at his Astral script as he pulled up his sub attributes.

Power: C8 C9

Agility: B0

Constitution: B2

Mystic: C6 C8

His power and mystic sub attributes had gone up. Noah had definitely felt the difference, and given that those two were his primary attributes, any increase in the sub attributes meant he felt the difference significantly.

And yet, there was still a long way to go before he was ready for the Dragon Warriors trial. He had no doubt that his competition would be fierce, and if he wanted to win, hed need to continue progressing at a rapid rate.

Noah looked at the shadow specter lounging around without a care.

Were sparring, Noah announced to the specter, who simply looked back at him and grinned.

Reaching inside his dimensional space, Noah pulled out his spear before tossing it to the shadow. The specter raised an eyebrow in question.

Are you sure? He asked.

Yup, Noah replied. He reached out to Tony, the communication between them now wordless and in sync as the symbiote recreated his clothes, but this time instead of a long leather like jacket, he wore dark armor that covered his skin, with muscular fibers woven into it that seamlessly flowed around his body, hardening bony materials that glistened like obsidian. Tony continued to move across Noahs body, rising up to his face as his dark tendrils flowed all around him, giving him a particularly demonic look.

Noah flexed his claws, before slowly asking the symbiote to reduce the coverage of the armor. Tony shivered once, slightly confused at the command, but obeyed. His claws changed back to fingers, the armor now receding to be more light, only covering his body like a simple albeit still pitch black piece of leather armor.

With a nod, Noah let his chains manifest wrapped around his forearms and in his hands. He bound the weapons around his knuckles, being able to freely control their motion. He raised his fists in a stance, regarding the shadow, whose eyes widened with understanding.

Ah, so thats how this is, the shadow said, understanding the premise of the spar. They would both be working on their respective weaknesses, while trying to learn from the other. There was nothing as good as being able to spar yourself for finding weaknesses in your fighting style.

The specter aimed the spear towards him, and then without the need for any signal, the two began.

The specter thrust the spear forward and Noah used the chains to block the blades strike. Sparks flew from the impact as Noah guarded himself from the attack with his hand while rushing in closer.

Weapon mastery guided him as he unwound the chain on his left hand, swinging it forward in an arc towards the specters head. The specter blinked away, dodging the strike before another thrust came at his back. Noah blinked back in response and a dance of engagements and teleports began between the two, like a game of rock paper scissors, the outcomes were determined within an instant, and then reset as one or both participants teleported to dodge the strike, before reengaging with the battle.

The dance of combat continued between the two, both each others exact match. Both familiar with one anothers abilities to the fullest extent and capable of replicating it. The outcome for victory would be decided in a single instant, and yet neither relented in their battles.

Weapon mastery guided Noahs movements, each action he took now more precise. His chains moved like they had a mind of their own, wrapping around the spear, their suppression powers capable of resisting the rot on the weapon as he pulled the specter towards him. The specter rushed in, not pulling away or resisting, knowing they were equal in strength and instead using the momentum to try and kick Noah in the gut to free the spear, but Noah was prepared, he angled his chains, catching the feet of the specter as he pulled at the spear, this time making the specter go off balance.

With both hands tied and in an awkward grabble Noah used the only thing he could and slammed his head against the specter as hard as he could.

The impact resounded with a crack, both participants stumbling backwards from the shock. Noah felt blood drip down his forehead onto his cheeks before it burned away in steam from the residual heat rising from his body as Abyssal Inferno churned inside. Wyrmblood meant the injury was healed before it had even had a chance to open properly.

The shadow similarly stumbled, though no blood came from him, the specter entirely ethereal on the inside.

Both combatants panted, both had been an equal match to the other. Noah let his chains dissolve away, extending a hand towards the shadow.

The shadow looked at the offered hand, before grasping it in a shake.

Reminds me of my high school days, Noah said.

Those bullies were never this mature after we kicked their asses though, Shadow replied as the two of them snickered over the shared memory.

Noah checked his abilities, slightly disappointed to see no level ups, but there was more to combat than merely levels. He was much better at using the chains now, and there were budding insights in his head about the flaws in his own spear usage that he had seen with the shadow specter. He would meditate on those tonight. And he had a feeling that after he did, he might just see a level up in his weapon mastery skill.

As Noah thought over what insights he could draw from this spar, his Shadow gave him a hesitant glance.

What? Noah asked. It wasnt like him to be shy.

So, Ive been thinking about this and, dont take this the wrong way

Sounds ominous.

Im definitely still you and all that but Ive been thinking that it would be nice to have my own name.

Noah looked at the specter in surprise.

I know, it sounds weird, and I didnt think it would bother me this much. But like, Im you but Im also not entirely you am I? Right now, Im just the shadow or the specter or what have you and I thought that was fine, but I definitely also kinda feel like having my own name my own identity would be nice. Even if Im still a part of you. A bit like Tony, the shadow said.

Noah cupped his chin, humming in thought. Well, I suck at names. I would call you shadow but Im afraid thats been taken already.

The specter chuckled. Yeah, tell me about it. My whole shtick is not even unique!

Noah thought a little bit more. Dark Noah?

The specter cringed visibly.

Yeah, never mind. Im not good at this. But Ill try to think of something. I dont mind giving you a name. I just never did because you have my face and everything so it felt weird.

Yeah, no, I get it. I really get it. Not being yourself while also being the identical copy of someone is strange. But Ive been telling myself that were kinda like twins. Similar but not the same, and inseparably tied together. Though in our case thats also literal, the shadow said.

Yeah, I can see that. Hmm. A twin. Well, its not like we can ask mom to name you.

Yeah on that topic. Since souls are real and magic is real do you think that

I dont know, Noah interjected. Hed definitely had the thought before. But this wasnt Earth. There was no reason his mother or her soul would be here. So if she was somewhere, it would be on Earth, or wherever souls went after people died there.

He hoped it wasnt the void.

Footsteps echoed from nearby, and a moment later the gate to the sparring chamber opened with a thud. Shadow NoahThat still felt awkward but it was better than everything else Noah had thought ofhad already melted back into Noahs body, assimilating with his shadow.

Kaelan stood on the other end of the door, looking inside curiously.

You were sparring by yourself? The draconian man raised an eyebrow.

Uh, yeah, just some mild training, Noah said.

Alright. well, The rest of us are going out into the city to explore a little, before having some food. Remember the steak place I talked about that had the best stuff from anywhere? I managed to get a spot for us there, even though it typically needs a reservation week prior ahead in time. You wanna join us? Kaelan asked.

Noah adjusted his coat, which Tony had reformed without him even needing to askNo matter how often he said this, it wasnt enough. Tony was the bestas he walked up to the man. At the mention of food, Noahs stomach let out an audible grumble and though he really didnt need to eat food anymore, working out still raised his appetite.

I suppose thats answer enough, Kaelan said with a smile.

Noah grinned back in response.

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