Thud!
Pushing the wooden staff he had picked up once more into the ground, Jekyll gestured for Valyr to distance himself a couple meters of away from him, which the latter promptly did.
"Alright." With the two nodding at one another to signify that both of them were ready, Jekyll had a slight grin on his face as he opened his mouth. "Before we truly go ahead with this, let me ask you one more time."
"Are you sure you wanna do this?" he asked, focusing all of his attention on Valyr's face.
"Well, I did say earlier that it would be more interesting if we did this once my eyes have transformed." Chuckling, Valyr nodded. "Since that's the case, I won't go back on what I've said. I am a man of my word, after all."
"If you say so," said Jekyll in response, a grin still adorning his face.
"Anyways, to make this more even, feel free to choose any weapon you want to use from the weapon rack there." After that, Jekyll briefly looked at the spear behind Valyr's back before pointing at the weapon rack where he had gotten his wooden staff, causing Valyr to look at it for a bit as he thought about the side effect that came with the curse.
'I definitely wouldn't be able to use my spear... or any spear for that matter,' thought Valyr to himself as he recalled what had happened in the Shadow Plane, appearing in front of the weapon rack sometime later. Rubbing his chin for a bit as he continued to look, he eventually decided to pick up a wooden longsword, only for a frown to appear on his face.
"Mngh..." Letting out a faint groan, Valyr felt a wave of pain wash over his body as his back began to glow a faint crimson. Not long after, small strands of crimson energy stemming from the mark on his back began to course through his body, all of which made their way to the wooden longsword he was holding.
"Haah..." Having gone through the process once, Valyr had seemed to build up some sort of resistance to the process, causing him to let out a sigh of relief as the pain began to subside.
However, most of his attention was still fixated on the wooden longsword before him, which now took on a tinge of crimson, its aesthetic now appearing to be slightly inspired by the form of spiders.
'Guess the side effect applies to any physical weapon.' Reminding himself that he would need to alleviate or remove the curse at some point even though he unexpectedly gained something from it, Valyr placed the transformed longsword to the side as he began to make his way back where he previously stood.
"You're not gonna use a weapon?" Seeing that the young man had not chosen a weapon from the rack, Jekyll looked at the spear on Valyr's back once more before deciding to ask a question out of curiosity.
"It would be more correct to say I'm discouraged from using one." In response, Valyr flashed a bitter smile at the man before pointing at the longsword he had inadvertently transformed.
"Huh." Furrowing his brows for a bit, Jekyll went ahead and grabbed the longsword Valyr had picked up earlier, only to begin feeling that he was slowly losing his strength.
Frowning, he put the longsword down and used his identification skill to get a better look at what was going on.
"A curse, huh." Surprisingly, Jekyll got to the crux of the matter, finally realizing why Valyr did not choose to wield the blood red spear on his back. "Whoever cast this curse on you is definitely ruthless."
"You can definitely say that again." Hearing Jekyll's words, Valyr wryly smiled, watching as the former returned to his spot from earlier.
"So, will you be relying on hand-to-hand combat during our small game? Or will you be relying on something else?" Seeing as there seemed to be no other way around Valyr's restriction on weapons, Jekyll decided to ask the young man what he planned on doing.
"I guess I'll use magic." As he replied to the question, Valyr conjured a small bolt out of mana, prompting Jekyll to nod in response.
"Alright then." Feeling a bit more at ease with Valyr having access to another form of combat, Jekyll began to go through the rules and conditions of their small game one more time. "Once again, the goal is for you to land a hit on me. As long as you do that, it would be considered your win."
"Naturally, since you declined my suggestion from earlier, I am allowed to fight back against any attempts at hitting me, as well as defend against any attempts at me." At these words, Jekyll let out a slightly mischievous chuckle.
"Of course, to somewhat even out the playing field, you're allowed to use any of your skills at your own discretion, whether it be buffing skills, illusion skills, stealth skills and so on," Jekyll continued. "On the other hand, I am not allowed to use any of my skills. However, I am allowed to use the Intent I've comprehended."
"Now that I think about it, the condition for you winning is more along the lines of you landing a hit on me, or you forcing me to use a skill," said Jekyll not long after. "Actually... that seems more fair."
"Let's go with that, then." Making up his mind on what the conditions of Valyr's win were, Jekyll soon began to count the two of them down, allowing them to prepare themselves for what was basically a deadly game of chase.
"3... 2... 1..."
"Go!"
"[Limit Break]!"
"[Rage of the Nascent Wyvern]!"
"[Intermediate Wind Magic Style: Cascading Tempest]!"
Whoosh!
As if the young man was waiting for the go signal all this time, Valyr swiftly activated a series of buffing skills, enhancing his stats by a significant degree to even out the playing field even further. Not long after, he dashed towards Jekyll as he began to conjure blades of crimson flame on both hands, hoping to catch the latter off guard.
"Color me surprised." Jekyll chuckled, stepping back a couple of times to dodge the blades of crimson flame Valyr had thrown at him. "If I didn't know any better, I would've thought you were already at Rank 4, perhaps even the middle of Rank 4."
"Thanks for the... compliment!" Giving Jekyll a slightly maniacal grin in response, Valyr began to throw more and more blades of crimson flame at the man, hoping to overwhelm the former to the point he would be forced to use a skill.
"So, that's how you're going to go about it, eh?" Faintly smiling as he deflected a considerable portion of the blades heading his way with his wooden staff, Jekyll's expression gradually turned calm as his aura slowly began to disappear.
"Well, let me just remind you that..."
"I am free to use my Intent."
…
…
…
"Intent of Lightning."
