'He's taking longer than usual' The asura scrunched up his eyes which were fixated on Raith.
It stayed locked on him even as his body began to dematerialize into black smoke.
Alerted at the sudden change in Raith's method of resurrection the asura jumped a few meters backward, his leg only touching the ground twice, leaving the smoke to loom on the ground away from him.
'What is this?' He questioned, his pupils dilated and his nose wrinkled with caution, he was briskly scrutinizing the smoke as it flowed around a certain space, he had to be sure he wasn't missing something.
"Rise, Jarvis."
He raised his head to the direction where the voice came from and behold Raith was standing on the roof, Raith grinned at him like a ghost.
The asura immediately leaped up but he made a mistake, his mistake was taking his eyes off that looking smoke. Even though he had leaped he found himself unable to reach Raith, more like something was stopping him.
Wham!
Smash!
A network of cracks spread across the floor like shattered glass as he was slammed into the ground with great force. Above him was standing a knight cladded in shadowy Armour but was more realistic and sturdy now.
There was nothing special about Jarvis in terms of appearance apart from his distinguished helm, the red blazing gaze that shone off the visor of his helmet which was like prison bars. And his fire-nation army pauldron and behind him was a long greatsword.
The asura grimaced as he raised his head a bit without standing up, that slam hurt a bunch, and pain screamed all through his back.
'What is this? I can feel a malicious aura from it... as if it is dead but alive, indefinable.' The asura mulled over the definition of the existence that stood before him.
Thud
Raith landed on the ground in front of Jarvis.
Egard-Hearl immediately disappeared and appeared three meters away from him, his eyes looking at the part of Raith's body that was just materializing into flesh.
'He diffused into smoke and a bit of that smoke must have gone up the moment I jumped away...' He could instantly deduct that much from just looking, he was intelligent, unlike someone.
But what he couldn't explain was this thing that stood in front of him. Jarvis.
As far as he was concerned Jarvis was more dangerous than even Raith who stood in front of him. The only thing he could tell about Jarvis was an overwhelming malicious aura that he was made of.
'A dead should be a dead, a dead should be definable. That is the basic law of every universal composition but this guy here defies that law. An unexplainable phenomenon, as if someone is manipulating death.' His gaze shifted back to Raith.
'No, it can't be him... he is too naive and young to control such a powerful existence.' He deliberated in his head.
Apart from Jarvis just being a death soldier, which bothered him, he could also tell something more.
The knight was just standing with legs apart, his hand opened and arms a little bit curved such that he would pull out his sword in just a single backward swing of his hand.
'I can't find any openings...'
Jarvis was standing in a perfect position, a position that allowed him to instantly switched between attack and defense mode and effectively carry out not just one but a sequence of attacks. The asura could tell that much because he had battled several martial art-oriented asuras.
Unlike Raith whose stance was filled with openings, this death knight was much more cautious.
"I don't have time to waste. I was being stubborn before, but then I figured... why do I have to be stubborn when I can simply defeat you along with my minion"
He saw no shame in admitting that he couldn't defeat the asura on his own, at least not now. He was already mentally tired from the trial and [Multiple Cognitive Resonance] was not working as it normally should, his visions were blurry and he was spacing out momentarily, that was what he felt happened when the asura used gravity pull on him.
And so he was going to finish this quickly with the help of Jarvis and get a good twenty hours of sleep.
"Are you ready?" He asked, bringing out the white katana from his inventory.
Jarvis nodded and stepped forward swinging out his long sword.
"Now let us start"
Wham!
Raith didn't foresee, this.
Actually, he had never really used Jarvis in battle ever since he was summoned, and he decided to use him now because he was ranked the strongest during his evaluation– apart from Fenrir.
Raith was dazed, his hair danced around with the blast of wind that was expelled the moment Jarvis charged forward before he could even move.
Kang
Kang
Kang
In that instance, the asura had unfolded a golden sword out of space and was effectively blocking all the strikes that Jarvis lunged at him no matter the angle.
Raith stood dazed as sparks flew into the air, Jarvis' legs were widely spread as though they could tear anytime soon but it maintained that stance and endlessly swung and twisted in attack patterns at the asura without moving an inch from that position.
Raith was amazed.
'How?-
He suddenly jacked back to reality and narrowed his eyes, "This only means I have to give it my best shot and surpass him as a leader right"
It was not okay that Jarvis was stronger than him, that hurt his pride as the leader. But what can he do about that than surpass the death knight?
He swung forward like a spring and as Jarvis attacked from the front, he circled from behind–
Egard did see him but sparing Raith a tiny bit of attention could cost him his head– that was how threatening Jarvis was.
Another mistake he dared to make was to underestimate Raith and give less thought to him.
In a swift motion, Raith lunged his sword back, aiming for the asura's back. Having sensed the attack in time, Egard-Hearl spun around blocking Raith's sword with his– the clash of steel echoed through the enclosed darkness as both of them locked blades, Raith could feel the strain of the impact as Egard-Hearl pushed against him with all his might but he was more than enough to handle it.
He was tempted to increase his strength stat but refused the temptation. He wanted to give this his best shot like this, not changing anything.
Jarvis swung in from below, an arc that was aimed at slicing the asura's arm into the sky but with fast reflexes, Egard-Hearl deflected the attack and immediately launched a counter, with barely enough time to dodge, the sword whistled past Jarvis tilted head.
WHAM!
Raith squinted a punch into the asura's side from behind causing him to fold in that direction and blasting him into the wall.
Egard-Hearl got out immediately but before he could prepare to run the two of them were already dashing at him, in perfect unison, before now it was as if Raith was trying to feel in whatever space was left of the fight between him and Jarvis but with that sudden punch a lot changed.
To him, Raith changed.
'This bastard is growing?'
That was what Egard-Hearl saw.
The main ability of [Multiple Cognitive Resonance] which was to take in information, analyze and execute tasks at a tremendous rate turned out to be super effect when Raith was taking the recess to observe the fight between the asura and his death knight to be able to move at the same pace.
He put pride aside to learn.
Even the way they moved their leg as they ran, everything was in sync– it was a fast growth and shouldn't be possible for a mortal.
That was how Egard-Hearl thought. Sure he had been impressed by Raitb before but with this, his view of Raith had gone beyond that of any mortal he had ever met.
'Not even him was this good' His mind raced with excitement and fear at the same time, it was hard to pick one of the two.
He felt so excited at the thought of someone with the capability to grow so much in such a short time and he feared for his own defeat.
Their synergy was as if they had trained together for years, so seamless as they pressed a ferocious attack on him, Raith feinted left and spun right his white katana slicing through the air in a deadly arc. Jarvis darted forward with a solid darkness body, flickering and his blade striking from behind.
Egard-Hearl tried his best to keep up but it was harder when the two of them flowed like water, Raith's eyes were fixated on Jarvis' movement and was responding as he moved while Jarvis responded to Raith's next movement and the asura was just caught in between all of that.
Raith launched a flurry of quick strikes, his sword whistling through the air. Jarvis danced in and out of the melee, his movements like a blur of shadow and steel.
Egard-Hearl responded with a series of heavy attacks from his golden sword, but Raith or Jarvis was always one step ahead, it wasn't as if he was fighting with two Jarvis, it was as if he was fighting with a present Jarvis and a future Jarvis, they moved in perfect synchronization. Raith jumped back with his sword held low as Jarvis darted forward with a quick jab.
Egard-Hearl blocked the blow but Raith charged in lightning reflex, he swung high his sword and was about to descend it upon the asura but seeing that Egard-Hearl had shifted one eye to him even though he had just blocked Jarvis' blow Raith switched mid-air and rotated into a kick as he landed— Egard-Hearl's hands were raised for a block but Raith had missed... on purpose.
Egard-Hearl let out a smirk of joy but didn't see what was coming for him, Raith immediately spun around as he was on the ground and launched a kick into the asura's chest which was free to use since he was just bringing down his hands. It all happened so fast that the asura couldn't resist complimenting Raith's reaction speed.
'Amazing' His eyes glittered as he was thrown away from them.
Seizing the moment Jarvis strike a big thrust into the asura as he was mid-air, plunging his sword into him as he smashed his back against the wall.
"Amazing... Truly amazing!" The asura complimented from behind with three claps.
