Beyond The System
Chapter 177: Friendly Teacher

Luna and the others kept chatting a little longer, mostly teasing and light banter, but eventually, she relented and gave control back to me.

Thea had already drifted a short distance away, finding her own space to recover and train after the fight. Elric and I stayed seated, the sand still warm beneath us, the fire behind us crackling low. We talked for a bit, nothing serious at first, until the conversation naturally shifted.

Eventually, the words thinned out, replaced by the slow hush of the rising tide and the rhythmic crash of waves just beyond the shoreline.

“You know… I think you should be able to wipe the floor with us,” Elric said, flicking a shell off into the dark, scattering a spray of sand.

“I’ve been told,” I muttered. “But yeah. I mean… it’s hard to go all-out when it’s you guys.”

He shook his head slowly.

“We don’t need to go crazy. That’s not what I’m saying,” he clarified, gesturing vaguely with both hands. “I mean we should focus on what actually makes us better. For you, it's stuff like having your senses shut down. Or Griffith’s terrain manipulation. That’s the kind of stuff that throws you off. Makes you overcomplicate the fight.”

I let out a groan and fell back into the sand. “Yeeeah. And your brother’s thing too. It’s like he knows exactly what someone’s going to do before they do it.”

Elric’s jaw tightened. His hand curled into a fist. “Yep… And that horned bastard.”

I glanced up at him, still sprawled out. “Heard you got pretty angry over that. Thanks, by the way.”

“Maybe I’m going soft,” he muttered. “But it’s just like back in the State. In those arena matches. What you said. Once someone’s beaten, what’s the point of grinding them down more? Just to humiliate Serith?”

He punched the sand beside him, frustration written all over him. “And her too. Strong or not, she came here for help, for your help, and still let that happen. You really think she had to go along with it? All she had to do was bring you in, let you register as her champion, then walk out. But no. She—”

“Dude,” I cut in, sitting up.

He froze, chest heaving, eyes still hot with leftover anger.

“Honestly it’s alright,” I said, voice low. “Really. And again… thanks. It wasn't fun, but it opened my eyes. Showed me people like Kris, like Serith. Others like her. On her level. And she’s not even at the top.”

I shifted, brushing off some sand. “Now. What do you think’s a good way to spar?”

He took a few long breaths, working the tension out of his shoulders. “Well, using Spiritual Sense is already a solid idea. Even for me,” he added, starting to brag again, “splitting my vision like that? Still weird. Throws me off.”

I forced myself upright, mostly recovered. “So I had one good idea. What else you got?”

He stood too, cracking his neck. “Going hard’s fine, but not the point. We can’t simulate full pressure with just two people, but in a group? We try combinations. Two on one. Then later, two on two. One of us disorients, the other focuses on pressuring the main target.”

He looked at me pointedly. “That is what we’re up against, right?”

I nodded. There was, after all, only one legged, cultivating-serpent.

“Then we go further,” he continued, leveling a finger at me. “Three on one. All pressure, no breaks. Don’t rely on technique. Don’t rely on power. Not even strategy. Pure reaction. Over and over until you could wipe the floor with anyone... Except me, obviously.”

Of course he had to say that.

“Maybe I should’ve made you a teacher in our sect instead,” I said, grinning as I shifted into a fighting stance again.

“One last thing,” he added, and a faint shimmer spread around him. A dome forming like heat distortion. “Those gloves of yours. They’re weird. That purple glow? That’s one thing, but the claws are definitely Water Force. We need to test what they’re actually doing at some point. Both effects.”

The dome was stronger than I remembered. I stared at the field around him, surprised at how dense it seemed.

I told you before, Wyrem murmured in my mind. He’s even closer now.

“Try to focus on tagging me, Peter. No distractions. No needles. No explosions. Just your body,” he said, his tone firm and focused.

As he tensed, blades formed around him. Fractured and gleaming gold, each one spinning with deliberate menace.

“Oh. And I do want to put pressure on you, but no kill you,” he added almost too casually. “So… I’ll use the blunt ends.”

I eyed the whirling blades and raised a brow. Blunt ends? That assumed the sword fragments even had a blunt side.

He lunged a second later, no more warning than that.

I didn’t resist. I let him come.

I sent my Spiritual Sense upward, and the world went black. Not completely. There was still that tether of awareness. But it it started to shrink, changing from a provider of to something more subtle. More like feeling the pressure of my surroundings.

I summoned the gloves. Every hair on my neck stood up as I turned, raising a palm instinctively.

Something slammed into it.

The impact staggered me, my foot carving a line in the sand as I skidded back. Another blade followed, and then another. Elric pressed in hard, forcing me to move.

A pulse ran up my spine, another incoming strike.

I ducked low, rolling beneath it just as the wind carved over my head. I felt it miss me by inches.

More pressure off to the left.

I brought up my forearm and took the hit directly, the shock traveling down my arm, bones humming from the force.

“Arg!”

The pain shot deep, bones shifting, tendons stretching too far, Elric's ability inflicting damage without obvious destruction. Just raw, unfiltered pain, and it was stronger than the last time we fought.

Before I could even find my footing again, three more of his signature bee-like shards screamed toward me. I twisted hard, evading two, but the last clipped my side.

The sting was sharp and immediate, spreading along my ribs.

So much for “blunt.”

You’re doing better, but now you’re just running, Wyrem said flatly, at least sparing me a tangent this time.

But he wasn’t wrong.

And in that moment, between the attacks and the buzz of adrenaline, I noticed something.

Elric hadn’t actually weakened my Spiritual Sense. Not entirely. It hadn’t been shut down. More… compressed. Pulled in tight like a coiled spring, shrinking the range but the clarity only shifted. A change I suspected was intentional.

And that was good.

I couldn’t see the battlefield anymore. Not the whole of it. No overhead vision, no sweeping awareness of distant threats. But everything within that close range? It was sharp. Every attack was felt before it landed. The only thing stopping me now my own speed and instinct.

It wasn’t weakened, but focused.

A blur of motion crossed my side. A hand. I leaned back, letting it pass just inches from my torso.

Another blade screamed toward me, but I didn’t dodge.

I reached up and caught it.

The golden metal twisted in my grip, trying to wrench itself free, but I held on.

Elric pressed forward, giving me no space to reset. I sensed the next move coming, his hand driving in low.

I lifted my leg and kicked downward into what I assumed was his knee. The force knocked it back to the sand.

“Rrrg.”

Pain bloomed again, but for a brief moment, he faltered. And that was all I needed.

I shot forward two quick steps, and shot my fist out.

It hit a barrier, something thick and hard, but the glove’s spikes did their job, grinding through until they tore it apart.

My fist slammed into his center mass causing him to stumble, thrown off balance.

Behind me, two more blades, both aimed at my head, were inbound.

I threw the blade I’d caught, sending it spinning toward one, and shifted my body to avoid the second, but it curved after me.

A third came from the side, aiming for my leg.

And something else closed in low, chest-level.

Well... technically I may have cheated, breaking the rule against using abilities. But honestly, two sharp fragments at my face, one at my leg, and something else about to spike me in the ribs?

I wasn’t interested in being skewered.

Sooo, one of the strongest Silencing Currents I’d ever unleashed erupted from me, sweeping outward with a snap of force. Every blade, every fragment, every hazard flying my way was blasted back. In the same breath, sensation returned with sight first, then sound, all slamming back into me at once like the world had rebooted.

“Ahh!” Elric shouted, voice pitched high with shock. “COLD! Gods, that’s cold! Peter, you bas—”

“I win,” I declared, standing tall, puffing out my chest with pride.

“M—M—MAKE A FIRE, YOU BASTARD!” he roared, shivering, frost clinging to the ends of his hair. The sweat that had coated his skin had flash-frozen.

His anger felt wildly unnecessary in my opinion, but I still hurried to the firepit, grabbing the two flint stones from earlier. The old lessons kicked in, and within moments, sparks jumped and caught.

Elric trailed after me, arms wrapped tightly around himself, shoulders trembling as he sniffled dramatically.

“I—I—I—Damn it!”

It took everything I had not to burst out laughing. The way he stammered from the cold… he couldn’t even curse properly.

The fire caught quickly, fueled by remnants from earlier, and it wouldn’t be hard to add more if needed.

After a few seconds of glaring at the flames like he was trying to will himself not to dive in, Elric finally relaxed, his shoulders easing, tension draining away with each flicker of warmth.

“I thought I was sly,” he muttered, still hugging himself. “But you’re terrible. We had rules.”

“Sore loser,” I said, completely unrepentant, still basking in the glow of victory.

He chuckled despite himself. “True. But you still cheated.”

You did, Luna chimed in, no hesitation at all.

Cheating isn’t real in battle, Wyrem countered smoothly. Remember, Luna, always go all out. If your opponent survives once, who knows how much they’ll grow after.

…Good point, she conceded after a pause. Poison really is the best in the end.

Maybe that teacher-student relationship of theirs was more civil than I gave it credit for. Then again, the advice still felt a little… off.

But, I was totally fine being a poor winner.

“A great and wise being once told me, ‘There is no cheating in battle,’” I said aloud, quoting the self-declared sage... dragon… worm? Whatever he was.

Elric shook his head and stretched his arms toward the fire, soaking in the heat like it was life itself.

“Sure, man. Tell yourself whatever you need to.”

“Back at you.”