Lone: The Wanderer [Rewrite]
Book 3: Chapter 82: Charged Comet and Worth Mine

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 9.

"Oh?" Lone stopped as he was opening the front door to his Spirit Pavilion's central building.

Grimsley raised an annoyed eyebrow. He was still pissed off that Lone had removed all of the alcohol and its effect from his system when they had left the dwarf's forge.

He didn't mind having a drink and catching up but he needed Grimsley for serious work, and despite his protests, the dwarf did not work better drunk than he did while sober.

"Matriarch Lossa is here," Lone answered the unasked question. "You really gotta rank up, eh, short-ass?"

"An' ye've got tae shut up, eh, smart-ass?" Grimsley fired back. "Ah've plenty ah time. Ah've also nae need fer sensing others' auras."

"You say that but one of these days you're gotta tell an S-ranker to go fuck himself and his ego'll demand your death," Lone shrugged. "Even if you can apply your Strength, you're still just a C-ranker."

Grimsley snorted. "Ye worry tae much. If all it takes fae an S-ranker to kill me is a bad attitude, then the feck's the point ah livin'? Ah ain't gonna be tip-toein' around every random fecker's feelin's."

Lone shook his head as he followed Breena and Lossa's auras to the pavilion's training courtyard. "Whatever you say, man. I assume a lot of people are used to the brashness of dwarves, but I'd really rather not have to get revenge for you because you ran your mouth."

Grimsley grinned widely. "Ah, but ye would get revenge fer me, wouldn't ya?"

"'Course I would. What good's a friend if he doesn't avenge you, even if your murder was wholly justified, eh?" Lone replied with a smirk.

"Ain't 'at the truth? Noo dinnae ye gae dyin' afor me. It'd be feckn' miserable bustin' ma ass oof tae get strong 'nuff tae deal wae whatever could take yer self-healin' Primal-hostin' arse doon," Grimsley said with a full belly laugh.

"No promises," Lone replied.

He soon spied Breena and Lossa who had both stopped what they were doing - some sort of illusion magic training, or, no, it was their racial skill Flickering Identity - to look his and Grimsley's way.

Breena rushed towards the two of them and it almost seemed like she was going to hug Lone but stopped just in front of him. "W-Welcome back..."

'Huh.' Lone reached out a hand and patted her head twice gently before replying in a questioning tone, "Had fun with Matriarch Lossa, did you, Sarah?"

Breena fidgeted a bit. "She, uh, she knows... Um, I mean, I told her I know she, em, y-y'know, knows..."

"You're letting me know that she knows that you know that she knows?" Lone asked. He quickly smirked when he saw a slightly confused look enter Breena's eyes.

"Well now you know that I know that you know that she knows that you know. And Grimsley knows-"

"Feckin' whisht! Enuff jabberin' about feckin' noses, 'specially mine," Grimsley grumbled.

Lone nodded. "It is quite large. Doesn't really need to be mentioned when it takes up so much focus passively, eh?"

"Cheeky bastard," Grimsley laughed. "So, what'dya need 'elp wae?"

"Like I said earlier, some magic trinkets, but first... Lossa, wanna spar?" Lone asked the matriarch who had silently been smiling at his interaction with her granddaughter.

She looked a bit surprised at his request. "I... don't see the point. You are my superior in combat. I may be a SSS-ranker, but I just reached this rank a couple of months ago and I could not survive my great-grandaunt's onslaught as you did."

"That was a fight to preserve my life, not a spar," Lone pointed out. "I can make it worth your while? I mean, I consider you a friend but there's no harm in a simple bet. The only defensive skill I'll use is Blood Clone, and I won't apply my Agility, but you're free to use whatever you want, even applied stats if you have 'em. If you win the spar, name your price. If I win, you arrange a meeting for me with the local elders."

"Ye can apply yer Agility noo?" Grimsley asked.

"Yup. Learned how to when I pissed off an X-ranker," Lone happily replied.

"Ye're feckin' insane," the dwarf grumbled. "An' 'e 'as the gall tae say ah'll get maself killed..."

"... Make the clan your permanent home if I win. Is that too much to ask, perhaps?" Matriarch Lossa suggested.

'Well now... Ah. I see. She wants me to stay here so Breena stays here. Selfish, but my reward for winning is entirely motivated by my selfish desire to squeeze skills outta the local elders, so I can't blame her,' Lone thought. He then nodded. "Sure."

He then controlled one of his three Blood Clones, making it detach from his skin under his shirt to float around his head in a semi-liquid state, ready to automatically defend him from attacks.

Sofia didn't need her Blood Clone given she was inside The Summoning Room so Lone had made it cover all of his non-exposed skin under his clothes like a latex suit. The third Blood Clone, was, of course, coursing through his veins to allow easy and free control of his own body.

He took his place at one end of the training area while Lossa stood at the other. Breena and Grimsley got comfortable at the side of the training area.

"I know I said I am not your better, but I'm not to hold back at all?" Lossa questioned.

Lone nodded as he invoked Tail Spear silently. "Just don't try to decapitate me. I have trauma about that."

Lossa smiled wryly. "Of course."

She then waved her hand and an army of translucent beasts of all shapes and sizes appeared, filling the training area, all of which rushed towards him - some even used magic instead of attempting to physically harm him. The very next moment, Lossa raised both of her arms above her head and a ball of blue fire began congealing and growing as if she was conjuring up a small star.

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Lone grinned widely. "Now that is what I'm talkin' about!"

He quickly judged that the strange creatures attacking him could be ignored. Let them level and grant him new resistances was how he thought of them. They couldn't threaten him. The blue fireball the matriarch was empowering up, however, well, that was the real threat.

'I can feel the heat from here. Blue fire is about a quarter as hot as the surface of the sun, right? That's gonna ruin this training area unless it being magic changes something,' Lone thought.

He didn't so much as flinch as countless spells, claws, and teeth came raining down upon him from the strange beasts Lossa had summoned. Only a handful of the attacks had any effect on him. He did have to actively control his Blood Clone, however, to stop it from blocking all of these blows.

He felt a bit dizzy and some of his strength seemed to sap out of him, but it was negligible. Only a single physical attack had pieced his skin out of the dozens of them. He took the opportunity that presented itself to expel the Blood Clone in his veins and control it to protect Grimsley and Breena just in case. He didn't see himself needing fine control over his body in this fight.

He hadn't needed to dodge thus far and Lossa didn't appear to have a way to try to control or move him, so he was happy just standing still and soaking in the new skills and resistance levels.

'Blue fire is a bit hotter than your average lava and I was fine swallowing thrice refined demonic lava, which is surely more potent than normal lava. Yeah, there's no need for me to act yet. Make me move, Lossa. If you can't, then you're just giving me free skills and level ups,' Lone concluded.

'He's really not going to react?' Lossa thought, though most of her focus was on keeping her Charged Comet stable.

Magic was funny like that. It has so much more potential than physical skills but it was unique in that almost every spell could backfire if the host didn't have enough skill, talent, affinity, or luck to control the magic they were trying to employ.

Lossa wasn't sure Lone would sit still and let her use her most powerful skill on him. That was why she had started by using some spirit magic, specifically, the spell Favour Of The Favoured.

The spell allowed her to summon a projection of all of the spirit animals she had contracted with during her life. It had a three week cooldown at her current rank but she felt it was necessary to distract the man who had endured an onslaught from the clan's strongest member while she prepared her true attack.

'I underestimated him. He's barely being affected by the mimicked magic and their attacks. Some of those spirit animals are at A-rank and are strong enough to endanger even me if I'm not careful. He looks... disappointed and expectan- What did he just do?' Lossa grew cautious when she saw a stream of blood fly out of a tiny injury on his chest that had sealed itself just as soon as it had appeared.

'Another Blood Clone? Is he going to attack me wit- Oh. He's making it protect Breena and the dwarf? That's sweet but telling. He thinks my fire is more of an area explosion kind of attack that might affect them as well? Can I use that against him? Do I... want to? What will Breena think of me if I use such dirty tactics during a friendly spar?' Lossa worried.

She decided against it. It was certainly tempting to try to control him in this fight by pretending to threaten the two spectators, but yes, that was certainly beneath her as the matriarch of the clan and as Breena's grandmother.

'It's ready,' Lossa thought, feeling the power of her Charged Comet reaching its apex. 'I'll consider it a personal victory if he dodges. It's stronger than Great-Grandaunt Clari's Empowered Stream of Ezekial, certainly, but only in terms of pure firepower. He's crazy. He's very kind underneath that but he's definitely insane. He'll just take it to the face, won't he?'

She, of course, wasn't trying to be arrogant, but she was ready to rush to his aid if her spell somehow caused grievous harm to the young man. He had cured her of a hidden illness she never knew she had and he had also allowed her to push into the realm of the triple-S-rankers.

Before Lone had healed her and regressed all of her aging, the local elders were looking to replace her, now, however, they were tripping over themselves trying to curry favour with her to find out how, exactly, she had 'regained her immortality'. His grace had given her new troubles, yes, but also so much more freedom in the clan.

She found it funny. Guildmaster Elksworth had also been healed just as she had but that wasn't suspicious to them because he was 'backed by a Divine'. The local elders could be so blind to the obvious when it suited them.

Regardless, even though Lone had told her to not hold back, she didn't want to kill him in some freak accident.

Still, she launched the massive blue fireball with him as the target. It raced towards him almost faster than her eyes could track. It was a comet, after all. It had been decades since she'd had a chance to fully charge the skill and use it on a person.

Lossa could have sworn she could see Lone smiling as the ball of fiery death approached him, all the way up until it slammed into him and exploded violently in an area of a few metres around him, blinding everyone.

"Feck me," the dwarf next to her granddaughter commented as he whistled and wiped the sweat from his brow while also covering his eyes. "'Otter 'an the family forges, eh? Ye alright, lass?"

Breena nodded softly. "Y-Yes. I, uh, think the heat's localised. We're only feeling a fraction of what Master Lone is enduring. My ey-eyes might take a bit of time to readjust though..."

'That word again. 'Master'. Why does she call him that despite what happened to her? He had better not be forcing her to do so...' Lossa wanted to think that she would be able to change that if it wasn't a choice of her granddaughter's but she caught herself before she got carried away. 'What could I even do if that was the case? How is he standing completely unblemished from such a powerful skill? Even his clothes look fine... This spar is over. So what if I have a dozen other magic skills? I've used over half of my MP and haven't so much as scratched him.'

Lone frowned as the dust settled and the blinding light dimmed. "I don't like that look. Why do you look defeated?"

Lossa was surprised. 'Huh. I didn't realise I was being so expressive... or that he had such good eyes.'

"This is pointless. You've won. I can't think of a way to win. You're four ranks lower than me and even more centuries younger, but I can't beat you." She snapped her fingers and dismissed the remaining spirit mimics that she hadn't killed herself with her Charged Comet.

"Pathetic," was the one word Lone said in response.

Lossa immediately felt offended. "Excuse me? I'm being realistic."

"You are in a duel with someone you deem to be your superior and you haven't tried every tool at your disposal to win yet, but here you are just giving up when you stand to lose nothing except perhaps a bit pride by continuing. Even if you think winning is impossible, learning, growing, becoming stronger and better for it, is still very much so on the table. What is it if not pathetic that you give up just because your most impressive move failed to secure victory?" He scoffed. "I like you Lossa, you're a friend to me. But this? Fuck, I'm disappointed."

He turned to look at her granddaughter and asked, "Breena, how often do we spar?"

"Uh, um. Once every d-day or two?" she answered hesitantly.

"Right, and do you ever think you'll win?" he followed up.

She shook her head and immediately replied, "No, never."

"And does that make you give up? When I throw you around with no effort, or when your needles don't even come close to penetrating my skin, or when your flames don't so much as singe my stubble, does any of that dishearten you?" he questioned.

"No. W-Why would it? I'm never t-trying to win," Breena answered.

The dwarf was smirking next to her with a proud grin on his face. Why, Lossa didn't know.

"Then what is it you're trying to do in your spars with me and Sofia?" Lone asked her his final question.

"Learn. Get stronger. Uh, you know w-winning is the last thing on my mind..." Breena answered and made Lossa feel all the more foolish.

Returning his focus to her, Lone said, "She's 15, almost 16, but she seems a bit wiser than you right now despite you having centuries on her, doesn't she?"

He flared both of his hands and what Lossa recognised to be a Wind Blade of the air magic school and a Boulder of the earth magic school hurtled towards her.

The two spells were pitifully weak. She waved her hand and used some freeform fire magic which completely destroyed his spells.

"I'm only gonna fight you with freeform magic and my magic that's at beginner rank, and I'm still gonna kick your ass even if you're an SSS-ranker. Learn from this that if your life isn't in danger, never give up in a spar. Fight until you fuckin' drop. You're crippling your future self if you do anything else. If you're gonna lose anyway, make it worth your while," Lone said.

A small hammer of fire then appeared in his right hand while he created a freeform bolt of lightning in his left hand.

He grinned wildly. "'Cause I'm sure as fuck gonna make it worth mine."