Fates Parallel Chapter 64 - Test

Minami Yuuko was excited, but also a bit disappointed. She was looking forward to the chance to prove herself in front of the one who inspired their entire fighting style, but she was disappointed that she didn’t get to see Lee Jia fight. She agreed with that Qin guy—Zheng Long, was it? That one shouldn’t have even counted.

What were those Qin jerks even doing here, anyway? She’d never heard of most of them, except for Xin Wei—who was ostensibly in the same class as her under Master Ienaga, though he almost never showed up—and Yan Yue, who had slept with half the damn academy, if the rumors were true. They probably weren’t, though—fucking politics.

That was probably why they were here, too—politics. Lady Hayakawa had obviously come to some agreement with them that was well above anything Yuuko would have to worry about. It was a bit odd that they had come along at the same time as Lee Jia’s group, though. Part of the rumors about Yan Yue involved Lee Jia and her other roommate, but—Yuuko glanced back at Lee Jia, who had been pointedly ignoring Yan the entire time—well, maybe there was some credence to it, after all.

“You too, huh? It’s so cool that she’s here. I want to go talk to her, but I’m way too shy.”

Yuuko glanced at the speaker and scowled. Izumi Makoto was a short, mousy looking girl who got excited easily. She wore her black hair long and straight, which Yuuko never understood—how could you fight like that? Yuuko wore her own light brown hair in a single braid to avoid getting it in the way.

Maybe that was why Izumi got so into arcane arts in the first place, but Yuuko thought that there was a much more likely reason as she watched Izumi repeatedly glance nervously back at Lee Jia.

“I don’t know what you see in her. One lucky fluke is hardly worth your ridiculous girl-crush. I heard Lady Hayakawa put her in her place in a duel a while ago. Also, watch your volume, you know how sensitive their ears are.”

Izumi’s face went a bit pale, but she had been plenty quiet enough. Still, she lowered her voice to nearly sub-vocal levels as she responded.

“It’s not like that! I’m not into girls, and besides, she’s clearly meant for Miss Takeda.”

Takeda!? Yuuko shook her head in disbelief. Izumi lived in a world of her own, and Yuuko had long-since learned not to entertain her ridiculous fantasies.

“And don’t pretend you haven’t been pining to get your own shot with her!”

Yuuko scoffed and shook her head. Izumi had intentionally phrased it suggestively, but it was true that she had been looking for a chance to duel with Lee Jia, if only to prove that she wasn’t worth the weird deference that Izumi and the others had for her. Even Dae, who had been instrumental in helping them refine their new style, seemed to think the world of her. Well, that one was at least easy enough to explain—they were clearly an item.

“Enough chatter, you two. Looks like we’re almost to the peak—sorry Minami, looks like we won’t be getting that chance after all.”

Fujino Eiji—the de facto leader of their group—patted Yuuko on the shoulder as he spoke. He was tall and handsome, and Yuuko was not afraid to admit that he was half the reason she’d joined this group. Not that she didn’t believe in the value of the style, she just wasn’t as good with magic as the rest. Still, she had an image to maintain, and she considered herself to be second in command, even if there really was no such formal hierarchy.

She brushed his hand off and rolled her eyes.

“I’m fine, Fujino. I’m sure there will be plenty of other opportunities. Hell, maybe we can arrange a team spar with Lee Jia’s group or something.”

Fujino’s face brightened at that, and Yuuko tried not to get lost in his deep green eyes.

“Oh! That’s a great idea, I’ll propose it to Lady Hayakawa when we reach the peak.”

The other three group members seemed interested as well, though Fujikawa Ayumi—the last girl of the group, and the most talented among them at magic—raised a valid objection.

“Uh, they have Dae on their side. He knows our style inside and out, helped us develop half of our techniques himself, and is an absolute monster with magic. Are you sure we’re not just going to embarrass ourselves?”

Harada Jun perked up excitedly. He was a fairly plain-looking boy, but Yuuko appreciated his skills.

“How better to show Senior Dae the fruits of our labor? I’m sure that even as we lose, it’ll be a valuable lesson for all of us, and then he can give us his insights later in class!”

Yuuko tried to hold back her laughter. Of course Harada would think that—his crush on Dae was as obvious as Izumi’s crush on Lee Jia, even if Izumi was in some kind of weird denial about it. The last member of the group, Ishihara Nao, simply shrugged.

“I’m fine with it either way. Personally, I’m more interested in the Qin group. I wonder if they can help us learn spiritual arts...”

Ishihara was a frail-looking boy. Short, skinny, and borderline girly in appearance—not at all Yuuko’s type. She was surprised he had even gotten an invitation to the academy at first, since he had almost no talent for martial arts. She supposed the Ishihara clan must have thought that he’d do better learning foreign disciplines—and they weren’t wrong.

Yuuko shook her head ruefully.

“I don’t think so. Qin elitism is on a whole other level. They’ll probably just say the same thing everyone else has—’just follow the jade slip’s instructions’. As if we haven’t already been doing that for half a year with no progress.”

Ishihara frowned, but didn’t offer a retort. Soon, they had finally arrived at the training area at the mountain’s peak. It wasn’t actually the very top of the mountain, but it was a sufficiently wide and flat area for group training that was close enough to it. The spiritual energy here was so dense that it was almost physically tangible.

Lady Hayakawa addressed the entire group when they arrived.

“This is it. You can stay to join us for training, or split off to do whatever it is you came here for. For now we’re going to sweep the area for any lurking threats and clean up the training area.”

---

Lee Jia and her friends helped tidy up the training area once they arrived at the peak. It was mostly just a small, rocky plateau—similar in size to the training field back at the academy. They dutifully swept it clear of dust and debris, and confirmed that there were no magical beasts or other creatures hiding among the rocks before gathering in the center.

The Qin group had left almost immediately to go on their search for ‘materials’. Jia thought that had been a bit rude of them, but was glad not to have them nearby for a bit—though she worried what would happen when their search inevitably turned up nothing. Now, she faced another problem from a completely unexpected source.

“Since we didn’t get a chance to test ourselves, and Miss Lee’s battle was somewhat unsatisfactory, would it be acceptable if we had a group spar before getting started on training?”

Hayakawa raised an eyebrow at the speaker—one of the boys from Dae’s class that Lee Jia still hadn’t learned the name of.

“We didn’t get a chance to fight either, Fujino. Wouldn’t it make more sense to spar with us?”

The boy—Fujino, apparently—bowed respectfully before shaking his head.

“With due respect, Lady Hayakawa, we’ve trained together before, and we’re painfully aware that our group stands no chance against you. Besides that, some of our group are uniquely interested in testing ourselves against Miss Lee and Senior Dae in particular.”

“I suppose I have no problem with it, but you’ll have to take it up with them.”

Fujino bowed once again and smiled.

“Thank you, Lady Hayakawa.”

Lee Jia tried not to frown as he approached her group. Why did everyone want to fight her? She had to admit, she had been intrigued to see what kind of style they’d developed with Dae’s help, but this wasn’t really the way she wanted to learn.

“Greetings, Miss Lee. My name is Fujino Eiji. We met once before, briefly, but I don’t believe we were ever formally introduced. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.”

She was shocked at how polite and deferential he was being. She didn’t think anyone had ever spoken to her like that and it felt weird. She immediately decided she didn’t like it.

“Nice to meet you, Fujino. You’re Dae’s friend, right? Don’t worry about being so formal, then. I overheard your conversation with Hayakawa, and I’m fine with a group spar if the rest of my friends are. Why don’t you introduce us to the rest of your group while we discuss it?”

As Fujino led them over to his group, Lee Jia silently congratulated herself for managing to navigate her way to an introduction without embarrassing herself. While she finally learned all their names, they hashed out the details of their sparring match.

It would be their six against Lee Jia’s group of five. Nobody seemed particularly bothered by the mismatch, and a few from the Yamato group even considered asking one of Lee Jia’s friends to step out—though they couldn’t agree who. In the end, they agreed on a five on six full contact spar with a few stipulations.

First was that an individual could choose to yield at any time without disqualifying the rest of the team. Second, lethal attacks were naturally off limits. When she asked for clarification, Eui was politely asked not to dismember anyone either. As a concession to Eui’s overpowering offense, it was agreed that anyone who took a solid blow from her—with or without her destruction element—would voluntarily yield.

With the details settled, the two teams separated to discuss their strategies before the spar, and Lee Jia looked askance at Dae.

“They’re your classmates, right? Any insights on what we should expect?”

Dae chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head.

“I don’t know if it would be appropriate for me to reveal their techniques, Miss Lee, hehe. I helped them quite a bit with refining their style, and it would feel like a betrayal—”

Rika interrupted him by flicking him in the forehead, and Lee Jia winced—she knew how much those could hurt coming from Rika.

“Well now they’re the enemy, and if you’ve got recon on them, spill it! They probably know everything about the way we fight already, so it’s only fair.”

Dae grumbled a bit as he rubbed his forehead.

“Fine, fine! They use spells to enhance their physical abilities, and combine martial movement techniques with offensive spells. They also like to layer the effects of their magic onto two ‘pillars’—Minami and Fujino. She focuses on close range, while he handles ranged attacks and strategic overwatch—is that sufficient?”

Lee Jia smiled brightly and nodded.

“That’s perfect, thank you Dae!”

He blushed a bit, averting his eyes and rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. Jia turned to address the others.

“In that case, Eui, you handle Minami, I’ll go after Fujino, and Takeda, you can keep the others off us with your Illusory Mists technique. Eunae and Dae cover us with spells as usual, sound good?”

After receiving a round of affirmative nods, Lee Jia broke their huddle and they got into formation to prepare for their match.

---

Minami Yuuko watched Lee Jia’s group move into the same loose formation they had used to deal with the elementals before and shook her head. She felt like she was being underestimated, or maybe Lee Jia really was all talk, like she suspected. They had Dae on their side, so it’s not like they wouldn’t know what they were facing—she thought they’d at least change their strategy a little bit.

Still, at least she was finally getting a chance to challenge Lee Jia, even if it wasn’t quite the one on one she had hoped for. As soon as Hayakawa called the start of the fight, Yuuko sprang into action, already activating the talismans that would improve her speed and reflexes.

Everyone in her team had self-enhancement talismans that let them focus on their intended roles in the fight. Yuuko’s job was to single out threats to the back line and stop them cold. She didn’t have quite as much skill with spellcasting or manipulating her aura as the others, but she made up for it with an unmatched talent for mana sense. By reading an opponent’s aura, Yuuko had learned to predict their movements, cut them off, and even counter their attacks. Her enhancement talismans improved her ability to act on what she saw.

From the moment the fight started, Yuuko had set her sights on Lee Jia. She knew that the agile cat girl would try to use her superior speed and unpredictable movements to try to bypass the front line and attack the support. Immediately, she ran into a problem—she couldn’t read Lee Jia’s aura at all! How was that even possible? Luckily, Lee Jia acted exactly the way Yuuko had predicted, and even if her movements were too erratic to predict without being able to read her aura, it was obvious which way she intended to go.

Yuuko was about to move to intercept Lee Jia when she felt a shudder go through her entire body as a wave of bloodlust passed over her. She stopped dead in her tracks and twisted to find the source of the premonition—meeting An Eui’s unsettling crimson eyes and sinister grin.

Fine, just a small obstacle to put down before she moved on to the real threat. An’s offense was terrifying enough that they’d had to make a special rule just to account for it, but that was only if she could hit. Yuuko was confident enough in her reflex enhancements and aura reading to dodge anything An threw her way—until she realized that she couldn’t read her aura either. What was going on!?

She desperately dodged away from An Eui’s attacks, relying on her magically enhanced reflexes and the martial arts she had used since before ever learning how to read auras. She was able to hold her own, but An was fast, and that tail was an extra problem that Yuuko was not accustomed to dealing with. Instead of the quick elimination she’d been expecting, Yuuko was now fully tied down in her engagement with An Eui.

Damn it! This wasn’t how it was supposed to go, but it’s not like she was the only front line fighter. The other two would be able to—they were both engaged by Takeda Rika. This was why Yuuko had wanted her to step out of the spar—it was completely unfair to have to waste time using non-lethal attacks against a phantom double. Yuuko could tell which ones were fake, but the others—

“Izumi! Yours is fake, go all out!”

Yuuko heard a shout of acknowledgement, but her moment of distraction had cost her—she fell for a feint from that stupid tail and was forced to block a strike from An Eui. That might have been an out if not for the fact that the strike was stopped cold by a mana shield—her own, plus two more layered on by Fujikawa and Ishihara from the back line. Good—that meant that Lee Jia hadn’t gotten to them yet, or at least that Fujino was holding her off.

Technically, if An Eui had been going all out, her destruction element would have probably smashed right through even the triple-layered mana shield, but she hadn’t so the blow was blocked—and she couldn’t, since it was against the rules, so it would always be blocked. It was unfair, but it was far too late to argue about the rules now. Judging from the scowl on her face, An had figured out the same thing for herself.

Meanwhile, Izumi had smashed mercilessly through the doppelganger facing her and was now going after the enemy’s back line. Another Takeda clone was waiting for her, protecting the otherwise relatively defenseless Dae and Seong. Izumi was able to go all out against the clone, but with Seong and Dae’s dedicated support, it wasn’t nearly as effortless to take down as the one before it.

The fight had reached something of a stalemate, and Yuuko knew that it would now come down to which side could regain the full use of their support first. She was a little worried about Dae on the enemy side, but Izumi was a tough nut to crack, and Yuuko was certain that she’d be able to hold out long enough for Fujino to put down Lee Jia and tip the balance back in their favor. It wasn’t the way she had wanted it to go, but she was confident in their imminent victory.

Everything was more or less going to plan.

---

Everything was not going to plan. Lee Jia had been expecting the back line to be defenseless mages like Eunae or Kim Yongsun, but she’d forgotten that every one of their opponents had been martial artists long before they’d learned any magic. Fujino met her head on while the other two continued to focus on supporting, and he was as skilled a martial artist as any she’d faced, except for Hayakawa.

She didn’t think she’d lose to him in single combat, but he wasn’t alone. Lee Jia went in for an exchange, launching a pair of swift spear-hand jabs to set him on the back foot. When he tried to retaliate, she slipped under his hook and struck with all the force she could muster at the pressure point under his arm, channeling her lightning ki into the attack.

As it had before, her attack was met by a triple-layered mana shield that stopped both her physical strike, and the ki empowering it, dead in its tracks. She didn’t fully understand how they were doing it—mana shields were meant to be strongest against magical attacks like a fireball or one of her lightning bolts. This one was stopping her physical attack entirely, and Lee Jia didn’t think that just layering it was enough to account for that.

She didn’t have time to puzzle it out, though, as Fujino took advantage of the opening to go on the offensive. His movements were starting to become sluggish from the effect of her aura, but it was far too slow—she didn’t have time to wear the three of them down through attrition, especially now that her own back line had been tied up, and the three of them were all able to focus their attention on her.

With three of them and only one of her, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before they finally wore her down unless she did something soon. She had an idea, but without much time to plan it, she wasn’t very confident it would work. In lieu of anything else to try, she put it into action.

Lee Jia dodged another strike from Fujino and countered with a short flurry of her own attacks, before sidestepping a strike that went slightly wide, leaving him open for a counter. She was starting to think that he was leaving these openings on purpose, inviting her to waste her energy on a big attack. If he could do that, why dodge any of her strikes in the first place? She suspected she knew the answer, and if she was right, then her plan would work.

She took the bait, channeling lightning ki into her palm and striking towards an open pressure point. As expected, the mana shields immediately layered together to block her attack, but it never landed. Instead, Lee Jia’s attack shot past Fujino and the lightning ki in her hands flowed into the talisman she had palmed, firing a bolt of lightning directly towards the frail looking boy behind him.

Ishihara Nao was struck head-on by the bolt and fell to the ground, convulsing. As Lee Jia had hoped, their defense layering technique required them to drop their own defenses in order to pass them to an ally. They had been leaving intentional openings in order to bait Lee Jia into wasting big attacks on the ‘right’ person. Her feint had reversed the trick and taken advantage of their real opening to take out one of her opponents in a single strike.

Lee Jia pressed the advantage to pursue Fujino with a flurry of strikes, each one aiming for a pressure point. Sure enough, his movements had suddenly become much tighter and more controlled as he went on the defensive and stopped leaving obvious openings. Taking advantage of his defensive focus, Lee Jia threw a feint before launching herself at Fujikawa instead.

The erratic, zig-zag pattern of Lee Jia’s lightning steps placed her on the opposite side of the girl, who whirled around and threw her arms up in a desperate attempt to defend herself. A double layered mana shield snapped into place just in time for Lee Jia’s strike to fly past Fujikawa’s head and unleash another shock talisman at Fujino.

His eyes widened in surprise before the bolt struck him dead-on and sent him convulsing to the floor along with Ishihara. Lee Jia was a bit surprised that the same trick had managed to work twice, but she supposed that in the heat of the moment, they were probably falling back on the patterns that they had drilled on.

Without support from the other two, Fujikawa immediately threw up her arms and yielded. Lee Jia had done it! With their support out of the fight, she was now free to join back up with Eui and Rika in the middle of the fray, or bail out Dae and Eunae. Either way, the fight was pretty much over.