I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 342: Is This Even a Fight?

“Huh?!” At the very instant Rosalia gave her answer to Argentum’s question, Argentum, Argento, and even Eleanor let out sounds of shock and surprise in response, though the latter hastily let out a light cough as she returned to her normal composure. As for Argentum and Argento, they looked at each other for a bit before the former decided to take the initiative to start a conversation.

With an aura of shock still surrounding him, he went ahead and asked Argento, “Are you seriously aiming for Lesser Origin?”

“Not at all.” Argento shook his head as he replied, “I’m aiming for Tempestuous Terra Firma. I don’t even know what Lesser Origin is.”

“Seriously? You don’t know what Lesser Origin is?” Argentum replied to his statement with a question, to which Argento lightly shook his head.

“Well, Lesser Origin is basically the fusion of the four foundational elements,” Argentum decided to explain what Lesser Origin was, prompting Argento to ponder in silence for a bit. After that, he then said to Argentum, “Yeah, I can’t do that. That’s too difficult for me.”

“Anyways, since you told me what Lesser Origin was, I’ll tell you what Tempestuous Terra Firma is. It’s basically a fusion of the Wind and Earth element, with more importance over Wind rather than Earth,” Argento said not long after. He then asked Argentum, “Is there an element that’s focused on Lesser Origin?”

“As far as I know, not really,” Argentum went silent for a bit before answering. “If my memory serves me right, the aim of Lesser Origin is to achieve a balance between all four elements.”

“Then again, I’m quite surprised to find another Pseudo-Animate like me who’s aiming to fuse elements into one,” Argentum could not help but say after that, letting out a chuckle in the process. In response, Argento let out a bit of laughter as he responded, “Same here.”

While the two of them were conversing about Lesser Origin and Tempestuous Terra Firma and whatnot, Eleanor went ahead and sent a strand of energy to Rosalia, who was looking at the current situation with a light smile on her face.

“What are you trying to achieve?” Eleanor said through the strand as their connection was established. In response, Rosalia looked at her and replied, “I’m pretty sure you already have an idea on what I’m trying to achieve, Eleanor.”

Hearing Rosalia’s words, Eleanor looked at the two for a bit as a conclusion formed in her mind. After a while, she asked Rosalia, “You’re trying to make them fight each other?”

“Exactly,” Rosalia lightly nodded before explaining why she was doing this. “Through this fight, I would be able to see Argentum’s might firsthand while being able to see Argento’s progress under my tutelage as well.”

“Of course, the main reason why you did that was to see Argentum’s combat power, right?” Eleanor asked, to which Rosalia unabashedly replied with a hard nod, “Uh-huh.”

“Didn’t he help out in pacifying me back at Melzarin’s place?” Eleanor asked, recalling how she was bound to the ground thanks to Argentum’s skill. 

Rosalia soon replied as a response, “He did, but he didn’t engage in combat at all. At most, his role was to enhance our combat powers. To be honest, the effects of his enhancements are terrifying to say the least, given how he’s still a Normal-grade Pseudo-Animate.”

“Huh…” Eleanor uttered a sound in understanding, though there was still slight confusion over the matter.

“What grade of Pseudo-Animate are you at?” While Eleanor and Rosalia were conversing in secret, Argentum continued to talk with Argento, his aura of shock now replaced with that of excitement as he asked.

As for Argento, an aura of excitement surrounded him as well as he had never felt so close to another being like Argentum. Without hesitation, he responded, “Normal-grade. You?”

“Normal-grade as well,” Argentum said, prompting the two to let out a bit of laughter before instantly going silent. Not long after, the two of them eyed each other from head to toe, knowing very well that the being in front of them was far stronger than the usual Normal-grade Pseudo-Animate, having the ability to fight a Magic-grade or even a Grand-grade Pseudo-Animate if they put their all into it.

After becoming satisfied with their precursory examinations, the two of them lightly nodded at each other as they simultaneously asked, “Wanna become friends?”

Realizing that they spoke at the same time, both of them let out a chortle as the two of them knew that this day onward, they would surely keep in touch. Unfortunately for them, it seemed that the world wanted something else to happen as Rosalia stood up just as they were laughing.

Noticing this, the two of them went silent as they focused their senses of vision onto her, wondering what she was going to do. By the time Rosalia had opened her mouth to say what she had on her mind, Argentum and Argento looked at each other for a bit before looking back to Rosalia, only for Argento to ask, “Are you serious, Master?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Rosalia said in response to her disciple’s question as she said, “Let me repeat that one more time. Argento, go ahead and fight against Argentum with all you’ve got.”

“But what if Argentum says no to it?” Argento asked a question of his own in response to his master’s words. Feeling that his words made sense, Argentum nodded as he said, “Yeah. What if the two of us aren’t in the mood to fight?”

“Not in the mood, eh?” Rosalia said with a light chuckle as she closed her eyes for a bit in silence. Soon after, she opened her eyes as she told them, “How about this? Whether one side wins or loses in this fight, both of you would be able to obtain anything you want from this inheritance. Of course, this only applies to Argento.”

“As for Argentum, you have a chance to obtain anything you want as long as I can give it to you,” she soon added. “Does that sound good?”

In less than an instant, the two of them were instantly motivated, with Argento thinking that his master was finally giving him something useful while Argentum thought that he would become a partial owner of another inheritance. Knowing very well that they could just fake their way through the fight, the two of them instantly agreed to the proposition, eliciting a light smile brimming with hidden intent to appear on Rosalia’s face.

As for Eleanor, who was watching this unfold, could not help but let out a sigh as she muttered to herself, “The outcome to this match is more or less a given at this point.”

Nevertheless, she was curious as to how much Argentum had improved from the last time she saw him, so she let things happen as natural as the four of them made their way to a room Rosalia hastily created.

…

Entering the room, both Argentum and Argento felt that there was enough space for them to use all of the skills they could unleash one another without hesitation, although they both tacitly agreed to not go all out on each other.

Just as they were about to head to the center of the room to start their fight, Rosalia stopped the two of them with a smile on her face as she said, “Give me just one second.”

Snap!

With the snap of her fingers, a large amount of energy was soon released from her body as it headed towards the center of the room, transforming into a magic circle that had a diameter the size of the whole room. Not long after, Eleanor and the other two felt that there was an eye looking at them, prompting Argento to send Argentum a message through a strand of energy.

“It seems Master has found out that we weren’t going to get serious at all,” Argento said to Argentum, to which the latter responded, “I can sense that. Since that’s the case, let’s just go all out. Whether we lose or win doesn’t make much of a difference in our reward.”

“Well, that is true,” Argento said with a shrug of his shoulders as he dispelled the connection between them. Soon after, the two headed to the center of the room, positioning themselves on opposite sides. Seeing that they were now ready to engage in combat, Rosalia raised her hand as she went through the rules she made up on the spot.

“Alright. Since this is an Earth-based inheritance, the only skills you can use other than hand-to-hand combat are skills of the Earth element. Also, you cannot use any enhancement skills on yourself or any debuffing skills on your opponent. Are we clear on that?”

“Yes!” the two simultaneously replied, not minding the limitation. With their approval, Rosalia then waved her down with full force as she shouted, “Fight!”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

In less than an instant, the two of them charged at each other. Though, from the start, Argentum already had an edge over Argento given how his stats were boosted to a higher degree thanks to his partial ownership of Melzarin’s inheritance. With that, it did not take long for Argentum to appear in front of the still charging Argento, catching the latter off guard.

“Take this!” Argentum shouted as he clenched his fist before covering it in a layer of Earth energy particles. Channeling all of the strength in his body towards his fist, he then punched out towards Argento’s face, forming a small sonic boom in the process.

Fwoosh!

Unfortunately for Argentum, Argento hastily ducked the straight punch as he channeled all of the energy in his body, conglomerating it towards his hands as two broadswords made out of earth appeared, using it to slash at Argentum’s torso in an X pattern.

“[Mountain Crossblade]!”

Swoosh!

Utilizing the momentum he had generated from the punch, Argentum then rotated his body counterclockwise, allowing him to dodge most of the attack, with only the tip of one blade slightly nicking at the right side of his torso.

Off to such a fierce start, the two of them looked at each other with an aura of interest and surprise surrounding them as Argentum said, “I think this fight is worth going all out.”

“I think so as well,” Argento said in response before standing up and slashing out towards Argentum once more in an X pattern. This time, though, he infused his blades with Earth energy particles, allowing him to send blade after blade made out of earth towards Argentum.

“[Mountain Blade Frenzy]!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Of course, with Argentum’s speed being higher than Argento’s, he easily dodged all of the blades that were sent towards him with tons of room to spare. With that, he led Argento to circle around his current spot, slightly dizzying him as Argentum asked him, “How are you holding up?”

“Pretty good,” Argento said in response as he stopped following Argentum. Soon after, he plunged both of his swords onto the ground before channeling a great portion of his energy through it, causing the earth to rumble for a bit. Surprisingly, this threw Argentum off his usual rhythm for running, prompting him to stop in place as he muttered to himself, “Yeah, I guess this is enough stalling.”

With that in mind, he then dashed to where Argento was as he said, “Let’s settle this with one more move. Give it your all!”

“Alright, then! I won’t hold back!” Argento said in response, retrieving his swords from the ground before using Earth energy particles to fuse the two into a double-handed sword. Using all of his might, he then placed the double-handed sword on his back before infusing more and more energy into it.

As for Argentum, he hastily went through the spell creation module of [Sage’s Earth Magic], namely the Blessed spell portion of the module. With the skill not being raised yet, there was only one slot for a True Earth spell, which he had already used to create a defensive skill. Although he could remove it and replaced for another spell, he felt that the spell he had made was a good fit for the element of Earth.

Not only that, but he felt like a Blessed spell was enough for the attack he had in mind, given how his stats were boosted by Melzarin’s inheritance. Although he was not sure as to how much of a boost it gave, from the feeling his body gave him, he knew that the boost was not insubstantial at all.

Coming up with a straightforward move in his mind, Argentum hastily made a Blessed Earth spell that would fight against Argento’s ultimate move, relying on the belief that the boost from Melzarin’s inheritance would help him out.

Opening up his right palm, he then cocked his right arm back, channeling all of the strength and energy in his body towards it as the surface of the palm had taken on a bright brown hue. As for Argento’s double-handed sword, a large swath of Earth energy particles were now circling around it, ready to be released at a moment’s notice.

By the time the gap between the two was less than a meter, the final moves from both sides were ready, prompting Argentum to shout, “Now!”

“[Mountain Cleaver: Sundering Earth]!”

“[Terra Palm Wave]!”

Bang!

Propelled by great amounts of energy, Argento’s double-handed sword and Argentum’s palm imprint  had collided, eliciting a large explosion to occur as a great amount of dust had been kicked off the ground. While that was happening, the two pushed their bodies close to each other, allowing more of their attacks’ force to affect the other side.

Unfortunately for Argento, the amount of force in Argentum’s palm imprint was just too much for him to handle, sending him and his double-handed sword flying. Of course, with Argento being sent flying, that meant that their match was over. Though, once Argentum looked at his palm, which still had traces of Earth energy particles around it, he could not help but look at Argento, who was now stuck one of the room’s walls and ask himself, “Is this even considered a fight?”

As for Rosalia, she could not help but look at Argentum from a new light as she did not expect such combat power to appear in such a low-grade Pseudo-Animate. Noticing this, Eleanor looked at her and asked, “So, are you satisfied now?”

“More than satisfied,” Rosalia said with a chuckle as she disabled the magic circle covering the whole room. Taking in a deep breath, she then announced.

“The match is now over. The winner of this match is Argentum!”