Chapter 8 - Rematch

Marc and Rofta are now taking a breather in the forest outside the city after shaking the city guards off that came to arrest them for the destruction of public properties.

When Marc's breath got down to a normal pace again he realized the mistake he's just made, which made him see images in his head of delicious food. Before he could take a bite of it, it flew into the horizon making him feel like life has no meaning anymore.

"Fuck, I forgot all about the prize money!! Now I can't buy any of that tasty food…" Marc crouched on the ground a drew an image of meat skewers, before he realized who's the culprit behind this failure.

"It's all your fault! If you didn't butt in, I would be eating mountains of that food right no-" Marc didn't finish his sentence, because he saw Rofta fainted and is laying on the ground face-first.

"Did he just die?" Asked Marc before nearing Rofta with a stick in his hand and began poking him to see if he can get a reaction out of him.

"Don't just go and kill me off dwarf, I'm just taking a break. Yes, a break.." Rofta said with a low voice just high enough to Marc could hear it before-

*Rumble*

Rofta's stomach rumbled like thunder, making his face red in shame. Luckily he hid his face in the ground so Marc couldn't see it.

"Heeh, so you just need a break huh? Then let's stay here for…Let's say 5 hours." Marc said with a teasing grin plastered on his face, making Rofta look at him in horror.

"God no!!!" Rofta suddenly found the strength to get up again after hearing Marc.

"I will go hunt something to eat!" Rofta said before he turned around to leave, but stopped midway because he just remembered his own cooking is uneatable and somehow always ends up looking terrible. He once again turned around and looked at Marc and asked "Can you cook an edible meal?"

"Of course, my mother once told me my cooking looks even better than Gordon Ramsey's!!" Marc exclaimed with pride while looking back at an old memory.

"Who's Gordon Ramsey?" Rofta asked with question marks all over his face.

"Eh!? Ah, just a famous cook." After realizing his blunder Marc just told him that.

"Then you must be good if your mother said it!" Stated Rofta before going off again looking forward to a good meal.

…

It didn't take long before Rofta came back with a few rabbits, skinned them, and gave them to Marc to cock.

When Marc was done cooking them, it did indeed look very appetizing and much better than most pros on Earth.

Rofta couldn't help drooling in anticipation, and was ready to dive straight into the fire to get one at any second., but didn't as Marc handed him a leg to start out with.

As soon as Rofta took a bite his mind short-circuited before he began crying while mumbling "So this is how the saying "looks can be deceiving" feels like."

Then he looked at Rofta and said "Your cooking does 'look' good, but tastes worse than shit!" Then he forced himself to eat it because he can't cook any better. His skill is actually worse but doesn't want Marc to know that.

When Marc heard Rofta's review, he puffed his little chest with pride and said "It's because I am a top talent in the art of deception!"

Rofta immediately agreed with "yes, you are a natural-born talent!" While looking down on Marc's small stature before forcing the terrible tasting rabbit down his throat, trying not to taste it.

After somehow eating all the food, Marc said something that ignited Rofta's competitive spirit, making his blood boil and a grin sprouted.

"So how about a rematch from before? I want to experience how you changed the direction of my arm before again." Marc asked with a provoking look on his face while looking at Rofta who's sitting at the opposite side of the fireplace.

When they looked at each other, no words of confirmation was needed, they just waited for each other to make the first move.

*Boom*

Rofta made the first move and charged with his sword over the head to make a slash from Marc's left shoulder to his right hip, but Marc once again tried to use *Counter* after raising his hand to block. When the sword was about to hit, Rofta suddenly disappeared from Marc's sight.

*Slash**Splash*

And appeared behind Marc and made a slash on his back instead, making a long but not too deep cut, though still enough to let blood seep out.

"I get it now! Your magic messes with my sense of direction right?" Marc quickly discovered some similarities with other abilities from his anime knowledge.

"!? Did you figure it out only after two attacks? All the people I have fought never figured it out…" Rofta was amazed by his ability to deduce the secret behind his magic but got over it and declared "So what if you know what my magic does? Can you evade it?"

"Well maybe?" Marc just shrugged off the slash on his back like it's nothing because of his high pain tolerance.

Rofta once again charged and made a sideways slash from the right, but Marc raised his left hand.

*PA...!!!*

And stopped Rofta's slash that came from the left instead of the right, before sending him flying back with *Counter*. As a quick follow-up, Marc slapped the air and sent a *Pressure Cannon* at Rofta while he's in the air. But instead of it flying forward, it somehow flew behind Marc straight through 4 trees.

*PA…!!!**Boom*

"You!!" Rofta was speechless about what Marc just did.

Marc just mumbled, "This is harder than I thought!" With a little frown, making him look like a pouting child because he sent the attack in the 'wrong' direction.

"Hard? You must be crazy! It's a human instinct to block in the direction a life-threatening attack is coming from, and you didn't even hesitate to throw that sensation away? Only the experienced old fools from my village can block that instinct like that!" Rofta got a little agitated.

"Well, I have a lot of experience with directional illusions, like when diving deep enough, what is up and down? Or when you are buried in an avalanche, it's pretty hard to get out without the help of tools." Marc said with a finger on his chin in contemplation.

Rofta listened intently to the explanation and made sure to note it down, so he can tell his village elders about it.

"Okay let's continue. I got a little surprised but don't think I'm done yet!" Rofta declared with a little irritation in his voice.

"Sure, but it's my turn to start." Marc immediately agreed, but instead of charging, he made more distance between himself and Rofta and once again slapped the air, using *Pressure Canon* in the direction of him. This time the palm-shaped shockwave didn't fly in the opposite direction and flew straight at Rofta, though he dodged it.

"So you make some type of little domain where I have to be inside to affect my sense of direction!?" This time Rofta didn't confirm it, as this is one of his biggest weaknesses right now.

*Pressure Shots* Marc fired a barrage of small air shots at Rofta. He dodged and cut through most of them with his katana, but some also hit his body giving him bruises while charging forward to shorten the distance between them again. When he was 3 meters close to him, Marc suddenly began shooting backward again, but he quickly stopped when he saw a sword slashing at his left leg.

Marc tried using the same trick to deal with the sword by using *Counter* in the opposite direction, but this time the sword came from the direction he felt, taking him off guard.

*Slash**Splash*

He was slashed at his left thigh making blood spill again.

"I'm going to lose if I keep this up, so I guess I will have to take it up a notch." Marc thought in a span of a second before he did something his body isn't strong enough for yet. He repelled himself forward so fast that Rofta couldn't change his direction, intending to touch him on the chest and push the air out of his lungs.

But instead of stopping right in front of him, he crashed right into Rofta, head-butting him, making him feel like he just got shot by a canon in the head, before fainting.

Marc wasn't better off. His head was full of stars, and his body hurt like crazy before he too fell over and began snoring?

***

(A/N: Rofta will be Marc's friend and rival in the future chapters to come.)

(A/N: For his magic, I have taken inspiration from *Shinji Hirako* from Bleach, just so you know…)

(A/N: Marc will have to train his body to be able to repel himself as Kuma did, hope you understand he can't do it immediately.)

(Words: 1525)