Day 167: Earthmate (I)

"I must assume that the skill of that sword must be some kind of poison, I must say that I did not expect you to have such a convenient trick, brother Blake." After losing his weapon, Ragna had not lost his calm. "It seems that today I will lose a pair of my crops."

Blake realized that the surprise had lasted very little since Ragna realized the ability of his weapon, he was aware that his new sword could poison, he had already tested it during his journey in the labyrinth, but he was now aware that the poison seemed to be quite strong.

At first, he didn't quite understand the last thing Ragna said, but when he watched as he took out a new pair of leeks from the small backpack on his waist, Blake realized that it might not be the only pair that Ragna would bring with him.

Again, a silence had appeared in the middle of the field, the stage where both analyzed their opponent had ended at the moment that the two showed some of their tricks, Blake was already aware of Ragna's elemental affinity, while Ragna took note of Blake's physical ability. Even though Ragna was two levels above Blake, he was sure he couldn't match that physical strength.

"I hope you're ready, brother Blake. My master will be mad at me if I lose, so I'll stop holding back." Ragna warned Blake one last time showing his usual friendly attitude.

"I knew you weren't giving it you're all before, but trust me, that won't change the outcome." Blake felt confident at that moment, obviously he wouldn't use the timeless cut in this battle, he still remembered the strange change it had undergone and had not tried it again, so he didn't want to risk it.

"Yes, I'm sorry that I didn't fight with my full strength from the beginning, and you're right, the result won't change in any way." Just as those words fell like several leaves from the surrounding trees, both of them realized that the match was about to end.

…

"I must say that that runic ability is quite versatile, although it has clear flaws." Shino gave a new evaluation of the skill displayed by Ragna after the outcome of the clash with Blake.

"That's quite clear, just like his father, Ragna is addicted to agriculture, that was one of the reasons why he developed that runic ability, he wanted to use his vegetables as his own weapons." Mei was now feeling the tension that existed between the two, and could hear their little conversation.

"So I heard correctly... It seems that Ragna really can be classified as a genius." With Mei's confirmation, Shino did not doubt that it was true, she was no stranger to that kind of genius, but meeting one outside his homeland was commendable. "Now I understand why you appreciate him so much."

"Do you think it's just because of that, you clearly know that I can find this kind of talent without any problem, but they're not even worthy of entering my eyes." Mei laughed a little at her own words. "No, because of the situation where he is, maybe he has already decided to end the fight."

Shino turned her gaze to the field where both Blake and Ragna kept looking at each other even without understanding what her master meant, but she was sure that whatever it was, it must be quite dangerous for Blake.

…

"Here I come, brother Blake!" Along with Ragna's voice, a gust exploded from her body and was directed entirely at Blake.

Blake couldn't do anything in that situation as he realized that the sensation that Ragna was transmitting was actually the power behind the eighth level of runic awakening, at first he felt a small uncomfortable sensation on his body, but as the seconds passed, Blake realized that his own strength was being suppressed by Ragna's strength.

There was a basic rule regarding the levels of the runic path and magic, while a couple of practitioners will find themselves at different levels in a respective realm, there was something called force suppression, if there was a difference of one level, the effect would not it would be too much of an exaggeration, but once the difference was two or more, it would be quite noticeable.

Taking into account the situation of the battle between Ragna and Blake, the difference, in this case, would be two levels, therefore the suppression resulting from this would make the force that Blake could exert only equal to eighty percent of his original strength. And as long as the difference kept increasing, the same would happen with the force suppression.

But despite everything, this rule did not dominate everyone, there were cases where the suppression did not take effect despite the differences in levels, and this was due either to some treasure, runic ability... Or in the most special cases, the ability to have battle power capable of bypassing various levels of strength.

But going back to the battlefield, it seemed that Blake was indeed suffering from this phenomenon, which was a huge handicap.

'This… So it's a force suppression, it seems things got even more difficult.' Back to his encounter with that person inside the scroll that contained the timeless cut, much of the information Blake received explained all of this, so he didn't It took him a long time to know that he was in that situation.

He had also used it during his little confrontation with that runic boy named Cao Bei to easily remove the runic ability from him, but upon experiencing it, Blake had to say that he was quite uncomfortable.

Now he could see that Ragna was completely serious, the strength escaping from his body was enough to realize that, but while he was thinking of a plan to get out of that situation, Ragna's voice soon came indicating that he had no time for that.

"Overvitality!"