After a few minutes of silent walking, Shade led Morgan to a reinforced dojo — a training place he rarely used in his free time to practice his control over darkness or simply to create shapes to pass the time.
The dojo was spacious and empty, a good place far from prying eyes.
Shade observed Morgan for a moment. She seemed to examine the dojo with a critical eye before nodding slightly.
Shade walked to the center of the dojo. His red eyes were calm with a carefree attitude.
"So, Lady Morgan, any particular interest in asking for a practice battle with me?"
"Not much. Just curiosity to see the skills of the strongest master in the world — oh, that's what everyone calls you."
"That's government propaganda. I just killed a Fallen Titan, and now they call me the strongest master in the world." Shade sighed disappointedly. "Heavens, propaganda really sucks."
Morgan nodded for a moment, perhaps feeling some pity or sympathy.
"If it bothers you that much, why don't you join the Valor clan? It would be easy to redirect attention elsewhere."
"Oh, my goodness, Lady Morgan, are you trying to get me to join your clan?" he said, feigning surprise.
"It's a great opportunity, but I must humbly decline. If I did, my fans would be disappointed in me. Do you know I have a public image to maintain? What would they think if I joined Valor?"
Shade looked at Morgan, who remained impassive.
"They are just options, Master Uriel," said Morgan.
Morgan let out a sigh, summoning several weapon memories, each beautiful and lethal in its own way. There were all kinds of weapons: swords, spears, bows, daggers, gauntlets, and more.
"But enough talk. Which weapon would you prefer to use? Swords, spears, or something more exotic? Perhaps no weapon at all?" asked Morgan.
Shade brought a hand to his chin.
"Well, I usually use swords, though I suppose this time I'll fight with my hands," said Shade.
Walking toward the darkness, he pulled from it, making it rise up his arms, forming two black armor gauntlets with closed fingers. The appearance of the gauntlets was simple but quite functional.
"So you'll fight barehanded," said Morgan.
"Yes."
"Don't you think you're underestimating yourself too much, Master Uriel?"
"Oh, of course not. How could I? You are the princess of the Song clan, an elite Awakened. Underestimating you would be a mistake on my part."
Morgan said nothing, taking out a simple straight training sword. She dismissed the rest of the memories and walked to the center of the dojo, stopping there. She observed Shade with a penetrating gaze.
Red and vermilion clashed eyes for a few seconds.
"I would have suggested using our aspect abilities freely, but that would probably destroy most of this complex, so unfortunately we'll have to limit ourselves to our latent and Awakened powers. I hope you don't mind."
"No problem."
Shade remembered what he knew about Morgan.
Her Dormant ability increased the sharpness of any weapon or object; even her bare hands were a lethal weapon. Her Awakened ability greatly increased the resistance of her body to a very high degree, and her Ascended ability was to engrave enchantments on her body and change them at will.
She probably possessed an enchantment to be more resistant to blows and others to increase her movement speed.
"Get ready, Master Uriel..."
Shade nodded.
Before he had time to think, he felt Morgan beside him, swinging her sword downward like a guillotine ready to decapitate him.
Shade smiled weakly.
Moving, he blocked the slash with his forearm.
The sword and the black gauntlet impacted with a metallic sound that echoed throughout the dojo. Both weapons remained locked together under the great force of the two masters.
Shade moved, using his superior strength and greater amount of essence to push Morgan's sword away from him. Preparing himself, he threw a punch at Morgan, who dodged the attack.
At the same time as he dodged Morgan's sword, she moved to graze his eye.
Shade didn't even blink at that, using that moment of advantage to land a punch on her armor's pauldron, sending Morgan several meters backward.
Shade looked at his hand, feeling some pain from hitting Morgan's hard body.
It's like hitting a large rock, Shade thought, opening and closing his hand.
Morgan, on the other hand, looked curiously at the dent in her pauldron. That armor was Transcendent, yet it had been dented by mere brute force.
Morgan smiled genuinely for the first time. The smile was like that of someone receiving a toy they had always wanted.
"Wonderful. Simply wonderful. Nephis, Cassie, and you... I've been needing good opponents for so long, and now there are three. And besides, six all so different!"
Shade raised an eyebrow.
Wow. She sounds like you — a combat maniac, Uriel commented, amused.
Hey, I'm not a combat maniac, he said mentally.
Oh, of course you are. Besides, you said it yourself when you talked about your ideal girl type: strong, arrogant, cruel, beautiful, vermilion eyes... oh, and she has parental issues. By my reckoning, you're winning.
Hey, Uriel, I'm supposed to be the one saying those things, not you! Shade complained internally.
While Shade argued with Uriel inside his mind, he was keeping Morgan at bay.
As he had suspected, Morgan used several enchantments on her body. The first gave her great physical resistance, which, combined with her Awakened ability, made her practically the ultimate tank. Another enchantment increased her movement speed.
With those two enchantments, fighting her was problematic.
However, although the battle was difficult, it wasn't that interesting.
Morgan tried to adapt to his combat style, but his style was a mix of different styles without adhering to a single pattern — after all, he liked variety.
Shade smiled as he blocked Morgan's sword. She changed her attack, but Shade blocked it again, then another and another, until each of Morgan's attacks was deflected by his gauntleted hands.
They both moved at great speed, letting the sound of metal against metal fill the entire dojo.
Shade's arms were a sea of blurs, as was Morgan's sword.
Shade took advantage of any carelessness or vulnerability he could exploit, but these windows were feints that he read immediately to receive an attack.
Shade also left himself intentionally open to execute surprise attacks, but Morgan didn't fall for his feints. She was too evasive and analytical to fall for them.
Shade stopped chatting with Uriel and began to increase the pressure on Morgan, forcing her to reduce her attack patterns to more specific attacks.
The best way to win against an opponent of that style was to make them return to their origins, close all their gaps until they had no choice but to back away or make a risky move to break the balance.
Even after nearly a minute that felt like an eternity, neither had drawn blood from their enemy.
Although they weren't using their full power, the battle was an undeniable display of skill that, if witnessed by others, would leave them more than surprised at the level of prowess.
Shade smiled, attacking faster and more precisely, beginning to close more spaces where Morgan could attack him. It was as if he had multiple arms attacking her from all directions until immobilizing her.
Although they weren't using their aspects — as otherwise their clash would destroy the dojo and part of the siege city, which would be a huge problem — Shade deflected five attacks in less than a second, opening a gap that he used to hit Morgan in the chest plate of her armor, creating a large dent.
Morgan stepped back but immediately recovered.
Shade sighed.
"Well, this is certainly quite fun," said Shade, repairing the damage to his darkness-made gauntlets.
Shade looked at Morgan with a calm expression.
"You are strong, Lady Morgan. I suppose I can try this with you," he murmured as he relaxed every part of his body, exerting no pressure on his muscles.
Morgan frowned, feeling no killing intent from her opponent. It was as if she was facing something she could barely sense.
Previously, Morgan had remained on the defensive to dismantle Shade's combat style, but having little success, she opted to take a direct offensive approach.
Morgan lunged forward with overwhelming speed, shattering several reinforced floorboards.
Her sword moved at great speed, creating multiple swords.
Shade moved like a leaf under a strong storm, dodging each attack with the grace of a dancer unperturbed by the world.
His body was a blur of fluid movement that dodged all the sword attacks.
Using his hand, Shade deflected Morgan's sword, then deflected it again, then again, redirecting the sword attacks, acting like an impossible-to-break wall.
While they were fighting for almost three consecutive minutes, Morgan spoke.
"That style... who taught it to you?" she asked.
Shade deflected the sword with the back of his hand.
"No one. I'm mostly self-taught," he replied casually.
"I see. So you're a fast learner."
"You could say that," Shade replied, grabbing Morgan's sword and launching a kick at the Ascended's face. She tried to stop it with her hand, but the leg passed through it like black smoke, hitting her cheek completely.
The impact resonated throughout the dojo with great force.
Morgan's body flew like a demolition ball, crashing against the reinforced wall, leaving a large mark on it.
Although he hadn't used all his strength, it was enough to kill any experienced Awakened.
Shade lowered his leg, looking at a slight cut that had already closed due to the regeneration enchantment of his Saint's Mantle.
Shade looked at Morgan, one of his hands resting on his hip. On his face was a slightly guilty expression.
Morgan pulled away from the wall, noticing a bruise on her cheek from receiving the kick directly to the face.
Shade stretched as his gauntlets vanished.
"It was a good practice fight, Lady Morgan. I haven't had a fight like this in a long time."
"The same to you. It's a shame we have to stop here," she said, putting away the sword she had been using for the battle.
"Master Uriel, tell me something before you go."
"What?"
"That move you used at the end... what was it?"
"Oh, that. It was just my Dormant ability. I can partially make part of my body intangible. It's a quite useful trick, though not very effective against certain enemies," he replied, beginning to walk away.
"Ah, and Master Morgan, could you tell your dear uncle that it's a bit discourteous to watch a fight? If he wanted to watch, he could have just said so." After those final words, Shade left the dojo, leaving Morgan slightly bewildered, as she didn't know that Madoc had used his Transcendent form to watch the fight.
As for the Saint, he was surprised to have been sensed by an Ascended.
Upon leaving, Shade walked away, humming a tune, heading to get something to eat. He was quite hungry after the warm-up.