Chapter 21: facing off against Yuri.
"I had an accident while practicing a skill and it ended up exploding, but luckily nothing happened to me," I responded with a smile.
Yuri looked at me with an expression of disbelief, "If that's the case, why was there a big explosion? You're almost the same age as me, so you shouldn't be that strong."
"I'll give you a great piece of advice, and it's to never underestimate people. Age doesn't matter when measuring someone's power. For example, in this world, there are many children who are stronger than an average adult. In my current condition, I'm sure I can easily defeat you," I said.
When I finished speaking, I could see she was annoyed, but had a scary smile on her face. "Fufufu, do you really think I'm weak? Well, you're wrong. I'm one of the most talented people in my family."
Upon hearing her response, I couldn't help but frown. "How about we make a bet? If I lose, I'll have to apologize to you and accept any request you make, but if you lose, you'll have to accept any request I make. Do you agree?"
She looked at me intently as she said, "Okay, but don't blame me if I end up hurting you more and you can't retract your bet."
"Alright," I replied as I got up from the bed and stood in front of her.
------POV Yuri------
When I saw this strange kid get up from his bed and stand in front of me, I couldn't help but wonder what gave him so much confidence to challenge me. But I decided to continue since I didn't really believe him.
"Are you ready?" I asked
When the boy heard me, he simply nodded his head.
I quickly started to chant one of the most basic spells to attack him with fire magic and see how strong he really was.
Boom! Boom!
Our attacks collided and canceled each other out, but I didn't pay much attention since it was just the beginning of the battle. I quickly started to conjure another spell, but this time it was ice affinity, which he could only defend against with a barrier.
I was surprised he could do it, since barriers are very complicated. But I didn't give up and kept attacking. The boy also attacked me and I realized he was responding to my attacks with the opposite affinity.
Upon realizing that I wasn't making much progress with ranged attacks, I decided to get closer and take advantage of his injured state to defeat him more easily. My assumption was correct since, by attacking him up close with ice magic, he had a bit of delay in using his spells, allowing me to easily strike him.
But what surprised me was that he had a lot of resilience and didn't go down as quickly as I imagined. After about seven minutes, I was a bit tired since I had made several attacks. The room was in disarray, and I didn't understand why none of the servants came in to see what was happening with all the noise our fight was making. But I decided to ignore it and focus on the battle.
I must admit that if this guy was at his best, I might have lost since we were almost evenly matched with him injured. I imagine how strong he would be normally, but I don't care much since I have to win this bet. Finally, I saw him get distracted and took advantage of it to get closer.
I used ice magic to immobilize him for a few seconds and hit him hard in the stomach, causing him to fall to the ground. I quickly got on top of him so he couldn't move and brought a fireball close to his face.
"I won, you have to fulfill the bet," I said in a very happy tone, as it really took me a lot of effort to win this time. Let's see if you dare to belittle me again in the future.
When I saw him, I only noticed a smile on his face as he lifted his hand to point towards the bed. I couldn't help but squint and turn my gaze so that I saw everything around me break, just like when a mirror does.
----- End Yuri's POV ----
After putting her in an illusion, I couldn't help but laugh to myself since I had already won the bet. So I decided to start thinking about what to ask for. It couldn't be too much since she had rescued me, and besides, I don't want to leave a bad first impression.
After a few minutes and noticing that she was about to wake up, I simply grabbed the spoon that was near me and put it on her neck. She opened her eyes in a moment and noticed that the spoon was pointing at her neck.
When I noticed that she was feeling better, I decided to speak to her: "Looks like I won," I said with a smile on my face as I moved the spoon away from her neck.
She looked at me for a while before speaking again: "What did you do and when did you do it?"
"I just put you in an illusion, and I did it just before you saw me getting up from the bed," I calmly replied.
"That's impossible. I didn't see you cast any spells, much less use anything to do it," she said incredulously.
"There are many things in this world that you still don't know. But right now, you should be worried about having lost the bet," I told Yuri with a mocking smile as I looked at her.
Only then did he remember the matter and blushed a little before saying, "Okay, just ask me for whatever you want... but you can't go too far."
Seeing her like that, I couldn't help but tease her again. I got out of bed carefully and approached her slowly, noticing her nervousness. I have to admit, she looked very cute, it was obvious that she didn't have such a bold personality yet
"What are you doing?" She said nervously.
I didn't pay attention, I just kept getting closer. When I was in front of her, I put my hand next to her body, leaning on the wall to prevent her from escaping. I noticed her nervousness until she closed her eyes tightly.
I decided to stop teasing her when I saw her like that. I just approached her and whispered in her ear, "From now on, you'll have to come see me every day, even if it's just for a little while."
After saying this, I quickly moved away from her and lay back in bed. Yuri, noticing that I had moved away, couldn't help but calm down. But for some reason, she felt a small feeling of disappointment, although she quickly snapped out of it.
"Don't do that again," she said.
"I'm sorry, you just looked so cute I couldn't help it," I replied while eating what she had brought me.
I saw how her face blushed again and she got up from her chair to quickly walk to the door.
"Don't forget you have to fulfill the bet," she said before leaving the room.
She closed the door and covered her blushing face. Maybe to others she may show that she can be very mature in some aspects, but she is still a girl after all.
As she calmed down, Yuri couldn't help but feel that her heart was still racing, but she didn't know why.
For my part, I started to decide what to do at this moment. There are still almost a year and ten months to go before the agreement to return home. But I finally managed to release my zanpakuto's Shikai, which fulfilled one of my original goals.
I was able to cross that bottleneck I had before, so now I will have to train simply to become stronger.
...
Thousands of miles away, in a small cave covered by a matrix, a small amount of demonic energy leaked out. A figure shrouded in mist knelt before the person sitting on the throne.
"Lord, two of our members have recently died," reported the figure shrouded in mist.
"Oh, I didn't think there would be anyone in this small world with that kind of strength. Are you sure it wasn't that Schtrom ant?" asked the person sitting on the throne.
"No, he's busy conducting some experiments at the moment. Moreover, both members had enough strength to kill him or leave him on the brink of death. And, don't forget they also had the restriction matrices we brought," replied the subordinate.
"Investigate who killed them. Maybe I'll have some fun before we can fully open 'the great gate' and bring everyone else," said the boss of the place while looking at a huge door made of a material that does not belong to this world.
"Understood, sir," replied the subordinate.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone