Chapter 68: The Pleasure of Battle

Chapter 68: Chapter 68: The Pleasure of Battle

Friday morning, the training chamber rang with the heavy crack of colliding fists.

BOOM!

Liora skidded backward across the reinforced alloy floor, her sneakers screeching to a halt against the metal.

The moment she stopped, a grin broke across her face. A wide, bright one.

Felix watched her from a few paces away, his brow furrowing slightly. "What are you smiling for?"

"I don’t know," she admitted, bringing her hands right back up into a guard. Pitch-black mana crawled over her forearms like living ink.

She shot forward. Their knuckles collided

BOOM!

Felix turned his wrist, effortlessly parrying the strike before catching her shoulder with a sharp check.

The force spun her half a turn. Instead of stumbling or hesitating, she let out a bright laugh and pivoted straight back into the pocket.

Felix blocked high, then snapped a low kick; she dropped, caught the blow across her braced forearms, and skidded back three feet.

And smiled again.

Deep down, she knew something was deeply wrong. Her face burned hot, her pulse hammered in her throat, and the volatile Darkness hummed like an electric wire beneath her skin.

A reasonable, embarrassed voice in the back of her head was screaming at her to knock it off that grinning like a manic lunatic while getting tossed around was mortifying, and that she had no business enjoying violence this much.

Yet a louder, feral instinct beneath it simply demanded: Again.

She closed the distance. Felix smoothly slipped inside her line and tapped his knuckles against her solar plexus.

THUD.

The breath evacuated her lungs, folding her in half, yet her mouth only curved upward wider, her dark eyes shining.

Again.

"Liora?" Felix was looking at her with genuine bewilderment now. "Are you alright?"

"I’m fine!" she wheezed out.

"You look like you’re having the time of your life."

Blood rushed straight to her ears, dyeing her cheeks scarlet. "I am not!"

She lunged again.

"You’re definitely grinning."

"I told you, I’m not!"

She threw a vicious straight right; Felix tilted his head back, letting the gust of wind brush his chin, clamped his hand around her wrist, and turned her momentum straight into the deck.

BOOM!

She hit the floor flat on her back. For two seconds she just lay there, staring at the ceiling, before bursting into quiet, breathless laughter.

*I really am enjoying this.*

The sheer realization made her want to crawl into a hole and die of shame, yet every nerve ending in her body felt electric. This is incredible. He’s so strong. The harder he hits, the more alive I feel.

She pushed herself up off the floor, black mana flaring around her shoulders.

"Good," Felix said, his tone turning approving.

"Your balance and recovery are already leagues ahead of yesterday."

That was the other half of the problem, her gamer brain was eating this alive. There was no glowing floating HUD, no flashing experience points, and no visible skill level, but she could feel the progression anyway.

Every clash tightened her timing. Every hit smoothed out the mana friction. Every exchange forced the Darkness to obey her intent rather than drag her into madness.

Her core throbbed rhythmically, hungry for more. More mana. More pressure. More combat.

Her hands clenched tight, her core pulsing in sync. I want an even stronger opponent. She instinctively looked up at Felix, then violently flushed red at where her train of thought had just gone.

No! Not like that!

"Again!" she barked, her voice cracking slightly, and threw herself forward.

Felix smirked. "Now you’re talking."

The fight went on for another hour. Felix driving her relentlessly, attacking from every angle, forcing her to defend on the move, making her shape Darkness while in motion, reinforce her body mid-exchange, recover control after every surge.

Slowly, it started paying off. Her movements smoothed out. The Darkness stopped leaking out randomly and started answering when she called it, the aura around her growing denser and more obedient with every round.

Finally, Felix raised an open palm. "Time. That’s enough for today."

Liora braked hard, breathing heavily, tiny wisps of black vapor evaporating off her fingertips.

Felix studied her posture, folding his arms.

"You’re progressing faster than I expected."

Her eyes went wide with pure excitement. "Really?"

The tired, quiet girl had vanished behind an eager grin. Felix chuckled. "Keep this pace up for a few more weeks, and you might actually be clear to enter an active gate with me."

She froze mid-breath. "With... with you?"

"Yeah."

Her heart skipped a violent beat. "A real rift? On the front line?"

"Obviously. We don’t train just to sit in white rooms."

A beam of pure, radiant happiness lit up her face. Felix laughed, but his expression soon settled into something firmer.

"Don’t lose focus, though. There’s a core issue you need to understand." She sobered up instantly, standing at attention. Felix pointed towards her chest, right above her mana core.

"Your problem isn’t just that the Darkness affinity carries mental corruption." He tapped his temple. "It’s a synchronization gap. You jumped from Mid I all the way to High III in a single incident. That’s too much raw power dumped into a B-rank core all at once."

The memory hit her like an icy plunge: the black storm, the panicked screams of her old party, the blood covering her own palms. Her gaze dropped toward the floor.

"When your affinity leaped past that threshold,"

Felix continued gently, "your B-rank core physically couldn’t channel the sheer volume. The core overloaded, and the backlash dragged your mind straight into the abyss."

She looked back up, tracing his logic. "So... my core is the problem?"

"Exactly. A higher-tier vessel is what permanently stabilizes high-grade elemental pressure."

Her eyes widened. "What happens if I break through to A-rank?"

"Your core density expands exponentially. Taming the Darkness won’t feel like holding back a flood anymore; it’ll feel like normal circulation."

Liora looked down at her open palms. "So I just need to get stronger."

"That’s the long and short of it."

Her face brightened, and the old gamer logic immediately locked into place: Main Quest Updated: Reach A-Rank.

The pure simplicity of having a clear goal made her feel ridiculously lighter.

Felix caught the look. "Don’t get cocky. You still have a long climb."

"I won’t!"

"You’re smiling again."

Her face went blank as she snapped her mouth shut. "I am not."

He laughed, waving a hand toward the exit. "Come on. Let’s get you back before the guards start getting nervous."

The suppression collar clicked back onto her wrists the moment they cleared the training wing airlock, the heavy hum of the dampeners immediately cutting her off from her mana.

Yet the light, airy sensation lingered in her chest.

She had learned something dangerous about herself today. Something she was terrified of admitting out loud.

When the Darkness was loose, fighting felt amazing. And when Felix fought back with real weight, that exhilaration skyrocketed.

She glanced sideways at him. He was strolling down the corridor with his hands shoved in his coat pockets, totally relaxed, completely unaware of the absolute chaos raging inside her head.

I am completely losing my mind, she thought, torn between wanting to sink through the floor in embarrassment and wanting to run back into the ring right this second.

*What is wrong with me?*

They stopped outside her cell door.

"Oh, right," Felix said, remembering something.

He reached inside his coat and pulled out a sleek, modern smartphone, offering it to her.

"This is for you."

She stared at the glass screen, dumbfounded.

"...For me?"

"Yeah." She took it with both hands, as if it might detonate. "Gideon and the board approved monitored communication. I already loaded the essential contacts: you can call me, Gideon and medical services if anything happens."

He paused, a small smirk playing on his lips. "I also pre-installed a bunch of offline mobile games on it."

Her head snapped up, her eyes huge.

"Games?"

"Figure you might get bored of the console eventually."

Dead silence hung in the hallway for three full seconds. Liora stared up at him with an expression identical to a stray dog that had just been handed a warm meal and a warm blanket.

Felix blinked, clearing his throat. "...What?"

She pulled the phone tightly against her chest, clutching it with both hands. "Thank you. So much."

"You’re welcome."

She kept staring directly at him, her eyes shining with such raw, undisguised gratitude that Felix rubbed the back of his neck, feeling suddenly awkward.

"It’s just a standard issue phone," he mumbled.

It wasn’t. Not to her. It was something he had personally taken the time to choose, configure, and bring down to her cage. She looked back down at the screen, her fingers tracing the smooth glass.

This man is dangerous,

She thought quietly. Not because of his overwhelming Ultra-rank combat prowess but because he kept casually planting an unfamiliar, aching warmth inside her chest that she had no idea how to handle.

---

An hour later, Felix stepped into Seraphina’s quarters.

She was sitting by the small table, reading through the thick book he had left for her the previous day. Her blue eyes lifted, brightening the moment he crossed the threshold.

"Good morning," she said.

He offered a nod, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a second sleek device. "Here. You asked for one yesterday."

Seraphina took it carefully. Felix pulled up a chair and sat opposite her. "Let me show you the basic setup."

For the next ten minutes, he walked her through the interface: the biometric unlock, handling calls, checking messages, and the strict network restrictions imposed by Association clearance. "It operates on an encrypted local relay, so you won’t have free access to the open web, but approved lines will go through without interference."

"That’s more than reasonable," she said calmly.

"Your Association account is linked to the banking app, too."

Seraphina tapped open the balance screen, scrolled down, and froze. Her brow furrowed slightly as she checked the numbers again.

She turned the display toward him. "...Why?"

Felix looked at the screen. "Why what?"

"My money." She tapped the total. "The credits I gave you yesterday to buy the unit, they’re all still here. Every single one."

"Right." Felix leaned back against the chair, smiling faintly. "The phone’s a gift."

Seraphina went completely motionless. "A gift?"

"Yeah."

For a long moment, she didn’t breathe. Her expression softened. Her fingers tightened around the metal edges of the casing.

It was just an electronic tool. A standard communicator. Yet the weight of it in her hands suddenly felt immense.

It wasn’t an allowance issued by her family out of obligation. It wasn’t an operational asset assigned to her by the Association to monitor a living weapon.

Felix had gone out, picked it himself, paid for it out of his own pocket. She held the device with both hands.

Felix pushed himself up from the chair. "You’re sharp enough to figure out the rest of the settings on your own."

"Felix."

He paused at the door, glancing back.

Seraphina looked up from the glowing screen, a genuine, radiant smile curving her lips. "Thank you."

"Anytime," he said with an easy wave, stepping through the doorway as the lock engaged.

Inside the quiet room, Seraphina remained sitting by the table, staring down at the sleek display. That strange, steady warmth spread slowly through her ribs.

He bought this for me.

She tapped open the limited contact directory. There were only four entries: Director Gideon, Aria and medical service.

And at the very top: Felix Valerius.

Her thumb hovered over the letters for a quiet second, her smile lingering in the dim light.

It was more than enough. He was the only contact she cared to have anyway.