Chapter 81 - Alfonso's Hypothesis
Demeter took longs and deeps breaths before calming down, her face was as white as a sheet and there was a little bit of blood in her mouth.
"The backslash was worse than I originally thought," Demeter thought.
Suddenly Alfonso heard the voice of TItio. "That girl is dangerous. I would better eliminate here before I take care of that coward."
When he saw Titio, he saw that there was fear and decision on his face.
"Demeter's powers are truly impressive. However, it seems that the description of the system weren't quite there. I didn't know that she could force someone to die, but how did she did it?" though Alfonso.
Of course, Alfonso wasn't the only one. Nobody knew how she did it, only Demeter herself knew.
Titio took long steps towards Demeter. He lifted his sword high and down as if he was practicing how he will cut her!
"I will show you why you don't give your back towards an archer," thought Alfonso while stretching his string.
*BUZZ*
Alfonso looked at Titio's right shoulder.
Alfonso shot his arrow!
Titio immediately reacted!
He dodged to the left as if he had eyes on his back.
"You finally show yourself!" shouted Titio.
"I knew that you will attack from the bac-" Before TItio could say something else he felt something warm on his hand, when he looked, an arrow had pierced his right arm!
"AAHHHHHH!"
The sword left his hand while he kneel on the ground.
"I knew that you would lurk me into a trap," say Alfonso while walking towards Titio.
"You knew that I was in the neighborhood yet you still decided to give me your back. There were only two possibilities:
"One, you were too stupid, or second, you were confident that you would be able to dodge my arrow even if you weren't facing me directly." Alfonso grabbed Titio's sword.
With a sword in his right hand and a cane in his left hand, he looked at Titio.
"If history has taught me something it is that, no matter the situation, no matter if you have 99.9% chance of winning, you never underestimate your enemies. So I used my first arrow as a 'phantom arrow'. I shot to your right side, however, I didn't aim at you. I simple looked at your right shoulder. If my hypothesis was correct then you would definitely dodge the arrow even if it wasn't aimed at you. Then, immediately after that I shot the second arrow to your left side. However, this time, I didn't aim at you. I just shot the arrow," said Alfonso.
"Yo- you!" Titio stuttered.
"I noticed in all the fights weve had, that your awareness is impressive. Even If I became invisible you were able to pinpoint my position. How? You aren't a Champion, however, you have great experience. Felio was able to do that too, so I had a theory. 'Something' was betraying me and giving my position. Just before Alberto also detected me, my comrade told me that he used some kind of 'soul power', maybe this was where the clue was, so I made an Hypothesis. This 'soul' of whatever may be the 'awareness' soldiers sufficiently trained can develop. Similar to a radar, it can detect enemies even if they can't see them directly.
"When I was fighting you and I used Shadowless, you closed your eyes. This means that you tried to pinpoint my direction with this 'awareness' every time I was close to you. You were able to detect where I was and even if I was not in your 'detection range' you still somehow knew that I was looking at you. That's the key word: 'looking' at you, or, to be more precise, concentrating on you.
"When I focused my concentration on you, you are able to detect me. That's how your 'awareness' works, so I put my hypothesis to the test and kt seems that I was correct," said Alfonso.
Alfonso had thought hard since he knew that his ability didn't make him completely invisible. The first case was with Felio. Since then, he had tried to understand how he was able to detect him. Shadowless is an ability that only eliminated your presence. So it also eliminated the sounds you make and the odor you have. It was mortal ability towards normal people, however, when Alfonso had to fight against veterans like Felio or Titio, his ability wasn't useful. Why?
Alfonso knew that they had some kind of method to feel him. He had a theory, however, he lacked proof. It was only after his encounters with Alberto, and his fight with Titio, when he had enough evidence to put his theory on board.
"You really thought a lot about this right?" said Titio.
"I am weak so, as someone weak, I have to use all the resourses I have on my side and this," Alfonso said while pointing at his head. "Is my best weapon."
Titio looked at Alfonso and made a small chuckle.
"Well, fallen prince, seems that you are more than just a stupid idiot. In fact, I will say that you deserve to be the son of your father, however, in the end, you still loseā¦" said Titio while looking at Alfonso.
"What do you-"
Before Alfonso could end his phrase, Titio grabbed a piece of mud from the ground and throw it towards Alfonso!
Alfonso instinctively covered his eyes and Titio didn't lose this chance and thew himself towards Alfonso.
Alfonso tried to fight but Titio was at least two times faster than Alfonso and had more experience.
He grabbed Alfonso's collar and threw him a punch!
*PAM!*
Alfonso had some blood on his face as he dropped the sword.
"Little Al!" Demeter, who saw this, tried to run towards Alfonso, but before she could take a step, she grabbed her head in pain.
"No, not now!" moaned Demeter.
However, she couldn't stop the pain in her head and she fainted.
Titio grabbed hs sword and lifted it high in the air. "At the end of the day, the one who lives, is the real winner, Your Highness. Goodbye."
"Hey, hey. You are being disrespectful towards His Highness, you know?"
Suddenly, a mocking voice came from behind TItio. When he turned around someone grabbed his neck and lifted him!
"Lu- lucio, what are you- what are you doing?!" Titio asked while struggling in Lucio's hand.
"L-Lucio?" asked Alfonso while looking at the young man who saved his life.
"Titio, I can't let you kill His Highness. If you kill him, then how I am going to get my rewards?" asked Lucio with a bright smile on his face.
The sight was incredible. Lucio was lifting a man of hundred something kilos like he was lifting a little cat!
"Lu-lucio, if I left him alive then His- His Majesty, will kill me!" hissed Titio who still struggling.
"Well, in that case, I will not let you die at His Majesty's hands," Lucio replied.
Titio made a relieved sigh.
"You will die at min," said Lucio with his bright smile.
"No, wai-"
*POM!*
Before Titio could say something else, he saw a huge hole on his chest!
Lucio's punch then retracted of TItio's chest after that,l and he threw him away like he was throwing garbage.
"Impo- impossible! His punch actually perforated a hole in Titio's body?!" choked Alfonso in disbelief.
Lucio took a handkerchief and clean all the blood from his hand and arm.
Alfonso felt his back turning cold at this sight.
"Well, Your Highness, it has been a while hasn't it?" asked Lucio.