Unsealing Emptiness

The two immediately stopped at his words, waiting for his orders. They were still unsure what he had called them here for. After they had returned, they didn’t have any chance to talk with him.

“Both of you have improved over the years,” Ozul started with a pause. The duo understood by his tone that he wasn’t praising them and his next words confirmed their guess, “However, you still lack in many places.”

Ozul hadn’t trained anyone before, nor had he himself done any excessive training to hone his skills or anything like that. However, whenever he watched anyone fight or he fought himself, these things all came naturally to him.

“I get that both of you couldn’t go all out since it was only a duel and that would destroy the area, but there were many other ways you both could have chosen to win,” Ozul started explaining what he had observed from their fight yesterday.

Raven and Blaze patiently listened to his words without any complaints.

“Raven, you won yesterday, but how many times do you think you can win against him using surprise tactics?” Ozul said before moving towards Blaze, “And you, when will you learn to deal with unknown situations?”

.....

The duo dropped their heads, not daring to look in Ozul’s eyes.

In truth, both of them could take on multiple Mages at the same Rank simultaneously. Blaze had the raw power to deal with many at once, while Raven’s specialty was in her daggers that allowed her to steal other’s Mana and stamina.

Ozul was still being strict with them because there was still room for improvement. If they became arrogant because of their abilities today, it would stunt their growth.

“Raven, you are a little too reserved, while Blaze, you are a little too wild,” Ozul commented before making his way back to the spectators’ seats.

“Alright, start fighting again. Use all kinds of Spells but keep your Mana output to a minimum so they don’t destroy the whole ground again,” Ozul said, his voice echoing throughout the place.

The ground had many small craters yesterday, but all of them were gone now because a couple of Mages were assigned to maintain this place. The Mage with Earth Element only had to use a couple of Spells and the ground all turned to normal.

Ozul picked up Jinx from the seat and sat down before placing her back on his lap. It had almost become a habit now.

He noticed that they hadn’t started fighting and were looking at him confusedly, “Just do whatever I say.”

The duo nodded their heads and went back to their duel. This time, they were using the Spells as Ozul had instructed.

‘Raven focuses on her surroundings so much that she hesitates to go all out, on the other hand, Blaze is the exact opposite of her...’ Ozul had an idea of how he wanted to train the two.

He watched them battle it out for a few minutes, and then suddenly;

*Arkh!*

*Clank!*

The duo stopped fighting each other as a small black blade stabbed Blaze’s right leg while Raven held one of her daggers behind her back, barely stopping a thin needle from reaching her back.

The two confusedly looked at Ozul for his reason.

“Learn to be aware of your surroundings. Or do you prefer to leave from here full of holes?” Ozul looked expressionless as he said this to Blaze who was smiling bitterly. He then turned towards Raven and said, “Is going all out really so hard for you, Raven?”

Immediately after his question, Raven wanted to explain but Ozul didn’t let her, “If you had all your focus on attacking Blaze, there was not a chance that you would have ever felt that needle behind you.”

He had carefully controlled the speed of that needle so she, as a Rank-8 Mage, had the ability to notice it if she had her focus on it.

Hearing his words, even someone who wasn’t a Mage or a Fighter would have told Ozul that he was only spouting bullsh*t.

Although his analysis of Blaze was on spot, there should have been no problem with Raven always being aware of her surroundings. Ozul himself didn’t like the sound of his words, but the problem was the amount of attention she should give to her opponent in sight.

Truly, a person shouldn’t drop their guard and always be aware of their surroundings, but Raven wasn’t even able to use all of her spells in fear that there would always be something hidden around her that would attack her.

He only wanted her to drop that fear.

There was a clear line between being too reserved in a fight and not dropping their guard; Raven couldn’t recognize that line.

Ozul wanted her to learn that balance. It wasn’t so hard for others, but Raven had it opposite because of her excessively conserved personality that made it so difficult for her.

Right now, Ozul felt that she was not even using sixty percent of her strength in fighting Blaze.

‘She will only learn this the hard way. After all, pain is the best teacher,’ Ozul thought as the needle which was blocked by Raven’s blade suddenly changed its direction and pierced her leg. It was deep enough to hurt, but not so that it could be considered fatal.

“This is the way we will be doing things from now on. If you think it is too much for you, you are free to leave,” Ozul wouldn’t be soft on them, especially after the possibility of there existing other worlds that most probably surpassed this one by a large margin.

Raven and Blaze looked at each other; it was clear that they wouldn’t back down from something like this.

‘This much is nothing...’ both of them thought as they nodded their heads with a solemn face.

Although they thought that, the session that started next almost seemed like torture.

They started their duel, and Ozul would occasionally throw thin needles at Raven from all sides and blades at Blaze.

Though it sounded like both of them would have equal amounts of trouble, it wasn’t the case. Because it was easy for Raven to stop herself from instinctively blocking whatever came at her from behind, but it was different for Blaze.

Whenever he managed to dodge or block the blade sent by Ozul, he would be hit by the daggers that Raven was using. This continued on for a couple of hours before Blaze had bled a little too much and couldn’t resume.

During this time, Raven was hit a couple of times, but she started to get the hang of it. However, Ozul wasn’t satisfied because she was only stopping herself in the last second which meant that she did have her attention on those needles.

The needles just being there distracted her too much in the fight even when Ozul had clearly stated that he wouldn’t attack her. Ozul didn’t even put them too close to her. They remained a few feet away, but Raven couldn’t concentrate on her fight because of that.

“Alright, you can rest,” Ozul said when he noticed that Blaze wouldn’t be able to move for a few minutes. It had exhausted both of them, but he had gotten the shorter end of the stick.

The duo finally released a sigh of relief, but Raven had another thing coming for her when she heard Ozul call her.

‘It’s better to do it now. I will get busy later, and I might never find any time later,’ Ozul decided to tell Raven about her situation.

Raven nervously made her way towards him. She didn’t know why, but it felt as if she wouldn’t like whatever she would hear next.

Her fear proved true when Ozul said, “Sit down, it’s about your feelings towards me.” Not only was this a sensitive topic to her that had her troubled for so long, but the expressionless face and the unfeeling tone Ozul said it with caused her to almost tear up.

*Sigh...*

Ozul sighed and motioned at the seat in front of me before saying, “I am not going to reprimand you for what you feel, Raven. Sit down, listen to me first.”

Raven obediently nodded her head like a little child and took the seat.

“It’s not hidden that you like me. But you are going about it the wrong way. You are smart, Raven. Try to understand what I am saying,” Ozul wasn’t very good with words, but he knew that he had to do this or it would become a headache later in the future.

After confirming that she was listening, he continued, “The only reason you like me was that I saved you that day. It would have been fine if it was only that, but you closed yourself.”

Ozul’s tone was as serious as he could get it to be. Meanwhile, Raven’s face remained glued to the ground.

“If I say that your feelings are not true, you would fervently deny it. However, that is the truth-”

Raven looked up and was about to say something, but Ozul said, “No. Listen to me first. That is the truth because those feelings were only you seeing me in a positive light since I saved you.”

Raven’s face again dropped.

Ozul continued, “Don’t deny it; you never tried to express your feelings to others. Even if you don’t like someone or something, you would rather not say anything... And because of that, your likeness towards me has developed as if an obsession because I am one of the only few that you express your feelings in front of.”

Saying all of that, Ozul took a deep sigh internally. It was annoying for him to do this, but he would be ruining Raven’s future if he didn’t take any action.

Raven, on the other hand, was deep in her thoughts...