”…”

Things had been so hectic for him ever since that random crack in the sky attacked him. He didn’t know why it stopped all of a sudden, but Daiko had been on edge ever since… mainly because it did leave behind a strange, strange effect.

Ever since returning to the guild hall again… he didn’t know how to explain it to anyone, but he made his way to his room immediately. Reddish lines appeared at random in the sky, even though all Daiko saw were birds gliding through the air. There was also this one time on his way back from the other town that he could’ve sworn he saw a line in the distance – just a big, bright line – before a lightning bolt struck down that exact line…

And one time, he tried to grab the line! And guess what happened?! HE BROKE A VASE! Poor lady had to go buy a new one afterwards, but the fact that Daiko’s hand was perfectly placed right where a vase was falling down before he even knew that such a thing would occur was… occult.

“Okay, Coda… l-listen to me – could you fly over there, to that perch over there? Just really quickly, pleeeeeeeaaaase?” he begged Coda, keeping a close eye as they both found themselves inside his quarters at the guild hall, decorated with falconry equipment and all sorts of stands for Coda to perch on. And just as predicted, a line appeared before Coda even took flight…

…

“What’s going oooooooooon…?” he now pondered, walking in circles at the lounge while holding his chin in deep thought, “Everybody’s throwing glances at my face, now… maybe I did something bad- wait, did I hurt someo- wait, no I didn’t…” Unbeknownst to him, his left eye… was pale as snow. Contrasting his right, dark eye tremendously.

“Think, think, think, think, think, think…”

WC: 312

”Think, think, think, think, think… MHM!?”

Immediately pulled back to the fabrics of reality by the voice of his guild mistress – no, also his best friend… oh, shit, did he make her panic or something? Did he look weird? He definitely looked weird, he was certain of it now! Something had happened to him, right?!

Glancing over towards Alisa with widened eyes, Daiko did manage to find solace in the fact that she was here… she could definitely help figure something out. If he had something stuck in his face, or if he had something stuck to his soul… anything. Therefore, strolling towards her, he quickly rested both of his hands on her shoulders with a shivering face right in front of her, in full view being his whitened left eye. Pure-white – not greyed like that of a damaged eye, but… familiarly white. She would definitely recognize it, if only Daiko knew…

“S-Something happened to me, and I can see red lines everywhere now. I’m either possessed, losing my mind, or losing my eyesight – is this… is this my magic screwing me over, again?! Can’t I take a break, already?!” He threw a fit around the lounge once more, soon returning to Alisa’s side with a dark cloud over his dome. “Weird stuff’s been happening to me quite a lot, lately…”

”Huh?! Wait, what’s wrong with my eye?” a panicked falconer asked, almost poking himself in the eye if that would help with whatever she’d spotted in… wait, what eye, exactly? His heart rate was increasing even further, with all sorts of paranoic ideas popping up in his mind – was it some sort of disease? A curse? An infection? Was his eye different from the other?

He’d visibly relax a little more when Alisa cupped his cheek, finding a bit of comfort in her touch and worry for his well-being. He’d finally bring himself to take a deep breath through his nostrils… he didn’t feel anything painful lately, so maybe it wasn’t that bad. Maybe he was panicking for naught…

“… Oh, I- uh- I don’t know,” Daiko pondered over Alisa’s first question, a task that would’ve cleared up so much of the bird boy’s doubt… but he didn’t remember looking at a mirror recently. “Actually, I don’t think I did…” From Alisa’s perspective, his eye had changed – arguably one of them was different from the other, but… what was the cause of that?!

“But if it’s not a disease, then… what’s with the random, red lines then? Do I see stuff?”

Huh… it really was all pale white. And only that left eye of his. It made him look weird- not that having mismatched eyes in and of itself was a weird thing, of course! Obviously, that self-rebuke came right after he noticed Alisa’s own eye shift to a pale color as well- wait, since when?

When had she gotten that?! Wait, wait, wait, did all Blue Pegasus members have a white e-

“… I-I don’t know, looks very similar,” Daiko expressed at a closer look. Her next question was enigmatic – who on earth bought eyes? Wait-

“… What? Wait, what do you mean by that? Did you… did you buy an eye? Is that possible?” he wondered, blinking a couple times as a rather grotesque scenery unfolded in his head, “Ew… wait, no no no! You do you, Alisa – nothing wrong, if it’s legal and all, b-but I just thought that it sounded weird to buy eyes- like, it sounds- it just-“

Clearly, from his confusion, Daiko hadn’t done any of the sort. No strange merchant purchases with him… but he did find this traveling nomad in Worth Woodsea a while ago, from whom he bought his cape. Said cape was a well-treated hide of a lion, and such spoils couldn’t just go to waste! Every part had its purpose when it came to hunting.

Alisa made a grand revelation to Daiko – that there were many ocular powers out there, and that his circumstance by extension wasn’t new or anything detrimental. It was like… some sort of process in the world of wizards, and now he too was part of it. Therefore, she suggested the most direct method of discovering his new ocular power. “…”

He hadn’t had a proper spar with Alisa since before he had that whole… egg thing going on. Thinking back to that always made him feel uneasy, as if there was still a part of that paranoid, crying and dying boy tugged within his chest, even years after he’d made a full recovery. But the time that passed proved that their bond had only strengthened since then… he wouldn’t smear any shame on that. “I’ve really missed sparring with you, Alisa. I’m ready whenever you are!”

Thank the heavens that Alisa respected people’s privacy – how many times was he standing in front of his window ‘cringily’ testing out new outfits only to throw a fit and fall back on his gear from his old guild. It wasn’t until these recent years when he found comfort in the blue dress that his guild members offered him – it was light, simple, and easy to move in for a hand-to-hand enthusiast like him. It did make him look a bit more ‘regal’, though, and that was a cover that nobody should judge him by – Daiko had nothing to do with royalty, nobility or any notions thereof. Any noble trying to converse would quickly lose patience with his simple view of life.

And hearing about a merchant that sold pretty much whatever was on their minds sounded… a lot like something a certain other merchant would like to know more about. “Well… yeah, I thought something happened to me, but I guessed I just got a spell cast on me… or something,” he wondered, since actual eye transplantations usually involved cutting, pulling, and replacing in very physical manners.

He eagerly followed her outside, thrown a key at his face to unlock a distant memory – the first time he met her, atop the Baska Rock where they sparred and tested each other’s mettle. That was a while ago, he underestimated the flow of time and its toll on the world and how much it changed things. “… Woah… that was long ago, huh? I almost burned your butt back then,” he chuckled, reminiscent of himself trying to remove grass blades from her rear with a flame appendage released from his maw. No way in hell could he had done it with his own hand, even if she wouldn’t have minded it back then.

What, she expected his 17-18 year old self to have been that brave?

“I can fight without magic, alright!” he reassured her confidently, bumping his chest with a fist, “Seriously, what else did Lamia Scale teach me other than that…?” She wouldn’t have to worry about him underachieving in fisticuffs – Daiko knew how to throw hands, hailing from a guild that revered in such activities, almost as if it was all it knew how to. Aguero… Shahrbaraz… those meatheads taught him well.

Weapons? Well, he had his gauntlet… and judging by her summoning, he was free to use it. Clenching the fist wearing the Mero Gauntlet caused it to grind the metallic pieces together, grinding and releasing a whistling shriek. Focusing on Alisa, his white eye began doing stuff again, because… numbers began appearing?

“Strength… 531… wait, that’s a big number, what’s up with that?” he mumbled to himself, “… And Speed is almost twice as much… is that my eye’s power, too? Does this mean she’s, like, super duper fa-“ Alisa immediately revealed her overwhelming speed, drawing Yamato and slashing the air in front of him before he could even blink. Despite the distance allowing him to go unscathed from just the draw, red blurry lines began twirling around his position and covering his view, prompting him to leap 15 meters to his right side. That was when a swirling vortex of air slashes rose from his previous position, confirming that he did in fact see an attack coming at him… but the lines were so blurry. They were way sharper before.

Usually, when an object was thrown at him, the line he could see was clear and white – a sharp trajectory. For an attack like this, where each slash had its own, independent direction, it’d just overwhelm his senses – while he wasn’t aware of the details, he was skeptical of his ability yet… screw it, he leapt towards her next and spun his entire body, launching a horizontal heel kick aimed at her center.

Spoiler:

He’d do his best, that was certain. He wanted to make this eye work well with his… mhm, his uh… fighting style, yeah. His very own fighting style! He couldn’t just… improv every time as he’d done up until now – Daiko was a versatile brawler, but being certain about his next punch could do wonders.

But every time he threw a punch or a kick - or even a headbutt - he just began thinking less. His cape responded to that mindless attribute and granted him further strength that didn’t belong to him.

His kick landed! But Daiko didn’t have time to follow up with another strike – Alisa had swung a bit too early to hit him, but at the same time, he clearly saw her sword extend! It was as if it just exited itself as a white ghost, then as a bluish ghost, and then launched towards him with a slash to his chest! “Khh!!!” Even though his kick landed, he had to roll back and recover his foothold… but Alisa knew that Daiko was one of the few people around capable of disregarding injuries to his body.

Despite a clean hit on his torso, the regenerative prowess of his Phoenix Take-Over immediately began restoring his wound, while Daiko… decided to step back. She struck right when he was about to strike her, so he was unable to dodge an attack right in the midst of his own offensive efforts. He’d provoke her to strike first, this time… but ONLY this time.

Crooking his fingers as if trying to take a new stance of his.

Spoiler:

Was it just him, or… did Yoru look a little smaller these days? Like, he could’ve sworn that Yoru was a larger, cross-like blade than the smooth, Joyan sword he was gazing at – props to Alisa for changing its large, unconventional look, but why did he feel like she’d look much better with a spear? Or maybe one of those, uh, chained weapons like a scythe or something.

Ah, well, it wasn’t really his business, was it? Besides, when was he going to pick up a blade? Never, exactly! His fists were all he ever needed… oh, and the gauntlet. It was really useful- wait, no using the Mero Gauntlet, Daiko! That’d be cheating!

But… she was using Yoru, right? Was that Yoru? It must've been Yoru.

… Was it cheating to use his gauntlet, too? It wasn’t even what he wanted to practice- wait, yes it was! He specifically wanted to learn how to use his new, white eye for punching people better- or more specifically, dodge so he could punch better without getting punched as much himself!

So when Alisa almost flew forward at high speed, he saw a red line aim straight towards him – linear and all, and it rooted from Alisa’s bountiful cleavage, so it was obviously reading her movement as a projectile. However, her sword swing wasn’t treated as a projectile… it was wielded by her like a melee weapon, so no lines came from its cut.

Still, Daiko used whatever his eye was able to show him to step to the side, narrowly avoiding the sharp end of Yoru by ducking his body and resting on one knee. “Woah, woah, it just showed me a red line from your chest! But not from your sword…” he reported immediately to Alisa, clenching his left fist and charging a Mero-infused punch straight towards her center. Since he talked to her, he gave her plenty of time to parry or leap away, as he could tell from the numbers that she was WAY faster than him.

WC: 339

Spoiler:

Even when he tried to really extend his punch as far as he could, Alisa was nimble enough to leap out of the way and avoid getting hit. That was when she made a sharp observation – while they both possessed a magical, pale eye, they functioned in opposite ways – her eye kept track of people in short range, so as to say that she excelled in reading the movements of melee combatants. Daiko’s eye kept good track of projectiles, which was better suited for keeping track of long-range warriors.

So there was some sort of dualism going on there… but Alisa suddenly decided to not follow up with another attack after her evasion. Daiko’s guards were up, but not counter-strikes landed on him – instead, she stated her desire to see its capabilities in aiding his offensive prowess, suddenly manifesting tough, gemlike material over her form like armor made of diamond. I mean, he wasn’t the sharpest, but he quickly knew what she was pointing at – could his eye help him overcome such a wall? Could it help him land hits harder?

It was a tough question to answer… for now, he saw no lines signaling projectiles coming his way. But he saw the amount of mana used to manifest the armor – such dense concentrations of magical power… but he saw some darker spots! Oh? If I were a betting man… Alisa doesn’t like too chunky armor, so… maybe those are weak spots?!

Clenching both fists, he rushed forward with his white eye active, its pale shine telling him of the amount of mana that Alisa possessed – both in number and in color. He could tell just how… how outclassed he was – he knew she was a cut above the rest, but how much power did she hold back on occasion? Was he ever really pushing her? Or was she just being nice?

Either way, Alisa was also a shrewd swordswoman… so she needed a lot of space to move her arms for swings and such. That meant that the frontal areas next to her armpits weren’t needed to be as dense, which he could tell from the lower amounts of mana concentrated there. It was a gamble in the end, since he didn’t know just how tough her armor was overall, but he aimed a left hook towards her left shoulder – sacrificing power for extra speed, just a rapid jab so that Mero could do its job!

WC: 339

Spoiler:

Daiko really thought for a moment, for a brief instance, that his rapid jab could land on her shoulder before Alisa had the chance to counter-attack – despite the fact that her Speed numbers were way higher, and that he could see that. He ought to trust what he saw a bit more than this… but his punch landed, truthfully. Problem was, Alisa managed to cut him… in half! IN HALF!

And I don’t mean like some meager slash wound – rapidly, his body appeared to split in half vertically down, blood spraying out. Just as quickly did his blood catch on fire, as if his blood was made of nitroglycerin – it ignited the area around him, quickly beat back by the sudden wave of slashes that released from Alisa’s slick, new sword!

The flames grabbed both halves of Daiko and wedged them together before any part fell to the floor. It must’ve been a gruesome sight to the eyes of his oldest friend, but death meant little to the bird of fire. Even the extra slashes from her sword wave, while cutting deep into his bleeding skin, couldn’t stop his regeneration from patching his wounds up… but one thing was certain – even his regeneration had limits. And Alisa’s moves were numerous.

Lastly, standing on his exhausted legs, Daiko’s Meru Gauntlet lit up its eyes as the effect finally took hold of the swordswoman. This was likely the extent of this spar – Daiko was at his limit. But Alisa wasn't… far from.

This was going to be that part of the match where he'd be pushed even further. He was used to it - Shahrbaraz and Aguero sure loved this part of training, back then.

Spoiler:

The member 'Daiko Flayme' has done the following action : Spin

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'Dice 100' : 47

Alright? Daiko was on fire. A proud, green boy donning green Lamia eyes that never faltered, fumbled or tripped over his own dead feet in the face of opposition. The pain was natural – searing, in fact, since Alisa’s sword wasn’t ordinary, that shit hurt like hell – but one of the very few good things from the Lamia masters’ training was that Daiko had a pretty good pain tolerance. Perhaps it was a slow descent into the madness that fighting junkies back then would embody like a badge of honor… Kerii must’ve had it hard.

“… Ye,” he answered, pure and simple, “Should be useful with long-range attackers, but you’re kind of a bad matchup for me…” Alisa preferred short-range onslaughts, and even though he saw the red lines form her strikes, they were so chaotic and scrambled up that he could barely use them in time. Long-range projectile attacks… those were easy to track with this white eye. “I think… we’ll call it quits. Resurrection's fun and all, but swords and spells still hurt…”

Yeah… he wasn’t a Lamia Scale mage anymore. Had he lost his edge, or had he just actually grown a brain? Only time would tell. “Sorry for scaring you earlier… sometimes, I wonder if I’d actually have been weaker if Lamia Scale was still around. But it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m a Blue horse now.”

Spoiler: