Legacy World 4.15 Let It Go And Feel It

With Vlad consistently stepping in her path, she knew that it was impossible to walk on, so she stopped. However, she continued to avoid his eye contact by turning her head to the side and keeping her eyes on the ground.

"Tell me what're you upset with. I'll help."

/Help?/

[Uh oh.]

Vanora was already barely keeping it together. Her anxiety, frustration, anger, and other negative emotions that she had kept bottled up until earlier, burst forth again. Her lips and eyes twitched in her effort to stomp it back down, otherwise she would explod at Vlad. However, a sudden random thought flashed in her mind. /Let it go. Fight him./ Her mind became a blank after that. It was as if she had arrived at the answer to all her problems.

She suddenly turned to face Vlad properly, surprising him as the golden specks in her eyes burned brightly. "You'll help?"

She laughed sarcastically for a short while, then scoffed, "You were supposed to be mentoring me this whole time. But did you? Or were you trying to hold me back and be an obstacle?"

"What are you saying? I-"

"Do you think I don't know what you've been doing behind my back?!" She raised her voice at him.

Shock filled Vlad's face. /How could she know? Forget that. Lie. Just lie you way through as usual. Say something, damn mouth!/ Vlad gulped and tried his hardest to not avert his eyes. "What're you saying? I found stronger opponents every time you requested for it. Were they not satisfactory?"

"Yes, you did." She no longer shouted, but she sounded so cold and dispassionate that made Vlad feel extremely distant from her. He did not like it one bit. "But that's not all you did, is it?"

His silence and frown was all the confirmation she needed.

"I don't call that helping me. No. You've really had your fun with me, didn't you? Treating me like a brainless doll. Sorry, but I'm well aware of how WEAK I am! It's IMPOSSIBLE for me to win against so many strong hell beings with barely any scratches or bruises! At least make it more believable!"

/How long has she known?/ Seeing him stumped, Vanora walked away to trigger a response.

"Wait!" He grabbed onto her wrist. "I may have dishonest, but I don't see you as brainless or a doll! Why did you say that?"

"You certainly treated me like one!"

"I didn't mean to! I only wanted to protect you from needlessly harming yourself which you seem to like doing?"

She replied through gritted teeth, "I already said that I don't need your protection! Do you think protecting me would help me? You're sending me to my grave! Or do you really look down on me?" 

Tears uncontrollably welled up in her eyes while she continued without giving him a chance to speak. "Actually, you're right. I'm just a weak meaningless existence, born to fail again and again, with no hope of attaining greatness."

Vlad could not find his voice. He also could not take his eyes off of her. Her aura was a stunning red with black streaks mixed in. /The one she hates is... herself? Or is it her fate? Or the world? Everything?/

"But this doesn't mean that I'd subject myself to being toyed with, when I'm trying my darn hardest. I should have known better than to trust you to be my mentor. I should have been smarter than to think you'd really help me. After all, if I get too strong, I'd only be a threat to your love."

Vlad frowned. /Huh? Love? Who's she talking about?/

Thinking that she was pushing his buttons, Vanora continued. "You want to help me? Then let me go." Her final words threw everything that he wanted to say out of the window.

"No. No. I can't. No. I don't want to." His face revealed his increasing anxiety and panic. However, Vanora insistently tried to pull her hand out of his iron grip. She even covered her arm in her hellfire.

"Please! I'll do anything except leaving you. Tell me how I can make it up to you!"

She stopped trying to break his grip, then looked at him dead in the eye. "Then fight me."

His eyes grew wide in bewilderment. "What?"

"Fight me and make up for all the time you've made me lose!"

He clenched his jaw hard. He would rather spoil her with a good life than to put her through hardship. /But if this is what it means to be with you... To make you happy.../

"Fine." He replied her with a pained look.

Vanora immediately lit her whole body up in her hellfire, but as quickly as it raged to new heights, it got snuffed out. No longer being surprised by that, she immediately followed up with a punch. When Vlad blocked it, she went with a kick. Just like this, they continued to exchange blows with Vanora on the offensive and Vlad on the defensive, at a speed too fast for an untrained eye to see. Vanora used her experience from the previous worlds to target spots Vlad would find it tricky to defend. Vlad was soon forced to create some space between them or fight back. Knowing what he would choose, Vanora took care to stick to him like a putty. So, Vlad grabbed her by the ankle and threw her away from him. 

Vanora used this chance to get as far away from him as she could. The moment she landed on the ground, she used the momentum and sprang off in the opposite direction from him.

As her bizarre action caught him off guard, it took him awhile to register that she was indeed running away from him. It was not some cover for an attack. Then, he took even longer to recover from the shock. /I'm already fighting her as she had requested... Was this her goal the whole time? To run away?/ His chest felt tight and his breathing turned ragged.

Meanwhile, Vanora managed to run a good distance away from him and her flames suddenly returned to her. /Oh?/

Before she could process and make sense of why and how it happened, Vlad appeared in front of her, causing her to crash into him. Sensing great danger, her arms moved by themselves, pushing herself away from him. Vlad's expression was dark and crumpled in his anger.

/Now he's serious./ Vanora assumed a stance that would allow her to react the moment he moved. Suddenly, Vlad divided into five copies that surrounded her. As soon as he divided, they moved all at once. One swung a chop to her neck, two went for her arms, and two went for her legs. 

/Too fast!/ Before her mind was even done forming the thought, her pupils constricted into slits and her body moved based on instinct. Vanora jumped a little, retracted her limbs, then used her two legs to kick the copy in front of her. This propelled her towards the ground. Using her hellfire like a drill, she burned a path through the ground. Her odd behaviour momentarily stumped and surprised Vlad. At the same time, the entire ground trembled, then exploded. Rocks, stones, and pieces of the ground flew as fast as bullets. Hellfire raged like it did when she fought with the furless bear. Vlad, however, calmly scanned the chaos, trying to locate Vanora amidst the chaos. Every piece that flew at him decayed instantly. Just as he turned his head, a fist appeared behind a piece of debris that just turned to dust. His eyes turned wide in surprise. The speed of it disintegrating was slower than the debris, so the fist connected with his jaw and sent him flying a short distance away. When he looked back, she was already gone. /She's willing to sacrifice a hand for an insignificant punch?/ He thought to himself while he rubbed his jaw. He studied that state of his arms. /Her hellfire would kill me faster than her beating me up. She'd be better off hiding and waiting./

When the ground trembled again, Vlad jumped up and met her kick from beneath him with a kick of his own. She used the momentum to hide underground again. /But that's not her style, huh? She'd want to train for the time when she cannot hide from her opponent./

Instead of another explosion of debris like Vlad expected, Vanora reappeared behind him like a shadow. He turned around in time to strike out a fist to meet hers. Although it caught her by surprise, her body moved faster than her brain. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him to her raised knee, kicking him where she had punched him earlier. Again, she disappeared right after that. Finally, blood trickled off the corner of his lips. He broke into a grin. /She's not as bad as she thinks she is. She learnt something from her fights./

Again, the ground trembled and blasted up debris. Vanora appeared behind him again, but Vlad seemed to have anticipated that. He moved faster than before, so she could only defend by curling into a ball. Fist met flesh and she got thrown into the ground. She made use of this force to bury herself underground again. However, her subsequent attacks proved to be less and less effective, no matter how much she changed it up. He reacted faster than she could score a hit. On her tenth try, instead of letting herself be hit, she extended her leg up to kick the side of his head. He quickly used his attacking arm to block her kick, then grabbed her ankle and pulled her towards him. He held her body flushed to his, with his lips just barely touching her neck. "Had enough yet?" She could feel his lips move against her skin. So, she could picture that wide sickening grin he must have on his face right now. Even if she wanted to fight some more, something told her that she had lost. He just had to bite. Regardless, she fearlessly raised her foot then kicked him in his shin with all she had. Unfortunately, it was not enough to make him let go off her.

"Let go of me."

He raised his head to look down at her properly. "But you'd just run away from me." He sulked with pouty lips and puppy dog eyes. "I already fought you as you asked, but you ran off, leaving me behind."

She stared at him hard, refusing to give in to his pitiful look. "You weren't serious enough till I did that." She pushed the blame back to him. 

"But I can't bear to fight with you..." 

"Is that my problem?" She said with a deadpan expression. 

He sighed. "You're right. It isn't." He finally let her go, so she called back her flames. Due to the damage he sustained from her flames, he looked almost as battered as she did.

"Do you want another round?"

"I've had enough for today." There was no reason to keep on fighting. She felt weary inside and out. She could not remember the last time she acted this emotionally. So, this was extremely draining. This was the toughest battle she had in a long while too. She even gained some insight on how to master her enhanced instinct and grow her powers.

After Vlad transported them back to the room, Vanora immediately headed for the bath. She skipped soaking in the bath, afraid that she would end up falling asleep in it. Once she finished the tea that Vlad always made for her, she retired for the night. Just as Vlad began to sulk over how she went to bed without saying a single word or sparing him a single glance after they returned to the room, Vanora's soft voice caught his attention. "Don't bother scouting for more demons. From now on, we go to the surface and join the war."

Vlad returned to being depressed as he watched her doze off. Keeping her here and by his side was the safest. However, he now understood that she could not be caged like that, and that she was only this hasty now because of what he did. He could only comfort himself that she was still with him. /I'll wait for her to forgive me. No matter how long it takes./

He absentmindedly touched the corner of his lip where it was cut. It was his first time feeling proud of someone else, not just himself. It was from that moment on that he enjoyed the fight. /I didn't know I could feel such joy from fighting with her./

He smiled to himself. /I get to taste the fruits of her labour. I feel so much closer to her. It's a lot more intimate than anything we've done together so far./

Vlad then frowned. /Mmm... This makes me look forward to our next fight./

He sighed. /I should have listened to her better./

He sighed deeply again as he recalled how much he screwed up. /I hope I didn't make an irrevocable mistake.../