Chill a bit

“Hey Pax, do you think that being away from the rest of society for so long will mess with our ability to socialize with other human beings?”

Raya once posed such a question to Pax. Though Pax had spent much of his life alone, he didn’t know whether poor social skills were the cause of his loneliness or if being alone was what caused him to have poor social skills.

It was akin to the question of whether the chicken or the egg came first.

“Who knows? Why are you worried about such things?

Pax was probably the wrong person to be asking this question. He never had any social skills in the first place. Then again, he managed to find himself a hot girlfriend so maybe his social skills weren’t as terrible as he thought.

“I was just wondering what was going to happen to us after all this stuff ends. When I was locked up that one time, I had a neighbor who was a bit crazy. He said that happened because he was alone for too long, so I wondered if the same would happen to us.”

“Uhh… I think we should be fine… because there’s two of us. Did you just say that you went to jail once though? When the hell was that?”

Raya frowned a bit when she responded.

“It was a long time ago… I killed a couple of people so my mother threw me in the dungeon… It was self defense though! I’m not a psycho murderer!”

Hearing that response did not make Pax any less shocked than he already was.

“Oh, sorry that that happened…. For what it’s worth, I would still love you if you were a a psycho murderer.”

Raya chuckled a little when Pax said that and a warm smile appeared on his face as a result.

“You know Raya, as long as the two of us can talk to one another fine, I don’t really care if we do end up going crazy. Even if everyone else in the world starts speaking a different language, I wouldn’t mind if you just stayed by my side.”

Raya nodded and smiled as if she understood and agreed with the sentiment and the pair continued walking down the empty dirt road.

But after a period of silence she posed another question:

“Hey Pax, what’s a language?”

- - - - - - -

Shaking irrelevant thoughts out of his head, Pax pulled his attention back to the last member of the group who was introducing himself.

“...In any case, can someone really know themselves enough to explain their being to another in such a concise manner? Isn’t it disingenuous to even ask someone to do that? Do you expect me to lay my entire soul bare to all or do you just want me to make up something convenient for your digestion? So that you can pretend to know me and care about me in a manner that is as fake as this world itself? No, I believe that –sorry, I probably believe that – it is entirely impossible to ever know anyone, even yourself. So let my actions speak for me and be interpreted in whatever way is convenient for you.”

With that, Djyn finally finished his lengthy introduction –if you can even call it that. These people were all strange, but Djyn was by far the weirdest of the bunch.

Based off his gloomy demeanor, one might think that he was a man of few words – and he was most of the time – but once he started talking, it was impossible to get him to stop.

Everyone else in the room seemed accustomed to this kind of behavior, so Pax wasn’t planning on calling him out or anything. He just planned to avoid speaking to Djyn in the future.

“I think I know you Djyn! You’re a good person!”

It was Eris who seemed most accustomed to Djyn’s ramblings out of everyone, but Pax could tell that she hadn’t really been paying much attention to what Djyn’s nonsensical ramblings.

Eris was a dog beastperson with black fur. Her ears were long and pointy while her tail looked like it was long enough to be used to sweep the floor. When she had introduced herself, she said that she came from the mountainous regions of northwestern Old Artenia.

When asked where he came from, Djyn had responded by saying that he came from nowhere and was nothing. For some reason Pax wasn’t really surprised by that response.

“A good person… I wouldn’t say that.”

When Djyn finally responded, there was a deep sadness in his voice. It resonated with Pax much deeper than he had expected.

What exactly caused this man to start acting mad? Will I also start acting in a similar manner some day?

…Nah, probably not.

“How about we get to know one another with a bit of sparring?”

Everyone except for Derrick and Captain Vincent looked at Pax strangely after he said that. Maybe it was a bit strange that this was the solution he came up with, but Pax knew that he wouldn’t be able to get anywhere with these people if they still treated him like he was a 5 year old child. He didn’t blame them for acting reserved around him, he just knew that one he beat the shit out of them that they would respect him.

Seeing that everyone was still hesitant, Pax decided to explain his reasoning:
“Djyn, you said that we should get to know one another through our actions. Well, I agree. If I fight against every one of you I’ll get to know what you’re capable of, just as you’ll understand what I’m capable of.”

Djyn, Ivy, Eris, and Vincent nodded while Derrick paled a little bit.

But things were already as good as decided…

In the nearby training grounds, four people chatted about the rules of the upcoming match. But no one cared enough about a strict rubric, so everything would left to the referee’s whims.

Pax could heal anyone from the brink of death so it would be pretty hard for things to go too out of hand anyways…

Derrick had pulled Captain Vincent into a room earlier, as the group was walking towards the training grounds, so the two of them were currently missing.

“I don’t plan on joining in on the sparring today so I’ll just watch and be the referee.”

“Thanks Ivy! Be sure to stop us if you think we start going too far.”

Eris always seemed overly enthusiastic when she spoke. Compared to Pax’s tiredness, Djyn’s gloominess, and Ivy’s general nonchalant attitude, she stood out the most.

Now facing up against Pax, she took off her black cloak and gave him a deep bow.

“Where’d you get such a strange tradition?”

In this world, Pax had never seen someone bow before a duel. It felt straight out of a samurai film or something.

Tossing the cloak aside, Eris responded by saying, “...Huh, I actually don’t remember.”

With that, the two squared up and stared at one another.

After a brief pause, Ivy shouted, “begin!”

Without missing a beat, Eris launched herself at Pax with her lean legs.

She's fast…

She launched a side kick, which Pax barely dodged, and flew past him. She skidded along the ground, tearing it up with her boots to slow down and immediately launched another attack.

Though she was only using her legs, her attacks were relentless and deadly. Pax was only barely dodging and had to use his arms to block some of her attacks, which hit heavy every time.

He wasn't serious yet, but then again, neither was Eris.

“Let's take things up a notch”

Blood poured out of Pax’s wrist and accumulated in his hand until a short sword appeared.

When it looked like Eris had overcommitted to one of her attacks, Pax swung the sword, aiming to sever one of her legs.

Eris, however, managed to move her leg out of the way with some unnatural acrobatics. She still managed to make it look graceful though, and proceeded to somersault backwards to make space between them.

This time Pax was the one who leapt forward. He brandished his sword in a beautiful downwards strike, which Eris nimbly dodged. In the following dance, Eris used her boots to block Pax’s sword on several occasions. It seemed that they were no ordinary boots because they remained unblemished even after taking multiple strikes to the same point.

Even the passive corrosive effect of Pax’s blood seemed to do nothing to those boots. Of course, Pax could have tried harder to destroy them, but there was no reason to as this was just a friendly spar. Plus, those boots were probably expensive…

Leaping high into the air, Eris dodged the blade that was aiming to cut open her stomach. In midair, it was physically impossible to do much as there is nothing to push yourself off of to generate force. Pax planned to take advantage of this vulnerability and catch Eris while she couldn’t dodge, but he noticed something strange going on around Eris’s fingertips.

In a subtle and nearly imperceptible way, the qualities of the air around her seemed to change. Then she came crashing down much faster than she had any right to. Pax couldn’t react properly in time so she struck his shoulder and sent him tumbling a few meters away.

With a smile Pax picked himself up.

“...So that’s what air Augmentation is like?”

It was a simple but incredibly useful trick. Eris could turn the air around herself solid and move in unpredictable ways. It suited her acrobatic fighting style very well.

In an instant, the scrapes and bruises that Pax had picked up were healed and the duel continued once more.

Eris used invisible platforms and bars to push and swing herself around in unpredictable ways while attacking Pax. She hit Pax several times, but every wound was healed instantly. Pax kept furiously swinging his sword, but he had yet to land any meaningful hits on her.

From the outside It looked like things were at a stalemate, but Pax knew that Eris would eventually make some sort of mistake – A single mistake, no matter how small, would be enough for him to grasp victory.

There…

Eris came flying downwards with a devastating axe kick. Pax’s sword was too low to block in time, so he could only raise his arm to block it – is what he wanted her to think.

Inevitably, the kick came crashing down. A horrible sound of breaking bone resounded throughout the training grounds as Eris’s boot effortlessly crushed Pax’s flimsy forearm. The arm bent at an unnatural angle at a point where there wasn’t even a joint while Eris’s momentum continued to carry her further downwards.

But then Pax’s arm kept bending. In an instant it had wrapped itself around Eris’s leg as if it were some kind of revolting tentacle. Now that Pax had caught the elusive Eris, he forcefully changed the direction of her momentum, slamming her into the ground.

Eris coughed as the wind was knocked out of her and stars spun circles around her eyes. She recovered quickly though and thought about how to somehow salvage the situation but instead was greeted by a crimson blade held millimeters from her neck.

“Aw…dammit…I …surrender”

With a heavy sigh, she flopped her head back onto the dirt. Eris was simply exhausted.

Pax was pretty tired too, it had been a while since he had exerted himself so much. Plus, now that he had decided not to use pain nullification, his broken arm hurt like hell. He simply couldn’t get used to fighting like this.

Maybe I should reconsider my usual strategies?

His arm healed itself in a second so he kneeled next to Eris and healed her as well.

“Thanks…”

It felt strange for Eris to have gotten beat up and now healed by a child that was about half her height, but she forced herself to accept this new reality.

We live in a strange world after all…

“That was an impressive fight. Not many can take on this doggy and come out unscathed.”

For some reason, Ivy had a strange smile on her face when she said that.

“Fight me next”

It seemed like Djyn was simply itching for a fight. His usual gloominess was gone and his eyes burned with determination.

He’s crazy…

“Alight”

Pax grinned as he stood up to face his next foe.