"A spar?"
Rey raised an eyebrow as he stared at the young woman before him.
Amara looked small and weak, her delicate frame considerably shorter than his own growing body. She also had soft and clear skin, as though she had never experienced hardship a day in her life.
Comparing her looks with Rey, it was like day and night.
Of course, Rey was not going to underestimate Amara just because of her appearance. In fact, he was actually quite wary of her.
Someone this confident certainly had her fair share of trump cards.
There was no doubt that she was skilled too.
"It'll only be a light spar, don't worry. As long as you have no bad intentions, you should be fine, right?" Amara asked once she noticed his hesitation, referring to his slave restrictions.
"Yes. But…"
"Don't worry. You won't be able to hurt me even if you tried your hardest." Her confidence fueled his curiosity.
Rey became more determined to achieve a feat contrary to her expectation.
But he remained patient.
He couldn't appear too eager.
"I just finished training. I'm not only exhausted physically, but my Ether pool is nearly depleted. How exactly am I—?"
"Catch!"
Before Rey finished, he noticed a small vial being tossed towards him.
He hurriedly caught it, noting the smoothness of the small transparent glass bottle. It was no bigger than a thumb, yet it had a strange presence that caused him to tremble.
"What is… this?" He asked, turning to Amara for answers.
"Drink it. It'll help you recover your vitality as well as your Ether. I use it all the time in training."
Rey nodded, not hesitating to gulp down its contents.
The girl had no reason to lie.
Also, if this concoction was what Amara, a Young Master of one of the Noble Houses in this Nether Realm, used, then it had to be very valuable.
He had to use it quickly before she realized what she was doing or before someone else stopped him.
Once he ingested it, he felt a soothing sensation course through his body.
The feeling was like mint, or freshly poured spirit. It felt surreal, healing all the pains in his body and filling him to the brim with vitality.
Most importantly… the energy that was depleted in his Ether Core was restored.
It worked like magic.
Within a few seconds, Rey was as good as new.
"See? What did I say? Effective, right?" Amara giggled, moving even closer to Rey with every step she made.
'It's beyond effective…' Rey's eyes widened as he noticed a qualitative change in his body.
His Ether hadn't simply been restored.
His Ether Core had strengthened, increasing in capacity. In essence, he could now store more energy and control his Ether more stably.
It was a near seventy percent increase!
"You must have noticed the benefits, huh? Well, the more you take the Potion, the less effective it becomes in that regard. Even if I drink ten of those, mine won't increase by one percent."
'That's insane!' Rey thought to himself. 'Just how many of these Potions has she consumed? How long has she been ingesting it?'
He quickly recovered after his initial shock and shook his head.
'Is it actually that crazy? If she started consuming Potions at an early age, then it's only natural that her body built a tolerance to it and it isn't as effective any longer. Since that's the case, I can only imagine how vast her Ether Pool is.'
Ten, twenty, or even a hundred times larger and more refined than his own?
He had no real way of finding out.
"You should be in optimal condition now. In fact, you should be even better. So do you accept my challenge?" Amara smiled broadly, his eyes narrowing on Rey.
Rey knew he couldn't refuse.
Even if he could, was he stupid enough to actually let go of this chance?
No way!
'I'm curious. I want to know…'
Not only did he desire to test the Young Lady's strength, but he wanted to see his own weakness.
"Okay." He finally agreed. "Let us spar."
'She said my martial arts are only passable and heavily criticized my use of the Inverse Technique. I'll have to see what she means.'
It was also clear that Amara wanted Rey to see his own deficiency by fighting with her.
That was the entire point of this spar.
"Great!" She clapped in excitement, barely containing her glee.
"Based on what I've seen, your limit is the 6th Sequence of the Inverse Technique. I'll also limit myself to the 6th Sequence, since I know a couple of Sequence 5 Techniques."
"Thank you for your consideration." Rey bowed in respect.
Although he wanted to see the depths of Amara's power, he wanted to learn, not be completely stomped.
The gap in power between low Sequences wasn't too much, but this difference became more pronounced when it came to mid Sequences.
As for high Sequences… the lacuna was too abysmal.
Rey was sure…
'No matter how talented she is, there's no way she knows any Sequence 4 Technique. The gap between #5 and #4 is too vast.'
Even a genius needed a lot of time to learn it.
'Although I learned three Sequences in a few days and even have mastered it in the span of a month, I have only slightly gotten the hang of Sequence 6. I can't yet approach Sequence 5.' Rey sighed deeply. 'But with this girl's help, who knows?'
This was an invaluable experience for him.
He intended to make the most of it.
"We shouldn't waste time standing on ceremony." She shrugged casually, stretching her delicate body with ease.
"Let's begin."
VWUUUUMMM!!!
A sudden surge of energy filled the training area at that moment, one that nearly made Rey pass out just from feeling the vibrations.
Absurd!
This was much too absurd!
Rey had previously estimated that Amara had an Ether Pool that was several dozen to a hundred times larger than his own.
But just based on what he was experiencing, he had to quickly correct his assessment.
'At least a thousand times more…' He gulped loudly. 'That's the difference that exists between us!'
"Here I come!"
WHOOSH!
The overflowing energy suddenly vanished, and so did Amara.
'Where did she go?!'
A bead of sweat fell down Rey's face, and he noticed it only a slight moment early.
'My side!'
He twisted his body in a hurry and evaded her attack, barely making it in time. If he had been a second late, he would have been hit.
'Her attack grazed me…' He touched his cheek, feeling a stinging sensation course through his face.
'I was sure I avoided the strike, too…'
Rey wasn't very certain before, but just a few seconds into the fight, he already had a fair idea of who Amara was.
'What a monster!'