Chapter 96: Emily vs Marcus

"What do we get in return?" Paul asked. 

Paul wanted a fair trade. If ever he thinks that the other side is fucking with him then he would just back out.

"Thousands of Elites, hundreds of Commanders, tens of early Preparation Stage experts, and maybe one or two middle stage Preparation Stage experts. Does that satisfy you, organization leader Paul?" Merts spoke. 

Paul stared at them for a good while before nodding.

"That settles it, goodbye." Miel turned off his camera.

Paul wryly chuckled. "I'm sorry for his behavior. He's usually like that, so don't take it personally."

"It's fine," Merts didn't mind. "We also have someone of the same personality here."

Pald looked at Merts. No name was mentioned but the four Strongwald men knew who the Vice President was referring to.

"We'll be seeing you." Paul nodded before ending the call together with Zee.

As the screen dimmed. Merts sighed. "We should not waste this chance. Prepare the number of troops to be sent off to Layda. Make sure they wouldn't be recognized."

Bong nodded. This was the type of job he was usually tasked to do. 

"I'll be going now." Vid stood up from his chair. He had to move half a meter away from the table to stand up or else his stomach would get stuck.

"Not yet." Merts raised his hand. "I know you're excited to get back to your experiments, but we still have one agenda left."

"Oh?" Vid sat back down. "What might that be?"

Merts touched his lower chin "The CEO of Asura agreed to host a party at her home, which is scheduled to happen this Saturday. I want the members of our family to be on their best behavior as not only will members of the five big families be present, but so will the manager of the Humanity Bank."

The other three nodded. 

"Alright," Merts stood up. "Let's go."

----

Marcus stood in the training room with Emily. Their distance was quite far apart.

"Are you ready?" Marcus asked. His voice echoed. "If ever you can't handle it anymore, just say something."

Emily nodded. She wore blue hanfu like clothing. A few strands of her hair already turned white and the color of her eyes was also starting to turn dark blue.

Emily placed her hands close together, palms facing each other. She closed her eyes and soon, between her hands appeared a small circular bright white light. She slowly lifted her hands up and threw the bright white light up in the air.

The circular light soon dimmed as it took the appearance of a moon. It floated around 10 meters above Emily. 

"Ready," Emily extended both her arms to her sides. Two circular throwing glaives soon appeared on her hands. It had three sharp blades and a circular handle in the middle that had a color of royal blue and white combined. 

She had just casted the spell 'Moonglaive'. Her mastery over the spell was only at the very basic level as of now which made the glaives look dull. 

Marcus smiled seeing as he remembered the past. He then transformed into lightning and streaked towards her. Marcus made sure to match her rank. 

They were both Elites but Marcus was stronger than normal Elites so he had to properly control his strength. If he did not, this wouldn't be called training. 

Emily threw her glaive towards the streaking lightning, but she missed. The vermilion-colored lightning dodged both her glaives.

She once again casted 'Moonglaive' to summon two more glaives to her hands.

As he got closer, he transformed back to his human form and threw a lightning javelin as fast as he could. However, before he could throw it, a bright greyish-white beam grazed him. 

The greyish-white beam came from the stationary moon above Emily. 

The reason why Marcus wanted to strike as quickly as possible was precise because of this. He wanted to throw the javelin and turn into lightning after to escape the lunar beams.

Marcus' aim went awry as the javelin landed pretty far off from Emily. 

He hurriedly backed away after casting a 'Lightning Rune' and placing it on the ground. 

Emily once again threw two more glaives towards Marcus. 

One of the glaives passed by above the lightning rune. As it did, Marcus made the rune explode.

There are two ways of making the lightning runes detonate. One was to step on it and the other was if the caster willed it. Marcus just did the second one.

As for the other glaive, Marcus easily dodged it.

Emily rushed towards Marcus, clutching a new set of glaives. She threw the one on her left, but she still missed.

"You don't always have to throw your glaive, you can use them to fight close range." Marcus lectured as he dodged a lunar beam that was coming towards him.

"I still haven't practiced much in that department." Emily spoke, casting a spell called 'Lunar Tether'. With this, she'll be able to know where Marcus is even if she isn't looking at him. This only works at a certain distance, but it would keep her safe from attacks that would come from behind her.

'Lunar Tether' had other effects, but Emily wasn't strong enough to put them in effect, so as now, tracking an opponent at a certain range is all the spell could do.

"Then come," Marcus made a simple lance appear in his hand. "We are training after all."

Emily nodded. She casted 'Moonglaive' once again to regain a weapon for her left hand.

She rushed towards Marcus, her right arm in front and her left on the side. 

Marcus stepped forward and stabbed his lance, aiming at Emily's abdomen. 

The tip of the lance hit the center of the glaive as Emily blocked. 

Marcus didn't stop here. He used the other end of the lance to sweep Emily off her feet. 

A lunar beam hit the lance before it could even deal any damage. 

Emily swiped with the glaive she held in her right hand towards Marcus while thrusting the one on her left.

Marcus sidestepped, the lance he held was in a fully upright position. He then swung the lance sideways but stopped midway. Emily's front was fully open as she used the glaive to block her sides. 

Marcus, who had just pulled back his lance, stabbed it forward. Emily was able to cast a mana shield around herself but was still thrown backward. 

She landed on her ass. Her arms on the floor, still clutching her weapons. 

Before Marcus could even react, a volley of lunar beams rained from the sky. He transformed into lightning and moved back, the tiny ball of light tethered to him followed closely. 

Emily stood back up and dashed towards Marcus. She threw six or so glaives before she arrived close to him. One or two lunar beams would shoot towards Marcus every second. They weren't strong but they would still do damage if every beam would hit him.

"How's your mana?" Marcus asked. 

"I can still go on," Emily answered. She once again placed her hands close together and summoned a circular white ball of light. She then proceeded to lift her hands up in the air, throwing the small ball of light up as it landed beside the moon.

The white ball dimmed as it expanded. It slowly turned into a moon with a greyish white color.

"Are you sure you can handle having two moons up?" Marcus worriedly asked.

"Mhm," Emily nodded. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead. She rushed towards Marcus with glaives on both hands.

"Alright," Marcus transformed into lightning. As he went closer to her, he transformed back into his human form, with a lance in hand. 

They exchanged blows. Marcus had to deal with Emily's weapons and the two moons up above her that would occasionally cast lunar beams. 

Parts of Emily's blue hanfu soon got torn. Marcus didn't leave unscathed too. He also got grazed by the beams and slightly by one of Emily's glaives. 

It didn't take long before Emily fell to the ground. She lay there unconscious. The glaives in her hand soon disappeared together with the two grey-white moons above her.

Marcus walked towards Emily and picked her up. He then noticed that more and more of her hair were turning white. 

He kissed her forehead and bridal carried her out of the Destrucstone as he proceeded to go towards his room.

Marcus wasn't worried about the fact that her hair is turning white. It was the side effect of training the arts of the moon. He also knew that the color of her eyes would soon turn dark blue. 

Marcus dropped Emily on his bed. He caressed her cheeks before walking into the shower.

----

Emily opened her eyes. Her vision, blurry.

It took a few seconds before it turned clear. The first thing she saw in front of her were people whom she had never met before. 

Emily couldn't turn her head, but just from what she could see, she was in a large room with green colored marble-like floors.