Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 139: Try Harder!

"What do we need to do then?"

Liam asked unwilling to dwell on the matter any longer.

"Hmm...I’ve thought of a couple ways to fish them out. It’s best of we cast a bait to draw them out..."

Sabrina said, sparing Liam the emotional torture.

"You mean...rumors?"

Liam asked, his tone a little skeptical.

"Yes. Rumors. Spread word that Asher plans to defect from the cover of my family and has been making plans to defect to another noble faction."

Sabrina said, walking back into the room.

Liam’s eyes narrowed at her request. She was making a very risky move. If they decided to investigate the rumors and traced it back to them.....

"You don’t need to worry about that. Just make sure to inform Asher so he doesn’t get caught off guard when it spreads round the camp."

"Alright!"

Liam turned around to carry of the order.

"Also, make sure Ethan gets to hear this. Earlier than the rest too."

Sabrina added.

"I understand"

The click of the door signified his departure. He wasn’t going to be coming back till he had completed his mission.

Sitting silently on the king sized bed in the middle of the room, her tense shoulders relaxed a little, but her aura was still fierce. She had started something she couldn’t back out from and there was no room for her to feel weak.

"He came here and trashed my style. Tch! I should do some remodeling!"

She muttered lightly, looking around the room.

"Hmm.... he is definitely more interesting that before. Unfortunately, he isn’t my concern right now!"

The cold moon light that washed into her room brought back the memory of her encounter with Kieran.

’Why did I feel a familiar presence for a moment back there though? Or was it just a mistake!’

"I really need some rest!"

She sighed, dropping onto the bed, her hair scattering gracefully on the mattress.

She had taken the first few steps, what she needed now were rest, patience and a calm mind.

......

"You shouldn’t have stepped in!"

Ruby’s voice was heard in the empty training room.

Jake on the other hand was silent, simply going through a series of moves with his great sword.

"They should have watched as I sent my kusarigama sinking into the side of his skull."

"I’d like to see how many more of them would want to talk after seeing the blood and brain matter of that coward splatter across their faces!"

Her expression was dark as she let out her complains getting frustrated at the fact that Jake hadn’t said anything yet.

’Is he ignoring me?!’

"Say something, or I just might jump at you instead!"

She said in tone that implied that she was dead serious.

Finally, Jake paused his routine and turned to face her.

"Sigh! You’re being irrational because he spilled something important to you. He’s just a side character, not even on the list of our real targets. You shouldn’t even give him any credit, it will only make him feel more accomplished."

Jake said walking towards her.

"How can you even say something like that—"

Her body shook in anger, feeling more triggered that what Jake had just pointed out, knowing that each of his words were right.

She couldn’t complete her words though before she was forced to roll to the side in alarm.

THUD!

A dull sound came from the padded floor absorbing the impact of the training sword hitting it.

There would have been a different result if she remained in the same spot though.

"What the he—"

She didn’t get the time to express her dissatisfaction though as she was forced to block the attack this time around, pulling out a pair of training kusarigamas from a pouch tied to her waist.

"Ughh!"

She let out a pained grunt, feeling the dull training sword push her weapons heavily onto her shoulder.

"I thought I reminded you to change your spatial storage. A pouch at a place like that increases the time it takes you to pull out your weapon!"

Jake’s voice was stern as he pointed out a flaw.

"Take a break!"

Ruby breathed out as her aura flared up and she manged to push the weapon back up a little before rolling to the side.

"You should get a bracelet or something. That should be more effective."

Jake said, walking to her slowly.

"Yeah..."

Ruby responded mechanically, her eyes tracking his body movements trying to read and anticipate his next attack.

"That’s useless. I already learned how to control minor flaws like that!"

Jake said, his figure flashing and appearing before her, hitting her in the gut with the pommel of the sword and sending her head flying back with a painful knee to the face.

He wasn’t done though as he threw the sword to the side, grabbing her head and bring her put to face level to grind another fist into her gut.

"Cough! Cough!"

Ruby fell the to the ground roughly, struggling to feel her insides again.

"What the hell, dude?"

She roughly muttered while coughing.

Jake waked to where his sword had landed and picked up the training weapon he had gotten when he paid for the room.

"Now that we have gone over the lighter flaws, stop joking around and face me like you’re facing Edrick. Trust me, you’re in for a lot of beating if not."

"With how fiesty you were a minute ago, you should be able to do something as simple as that right. Unless....you really were as timid as they said?"

Jake said, swinging the sword while taunting her.

’This is pretty light!’

His eyes went to the training sword that could be considered light compared to his own sword. The unfamiliar sense fucked with his balance, but he could manage.

"You asked for it!"

Ruby said, wiping the edge of her mouth.

She knew what he was trying to do, and she had to say it had worked a little too well. She was rightfully pissed.

Sensing the change in her attitude, Jake smiled that his plan had been successful.

’Hmm, at least I get to stretch a little from this!’

The unique wild aura started to flow out from him, very unlike his cultured appreance.

Just like Ruby, he had also held in the urge to attack Edrick just for the sake of getting into a fight.

Unlike her, he had better control over his emotions and urges.

At least, this way, he got to let loose a little.

"You think to much!"

BANG!

He raised his hand lazily to block the attack from her twin kusarigama which shifted him back a few steps

"Really? Or are you not just trying enough?"

He asked, pushing her back and pressing forward with an over head strike.

Ruby utilized her light build to dodge the attack and threw the other end of the kusarigama towards Jake, catching him off guard.

Seeing as she was finally putting in the effort, Jake broke his attack midway and changed to a side block, deflecting the weapon and Ruby capitalized that opportunity, pushing forward.

Her moves were faster than Jake’s as she easily swung the chains linking both weapons to each other around his torso, aiming to restrict him.

Unfortunately for her, what Jake lacked in speed compared to her, he made up for in strength.

"I said, TRY HARDER!!"

Jake let out a small shout as he stretched his hands apart, nullifying her attempt to restrict him.

With a single move of his free hand, he grabbed the chains and yanked hard, ripping the linked weapons away from her hand, yeeting it to the side, leaving her bare handed.

Ruby immediately got into a stance seeing her losing position in the fight.

She was a kusarigama specialist, but that didn’t say anything about her hand to hand combat.

Her body flashed as the sole of her feet teleported to the side Jake’s head, smashing the face of the brute recruit to the side.

"Tch! What the hell is this endurance?"

She muttered beneath her breath as she jumped back to create some space between them.

Jake looked back at her with a smile on his face as he wiped off trail of blood which came from his ears.

They had both made a silent agreement not to use any of their abilities. They only planned to do some normal training and would reck the space of they decided to go all out.

Neither of them wanted to take on the debt of having to compensate the camp for damages to a room that wasn’t made for taking heavy attacks.

"Hey! That’s more like it!"

Jake said dumping, dragging the sword as he rushed out to meet her.

It might seem like an unfair advantage, but Ruby knew well enough that he was handicapping himself by using the sword against her.

"You should stop going soft too!"

She retorted, swiping the sweat off her forehead as she also rushed to clash with him.