The Dao of Magic

48 - Avoidance

A pale fist smashes into a furry face.

"YES, finally got a *pant* hit in."

Angeta covers her bloody nose while glaring at the celebrating Vox.

"You have to fully answer, so it must be more than a single sentence."

Her glare intensifies a bit, but she nods anyway.

"Tell me your backstory."

The glare is back with a vengeance. She jumps towards the redhead, fists flying at his vitals. He swipes them away with his forearms and tries to retaliate with swift kicks. Their previous amateurish movements from the dungeon have started to gain purpose. Instead of wildly flailing, their movements are now direct and to-the-point with little-wasted effort.

Angeta growls for a bit but then spits out a word. "Fine!"

She starts speaking in a halting manner, pausing in a rhythm along with every attack or block she makes.

"Father was a powerful fighter who joined a new village ruler. This lion had just earned *Ooof* a border farming village, lots of goat folk."

Angeta looks like a sapling, swaying in the breeze. She constantly shifts on her feet and keeps her weight balanced correctly now, allowing her to quickly change position.

"Got settled in, then got *HYAH* attacked by slaver party. Got captured along with half the population, the rest got killed."

Vox is a mixed blur. He shifts from extreme speed to performing precisely positioned dodges and counter-attacks. His attacks come lightning fast as opposed to Angeta's, hers start slowly, like a tree keeling over. Vox is using this small break in her fighting style to narrowly dodge the forceful attacks coming his way. Every time he tries to attack causes Angeta to jump back immediately, her form swaying around the attack.

"Learned that it was a *Hyuck..* noble's son's vacation. He wanted to do some casual slaving and thus he brought a lot of mages. Then Teacher captur.. freed me after I was split off from the rest."

Neither of them has an edge in the battle until Vox overextends his foot by half a centimetre. The beast woman capitalises on this mistake by stepping in and planting a knee in his midriff. The attack lands with the force of a falling tree.

Instead of doubling over in pain though, Vox retaliates with the same move, flinging Angeta a few meters backwards. She does double over in pain though and lies on the ground, gasping for air.

Vox pulls his shirt up and moves his fingers over the exposed white scales.

"That is the single good thing about these, I have extra armour here."

There are a couple of dozen pristine scales growing around his navel. They don't look like they give much protection, but Angeta's powerful knee attack there failed to do much to Vox. He smiles wryly while pulling his shirt down.

"We both earned a question, honey. It's your turn. Want to hear mine?"

She nods in response so Vox starts talking while he gets into a fighting stance.

"There was a noble boy whose parents were human. His siblings and teacher were human. And on his twelfth birthday this" *ACK*. Vox uses both arms to defend against the kick Angeta had been preparing while lying on the ground. He rubs his forearms while retreating.

"On his twelfth birthday, this boy discovered an itching spot on his belly. He scratched it and showed it to his mum. She *HOooh* realised that her son was not human and sent him off in a carriage. On vacation in the middle of a dangerous forest. With just the clothing on my body. Because that boy was tainted goods."