Astral Odyssey: Dying Ember

World 2.6: Alice

Alice ended up having lunch with the trio.

Violet was not a chatterbox but because Ethan and Alice hardly spoke, she dominated conversations. Stephan was the next in line for always responding to Violet either by teasing her or giving proper responses. Alice only replied whenever she was asked something. Ethan was... largely ignored. Violet only paid attention to him when he says something proactively. 

Should you talk to him a little then? BaoBao felt a little sorry for him.

What for? Such is the fate of the second male lead. Alice told BaoBao.

BaoBao kept quiet. He truly did not have a reason to give.

Besides, he's happy enough being near the female lead. Just leave him be. Alice decided to be kinder to BaoBao who was only being sympathetic.

With Alice's reassurance, BaoBao felt enlightened and thought to himself. Is this what it means to think from their perspective? 

Night came and they met in the battle hall.

Stephan bounded towards Alice ahead of the other two with anticipation in his eyes. "I'll spar with you first." He decided to grab Alice before the other two would keep her from him.

Alice nodded and followed Stephan to separate from the other two. Behind them, Ethan felt a twinge in his heart and a negative feeling in him. He frowned as he touched his chest where his heart was. What's going on with me these days?

Violet noticed his actions so she cocked her head and asked Ethan, "You okay?" 

Ethan reluctantly pulled his gaze away from Alice to look at Violet's big clear eyes. It used to bring him joy to simply gaze into them but now, he felt like that joy in the past was simply an illusion. In fact, now he could still feel a sense of joy trying to spread within him but it was nothing with his current feelings in turmoil.

"I'm fine." Ethan replied in a soft voice then looked back at Alice who just leapt towards Stephan.

Violet scratched her head in confusion. Why isn't he sparring now then? I don't remember Ethan as someone who dawdles.

Alice learnt from the previous world and her last exchange with Stephan that it was advantageous to catch the other person off-guard. She would gain a momentum and advantage then.

When Stephan turned around to face her, he saw that she instantly leapt towards him. Her speed was incredible. She didn't neglect her physical skills. However, he defended against her ice sword easily.

Alice was not discouraged and continued to execute a flurry of attacks. Her sword molded into water and wrapped around his body before freezing into a large fist restricting his movements. She was about to punch his face when he broke out of the ice by exploding it with his lightning ability and jumped away from her flying fist. She quickly followed after him to continue her close-range fighting.

Stephan was kept on the defensive. When Stephan thought that he was attacking against water, it changed to ice. Her ice would sometimes dissipate into nothing but he would feel like he was in thick humid weather making him feel like his body was very heavy and weary. Yet he could not hack at it like he could do to a water jail ball. She also covered the floor in ice but he created ice spikes under his shoes so that he would not slip. She was indeed a tricky opponent to fight. 

He was not in any mortal danger but he could not overpower her as easily as he had done so previously. He tried several times to trap her in darkness whenever he pulled away from her but she would create an ice barrier and charge fearlessly forward to break out of it. She never gave him a break from the close-range fighting. He would have long lost if he was one of those that neglected their physical training. At this moment, he thanked his lucky stars because he only put in the minimal training to maintain his physical form.