Rogue Villain-Chapter 208: Finally

"Again!"

Ackster didn’t let himself remain knocked out for too long, and he shouted to fight again as soon as he woke up.

"Haah~ Is that all you know how to say?"

Surprisingly enough, Ackster wasn’t in the arena anymore. He had been unconscious long enough for the staff to bring him to a resting area and give him a checkup. And he wasn’t the only one there in the spartan hospital room.

Ackster looked at Dala, who sat on the bed next to him with a bowl of fruit in hand. She held out one plum-like fruit to Ackster.

"Ahem."

Ackster cleared his throat and accepted the plum.

"No. I just wanted to fight again."

"Heh. Aren’t you going to give up yet?"

"Nope."

Ackster swallowed the entire fruit in one gulp, which earned him a weird look from Dala, but she shrugged it off.

"Well, if your plan is to win by wearing me out, by all means, go right ahead and challenge me. You might be fine, but I’m actually feeling a little weary by now."

"That means I’ll win in an endurance contest, no?"

"Oi."

Ackster avoided Dala’s glare as he turned to face the other side so she didn’t see his smile.

After they rested as much as they needed to return to their prime states, it was time to continue. Ackster took the opportunity to train his mana while Dala let her body recover from the accumulated fatigue and stress of continuous battle.

While training his mana, Ackster also tried to understand what had happened with his mana right before Dala knocked him out. He could feel he was on the verge of...something.

Since he didn’t know how or why his mana had reacted to Dala’s strike like that, there was only one thing for Ackster to do. He had to try and recreate it. Unfortunately, it was easier said than done.

After they started using mana, their defense rose, but not as much as the other’s offense. So, if Ackster wasn’t careful, Dala’s punches had the potential to knock him out or even break bone. But he had to take them head-on if he wanted to experience that odd sensation of his mana absorbing the force of the blow and distributing it until it lost all its power.

Dala could tell that Ackster was no longer fighting with the sole purpose of winning the battle but instead trying to do something. She didn’t know what, but she could guess that he wanted to learn or experience something, though seeing him catch her punches without dodging did give her weird thoughts.

’He doesn’t like this, does he...?’

What Dala thought about him didn’t matter to Ackster as long as she continued to massage the mana coursing through his body and evoking a response. Thankfully, she switched up using her trident with fighting bare-handed.

If Ackster had to take on only the trident, he would have most likely held off on figuring out what was going on with his mana. If so, he might have lost this opportunity.

Ackster didn’t know if it was because of Dala’s consideration or her own desire, but he appreciated it nonetheless, especially when he started seeing results.

His body was black and blue from all the bruises, but he had managed to keep the damage to a relative minimum, and his bones were at most cracked, not broken.

Ackster didn’t know if he had reached a necessary threshold of damage like he had reached a state of subconscious fatigue before or if his mana was just hot and pliable enough from the intense battle and beating now.

But occasionally, when Dala’s strikes landed directly on his body, they sent tiny shockwaves in his mana. It was like small tremors taking on part of the force of the blow and directing it sideways through his mana instead of straight into his flesh and blood body.

After that, it became a slow but steady walk of progress in getting control over the mysterious effect.

It took an embarrassingly long time for Ackster to figure out it was because of the Unimportant Whatever Arts.

While focusing on taking the blows, Ackster had also used more of the moves for defense and, as such, deepened his understanding and proficiency of the moves in that vein. As his and his body’s experience and skill in using the defensive moves from the Unimportant Whatever Art, he gradually had his mana absorb more and more blows.

But just like that, Ackster’s understanding started soaring, or maybe plummeting, since he deepened it and sank further into the vast ocean of what was the Unimportant Whatever Arts.

Thanks to his improvement and success in figuring out what had happened with his mana, Ackster was no longer Dala’s punching bag. He still took the occasional blow, but he fought back with all his might, and, almost as if inevitable, Ackster, for the first time in over a hundred duels, eked out a victory.

It was just barely, but somehow, Ackster managed to sneak around Dala after throwing a feint and launching a critical blow to her kidney. That was enough to make her stumble since his recent growth in the Unimportant Whatever Arts allowed him to bring out even more strength when using it in conjunction with his mana.

After that one critical strike, Ackster just had to reach out and snake his arm around Dala’s throat, putting her in a chokehold. Hugging her arms and body with his legs made it impossible for her to break free, and Ackster won by making her pass out since she refused to surrender.

He had only won after tiring her out through an intense exchange, which led to an opening he could take to go behind her and land the blow.

If it hadn’t been the seventh fight in a row, that opening would have never appeared. Ackster also had a feeling that it wouldn’t appear again, even if they fought as many times without break.

But he had finally emerged victorious, so that didn’t matter anymore.