DXD: Parry This, You Filthy Casual

CHAPTER 3

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Magic was so awesome.

"Woah..."

Raising the single sphere of dark magic the size of a baseball in his palm, he played around with it as Wrath hummed in his head.

'Chaos Magic as your primary element, huh? That... It now makes sense on how you even got me in the first place. Wrath and Chaos come hand in hand.'

"What's the attribute of Chaos Magic? Like, Fire burns, Ice freezes, so what's unique about it?"

'It's incredibly dangerous, first off. Human Magicians based it off the Maou Lucifer's Destruction Magic, which erodes everything it touches into nothingness. Chaos Magic, on the other hand, breaks down atoms that it touches—think of nuclear fission, but on a larger and lethal scale.'

The ball in his hand suddenly got colder all of a sudden.

'Relax; at your current level, this [Chaos Sphere] is more like a blunt attack, but when you master more advanced spells, you can create miniature black holes or even nuke someone from the face of the planet with magic.'

Breathing a sigh of relief, Ryuji stops channeling the magical energy to the [Chaos Sphere], letting it fade into black motes of energy that dissipates into the air.

"So cool."

'You need a secondary element, though, to cover your bases. Chaos Magic uses heavy consumptions of a human's magical reserves; even with my training regiment, you'd be able to use it for... 10 minutes of combat against an Ultimate Class tops before you shrivel from excessive usage.'

"I thought you said I only had one element."

'You do only have talent in one element, but that doesn't mean that you can only use said element. Think of it this way: from an RPG standpoint, your character has a power mod that increases the damage and doubles the EXP gained when using Chaos Magic, but you can still use Fire Magic whenever. It's just more efficient to use your inherited element; that's why most races only use one or two elements when fighting.'

Ryuji nodded in understanding.

"Alright, so what element should I train for then?"

'Hmm... I'm thinking Water or Earth. Water has good versatility in both prongs of combat and, more importantly, you can heal with some unique spells, while Earth has high defensive and offensive while keeping the costs relatively low.'

In thought, Ryuji drummed his fingers on his room's table before making a decision.

"I'm going for Earth for now with Water down the line. What do you think?"

'That's fine. You should be able to master both elements along with Chaos in... 10 years, give or take, if we follow my schedule.'

 Sighing, Ryuji leans back on his seat.

"10 years? That's a long time..."

'Eh, not really. You know, it usually would take more than 20 years to master a single element.'

"Seriously?!"

'That much is obvious. Magic is something that is finicky in nature, it's like a maze covered in fog. Hard to see and navigate with the fog, but once you understand the principles, the fog disappears, but it is still a maze.'

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It's been almost 4 years since Ryuji met Wrath and...

(BOOOOOOOM!)

By training, Wrath meant getting pummeled to the ground every night to get used to fighting while he learned how to use magic and his Sacred Gear in the afternoon.

Skidding backwards, Ryuji heaves heavily and raises Cross Counter before a familiar blade strikes his own, sending him to the ground on one knee. Sparks flew from the contact of their blades as Wrath gave a smile, the force pushing him down increasing with a groan coming out from Ryuji's mouth in exertion.

"Well, well, well! You're surprisingly hanging on, aren't ya!"

"Ngggh..."

He couldn't speak; a little distraction would make him lose focus!

"RAHH!"

Using all his strength, Ryuji pushes as hard as he could, Cross Counter shoving the copy of itself away as Wrath gets blown away by his power. While the soul in his Sacred Gear was in midair, Ryuji immediately took the chance to fire back as he channeled his magical energy from within.

A burst of black aura flared from his body as multiple black spheres made of Chaos Magic manifested around him, multiplying in numbers as the surroundings around him turned into darkness.

"[Thousand Dark]!"

It was not at the point of Meliodas' [Trillion Dark], but a thousand was the best he could manage with as much cost efficiency! Waving his free hand, he didn't sit still and dashed while his Chaos Magic spell soared frantically towards Wrath.

Wrath's smile grew slightly as the particles of Chaos Magic flew towards him, the copy of Cross Counter in his hand raised before a bright flash of magical energy flared from his position.

"[Vanish Counter]."

His [Thousand Dark] instantly disappeared, suddenly revealing Ryuji, who leaped up in the air with the help of an elevated section of the ground with the help of Earth Magic as Wrath used his [Vanish Counter], the Chaos Magic acting as a smokescreen to shock and surprise him.

With a thrust of his blade, Ryuji struck Wrath... That's what he wished he did, but his attack got instantly parried as a leg suddenly shot out and slammed into Ryuij, sending him flying back to the ground.

(BAAAAM!)

"U-Uggggnnn...!"

"Using your [Thousand Dark] as a smokescreen was innovative! But you should have concealed your magical signature; I could see you from a mile away with how much magical energy you were emitting. Nice try, though!"

Wrath advised as he landed on the ground easily, Cross Counter kept safely into its very own sheath tied to his back. Wrath was talking again without any killing intent, meaning... training was over! Ryuji breathed out heavily as he relaxed his body, lying on the dirt.

"My back..."

"I didn't hit you that hard."

"You say that, but I almost vomited my dinner out just now!"

"You're in Cross Counter's mindscape; even if you did, I can just clean it up with a snap of my fingers."

Ryuji simply mumbled incoherent words as he got up slowly from the ground, his hand massaging his back as he sheathed his sword into its resting place hanging on his hip.

"Still, you've improved drastically. 3 hours of fighting in Middle Class level! I think we can kick it up a notch into High Class level at the end of the month!"

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"The total is 1250 yen; thanks for your patronage."

Ryuji told the customer who paid in cash before taking her packed sweets out of the store. Yep, he got a job! His pay was abysmal though, and he could only work 3 hours a day, but it was still something.

A thousand yen per hour, three thousand yen a day. He didn't need any money for his training; Wrath did some magic spell to let my body grow as he trained in Cross Counter's mindscape, but more allowance is nice.

Besides, the granny who owned the store didn't mind if he entertained himself when there was no one in the store, so he only had about an hour's worth of work helping customers out! Most of the day in the store was reading novels or doing homework; no sleeping on the job though; he has some ethics when it comes to work culture.

So, while waiting for a new customer, he brought out his junior high homework for the day and started going through it.

"Hey, Ryu!"

A familiar voice came from outside the store. Raising his head from his homework, Ryuji sighed.

"Issei, what do you want?"

"Me and Motohama are going to Matsuda's place! Wanna come along?"

"Don't tell me you guys are going to watch porn again... This is the fourth time this week."

"Totally! In order to be a Harem King, I need all the lectures that I can get! What "

Issei said enthusiastically with his right arm raised to the sky, with Motohama nodding in agreement with tears streaking down his face.

... This is his older brother, ladies and gentlemen.

It wasn't all his fault, per se. He was playing around with his magic a while back when he met Wrath, so he missed a few days of playing with Issei. Lo and behold, his twin brother suddenly got roped into perverseness and became friends with the two perverts the moment Ryuji was busy.

One thing about Issei was that his tenacity knows no bounds. Even when threatened, he didn't budge and even proclaimed in front of Dad and Mom that he would have a harem out loud.

Well, he wasn't as perverted as in the DXD series; no, he will never allow anyone to openly sexual harass women, even family. The first and only time it happened during the sophomore year of junior high... Well, it is safe to say that the trio got traumatized and would never do such things again.

So, an Issei, but without the tendency of canon Issei's leering and sexual harassment. The boy was still perverted, mind you, he couldn't curb it, but he's more of an open closet pervert that respected the boundaries of women.

Ryuji would say that he salvaged as much as he could at that point.

"... Just come back home before 7, Mom's cooking baked salmon."

"You got it! See you later!"

"Don't cry because you missed this sesh, Ryuji!"

"Shut it, Motohama."

"Y-Yes sir..."

...

What?

He'd admit that Matsuda has a good collection. And do you know how hard it was to get some of the goods at such a low price?

'You're hopeless.'

'Says the guy who made hot angels.'

'... Touché.'