His kind smile didn't fade, nor did he release any form of supernatural power, but just standing in front of him, while he stood in that stance, pressured me beyond anything I had ever experienced before.
I, not wanting to disappoint him by hesitating, pushed through the pressure and rushed at him in a form that even I knew was awful.
The techniques my original martial arts teacher taught me simply couldn't keep up with my physical strength as an angel, so I was forced to come up with ways to maximize my effort and minimize any resistance from the outside world all on my own.
It wasn't like I expected anything to come out of that lackluster charge of mine, but I couldn't help but feel something at how easily he broke my form and sent me to the ground.
He didn't use overwhelming might that surpassed mine.
Nor did he use his superior speed, despite being an elderly man and extremely large, to outpace any counters or blocks I could come up with.
Rather, he simply used his index finger to stop me.
It was as if he had found the exact point on my body to strike lightly at. The moment he did that, I could feel the momentum drain out of me, leading me to embarrassingly flop to the ground.
"Not bad," Heh. It felt like he was mocking me, even though I knew that wasn't the case. "But you definitely need some real training. You have great physical strength and control over it, though you still lack proper techniques and understanding of combat."
I got up from the ground without brushing off the dirt and faced him, who hadn't left his stance at all, once again.
Unsurprisingly, when I rushed at him again, I was immediately knocked to the ground by a single finger.
I wasn't some kind of martial arts genius, nor did I have any incredible secret powers that could turn the situation around.
So, all I could do was to keep trying and failing and learn from those failures until I could figure something out.
"Why are you holding back?" he suddenly asked me while I prepared to rush at him again.
His question honestly took all the momentum out of me.
How could I have been holding back against him? He was capable of defeating a Satan as a replacement for a morning walk, while the best I could do was kill a well-trained mid-tier devil. And that was only because of the fact that I was an angel.
Vasco didn't even need me to respond to understand what I was thinking. "You are an angel, after all. Even if you may only have a single pair of wings, you still have your Holy Power. And your wings will no doubt give you a speed boost."
He was completely right. I hadn't used the very things which granted me even greater power.
Maybe I was actually just afraid of someone noticing that I was a Miracle Child and kidnapping or killing me?
It wasn't like I would be able to defeat Vasco with my wings and holy power, but I would no doubt be faster, and my blows would be filled with an extra layer of destructive force.
Even though I was wearing fully covering clothes, my pure, white angelic wings appeared from my back.
The children in the fields gasped. For whatever reason, perhaps because they were just that busy, angels rarely appeared even before the higherups of the Church. Let alone those children who were to be disposable exorcists.
So, I was most likely their first look at a real angel. Maybe, this was the reason we were at these specific training grounds? Just to inspire even more faith?
Even though my wings didn't flap in the slightest, I sent myself flying toward Vasco.
Having them out felt much more natural in some way, though maybe it was just the extra speed that made me feel that way.
Vasco sent another finger straight toward me, but with my wings, I moved just slightly and managed to barely dodge it.
With that slight opening, I was able to barely send a fist covered in Holy Power straight at him.
But, as if to knock out any sense of accomplishment I had, the index finger of his other hand blocked my fist and somehow knocked me back until I tripped on a rock. I pathetically fell to the ground, coughing all the while.
"Good job. You managed to get past one finger. And your fist even made contact with me."
I don't think he realized that I don't find that something to be proud of.
Still, I manage to stand up and politely reply, "Thank you. But I can't really find tasting a three-course meal of dirt, grass, and the urine of the last kid who used this place to be something worthy of praise."
Vasco awkwardly smiled before shaking his head, regaining his calm.
"Sorry. But this should make up for that." He rolled his shoulders. "I am coming. Prepare yourself."
With a line that sounds like it was ripped straight out of a hentai, he took a single step forward.
He sent a single fist toward my head. It was like a meteor coming down to earth. It would undoubtedly result in utter destruction
My eyes widened. "Wait-"
I couldn't breathe. My heart started beating so fast that it just trembled in place.
A familiar cold sensation washed over me.
Death.
I was going to die.
He was going to kill me.
It didn't matter what I said, nor did it matter if I used my weak Holy Power. He was just so overwhelmingly stronger than me.
I wonder what Gabriel's nipples tasted like. Did she wear panties? If so, what color were they? I wish I smelled them while I had the chance.
As I thought of stuff that should have instantly caused me to fall, I realized that I was still somehow alive.
That death had never come for me.
All that did was a gust of wind that sent my hair flying back, barely held on by its connection to my scalp.
I felt like a bit of an idiot. Of course, Vasco wasn't going to kill me. That didn't match his personality at all.
However, that lead to the question of why he had attacked me like that. Did he want me to power through and defend myself? If so, he had severely overestimated me.
I had never been in a real life or death fight before, and I barely remembered dying the first time. It wasn't like I could shut down my body's natural instinct to avoid death.
"Hmm. Maybe I should have done a less violent method of activating your Sacred Gear." Vasco's musings brought my awareness to the second pair of wings on my back.
Those two wings were not the white, bird-like wings I was born with, but rather some sort of golden, artificial-looking wings.
I felt some sort of spiritual connection from the wings, different from my natural ones. "You said that's my Sacred Gear?"
"It is. Half Critical is the name. While not as common as its counterpart, Twice Critical, it's still not particularly rare." Vasco explained.
The Twice Critical was a basic version of the Boosted Gear. It could only double the user's power once, which while useful if you weren't useless already, did jack all for a weakling like me.
On the other hand, though Half Critical had never appeared in canon, I could reasonably guess its ability.
It probably could halve the power of an enemy, as long as they weren't god tier or higher, and take that power for the user's benefit. Though even if the enemy was on par with gods, they could still constantly halve the enemy's attacks.
Though, it probably wouldn't do anything useful against someone like a Satan, since even half of their power would be too much for me to take in.
Still, I'd rather have it than the Twice Critical, at least at this time when I lacked higher tiers of strength where doubling would make a difference.
Maybe, when I have either immense sealing magic skills or Valerie Tepes, I can manually enhance my Sacred Gear until it's on par with a Longinus.
"You know, it would have been nice to tell me about this before you made me think I was going to die without sucking on Gabriel's tits."