Sparring Match

In their brief exchange, Leah had been able to accurately gauge Jack's cultivation, which was a puzzling fact in and of itself. After all, his elbow strike had been on par with that of someone in the early Foundation realm. In other words, although he had only recently broken through to the middle stages of the Martial realm, his power output was far superior to his cultivation level. She could only look at him incredulously.

Leah's words made Erik and Jadelere suck in a breath of cold air; Jadelere in particular. He'd long believed Jack to have some level of martial accomplishment, but he'd never even considered the possibility that he would already be at the fourth level of the Martial realm! This was far beyond any talent he'd ever heard of!

Jack held his shoulder and started massaging it as he turned his arm around in circles and tutted a few times. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. That wasn't right." He complained. "That was terrible."

Erik, Leah, and Jadelere almost covered him in spittle, especially Leah. What did he mean that was terrible?! If he was terrible, then what was she? However, no one could bring themselves to argue with him. After all, he was still a five-year-old at the end of the day. To lower themselves to his level logic would only spell trouble for them.

"Come." Suddenly said Jack as he straightened his arm towards Leah.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, come and try again." He smiled mockingly. "But, this time, try a higher level of cultivation. The early Foundation realm would be ideal."

Leah's face filled with black lines because she hadn't been taunted like that for a very long time. In Groamburk, nobody dared to question her capabilities. She took in a heavy breath of air and her presence rose all the way up to the third level of the Foundation realm; almost a full great realm over Jack.

In truth, Jack hadn't wanted to humiliate Leah but he had noticed the timing of his reactions to be slightly off because he wasn't coordinating his movements perfectly. But this couldn't be blamed on him entirely; from a purely utilitarian point of view, he didn't have any genuine combat experience in this lifetime of his. To remedy this, he could only gain experience by fighting someone stronger than him, even if it was only sparring.

And right now, in front of him, was the chance to polish his techniques by fighting Leah. How could he let this opportunity go to waste?

"Fine." She said through gritted teeth.

Without giving Jack a chance to reply, she summoned a white gale that increased her speed and darted towards him. In a blink of an eye, she stood before him and struck him on the chest with her open palm.

Jack was only able to cross his arms in a defensive position before the palm reached him. He was sent flying back and tumbled a few times before collapsing unceremoniously on the floor.

For a moment, Leah worried that she'd been too heavy handed and that she'd seriously injured the boy. Jadelere exclaimed in fright and readied himself to rush forward when Jack steadily rose to his feet and dusted his clothes casually, stunning the three adults in the process.

"So that is the strength of the power of wind." He murmured.

The Foundation realm represented a qualitative leap in martial arts wherein the qi within a practitioner's body aligned itself with nature and the dantian evolved. In some cases, a small number of people, only one in one thousand, manifested an affinity for a particular element when breaking through. These people were stronger than the average martial artist and were considered elites because they could freely use the power of the element of their affinity.

Leah was one such person, and she evidently had an affinity for the power of wind, which was the fastest of the elements. This had allowed her to master her technique of quick and precise strikes when overpowering opponents.

However, Jack wasn't intimidated by Leah's strength. In fact, a glint of excitement shone in the depths of his eyes as he crossed his gaze with hers. He was looking forward to exchanging more blows.

Leah saw this and she couldn't help but feel somewhat flustered. Jack had already proved to be much stronger than people far above his age. If they continued sparring, there was a good chance he'd end up injured, which was completely unacceptable for such a genius. And yet, her heart as a martial artist wanted to push Jack to his limits.

"Again!" Shouted Jack as he pounced forward. He saw the hesitation in her eyes and he didn't want to give her the chance to put things to an end.

Jack took two steps, jumped up to Leah's eye level and struck forward with a fist aimed at the side of her neck. Leah raised her hand and grabbed the wrist of his extended hand and flung him towards the ground, any doubts about his potential well-being tucked away in the back of her head.

Jack twisted over in an arch and kicked off of Leah's shoulder, releasing himself as well as pushing himself higher up before she could complete her toss. He then summersaulted and aimed the index finger on both his hands to each of Leah's taiyang acupuncture points on her temples.

Leah leaned her head back just enough to be out of Jack's reach and kicked up towards his face. He grabbed her ankle at the last moment and used it to pivot his entire body and catch Leah in the side of her face with a hefty kick.

Leah wasn't able to defend in time and was sent back two steps as Jack fell to the floor. However, as soon as he landed, he sprung himself up and aimed another kick just above Leah's knee. Despite the shock of having been kicked in the face, Leah reacted quickly and blocked Jack's kick with her shin. She then summoned the power of wind and moved to position herself right behind him and struck out with two fists.

This time Jack was prepared. As soon as Leah disappeared from his field of vision, he activated shadow steps and was able to dodge her attack instinctively and appear beside Leah, catching her completely off-guard and unable to defend herself from a palm strike to her lower back which made her fall face-first onto the ground.

Leah lifted her mud-stained face and glared at Jack, only to see him retreat a few steps and wave his hand mockingly, gesturing her to attack him agin. Her anger only got worse when she saw Jadelere struggling to keep a straight face at seeing her in such a state.

She held back the urge to swear and rose to her feet, carefully observing Jack and finally taking him seriously as an opponent. She wouldn't hold back anymore.

With a grunt, she summoned the power of wind to its greatest potential and unleashed her terrifying speed as she lunged towards Jack, closing the distance in a fraction of a second.

Jack was left completely incapable of reacting as she grabbed him by the nape of his neck and pushed him down, face-first, into the ground, similar to what he had done to her before. He was only able to block his fall with his fore-arms.

Then, he pushed himself up and spun around as he attempted to kick her chin, only to find Leah wasn't there anymore. Suddenly, he felt a sharp jab to his side as he was sent flying in an awkward manner.

Leah had repositioned herself on his other side and kicked him up like a ball, even before his own strike had started.

Jack twisted strangely and somehow managed to control his trajectory enough to land on his feet and raise his arms to block another palm strike that Leah sent to his chest. However, the palm was far stronger than what Jack could effectively block and he was sent flying back as the wind got knocked out of him.

"Had enough?" Smugly said Leah as she watched him struggle to rise to his feet.

"Enough?" Jack muttered amidst coughs. "This is nothing. I've barely gotten started!"

He raised his head and Leah thought she saw that his eyes had changed into a deeper shade of blue. However, she dismissed that thought and shook her head in displeasure. Despite admiring Jack's eagerness to battle someone stronger and not giving up in the face of certain defeat, it was imperative for a martial artist to be wise and concede whenever possible to conserve their life. Hot-headedness would only amount to death in the pugilistic world.

What Leah didn't know, though, was that Jack had truly only gotten started.

Since he couldn't see Leah's movements with his naked eyes, he decided to use his trump card of Absolute Vision, which had given his eyes the deeper hue that Leah had seen due to his spirit sense inundating them. In the last two years, he hadn't been able to improve this technique beyond the initial mastery, but it was enough for him to see the flow of qi within a radius of six feet around him.

Leah chuckled and used the power of wind to swiftly appear behind Jack and prepared to lash out and send him flying again. She used a simple palm strike that was accurately aimed at his upper back.

Just as the palm was about to connect, Jack spun around and dodged the hit. As he spun, he grabbed Leah by her elbow and armpit, and flung her over his shoulder. Leah hadn't expected any counterattack and was thus caught completely off-guard as she crashed heavily into the ground.

She used the power of wind to push herself up again as she tried to put some distance between herself and Jack. Her efforts turned out to be in vain as Jack positioned himself at an awkward angle just outside her field of vision, right where Leah tried to move to, and punched her thrice before she could react.

Each punch connected against an unguarded point in her body and she was sent flying like a kite with broken strings.

Jack's gamble had paid off. With Absolute Vision he could see the power of wind as it was being channelled around Leah and could predict where she was funnelling it even before it manifested itself. As such, despite being much slower than Leah, he could anticipate her actions before she carried them out, allowing him to fight on par with her despite the cultivation and age gap.

Leah scrambled to her feet and looked at Jack with a sombre expression. She was massaging her side with care; his last three punches had actually caused her a small degree of pain. Jack's physical prowess could easily be seen from this.

After a second of catching her breath, she lunged forward once again. This time, Jack also pounced forward at the same time and thus a delicate dance of fierce punches and heavy kicks unfolded between them.

Leah was faster, but Jack was more experienced.

She punched him hard, he dodged by tilting his head to the side and swerving his body just enough to move out of harm's way and countered with his own punch. Leah blocked his strike, and used the power of wind to move to attack him from another angle, only to repeat the exchange over and over again; they fought with kicks, elbows, punches, and even attempted grappling.

Soon enough, both Jack and Leah were left panting and staring at each other from a safe distance, a clear winner yet to be detrmined. However, neither of the two showed any indication of wanting to back down.

"That's enough!"