The Duel

The first thing that Marth did was rush towards me. The way he did it almost caught me off guard.

He took two steps forward and thrust his sword towards me. Suddenly, it looked like he was sliding towards me and I realized he was being dragged by his sword.

I quickly stepped to the side to avoid getting injured.

"Nice job," Marth complimented me as he spun his sword.

I got up and got into a stance. He's faster than the last time we fought. That forward thrust was unexpected. Looks like he picked up some moves that our teacher used against us when we fought with her. Well, I haven't fought with her yet, but the time will come soon.

Now back to the fight.

This time I rushed forward while swinging my blades. As I reached Marth, I delivered a barrage of slashes. Marth however managed to block every single strike I performed on him. Even when I did a spinning move, he still managed to guard without batting an eye.

Before I jumped away, I performed a cleaving attack, which managed to push Marth back a few feet.

Marth looked up at me and smiled.

"That was nice. I almost lost my footing there."

The way he's looking at me is kinda ticking me off.

"Aren't you being lax?"

"Unlike you Seiya, I know how to control my own power. The same also goes for my temper and my emotions. I learned from my fight with you that my temper and my arrogance gets in the way. But if I use that against you, I can and will ultimately win."

"So that's why you haven't gone and tried killing me yet."

"Of course, it wouldn't be fun if I beat you so quickly. I think it would be better if we took it one step at a time."

Marth walked over to the edge and placed the tip of his sword in the water.

"Of course we could just finish this right now, but as I said, that would be a bit boring."

Then suddenly, he swung his sword, and water flung everywhere. The thing was, one of the droplets landed directly in my eye and I flinched.

"Ack, shit!"

The force of the water droplet was strong, and I was now blinded on my left side. Crap, this is just like our first fight. Bitch blinded one of my eyes.

"What's wrong, Seiya? I thought with all the training you did, you'd definitely even the smallest of water droplets. Maybe... you were slacking?"

Marth had a satisfied look on his face. Damn it, he's playing with me. But he won't be smiling after this.

I gripped my Katana and poured my mana into it. Then I swung it, slashing the air. Marth was confused and thought I was just slashing the air until he noticed the air was distorted and dodged. The ground behind him had a sharp crater.

"What the-?"

I then continued to slash the air ten more times, sending waves of mana at Marth. Marth managed to dodge a few, but some he had to parry.

While he was busy blocking my attacks, I secretly had used Sable Chains and I was just about to launch it until he suddenly jumped in the air.

"That's not going to work on me this time."

He then came diving down, feet first. I realized he was coming down faster than I imagined. I took my blades and shielded myself. However, when Marth came down and made impact, I was sent hurtling back several meters.

I attempted to pick myself up, but my arms felt weak and I collapsed. Why do my arms hurt? I know I defended myself from getting hit but my arms felt like they've been crushed by a 10-ton weight.

"What the hell did you do?" I queried.

Marth after landing jumped back, creating a vacant area between us.

"Just a technique I learned. Let's say... it's kind of like a guard breaker. No matter what way you guard, I will still deal damage to you."

I healed the bones in my arms with shadow mending, and they returned to normal again. The only thing I wasn't able to heal was the pain. It still hurt like hell.

I picked up my weapons, but a shock suddenly went through my arm and the pain began to get worse. In a matter of seconds, I couldn't feel anything in my arms.

"Oh, I may have forgotten that I used two techniques during my attack. I would tell you, but I think you already know."

Tch, this bastard. If I recall, he can use lightning, earth, and light magic. Knowing the elements he could use, he probably conducted his own electric spell into my weapons.

I poured my mana into my arms to negate the effects he caused. After that, I picked my weapons up and sheathed them.

"You've become smarter than last time. I bet this was the result of your training."

"And I thought you would've become stronger after your training. Unless you still fret about something."

"Of course I do. I worry that I might kill you on accident if I were to try."

"Don't deceive yourself. You know if you tried you still wouldn't be on equal footing with me."

"Then let's test that theory out."

I drew my daggers and dashed forward. My daggers were specifically designed to be able to switch from regular grip to reverse grip without delay. They are kinda like switch knives, just better.

I hacked and slashed my daggers at Marth. Recognizing I had become faster, Marth took on a serious expression and became prudent. Every time he blocked, he would back away. He knew if he stood still without taking the proper stance, he'd get injured so his only choice was to back away while acting cautiously.

Later, I dropped to the ground and attempted to sweep Marth off the ground, but he was one step ahead of me and jumped. He threw his sword at me and threw my daggers at him.

Clang!

Our weapons flew in the air and we both jumped to retrieve them. However, when we came down and clashed again, I had Marth's weapon and he had my daggers.

I managed to overpower him and he slid back.

I looked at Marth's weapon. I inspected the weapon in my hand. It had a human skull and talons for a handguard. But the weird thing was that the skull had extremely long fangs, which bore a resemblance to a vampire.

"Your eyes are not deceiving you," Marth said, noticing I was looking at the skull.

"My ancestor once fought with an ancient vampire and if you haven't already noticed, he was victorious. After that, he claimed that vampire's skull as a trophy and even installed it into the guard of a sword. The talons on the guard are from a dragon he once slew with his bare hands. The blade is made of metal that can only be forged from light and the handle made of Elysium wood, found only in the underworld. And the thing is, it is enchanted so that only worthy Lycans can wield it."

"And what happens to those who aren't Lycans? And those that aren't worthy."

"Well, it'll drain your strength."

Now I don't really believe the things he said except the vampire part, but the longer I held his sword, the more tired my arms were. Guess he was right that only worthy Lycans can wield it. But it's a surprise that he is even worthy of wielding it.

"Well then, guess I should return this to you."

"Yeah, wouldn't want my opponent to fight me with all his energy taken away from him."

I tossed his sword to him and he gave my daggers back.

"I think we've played enough. Don't you think we should-"

"Get serious? Agreed."

I sheathed by daggers and began to focus my energy into my arms and legs.

Maybe I should try the new spirito I obtained since I have two now. Of course, I haven't told anyone about it, but it wouldn't hurt to show it. I think.

Let's see, I can shape my arm into anything because of that spirito. But what happens if I try to meld the two? If I could, I would want some kind of blade on my arms.

Right when I imagined my dragon claws having blades coming out of them, my arms took on a slightly different look.

I kept the dragon claw, but now coming out the side of my forearm was a black jagged blade that bent towards my upper arm.

"Ho? This is curious," Marth said, astonished.

I swiftly swung my arms and whenever I slashed the air with my new arm-mounted blades, it would leave behind a black trail.

"Interesting..."

Even I was surprised myself. Even though it was mana directly mounted on my arms, it felt like carrying a feather.

I looked back at Marth and he was already standing there with wolf-esque claws.

"Now then, I hope you're prepared."

"I'm always prepared. The real question is are you?"

"Ready as always."

We then rushed towards each other and our fists clashed.

BANG!!!

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