BEGINING OF THE END.

***In Continent 'Eclipse of the Oceans'..

***Inner Outskirts..

***Clingford's Academy Duelling grounds..

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***{¡!¡18:06pm¡!¡}***

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"With my authority as a Martial Core elder of this Martial Academy, I declare that this death duel.. begins!.", Stepping back through the door, Master Bia Chen declares with tension and excitement climbing through the roof throughout the arena and it's crowd.

Once the Master's figure has completely disappeared behind the lowering arena's door, the crowd of disciples freely erupts into noise as they tensely wait for the sound that would signify the beginning of the end.

The tense people don't have to wait long as a chime soon resounds through the arena's grounds.

*¡¡!†KLANG†!¡¡*..

For a second, the arena goes silent to this metallic buzzing sound but action in the duelling circles begins immediately after.

Wacthing the duelling circle, some of the spectating disciples raise their voices was different sentence are hurled at the death opponents.

Immediately the bell chimes, Marien Lee begins a slow walk forward.

One wide step after the other, Marien Lee starts to close the few meters of distance between himself and Navi who is still staying on standstill.

With Marien's slow paced movements, it takes over a dozen seconds seconds for him to cover past halfway of the arena.

Reaching this mark, Marien Lee begins a one handed spin with his spear as he stirs the air through a dangerous rhythm as the disciples erupt more with noise.

Marching forward while keeping his spin, Marien proves to be in full control as his rotating spear gets passed from hand to hand while building-up a startling momentum!.

Navi is still standing just a little over ten feet away from the forward marching Marien Lee and he can vividly hear the air-slapping helicopter-like sound of Marien Lee's spinning spear.

Looking towards Marien Lee, Navi is ready for what comes next though Navi's thoughts at that moment is that despite the climbing momentum of Marien's spinning spear,.. it seems Marien Lee is not yet taking him seriously!.

Wacthing Marien slow advance and Navi's indifferent stand-still, the noisy crowd goes tense and confused.

From a third party's point of view, Marien Lee is definitely planning on striking Navi into a plump though.. due to the speed of Marien's spinning spear, no-one can tell from what direction that the strike is going to pull out from!.

Another disturbing fact about this situation is that, Navi has not even pulled out his weapon yet.

This might all truly end in one strike!.

Finally in an attacking range of about five feet away, Marien Lee spins his own body around and then his spear splits the air apart as he strikes out to Navi.

At the very moment then Marien Lee has curled his spear for a strike, Navi finally makes a move as he leans his weight forward then sideways.

Marien Lee's spear-head splits through the air like lightning though Navi is much quicker with response.

Tracing the pattern of the spear's strike, Navi foot goes into action as he lightly pushes himself over two feet off the ground. In air, Navi shifts in his weight as he turns the soft momentum of his light jump into an airborne side-roll!.

This timely executed air-borne side-roll manages to lift Navi's body's just a few inches above Marien Lee's swinging spea-rrod which would have otherwise swept directly through Navi's knees!.

With the momentum of the executed side-roll over the brown sands, Navi is also able to distance himself from Marien Lee moving spear-head that strikes slantly on the floor while stirring up a bit of sand.

For a moment, the crowd and even Marien Lee look to be in light dis-believe about what has just happened. A state of weird mummur-filled silence desends upon the arena's grounds as Marien regains his calm.

Pushing himself off the ground, Navi takes two lazy steps backwards to create space between himself and Marien. Nonchalantly looking at his death opponent who's also looking deeply at him, Navi speaks with a casual taunt in his voice..

"Come.". Navi challenges calmly though Marien Lee does not seem to take lightly of this 'light-taunt'.

With his right hand, Marien Lee sharply sweeps his spear-head through the sand in a light semi circle and then he places the spear's-head atop his right-shoulder. Pausing for a moment, Marien advances once more as he takes bold steps towards Navi.

"Three strikes right?.", Marien Lee softly asks to Navi who lightly nods in acceptance of the spoken words.

"I would make sure that you don't survive past the second one.", Marien Lee declares softly while Navi nods once more at Marien though his action comes out as challenging.

In Navi's honest opinion, such a senerio where he does not survive past the second strike would be Marien Lee's best chance of winning this duel.

The noisy crowd cannot hear what Marien and Navi are saying though their next actions interprets a part of their wills cause this soft battle hits a new dangerous pace.

Marien Lee strikes goes fast at Navi though this time with a stab while Navi leans to his left to avoid the spear head. Holding the spear's rod with his left hand, Marien Lee immediately sweeps the spear head horizontally while following Navi's body.

With a small crouch, Navi avoids the sweep but this is immediately followed by another harsh stab and three spear sweeps combo!.

A lean to the right, a step backwards, a slated dodge to the left and a block using his right wrist-pads garantees that Navi comes out of Marien's fast attack combo untouched.

Redirecting the Momentum of the last blocked swipe, Marien Lee turns around his own axis then he jumps forward.

With this new momentum that Marien has has gotten from his jump, Marien Lee grabs his spear's-rod with both his hands as he strikes his spear-head downwards at Navi like a whip.

With a soft-roll to his left-side, Navi avoids the whipped spear and taking two steps backwards, Navi once more spaces himself from Marien.

Sand flies up due to Marien Lee's second strike against the floor but the dust settles only a second after.

The crowd of disciples observing are more than a bit surprised about the result of the sequence of fast battle exchanges between Navi and Marien Lee.

Most Martial disciples can barely follow up with the pace of the battle exchange yet Navi has come out of the second exchange untouched.

Navi is not even breathing heavily and.. He still has not pulled out his weapon!.

Wacthing Navi in the duel, Yuxi is at the edge of her seat in the crowd though seeing Navi deal with the insane strikes unscratched, a sort of primary level relief wacthes over Yuxi's mind.

"You haven't landed one hit.", Navi calmly reminds Marien Lee who immediately goes into action once more through this time he seems to take things a lot more seriously.

With a soft run, Marien Lee's foot strikes the ground twice as he jump up. With a breezy speed, Marien Lee is in air as he punches a stabs at Navi with both his hands gripping on his weapon.

Navi has to stumble a bit backwards to avoid the cruel strike but Marien Lee does not pause even for a second.

Turning through his own axis, Marien Lee steps forward and sweeps towards Navi's head with the rod of his spears now in his left hand's grasp.

With motions that seems almost a blur, Navi once more faintly avoids the strike by leaning his body back. Barely avoiding the spear's sweep, time seems to slow down at that moment for Navi as he sees the tip of Marien's spear blowing an ugly wind of death and blindness just a few inches away from his pupils!.

Focused and uncaring, Marien Lee preserves the momentum of his avoided spear as he continues his assault. Marien takes a forceful step forward at Navi who has spaced himself and then Marien Lee pushes himself off the ground in an almost slanted position.

Passing his weapon from his left hand to his right hand, Marien Lee doubles then triples his spear's momentum as he rotates slantedly twice in air before delivering a slanted slash at the unstable Navi!.

"Uuuurrgh!!".

Executing the slanted slash at Navi, Marien Lee cannot stop a groan from pouring out of his lungs as his spear head hits.. nothing. With a powerful force, Marien Lee finds his spear head slapping on the ground for the third time in a row as a burst of dust flies around!.

Pausing for a second, Marien Lee gets confused as to why he has not whipped Navi with his spear head but then, looking half-a-dozen feet away from the tip of his spear's-head.. Marien Lee wacthes as Navi calmly gets up to his feet.. unscratched!.

How?.

Marien Lee face twicthes a bit as he stares at the figure of the rising Navi.

Standing straight, Marien Lee fluidly sweeps his spear through the sand then rests it head on his right shoulder. His gaze rests on Navi's figure for a few seconds and Marien replays what has just happened in his mind.

It seems that he have deeply underestimated the kid.

With this upsetting thoughts in mind, Marien Lee's grip on his spear's rod gets tighter as he becomes a little more serious!.

Marien Lee charges at Navi once more though most people can sense a martial shift in Marien's new charge.

Taking his spear-head off his shoulder, Marien's spear does not move straight but instead strike forward like a snake. With precision, Marien Lee delivers a dissorted swipe forward while forcing Navi to lose his battle-aware posture as he dodges the strike though this seems to be expected by Marien who continues his assault.

With a greter speed than before, Marien Lee is quick to whip out another cruel swipe at Navi's knees.

Navi narrowly dodges the second swipe but then a third swipe is coming to Navi's chest less than a second after!.

Navi is in a bad posture to dodge but he desperately leans his weight backwards to avoid the air-splitting swipe from the spear head.

Things seems to slow down and Navi would have narrowly avoided the spear swipe but then, mid-motion.. something unexpected and shocking happens.

The horizontally moving spear-head infront of Navi's chest suddenly loses all of its momentum!.

With both hands now on his spear's rod, Marien Lee has been able to halt his furious swipe mid-way!.

"Aaaaaauuuuuuugghhhh!.".

A loud groan tears out of Marien Lee's lips as he changes his swipe midways into a charging stab in barely milliseconds!.

At this shift, Navi's eyes widens in shock. His leaned back body's is in no position to pull off a dodge at Marien's stab and in less than a second, Marien's spear would be sailing through Navi's heart if he cannot give out the right reaction!.

But Navi does.

Out of shock, Navi's mind and hands moves at a flash as Navi grabs onto the forward stabbing spear's head with both of his hands.

Navi's inhumane strength comes to play at this desperate instant. With a tight hold, Navi holds on with his sudden grip putting an instant halt to the advancing spear-head which is stopped only four inches away from Navi's ribcage!.

Navi has reacted and he has stopped the sudden forward stab by grabbing a hold of the spear-head!. For a second, Navi has put a pause to tight pace of the battle though this pause only lasts for that very second.

With a bit more applied force, the spear-head in Navi's inhumane grip is forced forward by Marien Lee's equally inhumane strength!.

With both hands on his spear's rod, Marien Lee's grip on his spear tightens as he pushes forward with a fierce charge.

Due to the suden push, Navi's grip on his end of his spears almost slips forward though he manages to react in time.

Gripping the spear head as tight as he can, Navi runs back-wards while barely matching the insane speed of Marien's forward charge at him.

Just three seconds into the wild charge, Navi feels his back hitting into the walls of the arena with a dull impact. The instant Navi's back impacts against the wall, he immediately shifts his weight and body to the right side.

With this immediate shift in position, Navi is barely able to dogde as the spear-head delivers a stab impact. In an instant, Marien's spear-head slams harshly against the arena's wall with the spear tip hitting only two inches away from the side of Navi's chest!.

The spear's tip has scracthed into the tough wall though Marien Lee seems to not feel any recoil as he immediately follows up his spear attacks.

Marien Lee gives a forceful kick to the side of his spear's rod and the force sends his spear swinging at Navi's body. This new attack by Marien Lee is deliver immediately after hus spear-head's impact on the wall!.

†!!¡‡THUMJ‡¡!!†

Raising both of his arm pads in front of his chest, Navi recieves the swinging force of the spear's rod though he is forced to stumble a few steps backwards from the cruel impact.

Marien Lee's rapid battle-pace finally seems to be getting to Navi!.

Cold and focused, Marien Lee kicks the near wall as he pushes himself forward through a jump. His body follows after the stumbling Navi with his spear arching through another dangerous swing.

†!!¡‡TUMP‡¡!!†..

Navi is in no posture to dodge the quick follow up swing without falling over and so.. he makes a choice to block with his arm pads once one.

The second spear strike stumbles Navi further backwards with his fore-arms numbing a bit from the cold impact.

Landing firmly, Marien Lee passes his spear to his left hand. Marien's spear continues with destructive motion as he turns his body around and then unleashes a third strike barely a second after!.

The third strike comes to take Navi's head although Navi leans backwards at an almost impossible angle to dodge. Time slows once more as Navi visually captures Marien's fast moving spear flying over his face but then..

*±‽GUMB¡¡¡¡*.

Out of nowhere, the cold impact of an inhumane kick crashes straight into Navi's stomach!.

The impact of this powerful kick throws Navi to the ground as his body rolls backwards through over three meters in distance!.

After rolling for two seconds, Navi's body impacts against a part of the arena's wall with a dull impact. In an instant, pain wires through Navi's nerves as his back numbs from the impact.

Damn!.

Marien Lee has landed his first hit and man what a brutal hit it is!.

Taking in a noisy deep breath, Navi's legs shakes though this does not stop him from immediately standing up as he stares calmly at Marien Lee.

This is exactly what has made Navi to gift an unrecieving Marien the first three hits!.

Navi has never fought at this current wild battle pace before. He has also never fought with someone with his level of physical strenght neither has Navi ever been hit with such brutal force before!.

Navi's body groans in pain from the sum of impacts(Force to the stomach, rolling on the floor, impact on the wall) caused by Marien Lee's kick though his mind seems to find life in the feeling of being in a truly dangerous fight.

This is exactly why Navi has not pulled out his sword. To get stronger and to tap more into his innate battle potential, Navi has realized that he needs his limits pushed till they move no more.

Marien Lee's battle powers is doing a pretty good job with pushing Navi's current limits.

Feeling a bit numb everywhere, Navi looks at the distant Marien who is also looking back at Navi with narrowed and calculating eyes.

Marien Lee maybe a noisy person outside battle though definitely not in battle. He is a spear-man after all and they are known for focusing only on one thing in battle.

Right now, Marien Lee's only focus is Navi.

It make no sense but Navi has been fighting at the level of an average martial senior!.

Navi has been reacting to Marien's speedy strikes with a reaction-speed that's less-than-a-second and Navi's physical strenght seems almost equal to that of Marien Lee's!.

It does not take a lot of brains to know that something is off and the noisy crowd of spectating disciples can immediately tell that the battle powers that Navi is currently displaying(especially considering his age and physique) is monstrous!.

Looking on as Navi slowly stands up just after getting squarely hit in the stomach by Marien Lee's s brutal kick, the spectating disciples can also immediately conclude that Navi's physical dexterity is also beyond what should be possible.

Maybe, just maybe.. Navi might actually have a chance in this duel.

Sharply spinning his spear from his left hand to his right hand, Marien Lee internally acknowledges Navi as someone with the martial abilities of an average Martial senior.

Thing has unexpected just gotten a bit more difficult though Marien Lee prides himself in being a Martial Senior that's head and shoulders about the averages.

"That's your first hit.", Navi casually comments to Marien as he dust his hand clean of brown sand.

"My next would break a bone.", Marien Lee coldly responds as he leans into a weak spearman's battle-posture.

The arena's crowd wacthes the battle hit a pause while on the edges of their seat as tension rocks through their nerves with all their focus on the Duelling circle.

Before, an automatic winner seems to have been decided even before the death duel had begun but now,.. things are not so sure anymore.

Who would be the last one standing?.

Marien and Navi plan to decide this with a cordial discussion by martials and weapons rather than words.

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