Seeing Zeshion turn to his serious mode, I lowered my stance and prepared to counter anything that came to me. However, I underestimated his movements, thinking that a 7th-stage tamer's level wouldn't be able to break past my perception.
"...!"
A fist was already right before my eyes. It literally happened in the blink of an eye. It couldn't dodge it anymore, so instead, I turned my head along with the fist's path, lessening the impact of the hit.
However, just as I thought I was already out of danger, I saw that his punch was actually a feint that connected with a scorpion kick coming toward the top of my head. This time, I made it in time to take a step back and dodge the attack.
I took the chance and launched a kick, trying to gain distance and shoo him away, but he just raised his left arm to completely block my kick. He didn't even budge a little from the hit.
"Ah!"
This guy's limiting his power to the 7th stage, but his toughness is still at the God-tamer level! Although I want to call him dirty for it, I guess it's also my fault for not noticing that this could happen.
As my kick didn't damage him, he tried to catch my leg using his other hand. Of course, I didn't let him do it, and I kicked myself away from him, jumping in a low arc.
Even that was still a little too slow. Zeshion grabbed my hand while I was still in mid-air and pulled me down, attempting to slam my back hard against the ground. I was literally in the air, after all, so I couldn't use footwork to escape his grip. Instead, I held his wrist in return and used it as a pivot to turn my body and grab his neck between my legs, twisting and trying to choke him off.
"Heh!"
However, Zeshion just sneered at my attempt. As with my normal body strength, I can't even pinch his skin; trying to choke his neck was next to impossible.
"Damn! That's so unfair!"
I shouted as I twisted my body, moving from trying to choke him to trying to dislocate his right shoulder. However, just with his arm's strength alone, he was able to hold my entire body weight in place even as I entwined my whole body against his arm.
"What's unfair? I don't know what you mean."
Zeshion sneered, obviously aware of what I was claiming. This guy... He's definitely a sore loser! He'd go this far just to ensure his win? F*ck! Forget mano-a-mano; I'll go all out!
Without waiting another moment, I quickly released my pent-up anger and activated Lifeblood at the lowest level. At this degree, although the increase in my strength was minuscule, the side effect was completely gone. I can basically activate this 24/7 without problems, but doing so would be tiring mentally.
"...!"
Zeshion seemed to have realized that I was using a strengthening skill. He quickly tried to move me out of his arms but was late by a single instant.
"Haap!"
With a forceful twist, I managed to pop his shoulders. Although it's not completely dislocated, it should still hurt like hell. Before his arm fell, I gave him a bonus kick to the face before I rolled on the ground and away from him.
"..."
Damn, I suddenly felt chills. Looking closer, Zeshion's nose was bleeding, probably from my last kick. He was holding his right shoulder, but without any skill effects seen, his shoulder was completely returned to its normal state.
All his injuries, not just his shoulder, were completely healed. Not even a speck of dust from my boots was left on his face. This guy actually used Void skills to restore himself!
Before I could even complain, he vanished before me. I quickly spread my senses and found him right behind me, his arm glowing in a blue hue as he was chopping it down toward my left shoulder.
Too fast!
I tried to tilt my body to the right and shift the target, but he still managed to open a large hole in my clothes. Fortunately, I was not damaged at all.
"Are you trying to kill me?!"
If that one hit, then I'd definitely have an extra hole in my heart.
"Don't worry, I made it so it won't be fatal. You won't die from my hits."
"F*ck! What won't die? That's definitely gonna send my soul to the afterlife!"
"Void Power, you know it, right?"
"..."
Yeah, I could somehow recall that the basic application of it is through the reinforcement of will and turning it into reality. Did he make his attacks "able to bring anyone to near-death but not kill them" or something?
Either way, I don't want to receive such attacks. Having no choice, I revved up my engine again, bringing the Lifeblood to a higher stage. A bloody haze started oozing out of my skin as faint black traces started appearing all over my body. As soon as this happened, I took a step forward and released a punch to his chest.
"Nice! That's the spirit!"
Zeshion didn't even flinch, and he met my fist with the absolute same power. Our fists collided, releasing a powerful shockwave that made the entire training room shake.
For some reason, Zeshion completely stopped attacking and focused on defending instead. He matched each of my strikes with the same one, completely neutralizing each hit. Fist met fist, shin met shin, and we even went headbutting each other.
Each hit was equally powerful, sending wave after wave of destruction around us.
In just a matter of seconds, the entire training ground was already full of cracks. The entire space around us was flickering as if from a broken video feed. The girls were running away from our location, moving to a safer spot.
"You ancient bastard, just let me win already!"
"Kid, nobody is allowed to win against me!"
The two of us continued our fierce exchange without any regard for the environment. And finally, I managed to find an opening in Zehsion's defense. I quickly rushed forward, aiming for his defenseless side, and was about to do a palm strike for more invasive damage. However, as soon as I dove into his range, a smile appeared on his face.
"Checkmate!"
The ground blew up along with his words. Large crates flew around, and one even hit my chest, sending me flying backward.
"It was fun, Will!"
Zeshion jumped high into the air, his fist raised and glowing golden. As he started to fall, however, a large black hand grabbed him before dragging him to the ground.
"What the f*ck are you two doing?!"
A new player entered the game—no, I mean, Yu Na suddenly appeared and interrupted our battle. She was extremely pissed for some reason.
I took a step back, gawked at the view around us, and sighed. We were so engrossed in our sparring that we completely lost sight of the damage we did to the place. Half of the entire space was destroyed. Even the spatial expansion seemed to be faltering, as the entire room was blurring out like a faulty video feed.
I took a deep breath, pointed at Zeshion, and declared with a flat expression.
"It's his decision. I'm not at fault."
Yu Na glared at me, completely not buying my excuse.
"Kneel down, you two!"
"Calm down, Yu Na. I'm not related to all this destruction, I swear! I was just defending while Will was the one who destroyed everything!"
This man... So that's why he's just defending! That was clever of you, but unfortunately, Yu Na's priority seemed to be you. Har Har, it stinks to be popular, huh?
"You're older than this entire kingdom, and you're pushing all the responsibility to a kid? Have you no shame, old man?"
Yu Na's glare was ice-cold. She seemed genuinely angry. I tried to sneak away while she was focused on Zeshion, but I bumped against an invisible wall. She actually locked us in place just to ensure that we couldn't escape!
"Do you know how much the repair cost for this damage is? It's over a billion, a billion! What do you want me to do now, huh?"
Ohh... Even the Seimei and Luo families combined don't have that much liquid wealth. I turned to Zehsion, still held to the ground by the floating, gigantic, black skeletal hand. His face seemed to have already given up on escaping and was now only trying to appease the angry beauty.
In the end, we both got sermoned for a full hour. Fortunately, Goddess Zeta volunteered to repair the space for us. Ember did some practice too, repairing the little cracks that Goddess Zeta left for her to handle.
Just before noon, the repairs were completed. Yu Na, still angry (seemingly), managed to get a date promise from Zeshion, making her leave happily afterward. When she was completely out of sight, I turned to Zeshion and sneered.
"I win, right?"
"No, I won. I was the one in the lead during the last instant."
This guy really does hate losing.
"Stop it, you two. Don't fight again, or I'll bury you both underground next."
With Zeta's warning, we both decided to withdraw from this case. Of course, I was completely convinced that I had won. But Zeshion was surely the same. Anyway, now it's finally the girls' time to train!
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