“You will answer my questions!”

Shadow stormed into the arena and pointed a sword at Gerald. Yet the man did not even bother to turn to acknowledge his presence. He continued doing whatever it was he was doing, with the golem beside him.

Shadow frowned and looked at the stone construct. He noticed something was different, but he couldn’t put his finger on what exactly.

Yet that was not what bothered him. Once again, he was disregarded as a person. The disrespect that came from being ignored hurt more than any insult.

“Hey! I said-”

[Shut up already! Why don’t you bother someone else? Or do you have that much of a death wish?]

Shadow was taken aback. That sounded like a challenge. Put up or shut up. He grinned. That was exactly what he wanted.

“If you think you can beat me again, you are sorely mistaken. The last time was a fluke. The same thing will not happen again.” He took a Spirit Stone and slotted it into his sword. The blade drank the energy and its edge began glowing white.

[Oh, yeah?!] Gerald shouted and took a few steps closer. The golem behind him did the same, rumbling as it did so.

Shadow nervously licked his lips. The stone beast sounded much heavier than before. It looked sturdier as well. He didn’t know what exactly happened with the golem, but if Gerald planned to use it to drain his stamina, that could be a problem.

[Fine. I could use some exercise anyway.] Gerald said, cracking his fingers and rolling his neck and shoulders. He then turned to his rocky creation. [Tiny, stay there. I’ll take this guy on my own.]

Hearing that, Shadow secretly smiled and his confidence came back with force. He already knew how the fight would go, and made plans in case it didn’t.

Backup plans upon backup plans. That’s what he was good at. As long as he didn’t rush in recklessly and made a mistake, a victory would come easily. He grinned. “Bring it on then!”

Not an instant later, Gerald was already upon him, and he struck up with his sword to meet bare flesh.

The two collided, but Gerald shifted his fist to avoid the sharp edge. Yet after the strike, as he pulled back, blood still flowed from his knuckles. Spirit Qi was great in that regard. Even a single strand could cut through inferior energy. Too bad the time of contact was too short so he received only a small cut.

Shadow also pulled back, slightly crouched down, and then exploded forward in a spinning hurricane of blades.

Gerald was slow to avoid him and received many cuts across his body despite wearing quality clothing.

“Hah!” Shadow celebrated and launched into another attack. He jumped from side to side, delivering many more cuts and lacerations as Gerald struggled to defend. “Where’s your confidence now, huh? Give up already!”

He jumped away and prepared a powered attack to finish the job.

[Why would I give up? You can’t even hurt me.]

“Huh?” Shadow rubbed his eyes and looked at Gerald again. The man’s robe was shredded and hung loosely on his body, yet the skin underneath was pristine. Not a single cut anywhere.

“Wait… what?” Shadow was beyond confused. He could have sworn he had cut him at least a hundred times, yet the man was clearly just fine. He looked down at his sword and noticed the absence of blood. “An illusion? I see.”

He quietly chuckled to himself. “I’ve been deceived again. Good. Very good!” He grited his teeth and Qi flared through his body and came to life. His eyes began to glow from the sheer amount of energy they contained.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Come! Let’s see how you will fool me this time!” With the visual Mystic Arts active, he was confident nothing would escape his notice.

“Lunar Blade of the Crescent Moon!” He struck down with his blade and a short pulse of white light shot from it, in the form of a half-moon. The light flew straight and true, and fast as lightning, striking Gerald’s left arm as he tried to defend. Most of the energy was used like that, yet the ethereal blade continued on its bath, leaving a deep gash on his chest as well.

Gerald grunted as his hand fell to the ground with a wet plop and shot a Qi blast from his right hand in retaliation. Actually, he shot multiple of them, forcing Shadow to dodge from side to side.

“Hah! Pathetic. Can’t even form a barrier to defend yourself?” Shadow jumped forward, sliced through a ball of Chaotic Qi, and fired off another energy attack.

“Lunar Blade of the Crescent Moon!”

Gerald flattened himself to the ground and just barely avoided the great part of the attack. He still got cut on the back, but the wound was shallow. He then quickly rolled over to the side and grabbed his lost hand.

And then disappeared.

“What the…? Where did he g-”

Shadow doubled over as a knee found its way to his stomach and buried itself deep into his bowels, forcing the air out of his lungs.

“What-” He wheezed out as his body collapsed on the floor without any power. He didn’t remain there for long though. Gerald grabbed him by the tunic he wore and lifted him up with a smirk. As Shadow glanced at him, he noticed the wound on his chest was gone, and his hand was back where it should be. No sign of damage anywhere.

Shadow finally recovered and exploded in anger. “You-! How?! I cut you!”

[Oh, that? I barely felt it.] Gerald grinned. He then placed him standing upright, patted his shoulders clear of dust, and delivered an uppercut to his jaw.

Shadow only realized what had happened after he already landed on the ground on the other side of the arena, his mouth and head feeling like it had just an intimate hug with a runaway freight train. Pain spread across his body and he spat out blood, as well as a chipped tooth.

“Bastard…” He whipped the blood from his lips with a shaky hand and squeezed his fists so he could get his trembling body under control. He felt none of the confidence he had in the beginning. He also lost his sword, and that made him angry.

Qi began bubbling and swirling inside his body and then began to leak outside. he was ready to go all out.

“Split Faces of the Crescent Moon!” He roared. Qi was pulled out of him at greater speed and took on the form of a man. It twisted and turned and soon took on a myriad of colors until it settled on a select few. The form and appearance of Shadow.

[A cloning technique?] Gerald slowly clapped. [That’s nice. I’m going to need you to teach it to me after we are done here.]

“Never!” Both Shadows roared at once. They then merged with the air around them, became invisible, and ran to attack from opposite directions.

[Again with this shit?] Gerald groaned. [Fine, come at me, you coward!]

What followed was about ten minutes of Gerald getting pounded from all directions as kicks, fists, and sometimes even bites came to kiss his beautiful, black and blue, swollen skin.

The entire time he flailed around madly but failed to defend himself from a single attack. And while Shadow mocked him in the beginning, the man quickly fell silent as his opponent refused to yield and surrender. No matter how hard he hit, Gerald simply refused to collapse. So he began attacking even wilder and began breathing even harder as he exhausted his energy. In the end, he was glad when Gerald finally fell down while protecting his head with his hands.

Considering that a victory, Shadow reappeared, as did his clone, on both sides of Gerald.

“Had you… huff… had enough?!” He shouted in between deep breaths.

His eyes then nearly popped out of their sockets as Gerald slowly got up and yawned while stretching in response. [You done already? I was just about to fall asleep.] To his horror, Shadow noticed how the wounds and bruises on his body were disappearing one after the other. Whatever damage he delivered was getting erased like it was never there in the first place. He realized to his horror, there were never any illusions in the first place.

[That was a good exercise, but you really punch like a girl. I was hoping you would be stronger.]

“Y- You… You monster!” Shadow roared and he and his clone jumped, side by side, and pointed their hands at him as if they were about to blast him with an energy beam. Because that’s exactly what they did.

“Silverlight Beam of the Full Moon!”

The original and the clone stood shoulder to shoulder, fired off the beam, and as it combined, a silvery wave of energy larger than Gerald’s head rushed at him.

Gerald’s eyebrows shot up and he quickly thrust his hands forward and released his own Qi. A curved round shield was conjured in a split-second, and as the beam hit, it split apart and shot off to the side in different directions as Gerald gritted his teeth and resisted the push of foreign energy.

Shadow roared as his body was quickly sucked dry of Qi, and the clone collapsed after a few short seconds, after running out of steam. Original Shadow sustained the beam for a moment longer but then his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he also collapsed.

Gerald looked up from behind his shield, and seeing his opponent lying on the ground, unconscious, he released the defense and clicked his tongue.

[Tsk, tsk, tsk. Too hasty, my guy… You need to pace yourself. How am I going to use you to train my body if you blow your load so quickly?]