Chapter 18: Bloodline / Talent
Balon’s veins started to glow brighter and brighter. The luminosity reached a point where he was illuminating his nearest surroundings, confusing the folk who could not see through his veil.
‘Why can I see this guy better for some reason?’
‘What the? Why’s everything brighter?’
…
Up on the higher levels the sisters' restlessly shifted in their seats.
“Dragonblood activation!?”
“It…seems so.”
Renna and Kaerys stared, while Aela silently clenched her fists in frustration.
Balon readied his stance. It no longer looked like anything Zan knew. The large man sprawled his legs and spread his arms loosely, with his palms facing towards the sky.
Then, his arms fell, and after-images came one after the other as they did.
The golden youth that looked like a goddamn full grown man suddenly turned into a blur once again. This time, the red figure simply could not shift into his own speedy blur.
Before he knew it a golden light had appeared in front of him, and a slight image of a punch seemed to have come out from it. Zan reacted as quickly as he could, placing an open palm upon the perceived direction, and target of the punch.
His senses and intuition did not fail him as he caught the fist in his hand…but the force was simply too much. Both his fist and and his body bent like a broken stick as he flew like a launched arrow.
BANG!
The red haired youth hit the opposite wall of the stone colosseum, his body sinking deep into the stone as he coughed up blood.
He fell to the ground, but the assault did not stop as the golden light had already approached him once again. A series of blows sped towards him at insane speed, pummeling him deeper into the wall.
Multiple punches assaulted his chest, stomach, liver and ribs. Blood spilled out from Zan’s mouth like a faucet being turned on and off.
Cole felt his chest tighten and heart drop while Yela was close to shedding tears from the display.
Over and over he was beaten without pause, and the punches seemed to come endlessly.
He felt his energy-fortified body start to fracture, misshape and disfigure.
Then after half a minute of pure relentless punishment, Zan’s bright eyes turned lusterless.
Balon noticed this, and he would not miss out on capitalizing upon such an opportunity.
‘You have great will to have lasted more than a few seconds.’
Three lightning speed punches were thrown out in a blink of an eye, and they were aimed at the most lethal spots— the boy’s temple, his throat, and the area directly over Zan’s heart.
Feeling extreme, life-ending danger, the red-haired youth was pushed beyond his limits, and in turn entered an extreme state of presentness.
Zan moved as soon as his senses detected a subtle change in the direction in front of him. A blur in the light, a sudden and extremely miniscule change in tone and timbre— a subtle vibration in the ground, and in the air. These were the things that alerted him to the threats that approached.
Indeed, Zan had totally turned off his thoughts, relying solely on his fighting instincts.
WHOOSH!
The red-haired boy basically premoved as soon as Balon exerted strength into his arms.
The dragon son and his sisters watched in pure disbelief, as Zan dodged all of the lightning fast punches that his body had previously taken on in full.
WHOOSH!
The last one hit the air at the same time that Zan threw a counter punch.
BOOM!
A thunderous sound echoed as the red haired boy’s fist hit Balon’s face, driving into it as forcefully as he could using all of his body.
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Yet…it did not seem to faze the black-haired giant at all.
Zan’s strike was powerful, no doubt about it, yet…it now had such an insignificant effect. To many of those who had the ability to watch their fight, it seemed just a little…odd.
So odd in fact…that in the short moment that Zan’s fist connected with his opponent’s body, a glint appeared in the boy’s eyes— a return to consciousness for just that fleeting moment.
What Zan saw in that brief moment, was scale-like patterns appearing exactly where his attack had hit.
They had absorbed all the force, and seemed to be actively distributing it throughout Balon’s surrounding scale-skin.
‘What the fuck…’
After a brief moment of surprise from both of the fighters, the two figures blurred again, and Zan retriggered his sensory-reaction state once more.
Each time Balon threw a punch, or a kick, the red haired boy, through some weird magic, premoved and countered at the same time. Zan’s blows hit the scale-like skin, and each blow echoed throughout the cavern like a blacksmith hammering a sword.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Each of Zan’s strikes felt like a battering ram banging on steel gates. The impacts were loud and obviously produced with incredible force, yet…it all just felt futile.
Balon now seemed impenetrable, and unbreakable.
The black-haired young man smiled, before confidently giving up on his defense. His arms fell from his once tight guard. Smashing blows struck Balon’s body one after the other, and yet his grin only turned wider.
The young man allowed himself to be hit a full one hundred times while holding his head high towards the sky.
After a while of reveling in himself, Balon took action once again, not even bothering to dodge Zan’s punches.
Zan detected multiple threats. It was more difficult now to evade because Balon had thrown away all defense, for offense, but still, Zan held out. He dodged, dodged and dodged, countering each of his opponent’s actions with his own.
Each time Balon threw a strike and hit air, Zan’s own blows connected towards his body at the same time.
This created a sort of confidence within the red-haired young man. Although he didn’t seem to be making progress, he was still the one landing the blows and not getting hit.
Zan even fell into a sort of rhythm, like some dangerous dance.
‘You move, but I’ve already read you.’
‘At the same time your strikes hit air, I’ve hit you.’
‘It’s me. I’ve got the advantage.’
Zan thought he could somehow wither his opponent with blows, just the same as constant rain could erode even stone.
Constant, crashing waves could even shave off a mountain and create a cliff face. And in this case, Zan felt just like the crashing waves— formless, and relentless.
Unfortunately though…Balon wasn’t stupid. He was neither dumb as stone or as passive as a mountain. He had come from royalty, and was brought up as such.
His brawn was supplemented with brain, from the very first time that he was able to utter syllables.
And in this case, there was a method to all his strikes. All of the blows that Balon threw, turned out to be mere feints. Feints meant to drop his opponent’s guard. Feints meant exactly to boost his opponent’s confidence, while putting on the facade that he was the arrogant one.
Feints designed exactly to lead Zan to an exact location, position, and even action.
Before he knew it, the red haired youth found himself in an impossible position. Zan sensed an incoming attack but could not move out of its way. All of the previous strikes were thrown to create this one single opportunity. This thoroughly planned blow, inevitably became undodgeable.
A single hard uppercut, then smashed into Zan’s solar plexus.
Zan hurriedly placed two of his hands once again to block the fist, yet it still hammered through both defenses, smashing through the muscle and bone of his hands, and his chest.
The blow sent him careening into the air. Balon jumped into the air respectively, grabbing Zan’s leg and positioning the airborne body over his shoulder.
BANG!!!
The red haired figure was brutally slammed into the ground, forming a deep pit.
The sisters observed the fight without surprise— any member of the royal family who could unlock the glowing dragonblood could easily dispose of an adept. The boy was already quite an outlier for an elite member of their family to take more than a minute to take care of him.
Balon looked down upon his opponent from the sky. For some reason he defied the laws of gravity for a few seconds.
“You were an outstanding opponent, Arem.”
“Rest now, eternally, in great honor.”
Balon, who had been a golden light in the sky, then turned into a falling star. The veins in his right fist started to glow even brighter.
A resonant, ringing noise spread throughout the stone arena, ridding the silence. This was it, the final blow.
The star fell onto the defeated figure laying on the ground, and at the very last second…
BANG!!!
The star was sent back to the skies, though in this case, into the stone ceiling.
Spirals of raw, cutting wind twisted, rotated and revolved around the red haired boy’s arm. The crowd simply had no words to say as the boy seemed to manipulate the raw elements into his arm.
Somewhere in the stands, a bald monk had opened his eyes wide at the scene.
‘This kind of energy manipulation…’
Balon nimbly dropped down to the ground. He stretched his neck and muscles while looking at the red haired youth who had now turned into the eye of a tornado.
The wind swept away the blood that was on his body. His red hair resembled flames as it danced with the wind.
The sisters and Balon were reminded once again of a certain lost family member.
Kaeyrs took a long look at him before asking, “Do you think he was like him when he was younger?”
“You’re definitely in your head sister.”
Zan harrumphed and the wild spiraling energy was forcefully put into obedience.
The wind roared, but slowly transformed from a tornado, to an hourglass-like figure where Zan stood in the middle.
The two stared at each other with fierceness, but respect.
The spiraling wind, then condensed and condensed until it totally seeped into Zan’s body.
The concentrated spiraling energy entered into his energy pathways, filling and flowing through his body with incredible power. With it however, Zan felt extreme pain. The intense spiraling energy unnaturally enlarged the pathways, ballooning him with both power and agony.
Similarly, his body and muscles ballooned just as much. The crowd saw as he seemed to have gained twenty-five pounds in muscle.
The bald man watched all this with a gaping mouth, but at the next moment he grit his teeth.
‘Young, ignorant fool! Curse the fates that would allow such a heavenly talent to throw away his gifts like this!’ The monk punched the earth in frustration.
Then suddenly, the crowd heard a low, deep, roaring sound. A rumbling storm was growling within the red haired figure.
Balon immediately reacted. His glowing veins started to dim and instead his muscles grew larger and veinier. Golden glistening scales started to form upon his skin, specifically around parts of his arms, legs, chest and on the cheeks of his face.
Relatively speaking it was an incomplete transformation as it did not cover his whole body, but it was all that he needed, and currently all he could do.
The sisters simply had no more words. The transformations they saw today from their brother showed them just how much he hid his power from the rest of their siblings.
And…it showed just how much further he was from them. It showed just how much of a gap there was between them.
Moreover, although they did not think of it immediately…it also showed how much of a threat Balon viewed the youth in front of him.
The golden draconic youth, and the red haired rumbling storm faced off once again, staring at each other in anticipation.
This time there was no signal for battle. The two figures on opposite ends of the arena disappeared from sight, having been there one moment and gone the next.
BOOOOOM!!!
An explosion like no other occurred in the very middle of the underground arena. Blasting wind and flying debris assaulted not just the immediate slave crowd, but now everyone in every corner of the underground. Likewise, the flames that lit the expansive underground were extinguished by the blast.
Primeval darkness came down upon them, reigning supreme once again.
BOOOOOM!!! BOOOM!!!
Powerful collisions resounded through the dark, as the fight continued.