The nearly seven-foot-tall, muscle-bound barbarian, looked down at the scrawny Wizard that was not even 17 years old.  With a sweep of his hand, he pulled the great axe out from behind his back.  The casual motion destroyed a nearby table that happened to be too close to him and sending people scurrying back.

“You’ve got some guts, boy.  But don’t think I’ll go easy on you just because you’re young.” The barbarian said.  “I’ve killed both young and old.  Anyone who stands in my way dies.”

Jude leaned his staff against the wall and rested his hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword.  He stood in front of the giant and imposing figure and said, “If you’ve killed so many people then I won’t feel bad about killing you.”

The man laughed, “You kill me?  With what? That puny sword?  Do you not know who I am?  I’ve killed great heroes and devils alike.  I am Kohan the Barbarian!”

A collective gasp went around the room as people trembled in fear.  The innkeeper was just about to tell them to take it outside, but he valued his life more than the inn, so he said nothing.  Even Ellie’s eye twitched at the sound of this man’s name.  Only Jude was not affected.

“Never heard of you,” Jude said with a bored expression.

Kohan balked at the idea of someone not knowing his name, but Jude’s expression sold the fact that he really didn’t know him or even feared him.  Since becoming famous, Kohan had never seen someone react this way to his name.

“Boy, I will let you off this one time if you just leave and do not come back,” Kohan finally said.

“No,” Jude simply replied.  He had no desire to find another inn or sleep out in the wild yet again.  Nor was he afraid of this oversized man.

Kohan was starting to lose his patience, but he wasn’t quite there yet, “I, Kohan, have come to Riwa to win your pathetic tournament and claim the .  I will defeat the pathetic Warriors of Riwa and show the world that Goyg Regions Barbarians are the real strength of the world.”

“Then I, as a Wizard, will defeat you with nothing but this sword,” Jude stated as he firmly grasped the sheathed sword. “And when I do, Goyg Region will be known as Cosh Region.”

Barbarians were not known for keeping their tempers in check so when Jude insulted not only Kohan but also Goyg Region he lost what little remained of his patience.  Kohan grabbed his axe with both hands and swung at Jude with an overhead strike.  The double-sided great axe cut through the ceiling like butter and the four-meter gap closed like it wasn’t even there.

Jude was expecting a quick relation, so he was surprised when the Barbarian launched such a showy attack, which to Jude looked slow.  Attacks like these looked good and required an unearthly strength, but in the end required little skill.  He thought a level 30 Barbarian would be better than this, but then again, maybe Kohan wasn’t taking Jude seriously yet.

In one fluid motion, Jude drew his sword and activated its ability moving him one meter back.  Then followed through with a sword strike the combined the ability.  As the axe swung down the sword hit the top of the axe between the two blades, this was when took action.  Jude tried to keep the scope of only on the Barbarian because he felt sorry for the owner of the inn.  But on the plus side, the focused got amplified on the barbarian blasting him back out the doorway he had burst through when he first arrived.

From everyone else’s point of view, it looked like Jude narrowly dodged the impossibly powerful axe only to clash with the axe and prove to be even more overwhelming than the barbarian in strength.  The clash created a shockwave, that was actually , destroying a few nearby tables and chairs.

For a few seconds, the whole room was still, only when Jude started to move towards the door did people come back to their senses.

“Did you see how strong Kohan was?  Only to be overpowered by that scrawny kid?” one person said.

“How did he do it? Kohan had to be at least twice his weight!” another said.

“This kid is so strong just the clash was enough to break tables and chairs!”

“What is this guy’s strength stat?”

“Is he a Wizard or a Warrior?”

“I heard him say that he was a Wizard, but I bet that was to throw off the Barbarian.”

"No way, did you see that sword? It's clearly something special!"

“Don’t just stand here talking, the fight is about to continue outside! Let’s watch!”

Ellie grabbed Jude’s staff and followed the crowd outside.  

Jude and Kohan now squared off outside on the dirt road.  Blood trickled down Kohan’s chin, but considering the force, he wasn’t seriously injured.  In fact, this push outside had caused just enough damage to start activating his Barbarian skill.  But he held it in check for just the right moment.  This kid was a lot craftier and more skilled than he first thought.

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Kohan didn’t waste time with words and began attacking immediately.  Because if he waited too long, his opportunity to use would disappear.  But Jude wasn’t having it.  Jude kept using to retreat and started to taunt him.

“Aren’t you Kohan the Barbarian?” Jude said. “Is this all that you amount to?”

No one knew how Jude was able to move and disappear so fast.  It was only recently that he found out that he could use Item Skills without calling on their name.  Typically when doing this it would reduce the flexibility of the skill, but since Jude was the one who created it and intimately knew how the skills worked and how they were designed, it was no problem for him.

“Perhaps you aren’t the real Kohan, but a poser, using the name of someone greater than you,” Jude spoke out as he narrowly dodged yet another axe strike.

Jude was also keeping an eye on Kohan’s follower, she was seemed to be some sort of Wizard variant, but he didn’t know what.  She also gave him the impression that she was much stronger than this Kohan and might be the reason for his rise to fame.  Jude overlapped with his natural vision, just in case she tried to do something sneaky.

“Or maybe you are Kohan, and you just don’t deserve your reputation,” Jude continued the taunt while avoiding the barbarian’s attacks.

By this point Kohan’s skin had turned completely red, he couldn’t control any longer, and it rained free in his body.  Once took over, he would become an unstoppable killing machine.  Only his Shaman would be able to stop him from killing half of the town.  Once the skin all turned red, Kohan's eyes then turned white as he lost all self-aware thought.

Instantly his speed doubled, and his strength tripled. His muscles bulged out as they swelled to cartoonish size.  The axe was also wreathed in a bloody light, and the scent of blood filled the air.

This was the first time that Jude felt his wasn’t fast enough.  He just barely dodged yet again, but this time it wasn’t on purpose.  However, the bloody light emanating from the axe hit Jude instead.  Luckily the sword took a good deal of the hit, but it still blasted him ten meters away, and he felt like he had been cut in half.  This was even more visible as he lost about a third of his HP.

He lost a third of his HP on a hit that didn’t even connect!  Barbarians gained a whole new respect in Jude’s mind.

The fight wasn’t over as Kohan rushed towards Jude almost as fast as he had been using .  Jude sighed, he didn’t want to, but he had no choice.  He would have to use at its normal speed.  

So far in this fight, he hadn’t done this so that he could save his body the strain of moving at those high speeds.  He had still yet to find a way to overcome this problem.  It wasn’t something a simple manipulation of the skill could fix; it was an issue with the very skill itself.

Just as the barbarian was about to land a hit with the great axe, Jude disappeared leaving only a ring of dust from the dirt road behind.  The axe slammed deep into the ground, and the entire area around the barbarian broke apart.  The people that were the closest were injured, and the crowds quickly fell back to a safe distance.

Jude could see the unbridled magic raging through the barbarian and his attack from way up in the sky.    practically broke the normal laws of physics and allowed Jude to do some unusual things with it. Usually, he would come to a complete stop when using this skill, but this time he let his momentum carry so that he could unleash his counter attack.  He had shot himself up and had yet to reach the apex of his jump when he started releasing his .

Jude used two more to land on the ground before the could.  Then he goaded Kohan yet again, “Hey, Muscle Brains, looking for me?”

The fire from above was falling, but the speed of this fight was so fast that few people had realized it.  And even fewer still realized that Jude was luring the barbarian into a trap.  The weren’t all that bright in the night’s sky, but if you looked up, it was still quite visible. 

Jude had chosen a safer area at the end of the street where there was a small square.  He didn’t want a dozen igniting the whole town.   This was why he lured the barbarian here rather than attack him directly.  And the Barbarian in his state would fall into an open trap regardless of the situation.  was extremely powerful, but it still had the great weakness of being mindless.

Kohan landed another great axe strike right where Jude had been.  Jude, of course, used to dodge the blow and landed on a nearby rooftop.  He watched with a smile as his timing could not have been more perfect.

But as the fires started raining down a woman’s voice could be heard shouting, “!”

Just as the began to fall, the winds picked up, scattering them in all directions.  They hit the surroundings and burst into flame.  But before the fire could do much damage, the rain came falling down.  This was good for Kohan because one of the , under Jude’s direct control, managed to hit him and set him aflame as well.

Jude was not satisfied with the result.  He had put a lot of effort into that attack, and it was all done in by that woman.  But after Kohan began his he didn’t have the time to keep track of the woman and fight Kohan as well.  If the fight continued against both of them, Jude wasn’t so sure of the outcome.

Jude tensed up and was at full focus when the woman started chanting yet again.  Even though her chant was calm and deliberately slow, he didn’t let his guard down, especially since this rain was a form of an attack.  The droplets of water were like small needles that slowly chipped away at his health while at the same time healed her allies.  Not to mention that it would make using incredibly difficult to use, even if it did defy physics.

“,” she cast a spell on Kohan.

Kohan had stayed still since the start of her chant, and now that the spell was entirely cast, Jude could see the effects visibly.  Under the calming wind, Kohan’s skin returned to its normal color, and his eyes regained their pupil’s.

The also seemed to clear away the storm, and the hearts of all the spectators appeared to settle as well.

“Kohan, you lost,” she told the big man who had now come back to his senses.

He looked around and found Jude standing on a rooftop nearby, “Ha ha!  For a scrawny kid, you really pack a punch!  I, Kohan, admit defeat!"

As the giant man walked away, he shouted one last thing, "I will see you in Geonar.”

Jude didn't say a word in response but watched the Barbarian leave.  He had mixed emotions about what had just happened.  Kohan did not seem to be any sort of moral person, but he still accepted his defeat.  If he and that woman joined together, this ending would have been much different.  But they had not.  

Perhaps it was some honor system that the people of Goyg had.

That was when he noticed that the woman had not left.  She stood there staring at Jude and finally said, “I am Valice, Shaman of Goyg, Storm Caller, and Skinwalker.  I too will see you in Geonar.”

This competition was going to be interesting, Jude thought.