Sam nodded and gathered his Dao energy and collected his blue energy to his hands, creating a diamond like coating of Dao energy around them. He gritted his teeth and started to spread the energy around his body, sending it into every last part of it. His hammer was on the ground nearby, but he did not need it for this battle. His new Fragment was more suited for hand to hand combat.
Sam surged forwards across the hard packed stone of the cavern floor, condensing his power into his right hand as he moved. He was without his armor, and he felt a bit strange, but with his skill based durability, he was at least as tough as his armor was normally. Gordanus waited with his eyes lidded in boredom, trying to give off the air of a man who was already assured of his victory. Sam ignored the taunt, and moved decisively.
He flashed across the ground, his feet a blur as he moved. To Gordanus however, he was moving at the speed of a snail. Gordanus sidestepped Sam’s punch, a punch that could have leveled a house, and drove his fist into Sam’s stomach, throwing him into the wall a few hundred feet away. Sam groaned as he fell off the wall, landing heavily. However, he had barely taken any damage, his body still intact despite the force that Gordanus had put into the punch.
Gordanus remained still, and Sam charged, hopping over the legions of training devices that littered the floor of the cavern. As he neared Gordanus, he started to blend his Daos, using multiple techniques at the same time. His Dao energy drained away like water through a sieve, but for one brief moment, his body reached an equilibrium with his Dao, and he drove his fist forward, in the most perfect expression of his dual Daos that he had ever managed. Now that they were both Fragments, it was far easier to use them in unison.
Red light swirled around his fist, merging with the blue light of his Dao of Resolution as he moved. His fist burned with power, and he thrust it into Gordanus’ gut, propelling the man backwards. His wrist almost snapped upon striking the ridiculously tough E Ranker, but he still managed to follow through with the strike, bringing his other hand down on Gordanus’ back, slamming the man into the ground. Gordanus hopped up a moment later, completely unharmed. He had only let that strike land to see how powerful Sam had become, but from the look on his face, he was still a bit surprised.
“Better than last time. Now, try to keep up with me on the offensive.”
Gordanus whipped through the air, almost too fast for Sam to track, and slapped him across the face, knocking him off his feet. The clearly casual motion was still powerful enough to send Sam flying, and it felt as if he had been hit by a truck.
Sam landed on both feet, skidding across the ground, and rooted himself with a quick application of his Girdings of the Arbiter skill. He weaved around an incoming punch, predicting it before it could come close enough to be bothersome. While fighting someone who was faster than oneself, one had to be able to predict movements before they actually came, or they wouldn't have a hope of dodging.
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Normally, anyone like this that Sam was fighting would be far weaker than him physically, but in this case, Gordanus was simply superior in all ways. This was like when Sam had fought the Overlord for the first time, back before he had become the strongest man on Earth. Now however, he was a more experienced fighter, and his martial path resonated with his Daos, allowing him to fight more effectively than before in his current state, Gordanus was about twice as powerful as Sam in all metrics, but he was only using his fists, so he was hampered slightly by the lack of his weapon prowess. In Sam’s case, he was able to apply the secrets of the mace to his own hands, seeing as they were basically blunt weapons. With the strengthening effects of his new Dao, he was able to use them as such too.
As Gordanus flashed by, Sam drove a sharp elbow into the man’s back, sending him skidding away. Gordanus wheeled around and teleported, appearing in front of Sam with a grin on his face. Sam tried to duck, but a fist surged into his abdomen, and he bent over double, retching up blood. This fight was not going in his favor. In addition, he had no idea how to counter the teleportation move that Gordnus kept using, and he could not tell for the life of him how the man was doing it. There did not seem to be any aspected application for the Dao, and it was certainly not related to Gordanus’ mana either. Instead, it was almost as if the man was unzipping the space in front of him with his power, and then stepping through it.
Frowning, Sam retreated, baiting out another teleport. This time, he was ready, and he narrowed his eyes, observing what was happening. The motion of the energy in the air around Gordanus was much too fast for him to sense, but he still caught the aftereffects, and he smiled. His suspicions were correct. The fist that slammed into his face a moment later was almost welcome.
Sam flew backwards, and he saw Gordanus following him. This was the perfect time to see if he had what it took to use the teleportation move that Gordanus had exhibited. He sensed that it was something that anyone could do, but he wasn't sure whether it was solely an E Rank thing. In any case, there was no harm in trying.
Sam sent a razor thin line of his Dao and elemental energy out the back of his head, sending it into the space behind him. Nothing happened, and the blade started to dissipate, but Sam seized upon the Dao in the world around him, finding small resonance points with his own Daos. Using those points as a guide, Sam strengthened his Dao energy, slicing a thin line in the firmament behind him. Sending the other part of the energy behind Gordanus, Sam flew through the hole, appearing in the air right above the other man.
Before he could do anything however, he fell, the energy contained within his body ripped out of him from the strain of having used his power in such a complicated way. He coughed up blood as he landed and Gordanus wheeled around, a look of shock on his features. Sam smiled weakly at this, and then blacked out.