Wang Zen and Yin Zheng stood in place for a moment, simply staring at each other.

“Wang Zen?” Zheng said, “What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here? Last time I checked, I lived here. The question is, what are you doing here? And how did you get here?” Zen slowly walked around Zheng to get a better look for the golden sphere made of Celestial Power. “You came from that thing.” He gestured to the sphere. “Is this how Hei has been breaking intro mansions and burning them down?”

Zheng’s eyes widened, as if he remembered something. “Zen, you need to get out of here, now.”

“What?” Zen said.

Zheng looked around desperately. “Where is Jun Nee? I need to take her away.”

“Why do you need to take her away?” Zen said in a sarcastic tone. “Is it avoid her dying when you burn this place maybe before or after you kill my mother.”

“I don’t have time for this!” Zheng said. “I came here for Jun Nee.” He looked at Zen with disgust, “You put her in danger.”

“I put her in danger?” Zen said in surprise and anger.

“Yes!” He nodded. “You forced her to stay here!”

“To protect her from you!” Zen spat back.

“Liar!” he said.

There was a BOOM that rang throughout the mansion. The two boys looked around in worry.

“Zen’er, tell me where she is.” Zheng said.

“No,” Zen said, “I don’t trust you. Why would I tell you where Jun Nee is. You should instead tell me what The Black Mark is planning and we’ll protect her by stopping it.”

“You already know that is not going to happen.” Zheng said. He began to walk, heading for the exit.

Zen stepped to bar his way. “Tell me everything Zheng or I’ll be forced to fight you.”

“Don’t try it, Zen’er.” Zheng said. “I put you down once, I will do it again.”

Zen drew Zen Blade. “I guess you’ll have to do it again.”

“Seems I have to.” Zheng touched a storage stone and summoned his Zenjun sword.

Zen took a fighting stance, so did Zheng.

They charged at each other

Their blades clashed. The room was filled with metal meeting metal. The two boys danced around the room. Innocent plants and drapery were being slashed as they tested each other’s defences and trying to land attacks. However, anyone with eyes could see that Zheng was in the back foot.

Even though Zheng’s jian had the longer reach with a longer blade, Zen’s attacks with his dao were putting him under a lot of pressure. Where Zheng had a descent sword fighting technique, Zen’s was leagues better than his. He was finding openings in his sloppy style and took advantage of them, forcing him back to find any form of respite from the attack. When he tried to escape, Zen made sure to cut off any escape paths and continue pushing him back.

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Zen knew he had the advantage. His technique was superior, finely honed through many practice battles with his now destroyed battle mannequin Man Doll. He found an opening and slashed at Zheng’s thigh. Zheng kept leapt back but Zen matched his movement, sticking with him. Zen cut the inside of his forearm.

Zheng felt his anger boil over at being beaten and activated his Shuddering Shield Aura which pushed Zen back.

The aura vanished once Zen was pushed away. Undeterred, the City Lord’s son took a fighting stance.

“Not so easy, heh Zheng?” Zen said. “Not so easy to beat me when I am at full health.”

“You think that is the only reason I beat you?” he said, his ki bursting out of him and flowing down his sword. It covered the blade, shaping itself around the sword and turning it white.

Zen’s eyes widened.

“Hie showed me this ability of Zenjun,” he said, seeing Zen’s shocked expression. He leapt at Zen.

Zen rolled to the side, dodging the blow. The blade cut through air but then Zheng swung it around, making Zen block. When the blades met, there was an explosion that engulfed Zen and he was sent flying back. When Zen landed, his blade and the mask he had worn clanged some distance away from him.

Getting up to his knees, Zen rolled to the side, scooping up his short sword and taking a fighting stance.

“That is a powerful ability.” Zen said. “Whatever the sword strikes creates an impact. But it looks like it takes a lot of ki.” He smirked. “You won’t be able to keep it in that form for long.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to defeat you as quickly as possible!” Zheng said, charging at Zen.

Zen ran straight at him. When he was closed, he dropped to his knees and slid under Zheng’s wide sword swing. In an instant, he stopped and swung around, swinging his short sword with him.

Zheng stumbled around, desperately bringing his sword up to block the oncoming attack. Zen’s blade stopped a few centimetres from touching Zheng’s. He instead swung his blade around and cut Zheng’s shoulder.

Zheng desperately jumped back, swinging his sword to deter Zen from pursuing. Zen tried to follow him, though much more carefully.

Zheng noticed how close Zen was getting. With a shout, Zheng slammed his sword down on the ground. There was a giant explosion that kicked up debris and cracked the ground. Zen crossed his arms and tired to harden his body as much as possible before he was engulfed in the wake of the explosion.

Zheng’s breathing was laboured and his brow was shining with sweat. The blade had returned to its normal form and he could already feel it, seeking out his ki to power itself again but he held it at bay. He doubted Zen could have survived that explosion and he could not even see any sign of the boy through the smoke debris. Then he heard the footsteps, quick, and heading for him.

Zheng relented to the sword and it began using his ki, trying to get into its second form. A silhouette was beginning to form in the debris fog.

“Zen!” Zheng said, facing the oncoming Zen.

Zen threw his blade. Zheng blocked it by raising his own sword. Zen Blade collided with Zenjun and the little ki Zheng’s sword had collected deflected the short blade away. Jumping up, Zen caught his sword in mid air and fell onto Zen swinging down.

Zheng was able to block and their blades twirled around each other. Zheng was trying to quickly feed Zenjun the energy it would need to enter its second form before Zen could disarm him, which the boy was almost about to do.

Zen was finally to disarm him but the sword collected enough energy to deflect his own sword at the last moment. This caused both swords to flying in the opposite side of each other.

With no weapons, they fell back to using their fists. Each boy throwing and blocking punches. Zheng’s body began to vibrate with ki that pulsed out and Zen leapt back away from his aura.

Zheng, wreathed in Shuddering Shield Aura, looked at Zen with a calm expression that was different from the panicked one he had before.

“It’s over, Zen,” he said. “You have no weapon and you can’t beat my Shuddering Shield Aura.”

“Don’t count me out yet.” Zen said gathering a lot of his ki. “I can break through with, Meteor Kick!” He shouted as he leapt up in the air, aiming his attack for Zheng.

“We’ve already done this! You lost then you will lose now!” Zheng shouted. “Shuddering Shield Aura: Focus Point!” He gathered his ki in his hands.

“That was then!” Zen shouted. “Now watch me beat you now!”

His kick shot forward for Zheng whop raised his arms as the two boys screamed before the imminent clash!