"Did we come here too early?" I asked, looking around in utter confusion.
We arrived at the time the old man asked us to but he was nowhere to be found. A strong surge of power could be felt to my left making me turn around instantly. The man was flying towards me at full speed and grabbed my face.
"Too slow!" He yelled, slamming my head into the ground.
The old man released my head from his grasp and allowed me to bounce up into his next attack. The strength of his kick knocked me all the way into a tree right next to Alice.
"Are you okay?" Alice asked, watching me remove myself from the tree.
I swung my arms as a way to warm them up and brushed the dust off my cloak. I looked over at Alice and gave her a thumbs up as my answer. I unsheathed Genki and fired a beam to launch myself back towards the old man.
"Don't think you have to fight him all by yourself!" Ichiro yelled, running beside me.
"Right!" I answered back.
Ichiro and I both swung our fists at the old man but only felt air. Despite how old he looked, the old man had bent far enough back to dodge our attack. That same grin from before appeared on his face as he clenched his fists.
"Don't think it'll be that easy!" Akio suddenly yelled, making the ground beneath us launch upwards.
I quickly grabbed Ichiro by the collar and used another one of Genki's beams to launch us away from that old man.
I felt someone grab the back of my leg and saw that the old man had somehow grabbed onto me. I threw Ichiro away from me and took the full force of the old man's elbow. Right before I hit the ground, I fired an explosion to move myself away from the old man.
"Stand behind me." Alice said, creating a barrier between us and that old man.
With ease, the old man broke Alice's barrier and went straight after me. His fist went right across my face and made me stagger back a little. Right as I was about to regain my balance, the old man used a left hook to knock me right onto the ground.
Ichiro ran over to the old man and used his body to push the old man away from me. The ground beneath the old man shot up again which flung the man into the air.
"Did you do something to offend him?" Alice jokingly asked, offering her hand to help me up.
I took her hand and got back up on my feet. Despite how frail this old man looked, he was one of the strongest people I've ever met. Just being able to dodge his attacks would be considered a victory for me. Despite how beat up we were, it felt like the fight really was just beginning.