Kalen's pov
We kicked off the ground at the same time two black blurs and crashed into each other with a sound like thunder, he had responded to my unarmed charge with one of his own, my fist met his face and his my abdomen, we found ourselves being pushed back by about a foot before resuming our attacks like we weren't supposed to be wincing in pain due to each others blows, due do my hit he was a little off balance so I took the opportunity to send another punch to his face but he used his palm to redirect the force of my blow while straddling me and flinging me over his shoulder but I righted my self mid air and landed on my feet while leaning in a 90 degree angle, with him still holding me I placed a kick that hit him in the temple and made him stumble backwards I crouched and tackled him intending to get him off his feet but the old man didn't budge, he had stabilised himself and used the opportunity to grab me by the waist raising me in the air intent on slamming me into the ground by my head, my hands left his sides and went to the ground, I ended up handstanding, before he could come too I wrapped my legs around his neck and with a pull he was off his feet, while he was in the air I disengaged from him and gave him a heavy kick that sent him flying several metres in the air, I blasted off from the ground and reached him in less than a second, I hammered him with thousands of blows mid air never letting up for a moment but his guard was impeccable so none got through, I faltered for a moment gathering energy in order to give him a heavier blow when suddenly the lights went out and I found myself in the middle of a massive crater, it seemed he had taken the opportunity to strike while I let up sending me flying back down, he was desending furiously with his fist clenched and covered with ki, I was a little pissed with how I had been taken out of the fight so I abandoned my guard in order to counter attack, I spun with a kick dodging his fist and placing the back of my foot into his face, the old man wen flying again thisbtime crashing through multiple trees and forming a trench as he skidded on the ground like a pepple over a lake, he righted himself and stopped only to look up and see my axe kick coming towards his shoulder, he raised his hands and blocked with one and using the other to catch my leg, he spun in place and flung me with bizarre might sending me travelling, I stopped myself before I could accumulate too much damage expecting to see thatvhe had chased me but he hadn't moved from his spot, instead he had taken a martial arts stance and was gathering energy in his fist, I took my stance as well and began gathering my ki, both of us had our eyes closed in concentration intent on not missing our next attacks, and in an instant we charged each other once again this time with copious amounts of ki in our fist as we roared
'Delquim fist style SHOT OF HEAVEN'
"Blanc fist style EXTERMINATION FIST"
our fists collided in an explosion that tore up our surroundings and turned the whole forest white, our colliding ki cascaded around in sharp blasts tearing apart our surrounding and the shockwaves spawned flattened the entire forest and more, when the explosion had died down we were in the middle of an apocalypse, the earth had been scorched so throughly it had hardened and blackened the air was dead as the mana in the atmosphere was vaporised as well, for several kilometres nothing could be seen but a waste land and in that hell we both stood fist to fist, unscaved
"like I thought we won't get anywhere fighting hand to hand"
he said, he had pulled his hand back and begun to dust his cloths that were smoking at the ends
'I know'
I replied, nonchalantly
'we about equal in this regard and I prefer fighting with blades anyway
I said as I looked at what was partially my fault, I had known what would happen if we both went at it after all this type of destruction was common place in fights between blademasters and magic-casters much less Don's but still it astounded me that some people could posses this kind of power while some could barely run the distance we fought without needing breaks in between
'what an unbalanced world'
I whispered
"now let's get to the meat and potatoes"
he said as his weapons appeared from no where, the old man had two spears on his back, both bundled so tightly together with concealment cloth that I could only discern what type of weapons they were and nothing more but I was sure they were both Don class.He reached for them both and began to unravel the weapons, the first spear came loose a red masterpiece of adamantite and red mythril that seemed to catch fire in the air, the waves of power coming from it were undoubtedly Don class, if my sword silvers edge wasn't a durandal(an unbreakable blade) I'd be hesitant to exchange blows with him but just as I was getting ready for his attack he suddenly threw that spear away like it wasn't worth air, he continued to unravel that bundle completely oblivious to my shock but only when the cloth was completely gone did I see why he would treat such a great weapon like that
"this took me great pains to aquire"
he said with it in his hands, truly a weapon unlike any other, it was a seemingly simply spear, long silver shaft with no adornments but I could tell it was made of adamantite whose quality was no less than that of the spear he discarded but that was not the most frightening thing about the weapon, at its end stood a blade, a blade that seemed to suck in all the light in the surroundings blacker and deeper than night with an aura of brilliance, as natural as it was unearthly, it felt wrong yet right for it to exist but I couldn't help but muttering
'Tartarus ore'
I said astounded
"exactly"
he replied, if I was shocked before now I belived even if Virius the dreaded appeared in front of me and started dancing I wouldn't have it in me to be surprised, tartarus ore was that crazy of an object, there were three divine ores who capabilities in the hands of a skilled crafts man were astounding, they were the bone of the mountain adamantite, starfall orichalum and iron god blood mythril which typically spawned in the form of a red liquid, tartarus ore made all of them look like shit, an actual metal of legend said to be the same material used to construct the chains that held the god of light in the infinite void in an age even the dragons with their perpetual life spans and near bottomless memories can scarce remember, a manifestation of darkness folded upon itself so many times it took permanent physical form, weapons made from tatrtarus ore were treated as holy objects even when the black empire was in its prime, even if the shaft of his spear was made from simple wood the fact that it was topped with a foot long blade made of tartarus ore convinced me that my silvers edge wasn't up for the task.
"Come boy"
he said with seriousness in his eyes, I didn't let go of the opportunity and launched my attack, I came down with my blade heavily clad with ki and he brought the tip of his spear to intercept it, although clad with a similar level of ki his defence was definitely casual, my strike met it in what would have been a massive explosion from an outsiders point of veiw but to us who were in the centre our concerns were elsewhere, my face contorted in concentration while his was passive as we clashed, even with superior control I couldn't make him budge this was obviously due to the power of his weapon I pulled back and started a barrage of attacks whose outlines would only be traceable the top percentile of blade masters my strikes cut through air at such a speed that the winds they produced split apart the ground we were on and diced what ever trees were left in our surroundings but he didn't even budge, he continued to repel my attacks with one hand on his spear and only the bare minimum of movement he had activated one of the abilities the ore gave him as such what ever attacks made it through his guard found itself being sucked in the direction of the ore like it possesed its own gravitational field
'annoying'
i muttered, I slashed towards his neck from the side once more and he moved his hand slightly to block it but before his spear reached I pulled my hand back like a cannon my muscles compressed and released as I thrust my blade directly at his throat his other hand gripped the spear as he spun it clockwise diverting my blade towards the ground but before it could reach I increased my speed an spun now with his spear free I aimed a slash his chest he jumped back to dodge disengaging myself from him, he landed a few steps back only to see that his battle clothes had been split nearly in two and a faint line of blood had been drawn
"it seems I misjudged the ki in that last attack"
he said with a little more emotion in his voice than before
'it won't be the first'
I replied letting my vigour loose
"huh"
he seemed unperturbed by my attitude even though he seemed to hold the advantage I seemed confident of victory then flexing his shoulders he said
"now its my turn"
he said as he took a stance with his spear out in front of him
"give me a challenge boy"
with the faint trace of a smile on his face
'you too old man'
i replied with a similar expression