Wind and powerful shockwaves were felt throughout the forest, stretching out to nearby towns with a resonating boom as weapons clashed.
Birds of different kinds eloped with their younglings out of their respective trees in an attempt to escape the harsh and violent impact. Trees fell with loud thuds as the two males swung their weapons at each other, both intending to mow down the other without restraint.
Left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, the brown-haired man thrust the sharpened edge of his spear at him. The winter blue-haired teen moved in the opposite directions, dodging the man's attack with superhuman precision and accuracy. The battle was fierce, equal to the battle that was simultaneously taking place at the central town.
Toshirou jumped back, giving space between him and the burly man that was his opponent. Holding his black wakizashi blade in his left hand, and his dark katana in his right, he lunged again at Seungho.
Seungho spun his spear around with both hands, blocking the incoming attacks dished out by Toshirou.
Amid the attack, Toshirou quickly switched his hands on his weapons, now holding the wakizashi blade in his right hand and the dark katana in his left. The sudden change caught Seungho off guard. Toshirou instantly closed the gap between them, using the katana to hit the spear away and the wakizashi to slash Seungho on his left arm.
Seungho flexed his arm, reforming the muscles in them and covering up the injury Toshirou's attack had formed. All this was done in an instant.
Almost immediately, Toshirou discarded the katana into a blue circle and held Seungho's arm. He hardened the blade of the wakizashi sword with divine energy and slashed off Seungho's arm.
Toshirou kicked him across his chest, sending him flying into the bark of a large tree.
"*Ghurrgh*" Seungho spat blood as his back slammed painfully against the tree.
Walking towards Seungho, he retrieved his katana from a blue circle in the air and held it in his right hand, switching the wakizashi to his left.
Seungho stood upright, seemingly numb to the pain that exuded out of his right arm, and moved towards the direction of his foe. He picked up his spear from the ground and stood before Toshirou, missing an arm too.
Holding up the cut-off arm, Toshirou stared at it for some seconds, contemplating on what to do with it before throwing it away like the trash it had become.
"You, what are you?"
"Why do you ask me such a question?" Toshirou shot back.
"You seem to be a combination of many things, contradicting yourself at the same time too. You have the stance of a samurai, wielding both a wakizashi and a katana, but yet you're acclimated towards using a broadsword. You speak like a boy who wishes to avoid unnecessary conflict, but yet you do not hesitate to take my arm immediately it was reformed. Your motions are lazily and laxly executed but yet your reactions are befitting of a gifted warrior. Just what are you, Aosaki Toshirou?"
"Human would be the most appropriate answer, but I'm afraid I would be lying to myself if I said so."
"Befitting of you," Seungho replied.
"I'm afraid so. Besides that, doesn't it hurt? Your arm?"
"Pay no attention to it. The pain is merely a trivial matter."
"Is that right? Makes it easier for me then."
"Come!" Seungho said, taking up his spear with his left arm and pointing its sharpened head at Toshirou.
The blue-haired male lunged at him with both swords in hand. With incredible power the two combatants clashed, sending shockwaves throughout the forest.
Toshirou slashed the wakizashi at his chest, but Seungho was quick and used the wooden handle of the spear to block the attack. Changing his grip on the spear in his left arm, Seungho swung the sharpened head at Toshirou's neck. He took a half-step back, dodging the blade by a hair's breadth, and followed up with a swing of his katana at Seungho's torso, letting go of his hand and swapping it almost instantaneously, holding the wakizashi in his left and the katana in his right.
It was unexpected but Seungho reacted to it just fine. He turned the spear horizontally, preventing the katana from making contact with his torso. He kicked Toshirou on his stomach, making a clean impact that pushed him back. Seungho leaped into the air, raising his left arm and spinning his spear simultaneously. With a mighty force, he brought the spear down on Toshirou's head.
Toshirou let go of both his swords and moved his head to the side, dodging the attack narrowly.
'He's fast.'
Seungho came down beside him, and in a series of quick movements, thrust his spear at Toshirou repeatedly, making note of the fact that he was stripped of his weapons.
Toshirou didn't have the time to grab another sword and simply settled for fighting barehanded.
Using the back of his wrist, he blocked the spear and jumped back. Seungho followed him and used the wooden end of the spear to aim for Toshirou's neck.
'This guy, he really is trying to kill me?'
Raising his right arm, Toshirou guarded against the attack, but the impact was still well enough to send him sliding back a few meters.
Skidding on the ground, Toshirou jumped backward, placed both his hands on the earth, and flipped around, landing on his two feet. Toshirou wasted little to no time as he immediately rushed at Seungho.
Seungho thrust his spear at him but he ducked while running, taking a hold of the spear's handle and used the momentum to raise himself up. Toshirou spun round and a roundhouse kick met Seungho square in the face. He immediately followed up with another kick with his left leg, took hold of Seungho's shoulder blades, and twisted himself around his neck like a python on the body of its enemy, he captured Seungho's head in between his legs and threw him overhead.
With a loud thud, Seungho fell to the ground, rocks and dirt splaying around as he landed.
Lying on his back, he looked up to see Toshirou in the air, holding a black broadsword by the hilt with both hands over his head. Before the broadsword could make contact with his own head, he quickly rolled over to his feet, and a powerful eruption accompanied by the sound of the ground crashing met his side.
'What a way to fight! If that hit my head I would have died!'
From the rubble, Toshirou walked towards Seungho, dragging along the broadsword on the ground as he came closer to him.
"You're not going to beat me with one hand, Seungho. Not even the greatest of martial artists and swordsmen use one arm to fight."
"Then it's a great thing I'm not one of the greatest martial artists or swordsmen," Seungho replied to him, holding up his spear in defense.
"No, no, you misunderstand me. If the greatest of martial artists refused to use one arm to fight and you think you can, you're doomed."
"Understandably so, but I'll have you know that I am not an ordinary man."
"That much I figured."— Toshirou stretched out his right arm, pointing the broadsword at him— "Show me the true strength of your divine weapon. I didn't come here to debate on how a warrior should fight, but I promise you, I will crush that power of yours that blinds you."
"Are you sure you want to provoke me, Aosaki Toshirou?"
He narrowed his eyes at Seungho. "Come over here to find out."
Seungho took a deep breath and relaxed his body. A brown aura enveloped him and his hair flared upwards. The air around changed, becoming dry rather than the humid temperature the forest was supposed to have.
'What is this?' Toshirou said, holding the hilt of his blade tightly.
It happened suddenly. Seungho's handicapped arm reformed itself. His right arm that was cut off regenerated, the blood dried up and his muscles reset themselves.
It was bewildering to Toshirou. Seungho had completely regenerated his right arm!
The man lifted his arm, clenching and unclenching his fist to get used to the new appendage.
Seungho placed his spear vertically into the ground and gripped it with his two hands. The brown aura that surrounded him increased tenfold and sent powerful gusts of wind that tore down the trees around them from their roots.
Toshirou covered his eyes with the back of his palm to prevent dust and sand from blinding him.
"Evolve, Log Adeul!"
{
The sound of the snapping of a twig drew Toshirou's attention to his environment. It started slowly, a gradual process, and then he saw it. Bits of the ground broke off, floating towards Seungho's spear, and attaching themselves to it. It started in bits, and then in large quantities. Huge chunks of rock and stone attached themselves to Seungho's arm and spear, like iron drawn towards a strong magnet.
Seungho lifted his spear off the ground and slammed it back down with a mighty thud that dispersed the breeze around them.
Before his very eyes, Toshirou saw something that reminded him of a character in an anime he loved back home.
Seungho's right arm had been completely transformed, from his shoulder to his fingers. The rocks had melted together to form a smooth, thick layer of hardened grey armor around his arm. A broad white line ran in the middle from the tip of his right shoulder and spread out like branches to each of his fingers on his right arm. His spear was also gone, and two rods in the shape of an 'X' were glued to his back.
"Here I come, Aosaki Toshirou!"
He vanished.
In shock, Toshirou's eyes widened. His irises moved everywhere, trying to find Seungho's location.
'Teleportation? No, it's not! But where the hell is he?'
Toshirou furrowed his brows and grit his teeth. Pulling out his broadsword from a blue circle, he turned around, using the surface area of the sword, and blocked the armored fist that aimed for his heart!
The collision of the two objects caused the ground below them to shatter, making them sink into the earth.
'Instinctive reaction?' Seungho thought.
Seungho used his left arm to grab Toshirou by the hair, and smashed his knee into his face, sending the blue-haired male flying. He jumped and came down in full force on Toshirou's midsection. The teen coughed up blood at the brutal hit to his torso, his head continued to scrape along the ground with Seungho on top of him.
Seungho raised his armored right hand and threw it at Toshirou's head. The teen lifted both hands to guard against the attack but the power of the attack was still strong enough to rattle his skull. Toshirou, amid the pain and attack, being quick-witted, took a small dagger strapped to his trousers, flipped it around, and stabbed Seungho deep at the back of his knees.
He flinched, but that was enough for him. Toshirou felt him lose his footing just a bit and wrapped his right leg around the leg he stabbed. He dodged a punch dished out by Seungho, placed pressure on his right leg, causing Seungho pain, and punched him straight in the groin.
Seungho's face was contorted in inhuman pain and Toshirou threw him off his torso. The groin was the weak point of every male human after all.
As Toshirou threw him off, he retaliated by flinging throwing knives at Seungho. The knives connected with his thighs and chest. Blood trickled down from the wounds the blades created.
"Hah... Hah... Hah..." Toshirou panted, trying to regain his energy with each breath.
"And now you fight like a ninja, Aosaki." Said Seungho as he pulled out from his chest, the last of the five knives thrown at him.
"I don't know if you're trying to mock me or compliment me," Toshirou replied with a smirk, still breathing heavily.
"You can flatter yourself, it is a compliment. But,"— Seungho narrowed his gaze at him— "where did you get those knives from?"
"Hah... Hah... Haha... Want to find out? I could show you again!" Toshirou threw another knife at him but Seungho did not react. The knife simply stuck to the right side of his chest, like a dart at the center of a dartboard.
"As I suspected," Toshirou said, "that armor on your right arm, it's connected to the right side of your chest too, but unlike your arm, the armor doesn't form a physical outer layer on your chest. The armor becomes thinner and thinner as it extends from your right shoulder to your chest. To be precise, the armor doesn't protect your skin, it forms a kind of shield-case directly covering your heart."
Surprised and yet distraught, Seungho asked, "How did you know?"
"The first time when I threw the knives at you, you bled. I know the exact force I used to execute the attack, meaning the knives should have penetrated deep into your heart, but, the knives barely broke the skin and caused only a small trickle of blood to flow, in contrast with your thighs and the left side of your chest where the knives penetrated deep inside, severing your arteries and even hitting the bone marrow. The knife I threw just now at the right side of your chest only confirmed it for me."
Seungho did not respond, he simply stared at the ground with dark eyes.
The clouds began to darken, drip-drops of rain fell to the land, the pattering of tiny raindrops adding a melancholic atmosphere between the two men. Gradually, the rain fell harder, the flashing of lightning and the sound of rumbling thunder followed, and heavy rainfall sealed the deal.
Both males said nothing as their hair and clothes were being soaked by the rain. Lightning flashed above them but neither moved a muscle.
"I'm tired... of all this." Said Seungho, after a long while.
"I wish I could say the same," Toshirou replied, looking at the ground with an expressionless gaze.
"I have no right to ask you of this, not after I dishonored myself and broke my end of the bargain, but please, after all this, after my life has been taken, I beg you, please, protect my daughter. She's the only one I can afford to let live."
It took minutes for Toshirou to reply, before saying, "Sorry, but I refuse."
"I see," Seungho grit his teeth, then relax his body with a heavy sigh. "I understand."
He bent his body forward and set his left leg in front of him, drawing back his armored right hand. His right arm glowed with bright white energy. The wind gathered in the clenched fist of his right hand, forming a powerful and massive compression of energy in it.
Likewise, Toshirou raised his broadsword over his head with his right arm. Winter blue energy surrounded the blade and it vibrated violently as energy bubbled up within it.
"This will end it all, Aosaki Toshirou."
"Likewise, Seungho."
"Log Adeul;" said Seungho.
"This is the end;" Toshirou spoke also.
At the same time, they both shouted at the top of their lungs in the deafening rainfall, "Whiteout!!!/Hollow!!!"
The result of the collision was the most powerful blast of energy the village of Min-ji had ever seen.