"Nowhere left to run~," She smiled warmly. How ironic.
As the five sword intent closed in on Long Ren, he pumped his fists together, forming a layer of qi to act as a gauntlet with claws forming on each of its knuckles.
A beastly roar erupts as he pulled his fist apart, readying his stance. Nid taught him this when she saw him lacking any compatible weapons.
It is but a cheap trick, but a quite useful one in scenarios such as this.
Long Ren punched the ground, destroying a great chunk of the arena tiles, and swung it towards the five sword intent, only to immediately get decimated.
No matter, the split second he got out of it was enough to dodge and dashed toward Yun Ning. Her ice aura or whatever completely suppressed his bullets, making them, unfortunately, useless.
Though he'd love to find a way to counter that as soon as possible, finding that right now would be impossible. So, he went for the second-best option, fighting her head-on.
The arena protected them from life-threatening injuries, hence his boldness to do so.
He wanted to test his hand-to-hand combat skills with a sword wielder. It would provide him with some much-needed experience.
Seeing Long Ren dashing forward, Yun Ning grinned even harder, her smile deformed and her eyes glimmered with a crazed look.
"Come!" She shouted, sheathing her katana near her left waist, eyes focused on Long Ren.
Her hand gripped her katana's handle as purple ice began to surround both of her palms, forming a glove.
She followed his move and dashed forward. They now stood barely three meters apart, ready to clash.
Her katana slowly swung itself out towards Long Ren's fist as his fist stretched towards her body.
The purple glow of her unsheated slash soon met with his clear but distorting qi gauntlet.
*CLANG*
"Ugh.." Long Ren groaned. Her katana bloodied his fist as he grabbed onto it. His pseudo qi gauntlet is now pulsating on and off.
He parried her katana off, launching him backward while sending another punch.
Yun Ning gathered her stance and stood her ground. She took a step back as his fist connected with her katana.
She swung her katana once more, only to miss as Long Ren space stepped away.
"That's very annoying, you know that right?" Yun Ning said. Her face frowned, not knowing how to counter his blink. Sure, his cooldown helped, but she can't capitalize on it that much.
He's very slippery, but that's about it. Her aura nullified his best ranged offensive capabilities, at least as far as she's concerned, and his melee prowess can't quite match hers.
"As if your aura dampening my senses isn't" Long Ren retorted back. His body felt very sluggish whenever he neared her. He really didn't like going melee with her.
Sounds of clashes resounded throughout the arena as the night slowly settles in, Long Ren and Yun Ning had clashed for 2 hours now, continuing their normal game of tag.
Bruises covered their body as they lay on the ground, panting heavily. Though, it seems like Long Ren's body had way, way more than what Yun Ning had.
As they stare into the glimmering night sky, Long Ren tilts his head towards Yun Ning's figure and looked at her, his gaze conflicted.
"So, a draw?" Long Ren asked.
Yun Ning tilts her head towards Long Ren, her eyes showed a confused look. "You really thought that concluded as a draw? Look at your bruises and look at mine, you only ran away, while I do all the hard work. Hmph!"
Long Ren showed a wry smile. "Well, my strategy was to run away and shoot bullets at people, but who would've thought that you're my perfect counter…" he said, his face showing a depressed smile.
He did not expect to meet someone who, even though unintentional, already developed a perfect counter to his bullets.
And there he thought he could match her even if she didn't suppress her cultivation, what a joke.
"Although it made sense, it's still annoying to deal with!" she said. Her expression started to mellow down as her battle junkie side slowly hid.
Realization slowly dawned on her as she hid her face in embarrassment. She started to whimper, remembering all the stuff she did and say when they fought.
…
Long Ren saw her embarrassed face and teased. "Who would've thought that you're such a battle junkie,"
"Sto…stop, I don't want to talk about it." She said, still hiding her face with her blue Katana, she shook her head, causing her ponytail to sway around, prompting Long Ren to giggle even more. She looked too cute doing that.
Long Ren looked at her and relented, "I'll consider it my loss, I can't run away forever with your ice arena being there and all."
He really did not have any means to defeat her. Other than trying to deplete her energy, nothing else seemed to work.
He only realized the worse part after 1 hour in. She seemed to have more stamina than him.
She looked at him and nodded. "Hmph, at least you know now." She said, showing off a smug smile. Her head held up high, taunting him.
Long Ren's face twitched, only to laugh together the very next second.
...
…
Diona and Xing Lao tended to both of their student's wounds as they left the arena. After reaching Long Ren's home, they all parted ways, Xing Lao went towards his home while Diona and Yun Ning left together.
Diona and Yun Ning walked together side by side, returning to Diona's own peak. The fire runestones surrounding them illuminated their ways, acting as lamposts, as silence permeates between them
Yun Ning hummed, happy she found her friend once more and especially so when he proved to be a good match for her. Though his fighting style may seem cowardly, it serves as a good learning experience for her.
She would be more prepared to face some tricky and rat-like opponents now, and with Long Ren as a benchmark, most of them would be unable to flee.
After all, not just anyone could dodge her Katana strikes while also knowing how to blink away.
Sensing her student's good mood, Diona closed their distance and said. "So that was the boy you found."
"Um, he's pretty unique, right? I knew he was special when we first met." Yun Ning said, her eyes showing a happy smile as she talked.
Diona's mouth twitched. "If by special you mean lazy and cowardly, then you're correct."
"Pfft, although true, at least he's still stronger and faster than anyone else in the clan," Yun Ning said, defending Long Ren.
When she met Diona and got taken as her student, Yun Ning decided to challenge everyone in the clan around her cultivation level.
No one seemed to even come close to standing against her and thus, she felt disappointed.
It was then that she remembered Long Ren, a unique space cultivator, as well as a personal disciple of another grand elder. He must be strong. And he proved himself to be so.
Diona peeked at this cheerful student of hers as if she had just gotten a Christmas present in the form of a rival.
Her small smirk slowly contorted into one wide smile. 'About time, huh.'
…