Ian kept running behind Ellie, not giving her a chance to attack. No matter where she turned to attack, Ian would be gone by then. Every one of her attacks would hit nothing but air and dust.
Ian was having fun messing with her but he didn't want to do this for too long. The fight had to end at some point but he wasn't going to end it soon. Instead, he was going to make a show out of it.
He stopped running around Ellie and launched an attack on her. Ellie was able to react in time to block the strike with her sword but before she could Ian had already moved away.
She tried to go after him but Ian was moving at double her speed. There was no way she would be able to catch up to him. But it didn't matter, he was already turning around to attack again.
This time Ellie didn't have enough time to block the attack. She swung her sword around in hopes of blocking the incoming attack. It didn't seem like it would happen but by some chance, she parried Ian's strike.
Immediately after being parried, Ian ran off to do more laps around Ellie. Just like before, after doing a few laps, Ian rushed Ellie to throw another attack.
This went on for a few minutes, Ian would do a few laps around Ellie before making a sharp turn to attack. However, all of his attacks were blocked by Ellie's sword.
Ellie was surprised by this, she was struggling to keep up with Ian and yet she had managed to block and parry all of his attacks.
All of the attacks weren't even close calls, none of them came even an inch away from hitting her. Some of them didn't look like they were aimed at her, but even so, the thought that one of those strikes would land was enough for her to keep swinging.
Ian during this time had a straight face showing no emotion. It was throwing Kevin and Ellie off. They couldn't figure out what he was thinking, but they knew that he had a plan.
Kevin was able to track Ian and was trying to see what his plan was but his face stayed facing forward. His eyes did not move and his movements were near perfect. Too perfect.
If that were true then he should have been landing his hit. It took him a moment but eventually, Kevin figured out what was happening.
Emmett was confused by the fight as well until he turned his head to see Kevin. He saw that Kevin had a face that said he found out something. He asked him, "Kevin, you're making that face again. The one where you usually figure something out."
"You're right, I did figure it out, but the question now is whether Ellie can figure it out before it's too late."
Emmett had no idea what Kevin meant by that so he was going to ask about it, but before he could, Kevin put up a finger to shush him. afterwards, he said, "Shush and watch closely."
Back at the battle, Ian was still repeating his attacks with none of them landing. But now the attacks have become more frequent. No longer was he doing laps around her before launching an attack. Now he is bouncing off every strike. As soon as his attacks were blocked and parried he would run away and turn to strike from a different direction.
After a few hundred attacks, Ian stopped his barrage and stood in front of Ellie with a mocking smile. Ellie was sweating and breathing heavily as she looked back at him. She was slouching over trying to catch her breath and cool down
During this time, Emmett finally saw what was going on. He had paid too much attention to Ian that he missed the big problem with Ellie.
It took her a moment but once Ellie had finally cooled off, she looked down at her sword. After seeing it, her face filled with a look of shock and horror.
Looking at the sword, everyone could now see that it was severely damaged. It was covered in hundreds of tiny chips. All of the chips were smaller if not the size of a millimeter. However, the sword didn't look like it was going to fall apart at all. It could still hold on for many more of those attacks.
Though the sword was still fine for use, that didn't matter. Ellie slowly filled up with rage. She had three wooden swords which were all given to her by her father and Ian has now broken one and damaged the other. She was already mad from the first broken sword, but now she was reaching new heights of rage. This sword that Ian had damaged was the one she got recently for her birthday and each sword was handmade by her dad. This was the last straw for her. Not only has Ian broken one of her swords and badly damaged the other, but he lied about his power and has also made a fool out of her in this match, there was no going back.
Emmett was still shocked by what he just saw, not knowing what to do, Kevin was also quite surprised by the situation, he would always push her buttons but he would never dare break let alone touch any of her personal belongings.
Ian knew that Ellie would get mad but that didn't matter to him. He had already broken one of her swords and had to tell the truth about his strength. He had already lost so if he was going to fall then he was going to crash and burn. But what happened next was not what anyone expected.
What Ian saw terrified him and as well as Kevin and Emmett. The fear they were feeling was unlike anything they have felt. In front of Ian was not an out-of-control rage-filled Ellie. Instead, she was smiling.
They rarely see her smile. She usually smiles when she is around other people, but she barely ever smiles when she's around them. However, this was no ordinary smile. It didn't feel forced. But what made it terrifying were the dead eyes that went along with it. There was also a calm and angry aura emanating from her giving the other a chill.
With that calm, yet terrifying smile, Ellie went on to say, "Thanks Ian, you have shown me the light. A true foe does not play by the rule and may use whatever dirty trick they can, so I will do the same."
No one knew what she meant by this. They just looked at her with a confused look, but that all changed when they saw what she did next.
She pulled out a small silver bracelet and put it on her wrist. Kevin and Emmett knew what the bracelet was but they didn't know what it actually did. However, Ian knew that it would increase her power but he didn't know by how much. But if she was willing to use it then the power boast must be a good amount.
Knowing that, Ian knew he had to do something so he rushed towards Ellie in hopes of stopping her from using the bracelet. He raised his broken sword to attack but it didn't matter. He was only a few steps away when Ellie activated the bracelet.
As soon as Ian swung his broken sword at her, she already moved away. She was now moving faster than she had before. She was not only faster, but she was also moving at double her normal speed. This was a big shock to everyone.
When Ellie dodged Ian's attack she immediately went behind him and launched an attack at him. But Ian was fast enough to react and block the strike. However, he was not strong enough.
The power behind Ellie's attack was stronger than anything Ian has ever felt. It was stronger than the punches Kevin had thrown at him and it was stronger than any creature he has fought against. If he had to guess, Ellie's power must have gone from 49 to around the upper 80's.
Ian would be able to keep up with her in speed but not in power. He knew he had to find a way to end this battle as soon as he could or else he would not last. Ellie knew this as well so she wasn't going to give him a chance, she launched into a barrage of attacks to suppress Ian from making a move.
With all of these attacks coming at him, Ian didn't have enough time to think of a plan, he was too focused on defense. Before, Ellie would be able to inch him back with her attacks, but now she was pushing him back extremely fast. Every time she swung her sword at him, he would step back once. He was on the ropes now.
Ellie continued her barrage of attacks which kept pushing back Ian but none of them landed. Ian was able to keep up with her attacks which angered her. She thought the power boost from her concentration bracelet would be enough to end the fight but she was wrong. Even though she had the upper hand that did not matter to her. If she could not defeat Ian here then the bracelet would be useless to her in future battles.
With that in mind Ellie chose to switch up her attacks. If she was going to win then she was going to have to use the sword skill her dad taught her. This was a bit disappointing for her, she had hoped to win using normal attacks but now she was truly going all out.
Ian knew that it was only a matter of time before Ellie decided to use her sword skill so he had to do something before that happened.
The next attack that Ellie threw, Ian used to push himself away. H He wanted to get a bit of distance between himself and Ellie. Once he was five meters away, he threw his broken sword at Ellie.
Ellie saw the incoming weapon and was ready to parry it, but then Ian appeared next to her ready to throw a punch at her. Ellie did not expect this and so she immediately put up her arm to block his punch while at the same time, she swung her sword to parry the other attack.
"You sneaky little shit," Ellie said as she pushed Ian away. afterwards, she ran in front of Ian and swung her sword down at him.
Ian had no weapon to block the attack with so he quickly moved his hands up to catch the sword. Right as he was about to catch it though, the sword took a sharp turn and was now coming from a different angle. He had no time to react. He had lost.
Right as the sword was about to hit Ian, Kevin yelled out, "STOP! The battle has ended."
Ellie, upon hearing this, stopped the sword a centimeter away from Ian. She then put her sword away and walked off the training grounds. It took Ian a moment but when he realized that it was over, he dropped to the ground in defeat. He was covered in sweat and was pretty tired, but he was glad that it was over. Now he could rest. However, he knew that it wasn't really over. Once he got home, Ellie would rip into him again.
The others were grouped up talking about the battle, so after a few seconds, Ian got up and joined them.