Mori took that as his cue to start attacking, he then dashed forward and delivered a punch to Zein's 'unguarded' cheek not knowing that Zein had purposefully let his guard down in order to bait him into attacking. Upon landing the hit on his rival a smirk crept up Mori's face but that smirk turned into confusion when he saw that Zein was firmly rooted on the spot whereas he used enough strength that was to send him flying across the guild and into one of the tables.
"Let us not destroy the guild because of our petty fight," Zein said as he elbowed Mori causing him to lose his balance and delivered a kick that sent him flying out of the guild alongside the guild doors.
The body of a flying Mori narrowly missed a tall slender man, whose hair was snow white in color and wore glasses to cover his light blue eyes. The man was returning from a trip if the luggage he was carrying is any indication. His aloof demeanor was immediately cracked upon seeing the doors of the guild and a body flying through it.
"The expenses!" The man shouted as he heard footsteps approach his position.
"Give it a rest Claude as you can see your hair is already greyed out," Emilia said as she walked up to the man.
"This is my natural hair, you know that and why is leaving them free to rampage a good thing think about the expenses, the e-x-p-e-n-s-e-s," Claude said putting heavy emphasis on the expenses.
"Nevermind that, it's not every day you get to see something as interesting as this," Emilia said as she watched Zein take off from inside the guild and land across from Mori in the deserted street.
"Agreed," Alex said in his childlike voice, causing Claude to turn towards him.
"Who is this young man next to you?" Claude questioned his respectful nature surfacing.
"This is Alex, currently Zein's apprentice," Emilia introduced Alex while ignoring his grumbled comment of 'finally someone with respect'.
"Nice to meet you Alex. I am Claude the Manager of the guild," Claude introduced himself while bowing his head in a respectful manner.
"Nice to meet you too," Alex said as he mirrored Claude's actions.
They were interrupted from their pleasantries by the sounds of metal colliding causing their heads to turn in the direction where they heard the sound to see Zein was blocking out Mori's broadsword but with slight difficulty. Mori raised his broadsword slightly relieving Zein from the pressure but that was short lived as Mori brought down the sword quicker in a wild slash. Zein anticipated the attack hence dodging the attack and used a follow up strike by striking the ankles of Mori causing him to lose balance and trip. Zein, as if he wanted to fan the sparks into a raging inferno, sat on Mori's back and brought out a tea set and served himself hot tea. Zein noisily took sips of tea in his position of comfort on Mori's back clearly mocking the bald man causing his ire to increase by the second something that the audience seemed to take note of.
Zein's actions sparked the reaction he so desired from Mori who was getting angrier by the minute causing Mori to deliver a punch at Zein's legs which were in the periphery of his vision this action caused Zein to slightly raise his legs in order to avoid the gauntlet clad punch from Mori which would have most certainly broken his ankles. Mori capitalised on this and used his superior body advantage to get off the ground and throw Zein off his back causing Zein to backflip and land on his feet while putting away the tea set. Mori launched at Zein at a speed that was untraceable to the normal eye which to Alex at the moment seemed like blurs. Zein ducked the moment he felt a sword aimed at beheading him. Mori grinned at knowing that he had baited Zein to duck and was about to bring his foot to stomp on him. Zein had seen through the tactic and having one of his hands on the ground he went for a vicious mule kick that struck Mori directly in the chin causing a 'crack sound to be heard.
"Oof, that clearly had to hurt," Emilia said while wincing and munching on some popcorn.
"I know right," Alex said as he munched on popcorn as if the event was an interesting scene in a movie.
"You guys are going to make me ask," Claude said looking at the ridiculousness of the situation before him.
"Ask what?" Alex and Emilia titled to the side in confusion as they continued to munch on popcorn.
"Where did you get the popcorn?!" Claude asked while shouting.
"Well…who knows," both Emilia and Alex said cryptically while having a mysterious serene aura around them.
'On second thought, that is a good question. Where did we get this popcorn,' Both Emilia and Alex thought simultaneously.
They were brought out of their musings once again when they had the 'swish' of a blade only to see Zein standing on Mori's blade and aiming at delivering a well timed kick on Mori's face but Mori saw through it and caught the leg of his attacker and threw him away. Zein tried to backflip in order to regain his balance but was met with a punch that connected solidly with his cheek throwing him to the side of another building down the street causing a human shaped dent to appear on the wall.
Zein felt a slash aimed at his chest and he dodged to the side and then elbowed Mori's right arm causing his sword to fall out of his grasp. Mori saw his sword falling and grabbed in a vice grip with his left hand and slashed vertically upward at a speed that was quicker than his previous attacks but Zein leaned to the right away from the path of the sword and in a boxer's stance followed up with a punch to the side of Mori's body specifically where the ribs are located causing one or two to get fractured.
"BERSERKER."
Mori's appearance started to change. His seemingly bald head had a tuft of hair green in color and his whole eye was now green with immense power flowing out of them. He had stripe like markings running down both his eyes. His broadsword had even become larger and longer and was glowing in a green aura but his stance had shifted into a beast's stance as he stood on four but one of his hands was occupied with holding his sword. Mori launched at Zein at a speed that caught Zein completely off guard while throwing a punch aimed at Zein's chest causing him to put up his hands in an X- like fashion to block the attack. The punch met his block causing him to be launched even further than before.
"Damn I underestimated him now I pay the price but that skill is too powerful to not have an insane drawback," Zein mumbled but his mumbling stopped as he saw tiny red mist particles emit from Mori's body.
'Wait this scent smells like blood so the drawback of that skill is depleting his blood reserves and if it continues for long enough it might damage an artery or his whole circulation system in general,' Zein thought in concern.
Zein's body started to glow the blazing red color of an inferno before switching to a deep blue color which coated his fists. Zein launched at Mori but in berserker state Mori could predict the trajectory of the attack as he was fighting out of his primal instinct. Mori dodged the first punch but did not see that it was a feint as his head was met by a flame coated kick that had enough force behind it to force him out the berserker state and consciousness altogether.
"Ladies and gentlemen we have a winner!" Emilia announced, causing the audience that had steadily gathered to cheer.
"For the loser we have a team of medics that will attend to him shortly. Thank you for tuning in folks, we will see you next time," Alex announced as if he was the co-commentator of the match.
People started slowly dispersing on by one until there was no one left but Alex, Emilia, Claude and Zein as Mori had been taken to the guild infirmary to be treated by Dr Ren and his capable team of medics.
Alex decided to go and turn himself in for the day as he was tired and his eyelids were heavy. After saying his goodbyes he went into the guild in order to go towards his room. Shortly after Claude commented he had to go rest because of the trip he had come from. Emilia gestured for Zein who looked slightly worse for wear to follow her to her office.
"Now what is the report on Alex's training?" Emilia questioned once she sat down at her chair motioning for Zein to seat at the other one across from her.
"He is a prodigy in battle. In the last exercise of the day which was to actively dodge me for five minutes, he passed well and even surprised me by using the environment to his advantage and honestly speaking he would have fractured my face from his kick if I hadn't coated it with aura. Honestly speaking he has talent that I have not seen in a long time," Zein said fondly.
"You mean since him," Emilia said cryptically but her body language had become extremely serious.
"Yes since him but I can't wait to see how the future turns out for him as he intrigues me," Zein said in anticipation for the future.
"I wonder who will win the former student or the current student?" Emilia questioned thoughtfully.
"We will leave it up to time to decide," Zein said as he took his leave.