Lightning Is the Only Way

"My name is Jeros. What's yours?" Jeros said as he readied his humongous bone blade. He did a couple of small jumps to warm up and swung his sword to the left and right.

Gravis saw how gracefully and quickly Jeros moved his sword and realized that this fight would not be easy. "I'm Gravis," he said.

"Gravis, a good name! Alright, let's start. Be careful!" Jeros shouted as he shot forward and chopped at Gravis.

'Fast!' Gravis shouted in his mind. Jeros was faster than a low-grade demonic beast. Gravis always had to preplan his actions against such opponents, because his own speed could not compare. Yet, this time, he fought a human with such speed and power, not a monster.

Gravis wanted to test his opponent's strength and blocked the humongous sword with his saber.

BOOM!

Gravis' whole body shook, and the power of the strike buried him up to his knees into the ground, the street breaking in the process. His entire body ached, and he felt like his whole body was churning on the inside.

"Oh, that's impressive," Jeros said with surprise. "I didn't use my full strength, but you still managed to block my strike." Jeros jumped back. "Your muscles are definitely not tempered yet, but you could still block a casual strike from me. That's really impressive."

Gravis jumped out of the hole and limbered up his stiff muscles. After some seconds, where Jeros just waited for Gravis to finish, Gravis readied himself again. "Alright, we can continue." Gravis' eyes narrowed. "Now, this fight will become different."

Jeros laughed loudly. "I'm looking forward to it," he shouted as he shot forward again, doing the same chop as before. Gravis was prepared and raised his saber again in a block. Yet, this time, he was not blocking but parrying. A parry was more challenging to pull off than a block. Gravis had to redirect parts of the enemy's strength to change the course of the attack.

experience, he managed the parry pretty easily, and the sword missed him, hitting the ground. Gravis' saber, which was raised slightly due to the parry,

saber to the side with a hand. Jeros' arms moved very quickly, and even though they were further away from his face than the saber at the beginning,

sharply. Just in time, Jeros' other arm swung the sword diagonally upwards. Even though Gravis' body was already angled very strongly, the sword would still

CLANK!

continued swinging, Gravis crouched under the sword, and stabbed his saber forward again. A slash would take too long. Only a stab would

last time,

SHINK!

this time, things were different. Gravis was sure that Jeros would do the same block again, so he angled the saber in the last moment. Jeros had slapped the saber's sharp edge, and

looked at his bleeding hand

moves twice," Jeros heard

was unreal. They had seen how the fight went down, so they quickly figured

fully now! The way you move is very strange, yet it's incredibly effective. With my experience, I can tell that this is not some martial art. Those moves were created by yourself in multiple serious fights. You definitely have more fighting experience than me,"

boss?' the bandits asked themselves in shock. Their boss was already in his thirties and had fought a lot of battles. His fighting experience was extensive. Yet, a

Gravis knew that Jeros probably had a lot of fighting experience.

learned martial

been taught the absolute fundamentals of weapon usage. Ever since then, I have only fought. If you asked me how I would train, I wouldn't even be sure how to answer you. I never

untouched by human guidance. Now that you say it,

want to kill him

I'm going to use my full power," Jeros shouted and then shot

without Gravis' extensive fighting experience, he would have been hacked in two. Instead of falling back, Gravis ran into the swing. He blocked it with his saber