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.

the parry pretty easily, and the sword missed him, hitting the ground. Gravis' saber, which was raised slightly due to the parry, immediately shot forward in a counterattack

the saber to the side with a hand. Jeros' arms moved very quickly, and even though

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

CLANK!

sword, changing its trajectory slightly. While it continued swinging, Gravis crouched under the sword, and stabbed his saber forward again. A slash would take too long.

last time,

SHINK!

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 even though he

his

twice," Jeros heard Gravis shout,

exchange. Someone without tempered muscles had injured their boss. This was unreal. They had seen how the fight went down, so they quickly figured out why. Gravis was moving like he already knew what his opponent would do. Just when Gravis' opponent started an attack, he was already moving as if he

The way you move is very strange, yet it's incredibly effective. With my experience, I can tell that this is not some

the 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 young boy, around 16 years old, had more fighting experience than him? How was that

that Jeros could glean so many things from two simple exchanges. Gravis knew that Jeros probably had a lot of fighting experience. A lot of fighting experience together with tempered muscles.

you learned martial arts before?" Jeros

I would train, I wouldn't even be sure how to answer you. I never trained anything regarding my weapon specifically. I only fight." Gravis narrated. He

that you say it, it also feels more like I am

himself. An opponent who didn't want to kill him and had enough fighting experience was rare. Gravis was using Jeros as a mirror to analyze

full strength before, because I was afraid you would get seriously injured. Now, I'm going to use my full power," Jeros shouted and then shot forward. He swung

in two. Instead of falling back, Gravis ran into the swing. He blocked it