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.

hitting the ground.

very quickly, and even though they were further away from his face than the saber

with the flow of the attack. His whole body angled to the side sharply. Just in time, Jeros' other arm

CLANK!

the sword, and stabbed his saber forward again. A

last time, Jeros slapped

SHINK!

he angled the saber in the last moment. Jeros had slapped the saber's sharp edge, and even though he managed to block the attack, his

at his bleeding hand

same moves twice," Jeros heard Gravis shout, who had

down, so they quickly figured out why. Gravis was moving like he already knew what his opponent would do. Just when

"Hahaha! I believe you 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

thirties and had fought a lot of battles. His fighting experience was extensive. Yet, a

could glean so many things from two simple exchanges. Gravis knew that Jeros probably had a

martial arts before?"

think so. I have only 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 trained anything regarding my weapon specifically. I only fight." Gravis narrated. He had just noticed how weird that actually

you say it, it also feels more like I

he fought more with Jeros, he would learn more things about himself. An opponent who didn't want to kill him and had enough fighting experience was rare. Gravis was using Jeros as a mirror

careful, Gravis! I didn't use my full strength before, because I was afraid you would get seriously injured. Now, I'm going to use my full power," Jeros

the swing. He blocked it with his saber and jumped a little. The swing of the sword pushed the saber along, as well