Confrontation (Part 6 - Combat Ground)

Everyone in the Central Command was gathered at the combat training ground to see the exhibition fight between the Strong Arm Alchemist, Colonel Alex Louis Armstrong and the fourth Zhansi of Xing, Yang Gong. Fuehrer Grumman was sitting inside a shed along with Ling on special chairs, and all the 3 Generals present there were sitting beside him. On one side of the ground, Colonel Armstrong was preparing for the fight by wearing his gauntlets. And on the other side, the fourth Zhansi, Yang was adjusting his scabbard with the sword inside it. Alex had transmutation circle on his gauntlet to perform alchemy, and Yang had transmutation circle on the sword's handle to perform alkahestry.

To support Yang, all the Xingese except Ling were standing on Yang's side, cheering for him. Ling was also cheering for Yang even though he was sitting among the most powerful figures of Amestris. On the other side, Alex had the advantage of the home ground. He was being cheered by the whole crowd present there.

After a few minutes, both the fighters walked toward each other to the center of the ground and maintained some gap between them. Both the fighters were looking toward each other. And in the meantime, Alex said, "Sorry for what happened earlier."

"The mistake was mine as well. I shouldn't have pushed you so hard, Colonel Armstrong," Yang responded.

"Mr. Gong, pardon me for asking this, but do you have any title? I heard you have the same status as a state alchemist in your country," Alex asked.

"We don't have any titles. We just have ranks among the 12 Zhansi," Yang replied.

"And you are fourth if I am not wrong?" Alex questioned.

Yang answered with a, "Yes."

"Then I don't need to hold back," Alex smiled.

And in the meantime, Grumman spoke on the mic to begin the fight. With that, Alex stripped off his shirt, because of which every Xingese's eyes were widened. "WHAT IS HE DOING?" Yin shouted from the audience.

Yang was also confused. He looked at Alex and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I am going to show you the strength that has passed down the Armstrong family line for generations. Now get ready to taste it," Alex replied and rushed toward Yang. He started raining punches on Yang. Witnessing such an intense beginning of the fight, the crowd started cheering for Alex. And because of the sudden move, Yang didn't get time to process what was happening and started dodging those attacks.

Yang had to struggle to dodge Alex's attacks. While dodging, he thought, "He is very fast for a man of his size."

When Alex's punch slowed for a brief moment, Yang got an opening and quickly slid under the legs of Alex, and poked the back of the knee with his scabbard. That move made Alex fall on one of his knees, and as soon as Alex fell on his knee, he punched the ground which made a protrusion from the ground between Yang and him, due to which Yang had to back down. Alex then turned around and looked at Yang who was surprised. Alex then punched the protrusion made by him, and some projectiles having the shape of Alex's face started flying toward Yang. Watching those projectiles coming toward him, Yang used his scabbard to defend himself. And as soon as he was finished off with the projectiles, he saw Alex was right in front of him. Alex was landing a punch with his spiky gauntlet, without leaving any chance for Yang to defend himself. But somehow, Yang used his scabbard to block the attack, however, the force from Alex's punch threw him to a little distance. Yin couldn't believe that her brother was being dominated by a state alchemist. She exclaimed, "A mere state alchemist cannot defeat my brother!"

Meanwhile, Alex maintained some distance from Yang and didn't attack him after giving him such a hard time for a while. He teased by asking, "Am I a tough opponent for you?"

Yang stood up properly and smiled. He then pointed his scabbard that contained his sword toward Alex and said, "Looks like I also need to use some of my alkahestry."

Alex ran toward him and again started raining punches. This time Yang quickly dodged all the attacks and made some distance between Alex and him. He then threw a kunai knife toward Alex, but it missed. Watching that, Alex responded, "If you are trying to hit me with those knives, you have to try a little hard."

Soon after that, Alex then created many pillars using alchemy which made Yang's movement difficult. Alex then punched some of the pillars to throw projectiles at Yang, and while Yang was busy in blocking and dodging the projectiles, Alex created a semicircular wall behind Yang to trap him, and he was successful in that. Now that Yang was trapped, Alex rushed toward him to land a punch, but before that, Yang threw a kunai knife between him and Alex and quickly stuck his scabbard on the ground. With that, a wall protruded between him and Alex.

However, the wall couldn't stop Alex. He punched the wall and created some projectiles flying toward Yang's direction, but when he demolished the wall, he saw Yang was not present in that direction, and all the projectiles hit the wall that he made to trap Yang. Suddenly, Yang threw two more kunai knives in a different direction, away from Alex.

Fuehrer Grumman, who was sitting, and enjoying the fight, couldn't understand what was that Yang was trying to do with the kunai knives. "Why is he throwing knives on the ground and not at Colonel Armstrong?" He asked.

Roy who was sitting beside him, replied, "I think he is going to use alkahestry."

And Ling added after Roy finished by saying, "Yes, in fact, you are about to see a spectacular display of alkahestry right now."

In the meantime, Alex and Yang were fighting at close range. Yang couldn't afford a single punch from Alex, because that would end the fight then and there. He was avoiding all the attacks by dodging and maintaining distance, instead of just blocking them. He then threw one more kunai knife in some other direction. Watching that Alex understood what Yang was trying to do. "I guess, you are going to use some big alkahestry attack."

Yang smiled and replied, "Your guess is absolutely correct."

Yang then stuck the pointy end of his scabbard on the ground, and sparks started appearing on the scabbard as well as on all the kunai knives placed by Yang at different locations. Now, Alex could see that he was at the wrong location where he was standing. All the kunai knives were placed at a certain location to form the necessary points of a transmutation circle which Yang had drawn while moving in the fight. Yang was channeling the energy of his alkahestry to the location where Alex was standing. Now that Alex had realized it, he tried to run and get out of the circle, but he was too late to do so. Suddenly, lots of hands made of the earth came out of the ground within that circle, and they were moving a bit flexibly than the rigid hands which Alphonse constructed using alchemy. Yang was also able to lengthen and shorten the length of those hands from a distance.

Now many earthen hands were about to attack Alex. Alex was able to defend himself, but he was using mostly his strength at that time to destroy the hands because everything was happening so fast that he was unable to think of something else. And every time he was destroying the hands, the hands were being recreated in an instant. Everyone in the crowd was amazed to see the view, initially, they were rooting for their local hero because he was dominating, but now the tides had changed. Alex was struggling to defend himself. While he was destroying the hands, a big earth hand appeared from right below him and threw him in the air to a few feet. Alex was now in midair, and getting that opportunity, Yang jumped and kicked Alex on his belly.

Because of everything happened at that moment, there was dust everywhere, and after a few moments everyone heard something big fell on the ground. Everyone, even Yang was under the impression that it was Alex who fell on the ground, and they were not entirely incorrect about that. Soon when the dust cleared, Alex was standing like a mountain as if nothing happened to him. He was standing in attacking stance, smiling at Yang, and Yang along with all the Xingese were surprised. "How can you be unaffected by that attack?" Yang asked.

"Well, it's because of my strength and endurance, that has been passed down the Armstrong family line for generations," Alex replied with a starry smile.

Both of them were again ready to fight, but before they could start it, Grumman interrupted, "That's enough. Colonel Armstrong, the fourth Zhansi – Yang… it was a spectacular fight which you two showed out here." He clapped to appreciate them, and the whole crowd clapped and cheered to praise their performance. Alex thanked the crowd and Fuehrer. After that, he walked closer to Yang and shook hands.

While shaking hands, Yang said, "So, it's true what they say about state alchemists after all."

"I also wonder what you can do with your sword," Alex stopped shaking hands.

"If I had taken out my sword, then it would have been a bloody fight," Yang said while keeping his scabbard back on his waist.

"Thank you for not doing that," Alex continued, "and for everything else…," He hugged Yang with a surprise and said, "This is the love of the great Armstrong family."

He was hugging Yang too tightly, pressing him against his bare sweaty chest. Yang was annoyed because of that, but he was unable to get out of Alex's big arms. Moreover, the crowd was laughing looking at the scene which made Yang yell, "LEAVE ME."