Chapter 90 - Sparring (2)

Elijah removed his armor and was dressed in the navy blue military outfit of the Kingdom of Ansem. His unruly hair made him seem like a savage born for battle, and his well defined muscles seemed to be brimming with hidden power.

On the other hand. Nerun looked quite slim and delicate, even though he was already a 12 year old man. He was quite handsome, almost feminine, and his eyes looked limpid and with no impurity whatsoever.

"Ok. I'll limit my strength to the power I had when we went to the Rando Woods and fought that guard that tried to kill the Young Lady of House Corena. I hope you'll give it your all. Even if my Qi is limited to the level of a Qi Grandmaster, my insight, martial art and techniques are not something that are easily equaled." said Elijah. Actually if he were to fight with the power of a Qi Grandmaster, defeating Praetorians like Captain Apollo or Roger would be an absolute cinch.

"Wait and see Big Brother. I fear that amount of power may not be enough in a moment." replied Nerun.

Nerun quickly assumed a sideways position as he raised his hand, and put his complete focus on Elijah. Unlike Sombra and the rest of warriors he had fought, his brother was a true born genius. Even defeating the prior 13 years old Elijah from 6 years ago would be supremely taxing, what more now that Elijah was a Qi Emperor.

Nerun's eyes started to form a golden halo filled with mystical patterns inscribed in it, and prepared to go against his brother. Elijah also took this bout seriously. He was bent on exerting the maximum potential and limits of his brother to see what was the true power his little brother had achieved in these 6 years of bitter training.

As per his usual style, Elijah was the one who took the lead and disappeared from where he stood with a <Flash Walk>. This move had already become a staple of his fighting style and it caused fear among his enemies. His mastery over the move allowed him to use it with utmost finesse and he could achieve accelerations of up to 4-5 times the regular speed of his current rank. This practically made him one of the fastest warriors, and his fierceness and explosiveness were fed by this one move that in the hands of Elijah made him an absolute terror.

Nerun, however, was quite calm. Elijah appeared to his left side and punched fiercely towards his face with no qualms whatsoever. Nerun had already lifted his forward hand as if he already knew that Elijah was gonna appear right there and parried his attack and diverted the force used by it. Elijah quickly attacked with his other hand as if the two were pulleys and Nerun quickly defended as well. While taking a step back to resolve the force of the attack, nevertheless, his stance was not broken. It was quite stable and balanced, as if it was a dam capable of retraining a torrential river.

Elijah kept attacking with ferocious punches and kicks that looked like a storm that wanted to devour everything. But Nerun was not the least discouraged, nor was he overwhelmed, and he accurately parried each and every attack with no useless moves whatsoever, and in a couple of seconds, he had adjusted to Elijah's rhythm and started to divert some of Elijah's attack power back towards himself.

When Elijah noticed this he stopped attacking, and quickly moved back to a distance of 10 meters. He was pleasantly surprised with Nerun's advance. Nerun's martial art was impressive in defense, and nearly impossible to break. He felt that the energy he used with each attack was diverted constantly, and which made him feel as if he was in a quagmire, and after Nerun started to return some of the force, he needed to retreat otherwise, his extremities could get injured and Nerun could easily take the chance to deliver a fierce counterattack.

"Good lad. But don't get cocky from stopping my first wave. Next one will be much more difficult." said Elijah with a grin.

Elijah once against vanished, but this time he appeared several meters above Nerun and two mighty and pure golden halos appeared around his leg, as he descended with his leg being used as a heavenly axed about to split the earth.

Nerun responded by waving his arms in a circular motion stopping to both sides, and then crossing them in front of the kick, while an energy shield appeared in front of him. This was a half Qi revolution, and the energy accumulated was not nearly as powerful as the original version, but it was enough as a defense barrier.

- BAAM! -

Elijah's kick felt like a mighty explosion, and the barrier barely stopped it before vanishing but this was enough. Elijah was sent backwards, and Nerun after crouching a bit an dispersing the force jumped with unsurpassed speed towards his brother and started to attack him with several fists, palms and kicks that threatened to drown in a deluge.

Elijah was on the backfoot when he stomped towards the ground which caused a small tremble and Nerun's foot could not avoid to lose balance for a tenth of a second. But this was enough for Elijah who approached Nerun and attacked concisely towards his chest. Nerun had to put up a quick defense, and he stepped backwards, but made a quick return with a palm that was filled with two misty looking snakes of Qi that seemed to be ethereal. This was a combination of Qi and Mana, and after Elijah fended off the attack he had to take five steps back before resolving the force.

Elijah was feeling happier and happier. Nerun was full of surprises and so far he had no advantage whatsoever towards Nerun.

"Ok Little Brother. I concede that with the strength of a Grandmaster it would be quite difficult to defeat you. I can see that our fight could actually gor for several rounds, and I would not be able to find a quick advantage. In fact, just any mistake and I would be utterly defeated. However you need to not be conceited. You would be surprised at the many geniuses that exist on this continent. Let's continue. I will now use the force of a Praetorian, the same one I used against Ocelot and the Rhino beastman back when we fought against Sagat." said Elijah.

His demeanor was getting fiercer and fiercer, and once more he started to attack Nerun. Nerun used the Second Form of the Free Flowing Fist, the one he had named unbreakable. However it was clear that while Nerun would not be defeated in the short term, it was quite hard for him to follow Elijah's pace. Fortunately his defensive arts were top notch, so it would still be a while before he would be defeated.

Nerun quickly understood that his brother was a true born warrior, unlike Sombra, who was an assassin and who was not used to fighting in an upfront battle. Elijah, on the other hand, relished to fight with his enemies face to face and the might behind his attacks was quite difficult to endure.

Actually, Elijah was getting more and more shocked. The power he was using was enough to plow through tens, even hundreds of Qi Grandmasters with Nerun's level, but Nerun was not at an obvious disadvantage. That being said, it was obvious that as a Praetorian, Nerun was bound to lose if things did not change. Besides, so far he had only used his powerful martial art moves, and had yet to use any real Qi technique.

As they were fighting Elijah's Qi started to gather around his palm, and three meter-long clowas of Qi were made. These were Elijah's <Lion Claws> which he had used previously and he quickly attacked Nerun with them. However during the combat, Nerun had felt the Qi movement in Elijah's body and he had quickly retreated to a safe distance while chanting some words in his mouth and the Natural Energy of Heaven and Earth condensing in his right hand.

""Χέρι φωτιάς - /Chéri fotiás/" (Fire hand).

Nerun sent the five fireballs towards Elijah who swiped at them with his claws.

- BOOOOM! -

The explosion made Elijah stop for a bit, but he was relentless as he pursued Nerun with his Qi Claws while <Flash Walking>. Nerun was not flustered a bit though, and he quickly conjured another fire hand. This time, however, Elijah could tell that things were different.

"Be prepared brother. This is the new technique I've developed."

<Choro Sancti Ignis> - (Dance of the Holy Fire). Nerun's footwork became more ethereal and unfathomable, and started to clash full force with Elijah, while the fire seemed to be dancing around him and complementing each strike with its power. Even Elijah's claws could hardly resist the power of the flames, ans Elijah felt as if he was being attacked by tens and hundreds of fireballs over and over.

Moreover, Nerun's martial art was quite ingenious, and went in a continuous motion that had close to no weak points. Eventually Elijah's claw was diverted by a fiery palm, something which Nerun was quite to take advantage of, and quickly went into Elijah's inner zone and kicked fiercely towards his chest, using all of the fire power remaining from his technique. There was a great conflagration surrounding Nerun's kick, and just for a moment there seemed to be the figure of a beast taking form along the attack.

Elijah was sent backwards several meters, with a very small burn mark on his chest. His uniform was quite mangled, but otherwise he was actually still ok. After all, he was already a mighty Qi Emperor and the depth of his Qi had already transformed his body, and it was nearly impossible for a lower rank Warrior or Adept to actually hurt him. However the burn mark on his chest, while small and already on the verge of healing, was actually made by Nerun.

If Elijah had not experienced it himself, he would not have believed it. And he even felt that Nerun had not shown all of his techniques and secrets. However, what he had seen allowed him to understand that Nerun could take care of himself even in front of Qi Praetorians. More than likely a powerful Praetorian could probably defeat Nerun, but a weak one would probably be taken by surprise and be defeated.

Of course, it was clear that Elijah had not used his full might, nor all of his techniques. But Elijah was already more than satisfied with these results, and he could not help but laugh boisterously.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA… good. Excellent. You are truly my Little Brother and you have not disappointed me. Your strength is on par with many of the geniuses in the continent if not better. What's more, you have not received the instruction nor the resources they've had but you are quite close to them in terms of power. Good, very good."

Elijah was truly happy for Nerun. He now knew that Nerun had taken great efforts to reach this level of might, and even though it seemed slow, since Nerun was on the verge of a Qi master back when he was 6 years old, Elijah noticed that Nerun's foundation was quite sturdy, and his use of both Qi and Mana was not perfect yect, but was on the way of becoming seamless.

Nerun was also quite happy seeing his Big Brother's reaction. He alone knew that he was threading a difficult path that had no explorer before, and even though he trusted Ego Sum, it would be a lie to say that Nerun was not nervous of his techniques not working, and beting more than he could chew. Now, while there were still several obstacles in front of his own Martial Path, after fighting Elijah he was reassured that the path he had taken was more than feasible.

"What do you think Big Brother? I managed to develop a way of using both energies, Mana and Qi. I do have some issues though, and there are of course some limitations. But the might they produce when conjoined is not something that can be easily described. I feel that I have more possibilities for growth, since my main limitation is actually the use of Techniques, at least right now. I'm also still pondering about the middle and upper ranks of the Warrior / Adept Path."

Nerun then went on to explain his thoughts and told his brother the pros and cons of his power and Martial Arts, as well as the advantages and disadvantages he had noticed when training and using his techniques. Elijah was listening attentively.

Elijah got pensive for a bit and then told Nerun, "Wait for a bit. I want you to come with me and see someone. He might just give us some pointers."