36 Strengthening. (9)

"But considering my physical state at the current moment, it might be advisable that we do this right now. I don't know how much longer I can remain conscious."

Relovan said all this as he walked past Nura and towards the centre of the Training Room. The Adonian stood silently as he looked first at the floor, then up towards the ceiling.

"So you're saying you're confident enough to evade my fist while half-awake, huh Lawman?"

Relovan didn't answer Chief Nura, and turned to face him in silence. Nura joined the Enforcer in the centre, his gaze unmoving and his eyes unblinking. Relovan, who was yet to assume a fighting stance blinked his eyes, which was apparently the signal for the test to start, as Nura pushed off from where he was standing and absolutely barreled towards him. His giant frame moved with almost unbelievable speed, and the distance between the two men was closed in an instant. A cocked right fist was then thrown with such ferocity and venom, it looked to Rhee as if the Chief was actually trying to kill Enforcer this time. Relovan, who still had his eyes closed, simply tilted his head to his right looking rather casual while doing so. As Nura's fist reached his face, Relovan's eyes opened and they both looked at the massive fist as it actually flew past his left cheek. The sound the fist made as it zoomed past was akin to that of an aircraft of some kind flying overhead and once the punch reached its natural conclusion, there was a literal explosion that echoed through the room. Steam rose from the Adonian's fist while Relovan's gaze shifted from the Chief's arm to his eyes, and he looked up at his superior with no fear. In fact, with the huge arm still right by his head, Relovan bent his knees somewhat, placed his left foot in front of his right, raised his guards, and tucked his elbows in by his sides. It was an altered stance to the one that both Nura and Rhee had seen before, and was a far more defense-oriented stance than what he employed even during the fight with the Void Knights all those weeks ago.

Nura said nothing as he pulled his arm back slowly. His stared right back into Relovan's eyes, and took a few steps back, before assuming his own fighting stance – with absolutely no guard and slightly bent knees.

"Apologies, Lawman. It seems I got a little excited and jumped the gun. Let's do this properly."

Relovan said nothing again and the silence persisted as the air and the atmosphere changed. Rhee had completely forgotten about the smell and was completely flabbergasted by what he had just seen. Before he could even process what was happening properly, the Chief leapt into another attack, moving even quicker than he had before. Instead of going for a single straight punch this time however, Nura first threw a left jab, and then a straight right – completing a quick combination. Each punch was snappy, and produced the same sounds as the punch that was thrown while Relovan was supposedly off guard. In the process of the punches being thrown, Relovan stepped back ever so slightly to create a little more space between himself and Nura, and then swayed his torso back, moving his face out of range of the jab, before tilting his head to the side to avoid the straight. Relovan grimaced ever so slightly before shaking his head a bit.

"It still hurts if I don't dodge completely." He said to himself as he focused again.

Nura charged the Enforcer again, and launched a flurry of blows, starting with a one-two, digging the body with a series of left and right hooks, throwing a short uppercut with his left and then a looping overhand right. The Chief mixed the order of the punches up, threw in a few feints, tried to grab the back of Relovan's head to force it into the path of an uppercut – all to no avail. Despite the impressive looking speed and multiple explosions, nothing landed, and after going at it for a bit, Nura stopped throwing punches and took a moment to just watch Relovan was doing. Despite there no longer being any attacks coming his way, Relovan didn't stop moving. His guard was still up, and his torso was moving at speed. Nura watched as the torso went forwards, backwards, to the left and to the right, but with so many course changes, it almost looked like Relovan was connecting a series of dots with his body. Front right to left rear, up to the front left, then diagonally to the right rear. Right rear to the lower side right, diagonally to the upper side left, across to the upper side right, then down to the lower side left.

"…a-an octagram!" Rhee said in disbelief.

Nura dashed towards Relovan once again and immediately went on the attack. He felt as though he had the timing of the movement so he jumped in with the blows. Things didn't quite go as planned however, and despite the speed with which the blows were being thrown with, Nura continued to hit thin air. The quicker he went, the quicker Relovan himself went, however Nura didn't appear to be flustered at all. The two men were moving so quickly, they were a literal blur and mini shock waves pulsed out from them across the Training Room floor. Rhee's clothes actually started to flutter as he bore witness to the sparring match, and he just watched on without even daring to blink – lest he miss something. Nura, who had been throwing punches exclusively, feinted as though he was about to throw yet another one, yet he planted his left foot, twisted his hips and let fly a thunderous kick that was aimed at Relovan's head. The Enforcer had no time to create enough space to evade the kick, so he raised his left fist a little bit higher in order to block the kick. He placed the palm of his right hand against his left forearm to brace it, and when the humongous foot made contact with the arm, the loudest explosion of them all filled the Training Room. A massive shockwave flew towards and hit Rhee directly, prompting him to shield his face for a little while. Upon blocking the kick, Relovan, who had been standing flat footed, suddenly stood on the balls of his feet as he bent over and hunkered down. His arms had been brought back down and tucked in tight to his sides again with his left forearm still steaming.

"Small and compact! Small and compact!"

Relovan repeated this to himself, with both Rhee and Nura noting that he looked like a coiled spring. The Enforcer's right foot buckled ever so slightly before he sprung forth with such speed and force, that the other two were caught by surprise. Nura's personal space was completely invaded and Relovan tucked his arm in like he was fixing to throw a short uppercut. Unfortunately for him, Nura was a bit too tall, which meant he had to improvise. Whilst still in his hunched over position, the Enforcer leapt into the air while simultaneously throwing the punch. Nura, for the first time in a while, found himself tiling his own head to the side to evade a blow. The Human's fist zipped past his superior's head and also produced a loud boom at the end, which only surprised one person in the room. Nura, who had already cocked his left arm and was shaping to throw a counter with said arm, saw something in both Relovan's face and demeanor that made him change his mind and throw the counter with his right hand instead. Relovan, who was still in the process of pulling his right arm back, thrust his left arm down and extended his legs with as much strength as he could muster, as if trying to have both feet on the ground as soon as he possibly could. Unfortunately for the Enforcer though, the moment his feet did touch the ground, the Chief's colossal fist landed square on his face, hitting him flush. There was a massive grin on Nura's face as he connected with Relovan's face, and shockwaves blasted out from the back of the Human's head. Just as it appeared that Relovan's body was going limp, his open hands suddenly clenched tightly, his legs both buckled and his entire body stiffened up. A muffled wail which quickly turned into thunderous roar came from behind the fist that was still pressed against Relovan's face, and purple glow enveloped his body. The glow became brighter and brighter as the roar got louder, and Nura, whose eyes were now large, grinned even more as he himself let out a roar before being enveloped by his own glow. His was golden in colour, and the two glows began to clash, with shockwaves, crescent shaped energy beams and violent gusts of wind emanating from the two. Whilst the clash only lasted a matter of seconds, it felt as though it went on for an eternity, and as one might have guessed, gold was superior to purple and it won. The Chief's feet actually cracked the tiles below and dug into the floor as his fist completed its course, bending Relovan's back all the way, kicking his feet off the ground, then smashing the back of his head hard into the floor, cracking the tiles once more and driving the Enforcer into the floor so forcefully, it was like he was trying to bury him.