11 Bragalia

"Bragalia." a young handsome man furnished in armor that would make even high-ranking adventurers drool said to a man.

The man was very tall - about 7.5 ft. He had a cloak that had covered his entire body and his head was hidden behind a hood.

The man looked nothing other than suspicious. But even then, no person would ever arrest him or do any harm; as the handsome man next to him was the man named Tri Zel, The Phoenix Blade.

He was a 3 star Gold-rank adventurer, a rank many people would burn entire cities to reach.

He was considered to be superhuman among superhumans. He could single handedly destroy entire towns on his own, or even cities if they were on the smaller side.

After all, a single Gold-rank adventurer was considered to be about as strong as 1000 men, never mind the 3 stars - who were equal to 5,000.

"What?" the tall man, or, Bragalia, asked the handsome man, or, Tri.

"Wanna fight again!?" Tri said excitedly.

Even though Tri knew that he was stronger than most people in the world, he also knew that the person in front of him was as strong as a 3 star Platinum-rank adventurer - the highest rank a normal human could physically reach.

He was a person, no, a monster that could fight against 25,000 men and still come out on top. If his true strength - and nature - was known, many countries would send their entire armies in an effort to slay or recruit him.

Bragalia sighed, "You know that I am stronger than you, right? And there's no way I would want to hurt my friend."

Tri hearing that was very happy; but his disappointment had overpowered his happiness, "Ah, c'mon. I really want to reach the Platinum-rank; I am very close to it!" he complained.

"Aren't friends supposed to help each other out!" he said in a sad and disappointed voice.

Bragalia sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, "You really are a 3 star Platinum-rank in making people guilt trip, aren't you?"

Tri hearing that smiled, "Yep! It's something I learned from my father and have learned and practiced it since childhood. I am even better at than I am with my sword." Tri laughed.

Bragalia sighed a heavy sigh, "Fine, I'll fight you." he answered, "But, only with my hand, ok?"

"Sure. I mean, it's not like I can even beat you then, monster." Tri said as he had an ear to ear grin.

Bragalia smiled, "Fine, human!"

With that as a signal, both of them jumped backwards.

Tri unsheathed his prized sword, Phoenix's Ember. It was a sword which he had gotten after he had slayed a phoenix, and also the main reason for his title.

Bragalia just looked at Tri, he didn't even move; as he already knew that whatever he did, currently, Tri would never be able to even scratch him.

He was just that much stronger than a 3 star Gold-rank adventure.

Tri was focusing to his utmost limit, while Bragalia was just sitting there waiting for it to end.

Tri wasn't angered by it, as he knew that if Bragalia wanted, he could kill Tri before he was even aware about it. Plus, just being able to fight Bragalia was something Tri was very happy about.

After all, in this entire world there were only about about 3,450 people who were Platinum-rank or as strong as one.

But, that's only after including all the platinum, if you only looked for 3 stars, you may only find about 40 people that are that strong.

"Hya!" Tri jumped some meters in the air as he came down with a downward slash.

He had made sure that he was using every single bit of the force, as he knew that if he didn't, he wouldn't even be able to scratch Bragalia.

Bragalia just looked at the sword calmly.

The downward slash was about 2 cm away from his head, but, Tri knew that this hadn't meant that he had won. After all, he had experienced this every single time they had fought.

"Gyaa!" Tri had been punched in his solar plexus with such force he was sent flying some couple meters.

It was very painful, but, considering how many times he had already experienced it, he was quickly able to get a hold of himself.

Tri was crouching on the ground as he looked at Bragalia, he was coughing a little, he then laughed, "Man, I can't believe you have used the same move 10 times... and I still can't dodge it!"

Tri knew why he couldn't dodge it.

Even though he knew where the attack was going to come from, Bragalia was just that fast. He couldn't even react fast enough for it.

And even in the course of their last 10 battles, the only improvement Tri was able to make was to not get knocked out immediately.

"Do you still want to continue?" Bragalia calmly asked Tri.

"You bet your ass I am going to continue, especially since this is the first time I wasn't knocked out!" Tri was excited.

And with an ear-to-ear grin, Tri again charged at Bragalia.

Bragalia couldn't do anything other than breathe a huge sigh of annoyance; after all, he knew that Tri fighting him was pointless, he was just too weak for Bragalia to even consider him a worthy foe.

But, he was someone who was very dear to him; so seeing Tri doing something pointless was a little tasking for him mentally, as well.

Tri also knew the same, but, he was little bit too impatient about getting to Platinum-rank.

After all, Bragalia did know that it was one of Tri's many dreams he had once had as a kid.

"Hya!" Tri then made a diagonal slash at him.

To a normal person the strike would be so fast that they wouldn't even be able to react to it, but to him, it was too slow.

He easily dodged it, but Bragalia knew that this wasn't the end - though, even if he didn't know that a second hit was going to start immediately after this one he could still dodge it, it was just that slow.

"Hua!" Tri then using his foot as a pivot, Tri then made a 180° horizontal slash.

And after he finished the horizontal slash, Tri then jumped backwards a little, then shifting his center of gravity forward, he then made a super fast piercing attack.

But, it was only the beginning of Tri's combo. He knew very well that he couldn't half ass this otherwise in the next move, he would get his ass handed to him on a silver platter.

After the piercing attack, Tri then did two diagonal slashes making an 'X' shape.

He then quickly made a vertical slash, combed that with a weak low kick in the end.

Failing all of them like usual, he then quickly made an uppercut with his sword.

He continued his onslaught of slashes, thrusts, cuts, continuously for over an hour. It was a grueling experience for Tri.

He had suffered from muscle cramps all over, his entire body was aching, he was sweating buckets, and he had a hard time breathing.

But, he still couldn't land any attacks on Bragalia. And not just that, some of his attacks were magic attacks, or special techniques, so there were a lot damage to the surroundings instead.

There were many fallen trees, many gashes on the ground - some even being as long as 3 meters.

"Ha, ha, ha." Tri was now having a very hard time staying conscious.

"We should end it here." Bragalia didn't even have a single drop of sweat building on him, as he wasn't even remotely tired.

No, even more than that, Bragalia was annoyed; he was very annoyed by the fact that Tri had continuously attacked him for an hour straight, even though none of his attacks were even close to landing.

It was something he had really respected about Tri. His tenacity was something that had made his talentless body become one of the strongest in the entire world.

It was the level of tenacity you wouldn't expect from a human, it was something you would expect from an actual monster.

Bragalia smiled inside, as he knew that Tri was also a "monster".

"No... I... am... still... not... done!" Tri could barely speak.

"Oh, so you are really going to try that?" Bragalia asked Tri.

Tri nodded, seeing that Bragalia started to get into a stance, as he knew that he could get hurt now.

Tri was happy to see that Bragalia was taking him a little bit seriously, as it was a testament to his growth.

Tri then started to get into his stance as well.

What he was about to was a very impractical move that would be very hard to do in a real battle, but since this wasn't a real battle, he could do it without worry.

He then started to use massive amount of mana in his body to enchant and enhance his prized sword.

And because of that, the sword started to glow.

The sword was shining with a bright red color, which was slowly transitioning to orange, then yellow, then blue, and then finally, after about 10 seconds, it transitioned to a magnificent white.

The white aura that had surrounded his weapon, and had even made the surrounding get a little hotter.

Bragalia gulped a little, he knew that if he suffered from that attack from a point blank range, he would probably die.

And that was a lot considering the power difference between them. He couldn't even imagine just how strong that attack would be once Tri was as strong as him.

"Haa!" and in the next instant a blazing fast sword strike came for Bragalia.

Not only was it leagues faster than anything Tri had done before; it was also way stronger than as well.

Even getting near the sword was starting to burn Bragalia.

But, even then, it was still too weak for him.

Due to Bragalia being in a stance, he was able to easily counter the attack by making sure that the attack never even reached him.

He had punched Tri so hard that he had been sent flying 10 meter into the sky, making him fail his attack. And ending the battle.