5 Chapter 4: Clash Of The Titans
I stumbled out of the debris. Burned, fractured, broken.
My fourteen-year old body couldn't handle all the power that had been forced upon it, beaten on it like a human piñata.
I felt like puking, I felt like giving up.
But I couldn't admit defeat, I couldn't... i couldn't...
My body and consciousness collapsed from exhaustion.
--
That was what happened the first time I fought my master, John. I fought him a couple times afterwards, and they both pretty much ended up the same way. The only difference was probably lasting a few more minutes than the fight before it.
So you could probably guess how I felt when I was told suddenly that I may go through the same experience again.
"Aww.. C'mon Master!" I whined disapprovingly, "Must we fight today?"
I REALLY didn't want to do it right now.
John decided that he didn't care about my opinion. "Well, as of now..." He shrugged, "I've pretty much ran out of skills to teach you, and enemies that would pose even the slightest threat to you. You can pretty much beat everyone..." He grinned, "...except for me."
All of a sudden, a tidal wave of debris, similar to the one that I inflicted on the man who challenged me, crashed down on me with a fury of dirt and rock.
The air was filled with a mess of dust, until I slapped it all away with a burst of wind.
As the air cleared, John noticed that he couldn't find me, and shifted his eyes around.
He discovered me ten meters up above in mid air. I was supported with two solid pillars of my creation from the road and concrete walls from the surrounding buildings.
John chuckled as he looked up at me, "Seems that you've finally learned..."
"Of course." I spat resentfully as I looked down at him, "After being blasted by that multiple times in the past, you better believe that I learnt my lesson."
"Interesting..." John's eyes sparkled a blue gleam, "Let's see how much you've learnt since last time."
And with that, John disappeared into thin air.
When the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, I realized that he was going to reappear behind me. I barely managed to jump off the pillars and somersault gracefully to the ground, just as John delivered a spinning back kick to where my neck would be if I hadn't leapt off in time. The force of the kick blew a massive hole into the side of a building.
But I wasn't safe on the ground either.
I didn't have a single moment to rest before I sensed something coming at me.
I leaned backwards and extended my right foot outwards.
In less than a millisecond afterwards, dozens of thin, narrow spikes protruded from all directions around me, narrowly missing all my body parts within a hair's breadth, and would have pierced me if I didn't dodge them in the nick of time.
I waited for a second, before they all contracted back from where they came from.
Not wasting an opportunity, I jumped away as fast as I could.
I heard an explosion occur behind me as I leapt out the way.
I found myself heading directly into a glass window of a tall office building. With a swift kick, I broke the glass so I wouldn't smash into it with my face, and rolled on the ground to a stop, ending with an awesome crouch stance.
Just when I thought I could take a breather, I heard the words, "Gotcha'."
My eyes widened as I realized what was happened: A Trap
My eyes hardly shifted to the side as I saw a blurred John rushing towards me with his right fist extended backwards, "CITYNOVA!!"
ssss...
BAAMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...
...
...
A just like that, a quarter of an entire city was wiped out with one punch.
(Author's note: Yes, that's a reference.)
The scene was filled with rubble and wreckage. The air was filled with so much dirt and junk, that it looked the same even after a minute of waiting.
John blinked out the dust from his eyes, and with a snap of his fingers, every single speck of waste in the air was compressed tightly into a smooth, solid sphere of great density. He gently set it down in a small hole in the ground so that it wouldn't roll around and cause even greater damage.
"Why...?" My weak voice echoed out into the apocalyptic wasteland.
"Hm?" John spun around, searching for me, when he finally found me, kneeling in a gigantic crater, about a kilometer away.
"Why..." I stood up weakly, shaking and trembling. My head was bowed towards him. My indestructible clothing was torn on the side.
And yet...
"You're... unharmed?" For the first time in a long time, John sounded genuinely surprised at something that I did.
"Why..." I repeated again. When suddenly, a loud, strong boom ruptured from the spot I stood at, blowing away all the rubbish from the ground into the sky. A clear force field automatically surrounded John, deflecting away any shrapnel from hitting him. When his view was finally unobstructed, he looked towards me again.
His eyes widened.
"Why..." My body was enveloped in black-colored flames. The heat so strong, it melted the concrete and rock around me into this sick, gross-smelling semi-liquid that burned the air that we breathe.
Then I looked up.
My eyes glowed a bright and blazing blue, and was the only other color that was produced from my body. "Why did you go easy on me?"
John blinked, then smiled proudly, "I've always went easy on you."
"I see." My voice sounded almost mechanical, robotic. I paused for a slight moment. And then, I spoke again, "Then shall we go all out?"
John crossed his arms skeptically, "Well, it depends. I'm not sure if you can handle it."
"Just now, when you hit me with your CityNova punch..." I wasn't sure if he could see it, but I returned his smile. "...I didn't feel a thing."
And with that, I disappeared into thin air.
And reappeared behind John.
"Huh?" John could barely look back as he felt the heat from my black flames scar his back.
I raised my fist.
"CityNova." I growled.
And I released my own fury upon my master, my mentor, the most powerful man I knew.
ssss...
BAAMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...
...
...
...
Like John before, I wiped out another quarter of the city.
But I knew.
John wouldn't go down so easily.
"Interesting..." A voice resonated around me. Nope, not from a specific direction.
But EVERYWHERE.
pkt.
A snap.
All the dust in the air was suddenly compressed again into a dense ball. But that ball didn't survive like the other one, instead, it started melt into a puddle on the ground.
It melted... from the heat that emanated from the black flames. John's black flames.
"Interesting. So interesting." John caught the parrot disease that I had.
He looked up, his blue eyes sparkling with the same ferocity as mine did earlier.
"So you CAN handle it, eh?" He grinned toothily. "I can finally let of the steam I've been holding in all these years. So, Daniel Ephesian Rainer... shall us Titans clash with no limits holding us back?"
My eyes widened with excitement. "Of course."
"Then... what are waiting for?"
