Chapter 34 - Across the expanse (5)

We lounged at each other and in less than a second we found ourselves facing each other. Sloan raised his fist, readying himself to slam it down on me. I countered its attack by taking a small step to the side, narrowly evading the blow, and followed by smashing my elbow into his side. One of his ribs creaked and an expression of displeasure appeared on his face. I could see the flow of his aura concentrating around the hurt area, alleviating any damage.

He raised his knee towards my head, but I intercepted the blow by guarding myself with crossed arms. The force lifted me from the ground and pushed me back. I rapidly regained my posture and ran at him. Once I was once again in melee distance, I dodged his left kick by sliding on the ground. I grasped his right leg and stood up, dragging it up with me and making him lose his last support. He let out a muffled cry of surprise but he readily responded by twisting his body in midair, hitting me on the side of the head with his heel.

I managed to partially reduce the strength of the impact by bending my neck towards the direction opposite the one of the incoming blow, but still felt it when it made contact with my skull. I pushed his leg away, putting some distance between us, in order to recover from the stinging sensation that was travelling through my head. A smile crept on his face and he started a barrage of kicks and punches against me.

I struggled to defend myself by raising my hands and knees in defence, until I could regain my focus. Once I had regained my bearings and before he could punch at me, I planted my right foot on his solar plexus and applied strong pressure. I kicked the wind out of hima and sent him flying. I didn't let this chance slip through my hands and approached him once again.

He tried to jab at me to keep the distance, but I eluded it by slipping. In the following instant I bent my knees and crouched down, before springing up and hitting him with an uppercut which made contact with his chin. The impact produced a strong noise of clashing teeth and it lifted him up from the ground. While he was airborne, I twisted my lower half, whipping my right leg at him. My shin made contact with his body and due to the violence of the attack his spine bent into a v, before he was sent flying once again.

Sloan rolled over on the ground, before coming to a stop with all his limbs stretched over the terrain. A low groan escaped his mouth, before he picked himself up. A halo surrounded him and his body started to go back to normal. Unfortunately, his aura didn't seem to have grown fainter. This meant I hadn't been able to inflict any actual damage yet.

He got up and looked at me with a smile plastered on his face.

<<This is fun! It's been so long since I've fought someone like you!>>

Sloan was on me the moment he had stopped speaking. He led his charge with a right hand to my solar plexus, following with a left hand to the side of my head. I was able to see right through him, recognizing his right punch as a distraction and letting it make contact, and answered by turning my head towards the incoming left fist and headbutting it with all my strength.

The bones of his hand shattered, causing him to flinch. I grasped his face, yanked him up and knocked him to the ground, with his head tracing a half-moon in the air and being the first part of his body to make contact with the earth. Once he was sprawled on the ground, I got on top of him, positioned my knee on his chest to keep him still with my body weight and started pummeling his face. As all my single attacks, even particularly hard ones like the kick to the spine, hadn't proven particularly effective, I had decided to resort to the more crude tactic of hitting him until he hopefully stopped moving.

<<CUT IT OUT!>>, Sloan roared in between my blows.

He moved his head out of the way right before my fist could make contact with his face and I ended up punching the ground. The terrain had been exposed to the ambient mana for an era and this had caused aether to seep inside of it, making it incredibly resilient. For this reason, the ground did not budge and the strength of the impact climbed up my arm, causing me great discomfort and paralysing me for an instant. This created an opening for my opponent, who didn't let it slip away and took advantage of it to push me away and kick me in the jaw to free himself.

I stumbled backwards and brought my hand to the dislocated jaw. I popped it back into place, but it didn't show any sign of returning back to normal. My opponent's foot had been infused with aura and it was now interfering with my regenerative capabilities. I used the time needed by Sloan to get back on his feet to study our conditions.

While he was the one who had received the harder blows, he seemed to be the one to be faring better. Except for his crumpled clothes, he appeared completely healthy, although pissed off, as none of the injuries seemed to have stuck. On the contrary, although I had been the one mostly on the giving rather than on the receiving end, I was the only one who had been accumulating damages. My aura flow wasn't capable of working properly.

Sloan's laugh attracted my attention.

<<You cannot win!>>, he taunted me.

<<I'm stronger than you. I will prevail>>, I answered.

<<You are correct, I admit it, you are stronger than me. But it doesn't matter. You are still a child, incapable of using his own aura. Do you know why it was me in the Gamma Perimeter? It's because I don't lose! My strength may seem unremarkable, but my aura control is the exact opposite. I can carry on fighting long after everyone else has exhausted themselves>>

A moment of silence followed his words.

<<I won't concede>>, I said.

<<Oh, please do not. Strive with all your might. I want to see your expression once I kill that w***e in front of your defeated self>>, he spoke with a chilling tone.

With newfound resolution, I got into guard, ready to break his confidence and his limbs.

<<John! Take this!>>, a familiar voice resounded behind me.

Turning my head I could see the staggering Faye trying to hand me a metal object.

<<I told you to take cover!>>, I shouted.

<<Don't lose focus!>>, a laughing Sloan's words resounded.

I rapidly snatched what Faye had brought me and twisted my body by pivoting on my heels. His eyes opened wide when he saw the metallic surface fall upon him. He tried guarding himself with an arm, but his defence proved ineffective as he was sent flying. His aura surrounded him, but he seemed to have difficulty recovering from pulverised bones.

With a satisfied expression, I swung around the mace Faye had brought to me.

<<Bastard! You want to fight like that?!>>, Sloan barked furiously.

I pondered over his words for a moment, before opening my mouth.

<<You said you don't lose. Let's put that to the test>>, I said, ignoring his last words and pointing my newfound weapon towards him.

With the enhanced hitting power provided by the mace, I should have been finally able to realise my initial plan: hit him until he could no longer keep up.