A Fight for One's Life

The man who had looked away felt something. He looked back at the direction of the ant that should have been burned to ashes, only to find a fist flying at his face. He was stunned, but his body moved back out of instinct.

More blows followed, in quick, almost unending succession. The man could only move back. He did this so many times before he finally got a grip of himself. 

He had been so stunned that his body could only react on instinct. Those blows were so strong, he felt they could have knocked him out if they landed. As he came back to his senses, he was so furious that he had been forced to step back so many times by a recently awakened brat. He hadn't been stepping back casually, every move he had made was with his movement technique working at full force.

His fury simply knew no bounds. He threw every unnecessary thought to the back of his mind. His fury was out of control, and he unleashed it with no care.

"Die!" He unleashed a roar. 

Flames surrounded him, they burned so hot that everything on the ground and around him was turned to ash in an instant. The flames seemed to be bolstered by his rage.

He controlled these flames that seemed to want to burn everything, compressing them and unleashing them on Gareth.

When Gareth saw this flame that were as tall as himself bearing down on him, and felt their unnatural heat. His whole life flashed before his eyes. He knew there was no way he could dodge it. This feeling, he had never felt it before. Not ever, even with the crazy matches he had fought included. This was the feeling of true death looming over him.

This helplessness, this feeling that he could do nothing but bow before the inevitable. This feeling, this was the first time he was feeling it, and he never ever wanted to feel it again.

Helplessness. This was the last time he was feeling it. He was going to die? So what? He would not go, cowering in the face of an inevitable death. Even with all odds against him. If even everything he could do would change not a single thing, he was going to go all out.

He roared. It was a roar, simple and primal. It contained no words. It contained no complex meanings. It only meant one single thing. He would never cower. He would never give up.

Since he could not dodge it, he would face it head-on. He was someone who courted death even before he awakened. Would that change now that he awakened? Was awakening the end he was reaching for? NO.

He punched out with all his power. His two fists seeming to carry the weight of all he was. The flames washed over him. It burned his skin. It left him charred. But, he was still alive. That was all that mattered.

Even with his body charred from head to toe, he pressed forward. Punching and kicking with all his strength. It was something he knew how to do well. He never stopped roaring, even as fists and kicks like cataclysmic weapons of doom, could not meet their mark. He never stopped. Not even once, did he pause.

Even as the fire burned him. His skin burning and cracking, and muscles being all that was left. He fought with his all.

This was the difference in technique and cultivation, and he was disadvantaged at both. This showed him how far he still had to go. Even though he was more talented than this bastard, this was a gap talent alone could not bridge. He was meeting people with low talents now. What of people just as talented if not more talented than him. If this bastard had been just as talented as him, what would have happened by now.

He could feel his strength flagging, his reserves of world energy was draining fast and it would soon reach the point he could not draw even the slightest shred. His body was already weak and sore. 

This did not slow him down, still. But he knew it would not last for long. So, before he ran out of everything, he would fight. Fight, and feel that satisfaction he could only get from challenging his limit. That was the only thing he was doing right now. Challenging his limits.

*

Mira knew Gareth was a freak. Even though she knew it was silly to expect someone who recently awakened to defeat a cultivator at the initial completion. She still held some hope, or it could be said a delusion.

Seeing him like this as he used every last bit of strength he had, she knew she wasn't so far from such reaching such a state as well. She had been able to hold off the four cultivators, if barely. The time was right, it would be foolish to hold back any longer.

She unleashed her technique to a new level. The sword rays attacking her opponents and defending her multiplied by four, all of them attacking the four cultivators with a vengeance. This was a move that drained her world energy reserves even further. This did buy her the reprieve she needed for what she was about to do next.

Suddenly, words came out of her mouth. It was like music, soul stirring and enchanting. It was a poem recited in a melodic voice. Those who heard it had no choice but to let their souls be captured.

This move drained every bit of world energy reserves she had left. It was a move she could not have used at the beginning of the fight. It would not have been as effective as it would be now.

Her opponents paused all movements. Their eyes became clouded, their souls entranced. At that moment, she could have killed them if she could gather the energy to. She was so tired.

She moved her eyes away from them. What concerned her right now wasn't these people.

Gareth. He was the only hope she had of getting out of this place alive. She would have chuckled, if she had the energy to. How funny this was. Very funny.

She could only hope he was not affected by this technique that cared not for ally or foe. She hoped he would continue to be the freak he was, and shrug off its effect. She was not worried about that cultivator at the initial completion. With how much he had been provoked by Gareth, an ant who he couldn't kill. He wouldn't be in the right state of mind to escape this technique of hers.

Oh, Gareth. She was truly at her limit. She felt like just sitting down.

*

Gareth suddenly paused, same as the man he was fighting. Although, it was just for a moment. His fighting spirit never waned, but he was surprised when his next punch connected. The punch was strong enough to throw his opponent on his back.

He did not waste time to question the reason for it being so. He pounced on the fallen man immediately.

He threw punches at his face that was finally beginning to bleed. Unheeding of the man's struggles.

Gareth's first punch had knocked the man out of the trance, but he could not get a hold of himself before his brain started rattling about in his skull. He tried every thing he could to throw his assailant off him, but it was not working. With his head being punched this way and that way, he could not get to use any technique. Was he really going to die to a brat who had recently awakened. This was unfair.

Gareth never stopped punching, as he pinned the man under him. He was already using every last bit of strength he had in his body. He had to kill this man. He had an idea how he got the opportunity to get such a hold on this man. He was not going to waste what was probably the only chance he would get.

If it had been in the beginning, one punch connecting would have been enough to blast the man's head off. Smashing it like a watermelon.

He had to admit that the man's skull was thick. The hands he thought couldn't hurt any longer, were smarting so badly. But it did not matter, his skull would be crushed soon. The others should not be a problem, if Mira hadn't finished them off already. 

He was about to land another punch, when he felt the world spinning around him.

He wasn't losing consciousness, no that was not what was happening to him. He was literally spinning around in the air. He landed some distance from the man he was giving a beatdown before.

He raised his head with some effort to look at the place he 'flew' from. There was another person beside the man who now had his head swelled up in so unsightly a manner. What else could have happened. Another initial completion cultivator had appeared, no doubt.