The One

Ken calmly stood before me with a nonchalant expression and unsheathed his sword.

"Hey wait, Don't you think you should give me a bit of time to prepare.", I said trying to stand up.

Instead of using the sword himself, Ken threw it to me, "Pick up the sword, you are gonna need it."

"Go easy on him!", the clan leader shouted from behind

"Yes, sir", he put one of his hands behind, "I will let you get the first hit and I will only use one hand. If I use my second hand, I lose."

I picked up the sword before me, "You sure that isn't overconfidence?"

"Trust me, kid. You will be thankful."

One thing I knew for sure was that I couldn't defeat him with just strength or speed alone. I needed to use my brain. What can I do to land a strike on someone like him? Someone whose moment I couldn't even see the first time he appeared.

I had to be faster than him. I didn't focus on defense and concentrated all my QI into my legs to increase my speed, I knew he would not hit me since he was going easy on me.

I ran towards him as fast as possible and swung my sword at him, but the moment my sword was going to touch him. He disappeared.

"Here", I heard him say from behind me Even if I had become faster I still wasn't able to see his moments, I turned back and swung my sword from above again. This time, he dodged it and punched me in the stomach, I went and crashed into the wall. I had turned my QI output from my legs to my back at the last moment but it still was too weak to protect me completely. I could only imagine what would have happened if I hadn't protected myself.

"Impressive.", Ken's face brightened, "I didn't expect you to be able to protect yourself at the last moment."

"Weren't you gonna go easy on me?", I said trying to stand up

"I am. Now remember one thing. NEVER and I mean NEVER, leave yourself defenseless. You could have died right now."

"Yes I know.", I said wiping my face, "I will keep that in mind." This time he didn't give me any break. He disappeared, but this time I could see him, even if just a single frame I was able to see him move towards the left. I looked over to my left and blocked his attack, but still, it was so strong that I lost grip of the sword and it went and fell over to the other side of the room.

I tried running to get it, I made sure to constantly maintain eye contact with him. He was just standing there looking at me as if he was the predator and I was the prey.

I bent down to try and pick up the sword but the moment my hand touched it, he kicked the sword away.

"I gave it to you once, You think I am gonna give it to you once again?", he said, trying to kick me in the face

but this time I was able to see it and ducked to dodge the attack. I had an opening, and chance to attack him, or so I thought.

I tried to punch him from below thinking that since he had one of his legs in the air, he would be vulnerable but I couldn't be more wrong. The moment I tried to attack him, he grabbed my fist and threw me towards the glass wall like I was nothing but a doll for him, I hadn't felt that way since I fought the golem. This guy though nowhere the size of the golem, felt way stronger.

I barely managed to regain control and stop myself from crashing into the glass wall. I had no weapon in my hand and my chances of even landing a hit on him were zero, If I focused only on speed I would be left defenseless. if I focused on defense, I would not be able to keep up with his speed. There was nothing I could do. But I still had one way, one trick to maybe get him to use his other hand. But there was no certain way to know if it would work or not. It required an expert level of precision and control. But it was the only possible way for me to ever win this match.

I once again ran towards the sword this time, Ken was standing right in front of it. I transferred all my QI to my eyes, this would help me perceive his speed even if only by a little. He disappeared this time I was able to see where he was going. It felt as if I could see things in slow-mo, but that was still too much for me to handle. My eyes were burning and felt as if they would pop out. He tried to punch me in the face but I closed my eyes and concentrated all QI from my eyes to my legs, dodged his attack, and ran toward the sword as fast as I could.

I was just going to reach the sword when I felt something was wrong, Ken wouldn't just let me get the sword so easily, I couldn't even turn back to check. I took a bit of QI from my legs and dispersed it in the surroundings to use QI sense. He was still behind me, but before I could even sense it, he appeared in front of me. I opened my eyes and saw him trying to kick me this time. I simply ducked again, for some reason I had gotten faster than before.

Instead of trying to attack him again, I simply ran towards the sword as fast as I could. I am pretty sure he realized it as well, the look of shock on his face when I went for the sword instead of attacking him even though he was in a weak position was delightful. I reached for the sword and grabbed it. Before I could turn back, Ken grabbed my other hand and twisted it. The pain was enough to make any thoughts that came to my mind disappear. But I couldn't just let go of the sword. I concentrated all my QI into my hand which he was holding and shot it out like a bullet towards him. Even for him taking the brunt of such an attack at point blank would be disastrous.

He let go of my hand and jumped aside. I quickly lunged towards him, not giving him any time to get comfy. I strung my sword again, this time sideways, all my remaining QI was concentrated in my hands. I struck with as my force as possible but he just grabbed my sword with one of his hands.

I didn't know if that would have counted as a strike. So I let go of my sword and stepped forward and tried to punch him with as much strength as possible, he couldn't leave the sword in time to use the same hand and was forced to use his other hand which he said he wouldn't use. He caught my fist, I had won, but I couldn't just stop. I was feeling better than I had ever done before. Even if all my QI was depleted, it felt as if I was stronger than ever. I tried to kick him, but he let go of the sword and caught my leg too.

I couldn't just stand on one leg, I was losing balance so as a last attempt to land a strike on him, I jumped kick him again. He let go of my hand and caught my other leg. Now I was completely in his hand and couldn't do anything, or else I thought so until I saw the falling sword. I swung myself and reached for the sword. I squeezed every drop of QI left in my body and let it flow out into my sword. The sword was now glowing a bright color of blue. I looked at Ken's face and he looked surprised.

I figured this was the only time I would be able to hit him. I swung the sword at him. He let go of my legs I retracted the strike, and landed on my legs. Without stopping, I took another step forward. Now I was swinging my sword at point blank away from him, even though he wouldn't be able to dodge such an attack. He tried to block the attack using one hand and tried to punch me using the other. If I tried to avoid the attack I would not be able to land the strike, and if I focused my QI on defense again, the strike wouldn't be powerful enough to do any damage to him.

This was the moment that decided everything. There was no way I would go back from here. I was prepared to take the hit without any kind of protection.

I kept the sword going with as much force as possible. The sword's glow increased and at that moment, the sword hit him. It didn't feel as if I had attacked a human but instead felt as if I had tried hitting a wall. But I couldn't stop, I suddenly felt another boost of power and the sword glowed so bright that it blinded me.

Right at that moment his punch hit me and my hands went limp, I lost grip of the sword and went and crashed into the ground, and laid down on my back. I was feeling so weak I couldn't try to stand. I had lost all my strength. But I couldn't lose myself just yet. I opened my eyes and stood back up. I could barely manage to stand, my legs were shaking, my left shoulder was bleeding and I could no longer lift my arms.

But what I saw made it all worth it. Ken's suit had a cut and he was bleeding from there. He was looking at his wound, he signed and picked up the sword.

"I quite liked this suit you know.", his face had a nonchalant expression yet his voice hinted at anger

I suddenly felt as if someone was trying to pin me down to the ground, but Ken was standing right in front of me. It was not him, but instead his aura, his QI. I just realized that he hadn't used his QI all that fight, it was just his raw strength and nothing else. I felt fear once again, the only other time I had felt like this was in front of that demon. I was forced onto my knees but the pressure didn't go away it was still pushing me down and Ken was advancing towards me, slowly, one step at a time. His sword glowed a bright color of green.

The color was way brighter and denser than when I had held that sword. He was advancing towards me, he QI still pushing me down.

When I heard the clan leader shout, "Enough!", I looked around and noticed that I wasn't the only one down on my knees, all the other people standing in the room except the clan leader were on their keens as well.

"That would be more than enough, Ken. The kid has already won. He not only forced you to use your other hand but also wounded you. He has already won. So stop it.", he sounded angry

The pressure disappeared, Ken sheathed his sword and said. "I apologize, I overstepped my boundaries."

He walked over to me, gave me a hand, and helped me stand back up. "You won this match. I apologize for underestimating you.", he said

"It's fine.", I don't think I was even in a position to say anything else.

The clan leader signaled one of his men, "Take care of the kid's injured. I want him back on his feet in the next 10 mins."

One of the men standing behind me came up from behind and gave me his shoulder. But before I could take support, I fell unconscious. 

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"Do you think that using all that money just to bring that kid over here was worth it?", Ken asked the clan leader while pouring him another glass of wine

"Did you not see his performance?", the clan leader picked up the glass of wine, "I know we had to use quite a lot of money to sponsor his school's trip to Kyoto. But you only tell me, how was the kid?"

"He certainly has talent. At first, he seemed like a body type adept but he can also use strong QI bullets. His speed, reaction time, and QI control are already beyond the level of several. Also, that sword QI…. even if only for a second the amount of QI it had surpassed even what I can conjure. He really is a natural born it seems.", He smiled, "We might have just acquired a treasure."

"I think so too. I had never thought that when I sent you to take care of the ranked demon would you bring me such info.", he looked at Ken.

"Certainly, I never thought that a kid like that would be able to defeat a ranked demon, I was still far away from the scene when I saw it but it looked as if the demon was begging him for mercy when he suddenly burst and the kid collapsed.", Ken replied

"Well, we will just have to watch for now. Let's just support him with everything we have for now. He might turn out to be the one whom we have been searching for.", the clan leader kept his empty glass of wine back on the table.