Ch-31:A Spar

While it might seem that Altair and Raon were in the same cultivation realm, they were not at the same stage, as Raon had sealed his cultivation to the initial stage and Altair was at the late stage herself.

According to this, Altair should have an absolute advantage as she also had access to multiple weapons, but that wasn't true as Raon was still holding on to equal ground with her.

Just as Altair swung her sword, aiming for frontal confrontation, Raon twisted his wrist and defended using the flat side of the blade.

He let Altair's sword slide on the flat of his blade to negate the momentum, but just then he was attacked using a dagger aimed at his abdomen.

He twisted his sword along with the momentum from the clash so that its hilt blocked the dagger targeting his stomach.

He wasn't the least bit flustered by the attacks, as he knew that Altair hadn't even gotten serious yet, and so hadn't he.

Altair stepped back as she stabbed her sword directly into Raon's left ribs, which was countered by Raon shifting his weight to his right as the sword passed narrowly by him.

Altair didn't pull it back but twisted her arm to slash at his left side while also using her left hand to throw a short spear at Raon's thigh.

Raon swung his sword with such force that it pushed back Altair's sword and continued on the path to block the short spear thrown at his leg.

Altair didn't give him time, though, as she used her left hand to throw three daggers, aiming for his forehead and both lungs as she retreated a little.

Raon easily blocked her thrown daggers as he felt a change in the energies around him and lifted his head to find Altair to be the reason for it.

"Oho" Raon let out unknowingly, out of his mouth, as he already knew she had improved and was already using it decisively.

'Too bad. You should've gotten used to it before' thought Raon as he simply held his sword, using both hands in front of him.

The tip of his blade was above his head as he evoked the energy into his blade, which caused a whirring sound in his surroundings.

The difference in the efficiency of the energy was like the difference of day and night between the two.

Raon only needed an epiphany to enter the same realm as his master in swords, while Altair had barely entered the realm he was the master of.

Altair's sword was wasting a large part of the energy, but that was decreasing at a visible pace before stopping at only 20% of the energy being wasted.

She immediately took a step forward as she vanished from Raon's sight and attacked him from a blind spot at his lower spine.

Raon stepped ahead before suddenly turning and swinging his sword, putting all his momentum on the sword and delivering all of it to Altair.

The clash caused the energy around them to go into disarray, as both of them provided enough energy before a winner could be decided.

Although it had been decided even before the clash, Altair missed her strike, and Raon used that to his advantage, delivering a decisive blow to her.

At this moment, Altair suddenly smiled as she loosened the grip on her sword and used her free hand to throw several weapons at Raon.

Unfortunately, Raon was still having the same smile on his face since the first clash, as he easily evaded them.

He increased the output of energy into his sword, causing the projectiles to be diverted from their original path, missing him by a hair's breadth.

Of course, it didn't mean he evaded all of them unscathed, as a few scars were visible on his face and some parts of his clothing were torn where red blood cuts could be seen.

While he only got some superficial injuries, Altair wasn't that lucky since she had reduced her strength on the sword, following which Raon increased it.

She had been pushed back to the edge of the arena while her internals were messed up, and she was gasping for breath as blood oozed out of her mouth.

Despite her condition, she was standing and had a smile marring her countenance as Raon realized that one of her daggers had punctured his right lung.

Even though he was feeling intense pain, his smile just brightened as Altair managed to sneak one dagger past him.

He took the dagger out while grunting, but immediately went back to a battle stance as he evaded and blocked the projectiles thrown at him.

Altair didn't want to give up, as it was the first time she made Raon bleed properly, making her confidence rise, but her sword had dropped along the path she was thrown.

To reach and grab the sword, she sent projectiles as she used her wind affinity to increase her speed and grab the sword.

She rolled on the floor as she jumped to pick up her sword and immediately jumped away from her stopping point as sword energy attacked her previous spot.

Raon wasn't going to be lenient just because he was proud, as he knew that she wouldn't stop despite the pain until she couldn't fight anymore.

Raon, aware of his daughter's antics, kept sending sword energy at her, and she kept evading it, depleting her energy reserves and making it harder for her.

The reason Raon was able to stand calmly despite having lower usable energy was that Altair was wasting her energy due to being injured.

Even this didn't stop their spar, which was already going on for thirty minutes as Raon finally noticed that Altair was on her last leg.

He finally used his sword intent and appeared in front of Altair immediately and swung his sword, targeting her wrist.

He wanted to dislodge her sword, as she had already used most of her throwing weapons, which would make her stop fighting.

Unfortunately, he underestimated his own daughter, as she also used her imperfect sword intent that wasn't as polished as his.

Both their sword intents collided as they were pushed back and thrown off due to the force of the collision.

Altair was unmistakably pushed back more than Raon, despite Raon not having proper footing during his attack, as she didn't have enough energy anymore.

Raon immediately looked at Altair and noticed her energy reserves were almost depleted, yet she seemed hellbent on continuing the spar.

Her eyes had turned unfocused as her sword intent was improving at a rapid pace, visible to the naked eye to Raon.

He unsealed his cultivation to the peak stage as he didn't have any other option due to the current state of Altair.

"A trance, huh? Talent sure is amazing."Raon mumbled inaudibly as he got ready to face Altair once more.