Voices

'FIGHT'

The word echoed for what felt like an eternity. In the same moment the words left Alin's mouth, Hari dashed forward kicking up a large pillar of sand as if a rocket decided to take off.

Uriel tightened his grip on his wooden practice sword and firmly planted his legs in the ground taking up a defensive stance.

Just as Hari managed to close half the distance she smirked flashing her sharp shark-like teeth, her fingers seemed to glow slightly before a pair of wooden practice daggers appeared, she grabbed them in a reverse grip before disappearing.

Uriel's eyes widened slightly, he had both of his hands firmly gripping onto the sword handle, it was a one-handed practice sword but unfortunately, Uriel's hands were still too small to grip it properly one-handed.

He swiftly moved the blade over his left shoulder to cover his back and in the same moment, twin daggers struck the sword.

Uriel looked over his shoulder and smirked at Hari who was in mid-air with her legs and arms close to her chest. She used her daggers and Uriel's sword to push herself away from him, doing a little backflip in the air she lands perfectly on the ground.

She looked at Uriel. The expression on his face seemingly was telling her she will have to try harder.

Her face on the other hand was looking more and more excited while her eyes became slightly unfocused as if she was giving in to her instincts.

Alin watching this thought to himself "oh no, looks like the battle junkie has awoken"

"I didn't expect you to be able to block me like that, even if they know about it no one can predict when I will reappear or where, that was really impressive. Looks like this will be very fun..." Hari spoke with lightning speed however before she could even finish her sentence Uriel's face appeared right in front of hers.

His head was slightly lower than hers as he was leaning his body forward. Both his hands were still firmly gripped onto the handle of the sword which was parallel with his right leg.

A shocked expression showed on Hari's face but it was quickly was replaced with pure joy and happiness.

Uriel started swinging upwards aiming for Haris left wrist, just as he started his swing something grabbed onto his sword and he couldn't nudge it an inch.

Glancing downwards at his sword he saw it was wrapped around with the pair of sashes Hari had around her waist yet something seemed odd. They looked to be firm and hard as steel not allowing Uriel to move it even slightly despite using his strength.

He might not have magical abilities that boost his physical strength and he can't enhance his base strength with mana either but his natural strength is nothing to laugh about especially for his age yet he still couldn't nudge it.

He let go of his sword and pivoted on his left foot and spun around clockwise lifting his right leg as he spun around going for a kick. His leg flew towards Hari who barely managed to react to Uriel's unrealistic speed. She crossed her arms which took the most of the force of the kick but she was still kicked with enough power to push her backwards a couple of meters leaving straight trails in the sand which showed the distance Hari was moved.

As she was lowering her arms to look at Uriel he was already reaching forward, looking to grab her wrists. Uriel's face showed a grin as if he had already won, he was only millimetres from winning but then he felt all his senses scream danger.

He dug his legs into the sand and dodged with his head backwards. If he was slightly too slow he would have lost his head as the twin sashes sliced at his neck. He jumped backwards to create some distance between his opponent and himself and quickly think of a plan of action.

As he landed back he felt his neck slightly stinging. He touched it with his right hand and looked away from Hari and down at his palm to see it had turned slightly red. He started breathing a bit heavily. Anger swelled up within him. He closed his eyes to try and calm down but then he started hearing snippets of voices trying to tell him something.

"Weak" "Blood" "Precious" "Hurt" "Give" "Trust" "Kill"

Uriel couldn't figure out what these snippets meant or to who the voices belonged to but at that moment it didn't seem to matter to him. He seemed to have lost all his reasoning the only thought in his head was "unforgivable" the word echoed in his mind over and over again.

His face looked pale and void of any life. He looked back up and opened his eyes causing Hari to slightly jump up and yelp in fear.

His eyes normally were blue and tranquil like the sea however at this moment his eyes looked crimson red, a fire looked to be raging behind them it reminded Hari of the one time she was her grandfather furious. Uriel's face twisted into an insane-looking expression before closing the large distance himself this time.

Hari was a bit rattled by the change in Uriel's expression but being a battle junkie she was more than happy to accept what looked to be a new challenge. Uriel got closer and started swinging wildly like an animal that was backed into a corner and was doing everything in its power to stay alive.

Unfortunately for him, this made him very predictable and while it would be fine if he fought someone else with no experience like himself he had no such luck this time. While the same age Hari has been having official duel's and even learned practical magic so her combat experience is on a whole other level compared to her brother.

Angered by the constant dodging from Hari, Uriel leapt up in the air reaching over 5 meters in height. This shocked Hari as she knew he couldn't use magic. Meaning it was only pure physical strength. But the question is where did he get such strength from suddenly. She pondered it briefly as she jumped backwards.

Uriel smashed his fist into the ground. A big shockwave was created, it started where Uriel's fist had hit the sand and flew outwards knocking up a large cloud of sand. This created a brief smokescreen and Hari decided to use it to her advantage. A leg could be seen swiftly flying from the sand screen.

It flew straight at the head of the crouching Uriel. Just as it was going to connect Uriel grabbed Hari's leg just before it was going to connect with his head. Without looking at her he smiled.

His grip tightened around her leg causing her slight pain. She however flashed her razor-sharp teeth too as if it meant nothing. The pair of sashes grabbed the hand that held onto her leg before she disappeared and reappeared behind him.

Uriel could feel she reappeared behind him again but before he could turn and react both his arms were gripped with tremendous power. Both of the sashes grabbed his wrists and hardened while moving his arms above his head.

He roared in anger. Steam seemed to be coming off him. Chills went down Hari's spine as she touched his back with her entire hand.

The moment she did this Alin appeared by the brother-sister pair and gently pushed Hari away from Uriel causing her sashes to let go of her brother's wrist before chopping the back of Uriel's neck and knocking him out cold causing him to fall forwards.

Alin caught him in his arms and then looked at Hari with a soft and gentle smile and said "I will take him to rest. You should rest too. You did great"

He turned on his heel and left with Uriel out cold in his arms.

Hari's mouth was left open. She was both shocked and concerned but decided now was not the time to be curious and inquisitive. Leo walked up to her and started comforting her before the two went to look for their brother and grandfather to make sure everything was alright.