Astor dashed forward towards the man, not intending to feign an attack. Astor knew that the veteran probably has more experience with counters, so he would have to save his one-trick pony for a better situation. Astor’s sword was warded off, but the force of his attack should have slowed down the counter swing made by the old man. Astor had confidence in his speed, dodging out of the way of the slash. Intending to half-step back around and whittle away at the old man, Astor was surprised to see the old man charge straight at him. Astor had expected a more restrained and calm fighting style from the old man as shown in his demeanor. Backing up, Astor lifted his sword into a guarding stance towards the old man’s raised sword. The old man motioned his body to attack, and Astor slowed down slightly to ready himself for the blow. There was a slight movement of the sword towards him, but then the sword whipped around quickly to the other side of his guard. Astor was stunned, but he knew that feigning an attack would require one to slow down. Relying on raw agility, Astor parried the blow while accelerating backward. The action had bought him enough time to recover his mind with the newly built space in front of him. Intending to launch a counter attack, Astor was again stunned by how fast the old man covered the distance between them. The space between them was not that large to begin with but to be able to execute another pattern of attacks so quickly was quite alarming. Astor charged forward and kept his sword pointing out. He couldn’t let the old man control the pace of the battle. Lowering his center of mass, Astor took the full brunt of the senior’s attack and deflected the sword of to his left while running past. Unable to look back when passing the Celestial, Astor continued to gain as much ground as possible in front of him before letting the recoil of the attack affect him. The Celestial had taken the opportunity of the head-on collision to show him just how powerful he was. Astor tripped up and collapsed onto the grass in front of him. His initial attempts to rise were futile. The blow had whisked away all the stamina from his already weary body. Ears still ringing, his elbows and shoulders felt like they were being hacked off. Blood ran backward as he felt the air suffocate his lungs. Astor scrambled towards his sword. Unable to lift it with his numbing hands, he opted for his dagger. Feeling his tenebrous instincts tell him that the old man was to be upon him. He turned back towards the direction of his enemy. Sitting up and ready to try his luck in defending any attacks from his position, he was perplexed to see the old man nowhere near him. He saw that his allies had started engaging the Celestials after seeing him initiate the confrontation. Astor tried picking up his sword, knowing that if he let his body loosen up, he would be no longer fit for combat. His attempts to focus in on the surroundings were futile. If he had anything in his stomach, he surely would have hurled. Astor pushed away the thoughts of fear after encountering the power of the celestial. He wondered if he should just let the men take care of the veteran. Surely, there were some soldiers better than I... Watching the runes on the armor of the Celestial flicker in and out from the bodies of soldiers, Astor felt a sense indescribable weakness wash over him. The world blurred around him, and he could only hear the sounds of the grass swaying with the wind. His heavy breathing was muted, and any other sounds were completely cut off as he looked at the small shiny gem embedded into the pommel of his sword. It was a keepsake from his grandfather; the Jacobs family was founded by his grandfather. Being one of the first settlers on the newly explored east, Astor still remembered his grandfather’s words echoing inside his mind. Scattered memories of his past flashed before his eyes. The blurred face of his father’s soft, bearded features, the scenery of a big white mansion inclined on a hill, the tone of his mother’s voice as she scolded him, all of it flurried past before settling on his warmest thought. Suddenly, he held in his hands a book he had read as a child. Glancing around, Astor found that he was engulfed in a wide-open field, sitting next to a gnarled tree separating an open field and an impenetrable tree line that led into the forest. Before he could look at the person sitting next to him, the vision quickly blurred and his senses returned to the battlefield. An intense sensation filled his veins. Astor glared at the empty space created by the old man once again separating his allies. Eyeing the corpses and wounded soldiers strewn about the encirclement, Astor walked forward towards the crowd. Even with the whirling torrent of energy inside him, his only next thought was on how to deal with the rematch of his Celestial friend. Astor thought calmly about how to reproach his bout with the old badger. Thinking back, Astor had the assumption that he would be able to defeat the older opponent with sheer speed, pressuring his foe until an opening had presented itself. Avoiding the idea of directly confronting his opponent, Astor now realized his mistake. Astor knew his style of fighting was cowardly and that he avoided direct confrontation. The experienced veteran took advantage of that. Astor gripped his sword tighter and ground his teeth. If he wanted to win against the Celestial, he would have to put his all into the battle even if that meant facing that monstrous strength. Astor stepped once more out into the space created by the Celestial, ignoring what he thought was an irritating glow at the bottom right of his field of view towards his sword, he felt like he couldn’t lose. Astor thought he could hear the whispers of his allies around him, but he ignored them and took a stance to the old man once again. The Celestial glared at him with a recalculating eye and this time took a respectable stance towards Astor. “The name's Anthony, Captain of the first Celestial division. Mind I ask yours?” spoke the old man in between a series of hard panting. “Astor Jacobs,” replied Astor. He had no idea what the point of exchanging names at this point would do, but his slight curiosity and respect to the man had to be acknowledged. With a nod, the Celestial signaled the start of their rematch.