~ Backyard of a certain Mansion in the West

What a shocking statement by a 15 year-old, if I do say so myself. I bet they were thinking just about the same thing as well. Even Feng stopped celebrating silently by himself, needless to say about Yun.

“Earth, what are you say-”

“An official duel. With you. Right here, right now.”

“...are you sure you’re not sick, or hit in the head?”

“My mind is crystal clear. Are you ready? Feng shall act as the referee.”

“What- me?”

“Who else?”

And so it was settled. I stood 10 metres away from my opponent, and Feng became the referee. Now he even seems to be snickering at me.

Yun began to ready herself, closing her eyes and concentrating on something. At some point, her face became expressionless, her mind is focused and concentrated. She is going to face me like she is to any other opponent. Did she figure out my potential battle prowess? Her pride? Or is this just how she is taught, to not underestimate any opponent? I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter now.

I can feel the immense ki coming out of her, like a roaring furnace full of flames, barely contained in the calm and cold furnace.

I started to gather ki as well, as much as I can, as fast as I can. I directed part of the ki to my defensive aura around my body, making it denser and harder. At the same time, I enhanced my muscles and senses, heating them up in the process.

The night is silent. The wind is cold, and the air is dry. Yet, the tension in the air thrilling and exhilarating. An invisible feeling, yet it feels so real. Is this what it means to be alive? As the feeling of fear in me grows stronger, my heart beats even faster in excitement.

Suddenly, the untamed ki and aura around Yun’s body instantly get’s sucked back onto her body and forms a solid layer of armour around her body above her skin. She opens her eyes, which are now locked onto me with every intention to destroy me.

My final layer of defense seems to be rigid enough as well. Preparations are also done. I nod to Feng, who now looked as if he had just seen a pig fly.

“The duel may begin!”

As soon the four words were spoken, Yun moved so fast it seemed as if she disappeared from her position. However, I can feel her ki still, no matter how fast she moves.

She reappears on top of me, trying to smash me and end this fast. I boosted myself away from the position, and launched the earth up against her from where I was.

As I expected, she just smashes through the earth like butter. While she did that, I gained some distance in between. I raised an earth wall between Yun and I, and with a single punch, she broke through it.

However, now I am not behind the wall. As I jumped upwards, I left a flashbang behind made of highly compressed light magic. The flashbang lit up the entire area for a split second, and even Yun was momentarily stunned.

All I need is a single touch to her head, and I would be able to end this by overloading her brain and make her unconscious. I boosted myself down on her, but she dodged and moved away, all while she is still unable to see properly.

I transferred mana onto the ground and made it move chaotically, making the ground shake and shift. Yun still managed to keep her balance and move around swiftly in such an environment. I launched the earth wherever she moved to, but she just smashes through them like they weren’t obstacles in the first place.

I started to fly upwards, gaining altitude superiority while protruding the earth wherever Yun goes. As I did that, I constantly launched several spinning air blades at Yun, but somehow she is always able to detect them and break them like sticks with a single hit. Meanwhile, I created a large hole in the middle of the battleground and started to slowly pull earth boulders out of the hole one by one, and throwing at them at Yun. These simultaneous magic usage pushed my absorption to the limit.

Yun just deals with it as if it was just a walk in the park. Nonetheless, she is still somewhat distracted, but it won’t last long. Of course, all these are just icing on the cake.

I continued to pull out earth from the hole I created, throwing them at Yun, and wherever I can.

As soon as I saw that Yun is finally going to go after me, as she prepared to jump upwards, I immediately flew downwards and smashed the ground.

It collapsed. I created a cavity underneath the battleground by digging it out. However, Yun managed to dodge and jump away fast enough to avoid the drop. A large opaque dust cloud blew, and even when I’m in the middle of it she managed to jump at me, carrying a fist.

*SMACK*

I was hit in the stomach. Good thing I tried to boost myself away from the fist, or I would be puking out whatever I had eaten before. My defensive barrier took much of the hit as her defensive barrier clashed with mine. A hole in my defensive barrier was left in the area where she punched but it is quickly regenerated.

Still, I travelled like ten metres across the dirt on the bottom of the pit before I hit the wall and finally stopped.

Yun appeared in front from the cloud of dust in a devastating speed. I had to push myself away with all my strength or my face would have been blown away by her fist like the dirt wall in my place.

However, as I looked around, I saw that the ground had glittering material. Then I started to notice the smell of the dusty air down here. It’s not just earth… metal? Before I could ponder on it, I have to buy time from Yun first. I bend light using the air to try and disorient Yun. Her punches immediately blows away my magic every time I create one, and also blew more dirt and dust into the air.

*SWOOSH*

The air blew right past my face. That was only less than ten seconds, and she’s already reoriented herself, even with my surprise flashbangs. I boosted myself upwards, trying to fly out of the pit. I try to use the earth to trap her lower body, but she broke through it and even managed to jump and grab my left leg. Checkmate? No.

I took this opportunity to fly myself all the way up to the sky at full speed. I extended my defensive barrier on my face and made it a little larger, to contain the air I need to breathe with. With the speed I’m going, the air resistance is just insane and there is no way a normal person can breathe air at this speed.

That still wasn’t enough to stop Yun. She held her breath and started climbing up on me. I made fast turning maneuvers but she still managed to grab hold onto both of my legs firmly. Severing my legs and dropping her from this position would work, but I will lose dangerous volumes of blood as well. After all, I still have yet to learn how healing magic works.

With both of her arms grabbing on my legs, I thought it would be an opportunity to make the single touch to her head, but I soon realized that it was a great mistake.

Before my right hand can reach down far enough to just touch her, Yun grabbed hold of it, yanked it with unnatural strength, and headbutted-

…

“E… Earth? Are you feeling alright?” Warm words filled my ears. I lay once again, in the familiar super-comfortable bed. Ahh… so I’ve been defeated. Challenging Yun? Totally worth it.

“Wake up you lazy human! Get your useless bum up already!” Who’s this rude lady? Oh, it’s just Salty.

“I. Can. Hear. You. You don’t have any pride do you? Defeated, yet so happily asleep!”

“Nggnnhh… just one more minute…”

*BZZAAAP*

Ouch! Dammit Salty when did you learn to use that?!

“Hmph, I’ve got my own ways.”

“What happened! Are you really ok?” Yun exclaimed when she saw me jump out of the bed.

“Yeah… I’m fine. Just a daily internal alarm clock at work you see.”

“Oh… ok…”

“What about you?”

“Me? Oh… I’m fine. Those were some really good moves back there! I guess you Easterners have different ways of utilizing your ki than us. Like how you protruded the ground wherever I went, those invisible swords flying through the air, and that huge hole you made, and also you flying in the air!”

“Mhmm, you were pretty good yourself as well! You just smashed through all that stuff without a single scratch!”

“Oh no, those were only the basics. I’m really good at defense, but that’s not very suitable for taking over Master’s martial arts… I was only able utilize just a small part of his martial arts to the full extent…”

“Then again, how did you know that I’m an Easterner? My clothes?”

“Oh that… Master came back and he told me.”

“That irresponsible and problematic old man came back?”

“You mean me?”

-----