Free The Beginning After The End (New Heights Book 2) by TurtleMe Page A

class Adventurers, and that’s just a rough estimate.
     
    He
should be one of the pinnacles of strength amongst humans.  Even Gramps
would be considered only AA class after going into his second beast form.
     
    “His
sponsor has deep ties with me so I feel obligated to test him personally.”
 He chuckles as his right hand reaches towards a thin rapier on his waist.
     
    “Let
us begin.”

Chapter
28:   Changes In Dicathen

 
 
    I unsheathe
the short sword and hold it in front of me with one hand.  The
various sounds around the coliseum are soon drowned out as I focus solely on
the opponent in front of me.

 
    He’s making
figure eights with his rapier while his left hand is in his
pocket.  Yet, he has no openings.  He’s not even trying to
hide his killing intent while he’s smiling innocently at me.  My mind
flashes back to my old world’s dueling arena.  I didn’t think I’d
find someone like him so soon, someone capable of making me
excited.  This should be different from sparring with Gramps.

 
    “Please
prepare yourself.  I wouldn’t want the person Miss Flamesworth is
sponsoring to lose too quickly.”

 
    He blinks
and instantly closes the gap as his rapier cuts a few pieces of hair above my
left ear.

 
    “Nice
dodge.”  He winks as he recoils his rapier, preparing for his next
move.

 
    *Clang*

 
    I block his
second thrust with the end of my handle, using the momentum to spin my body.

 
    Kaspian
leans back, dodging my swing but a small cut appears across the tip of his
nose.

 
    He looks
surprised for a bit but instantly regains focus.  Not giving him a
chance to fully recover, I follow up with a roundhouse kick to his leg.

 
    *BOOM*

 
    His sheath
stops the force of my reinforced kick.  In that split second, he was
able to use his other hand to reposition his sheath to block my attack.

 
    The force of
my kick to his sheath creates a small dust cloud around us and he uses that
opportunity to gain distance.

 
    “I must
apologize for underestimating you.  I shall be a bit more serious
now.”

 
    His innocent
gaze gleams a bit with murderous intent as his rapier glows with a silvery hue.

 
    He lunges at
the air in front of him and all of a sudden I’m hit in the arm with something
hard.

 
    “You managed
to partly dodge that as well.  Seems like Miss Flamesworth has picked
up someone worthwhile.”

 
    I look down
to see a gash in my left arm.

 
    He was
aiming for my heart! I only managed to dodge on pure instinct.  He’s
releasing too much of his killing intent.  Is he doing it on purpose?

 
    I curse at
my body.  Every time I fight, I still can’t help but feel restricted.

 
    He lunges
his rapier two more times, but I know what’s coming.

 
    *Fwoosh*  *Fwoosh*

 
    He’s
creating spears of wind with his thrusts.  The difficulty in dodging
it comes from the spears being close to invisible.  I’ll have to rely
on sound and timing to dodge, but I have to decrease the distance between us
while doing so.

 
    He had the
advantage of a longer reach and a much bigger mana supply than
me.  In this body, I’m not confident enough to even say that I have
the advantage in terms of technique.  My body just doesn’t listen to
me as well as I want it to.    The only advantage I could think of was my body being a lot tougher than
his thanks to assimilating with Sylvia’s Dragon Will.

 
    I dodge one
spear of wind while the other one lightly grazes my right arm as I close the
distance between us.

 
    It’s evident
that both of our sword techniques consist of speed and agility.

 
    I embed my
shortsword in fire, releasing an arc of flames with my swing.

 
    With a
simple swing of his rapier, a gust of wind blows the fire away, but that’s what
I wanted him to do.

 
    Flicker
Step.

 
    A technique
focusing fire affinity mana into the sole of your foot in rapid succession,
gaining instantaneous