NOVPUBA high density of colours swirled in the air like rainbows, surging upwards over the man's head as it combined, mixing, twisting and curling in a palette of harmony.
It took shape, its length sturdy and elongated, forming a giant blade the size of a statue.
It cast a dark shade over the Burly man as he looked up, his teeth glaring out in rage.
His arms finally set free from the taunting black whips of the inks as the blade descended for a powerful slice.
It slammed against the man just as his arms were over his head to block the strike, the impact sending a concentric shockwave in the air.
It pulsed through his body, rattling his bones as blood oozed out of his lips, trickling down to his chin.
In a fury, he pushed it away, a groan escaping his lips as he did so.
Mana warped around him, green energy forming a dome with a bull's horn projecting from the top.
His gaze whipped to Rita as she descended, his arms curling into a fist as he charged at her.
At that moment, the giant sword made an impossibly twisted curve in the air, swinging its blade in the air like a thin thread and bringing the brunt of its force against the man in a sudden quake.
The Burly man groaned in pain and shock, a pulse wave igniting from the impact as he was sent back to the ground.
He crashed into it, an explosion of rocks occurring as a crater formed.
The walls trembled from the force, groaning with intensity as water pipes protruded out of rocks, wood splinters sticking out from their corners.
Destruction near its peak.
Rita had a moment to glance around, her expression easing with the intrusion of her thoughts.
'Should we keep fighting in here? We could get buried alive.'
A whiff of the air blurred past her, and with a spin of her head, she sighted Raph making his way to the ground.
'They don't care?'
Raph crashed into the ground with a loud thud, ice crackling as a mist of frost exuded from his body.
The ground cracked, irrational tears tracing across it as the Burly man jumped out of it.
Their gazes locked at that moment, a blur of tension following as they charged at one another at a sudden speed.
The world quaked, energy outflowing as concentric shockwaves protruded from their impact.
The Burly man welded a small shield on one hand and a flail on the other. Its spiked mace head is twice as large as an average human's head, with an extended chain bulging out of the Silver rod.
He swung his weapon through the air, white arcs tracing his movement as it collided with Raph's double-edged katana, a swirl of energy exuding from the impact.
They struck again and again, their speed shooting up like an accelerator on an automobile, their feet anchored to the ground, and their hands a blur to the eyes.
They moved with the precision and skills of a Warrior and knight.
Their weapons were an extension of their thoughts, their vast battle techniques and experience exuded in the flow of their movement. Each strike, each swing leading to a greater cause– one of victory.
Raph was like a flowing dragon, his footwork etched with the hard work of his deep understanding and training, his swordsmanship quick, precise, powerful. Taking the weight of the swordsmanship of the Jun household, which represented strength, consumption and precision.
The weight that followed the strength of the swing of his sword was no joke, and the finality of every action shattered the fighting style of their opponent.
Giving way, making openings for the consumption of their opponent.
This was how the Jun swordsmanship worked, the three swords of the Hexagon. Strength, Precision and Consumption.
The Burly man was unaware of this and simply fought with his own understanding. The northern battle style. Warped, transfigured, evolved time and time again in the north with each passing win in a battle.
He was the epitome of brutality and strength, his flail swinging majestically with an irksome tendency to break bones.
Yet, he was being fought back, pushed back, consumed by the very thing he had sought to brutally defeat.
'What is this? This manner of swordsmanship? Why can I not find a way through?'
The Jun household was known as the Knights of the North, battle-worn fighters born with the superhuman gift of the gods. Or so the story went, but truly—
'They are not of the north!'
His flail grew heavier, sturdier, and precise.
Sparks of aqua and emerald igniting in the air, concentric waves of air pulsed within strikes, blood and body burning within, energy suffusing through like hot lava in their veins.
He groaned, veins popping on the side of his neck, muscles clenching, tendons tearing. He wanted to win– Brutal and savage! That was his calling.
The sparks flew, their weapons clawing, moaning with a desperate plea as they struck against one another, their desperate attempt to cleave in the other revealing itself as ear-tearing screeches! Metal against metal.
The fight from afar was captivating, eyes-bulging, brain-stimulating and most especially, too fast.
Rita descended in the air, her feet planted on a rectangular boulder as it coursed through the sky, the wind sliding along her skin.
Her hair was waving behind her, and her dark night dress was hovering with intensity against the agitating wind.
It whirled, reaching her knee, and sliding back down, hovering around her as she kept her gaze locked on the battle below.
'They're locked in again.'
After watching it occur more times than she could count, that was the word she used to describe it.
Their bodies moved in blurs, weapons colliding, silver lines tracing their blades and mace, energy pulsating with each strike.
There was no space.
'Oh fuck it! How am I supposed to help if you keep locking in?!'
For some reason, she suspected Raph was fighting purposely on equal footing with the man.
After all, there was much more strength that he had revealed, perhaps made use of in the past.
'As someone who watched him in the Battle of the Great Families, I find this highly difficult to believe…..why is he fighting on equal footing?'
Suddenly, a shimmer of light sparked in her eyes, her gaze narrowing as she caught a whiff of Raph glancing at her mid-battle. A smirk on his face.
Her eyes bulged open in shock.
'Did he just glance at me? While fighting like that?!'
She giggled as she jumped off the boulder, hovering in the air and cartwheeled mid-air.
'What a way to disrespect your opponent, Raph.'
She giggled as she whipped her paintbrush in the air, black colour plastering around it.
"Come here, my soldiers!" She said with a smirk on her face.
The air around her warped, a sudden poof of smoke forming as a Japanese-styled sliding door formed.
Long palm branches and storks painted across the wooden structure as it surrounded her like a shield.
"Vinci Book of Arts: 4th Painting: Legion of the Four Armed Warrior." 𝔫𝖔𝖛𝖕𝖚𝔟.𝖈𝖔𝔪
A ting rang in the air as the doors slid open, assuming the function of a Portal as a white light hid behind the doors.
Silver armoured figures, Centurions of Valour, shot out from the white light, their magnanimous size threatening to break the small-sized doors.
They stretched their arms forward as they emerged out like zombies, a blinding light striking against their silver armours.
A spear, silver, regal, filled with the intensity of the light, glowed with magnificence.
It's ethereal beauty showcased in the artistry of the spear's design. It was large as a pole, a steel beam, exuding a glinting brilliance.
Each pulled their weapon back and, in unison, swung it through the air. It rippled, cracking the sound barrier as it projected at the fighting duo within half a quarter of a heartbeat.
Raph smirked at the Burly man as his body warped in the air, dispersing like the wind and appearing next to Rita in the following second.
The latter whipped her head towards him, her gaze widening slightly as her mouth hung open.
'How fast is he?'
The man's face twisted in confusion as well, his jaws opened slightly as he stared at Raph while the descending projectiles whipped through the air.
With a startled, yet measured movement, he ran across the dirt on the ground, a metallic ring erupting as the first spear slammed into the ground. It immersed within, causing a crack that spread like wildfire across the ground.
The man twirled to the left, jumping away as another crashed on his former spot, the ring erupting in his ear as he winced in pain.
He shook his head, landing with a sudden thud and pulling himself back up as another struck the former position, the ring echoing even louder. Projected by the former two.
It was like the war cries of a trumpet in a battlefield were played again and again, each louder, sturdier, firmer and stronger than the last.
The spear would recoil on slamming the ground, reverberating with its own intensity while the cracks spread even more.
The earth slowly gave way to the brutality of its treatment.
The man continued to run across the crumbling earth, dodging and evading the incoming spears, barely evading the corrosion of sound that followed.
Rita and Raph hovered in the air, controlling their descent when Rita glanced around and turned to Raph.
"We can't keep fighting here! The building is giving in….it will collapse to its finality soon."
Raph scoffed, pulling his arms across his chest to his shoulders.
"Stop worrying about meagre things."
Ice crept in his fist as he gripped it tight, aura revolving violently around it.
'Everything is Ice.'
He swung his arms across the air, a chilling breeze sweeping through the crumbling building as ice manifested to life. It climbed itself, crawling upwards on the walls while pulling the weight of the building.
The building staggered, rocks suddenly hung in the air as the ice spread like cancer, locking them in a tight, frozen formation.
It continued, warping, shimmering, and crackling until it froze the collapse shut in the process.
Rita glanced around in shock, her shoulders jerking as a wry chuckle escaped his lips.
She turned towards Raph as they landed on a raised frozen platform, a cold steam exuding from the edge of his lips as they rushed after the Burly man.
He muttered quietly.
"Eternal Frost."
Yet she heard it vividly.
With a smile, she glanced away as her thoughts reeled in.
'He's so fucking cool! Literally!'
