Chapter 55: Worthy Opponent and New Friend
Johnny stood in the middle of the arena. Currently, it was his fight against a Ninth Grade Martial Artist standing in front of him. Before the fight, they bow to each other and introduced themselves.
"Johnny"
"Klink"
"Brother Johnny, you only used thunder magic arts once. Although I don't know your full strength, I still hope you'll use magic instead of his sword while fighting with me." Klink spoke with a smile on his face. His words had a simple meaning; if you want to fight then go all out.
"Sorry, but I have just improved my swordsmanship, so I would like to check whether I can fight someone strong with my sword or not." Johnny shook his head and refused on the spot. He has recently improved his sword, how can he give up such an opportunity to test it.
"Your choice, but don't blame me for not reminding you," Klink spoke in an overbearing manner. Then his aura exploded, and spiritual energy erupts out of his inner space, spreads throughout his body. He knuckles his fist, as he lifted them in front of him.
Johnny was standing there, tightly holding his sword. The sword energy spreads out of his sword veins into his body. These sword veins were condensed with the sword energy itself, and tempered with lots of energy.
Sword Energy spreads out to his bones, and limbs, especially his sword itself. He wanted to see how much stronger is this sword energy. He didn't even use his physical strength, completely suppressing his physical energy.
"Bone Crushing Fist" Klink pressed his feet hard on the ground, giving him a huge lift. His figure rushed like a slingshot. The spiritual energy was condensed in his fist, as he pulls it a little back, gain a strong momentum, and smashed towards Johnny.
The sword energy spreads throughout his sword, Johnny moved by riding on the sword energy. This movement was called Sword Steps. It neither slow nor fast and depends on Swordsman swordsmanship. He learned it from the last four layers of Basic Sword Art.
This layer had three powerful styles of movement, defense, and offense. The first movement style was Sword Counter. This style possesses the power of sword energy into the sharp edge of a sword. This style uses a person's sword energy to absorb half of the opponent's attack and add it to the sword edge for a perfect counter.
As for the impact of another half, the swordsman needs to be able to use the sword counter to absorb half of the attack and counter the enemy another half in a split second. This needs to be extremely fast and fluent.
"Basic Sword Art- Sword Counter"
The edge of the sword was revealed with the intense sword energy, but Klink didn't even flicker. He simply pushed his fist with an extra push, trying to break the sharp edge of a sword. His fist was hard as a bone, at least he believes.
"Bang" "Splash" "Gui" When the sword counter was launched, it absorbed the opponent's attack damage by fifty percent, but Johnny wasn't using his physical strength nor his swordsmanship was fast enough to implement the real meaning of Sword Counter. So he was knocked back with a fist smashing in his chest.
His chest bone didn't break, but it got considerable injuries. Although he coughed the blood, this impact disturbed his sword energy that was suppressing his physical strength. Now his physical strength was back.
But he wasn't the only one who got hurt. A sword slashed in the red of his opponent, a red blood mark appeared. But Klink didn't even care about such injuries. Without holding back, he rolled his spiritual energy into his hands and smashed his palm against Johnny.
"Skull Crushing Palm"
The majestic power erupts out of his palm, the blue spiritual energy transforms into a large spiritual palm emitting out of Klink's palm. This was a spirit rank attack, but Johnny was also prepared for this. Suddenly his sword swings, his golden sword energy turned white.
His body moved, but he was elegant. His sword swings against the palm, each swing cut the spiritual movement. His movement was fast, filled with an intense amount of sword energy that made a thousand cuts within a blink of an eye.
"Crack" "Bang"
"White Leaves Sword Art"
In the next moment, blue palm scattered into pieces and disperse in the air. But both of them didn't stop, neither of them wanted to stop. Klink wanted to break Johnny's confidence, and Johnny wanted to test his sword.
Both used their ultimate attacks nonstop.
"Bone Crushing Fist" "Skull Crushing Palm" Muscles Tearing Hands" "Pulse Breaking Finger"
"White Leaves Sword Art" "Sword Counter" "Instant Sword" "White Leaves Sword Art"
"Bang" "Crack" "Bang" "Crack" "Boom" "Bang" "Crack" "Whoosh" "Bang" "Crack Bang"
At this moment, they collided for more than twenty exchanges. Both of them were fine, but Johnny's sword energy was depleting quickly due to White Leaves Sword Art. Johnny frown over this, he knows it will be bad if he consumes all of his sword energy at once.
After all, it would take a long time to reform these sword veins if they are completed depleted. Thinking of this, Johnny stopped for a moment. Finally, he sighed and spoke, "Well, it seems I can't use the sword to end this battle."
In fact, he found that based on his sword alone he can't defeat Klink but he still wanted to use the sword for a little longer. But as Klink said, he needs magic to win. Until this moment, Johnny had already considered Klink as a worthy opponent and good friend.
He understood his sword energy was good, but it was a lot less than what it should be for a long fight. He knows he needs to constantly widen his sword veins to store more sword energy. Hearing Johnny, Klink stopped for a moment, and then his lips curved in a smile.
"Haha, let's have a better fight than." "Iron Veins"
Klink laughed and shouted. His veins burst with metal energy, condensed into an iron vein. These veins change his body strength completely, as they empowered his muscles and bones together. His physical strength grew up around three times than before.
As for Johnny, he didn't make any special move. The powerful mana spreads throughout his body; he didn't want to reveal much so he simply summoned thunder mana in his body. In his back, a pair of thunder wings were formed, sparkling with rumble.
"Whoosh" Like a bird flying in the sky, his figure moved towards Klink.
"Bang" Like an arrow, Klink also rushed towards Johnny while stomping his feet on the ground. His feet alone created a hole on the ground.
"Bone Crushing Fist" Klink didn't use any other arts. Unlike the previous magician, his level of understanding wasn't very good. So for a great offense, he chose Bone Crushing, Muscles Tearing Martial Art. This art contains many offensive moves that he showed previously.
"Thunder Fist" Johnny also slammed with his thunder fist. His fist was condensed with thunder, filled with intense thunder mana as he slammed against Klink's fist. A fist made out of blue spiritual energy versus a fist made out of blue thunder mana.
"Bang" When both of their fists collide, the overwhelming strength of thunder mana broke the empowered spiritual energy fist. So, Klink fell at disadvantage with a single attack. But his mood wasn't down, he smiled at Fei when he was bombarded with a thunder fist and retreated few meters coming up again with another attack after getting punched by the thunder fist.
"Bone Crushing Fist" "Skull Crushing Palm" Muscles Tearing Hands" "Pulse Breaking Finger"
"Thunder Fist" "Thunder Palm" "Thunder Spear" "Thunder Finger"
From the next collision, both of them continuously collided for more than twenty strikes. Currently, Klink's spiritual energy was almost emptied while Johnny mana was at three-fourth of his total. At this moment, Klink finally asked "Brother Johnny, how can you have such a powerful body?"
"Well, I practiced Real Thunder Body Art." After fighting with Klink for so long, he had quite a good impression on this guy. So Johnny didn't mind telling him about his dual path. Of course, he also knows this won't be a secret for much longer.
Suddenly a thunderstruck Klink's mind, as he asked speechlessly "Doesn't that means you awakened both of magic and martial path?"
"Yep," Johnny answered with a smile.
Finally, Klink fell on deep thought. He smiled with a silly expression thinking how silly his request was at first. But Klink still had his fighting intention, he regained his proud expression and declared "Brother Johnny, I know I won't be able to fight for long, so I will use my strongest attack one last time."
"Alright" Johnny smiled while nodding his head.
"Iron Body" Klink shouted, as his metal energy spreads throughout his body, completely merging with his body. Not just bones or muscles, but every part of his body got filled with endless metal energy.
"Earth Shaking Metal Fist" His fist turned silver, covered with fine iron luster. He roared and slammed towards Johnny.
"Well, your attack is strong." Johnny nodded his head in approval. The thunder mana revolved around his body and condensed towards his stomach. In a flash of a second, a big cannon was formed in front of his stomach. Johnny holds the sides of the cannon with his hands and fired a thunder cannonball.
"Third Stance- Thunder Dragon Cannon" A large ball of thunder, condensed with powerful thunder mana, rushed towards the fist of Klink.
"Bang"