The air swirled violently around the two of them, a vortex of dust and tension. Taka threw his sword aside, yanked off his shirt, and tied it around his waist with a sharp tug. He cracked his knuckles, his muscles twitching in anticipation.
"Since you can use mana separately with those gloves etched with small mana crystals... then I can go all out!!" Taka shouted. His voice echoed across the training fields as red mana burst from his body, swirling around him in a rage-fueled blaze.
Dante met his gaze, firm and unflinching. "Agreed. Let's settle this. Like real men."
He stepped forward. So did Taka.
Each footstep came faster and heavier, their pace turning into a sprint, their fists glowing with mana as they charged at one another.
"DAANNTEEE!!!" roared Taka.
"TAAKKKAAA!!!!" Dante screamed back.
Their fists collided.
A shockwave exploded from the impact, cracking the earth beneath them in a spiderweb pattern. Dust surged into the air as the sheer force of the collision shook the training grounds.
"Hyaa!!" Taka lunged again, thrusting forward with a feral strike, but Dante countered with a precise hand motion, deflecting it.
"Good thing I still remember Wing Chun techniques from my previous life," Dante thought, seizing the advantage. He caught Taka's arm and unleashed a storm of rapid strikes—
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
His fists moved like rain on glass.
"So fast..." Zhurong murmured from the sidelines, watching in awe as the two boys clashed like titans.
Taka gritted his teeth and caught one of Dante's rapid palms, twisting into a counterstrike. They engaged in a brutal dance of fists and instinct, blocking, dodging, striking—again and again.
"How is that trash this fast...?" Avabel muttered from afar, eyes wide in disbelief as she saw her nephew Taka struggling.
The two combatants leapt across the field, zigzagging like shadows, each blow echoing louder, heavier. They were blurs now, the sound of cracking bones and earth shaking as the fight escalated.
Then—
CRACK!
Both landed devastating punches at the same time, sending each other flying in opposite directions.
Silence. Dust. Bruises.
Dante and Taka lay on the ground, chests heaving.
Taka groaned and rolled onto his side. His eyes locked on the twin daggers glinting near the training fields armory wall.
Metal.
He pushed himself up and staggered toward them. Grabbing the blades, he channeled mana into them until the daggers erupted in flame, glowing like twin embers.
"YOU'RE DEAD!!!" Taka roared, launching at Dante, who was still getting up.
"HIYAAA!!!!!—?!"
CLANG!!!
A massive clang rang out. Taka was sent crashing through the wall of the art classroom, rubble flying everywhere.
"The hell was that?!!!"
He coughed up blood as he sat up, stunned.
Dante stood tall, daggers formed on mana from his mana crystal now in hands—black, crimson, and deep violet. His chest rose and fell heavily as mana shimmered around him.
"Your kidding me!!!" Taka though in rage of the impossible as he see's Dante's twin daggers chained his wrist. His teeth are gritted very hard in furious.
"No way this is possible!!!" Taka mental state was increasing within him as more mana surged out in rage, flowing into his fire daggers.
"Huh! Huh! Huh!" Dante caught his breath, then smiled with a smear of little blood on his lips.
"GET OVER HERE, TAKAAA!!!"
"DON'T GIVE ME THIS CRAP!!!"
Yelled Taka in a wrathful shouting tone, throat dry a little.
Flames exploded under Taka's feet as he dashed forward, daggers blazing.
"RRRAAAWWWRRR!!!!!"
Dante did the same, matching him.
"RRRAAAGGGHHH!!!!"
Clang! Cling! Clang! Clang! Cling!
Their daggers met with a frenzy of sparks. The way of their running was on par of the speed of a stage five mana foundation user.
Mana swirled around them, igniting the training field with chaotic power. Fire spiraled into whirlwinds. Lightning cracked in the distance.
The crowd could barely follow.The fight between mana and a manaless.
Each swing became more reckless, more furious. Taka's fire magic burned with molten rage, while Dante moved with instinctive precision, relying on memory, reflex, will and his black leather gloves etched with small mana crystals.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Their movements mirrored those of seasoned warriors in a battlefield—blades flying, sparks dancing, air twisting with the intensity of their strikes.
BOOM!
A dagger strike burst the ground, sending both fighters flipping mid-air. Taka spun and landed with a burst of fire. Dante slid across the ground, dragging one blade to anchor himself as he wields the chain etched in it.
"Damn it," Dante thought. "If this keeps going, the training fields is gonna be in ruins!"
Taka sensed the hesitation and struck. One of Dante's daggers went flying as Dante got cut right on the right side of his face, damaging his right eye as blood was spluring out a little from his head.
"DIE LIKE YOUR MOTHERLY WHORE!!!" Taka shrieked, eyes wild with bloodlust, lunging in for the kill.
Dante spat out a small vial.
It hit Taka's flaming dagger—
"The hell—?!"
BOOM!!!
A burst of black powder exploded, dazzling the field like fireworks. The crowds scream in fear and awe but Taka screamed and leapt back in grimmacing pain of burnt on his skin.
"RRRAAGGGHHH!!!!"
But Dante was already moving.
He grabbed the fallen dagger—with his teeth—and launched forward, slicing open Taka's chest in a single motion.
"YOU TRASHHH!!!" Taka bellowed, enraged. He swung again. And again. So did Dante as he took the dagger out his mouth and into his hand.
Their blades clashed at lightning speed. Mana burst from every impact, each strike carving into the earth, gouging deep scars into the field. Fire engulfed the sky above them. Smoke, dust, and chaos consumed the battlefield.
Zhurong stood still, hands clasped tightly.
Lytharis joined her, lips moving in silent prayer.
Thud! Clang! Crack!
The boys were at each other's throats, their eyes wild, clothes torn, blood staining their skin.
"RRRAAAHHH!!!"
Cling! Clang! Cling! Clang!
"RRRAGGGGHHHHH!!!"
Bish!! Krsh!! Bish!! Krsh!!
"RRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!"
BOOM!!! BAM!!! CLING!!! BOOM!!! CLANG!!! KRSH!!! CLANG!!! BOOM!!!
They screamed in unison. Both fighters fought on equal ground in a whirlwind of chaos. Each speed was another to be trifle within its domain between them.
Fina and Simon, the two personnal bodyguard's of Lady Diana Ruthwilfer and the patriach, Will Ruthwilfer, made it in time but was too late. "By mera's mercy..... ." Fina was gasped, Simon, ever the stoic bodyguard for Will Ruthwilfer was eyes widened. This was no spar. This was a battle to the death.
Fina open's her magic crystal communicator quickly and called Lady Diana. But instead, she accidentally put in world clan view.
The screen was now displayed ginormously at the Ruthwilfer estate. The nobles and noblesses eyes were stunned and shocked to witness two Ruthwilfer teenagers were fighting like no Ruthwilfer's in the family ever had. Will Ruthwilfer sees the death battle between Dante and Taka.
Evan gripped his hand in fistful but with pride to see Taka, his son grown more powerful. "That's my boy." He muttered whiperingly under his breath, grinning.
But the must shock was Lady Diana. Her eyes fixed only on Dante, his beaten up body, the chained daggers wielding on him. But mana-like.
She thought Dante has already awaken his mana foundation but she notice where the mana was coming from. His black leather gloves etched in small mana crystals.
"Such destruction these two are giving." Lady Diana muttered to herself.
Back at the training field. The battle intensify on each of their own accord.
"Don't stop! Keep pushing me!" Dante urged himself mentally. "KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!!"
They poured every drop of mana, every shred of their souls, into one final blow.
"DIIIIEEEE!!!" screamed Taka.
"RAAAAGHHH!!!" yelled Dante.
BOOOOOM!!!
The daggers collided. The world shattered.
Wind burst across the training field like a hurricane. The sky went black with smoke. Students and spectators screamed as the battlefield was engulfed in a cyclone of fire, wind, and shattered ground.
And then—silence.
The smoke cleared.
Two figures.
One standing.
One on the ground.
Zhurong and Lytharis held their breaths, hands trembling.
"Please! Please! Dante..." Zhurong whispered.
And then—
Dante stood tall.
Bruised. Cut. Bloodied. But victorious.
Taka lay unconscious, sprawled in the cratered earth.
Their daggers were bent, warped beyond repair. Their flames extinguished.
Dante's black leather gloves were half destroyed as well and his daggers dissapperd since it was formed by mana by his gloves. "Meh, I can fix that." He said to himself. "Or I can just make a new one.
Slowly, a clap echoed.
Zhurong.
Then Lytharis.
Then more.
The field erupted in cheers and shouts. Victory. Survival.
Dante raised one arm, grinning through the blood.
Victorious.
But that victorious was fastly interuptted by a mana blast and another again and again. Rains on powerful blast crashes at the academy.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dante and the crowds got caught in the explosions. He was coughing up blood. He looks around, blood, bruises, cry's, it was in despair as the some students were injured, others tend to help others. The teachers tried to get everyone to safety.
He looked at the academy, though was still standing. It was barely about the be destroy.
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
A slowed clap can be heard from afar as Dante looked up to see a figure. A tall giant and muscular figure. Human looking with blonde hair with a stoic swagger-like tone. But screams to run in Dante's mind.
"I'm impressed, for a human." The figure said. "Quite the show for a manaless child such as yourself, Dante Ruthwilfer."
Dante eyes were widened. How does this figure know his name. "Who—Cough! Are you? Cough!" Dante staggered up a little. Blood coughing out of his mouth.
"Ah! Where are my manners." He said in a demonic yet presenting tone. "Its our first time meeting but I heard a lot about you from Lustia, The Sinner of Lust." He chuckled evilly.
The figure stepped forward and the fog cleared his presences.
A demon appear. One that was on the a power higher than Lustia, The Sinner of Lust of the Demon clan.
"The name's Domikhael, The Sin of Pride of the Demon Clan." He said to Dante face to face.
"And I came for her." Domikhael pointed at Dante's behind. He turned to see who he pointed.
The person he pointed should never be pointed infront of Dante was.
Lytharis, the silver haired elf girl. And Dante's first friend he ever made in the Academy.
---
Chapter 21 — End.