'Yes, this can only be luck. After all, the shorty can't even use his mana,' Zolar thought to himself then took a few steps toward Zan. He raised his hand and swung it, wanting to slap Zan; however, the boy not only did block his attack but also punched him in his side. Zolar frowned, and it was easy to see on his face how painful the blow was to him, yet he didn't even take a single step back.

When Zolar saw the incoming fist, he extended his mana around his body and created a reddish, thin protection layer, which worked just like armor and absorbed two-third of the strike. He looked calm, maybe even a little angry on the outside; however, on the inside, he was a bit frightened, because despite using his mana, the punch still made a pair of his ribs ache. This wasn't his first battle in his life, and ever since he awakened, he fought with many youngsters and even adults, yet he never once felt any pain from their strikes. Until now, Zolar was always the one who made others suffer and never the opposite way around. After all, he was an awakened human being who was many times stronger than his average companions. But now, for the first time in a fight, he felt pain, and that scared him.

Zan, however, didn't give his opponent too much time to think and attacked him immediately with a barrage of punches.

This left Zolar with no other option than to defend himself. He raised his arms to protect his head and tried to endure the strikes.

Zan used every bit of power he had in his attacks, and his every single punch became heavier and stronger than the ones before. However, he quickly ran out of strength, and soon he was gasping after air. As he was taking a break, he looked at his fists and saw that almost all of his knuckles were bleeding. He even forgot that he was in the middle of a battle.

This was a big mistake because for the few seconds that Zan didn't pay attention was more than enough time for Zolar to get his revenge, and with a quick uppercut, he made the boy fly a few feet in the air. 

After a moment of hovering, Zan fell to the ground, and even though he wanted to stand up quickly, Zolar didn't let him. 

Without showing any pity, Zolar kicked Zan again and again, taking all of his anger out on the boy. But he didn't use his fists against Zan, not even once, as his arms were numb from all of the blows that he received from the boy.

"Leave him alone." Liria stepped in front of Zolar.

The young smith, however, didn't have any patience to listen to Liria's words, and with the back of his hand, he gave her such a slap that she immediately lost her conciseness and collapsed. Right now, Zolar couldn't be bothered by her pestering, and he continued kicking Zan to relieve his anger.

After a short while, when Zolar saw that Zan could no longer lift his arm to defend himself, he kicked the boy one last time. Feeling proud of himself for defeating his opponent, he was just about to leave when he saw a shiny sword pendant slipping out from Zan's shirt. This immediately grabbed his attention. In his eyes, the red jewelry looked well-made and expensive. 'I could sell it for a lot of silver or maybe even a few gold ones.' With these thoughts in his mind, he crouched down and reached out for the pendant.

But before Zolar could touch the necklace, Zan grabbed the young man's arm. "I won't let you."

"You think you have a saying in this? Now I'll take your necklace, and then I'll take Liria, and you can't do anything about it," frowned Zolar and tried to free his hand out of the boy's grip, but despite all of his effort, he couldn't move his arm. Since his right wrist was held tightly, all he could do was to punch Zan in the face, so he swung his fist.

*crack*