…

As the cuffs were broken, the hand cuff on Blake’s right hand was no more than a piece of scrap metal which was easily broken by him. “Today’s the day you will go down Gale.” Blake said as he flew in the air activating the ‘tier one: Flight’ spell.

“Heh, I’d like to see how you back up your claim.” Gale said with a smirk as he similarly lifted off in the air.

Although Blake said that, he himself wasn’t sure how he’ll defeat Gale. The thing about Gale was that even though he was only at captain level his strength rivaled that of general level people who were one rank above captains.

Blake released a flurry of mana beams at Gale which were with little effort blocked by him. “That it? and here—

Gale in mid-sentence quickly turned back and with his left hand made a flaming shield to block the incoming grey beams. ‘Shit that failed.’ It was a technique Blake had picked up when Alex had devised a plan to escape the encirclement of guards in one of their encounters.

“That’s new stuff, where did you learn that Blake boy?” As soon as Gale finished speaking another flurry of grey beams were shot at him.

“Not in the mood to chat huh, alright then, tier two: Flame Wave!” Gale brandished his sword towards Blake which released waves of mana in the form of flames swallowing his mana beams. Blake quickly made a shield to block them but still some got through and damaged him.

“Tier One: Battle Gauntlets!”

Blake covered his whole body in grey mana and dashed towards Gale, as he did, he held his hands outward and swords in the form of mana formed around his hand acting like a gauntlet. Blake then brandished them at Gale, who deflected every single one of them.

He followed it with a roundhouse kick but was blocked as Gale lifted his left leg up in defense like a muay Thai fighter. Blake immediately punched with both his fists simultaneously like a hurray. One aimed at the face and another at his stomach.

*Clank* *Clank*

Both were deflected by Gale’s sword hitting on his gauntlets.

Smirking Gale immediately followed with a straight kick to his stomach. “Tier Two: Fire Combat” Just as Gale’s kick was about to make contact Blake blocked it by crossing his arms while using his gauntlets as a shield. However, upon contact a flaming explosion took place as it threw Blake several meters back. He somehow managed to stabilize himself in midair.

“Tier Three: Little Sun!”  Gale then held up his hand and made a huge flaming red ball. He released it towards Blake. Its speed had increased more than before when he had used it against Blake and Alex the first time. After that he kicked off his right foot in the air as he quickly moved some four meter behind Blake.

The earlier spell of fire combat gave Gale a massive boost in speed along with explosiveness whenever he made contact. This made it possible for him to quickly appear behind him.

“Tier Three: Concentrated Slash!” Gale roared as a fiery aura covered his sword and began to rise upwards. This was the same spell he had used to destroy the cuffs.

Blake was caught in a pincer attack and had nowhere to run.

He was about to release a wave from his body to hold off both the attacks as a last resort, when suddenly Alex’s spoken words came to his mind from some days back when they were nearly cornered by some soldiers.

…

Alex, “If we can’t defeat them head on then we’ll fight in our own way. The winner is the one who remains standing last on the battlefield even if he is not the strongest.”

…

Suddenly a grin found its way to Blake’s face as he experienced a flash back. ‘Damn human making me remember such things.’

Blake suddenly used his flash technique but this time the flash was much bigger and brighter and it came from Blake’s body. It worked and blinded Gale who had closed his eyes shut. “Don’t think such petty tricks can work on me, I can still sense your aura.” Gale said as he got ready to launch his attack.

But when he tried to sense Blake’s aura, it was completely dispersed, it seemed to him like he was everywhere, unsure of what was happening Gale wasted time and was holding the attack longer than he can. So, he immediately launched it at Blake’s direction without aiming properly. As a result, his aim was off and the flame attack cut through his flaming ball.

Gale was startled by this outcome and had let his guard down, Blake in that few seconds came from top of him with a fist covered in grey mana and was 10 times the size of his normal fist.

“Tier Three: Giant!” Blake slammed it into the startled captain, as his body shot down like an arrow creating a 20-meter-deep crater with Gale at the center, lying unconscious.

Blake fell on the ground breathing heavily. He had used up almost all of his mana in his last hit. He lay there for a few minutes with his eyes closed but when he suddenly opened his eyes, he got a shock as he couldn’t help but smile bitterly.