A Worthy Opponent

"So what brings you all the way out here, Aleksander Ryback?"

Aleksander smiled.

"I heard that the legendary warrior of the Superd was nearby, so I decided to kill him. Killing a legendary warrior like him will help spread my name as a hero."

I frowned at him. Truth be told, I had expected him to be after me. It would seem that Hitogami could not convince him to target some random child, so he sent him after Ruijerd, knowing I would fight to protect him.

"How pathetic. You think killing someone weaker than you just to spread your name is something a hero would do?"

Aleksander sneered at me.

"It doesn't matter if he is weaker than me. The Superd are known and feared throughout the entire world. Killing their strongest warrior will etch my name in history for thousands of years to come."

"You will be remembered as a weakling and a coward. Once I'm through with you I will spread word of how you attacked an innocent man from behind, only to get yourself killed by a child."

"Hahaha! You think you can defeat me? Then come at me, small fry!"

I raised my right hand and pointed it towards him, conjuring a stone cannon. The stone spun around at incredible speed and was made as dense as I possibly could without putting too much stress on my body.

Aleksander stood there and watched with a smile on his face as I readied my spell. After a few seconds, I fired it off at maximum speed.

Aleksander continued to smile as he activated his magic sword, King Dragon Sword Kajakut, to bend the trajectory of my stone cannon a way from him.

The moment he activated Kajakut, however, I could see the flow of mana it generated with my magic power eye. Using my left hand, I immediately cast gravity magic at the same strength and in the opposite direction to counter Aleksander's.

Aleksander's eyes went wide in shock as his control of gravity was countered and he jumped to the side, swinging his sword around to help twist his body faster.

Unfortunately for him, due to the extreme speed I had fired my stone cannon at, he was not able to parry it in time and the stone struck him in his left shoulder, destroying the left side of his black armour and severely damaging his left arm.

Aleksander leapt back a couple feet, but I didn't give him time to regain his bearings. I fired off three more stone cannons in quick succession.

Aleksander parried all three with his greatsword, and lowered his stance, presumably to lunge at me. Before he could push off the ground, he noticed that he had begun sinking into it. I had conjured quagmire at his feet with my other hand while maintaining the volley of stone cannons.

He continued to parry each of my stone cannons as he sank further into the quagmire. He tried to lift himself out of the quagmire with gravity control, but I saw it coming with my Demon Eyes, and countered it with gravity magic of my own.

"Aaaaaaaaargh!", Aleksander yelled, as he swung his greatsword down into the quagmire at full force.

A massive amount of debris was launched into the air. I could see mud, dirt, and leaves all floating as I lost sight of Aleksander.

In the next moment, I saw Aleksander come at me from the side with my eye of foresight. I conjured two extremely dense stone lances to counter his sword swing. I could see him doing an unnatural 180 degree rotation in the air, but countered it using my own gravity magic, resulting in Aleksander striking the stone lances.

He cut through the first like butter, and destroyed the second, although not with as clean of a cut.

Thankfully the stone lances slowed his strike enough that I was able to leap back out of the way. Aleksander wasn't finished though as he had immediately followed up with a side kick.

I fired a stone cannon at him in response, which he directed out of the way with his gravity control. Despite the fact that I did not counter him this time, Aleksander cancelled his side kick and spun around to parry the stone cannon with his greatsword.

It seems that even if I don't react in time to counter his gravity control, the fact that Aleksander has seen me do so multiple times now has led to him second guessing himself, forcing him to prepare to block incoming strikes manually.

Aleksander jumped back a couple feet as I did the same. Both of us were breathing heavily and took a moment to catch our breath.

He stood up straight and looked at me.

"I apologize for calling you a small fry. It seems like I may have found a worthy opponent after all."

Immediately afterwards, Aleksander lunged back towards me and continued his assault. Despite using such a large greatsword, his movements were quick and precise. Thankfully, possibly due to my having damaged his left arm, he has been wielding the sword with only his right hand.

Quick and precise as his movements were, I could see them. Unlike the sword of light from a master of the sword god style, I could clearly see Aleksander's attacks and therefore react to them.

The problem was that each strike had incredibly weight behind it. Not only that, but Aleksander was constantly attacking from impossible angles, moving through 3D space freely using his gravity control.

I was able to counter his gravity control occasionally, but it was difficult to do so continually as doing so would restrict me to casting one spell at a time and restricted me to defense only.

Aleksander continued his assault as it took everything I had to survive. I was using my eye of foresight to predict his attacks and used my magic to disrupt them.

The longer we fought, the less I relied on projectile attacks such as stone cannon. I found that spells such as earth lance or earth hedgehog which conjured earth up from the ground were more effective at evading his gravity control.

From an outside perspective, it might seem like I had the upper hand.

Aleksander had yet to land a single blow on me, while I have been slowly chipping away at him. Occasionally, our exchanges would end with Aleksander being struck by an earth lance, or suffering a glancing blow from a stone cannon.

However, the truth was that I was surviving by the skin of my teeth. Every blow I landed on Aleksander seemed to inflict minor damage, but all it would take was a single strike for him to kill me.

"Ugh!", Aleksander moaned as he was caught on the chin by an earth lance from below.

I followed up the attack, striking him three times in the chest with quick stone cannons, sending him reeling back.

"Enough of this!"

Aleksander jumped back to regain some distance.

He lifted his bloody left hand up and clasped the hilt of his greatsword, pointing it up at the sky.

"Brought about by both hands, a life is lost, leaving only death with but one intent..."

At this point, I realized that I had begun floating in the air. Not just me, but the leaves and scattered rocks, everything was floating upwards.

I could see the mana flowing from his greatsword, Kajakut. It was incredibly dense, and the mana spread out all round him, about twenty meters in diameter. I couldn't disrupt the mana, it was far too dense.

"Secret Technique: Gravity Rupture."

Aleksander swung his sword down and all the dense mana above me came crashing down.

As I began falling back down, I raised my left hand and cast gravity magic upwards to counter the force coming down on me. I strained as hard as I possibly could. I could feel a strong pull in my left arm as I was nearing my limit.

But it wasn't enough. At this rate I would be killed.

I pushed even more mana into my spell. My arm felt like it would explode, and then I felt the pull in my shoulder, and then chest.

Even that wasn't enough to counter the King Dragon Sword Kajakut. The gravity finally hit me, forcing me down to my knees as I struggled not to be pressed into the ground. I felt my bones cracking under the pressure.

Shortly afterward, the burst of gravity subsided and I immediately used wind magic to propel myself forwards towards Aleksander at high speeds. I felt my already fractured legs breaking under the stress.

Aleksander seemed surprised that I had survived his trump card and was caught off guard as I torpedoed towards him.

As I flew towards him I gathered as much mana as I could in my right arm, so much so that it felt like I was once again approaching my limit.

I saw my arm fly from my body with my eye of foresight, but I pressed on anyway. This was an all or nothing attack. If I didn't finish him off here, I was as good as dead.

As soon as I reached him, I fired off my stone cannon at point blank range. At that same moment I felt a sharp pain as my arm flew from my body.

Aleksander, who had just swung his sword down with all his might for his gravity rupture attack, severed my arm near the shoulder with an upwards swing.

BOOM!

A large explosion echoed through the forest as Aleksander was struck directly in the chest by the strongest stone cannon I have ever fired.

He looked down and reached for his torso, only to find a huge hole where his chest should have been.

I staggered backwards, my right arm severed and my left arm destroyed when I countered Aleksander's trump card.

Aleksander fell backwards with a thud as the light left his eyes, revealing the path of destruction my stone cannon left behind him. A path through the trees had been opened up in a straight line as far as the eye could see.

I fell to my knees, breathing heavily, but as I did so, my lips curled up into a smile.

'I won.'