Father vs Son 2

Instantly, a burst of wind erupted from Rudeus' chest, blasting both Paul and Rudeus himself away from each other. This served the dual function of opening up the distance between them and disorienting Paul.

Once Rudeus landed on his feet a fair distance away from Paul, he glanced at the sword that had been smacked out of his hands. He wouldn't have the time to go pick it up but that sword was just a decoration anyways.

"Ice Sword." He muttered under his breath while emitting out of his palm, shaping it into a long, rectangular form before the accumulated mana solidified and materialized a sword that seemed like it was sculpted from ice. The edge was sharp, but still radiated cold mist like dry ice.

Their prior agreement to use blunt, wooden swords so as to avoid any accidental lethal injuries seemed to have been forgotten by the child in his excitement.

Paul re-centered himself and stared at Rudeus who had just created a new sword. Then, he moved.

The older Greyrat dashed towards his son, his sword, though a little worn down from Rudeus' buzzsaw Wind spell, held diagonally infront of him reminiscent to a mobile Water God stance, which by itself was an immobile set of techniques. This was Paul's advantage, his ability to incorporate the best qualities from all three sword styles into a single form that suit him the most.

Rudeus swung his ice sword, which was somehow able to immediately defrost and turn into a whip of liquid water, with more volume than one would have previously thought from the frozen blade.

The water whip flew towards Paul at sonic speed, and from the older Greyrat's eyes he could see the tip of the whip distinctively still frozen, like a knife attached to the very tip of a whip.

'Rudy is crazy dangerous!' Paul cautioned to himself, while swinging his blade to deflect the icicle blade connected to the water whip with a sharp "Clang!".

Undeterred, Rudeus moved his arm again, letting the water whip convulse in mid-air before the tip flew towards Paul once more. This time, however, before Paul could block the ice knife, the solid blade at the tip of the whip instantly defrosted once more while harmlessly splashing over Paul's body and his sword.

The older Greyrat's eyes widened. He glanced at Rudeus who put out his palm in a smile, no longer holding the water whip which had all lost its structure to collapse as just water on Paul.

Paul instantly reacted putting his right palm on his left shoulder and tried to sweep all the water off him in one large motion. However, a burst of mana stopped him in his tracks.

"Freeze." Rudeus uttered, concentrating on the water that was covering Paul. This was one of the starter Beginner-level Water magic spell many magicians learnt alongside Water Ball when they first started their magic training. Unlike Water Ball which had a distinctively offensive nature, Freeze was instead highly situational. Most mages used this spell more often to chill their drinks during hot days in the summer than for practical combat.

It was moments like these that made the mostly neglected Freeze still be regarded as an Attacking type spell.

The water on Paul's body rapidly solidified into frost, severely lowering Paul's body temperature and inhibiting his movements. Of course, expecting just a shallow layer of ice to completely freeze Paul who was covered from head to toe in Mana Reinforcement would just be wishful thinking as the older man shattered the thin ice on him with just a flex of his muscles.

Damnit, he broke out of that way too fast! Rudeus cursed as Paul immediately continued his advance.

Rudeus was forced to escape into the air with his Earth Dash + Air Step combo once more. He did not want to get into a close-ranged melee with the significantly more physically superior fighter. This was his go to strategy to dominate swordsmen who had little to no anti-air capabilities. Air Supremacy was a tactic that had never failed on Earth, there was no reason why it would fail in this new world.

The boy then began unleashing spells, the most crucial aspect of Air Supremacy was the capability of Aerial Bombardment, after all.

Fireballs, ice knives, rock bullets and wind blades flew at Paul, who struggled to maintain an air tight, Water God style defensive formation.

Rudeus was unhappy with the way the fight was turning out, however. This fight was meant to prove the prospects of his Magic Sword style, yet it was quickly devolving into the age-old debate that had existed in this world for hundreds of years: Magic vs Sword, who would win?

However, Paul was simply too deadly on the ground, as Rudeus had experienced for himself numerous times. The man had a longer reach, longer strides, greater strength, faster speed, a decade more combat experience, as well as a deadly combination of offense, defense and adaptability stemming from his Advanced mastery over the three sword styles.

The only way Rudeus could hang on in this fight was maintain distance and showering his opponent with spells from afar.

Paul was quickly getting frustrated with his son's magic barrage. He was fully aware of how monstrous Rudeus' mana capacity was, so he knew the boy had no trouble maintaining this barrage even for over an hour.

Could he himself speak the same, however? The answer was no. Paul could already feel his shoulders aching from the rapid movements he was being forced to take in order to deflect and block the magic spells. And that was only from half the spells that were on target, since he was moving and blocking at the same time.

Resolving himself to end this in one quick go, Paul summoned more strength from within, feeling the strain on his muscles and his grip tightening so much on the handle of his sword that he felt it nearly cracking under the pressure.

"Knock this shit off!" The older Greyrat shouted, releasing a large swing of his sword and unleashing a wave of mana that was able to smack aside all the spells that had been headed for him in one swift motion.

With the air cleared of obstructions, Paul immediately leapt towards Rudeus, reaching heights that would be thought of as impossible even for the most athletic Olympians on Earth.

Rudeus could have moved away easily. Simply by forming a solid platform of wind under his feet, he could have used that as leverage to leap off in another direction and then counterattacking from a safe distance.

But he did not do so. Rudeus instead used the wind platform to jump at Paul. He thought to himself, 'If I'm going to lose, then at least I will lose as a Magic Swordsman!'

Two scimitars made from hard but sharp rock formed in his hands as Rudeus swung both down vertically which clashed with Paul's horizontal swing. The three blades met in mid-air, letting out a shockwave at their impact.

Rudeus had gravity on his side, as well as the incredibly heavy swords he had specifically designed to be as dense as his mana could afford him in that moment; both provided a very heavy downward strike that crashed down on Paul's wooden sword like twin mauls held by giants.

On the other hand, Paul simply had more experience with what Rudeus called Mana Reinforcement. Even if he was using it unconsciously, Paul could still instinctively direct his mana to areas where his body needed it the most.

While the older Greyrat did not have as impressive a quantity of mana as his son, his techniques and method of moving mana was instead a lot more specialised towards one function and one function only – beating the crap out of people with just his body and sword.

As a result, their clash was extremely even, the two held their blades at a deadlock for only a moment that felt like a whole minute for both participants. Ultimately however, Paul was not a Magic Swordsman himself, and he could not stay in mid-air indefinitely like his son. Gravity once again took hold of his body and he felt himself beginning to fall while Rudeus' earthen scimitars increased in weight with more mana being channelled into them.

Paul then decisively abandoned his sword, before using his free hands to grab on to Rudeus' wrist.

North God Style: Airborne Grapple.

With his superior physique, Paul was easily able to drag Rudeus down with him and then pin him down with Rudeus between himself and the ground as they fell from the air.

Fuck, this old man still has tricks up his sleeve! Rudeus cursed while he desperately tried to free himself from Paul's tight grip. Because his wrists were being held down, he could not use his earthen scimitars to strike back. The only thing he had left in his repertoire that could work now was the single Beginner-level prepared spell he once more stored on his body during the Aerial Bombardment.

Though this process and the inner thoughts of Rudeus and Paul took time to narrate, all of these occurred in the span of just one or two seconds.

Absent any other choices, Rudeus braced himself for the impact. His acute spatial awareness helped him to determine the distance between his body and the ground. He mentally counted down, and right before his back made contact with the hard soil, he released the prepared spell from his back.

A burst of air erupted from his back and was sandwiched between his body and the ground. For a moment, the Air Burst spell was able to stop his rapid descent, before he continued falling once more, albeit at a much lower height and velocity than before.

He landed with Paul atop him, still pinning him down. On the older Greyrat's face was a look of haughty victory.

"I win." Paul declared, waiting for his son to yield while still holding him down.

"Not yet." Rudeus rebutted and gathered mana in his left eye of which his eyelid was then closed.

Accumulate mana, guide its movements, visualise its effects, shape the spell.

An inch from his eyelid that was shut closed, a small orb of light was created. Before it rapidly grew brighter and brighter. The radiating light was so bright that Rudeus could see a bright red glow even with his eye closed, as though someone was pressing a flashlight directly against his eyelid.

"Papa, if you don't move away, you might really die, y'know?" Rudeus advised one second before he unleashed his spell.

Paul, feeling the build of up of mana and trusting his instincts that were screaming "DANGER!", leapt away from his son's figure that was still lying on the ground.

The next instant, a bright, fiery beam of light shot into the air briefly before dissipating.

This was Rudeus' incantation-less casting of the Advanced Fire spell, Scorching Ray that been cast from his eye. Why his eye, you may ask. Because one, he needed a way to direct the spell, since his hands had been trapped. Secondly, because Laser Eye Beams was such a staple of fiction that even a jock such as Rudeus was familiar and hyped about it.

A bead of sweat fell from Paul's brow, hitting the scorched grass beneath his feet.

If he was being honest, Paul would admit that he was more than a little shaken from that encounter. It was a genuinely close shave from death or severe injury. Had Rudeus not warned him, or had he not witnessed Rudeus' silent spell casting before, that move would have caught him completely off guard.

'Unknowingly, Rudy has already progressed to this point huh?' Paul ruefully thought to himself.

Aforementioned child got up from the area of shorn, burnt grass he was lying in, which had been formed from the barrage of spells plus his last-minute Air Burst.

His left eye was still a little sore and his vision was blurry. Likely from the strain of the magic which he had pushed to form the spell quickly and from the bright light of the spell's effects.

As Rudeus once more settled into a stance while forming another ice sword in his hand, an unexpected situation caught the both of them off guard.

"MY GARDEN!!!!"

Father and son flinched, feeling the hair on their nape stand while cold sweat immediately dampened the back of their shirts.

Rudeus looked into Paul's eyes, conveying a dozen different emotions with just his gaze alone, while his father reciprocated with a rarely seen terror and dread.

Both of them simultaneously turned to the source of the scream, only to see a figure ominously exuding an aura that blurred the air around them.

"Hey…" The previous loud and high pitched tone was lowered into a menacing, deep voice. "You two must be tired of living huh? Destroying my garden while Lilia and I went to shop…"

The shadow around the face of the figure shifted, revealing a beautiful woman whose looks had now distorted into one of unholy fury.

"W-w-w-w-wait, l-l-l-let's t-t-talk about th-this!" Paul forced out, with a stutter Rudeus had never heard from his father before.

"Mama, wait, we can explain! I can fix this!" Rudeus cried out in fright, gesturing with placating motions towards his irate mother.

Zenith cracked her fist and flexed her neck. Though she had gently put down the basket of groceries in her hand, every motion from her felt as threatening as one made by a fully-grown dragon.

Paul spoke solemnity and resignation, "Rudy, run! I'll hold her back! Save yourself!"

He then turned towards his son, expecting a tearful farewell - only to see Rudeus already leaping off their household fence and running away.

Paul smiled before closing his eyes at Zenith's advance, "Good… at least he will live."

That evening, the bruised pair of father and son was forced to kneel on the ground while Zenith lectured them about their destruction of her garden. Though Rudeus had managed to fix the garden with Healing and Earth magic, there were still some flowers and plants that had been too burnt to save.

Their fight did not have a conclusion. But both Paul and Rudeus now had a greater impression of the other, and a great amount of respect as well.