27 Father And Son

"Mama, papa and brudher fight?" Lia asked Lily with her index finger resting on her lower lip.

"No, Lia. They are 'greeting' each other." Lili answered while stroking Lia's hair gently.

Lia was very little and had close to no world knowledge. Not to mention, all the things Sou and Rei said went above her head. But their eyes and the open hostility both of them were releasing that human nature recognizes in an instant made it clear for Lia what they were going to do. That it was a fight.

"What? Greeting?" Mr Hols asked from Lily's side.

"Fufufu..."

Mrs Hols shut his mouth completely after seeing her response. His wife and daughter didn't even bother saying anything after seeing Lily.

'What's with this woman? Just a day ago she cut her wrist because of her dead child and now she is acting as nothing happened. Who the hell is this boy?' everyone thought except Lily and Lia, who were lost in their own world. 

'Obviously, this boy isn't Sou... even though silver hair is uncommon, but that's doesn't mean that Sou is the only one with silver hair...'

While they were bickering in their thoughts, Sou and his dad, Rei, were completely immersed, staring into each other's soul.

(Well, let's try to limit me as much as possible. Don't wanna give him PTSD.)

Ding!

An alarm rang through the facility which marked the start of the fight.

Both of them moved at high speeds at the same time and clashed their fist in the middle of the arena.

Boom!

A shockwave emerged when they clashed which resounded the whole facility. The audience was dumbstruck, especially the Hols family. They knew that the brat had power enough to challenge the Royal Guard Instructor, but they never expected it to be on par with him.

"Hoh, you are not bad..."

"I get that a lot." Sou grinned widely. 

'Haha... this brat isn't even flinching.'

(That was good... but...)

They again hurled their bodies at each other, almost imperceivable by naked eyes, and exchanged destructive blows. Their fight seemed like an action scene straight out of an anime. Hundreds of blows were dealt within a duration of some seconds.

(Don't go overboard, don't go overboard...)

Sou had that constant thought going riding the waves of his mind. As Sou was already so powerful that there might be no one in Orken who could challenge him, there was also the drawback of limiting his powers. 

"Didn't Rei say that they are not allowed to use mana? Why are they using it?" Mr Hols panicked at the sight of two monsters.

"You are wrong Mrs Hols. They are not using any mana. This is their original speed." Lily answered Mr Hols with a light tone while observing their fight carefully.

"What?! Rei is one thing, but that boy too?!"

"Yes. Even I am surprised. I never expected him to become that strong in just three years." Hellen woke up and butted in their conversation out of nowhere.

"Woah!"

"Kekek... You got scared by that?"

Though Hellen believed that this was Sou going all-out, she didn't know the fact that he was hiding his power all along. Sou's monstrous growth in every field related to battle was enough to surprise the person in question too! Since then, Sou had to put on a veil to hide his growth from the outside world.

Boom! Boom!

Lily was in a daze as she watched the two of them fight. Never in the past years of her life did she expect her son to come back. She was plenty happy by the fact that she will be able to see her son's face every time she wakes up in the morning and every time she goes to bed. But now that she saw her son exuding such an immense show of strength, she couldn't help but think that her son is going to go away again.

She clenched her skirt tightly and a worried frown appeared on her face. Lia saw the frown on her mother's face and tugged her sleeve. The frown on Lily's face disappeared when she saw Lia's teary eyes and a smile replaced the frown.

'No, he will not go anywhere. I will not let him.'

***

(Damn! I knew it! This old man really has tremendous growth potential. Should I let loose a little too? Maybe not, I will just end destroying this place.)

From the outside, it looked like they were in a stalemate but in actuality, but in actuality, Sou was easily dodging and also taunting Rei, almost playing with him. But the situation was not too good for someone to be able to notice that.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The fists continued to hit each other with extreme forces exerted from both sides. But, all of a sudden, Rei pulled out all of his attacks at once and, as if he was a mirage, left an afterimage dissipating in front of Sou.

"Stay focused, brat."

"Hmm..."

(Okay, maybe I should really let loose a little.)

Pomph!

'What?!'

But that didn't go as he planned.

'A strike that could decide one's life and death... was blocked by a mere brat?!'

Rei's hand was in the grip of something monstrous, something very scary. He didn't have any choice but to acknowledge the monstrosity standing in front of him.

'This is something even guild masters would struggle with... and he blocked it with ease?!'

"Didn't expect this, right?"

Crack!

A tough clench quenching for screams held Rei's hand. Rei knew instinctively that he had to escape at any cost. Any more than that, then he could risk having his arm completely unusable.

"Tch!"

Twisting, he somehow managed to free himself from the monster's grip... or that's how Sou made it seem.

(I went too far... a bit more and I would have broken every single bone in his hand. Phew...)

"You... you are quite the monster, right?" Rei tried his best not to show the agitation he was feeling on his face but it was almost impossible after witnessing that absurd strength.

(Pfft! Look at him trying hard.)

"My peers also said that often."

He didn't have any peers.

"Shall we continue?"

Rei nodded a bit hesitantly.

"Good."

(Relax your upper body and tighten your legs to the utmost and...)

"Blast off!"

Boom!

Sou blasted off. The ground shook tremendously and the mana shield broke. He headed towards, cutting the air like a sharp blade.

'What is this feeling?'

Sou crashed.

(Haha, look at this old man... good thing I controlled myself just before the impact...)

Sou grinned looking at his old man clenching his attacking fist tightly. Sou jerked his fist and jumped backwards and regained his footing but didn't let Rei rest as he sprung at him as soon as he regained his footing.

Sou swung his left aiming for Rei's face. Rei put his hand in its path to block it but right after the attack was blocked, Sou spun and brought down his other leg on Rei's head, which was also blocked. Sou kicked from Rei's head, doing a beautiful flip, and landed and right after that, rushed to aim for Rei's guts as it was unguarded at the moment.

Rei knew he cannot bring his hands fast enough to guard so he decided to simply dodge, but it was not an easy task. Sou's speed was extraordinary and he won't have enough time to carry out his plan but he still gave it a try.

He bent his body to the side, hoping that Sou would miss. But Sou was already aware of Rei's plan and that's why he shifted his body weight to the front before he reached Rei which made him look like he had tripped. He then placed the attacking hand on the ground and pushed it to lift himself above Rei. In mid-air, he bent his body to the horizontal and kicked his leg which made his body spin while also falling towards Rei.

Bam!

Sou struck the ground. Rei dodged the attack by hair's breadth. Sou made a crater on the ground and stood up, acting a little cool.

"What kind of training did you get?" Rei asked in a funny tone.

(Hehe, it is coming to an end.)

"Figure it out yourself after seeing this." Sou bent to the front and blasted off to Rei's side.

When he was in range, Sou kicked off his leg, similar to the previous attacks, but had a little catch.

Rei was caught off guard by the familiarity. 

'Why is he using the same movements?!'

Rei instinctively brought up hands to guard. But this time, before Sou's leg came into contact with Rei's hand, Sou kicked off his other leg in the opposite direction and wrapped Rei's hand and head and spun his whole body and naturally, Rei's body also followed the movement. After a few spins and a bit of struggling, Sou jerked his body forward and threw Rei on the ground, but didn't let go of the hand and pulled it ferociously, but not enough to pull the hand out of its socket.

Rei struggled and struggled but couldn't free himself.

"You! How do you know the move I taught my son?!"

"Why, you ask. Because I am your son and you are my father."

***