Chapter 93 - Counter

Zaos couldn't help but hesitate a little in casting any spell. Still, in the end, he enveloped his longsword with earth magic and then proceeded to attack. In a moment, he was ten meters away. In the next, he was in front of Elius, swinging his sword. Despite the speed, Elius still blocked the attack with his own longsword.

The sound of metal colliding crossed the entire area. Since it had been pretty powerful, the other squad members stopped to see those sparring. Usually, Elius would scold them by shouting near their ears and almost make them lose their hearing. Still, he was too busy trying to withstand the weight of Zaos's attack. Elius could see a thin layer of earth above the sword, but it wasn't enough to make Zaos's sword that heavy.

Elius decided to do something when Zaos managed to make his body move backward a few centimeters. He tried to kick Zaos's legs, but Zaos jumped backward and dodged the attack, he already had fallen for such a cheap trick before, and he won't let that happen again.

Some dirt fragments began to fall from Zaos's sword, but then he quickly cast the spell again. Elius frowned when he saw that since the same trick won't catch him off guard twice, but in the end, he was fully aware that Zaos wasn't the type to insist on something that already failed.

Zaos charged again, but this time he tried to stab Elius. His advance was stopped, but the weight of the attack broke Elius's stance. Zaos dashed toward once again, but he did so while holding his sword with only his left hand. Meanwhile, his left hand moved toward Elius's stomach. In the end, he clenched his teeth and waited for the chainmail to do its job, but then Elius was caught off-guard when an electric wave suddenly passed through his body. His body froze due to the attack, his nerves stopped working only for a moment, but it had been more than enough for Zaos to finish the swing of his right hand. 

Much to Zaos's surprise, Elius recovered the movement of his left hand faster than expected. They threw his sword toward Zaos's arm. He felt shivers as the weapon moved, and he couldn't stop his attack, but in the end, only the hilt of the sword hit Zaos's hand, but that had been more than enough to stop the attack.

Soon after, Elius kicked Zaos's stomach, and the boy was pushed backward several meters. Even though he used all his strength to attack a ten-year-old boy with a broken stance, he still didn't manage to make him fall… Zaos was strangely sturdy.

While Zaos was trying to recover the air he lost thanks to that kick, Elius picked his sword that fell on the ground. He knew that Zaos bought a new tome a year ago, but he didn't see him using any new spell. Truth be told, Elius didn't expect that Zaos would learn by himself any spell in that short amount of time by himself.

After taking a deep breath, Zaos assumed an unexpected stance. It was the ox guard… while Elius knew that Zaos trained all stances equally, he was aware that Zaos favored the high guard. It was relatively easy to maintain, and the attacks coming from that stance were heavy as they could be. However, ox guard favored attacks that Zaos rarely used: stabs.

Elius realized that the boy was planning something else again. Although he didn't have an instructor in the entire kingdom that could help him develop the fighting style that he wanted to master, Zaos still managed to come up with some ideas on his own. Elius assumed a long point guard to avoid some unpleasant surprises, and he did the right thing because soon after, Zaos attacked him with a flurry of stabs unbefitting of a sword of that size.

Elius clenched his teeth as his sword blocked each one of the attacks. Still, he could feel the bones in his fingers cracking due to the sheer brute strength behind each attack… no, even though Zaos was strong for his age, he shouldn't be that strong. He was using magic to make his weapon lighter and his attacks faster… wind magic.

Against that torrent of attacks, Elius couldn't do anything aside from keeping a defensive stance. He tried to move backward and escape Zaos's range, but he followed him when he noticed what his plans were. Since he couldn't retreat faster than Zaos could advance, Elius only had a single option: wait until Zaos's spell ends. Even though that one belonged to an odd category, it should have a time limit. However, even after fifteen seconds, the barrage of attacks didn't end, but only after thirty seconds of continuous attacks Elius confirmed that Zaos was doing something to keep the spell active for longer.

Upon noticing that a defensive stance would do him no good, Elius changed his strategy. Using all his might, Elius jumped backward several meters. Then when Zaos followed him while preparing a single thrust, he dashed forward him. Zaos moved his sword and aimed at Elius's left shoulder, but his weapon was stopped when the hilt of Elius's sword hit the tip of his weapon. His longsword and his right arm trembled all over due to the impact, and Zaos was unable to stop it. Before he could do anything, Elius's sword approached his neck.

"That wasn't half bad," Elius said. "You practically destroyed my favorite sword by going all out, but focusing only on attacking left you wide open to a single but very effective counterattack."

"I figured I wouldn't last long against someone who has more experience if I were not to go all out," Zaos said while he was trying to stop the trembling in his arm. "Still, you take too many risks, even at a spar, sir. You could have lost your hand if your hilt hadn't touched the tip of my sword."

"I could have, but I didn't," Elius said. "That is all there is to it."