"As a martial artist, control over his own body is his force. Stopping him with that level of an attack won't change a thing…" Aion thought while furrowing his eyebrows.
Frozen Shield was the type of attack that combined the power of Aion's strength and magic, and while his strength wasn't that high, his magic compensated for that. Still, the leg of the old man only had a few red marks, and the damage caused was minimal. Aion will have to come up with another strategy…
"My options are limited, but…" Aion thought. "Those bracers… I wonder how they can fire such powerful spells."
It was hard to imagine that the old man was that good of a mage. His magic presence wasn't even on the level of the students of the magic school. So the power of his magic attacks came from the bracers… and he was prideful enough not to use them when the enemy wanted to fight directly.
The enemy charged again, but he attempted to punch Aion's face this time. The attack was deflected to the shield when Aion used Shield Swing, and he used the momentum of the skill to spin and attack the enemy with his sword. However, the old man used his bracer to block the attack… which was supposed to be a valuable magic item, and he didn't hesitate in doing so.
With a single motion of his arm, the old man parried the sword to the side and then swung the back of his left hand upward, hitting Aion's chin and stunning him for a short while. When Aion recovered, he saw a big fist approaching his face. He jumped backward to get out of the range, but the punch still hit his face, breaking his nose and making him spin backward in the air.
The old man charged again to finish Aion off, but then all of a sudden, a Fireball was fired at his face when he got too close. The explosion made Aion move away a bit more, but he still landed on his feet. When the smoke disappeared, he noticed that a small part of the enemy's left face had been burned, but it was too small. Aion wanted to save his mana, but even when he used it, he didn't cause much damage… The resistance of the old man was high, and a simple spell won't solve all of his problems.
"I have an idea on how to finish this, but I need an opening, and he is experienced enough not to give any under normal circumstances…" Aion thought. "So, I have to force him to give me an opening."
The old man suddenly moved both arms to his waist and pointed his palms to Aion. In that stance, it was hard to tell with each hand he would attack. Even his legs weren't showing any stance, and they were just opened in the same way…
Before Aion could see the movement of the enemy's legs, the old man just charged and then hit the air with a palm strike. The impact caused a powerful blast that forced Aion to raise his Shield. Before he could recover from the impact, the old man got close enough to attack, and while spinning his right arm, he hit the shield with his palm.
The impact pushed Aion away while making him spin vertically, but that was the least of his problems. The attack had some rotation that his whole body received. Aion rolled on the ground during that fight for the first time instead of landing on the ground. When he recovered, Aion saw the enemy falling and was ready to smash his face with his right knee.
Aion rolled to the side, and the impact made the area tremble, as well as opened a ten meters wide crater. Aion raised his guard after getting up since a dust curtain emerged, but the enemy didn't move. Aion found that weird… The enemy didn't seem the type who would try to enjoy the fight, after all.
The old man charged again, and since he found it weird that Aion was too quiet, he only began to punch Aion with short but fast jabs. Even so, with each impact, Aion was pushed back.
"Does he see something unusual with his eyes?" Aion thought. "That must be some sort of mutation… He found me even when I was three kilometers away from his town, after all."
Aion's surprise attack seemed like it was losing the chances of succeeding. Still, in that situation, he couldn't rely on anything else. All of a sudden, Aion hit the enemy's fist with the tip of his shield, and since he put some strength behind it, the enemy felt some pain in his fist.
Aion changed his Posture to block the enemy's punches just like that, and the old man frowned. He wasn't going all out, and the enemy was supposed to know that such a strategy wouldn't work once he got serious…
To make sure that Aion would understand that, the enemy kicked the ground while dashing forward to the point that his step cracked the ground, and then he hit Aion with a right straight. Despite that, Aion still used the tip of his shield to repel the attack… He was pushed backward for several meters, but Aion didn't fall.
The old man felt some pain in his fist, but it was laughable… In the end, he used another straight, and Aion also repeated his action. The result also ended up being the same… While feeling like his bones were cracking, Aion assumed the same stance…
The old man almost let out a sigh… Until Aion suddenly flinched when he felt a pain in his back, and in the next moment, he began to bleed from there. The image of what would happen to his mother flashed across his mind, and then Aion's eyes changed, and they had a cold glint on them while he charged at the enemy.
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