Chapter 29 28. The Challenge (3).

"I challenge you to a duel!" Goatee yelled gathering all the attention in the sparring ground.

'Goddamnit, why?' He gathered all the attention which I didn't want, suddenly a thunder bolt struck in my mind as I remembered something. I snapped my head towards the goatee.

I got so angry at the goatee, I had the urge to slap the sh*t out of him. I tried to control it but suddenly his belly which was almost touching his knees came into sight. I grinned deeply because a nasty idea popped up in my mind.

"Ok. I accept the duel." I nodded and walked to my left where many different weapons were placed. I took out the sword, it was good but that's it. It wasn't anything special, it was perfect for 'sparring.' I held the sword in my left hand and nodded.

Goatee nodded too.

"Begin!"

Goatee took two steps forward and slashed diagonally, I took a step back because he was channelling mana to the sword, creating a layer of mana around it which could potentially leave a bruise if connected to someone of his own level. His mana control was good because it would leave a bruise not a cut.

Goatee's next swing suddenly got faster, he slashed three times and it took the same amount of time when he swung his sword diagonally once, the strength behind them didn't change by much but definitely did get sharper.

'Hmm... Maybe his sword art has something to do with the number of swings.' I was dodging all his attacks by an inch.

In about a matter of 10 seconds, he had swung his sword 43 times and it had gotten to a level where he could easily defeat a grade- 6 monster. They are all weaklings if you look from my eyes, but grade- 6 monster could easily give a rank-A hero a hard time. That is why heroes below rank-S don't go to sector one.

"Ho! Interesting." I was surprised to notice that some of the fat in his body was gone.

"You have some pretty interesting skills." I mumbled, smirking.

I dodged all of his, he seemed to have gotten impatient and decided to end it with one strike. He slowed down and held his hand above his head to slash diagonally which created a big opening for me, I grinned and took a step, that was the first time I took a step forward while fighting him.

I disappeared and appeared right in front of him, from the sudden appearance his stance flattered, that was enough to end him but I remained still for a second with a smile on my face, ours faces were only 7 inches apart. I took a long step to my left, leaned to my right, pulled my right hand back and slapped his stomach.

PATT

The slap echoed throughout arena and silenced all the whispers and murmurs. I could feel the waves forming on his stomach, some of the sweat were gathered on his body from all that fat burning.

'Ouuu... It must have hurt.' I squinted my eyes just from imagining the pain of that 'perfect' slap.

"..."

Pin drop silence enveloped the arena and after some time, soft and muffled giggles filled the surroundings.

"Nice!" I mumbled and took a step back, I really wanted to slap his belly once and it definitely felt like what I thought it you would.

I smiled brightly and walked away. I didn't even think about looking at the goatee's face cause I satisfied the idea which came to me. I suddenly remembered that I was in a dual.

"Ah! Eh?" I noticed my surroundings which was filled with giggles and laughter. I now understood what I just did, turned to look at Isha for help, she was in the worst condition from trying to hold back from laughing. Her brows were wiggling like crazy, her lips were curled up and were trembling, she avoided my eye contact and continued to hold her laughed. She suddenly stopped and furrowed her brows.

"Ha.. so it came to this huh.." I mumbled as shook my head and noticed the goatee gaining in on me.

"You!" Goatee roared.

I turned to notice a 'tomato goatee' approaching me, he was almost at the boiling temperature.

He skipped a step and slashed at me diagonally, I slashed in reverse, vertically which cut his sword in the middle. I raised my right arm a bit and used 'telekinesis,' which was just simple 'mana manipulation' to catch the broken sword pieces from hitting the audience who had already prepared to guard it.

"Mmm..." 'what should I say?' If I say 'clam down' then, it will become a joke. If I say 'I was just joking,' it would only be rubbing salt on the wound, I think shutting up is the best option, but.....

"Surrender! Or I'll cut your shirt into pieces." I said in a cold tone, but...

'Why do I sound like a pervert?'

"F**k that! You basta*d!" Goatee replaced his sword and slashed down vertically.

I slashed 20 times with 1/4th of my strength, the sword cut through the wind, slowly and beautifully, blade like wind pressures formed which cut the goatee's shirt into 20 pieces, revealing my perfect, red and blue hand print on his stomach.

Goatee stopped moving from the shock because his shirt was cut into pieces before he could even slash down, slowly paper cuts formed all over his body and very little drops of blood was visible from the cuts.

"Low- Frost." I held out my right hand and froze all the sweat beads on his body. Not because I felt anything for him, it's just that if I see him in pain in front of me, my mind would definitely imagine that pain.

'Ah, fuck... I just imagined that pain of a paper cut in salt water.'

"And, that is why imagination is both curse and a blessing." I said out loud because I heard some 'brrr' sounds coming from the audience.

"Oi, I'll take that win." I called out to the guy overseeing our fight as a judge and a referee.

"Um? Ah, yes."

Goatee just stood there and looked at me blankly.