Blade Over Magic

Xander Vs Curtis II

Curtis howled.

Xander’s attack completely bypassed his defenses and plunged straigh into the joint, the added length of the Zweihander ensuring it penetrated deep.

Xander felt a few important things get cut through, but he didn’t get greedy as he immediately pulled out the sword and retreated.

At least, he tried to.

’Guh!’ His eyes suddenly bugged out as he felt a weight crash down on him. It was as though someone had dropped a mountain directly on his body, and he was temporarily immobilized.

’The... air...’ He ground his teeth as he tried his best to resist the weight. Indeed, the moisture in the air had already turned frozen from Curtis’s cold aura, and he was now using all of that frozen moisture to press down on Xander fiercely.

Just as Xander contemplated what to do, Curtis moved, and Xander only had time to raise his body before the former’s large tail, encased in thick ice, smash into him.

Xander’s body went flying, tearing through the plain and leaving a deep groove in the ground as he went on for quite a while before smashing into a large boulder, the side of which promptly exploded.

But Curtis wasn’t finished.

He howled again, and suddenly, an obscene onslaught of attacks rained down on Xander. Large ice spikes from above, frost explosions that engulfed everything in their path, beams of frozen air, and so on.

Curtis did not finish this barrage until nearly thirty seconds later where he was left panting, the barrage taking a lot out of him.

Still, he growled and walked towards the place where Xander was, the icy dust slowly clearing. The wound Xander dealt on his joint healed, but only that wound, indicating that healing wasn’t cheap. However, a cough made him pause, icy eyes narrowing.

When the dust cleared, Xander’s figure was revealed... and he did not look great.

He was standing, somehow. And in his hands were a pair of sabers. His shirt was mostly gone revealing all sorts of gashes and bruises which were covered in ice. His face wasn’t much better as one of his ears was half gone, and patches of ice covered it here and there, forcing him to cover one of his eyes. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he looked half dead in that moment. And yet, for some reason...

Curtis’s fur suddenly started to stand on end as his instincts warned him.

In the sky, Keir, who had just been about to swoop down and assist Xander paused, alarm bells ringing in his young mind.

”... You have a lot of gall, throwing me back like that.” Xander said, his voice rough from constantly inhaling the cold air.

”My back is killing me, and my body hurts. You almost killed me, you bastard.” He stored away the sabers and took out the Zweihander again. But this time, he changed his stance. It resembled the High guard he used before, but slightly modified.

There was no name for this, as Xander had simply come up with it on the spot.

His body hurt like hell, yet oddly enough, it brought him a startling amount of clarity.

’Curtis is capable of killing me.’ Xander immediately pinned in his mind. ’One small mistake, and I’m dead. The only reason I tanked that first hit was because I dispersed the force by matching his frequency, and I countered all those projectiles by rapidly slicing through them with the sabers. But even then, I was put in such a sorry state. He isn’t just strong, he’s genuinely overwhelming. Logically, it should be scary. And yet...’ He watched as Curtis carefully circled him, clearly on guard.

’I can feel that facing a strong opponent who overwhelms me like this, is sharply honing my senses. It’s different from when I fought Mia. It’s like all my dormant senses have been rudely awakened and are dragging me towards my opponent.’ The corner of his lip curled up a little. It cracked, and yet, Xander still smiled.

He shifted his foot forward slightly, his grip on his sword turning to tight that his hands bled.

’Fighting with your life on the line... is really a great way to pull out your latent potential.’ In that moment, Xander’s senses sharpened. All external forces faded away, all unnecessary thoughts went quiet, leaving nothing but crystal clarity.

Right then, there were only three things to Xander. Himself, his sword, and Curtis.

Curtis lunged forward, another wave of attacks moving ahead of him.

But Xander didn’t move, not yet.

Time almost seemed to slow to a crawl as he thought.

’So far, I’ve been using vibrations in three main ways. Matching my target’s frequency to bypass their defenses, transmitting their force through my body to avoid damage, and directly opposing their frequency to cause destruction. Everything else is secondary to those.’ Xander calmly shifted his head to the side, evading the first ice spike.

’But what about my own body? How can I use it that way?’ He evaded the projectiles he could evade with the bare-minimum of movements, and only then did he raise his sword to start deflecting.

’Naturally, my body vibrates as well. But what does that mean? Or rather, how can I use that to my advantage?’ With stunning precision, Xander sliced through all the projectiles using the tip of the Zweihander. And shortly after, he was before Curtis who was already preparing another beam attack while simultaneously swiping with both claws.

And in that moment, Xander acted on his thoughts.

Suddenly, is body’s frequency changed, but it wasn’t to match Curtis or oppose it. Instead, it was something else...

’Everything vibrates. My sword, my opponent, the ground beneath me. But I’ve been ignoring the closest vibration of all. My own body,’ He locked eyes with the massive wolf. ’It’s all just... noise.’ Suddenly, he almost seemed to... slip past Curtis entirely. Not phase through him, but his movements certainly looked ghostly.

’My muscles fighting each other... breaths not matching my movement, nerves sending signals too late, my emotions, my intent. All of it is... messy. But...’ Curtis unleashed another AOE attack of ice spikes, but Xander didn’t retreat this time.

’If I could match the frequency of all of them. Tune it into one clear note...’ He swung his sword. ’I’m not fighting anymore. I’m just...’

’Me.’

Then it happened.

Every opposing vibration in his body. In his muscles, bones, tendons, skin, veins, organs, all of it suddenly changed. And became one.

His sword swung, yet the speed it moved at was obscene, completely different from before. But not because he’d suddenly gotten faster. No, rather, there simply was no ”startup cost”. He went from stillness to full speed because his muscles no longer needed to overcome their own tension.

His sword sliced through the ice spikes. But it wasn’t smooth like butter, rather... it simply passed through like it wasn’t there at all, and the spikes simply got reduced back to mana as Xander severed the mana points within them like they weren’t even there.

Now that his frequency had become one, everything else felt... loud. Deafeningly clear, even. As such, they painted a clear picture in his mind

Xander moved like a ghost. Wind no longer resisted him as he slipped into Curtis’s attack range, and Curtis immediately swung his claws in retaliation, but it was all so painfully clear.

Curtis unleashed a barrage of blows, stirring up dust. But when he finished, Xander simply stood between his forelimbs, completely untouched. Curtis was about to attack again when blood suddenly sprayed from dozens of wounds than hadn’t been there before.

Xander’s slices had been so fast and precise, that Curtis’s body didn’t even register the harm until after.

Curtis unleashed another cold beam, but before it could even fully extend, his sword flicked upwards, and it was sliced through, the attack dispersing into mana once more.

Curtis attempted another AOE spell, but this time, Xander didn’t even let him complete it, he directly just severed the mana that was converging, so it amounted to nothing.

”That’s enough, Curtis.” His voice sounded almost ethereal as his vocal chords moved in perfect sync.

”Just... go to sleep.” With that, he raised his sword again, taking the stance to perform Crescent Moon.

But that’s not what he did. Instead, he adapted the move into something that matched his current state.

And he swung.

The attack cut through Curtis’s body entirely, and yet, not a drop of blood was spilled. As though it phased through him. Hence, no actual damage was done. But Curtis’s brain didn’t know that. To him, he’d been cut in half, and so, his brain did what it could.

It shut down to protect him.

Curtis’s massive body swayed, then collapsed to the ground, and Xander exhaled.

’Fake Moon.’ He stayed like that for a few seconds, then he slowly straightened.

’I’m nearly out of Mana. My current state takes an obscene amount of it to sustain. As soon as I am, I’ll pass out.’ He raised his sword.

’So until then, let’s train and familiarize ourselves with this state. If I pass out, so be it.’ And Xander did just that.

His body was injured and battered, and near him, his friend, who was secretly a Lycan, lay unconscious. While above, Keir flew.

But it did not deter him.

He simply swung his sword.