The dragon's harem

Chapter 2019: Believing In The Technique

Gor gasped as he found himself flying toward the clouds and saw Arad flying after him like a meteor. This fight was getting out of hand quickly, and soon, he’ll die if he doesn’t find a way to win. With a powerful kick aimed at the empty air, he changed his direction and evaded Arad, quickly running in the air trying to get some distance.

Arad seemed to be flying as well, but in a different way than he was. Gor didn’t know or understand how Arad was doing it, but flying is flying, no matter the technique, and so, he had to deal with him anyway.

”No problem!” He extended a fist forward and saw Arad flying toward with a grin. ”Come at me!” Gor cried the moment Arad’s fist approached his face, and at the last moment, he relaxed his back and entire torso, allowing Arad’s punch to push his head back and cause his entire body to spin, only to grab Arad by the torso mid-spin and use that momentum to bring them both spinning to the ground.

”Running on air, relaxing your body to avoid fatal damage, and you can even deflect and change the direction of momentum...” Arad spoke as Gor smacked him headfirst to the ground, and then bounced back.

”You’re talking a lot! Is this fight so boring for you?!” Gor growled, and Arad stood, ”No, not at all. If the fight was boring, I would’ve already knocked you out and gotten done with it.” Arad then lifted his foot and, with a single powerful kick aimed at the ground, sent a massive splash of stones and debris toward Gor at supersonic speed.

It happened out of nowhere and was too fast to react to, yet Gor’s trained body moved on its own. His arms spun, and one stone at a time, his fingers and knuckles slapped them away. With each swing of his arms, hundreds of stones were smacked away, and his mind only caught up to his body when more than half the splash of debris was already fended.

Most trained fighters eventually reach a point where jabs and counters become ingrained in their muscle memory, a point where they don’t even need to think about it, their bodies would react on their own in a fraction of a second, and Gor had reached that level and surpassed it long ago. Unlike normal humans who live for a bit less than a century and can only train for a few decades, cultivators in this world had a far longer lifespan, and could reach levels of martial mastery that far surpassed the mortals of the Mortal World.

As Gor deflected the entire splash of debris, Arad rushed at him right from inside that splash, swinging a massive kick. At this point, Gor was already sweating as no matter how he looked at it, none of his masters and Elders could move like Arad was doing, and he was clearly on a whole other level of power. It was crystal clear from how, even after all of this, Arad still didn’t start sweating yet, clearly indicating that he didn’t even warm up.

”HAAA!” Gor shouted as he lifted one arm, twisted his torso a bit, and took a strange stance on a single leg to block Arad’s kick. He had already predicted the amount of power that the kick would have and was ready for the worst case.

His prediction was right, and Arad’s kick was powerful enough to shatter his arm and tear his body in half. He shouldn’t endure its impact directly, and instead, deflect it back. He could already feel the bones of his arm groaning, and they were about to shatter if he doesn’t do anything.

^Very well! It is manageable!^ Even while faced by such a deadly attack, Gor was still calm, because he was certain he could survive it. The techniques his entire clan worked on and trained for over forty thousand years would never betray him; he had to believe in his own heritage, the one that he hated all those years.

He relaxed his arm first, allowing Arad’s kick to twist his forearm and dislocate his shoulder instead of shattering his bones, and then, when his shoulder dislocated, he relaxed his entire body so the force of the kick would make him spin on that one leg he stood on instead of getting flung away.

Gor’s eyes spun with his body, and he shifted all of that momentum that was deposited onto his upper torso by Arad’s kick into his one free leg, and with a second spin, he drilled it back into Arad’s guts, sending him flying back with a harrowing shockwave.

Arad’s entire body was sent flying, and he was already weighing as much as ten elephants. Of course, he wasn’t using his entire draconic weight, yet it was still impressive for Gor to be keeping up this much, especially having grown in such a weak world.

”OOOOSSSSSSSSS!” Gor landed back on both feet, stretched his fists forward, and glared at Arad as he hit the ground. ^The Elders might’ve gone senile and are stuck in the past, but the techniques themselves aren’t... I can keep up!^

”Do you know?” As Arad stood, he looked at Gor with a smile. ”I’ve once faced a demi-god called Jordan, and this kick tore both of his legs off.”

”A half deity? The only true one is The World Tree, so I don’t know what this fool you call Jordan claimed, but it is an honor to be labelled with the divines.” Gor shifted his stance. ”But this power of mine is temporary; when the energy I received from burning my fat runs out, I’ll crash.”

Arad cracked his knuckles, ”So I assume you don’t have much time left. Let’s finish this quickly.” He took a deep breath, and then, with a blinding flash, he breathed a massive burst of flames.

Gor was caught off guard by that; he had never expected Arad to be able to breathe flames. He never used such a thing in the previous matches, and for a while, he was starting to believe that Arad was just martially talented.

If he tries to dodge, he’ll burn to ash, and if he tries to endure it, he’ll also burn to ash. Going back won’t help, running to the sides is a death sentence, and flying isn’t an option either. Those flames looked even hotter than what the Feu used before, and were probably still stronger than the Phoenix’s flames. No one should be able to survive them.

Arad indeed wanted to finish this fight with a single attack, and so, Gor would use all his might to win. His only choice was to minimize the time under heat as much as possible and use his sweat to his advantage.

Instead of running away, Gor rushed forward and jumped headfirst into the raging cone of flames that Arad breathed, but he wasn’t going in a straight line, but slightly drifting to the side while spinning, never allowing one side of his body to face the flames for more than a fraction of a second.

Gor’s entire contact with the flames lasted for only a fraction of a second, and thanks to never allowing one side to contact the flame for long, and allowing his sweat to evaporate instead of his skin burning, he emerged from the flames with minimal burns.

This time, even Arad was shocked. He expected Gor to end up charred like a sweet potato that was forgotten in the grill for a bit too long, but instead, Gor was barely toasted, and he was now rushing at him with a clenched fist.

Before Arad could react, Gor had already punched him in the liver and sent him flying back with a loud shockwave. ”You don’t tell someone they are better than a demi-god, and then drop your guard against them!”

He kept the charge and jumped into the air, coming toward Arad’s face with a curb stomp. ”HOAAAAAAAAAA!”

It was at that moment that Arad started taking the fight a bit more seriously, and his body moved like a ghost, almost leaving after images as he stood up, letting Gor’s stomp hit the empty ground.

”You’re right.” Then, with a single swing of his arm, Arad’s palm left an imprint on Gor’s back, sending him rolling on the ground, screaming like a newborn baby.

Gor had never felt such pain before in his life, and he had seen countless deadly injuries and burns. If he knew beforehand that he would feel such a pain in this fight, he might’ve run away.

”This palm was trained by the weakest of the strongest, a woman who took a martial art to its limit, and with it, stood toe to toe with the monsters far above her.” Arad stared at him. ”You’re a master among masters, and she is the same, legendary martial artist that shouldn’t be looked down upon.”