42 The Fist and the Sword...

Boom!

The attacks of both sides collided and caused an explosion that shook and resonated throughout the battlefield. Wind rose and blew dust away, everyone had to close their eyes and turn away because of it.

Hop...

Hop...

Due to the shock wave from the blast coming at his at such a close distance, Samael was forced to jump away, riding the force that came at him. Once he stabilized himself, he dug both feet on the ground and riled his Energy essence to disperse the force and wind coming at him.

Soon enough the dust had settled and Samael stared face to face with the three enemies that 'greeted' him.

In the middle was a young man with refined looks and long black hair, to his right was another young man with a dark aura around him and to the left was a muscular man with short red hair.

The man with the long hair moved forward and arrogantly spoke while stroking his long hair as if flaunting it. "Hoo~ That is surprising...you managed to counter all three of our attacks. But don't get too arrogant, we were holding back."

Samael nearly laughed but he controlled himself and he said back with a smile "Sure you were."

"You have some balls to still speak this arrogantly despite our boss warning you not to. Let see if you can take this." The one on the left, the muscular man, cracked his knuckles and charged at Samael with a punch.

His fist ignited with a bright red flame and it raised the surrounding temperature immediately. With a glance, Samael already discover the rank of this Fist art but he had to take strike seriously as it seemed that they were really holding back earlier.

Though his enemy's fist attack was powerful and managed to pressure him, Samael still smiled as he took this as a challenge.

Seeing his enemy not move an inch, the muscular man's face twitched with irritation as he shouted. "Not gonna move? You overestimate yourself, kid!"

The flame on his fist burned even stronger and it was almost at Samael's face but Samael still didn't move as he stood there with a confident smile.

Crackle...

For a moment it looked like Samael was gonna get hit by that strike but in that split second between the collision of the enemy fist to Samael's face, the red-haired muscular man suddenly backed off.

He jumped back as far as going back to his comrades. His face had a face of disbelief and rage. When he raised the fist he was about to punch Samael with, everyone, even his own comrades were surprised to see it covered in a thick layered of ice.

"Grr... so you're an Ice elemental martial artist, eh?" The muscular man made a low, beast-like growl as a faint red light came from his Ice encased fist before it turned into a bright flame that melted the ice.

Hearing his question, Samael only smiled as he have no intention of answering because in a glance he saw that the ice covering that guy's hand was different from his ice. Just from that, he felt elated as there was only one other Ice elemental martial artist in this whole battle...Silvia

Whoosh...

Right on cue, a beautiful, goddess-like woman landed beside Samael. Time seemed to flow slowly when you looked at her as you get mesmerized with her every move, the fluttering of her clothes as she gently landed on the ground. Her captivating white hair gently falling, accompanying her landing. Finally, that delicate, fair white skin with that beautiful face like it was sculpted by the gods.

Immediately, the enemy leader, the one with the long hair fell in love with Silvia.

Silvia landed beside Samael and pointed her sword at the muscular young man. To everyone that observed the scene they thought that she was warning that muscular man not to get close to Samael.

"What a bold young lady!" They thought.

"Are they a couple?" The long hair man thought as he gritted his teeth in irritation. He finally found a woman who he deems to be an equal, someone who he thought he would have fun conquering but who would've thought that she already belonged to someone else.

While such thoughts ran through his heads, similar thoughts went through the minds of every soldier who saw Silvia's beauty.

Except, of course, for Silvia and Samael themselves who didn't even considered that such actions would make everyone misunderstand their relationships. Though their friends didn't have such a misunderstanding like everyone else, they had each of their own reaction.

Julian and Lina were giving their best to hold their laughter, instantly they knew they had to tease these two later. Julius turned to these two and he could already guess what they were thinking, some part of him wanted to say 'good luck' to Samael but another part of him was dying to see his face when he gets teased later. Stella, had a more predictable reaction, as she was a normal girl from a normal family, she grew up seeing romance bloom with her past friends and just from Silvia's actions she already ships them.

Back on the ground, Samael had smile on his face as he already knew that Silvia had come. From the moment that man came at him with his fist, he already felt Silvia's familiar energy essence so he decided not to move, he was confident that Silvia would be able to stop the enemy's attacks.

And indeed his trust paid off, seeing her graceful figure softly land at his side, he felt a strange feeling of contentment.

"New sword?" Immediately, Samael noticed the new sword in Silvia's hands.

Hearing this, Silvia nodded. Though one couldn't notice it, the moment she heard his question a faint tinge of red appeared on Silvia's cheeks.

It was thin unlike her previous sword and longer too. but the most distinct aspect of her new sword was the curve of the blade and from this Samael instantly knew that this girl tried to copy his Katana. Strangely, he didn't felt offended and instead he found this to be funny and cute.

He couldn't help but chuckle and he took out his Katana and threw it at her.

Clank...

The whole sword made a sound as Silvia it in her hands. From the moment Samael threw this sword at her to help her slay the Tri-Horned Demon Wolf, she wasn't able to forget not only its beauty but also it's power.

She tried to draw the sword on paper and it's specific length and width for their family blacksmith to copy, they even tried to use different materials but even then their blacksmith wasn't able produce a copy that came close to a fourth of its capabilities. Out of all of the copies that had been produced, the one in her hands was the best.

But now that that same sword that slayed the Tri-Horned Demon wolf in her hands, she couldn't help but get giddy to use once again. But then she remembered that everyone currently had their eyes on her, she forced herself to calm down and looked cold as usual.

It didn't take much for Samael to see through her facial expressions and he shook his head. "If you like it that much, I'll have one forged specifically for you but for now, feel free to use that one."

Hearing this, Silvia couldn't help but quickly turned to Samael as if wanting to confirm what he said.

Samael nodded and then he turned to the enemy cultivators as he already felt the killing intent emanating from the long haired man. Though he didn't know why would this guy suddenly get all murderous, he felt he could use this.

"So...what now?" He arrogantly asked them.

The muscular man, harrumphed and said. "Humph! Don't get too cocky. Trying to hide behind a girl? Be a man and face me!"

Samael then responded "Oh please, I already blew back all three of your attacks by myself what can you do just by you alone?"

"Brat, I'll kill you!" The muscular man cursed.

"Sigh...all brawn and no brains." Samael lamented.

This infuriated the muscular man even more but before he could charged at Samael, a hand stopped him. Turns out it was the long hair man. This young man had a calm look on his face in contrast to the burning anger in his eyes.

"What are you doing? Why are you stopping me?" the muscular man asked in anger.

"Calm down, you're playing right into his hands. Getting angry at him would only prove his words. Stand down." The long-haired young man coldly said.

He then walked forward with an air of confidence and superiority. He pointed his sword as Samael and Silvia, saying.

"I want a match."

"Sure..." Samael responded, tilting his neck left and right.

But the young man then said "No, not with you..." he paused and pointed the tip of his sword at Silvia as he continued "...with her."

Hearing this, Samael raised an eyebrow and looked alternately between him and Silvia before sighing. "Sure, go ahead..." then he mumbled in a low voice "...way to kill the fun."

He then turned to Silvia and said some words to her. Seeing them get close again, the young man seethed with anger and jealousy, with this match he wanted to show this woman that his strength surpassed Samael. He was confident, which woman didn't like a powerful man?

After that small talk with Samael, Silvia walked forward, keeping her own sword inside her storage ring while holding Samael's katana on her left hand.

She stood there like an aloof goddess, her pride slowly oozed out of her as her eyes turned seriously sharp. In front of her, the long-haired young man, had his sword in both hands, his eyes equally serious.

It didn't take too long before the two of them charged at each other.

Silvia ran low, bending her body downward, hiding the sword on her hips. The young got close and though he was cautious of it, he was confident in his skills that even if she were to draw it he'll be able to avoid it.

When her enemy got close to her while she was still in a running motion, she felt weird as she didn't felt any sense of danger but instead she felt an eerie calmness in her hearts. Silvia saw the enemy's sword coming down on her and she already saw the path of the blade.

Holding the scabbard with her left hand, she held the handle with her right. She drew the sword downward before turning the whole sword, scabbard and all, upside down as she drew out the whole blade.

Slash!

The collision between her and the enemy only lasted a split second. Silvia stopped three steps behind the enemy with the Katana up in her right side. While the enemy was at the end of a downward slashing motion.

There was silence as nobody knew who won that match. Even though cultivators all had exceptional physical abilities and this includes their sensory organs, they wasn't able to discern who got a clean strike in that brief exchange.

Bump...

Suddenly, one of them arched back and revealed a gushing wound as blood started to spurt out the wound. As the long black hair was flung up in the air by the sudden movement, the long-haired young man, fell on his back and you could clearly see...A deep and clean, diagonal cut across his chest, his clothes were ripped too.

Silvia stood up and she took a good look a the blade, once again she was lost in the prowess of this weapon. She sighed as she placed the sword back inside of it's scabbard.

Suddenly an incredible sense of danger passed through her brains and she quickly bent her feet in attempts to jump back but it was already too late.

The young man's companion had already closed in on her with their fist and palm attack slowly reaching her, while she was confident of diffusing most of the force from their attack she wasn't confident of getting out unscathed.

When their attacks got really close and she knew she could only close her eyes and grit her teeth, Silvia abruptly open her eyes as she felt a tingling feeling on her right hand.

"Not a chance!"

Samael crashed into the scene, his body had black lighting, crackling all around and he had a savage smile on his face.

When he saw the two other young man made a move at Silvia, he instantly moved using 'Mirage' and charged to intercept those two. As he got close, Samael's fist glowed in gold as he used "Heaven Breaking Fist" once again.

The two men got smacked onto each other and got blown away by the force of Samael's fist. They rolled a couple of times before somersaulting in the air and landing on their feet. They had a angered look on their face as they stared at Samael.

Before them, Samael stood like a beast, enveloped by the crackling lightning, he stared at them with a sharp look that could kill. They turned at each other and nodded, they then split up into two directions in hopes of having even one of them get past Samael.

Seeing this, Samael smiled. "Hey now, you're just underestimating me by doing that..."

Samael placed his hands on the ground and summoned the energy essence from his body, Ice quickly covered the ground where he was standing and an ice wall formed to block the two from even getting past him.

"Grr..." The muscular man gritted his teeth, they wanted to save the long-haired young man as he was the son of someone influential in their kingdom, if he somehow died here, the kingdom would have their heads.

But even if they wanted to charge through, they knew Samael wouldn't let them through without a fight. So one of them said.

"What do you want?"

This caught Samael by surprise and he asked back "Excuse me?"

The muscular man then spoke again. "What do we have to do in exchange for the young master?"

Hearing this, Samael laughed and said.

"It's quite simple really, tell your seniors when you get back. As long as they don't show their faces during this war then your side won't have to worry about us."