"Is anyone expecting to win?" Falk asked with a smirk.
Horatio shook his head, while the other ones didn't react at all.
Right now, the Dwarves were gathered outside the city in their usual training place.
In fact, it was just the spot where Bonk always brought Kyle.
"Oh, I'm looking forward to this," Kyle said with a smirk. "You no longer have a Realm advantage, huh?"
"You're a dwarf," Bormine said.
"Half-dwarf," Kyle interjected.
"Even worse," Bormine added. "Your physical power is already higher than ours. Fighting against you while you're in the same Realm is like jumping a Stage."
"Oh," Kyle said. "So, it's only fair if you are a Stage higher than me?"
"Yes," Bormine said.
Surprisingly, Kyle only sighed.
'Yes, yes, I know,' he thought. 'I have an Aristocrat's Body, which kind of makes it unfair. But come on! Let me have SOME fun!'
"Let's just treat this as stroking Kyle's ego," Falk said with a laugh. "We need a confident leader."
"Might as well go first," Bormine said as he stepped forward. "Let's get this over with."
Then, Bormine pulled out his two rapiers while the others jumped back.
Kyle pulled out his hammer and summoned his True Body.
This was the first time any of them saw his True Body, and they were quite surprised.
"That's… bigger than I expected," Horatio commented.
The others nodded.
"Was not easy to grow this big, I'll tell you," Kyle said. "I almost lost consciousness several times."
"A risk-reward ratio I find unsatisfactory," Bormine commented.
"Yes, yes, less talking, more dying," Kyle said.
When Tracy saw that Kyle wasn't wearing any armor, she actually grew a bit confident about her own fight against him.
His armor had always been her biggest issue.
Maybe she actually had a shot at winning.
Suddenly, Bormine shot forward without warning.
He had also already summoned his True Body, and he was shooting right at Kyle's legs.
Dealing with the legs of an enemy made them slower, which further increased Bormine's speed advantage.
Surprisingly, Bormine's weapons did not shrink with him, which made his two rapiers just as long as his body.
As soon as Bormine reached Kyle, both of them used Time Slow.
This strike would decide the entire battle, which was why both of them took it seriously.
In slowed time, Bormine noticed that Fire Ether was gathering below Kyle's right foot.
'He's going to use Boost to kick me,' Bormine thought.
His body angled to the side.
'Ah, he noticed, ' Kyle thought as he saw Bormine changing his stance. 'Glad I got a contingency.'
BOOOOM!
Suddenly, a burst of Fire Ether came out of Kyle's foot, but instead of kicking forward, the foot didn't move.
The ground shook, and Bormine took note of Kyle's left foot, which was now rushing forward in a kick.
This came as a surprise to Bormine since Kyle's stance should make it impossible to kick with his left leg without losing his balance.
At that moment, he noticed some subtle Wind Ether surrounding Kyle's body.
Time Slow gave them more time to think, but it didn't give them infinite time.
Bormine was running out of time, and he had already decided on how to answer the attack.
He pushed his rapiers towards Kyle's left leg, intending to cut them off.
Kyle's body was strong, but it couldn't possibly withstand Bormine's rapiers.
Ice gathered around Bormine's rapiers, making them colder and sharper.
If he managed to create a cut in Kyle's leg, he could flood Kyle with foreign Ether.
The next moment, the rapiers hit Kyle's leg.
Yet, a bunch of Metal Ether gathered around Kyle's leg.
The Metal Ether dispersed the Ice Ether, leaving the rapiers blank.
The rapiers cut through Kyle's skin and muscles, but when they hit Kyle's bones, they were stopped in their tracks.
Without the Ice Ether, Bormine's power wasn't enough to separate Kyle's foot from his body.
Bormine knew what was about to happen next, and he gritted his teeth.
Nevertheless, he tried to escape by using Ice Cloak, a technique that created images of himself by refracting light.
But just as expected, it didn't help.
While Bormine's power had been stopped, Kyle's power wasn't.
His foot shot forward, hitting Bormine's chest with a football kick.
Bormine's bones broke, and the pressure of the kick made some blood burst out of his mouth.
BANG!
Bormine's tiny body flew for over 20 meters.
BANG!
Punched through one tree.
BANG!
And another.
And another.
Only the fourth tree stopped him.
The others looked at the forest and took deep breaths.
While a complex battle of planning and counter-planning had taken place, to an outsider, it looked like Kyle had just casually kicked a child away.
It looked effortless.
Kyle glanced at his bleeding leg with annoyance.
'Still hurts like a bitch,' he thought.
But then, his leg started to heal, and the pain vanished.
'Luckily, the pain vanishes quickly.'
"You still alive?" Kyle shouted with a smirk.
Some of the broken trees moved, and Bormine walked out of the forest with a neutral expression.
The others had to chuckle when they saw his bloody and dirty figure.
Bormine walked back to the group and crossed his arms without saying anything.
"Laugh it up," Bormine said with his dirt-covered face. "My turn is over. It's yours now."
It was clear that Bormine had lost.
He had already used over half of his Ether storage by using Time Slow for so long, and he had also used a couple of other techniques.
Meanwhile, Kyle hadn't even used his weapon.
The others looked at each other before looking at the smirking Kyle.
"Ladies first," Horatio said with a smile.
"What a gentleman," Tracy muttered as she stepped forward with annoyance.
When Kyle saw that Tracy was next, he smiled mischievously.
'This will be fun,' he thought.
Without waiting, Tracy immediately shot forward after summoning her True Body.
Surprisingly, her staff didn't shrink but enlarged.
While she was only a meter tall, her staff was almost three meters long.
The next moment, the air grew thick with Water Ether, and the tip of the rapidly moving staff became blurry and difficult to follow.
Tracy approached rapidly and thrust her staff toward Kyle's head.
Due to the water technique she was using, it looked like she was striking from the left.
While she was attacking, Kyle's nose was sniffing the air a bit.
BANG!
Then, he caught the staff with his right hand.
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