Kyle looked at Falk and took a deep breath.
'This is not going to be easy,' he thought. 'But he should still be beatable. Sure, he is still a Stage higher than me, but I've advanced a Realm. I have access to Time Slow and my True Body now.'
Falk narrowed his eyes and readied his spear.
"You ready?" he asked with a serious tone.
Kyle also readied his hammer and nodded.
Both of them summoned their True Bodies immediately, and Falk shot forward.
His entire body was surrounded by Wind Ether.
Just like Kyle, Falk knew Wind Dash.
On top of that, he knew several more wind techniques, which were quite terrifying.
Falk's penetration power was incredible.
One strike and Kyle would lose.
However, that was also true the other way around.
The one who hit their opponent first would be the winner.
BANG!
Kyle also exploded forward, using Wind Dash.
Yet, Falk was still quite a bit faster than Kyle.
He reached Kyle in an instant and thrust his spear forward.
Wind Ether gathered around his spear in a spiraling pattern, making it look like a drill.
This was an advanced version of Air Current, Air Drill.
Air Drill not only got rid of the wind resistance and used it as a boosting force, but it also used the user's own Wind Ether to increase the speed even more.
When Falk got into attacking range, he became almost unstoppable due to the insane speed of his spear.
Reacting to the spear was not enough.
Kyle had to guess where Falk would strike.
At least in the past.
Kyle used Time Slow, and he could see the subtle movements of the spear.
In slow motion, Kyle moved his hammer to the side, shoving its grip forward.
If the spear hit the grip just right, its force would be redirected.
At the same time, a pulse of Wind Ether came out of Falk's feet.
The pulse of Wind Ether created a powerful gust, pushing Kyle backward and making it harder for him to move his hammer in a controlled manner.
Luckily, Kyle had already expected that technique.
Both of them had fought each other quite a few times, and they basically knew all the techniques of the other person.
The hilt of Kyle's hammer still moved towards the spear, and Falk narrowed his eyes.
If this continued, his spear would be deflected.
At that point, Kyle would just need to launch a kick, and Falk would very quickly lose.
Yes, Falk was much faster, but Kyle was much stronger.
One of Kyle's kicks would make Falk helpless.
The spinning Wind Ether around Falk's spear vanished and was replaced by a solid wall of Wind Ether surrounding the spearhead.
At the same time, he halted the thrust of his spear.
Then, he hit the butt of his spear with an open hand.
BANG!
The solid arrow of Wind Ether shot out of the spear and flew towards Kyle.
This was Falk's ranged attack, Wind Arrow.
Kyle was still using Time Slow, and he quickly came up with a counter.
He moved his hand to the left, leaving a trail of fire behind with Fire Trail.
The Wind Arrow shot through the Fire Trail, but Falk couldn't see what was happening behind the wall of Fire Ether.
He knew that Kyle must have been hit, but he couldn't tell how injured he was.
Wind Arrow wasn't nearly as powerful as Falk's melee attacks, which meant that Kyle might still be in fighting condition.
On the other side, Kyle's left clavicle and the flesh around it exploded into pieces.
Falk pulled his spear back.
But then, the gigantic hammer shot through the wall of Fire Ether, right toward Falk.
Falk reacted immediately.
When the hammer thrust forward like this, Falk actually had a shot at deflecting it.
The hammer was only irresistible when it swung.
But Falk would still need to use a lot of power.
BANG!
He used all of his power and managed to deflect the hammer.
That was when he realized that deflecting the hammer had been a bit too easy.
An instant later, a huge hand, surrounded by Wind Ether, broke through the wall of Fire Ether.
Falk had to stop using Time Slow since it drained a lot of Ether.
Falk was down to 40% of his Ether, and Time Slow had eaten 40% of the used 60%.
It was insanely costly.
Falk barely managed to redirect his spear towards the hand and activated Air Drill again.
Then, he thrust forward.
CRKSH!
The spear broke through the hand, ripping a huge hole in it.
But then, Falk's eyes widened.
Usually, Kyle's hand should have essentially vanished.
However, there was only a huge hole in it!
That was because Kyle's hand had grown quite a bit compared to the last time they had fought.
The hand broke past the spearhead and continued down the shaft.
Falk tried to tear his spear out, but he didn't have enough power to cut through the walls of Kyle's hand with only the hilt of his spear.
The hand continued.
BANG!
And buried Falk beneath it, pressing him into the ground.
Falk was pinned to the ground.
Then, he saw a gigantic boot appearing over his head.
For just a moment, he thought that he was about to die.
But, of course, the boot just gently cleaned the dirt from its sole on Falk's face.
"Pfft- st- Hagh! Stop! Stop! I give! I give!" Falk shouted through the boot moving across his face.
"But my boot isn't clean yet," Kyle said with a grin.
"Go clean it yourself!" Falk said with annoyance.
Kyle pulled his foot and hand back, freeing Falk.
Falk quickly shot up to his feet and cleaned his face with his sleeve.
"Oh, come on. It wasn't that dirty," Kyle said.
"Says you!" Falk shouted as he looked at Kyle.
But when he saw Kyle, he paused for a moment.
Kyle's left arm was hanging onto his body by a thread, and half of his right hand was missing.
Like this, he couldn't possibly swing his hammer.
"Wait, if your left arm is that damaged, how did you thrust your hammer forward?" Falk asked.
"Right arm aimed; right leg kicked," Kyle said with a grin.
Falk frowned. "No wonder it was so easy to deflect. You essentially just threw it at me."
"Well, what was I supposed to do? I can't swing it like this," Kyle said with a shrug.
Splotch.
The shrug removed the last thread of flesh holding his left arm, and everyone watched the arm fall to the ground.
"Pfft," Falk snorted with laughter.
Kyle was a bit annoyed by the pain, but he could also see the humor in the situation.
The other ones also joined in, and soon, everyone was laughing.
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