Chapter 131: Sibling Rivalry 1

“Begin!”

The moment Damon’s sword appeared in his hand, Rose was already in motion. She vanished in a burst of speed, and appeared directly in front of her twin, launching a brutal uppercut. Damon barely managed to block in time, the impact shattered the ground beneath his feet, and a violent shockwave rippled outwards.

For a few seconds, Damon held his ground, but then he was launched upwards. Rose bent her legs and jumped after him, the air cracking beneath her feet. Mid air, Damon twisted gracefully, and put away his sword, then ducked under Rose’s spinning kick, before catching her leg and then hurled her towards the ground.

Rose hit the ground with a massive bang, skidding across the surface for several moments before coming to a stop. She straightened, looking at Damon who just touched the ground too, then a subtle smirk appeared on the her lips.

It had been really long since she sparred with her brother, since two years ago, a little before they awakened. So she was really hyped for this fight.

A sonic boom echoed as Damon closed the distance in an instant. He threw a punch the moment he entered striking range. Rose met it head on.

Their fist collided with a thunderous boom, severely exploding the ground beneath their feet and sending massive chunks of earth flying as both refused to give ground. They pulled back simultaneously and followed with kicks.

Bang!

The clash sent both of them skidding backwards. Rose backflipped cleanly, landing lightly on the ground, but immediately dashed aside as a red arc tore through the space shed been standing on, cracking and scorching the earth severely.

“Summer blaze.” She heard Damon’s whisper as she followed the scorched trail with her eyes. The moment they were both send skidding backwards, Damon decided to stop playing and summoned his sword.

“Blooming spring!” A massive tsunami was created out of thin air in an instant. The tsunami advanced towards Rose with the might of an ocean.

Just as it seemed like the fake ocean would swallow Rose, her sword appeared in her hand. She raised the sword vertically, and brought it down in a falling motion, chanting;

“Fall.”

For a split second, everything froze, it seemed as if the world had held it’s breath. Then everything began to move once more. Tracing the path Rose fell her sword, and with no sound whatsoever, everything in that direction split in perfect two. From the fake ocean, to the air, and even the ground.

A massive gorge seemingly appeared in the field, swallowing all the water Damon had conjured like a starved beast. The remnants of the Damon’s attack that reached rose, were no more than drizzle.

The crowd sucked it’s breath at the seemingly over the top display of flair. ’Even I have to admit, she does know how to put on a show.’ Damon thought, almost laughing despite himself.

Banding his legs, Damon operated mirage steps to the maximum, and shot towards Rose in a series of afterimages, his sword slashing at her.

Clang!

With surprising dexterity, or rather, not so surprising, Rose met him head on with her own sword.

An intense close combat swordplay played out, with Rose slightly holding the upper hand. To bystanders, it looked like the two were in multiple places all at once, due to their movement art.

And while it might not be visible to others, especially since they were moving at speeds beyond what most could capture, Damon himself knew Rose held the upper hand. The gap wasn’t that much, but it was still there.

As their sword clashed once more, a shared memory flashed through their eyes. The first time the emperor had taken it upon himself to watch their spar.

In the royal arena, Rose and Damon picked up their swords, both ten years old at this time. At this point, their faces still had some of that baby fat. In fact they looked so identical at this point that they were certainly undistinguishable by someone who didn’t know them.

Both had their short jet black hair, neatly styled and combed behind their ears, and their striking grey eyes sparkling with curiosity, and maybe a little mischievousness.

“Why does father want to watch us spar?” One of the twins pouted, looking up at their tutor.

“I’m afraid your highness, I don’t know what goes through his majesty’s mind.” The old man shook his head.

“But I thought you knew everything!” The other one twin tilted their head.

“Hahahaha, you flatter me, your highness, no one knows everything.” The old man chuckled. However he soon stopped himself, and gazed towards his left, where a chillingly handsome man with a cold gaze had silently appeared, with seemingly no presence.

“Your majesty.” he bowed. The twins taking notice of that, instinctively straightened. “Father.” they both called out.

His cold grey eyes flicked down to them for a moment, almost making them shrink away, before he looked past them, and towards the old man.

“Start.” His baritone voice echoed throughout the entire arena. Even the air seemed to tremble beneath his voice.

Soon, the twins stood some distance away from each other, each holding a wooden sword. “Begin!”

The two moved deftly towards one another, albeit one’s moves were more clumsier than the other’s.

Tak! Tak! Tak!

Clumsy as their movements may be, their sword met countless times. But as time went on, one of them was clearly struggling to keep up with the other, and eventually got battered, and knocked down to the ground.

“You lose again, Damon!” Rose’s bubbly baby like voice echoed through the air as she bounced on her toes even though she was exhausted, completely forgetting the fact that their devil incarnate of a father was present.

The ten year old Damon meanwhile, was fully focused on looking at the emperor, whose gaze flicked towards him who was on the ground, before looking away in disinterest, and looking to Rose who was still doing her victory dance.

“Rose.” Rose paused mid step instinctively stiffening. She turned her head in an eerie motion, her eyes locking on the one who called her name.

“F…F…Father…”

“How pathetic.” He said, making the twins look down instinctively. “No child of mine shall stutter when they speak.”

The next moment, the twins found themselves standing before him. “Starting today, I’ll watch your spar every single day.” He said as turned his back to them, shocking the two. “And you, try not to disappoint me than you’ve already done.” he said.

Though he didn’t mention anyone, they both knew who he was referring to. Damon felt his stomach turn, as tears almost welled up in his eyes. The emperor disappeared a moment after.

**Present time**

’The gap in swordsmanship is still there.’ Damon thought as he struggled to parry a diagonal slash. ’But too bad, swordsmanship is not the only thing I know.’ Like Damon once told that robber, he had a black belt in taekwondo and karate. It would be stupid not to use it to his advantage.

And besides, in this world where there was aether, the true power of these disciplines would be brought out. And Damon had long been working into integrating them into his fighting style.

In one swift moment, Damon ducked under Rose’s sword, but then suddenly changed his foot work. He feinted upwards, as if to pierce her jaw from below. Rose acted immediately bending her head back just enough to feel the wind left in the sword’s wake on her face.

Then Damon suddenly withdrew the sword, pivoted to the side, before lunging high with a front kick.

Bang!

His foot connected with Rose’s forearm, sending her skidding several dozens of meters.

Rose though, didn’t give Damon the time to marvel at what he just did. Her heel barely touched the ground, before she was already moving forward again.

This time she came with a wide swing of her sword. Damon took a step back evading the swing, then moved forward in a surprising burst of speed. His elbow snapped upwards, but Rose blocked it, barely. But he then swung his sword to her shoulder.

Rose tried to avoid it, but it still grazed her shoulder, cutting through the fabric there, and then her skin, ultimately drawing blood.

Damon’s lips splited into a wide grin at that, but then Rose suddenly moved with more speed than ever before. She stomped one leg on the ground, shattering it on impact, spun on that leg, and then kicked at Damon’s jaw so fast he couldn’t dodge.

Bang!

Damon’s body snapped sideways, and got sent flying several dozen meters, but while still in motion, he placed his hands on the ground and flipped himself onto his feet, effectively stopping himself.

He and Rose looked each other. “It’s about time we get serious, don’t you think brother?” The air around Rose started to grow hazy.

*********

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