The silver flashes of lightning cleared out.
Everyone saw Sam standing on the ground with a small crater under his feet. Muscle also stood there.
His arms are blocking the staff and he had a slight smile on his face. There is a much larger crater under his feet.
“You are good. With how still you were in your previous matches, I thought you are a mage. But it seems like you are more of a warrior. That attack is really good. I like it.”
Sam didn’t reply and just looked at him calmly. He tried to push the staff harder to suppress Muscle, but he wasn’t able to do anything. Muscle just threw his arms away and Sam felt an intense force throwing him off the ground.
He somersaulted backward before slamming his staff into the ground and holding himself in place.
As he tried to balance himself in the spot, Muscle already lunged forward and got ready to throw a punch.
Sam jumped up with the support of the staff and gathered lightning to his feet to land a two-legged kick to Muscle’s face.
Muscle who almost ran straight into Sam’s feet because of the momentum, tried his best to control the momentum and halted in his tracks.
As if he had already anticipated this, the lightning gathered at Sam’s feet was shot straight at Muscle’s face.
He flinched and stepped back. Sam landed on his feet and pulled the staff out of the ground as he continuously slammed it on Muscle’s head.
Of course, Muscle blocked it with his arms, but each strike pushed him back a little.
The subordinates of Muscle were shocked to see this. Even though they didn’t see muscle fighting someone in a suppressed state, they definitely saw him fight people on the same level. But no one managed to push him back like this, except for one person.
And Sam became the second.
They assumed Sam was good, but now its not just good or even great. That seems like levels below Sam’s strength. They wouldn’t have expected a scenario like this at the start of the battle in a million years.
As for why they are so surprised, it is because Muscle has a weird tendency of dominating the fight at the start. Particularly when he is fighting with something on the line. He never backs down at the start of the fight.
He always starts it aggressively and then plays around carefully for a while before finishing off the opponent spectacularly. It is his blueprint for fighting with people. It is so evident that everyone knows about it.
Even the people in the city surrounding them knows about it. Anyone on the street can vouch for it.
But for him to beaten back at the start of the fight is a completely new thing and a surprising thing for them.
Sam on the other hand actually knew about this. That is why he took such an aggressive start at a very strong opponent.
In general, he would have taken a much milder approach and picked his opponent apart. After all, his motto is to be efficient.
But his current actions are completely against it.
He is fighting aggressively and his goal is to dominate Muscle. Not just win against him barely. He wants to defeat him in his own forte. A mixture of brute force with minimal but refined technique.
He will do that and will use all of his elemental energies if necessary to do that.
The battle went on for a while with Sam landing blows on Muscle’s head which is barely being blocked by his arms.
As it almost entered a stalemate-like situation, Sam kicked on the ground with earth elemental energy.
A trap formed right under the feet of Muscle and took him by surprise.
The trap was not made to hold him on the spot though, it actually just tripped him a bit and then the earth pushed him a bit upwards. His arms that were over his head and were ready to catch the attacks coming at him missed the mark.
Muscle hurriedly moved his head to the side and the staff landed on his shoulder.
*BAM*
The lightning flashed once again and made everyone blinded for a moment.
Muscle groaned in pain as she stepped backwards to be out of Sam’s attack range, but as if he already anticipated this, another earth trap appeared there and this one is designed to capture his leg completely.
Sam swung the staff from the side, aiming for the head.
Muscle blocked it with his hands once again and threw a punch at Sam at the same time. Sam dodged it to the side and swung the staff again. This time, Muscle focused on blocking it, but the staff changed its direction at the last moment.
It directly went to the muscle’s trapped leg.
Muscle gritted his teeth and hurriedly used all of his strength to break through the trap and used the same leg that has all the built-up momentum to kick the staff.
Sam was blown back a bit from the force that came from the leg. The kick was too strong and forceful. But he wasn’t injured. He balanced himself pretty well and blocked another attack that came from Muscle.
He continued with the battle.
The blows became fiercer. The subordinates who are witnessing the battle are being riled up with excitement. They are amazed by how well, Sam has been handling this and how easily Muscle is able to counter to everything.
Another five minutes of this.
Sam jumped into the air as he tried to land an overhead hit on Muscle’s head. This time, the staff is a bit different from the previous one. In mid-air, Sam swapped it with another one in his storage.
Muscle didn’t pay too much heed to that change as he got ready to block the attack. But right when they were about to make contact, the lightning disappeared and metal energy enveloped Sam.
The staff suddenly changed its shape. The staff’s body turned into thin strips of metal. They are like flexible swords all joined together.
Blade aura surged through Sam’s body as he swung it downwards harder.
The sharp edges of dozens of metal strips dug themselves into Muscle’s arm. Some strips are even stuck in the arm. Wind energy surged through the strips as Sam pull them out. Muscle fibers were torn apart with just a single pull and blood scattered everywhere.
Sam stored the weapon back in the storage before taking out a large battle ax.
Even before Muscle can relax, Sam already made a move with the ax.
A large slash of spiritual energy went from the ax as he swung it towards Muscle.
Muscle blocked it. But in the process opened up his already existing wounds.
The bleeding increased.
Before he could come back to it, Sam swung the ax again. The attack landed perfectly without any mishaps this time. The ax dug itself in the flesh and almost off the hand and the shoulder clean.
At first, the match started with both of them exchanging blows. But now it became a bit one-sided. Sam has a solid attack pattern. But that was tailor-made for this situation only. So, Muscle has boasted such prowess. is getting thrashed at the moment.
The surprise turned into shock and then shock turned into disbelief.
But after another three minutes. All of a sudden, Sam’s ax was blocked cleanly. There is not even a hint of a scratch. He pushed the ax backward.
“You are good. Better than I thought. But if this is all you have, then it would be impossible for you to defeat me.”
As he spoke, Sam watched as wounds quickly started healing on Muscle’s body.
“There is a reason why I was able to stay at the top for so long. It is not that difficult to injure me, but the problem is making my injuries affect me is the real challenge.
You did a great job demonstrating your strength like this, but too bad it is going to end up a failure. Get ready to be part of my team from now on.”
Sam who stood there in front of him, was surprised. After all, self-regeneration is a very rare skill. Even among the healers, there are very few people who recover this quickly.
Muscle’s strength went way ahead of the charts in Sam’s mind. And after the initial surprise, his face gave out a very faint but definite smile.
It might be difficult to damage Muscle significantly because of the regenerations, but that doesn’t mean, it is not going to be fun. In fact, this is a very thrilling experience for Sam.
To beat such a person who can wield such power is going to be much more fun. Particularly if that person is way above you in terms of skill set and physical strength etc.
This is not just fun for Sam, even for the audience who are witnessing the fight.
“Things just got way better. This is very interesting. Very interesting indeed.”
