Sam and Sanjay both stared at each other dead in the eyes. The atmosphere is tense. Both of them didn't make the first move. The flood dragon moved back to one end of the battleground as it spectated the battle, completely ready to enter the battle at any moment.
Sanjay noticed that Sam is extremely calm as the time passed, he seemed to have become calmer and have no intention of making any move, at the end, he got impatient and made the first move.
The Chain sickle whistled as the blade cut through the air and made its way towards Sam.
Sam is already wearing his claws. He didn't move from his position as he moved his left hand.
*Clank* The nail of the index finger clashed with the chain sickle as he diverted the trajectory of it.
The attack is too direct and too simple. Without any power behind it. It is just a symbolic attack signifying the start of the fight.
The next second, Sam made his move. He didn't use elemental fusion directly; it would take too much of his energy.
He used Phantom steps as he moved like a flash.
But as soon as he took two steps, the chain sickle whistled through the air, as it halted his movement in that direction, he forcefully kicked the ground as he changed his direction of movement.
But the sickle followed his motion and halted his advance.
The Chain sickle might be versatile, but it is one of the hardest weapons to control, but Sanjay showed utmost control as he maintained the speed of the sickle and its motion at maximum.
Even though there is quite a distance between two of them, it didn't take long to complete a whole circle with the chain sickle as Sanjay halted Sam's advance.
With his current speed, Sam couldn't find the opening, even after using the phantom step.
Although he wasn't able to advance, Sanjay also didn't get any upper-hand in this situation.
Sam is easily blocking the attacks.
After more than ten exchanges, Sam suddenly made a move and this time, when Chain sickle was about to hit his shoulder from upwards, he dashed forward extremely close to the chain, this move is not much suitable, because, in this way, Sam's back would be wide open for the sickle and when Sanjay pulled the chain back, the sickle could be impaled into Sam's back.
Sanjay did exactly that. But Sam does have a remedy to this situation. He created a small air pocket in his arm and blasted it on the chain.
The chain shook a bit and the trajectory was altered a bit, as Sanjay was about to control it, Sam condensed wind elemental energy in his hands as he swung it in Sanjay's direction. The Wind blades condensed into a claw as they moved in conjunction, towards Sanjay.
Sanjay only has two options, one is to dodge and another one is to block. If he chose to dodge, he would lose his core position from where he could keep the situation under control and if he chose to block, he would lose control of the chain for a moment and Sam would cover the distance.
Sam is ready to take advantage of both situations and Sanjay chose the latter, he extended his hand and a thick ice wall was conjured in front of him.
Sam didn't waste his chance as he hit the chain away with his claws and the sickle fell completely away from him, although the chain is still in Sanjay's hands, it is still off control now.
Sam dived in further and tried to close in the distance.
The Wind claw sliced through the ice block and it was cut into pieces before losing its lethality. As Sam closed in taking the advantage of Sanjay's lapse in concentration, the ice block fell down and suddenly three ice lances made their way towards Sam.
Sam is a bit surprised, but not to the point he lost his composure.
He kicked the ground as leaped upwards and cannonballed towards Sanjay, dodging two lances, just as he was about past the third one, a sickled flew out of nowhere and hit the lance changing its direction upwards.
The lance came straight towards Sam from the bottom. This time, he is really surprised. As the lance made its way towards him, he came back to his sense for the immediate threat and rolled in the air as he extended his leg.
The foot of the leg was covered with concentrated spiritual energy as it created a wind blade, which sliced through the ice lance.
But Sam didn't reach his destination and landed early, by this time, the chain sickle already made its way towards him, which he has to block.
All this happened within seconds. Both of them didn't even use a single lethal or critical move. All the moves are basic and only relied on skill and judgment.
Even if they had taken the hits, they wouldn't have fallen, but both of them are feeling a weird sense of competitiveness which is making them unwilling to take the first hit.
The situation turned back the same and the only change being, Sanjay is holding two chain sickles.
Sam narrowed his eyes at this. This second chain sickle is the reason for the ice lance to divert its direction suddenly. He didn't see the second chain sickle before. Right now, the lower half of the chain is wound around the arm as he held the sickle in his hand with the rest of the chain hanging in the middle which is completely unlike the first one which has its chain completely unwound.
The hand holding the new chain sickle has its sleeve completely gone. That is why he wasn't able to see the chain sickle before. It was hidden under the sleeve with the sickle blade folded.
Not only him, but even most of the people from the Beast faction are also surprised, this is the first time, Sanjay has revealed this.
His desire to avoid the first hit is higher than his caution towards revealing one of his hidden cards. Sam couldn't help but smile. Because the hidden sickle has been revealed just because of the simple moves at the beginning. He has a weird sense of pride.
But Sanjay has a completely opposite expression on his mouth behind that robe. His mouth is twitching non-stop. He doesn't feel good about having his hidden card revealed.
He took a deep breath and suddenly felt like he shouldn't care anymore. Since he revealed one, he would go all out. He has to bring Sam down today, that is the only thing on his mind.
He wound the chain of the first chain sickle to his left hand similar to the right one and started his fight.
This time, he didn't fight from the long-range, instead, he dove headfirst as he took the fight to close quarters by himself.
He reached Sam, who stood there calmly as he welcomed the incoming attack.
Sanjay swung his hand as he slashed Sam diagonally with the sickle.
Sam bent forwards and twisted his torso towards the right as he dodged the blade and made swung his right claw straight towards Sanjay's face.
Sanjay, bent backward as he dodged the claw in hairsbreadth. He rotated his body as he swung the sickle diagonally upwards.
The series of blows continued as both of the dodged extremely. None of them is willing to take the first hit and is to hell-bent on landing the first hit.
After more than a hundred exchanges, Sanjay made sudden and large movements as he used the ice element. The chains which are Grey in color turned icy blue as they completely absorbed the ice elemental energy. The two chains which are hanging on both his arms, formed a large loop as they enveloped around Sam, who just dodged a sickle attack.
Sanjay pulled the sickles and came to a halt and just like that Sam's arms are locked to his body.
He was extremely surprised; he didn't expect that Sanjay has this trick up his sleeve and in the heat of a moment he didn't see it.
All of a sudden, his limbs are unusable as they didn't allow have many degrees of freedom due to the chains.
Sanjay is panting heavily as he looked at Sam.
Sam is also panting. He has used almost all kinds of moves that are possible with his claws without using the spiritual energy and the accessories of the claws, but he wasn't able to make a single hit.
All this while, Sanjay was portrayed to be a chain sickle user who fights in long-range, but today even the beast-faction members have their eyes opened. His main forte is close combat.
Although both of them are unable to land a single hit, all the spectators could see the expertise and the finesse in their moves.
Sam tried elemental fusion and his body transformed into golden flames, but to his surprise, he wasn't able to directly escape the chains. After all, it is not possible to catch the flames like this physically.
But there is another possibility and that is using spiritual energy. After all, even the flames are a form of spiritual energy, so the chains which are wound around Sam are binding the flames with spiritual energy too. This is the only possible counter for elemental fusion.
Sam turned back to his normal state as he looked at Sanjay, he could feel the number of spiritual energies in the chain. The chain seemed to have been made of some special alloy which could enhance the property of the ice element restraining the opponent. The expenditure of spiritual energy is not small at all.
But he wasn't worried, he gave a smile when Sanjay came forwards to land the first hit of the battle.
