Elven Legacy (Part 2)

Chapter 223: Echo Vs. Elif

"Just a heads-up, but don't focus only on my face; I can't be looking bruised and battered on my birthday." Said Elif seriously as he looked at Echo, who eagerly nodded, slightly worrying him, though nonetheless, he still continued with the spar.

Looking at Echo, who seemed ready to lunge toward me instantly, I glanced at Illumia and nodded my head, causing her to raise her hand for a few seconds before suddenly dropping it; the moment she did so, both Echo and I pushed off the ground, dashing toward each other.

Despite having started at the same exact time, Echo reached me first, and with three of her six arms, she punched me; since we weren't using any Qi and only fighting with the strength of our physique, I wasn't able to use my movement technique, elven body flicker, to dodge in time, which forced me to move my arms before my body to block her three incoming fists.

'Tsk, ouch.' Thought Elif as he felt Echo's three powerful fists rain down on his arms, pushing him back several meters while his feet skidded across the ground, though he managed to stop himself just before exiting the arena.

From just one of Echo's attacks, I felt my arms tremble as I struggled to block her fists, and even though I did, I was almost pushed out of the arena. Moving my arms out of the way, I saw Echo sprinting right for me, though instead of trying to gain some distance away from the edge of the arena, I stood my ground and waited for her to approach me.

When she finally got close, I intently watched her every move, eyeing her every muscle, looking for a sign of how she was going to attack me, and the instant her right foot landed on the ground, I saw the way she twisted her body and how the muscles on the left side of her abdomen moved in unison.

Waiting for a split moment, I suddenly sidestepped to the right, dodging Echo's punch she threw with her left hand; while this would've been a good chance to counter-attack, I decided to move back to the center of the arena since if I was forced to block more of her blows, I would need space.

'Well, it seems like all that training with Idonea wasn't a waste.' Mused Elif lightly as he eyed Echo, turning around and lunging toward him once more.

One thing I was very confident in was my fighting skills, I've trained with Illumia since I was four, and I didn't just rely on the massive difference in my opponent's raw strength to defeat them, even if someone was somehow just as strong as me, without the proper skills to back up such a massive amount of strength, I would be able to toy around with them. However, this was all under the assumption I was fighting with Hokori, not when I was barehanded, and while I'm not defenseless without my sword, fighting with it and without it are two very different things.

Jumping over Echo's kick to my legs, I spun in the air and kicked her face, my foot colliding with the side of her neck, though other than tilting her head to the side, she stood firm and gave me a ferocious glare, causing me to sigh as I used my other leg to push off her.

"You're going to have to do better than that, Prince Elif." Said Echo with a smirk as she leaped into the air, only to fall down and slam her six fists onto Elif, who had managed to dodge just at the right moment.

"You say that like I'm not using all of my strength; you know my strength doesn't lie in my physique; I kicked you with about everything I had." Replied Elif with a slight frown as he dashed forward, while a few bruises covered his body, wounds from Echo's previous attacks.

Running toward Echo, when I was right before her, I suddenly stopped and moved around her, attacking her from the other side with a punch, but she easily dodged it by leaning to the right, causing me to continue with the attack and swing my fist to the right as well, though I should've just backed away after missing my first attack as she grabbed my fist just before it connected with her face.