“Gahh!” The sand burned Elio’s eyes, rendering him practically blind. What a cheap trick. He gritted his teeth but didn’t even have time to finish cleaning his eyes when he caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a sword swinging at him. Quickly, he attempted to jump backwards, but unfortunately was not able to fully avoid the attack as the blade slashed a line along his chest. He winced in pain, but there was no cease of attacks, luckily the boy was able to barley dive out of the way before the slower paced axe could finish him, slamming into the soft ground instead.
“You fight without a shred of dignity, it’s no wonder you work in the lowest industry of them all.” Elio sneered and glared at the man as an intense rage overcame him and he locked in on his opponent, filled with vengeance. Holding his oar vertically, he stabbed in into the ground.
“Geyser!” The ground distorted In response, the oar never even entering. A wave in the ground rippled outwards in a line, emerging beneath Atreo and launching him far into the air. Not wasting a second, Elio pushed off of the ground and jumped into the air above where Atreo was located.
“Waterfall!” Elio swung his oar behind his head with both hands and overloaded it with energy. Shifting his momentum forwards, Elio slammed downwards on Atreo’s skull with his full power, sending the man rocketing into the ground. As he landed, Elio immediately remembered he had a small audience and tried to cooly play it off rather than reveal his amazement that the new technique worked.
“Impressed?” He teased, walking back towards Harphina, “I know it’s hard but try not to fall in love.” The smile on his face unfortunately was cut short. The sudden appearance of an unknown man worried Elio a bit. It would’ve been one thing for another person to have randomly run into the fight, but this was different. This man had confidently walked into the middle of a heated battle and casually asked a question. That kind of confidence only equated to one thing: strength.
Elio kept his hand on his oar, ready for yet another confrontation. “Psst, is he one of you guys?” Elio whispered to Harphina, already knowing the answer but hoping to be proven wrong.