The underground training room at Smith Manor pulsed with contained energy. The reinforced E10 walls glowed softly under the artificial light, reflecting the blue glow of the elental fire that Erick kept under control in his chest. The black tatami mat absorbed every impact, every step, as if it were alive. In the center, Jade Nguyen — Cheshire — moved like a living hurricane.
Erick watched, his green eyes fixed on her. Jade's speed increased exponentially with each passing second. At first, she was just a fleeting blur. Now, she had beco a pure shadow, running and leaping across the room in impossible trajectories. Her feet barely touched the ground; each impulse generated concentrated bursts of air that launched her forward like a missile. She climbed walls, ricocheted off the ceiling, spun in the air with deadly grace. It was truly impressive to witness that level of elental power displayed—the air obeying her will as an extension of her own body.
Erick crossed his arms, a slow smile forming on his lips.
"It's okay, it's okay. You found your way."
The instant the words left his mouth, Jade stopped above him—literally on the ceiling. She looked down, upside down, her black hair cascading like a dark waterfall, her sharp eyes fixed on his. For a second, the world seed to freeze. Then gravity did its work. Jade began to fall. But it wasn't an ordinary fall. She spun through the air at extre speed, her body whirling like a blade, controlling the wind around her to reduce her acceleration. She descended slowly, almost floating, until she stopped gracefully in the center of the tatami mat, just inches from Erick.
He watched her for a long second, admiring the precision, the lethal beauty of that movent. Then, he gave a sensual smile, the elental fire pulsing stronger in his chest.
"Why don't we test your limits in combat now?"
Jade returned the smile, her eyes gleaming with defiance.
"Show us what you've got, handso."
Erick assud a fighting stance, feet firmly planted, knees slightly bent, arms half-raised, posture low and balanced. Jade did the sa, body light, hands open, ready to use the air as both weapon and shield. The two stared at each other for a mont—two predators sizing each other up, like cowboys in the Old West preparing for the final duel.
Jade was the first to move.
She released concentrated bursts of air from the soles of her feet, propelling herself like a jet. The air exploded behind her with an audible whoosh , launching her toward Erick at absurd speed. Her right knee flew straight into his face.
Erick defended at the last instant. His green forearm collided with her knee with a sharp crack . The force of the impact reverberated through his arm, but he didn't give in. He grabbed Jade's leg, preventing her from continuing the movent. With a powerful twist of his torso, he threw her into the air and slamd her body against the mat.
Jade, poised for the attack, placed her palms facing the ground and released two violent bursts of air. The wind propelled her body upward at the last second, preventing the impact from being too violent. She rolled to the side, jumped to her feet, and attempted a high roundhouse kick.
Erick took the blow. Her foot struck his side hard, but he barely flinched. He grabbed her leg again and released her, allowing Jade to move a few ters away.
She stopped, breathing steadily, and realized sothing concrete: however fast she was, Erick was much stronger and more resilient. His blows seed to hit living concrete. She gave a sharp smile, her white teeth gleaming.
"I'm going all in."
Her body vanished. It seed like teleportation. In reality, it was extre speed combined with perfect control of the air. She reappeared beside Erick, spinning in the air with her leg extended in a perfect kick aid at his head.
Erick saw the attack. He brought his hands together in front of his face, forming a solid guard. The kick landed with a loud, tallic sound, like a hamr striking an anvil. The impact echoed through the room. Erick took a step back, absorbing the force, and smiled from behind his hands.
"Is that all?"
Jade landed on her feet, frustrated but still defiant.
"I'm just getting started."
She returned to the ground and began running in circles around Erick at high speed. The air around her ford a vortex, loose leaves and dust particles dancing in the swirl. As she spun, Jade realized sothing important: so far, Erick hadn't used any of his flas. He was fighting only with brute physical strength.
She condensed a compact ball of air in her hand and threw it towards him. The invisible sphere hit him squarely, making Erick's clothes and hair flutter violently. But nothing more than that. It was a feint.
Jade appeared behind him at that very instant. Elbow raised, she landed a direct blow to the base of his skull.
Her elbow slamd down. It was like hitting a reinforced concrete wall. The pain exploded in her arm. Jade howled, jumping back, clutching her throbbing elbow.
Erick turned slowly, still smiling.
"Co on, Jade. I'm not even ward up yet."
Frustrated by the failed attack, Jade ran toward him at top speed. Erick reacted, trying to grab her body. But she slipped under his legs with a perfect slide. As she passed, she spun her body upwards and landed a precise kick between Erick's legs—directly on the jewels.
The impact was perfect.
Erick fell to his knees on the mat, a deep, guttural roar escaping his throat. Pain shot up his back like lightning, making his eyes water for a second. He bent over, his hands instinctively protecting the area.
Jade stopped a few ters away, turning to him with a triumphant smile, still massaging her aching elbow.
"Even the toughest guys have their weak spot."
The room fell silent for a mont, only the sound of Erick's heavy breathing and the low hum of the ventilation systems filling the space. The fight had been short, intense, and revealing—Jade was fast, lethal, and creative, but Erick was a living wall of strength and resilience. And now, with a low and dirty blow, she had found the only opening he hadn't been able to protect.
Eric took a deep breath, the air entering his lungs hot and harsh. The pain in his groin still throbbed like liquid fire, sending sharp waves up his spine and making his eyes water behind the visor. He had underestimated Jade. That low, precise kick had been perfect—dirty, efficient, exactly the kind of strike an assassin like her would use when normal rules weren't enough. But now he saw: she had resorted to that because nothing else worked. And that ant he didn't need to hold back anymore.
He stood slowly. Each step toward Jade lessened the pain slightly, but the phantom pain remained—a warm, throbbing echo that reminded him that even titans have weaknesses. His fists clenched so tightly that the sound of the plates creaking echoed through the room like tal being crushed. Jade heard it clearly. Her eyes widened.
The room's temperature changed instantly. The air conditioning, which had kept the environnt cool and controlled, lost the battle. The heat rose like a desert wave, making the air shimr. Smoke began to billow from Erick's mouth and nose in thin gray lines. His fists glowed, blue flas licking his fingers and climbing up his forearms. His green skin shone with a dangerous inner glow.
Jade tried to say sothing — a provocation, a joke, anything — but she didn't have ti.
A violent explosion erupted beneath Erick's feet. Blue and white elental flas exploded like rocket propellants. He was hurled forward like a living missile, his body cutting through the air with a deafening roar.
Jade, thanks to the newfound supernatural agility granted to her by the air elental, reacted instinctively. She threw herself to the side at the last millisecond. Erick grazed past her, so close that the warm wind of the passage ruffled her hair. He crashed against the opposite wall of the room with titanic force. The impact was like a missile hitting concrete—a deafening roar, E10 plates shattered, dust and fragnts flying in all directions.
Jade spun on the floor, jumped to her feet, and looked for Erick. He wasn't there anymore. The wall was crumpled, but empty. Her eyes scanned the ceiling, the walls, the tatami mat. Nothing.
A primal instinct made her jump to the side.
Sothing heavy fell from the ceiling like a teor. The impact created another crater in the tatami mat, black smoke rising in a dense column. From the middle of the smoke, two flaming eyes glead—green, intense, almost luminescent.
Jade tried to pull away, but a huge hand grabbed her leg. Erick lifted her as if she weighed nothing and began slamming her body against the ground repeatedly. Each impact was a violent thud. Jade tried to create a shield of compressed wind, as she had done before, but this ti Erick's power was overwhelming. The shield cracked after the second impact. She slamd against the mat three more tis, the air being expelled from her lungs, her vision blurring.
With a brutal spin, Erick hurled her against the wall. Jade managed to stabilize her body in the air using gusts of wind, but barely touched the ground when the monster reappeared in front of her.
It was Erick, but no longer the man she knew.
His green skin glowed with an infernal inner heat. His black hair blazed as if on fire. Smoke billowed in thick clouds from his nose and mouth, partially obscuring his face. His eyes were two wells of green plasma. He looked like a giant—6'3" of pure fury and elental power.
Jade tried to create another air shield. Erick's hand pierced the barrier as if it didn't exist. His fingers closed around her face, his warm palm slightly burning her skin. With brutal force, he slamd Jade's head against the wall. The impact made stars explode in her vision. She felt dizzy, lightheaded, her knees buckling until she fell to her knees.
When he looked up, he saw a giant standing in front of him.
Erick's right fist was raised. Scorching heat emanated from it in visible waves. The flas around his fist changed from blue to an incandescent white. A ball of pure plasma materialized—bright as if the sun had descended there, pulsing with destructive energy that distorted the surrounding air.
Jade felt the heat burning her skin even from a distance. Her eyes widened in pure terror.
The last thing she managed to think, before everything went black, was:
I'm going to die.
And then ca total darkness.
Erick stopped the blow at the last instant. The white plasma pulsed once, shining like a star trapped in his fist, but he didn't release it.
The ball of plasma slowly dissipated, turning into white smoke that spiraled upwards. Erick lowered his arm, breathing heavily, smoke still escaping his mouth. He looked at Jade lying unconscious on the mat, her body motionless.
The room fell into absolute silence, with only the faint crackling of the remaining flas and the hum of the ventilation system trying to combat the extre heat.
Erick took a deep breath, the elental fire calming within his chest. He crouched beside her, checking if she was breathing. She was alive. Hurt, dazed, but alive.
He wiped the sweat and smoke from his face and murmured to himself in a hoarse voice:
"You asked not to go easy on you..."
The fight was over. Jade had found her limits. And Erick had shown exactly what happened when he stopped holding back.
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