34 Ray vs Gildarts

Both of us stood there staring at each other, while I was in my battle stance with my left arm and leg in front with my right side slightly back Gildarts was standing without any such stance. But I knew that although it seemed that he was full of openings, it actually felt like I was facing a tall mountain, calm and steady.

After staring off for a while I made the first move. I dashed towards him while weaving my left hand to restrict the space around him and kept my senses at maximum. He seemed slightly surprised at that but it was gone just like the passing wind.

While being cautious of his crush magic I reached in front of him and threw a punch clad in space. It was a bit modified so that I can fight in close combat with him. The space around my fist not only has the ability to shake the opponent but also divert his crush magic. But since this is the first time I am using this move Im not sure if I can cancel out his magic completely.

In response to my attack he himself threw a punch but just a normal one. It seems he is underestimating me. Well that will change soon enough.

As soon as we both made contact a shockwave was produced with us at the center and Gildarts was thrown back a couple of meters. While airborn he back flipped and landed on his feet but I was already closing in on him.

"Hammer of Justice"

I condensed as much space as I could around my fist and mad my punches heavier and threw it at Gildarts who just now regained his balance.

He felt the force behind the punch so he quickly jumped away and created some distance between us. My punch landed at where he stood and created a huge crater while sending dust and rocks flying everywhere. After the dust cleared I looked towards Gildarts and gave him a smirk.

"Now, how about you actually take this seriously for the second round or is it that this is everything that the great Gildarts has to offer." I kept my smirk as I taunted him.

He stayed silent for a while, while looking at me, the crater and my fists which was still covered in space and then he gave an almost feral like grin as he said.

"Now this is unexpected. Brat, you better prepare yourself because from here on out, I aint pulling any punches."

"Thats exactly what I want." I gave a wide grin of my own and once again got into my stance as we both dashed at each other this time.

We started trading blow after blow and kept on creating massive shockwaves. He was fighting while using his crush magic which he was increasing as we went at it each other and I was using the space on my fists to negate his crush magic.

Our fist kept hitting each other as I got the first hit when I used a faint with my left and landed a punch on his jaw with my right. He was shook for a bit and that gave me an opportunity to get in a few more hits.

"Hammer of Justice!"

This time my punch landed on his gut sending him flying and on his way broke a couple of trees. I quickly chased after him but immediately sensed his incoming attack.

"Crushing Evil, Spreading The Truth: Empyrean!"

As his attack was almost right in front of me, I didnt have enough time to use Tobis visage to phase through, so I did the best I could to try and dodge and was able to tilt my body to my left getting hit on my right shoulder and sending me spinning while flying as a result. I crashed onto a huge rock and felt some small stones digging into my back as I teleported a few meters away as I sensed Gildarts arriving very quickly still with a heavy momentum after that succesful hit.

"Dream Reality."

After making some distance between us once again, I surrounded myself in space seperaring me from reality while I conjured an Ordins Judgement and while I was doing so I hadnt stopped attacking Gildarts. Although it isnt really effective since all I am doing is teleporting massive rocks and trees above him, all I want is some time so I dont mind not being able to damage him.

As Gildarts kept on destroying the rocks and trees flying at him for several second, I was finally able to finish the attack. Although it isnt as strong as when I used it on Achnologia since this can only be called a spar, it was still enough to heavily damage Gildarts.

I undid the Dream Reality and teleported right above Gildarts and swung the spear in my hand at him.

"Ordins Judgement!!"

Sensing the power behind the incoming attack, Gildarts showed a very serious expression as he clenched his fists while shouting.

"Crushing Evil, Spreading The Truth: Absolute Heaven!!"

He used his crush magic almost to the limit and met the spear head on as he sunk into the ground because of the impact the spear was causing. He gritted his teeth and pushed the spear back as shock wave after shock wave kept on being sent out and our surroundings have long been cleared out due to it. After having this confrontation for a while there has yet to appear a winner between his fists and my spear.

"All Crush!!"

Suddenly Gildarts shouted as he infused his crush magic into his surrounding as a shockwave sending me flying while coughing blood and the spear finally disappeared.

As the dust settled around us, Gildarts was on his knees, panting for breath while I was slowly making my way back to my feet while shaking. Now I know some must be wondering, why not just use my time control to recover from my injuries. Well, I am not in a life or death battle, instead I am sparring so that my fighting can improve. And in the future if I dont have enough time for healing myself, then I will have to fight while injured just like now. And I might meet people who can completely ignore the Dream Reality skill and attack me while I recover. So I am preparing myself for those kinds of scenarios just in case.

After cathing our breaths, we both looked at each other and once again gave each other a grin.

"Ready for round three?" Both of us said at the same time as we once again ran towards each other.

We restarted our exchange as soon as we came into each others range and blew into a full on brawl as we gave up on defense and used pure physical punches to hit each other.

To be honest, if it wasnt for my training I would have already collapsed from his first punch. Despite that his punches were still terrifyingly strong as he had years worth of training more than me so his strength was also more than mine.

As his hits started to take a toll on me, I switched my attacks pattern from straightforward punching to using my superior speed to constantly circle around him while hitting him with punches and kicks. I was able to take the upper hand after a while of attacking him like this as he was having a hard time to catch upto my speed.

"All Crush!"

He spread out his hands and sent out another shockwave of his crush magic when he finally couldnt take my hits anymore. As I was completely focused on offense I was once again hit by his All Crush and sent flying.

After I landed on the ground I couldnt even move my body let alone stand up. But Gildarts was in no better shape as he seemed to have spent all of his remaining strength on that last attack as he was sitting down gasping for breath.

We just stayed there in silence as we tried to get some strength back and after almost twenty minutes, we recovered enough. We looked at each other and both decided the match ending as a draw. And since the fight was over, I got over the excitement of the fight and finally remembered that I could have just used my time control to recover after the fight ended and so I did.

After I recovered, I did the same to Gildarts and we started to talk to each other about the fight.

"To be honest, Im surprised by your strength. So young yet already so strong. You have most definetely reached S-Rank mage level of strength and quite close to the Ten Wizard Saints level." Gildarts gave his opinion on my strength as he put his head on his palm.

Heh, Ten Wizard Saints? Guess you havent met the real terrifying enemy. Since you travel a lot, you will eventually meet him and realize true despair. When you meet him, dont try to act tough and just run. Or else you might loose your life or if youre lucky loose some body parts." I gave a smirk and gave some hints about the future where he fought Achnologia and lost his left arm and leg.

Gildarts is one of my favourite characters in the canon so I just gave him chance to stop him from losing his limbs.

When he heard what I said, he was stunned and then looked pensive. He was someone smart and he wasnt arrogant enough to think that there isnt anyone out there that could beat him but he never thought that this kid that he just fought would say something like that.