Capítulo 5: Seraph against the Forces of Nature
Ezekiel woke up, looking forward to his training. Today was the day he would meet another boy close to his age and get to try himself against a new opponent aside from Jeanne. He and Jeanne would often spar together, but since he was far stronger than her, he was restricted heavily and could never go all out. If what Vasco told him was true, then his new sparring partner was extremely strong compared to others his age. If you are training all the time since you were young but lack experience in real fights, you will always have that itch to prove yourself to see how far you have come. Without wasting any time Ezekiel got ready, ate a small breakfast, and made his way to the training grounds.
After walking for a few minutes, he arrived at the entrance and already heard sounds of someone training. Peeking inside he could see Jeanne swinging her wooden sword while sweating lightly. Ever since she saw a glimpse of his true strength and how much he held back in their spars she upped her training by a lot. She probably knew that she wont ever come close to him in terms of strength, but that did not mean she would lose all motivation and not try her best.
After a while she noticed Ezekiel watching her and stopped her training. She wiped her forehead from sweat and walked over to him.
"Good morning, Zeke. You are earlier than normal, did you want to join in my sword training?" she asked, still slightly out of breath.
"Good morning. Jeanne. I will not join you today. Vasco told me yesterday to come here in the morning and he will introduce me to my sparring partner for the next weeks." Ezekiel answered his voiced enveloped in obvious anticipation.
"Do you know who it is?" she asked curiously.
"No, Vasco only said he is a close to our age. Ah look there they are!" Ezekiel pointed at the entrance.
Vasco was walking beside a boy that looked about 13-14 years old. The boy had mid-length blonde hair and wore the attire of a priest. After waiting for a moment, they arrived in front of Ezekiel and Jeanne.
"Hey you two, I am Dulio! You can call me big brother if you want." He introduced himself in a carefree manner, not even bothering to keep up appearances in front of Vasco.
"You must be Ezekiel and Jeanne. It is nice to meet you." He continued while offering his hand.
Ezekiel was the first to shake his hand while he replied: "Nice to meet you Dulio, I am looking forward to our sparring sessions in the future."
"Nice to meet you!" Jeanne beamed, happy to meet another friend.
"Ok now that the introductions are out of the way, let us not waste anymore time. Dulio I expect you to keep silent about everything you witness here today. Is that understood?" Vasco said in an expectant and stern tone.
Dulio is a free-spirited person but even he knows when to be serious and gave a nod towards Vasco who continued: "Let us make this quick then. If you would Ezekiel."
Ezekiel understood what Vasco was hinting at and released his 12 magnificent wings and spread them out in their full glory. His wings grew quite a lot and long reached a size to be of use in combat. Dulio was taken aback and his eyes widened slightly before he schooled his features again. Of all things he expected, a young seraph was probably the last thing he could imagine. Since Vasco told him to take the match with all seriousness, he just thought that his opponent might have a strong sacred gear or even a Longinus.
"Go to different sides of the training grounds and wait for my signal." Vasco woke him from his musings, and both took their place.
"You can use everything at your disposal, but I expect you to follow some basic rules. Rule number 1: No maiming or lasting injuries! Rule number 2: I want the destruction due to any techniques to kept inside the training grounds! Rule number 3: You will keep your aerial combat close to the ground to keep rumours from spreading. And lastly rule number 4: Have fun and enjoy yourself!" Vasco stated loudly, making them smile at his last remark before turning serious.
Ezekiel taking his opponent serious, took out his sword from its storage in a separate space. Since he did not want to leave his sword at home and it was too eye-catching to carry around openly, he asked his father to teach him how to store it away in another space bound to him. Ezekiel took his stance, his gaze never leaving Dulio's position.
Dulio, after seeing the sword, became even more serious and took his own stance, ready to go all out at any moment.
After a few tense seconds Vasco gave the signal and both of them vanished. Dulio rushed backwards conjuring a thick wall of earth in front of him before taking flight through the manipulation of wind. His sacred gear Zenith Tempest was not the second strongest Longinus for no reason. Zenith Tempest gave its user the ability to control the weather and wield all its elements.
Ezekiel was surprised for a moment but did not slow down. His instructors always told him to keep a clear head and not to get distracted while in fights. Ezekiel quickly coated his sword in an aura of destruction before swinging it down towards the earthen shield. The wave of destruction expanded and split the wall in half, giving a generous pathway through to the other side.
Ezekiel rushed through while squatting away any loose debris with his wings and took flight after seeing Dulio was keeping his distance in the air. Ezekiel immediately let loose a flurry of strikes, sending destructive blades of energy after Dulio who in return summoned a tornado that spewed out lightning strikes as if they were cabbages.
Since they were restricted to the small training grounds, the tornado easily swallowed Ezekiel. Forces of nature are not to be underestimated and he was swept away by heavy winds and hit by occasional lightning strikes. Letting out a grunt of pain he concentrated and dipped deeply into his power. He gave a loud shout and strongly projected his destructive energy outside, sweeping away the tornado and anything else thrown at him.
Freed from the onslaught Ezekiel activated one of his abilities. He was able to perceive seconds into the future, but the ability came with the cost of quick exhaustion. Not wasting any time his stamina could not support he summoned a multitude of constructs in the form of swords and spears.
Dulio seeing the attacks forming began to sweat slightly and went all out. He summoned all elemental attacks one could imagine and sent them towards Ezekiel, who in turn shot forth together with his own attacks. Using his prediction ability, he met every attack of Dulio head on with his own energy constructs while protecting himself from any stray attacks with his wings.
Dulio was astonished that none of his attacks hit their mark and was too late to respond when Ezekiel arrived in front of him. The only thing he felt was a cold blade resting on his throat, drawing a shallow line of blood.
Dulio slowly raised his hands in surrender since he clearly lost. Who would have thought that a boy nearly 4 years his junior would best him who was forced to train most of his time?
"It is your win Ezekiel." Dulio voiced out with a wry smile.
Vasco was as astonished and missed his opportunity to end the match. Ezekiel seemed to be in his natural element. One could argue that he let himself fall into a disadvantageous position, but he pulled himself out of it without any fear or panic and turned the situation around in a moment.
While they were slowly descending to join the others, Jeanne was cheering loudly for her friend and clapping her hands: "Yeah! Zeke, you did it!"
"Really magnificent, Zeke. You went beyond my expectations. It seems your talent for combat is extremely high. But I want you to keep in mind, that there are far stronger and far more experienced beings out there. Never get complacent with your strength and never underestimate you opponents." Vasco praised Ezekiel, but at the same time he took the role of his teacher and the voice of reason.
Ezekiel was happy nonetheless and understood where his instructor was coming from. Becoming complacent and underestimating your opponent was a fast way to end your life prematurely. In a way Ezekiel's way of thinking was already very mature for a 10-year-old boy since he spent most of the time with his instructors. The only childish factors in his life being Jeanne and Gabriel.
Dulio meanwhile was looking down for a while before shaking his head with a smile, determination burning in his eyes. As he saw it, it was his job to protect his juniors. It was time to take his training seriously without being forced to do so.
He turned around to Ezekiel: "That was a good fight Ezekiel, let us meet again in a few days. I will not loose that easily next time!"
Ezekiel smiled himself and shook his hand: "Of course Dulio, I am looking forward to it."
"Perfect, how about we all go eating something delicious? I know just the place close to here." Dulio offered to which Ezekiel and Jeanne quickly agreed after asking for permission from Vasco.
Vasco himself still had work to do and saw them off with a proud look on his face.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Tardigrada
Tardigrada Hello there! I hoped you liked it. It was actually the first fighting scene I wrote and hope it came out alright. I wanted to show that he is already able to hold his own against older and strong opponents. He is still inexperienced, which will change in the next few chapters. Dulio himself was not called the strongest exorcist ever for nothing, so do not underestimate him together with the second strongest Longinus.
The combat itself was rather short, but as I see it, fights with extreme power can be decided really quickly even if opponents are evenly matchend. There are a lot factors to keep in mind and both of them are still rather inexperienced.
There will never be concentrating on useless stuff mid-fight or shouting out names of techniques for Ezekiel.
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