Chapter 23: Chapter 22: Sparring Match

Vega and Jacek spent the time preparing for the sparring match. Vega held a punching bag as Jacek threw punches at it.

Vega said, “Hey man, don’t screw this up! The entire fortress will be watching.”

Jacek began to sweat as he threw his punches and said, “I fight against rebels every day. I am on the front lines every day. She may have a higher black belt designation, but she does not have real experience. And in battle, experience is what counts!”

Jacek threw a massive punch that pulverized the punching bag into two separate pieces.

Vega thought nothing of it and said, “Hey! She’s also super hot. Way hotter than Erika. Don’t screw that up either!”

Jacek laughed and said, “Erika will come around. I am not interested in Xenia.”

Vega laughed, “It’s okay to wait for Erika to come around. But don’t lie to me and say you haven’t thought about being with Xenia.”

Jacek laughed with him and said, “Okay, maybe I thought about it. But just thought about it!”

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The clock rang 2 o’clock as two chimes were heard throughout the courtyard within the Saber Province Fortress.

The entire fortress was excused from duty to attend the sparring match on the fields within the fortress. Xenia stood on the grassy plain on the far end of the sparring square that measured 50 yards long and 30 yards wide. Jacek stood on the opposite end.

Xenia still wore her sexy gym outfit; however, she had donned her 10^th degree black belt around her waist.

Jacek wore a classic black karate gi with his 7^th degree black belt tied around his waist.

Teams of soldiers were tasked to create an invisible ki barrier around the perimeter of the square to prevent their ki from escaping and injuring others.

Vega took the microphone and began, “Ladies and gentlemen, all the way from the BloodStar Empire, she is one of four 10^th degree black belts in the entire world, she is a Princess and a General, she is single… I mean… she is extremely talented… Xenia BloodStar!”

The crowd gave a polite clap. Xenia was underwhelmed with her welcome. At her own colosseum, the ground beneath her shook like an earthquake when she was introduced.

Vega then pointed to Jacek, “He has the homefield advantage, he is battle-tested, he is one of the strongest ki users in the world… your leader… your Lord… Jacek Heraklinos!”

The crowd went absolutely nuts. Cheering, stomping, waving, and more came from the crowd as they cheered their leader on.

Vega then took the microphone and yelled, “Ready! Set! Fight!”

The match began. Xenia stood in place staring her opponent down, waiting for him to make the first move.

Jacek laughed and muttered to himself, “Your first mistake.” He formed a massive ball of ki between his palms gathering the energy at his waist. He then shot the ball into the sky. The ball hovered in the air only for a few seconds. It then split into twenty different smaller balls of ki and formed a dome array around Xenia before raining down on her.

Each ki ball exploded upon impact creating a dust cloud as multiple small explosions occurred. The sparring field went silent, and the crowd looked on with anticipation as spectators speculated, “Did the Lord go too hard on her? Is she dead? That would not be good. We may have overestimated the Princess’s strength.”

Jacek sent a punch flying with all of his might, and the force of his punch sent a shock wave that cleared the dust quickly. Standing in her original spot without a single scratch was Xenia BloodStar.

The crowd performed a collective gasp of surprise, “She didn’t take a single hint of damage from that? How did she block all of those attacks? Lord Heraklinos is in for a tough fight!”

Jacek was unimpressed as he called out to her, “You’ve passed the warm up test! Are you ready for the real thing?”

Xenia waved for him to give her everything he had as she stood in place.

Jacek yelled as he began to collect a massive, dense ball of ki energy. The ground shook and his muscles bulged. He yelled, “Xenia! There will be no blocking this one!”

He then threw the energy ball of ki with all of his might towards Xenia. She stood plainly in place and held out a single hand. With a loud whoosh the energy ball stopped 6 inches from her open palm. She then canceled out the ki ball causing it to disperse into a million smaller particles as the wind carried it away.

Jacek was stunned, and he grinded his teeth in frustration. He began to volley ki blast after ki blast at her; however, she began to slowly walk forward as she canceled out each ki blast just as she had the larger one before.

As she marched across the field gaining ground towards Jacek, she could no longer keep up with the pace of canceling out his blasts with one hand. She switched to two hands and began to slice the energy blasts in two using her own hands coated in ki to accomplish the feat. As she did, the two halves of each energy blast flew behind her exploding.

The crowd looked on in astonishment. No one present, including Jacek and Vega, had ever seen such a graceful technique. The art of canceling out one’s ki largely only required the person to be stronger than their opponent attacking them. If they had sufficient ki reserves, they could offset, or cancel out, the oncoming attack.

However, the ability to coat one’s own hand in ki and slice another person’s attack in two was an expert level of ki manipulation. It required strength, timing, and finesse. Yet, Xenia did it time and time again with only seconds in between each slice. If she was off by a millisecond or made a single mistake in the slightest… Jacek’s ki blasts would explode in her face causing notable damage. Xenia was so confident in her skills, she didn’t even bother to calculate the risk of utilizing such an advanced technique.

As she got to within 10 feet of Jacek, she seemingly vanished. Jacek lost sight of her, and she reappeared at his side. She threw a punch to his exposed side; however, he managed to recover in time to block it with his forearm.

The impact of the punch on his forearm left him in pain as he sidestepped another punch that directly followed the first.

Xenia clearly had the upper hand. He was no match for her up close given her close combat skills, and yet he couldn’t touch her from afar either given her mastery of ki manipulation she had shown.

He had no choice; he activated his trump card skill. Much like Xenia’s BloodStar technique, the Heraklinos family had a technique of their own, Perfect Warrior.

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His body began to glow with an intense aura. The aura grew in size and intensity until suddenly it violently and rapidly seemed to be absorbed into his own body leaving his body in what appeared to be a normal state. However, it was anything but.

Xenia knew the technique as it had been described to her by her mother. She glanced at him and thought to herself, “How troublesome. I would really have to try to kill him to overcome this technique. How embarrassing that he has resorted to it in a sparring match.”

Xenia felt this to be a golden opportunity though to test the limits of his power. She wasted no time as she performed a backflip while simultaneously creating an energy ball of ki in her hand. As she landed, Jacek charged at her.

She released the ki blast, and he didn’t even attempt to dodge it. He took the blast head on to his chest. The blast knocked Jacek back several feet as he landed on his back. However, he quickly stood up with a glowing aura around his body.

Perfect Warrior absorbed ki from attacks received allowing Jacek to gain immense amounts of strength as a battle went on. However, it had a glaring weakness. The technique encouraged the user to take damage, and if Jacek took on too much damage, he would no longer be able to battle or… he may possibly even die.

He charged at Xenia again, this time a little faster and a little fiercer. Xenia threw a lethal roundhouse kick at him. Her kick landed on his right shoulder sending him flying laterally as he landed on the ground and slid for several feet.

The crowd went quiet as whispers ran through it, “Princess BloodStar is powerful. She is wiping the floor with Lord Heraklinos. So this is what a 10^th degree black belt is capable of!?”

However, the fight wasn’t over. Jacek stood up once more and roared. He unleashed a massive amount of ki as he roared, and the force alone pushed Xenia back several feet.

Xenia couldn’t help but to think to herself, “He should be much, much stronger after taking those two hits. He’s barely gained any power at all. He won’t last a minute like this. It seems whoever is training him has failed. To teach this technique at only the 7^th degree level is not just an oversight, it’s a detriment to his progress.”

Jacek had yet to land a bonified hit on Xenia. She decided to go easy on him as to not embarrass him in front of his own people. However, just as Jacek finished charging up for another attack…

A loud rocket could be heard screaming across the sky. Xenia was the first to hear. The crowd followed her gaze as she looked to the sky; however, there was nothing.

Jacek seeing nothing continued to fight. However, Xenia was acutely aware of that sound. It was an incoming air attack. She subtly bloodbent Jacek slowing his movements. He wasn’t sure what had happened to him, but he did take a moment to realize the look of concern on Xenia’s face.

He then willingly turned around again and looked to the sky. A large missile came roaring out of the clouds and subsequently slammed into the fortress wall blowing debris everywhere.

Vega yelled, “Battle stations! We are under attack!”

Everyone scrambled to take their positions; however, as they did, a large helicopter flew overhead. A sinister appearing man leaned out of the side of the open-door helicopter and called down, “Lord Heraklinos! Meet me at the Saber Canyon Falls in one hour!”

Jacek formed a massive ki energy blast in his right hand and grit his teeth. The sinister man laughed and called out, “Oh I wouldn’t do that!” The man then pointed inside of the helicopter where he revealed to have already taken three hostages before the rocket attack.

Jacek was furious to see his men tied up, and he re-absorbed his ki into his body. He yelled up at the man, “One hour!”

The helicopter whirred away leaving Jacek fuming. He yelled to Vega, “I need the Kodiak Legion ready to move in 10 minutes! We are heading to the canyon.”

Xenia walked up to him and put her hand on his chest as she healed him and asked, “And what about me, darling?”

Jacek’s mind couldn’t process everything happening. They had just been attacked by a rebellion leader. He was being healed inexplicably. And his honored guest had just called him darling.

Xenia took her hand off his chest and said, “Forgive me. I only mean to heal you so that you may rescue your men at full power.”

Jacek smiled and said, “Thank you. And what was addressing me as darling all about?”

Xenia looked away and said, “Nothing.” She then turned back to face him and said, “I am requesting permission to join your rescue mission.”

Jacek immediately answered, “Absolutely not. I cannot let a Princess die in my country on my watch.”

Xenia then looked around, “I see many injured but none dead. Agree to have me heal them all and let me join you.”

Xenia knew Jacek’s heart was owned by his men and women serving under him. This was a deal he could not pass up. He pursed his lips and finally said, “Fine. Deal! Get to it!”

Xenia walked around the fortress healing every wound she could find ranging from small cuts from the shockwave knocking people to the ground to the worst injury… a man’s body half crushed under a concrete fragment from the fortress wall.

The Heraklinos men and women were mightily impressed with Xenia as they thanked her profusely. They lauded her with praise, “You are an angel, Princess! Thank you for being here today! Please go with Jacek and keep our men safe out there as well!”

Xenia made quick work of her healing duties and used the extra time to change out of her sparring outfit and into her black leather General outfit.

She walked back out of her room and through the fortress in her dominant black leather outfit complete with boots and gloves. She had a serious aura about her, and the people looking on suddenly realized why she was addressed as General rather than Princess in her homeland.

She walked up to a stunned and staring Jacek and said, “Shall we head out? We must make haste if we are to meet this enemy’s demands, yes?”

Jacek was stunned at her beauty and her dominant outfit. He couldn’t help but think to himself, “Holy shit! Vega was right. This girl is smoking hot, powerful, smart, and … dominant.”

He snapped out of it and turned to his men, “Kodiak Legion! I call on you, my finest warriors to follow me on this dangerous mission. General Xenia will be accompanying us. Let’s head out!”

The men let out a collective, “Hoorah!” as they began to march out of the partially intact fortress gates.

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