Although Chris was cheerful and often a joker, when he said things, he really meant it. Which meant that Chris was also dead serious about them having a duel.
'Can I really do it, without using the shadow or my blood abilities?' Archer[Quinn] thought.
He didn't know why but right now his heart was beating fast, and it wasn't one out of fear or worry like in the past, but it was out of excitement. A feeling that Archer[Quinn] had suppressed a few times but now he was starting to realize something.
He was enjoying the thrill. Even if he didn't want to admit it, he liked the feeling of getting stronger, improving himself, learning new things and finding out what his body could do. He imagined this was what athletes felt like when they competed in sports, always striving to improve.
Maybe he realized this more now than before because of the situation. He wasn't risking his life; he wasn't following some Quest. Of course, he needed to get stronger to achieve his goal, now was just a simple battle. The worry was, if he let this power get to him, like it did so many others.
Perhaps the others felt fear that maybe one day they could be surpassed, and rather than improving themselves they chose to suppress others.
'Chris also knows how to use the third stage of Qi, and he hasn't shown or told me anything about it, but if I can get him in a position where he has to use it, maybe I can learn a thing or two myself.'
"You've learnt enough about the second stage of Qi, that I know you won't die from this." Chris said, and before he knew it, Chris had disappeared in front of his eyes, and was throwing an uppercut towards his stomach.
However, Archer[Quinn] wasn't Chris's typical opponent, although he wasn't going to use his shadow or blood skills, he wasn't going to hold back.
"You might want to go all out for this one." Said Archer[Quinn] as he held Chris's fist with a single hand. Both were using the first stage and second stage of Qi, one not overpowering the other.
What was stranger was that even if Chris had better control of his Qi, Archer[Quinn] was sure that both of their strengths in Qi should have been the same. If that was the case, then his superior vampire strength should have made it so that he was overpowering him.
Archer[Quinn] wasn't the only one that was confused by this either, Chris focused on strength more than anything. He trained his body, on top of using his Qi in an explosive manner, but still they were both equal.
Chris had only seen Archer[Quinn] fight the beasts, watching could only do so much when determining one's strength. He thought it was either due to his gauntlets, or his use of Qi.
At the same time, the two of them were trying to find where their extraordinary strength was coming from.
'Now I see.' Archer[Quinn] thought. Even though his Demi-god tier weapons are on his back, the reason he keeps it on his body is so he can still activate their power. '
Now that Archer[Quinn] was more in tune with his senses, he could feel it, the aura from the crystal made to make the weapons, when activated, was being infused in his body, giving him an incredible stat boost making him comparable to Archer[Quinn]'s own stats.
What was impressive was that it was the only beast gear that Chris was wearing. The stats boost from a Demi-god tier weapon was impressive, and if he were wearing legendary armor, or other items, then perhaps Chris would have even overpowered him.
If all humans learnt to use Qi, and fully utilized the beast weapons, they would be unmatched in power even against the Oregon[Dalki]. Now Archer[Quinn] was understanding the obsession with this hunt, and more so of conquering the beast planets before the Oregon[Dalki].
At the same time, Chris was learning new things about his number one pupil Archer[Quinn].
'I thought that the strange aura inside him was taking up useless space in his body, it turns out I was wrong. It was supporting him in other ways making his whole body superhuman.'
Instead of being upset that Archer[Quinn] was holding back this information, Chris smiled instead. Soon after he threw out punch after punch with each one being blocked by Archer[Quinn].
'All of these punches, he's using second stage Qi on them and he's hitting them in a different place each time. He's really making me work and testing if I've fully mastered the second stage of Qi, but there is something I can do that you can't.'
Seeing the fist coming towards him, Archer[Quinn] decided to not cover himself with the second stage Qi. While Chris was still treating this as a lesson, Archer[Quinn] wanted Chris to bring everything he had, and was imagining it like a real fight.
Taking a large punch on his shoulder, rather than blocking, he went on the offensive as well, throwing a kick and hitting Chris on the head. His body went skidding on the floor, but he quickly recovered.
"That was a good hit, let's see who can take mor-"
Not letting Chris have time to recover, Archer[Quinn] was mixing his punches in with his kicks. The patterns of the kicks were obvious for Chris to block, as he recognized their style and how they worked. As it was the standard of what the military used. What he didn't realize, was the style of punches. It was something he hadn't seen before.
A mixture of boxing, with a traditional Chinese[Chinese] style of Wushu, he noticed some patterns, but this was unique, and soon he was getting hit more than he liked. Thankfully, he was better at controlling the second stage more than Archer[Quinn] and was able to cover himself more thinly. Although he would feel the force more from the punches and take slightly more damage, he would cover himself more, and with a strong body like his this didn't matter too much.
"If I was using my weapons this match would be done for." Chris said.
While Archer[Quinn] was thinking along similar lines, if only he could use his blood abilities, and shadow powers, this would be a walk in the park.
Still, Archer[Quinn] had not pushed Chris enough for him to show the third stage of Qi, which was his goal in all of this, slowing down his strikes he wanted to give Chris the false sense that his power was weakening, and it was working.
Chris noticed the attacks coming in slower, then started to go from defense to offence, and when he did, Archer[Quinn] was ready with a flash step, dodging the attack appearing right behind him.
The great thing about learning the second stage of Qi, was it acted as a defensive barrier.
Slamming his right foot into the ground raising up the energy inside him, Archer[Quinn] was starting to perform the hammer strike. Usually against an opponent this fast, it would take too much time and they could interrupt the move, but seeing Chris fist come at his stomach, he was able to block the attack using a coat of the second stage Qi.
Now all that's left was to deliver the powerful strike on Chris.
+BOOM
A sudden explosion shook the grounds so hard that it had even rocked Archer[Quinn] off his stable feet, and it allowed Chris enough time to just avoid the blow, as he did, the fist hit where he was and a smack through the air itself was seen. He could feel the wind pressure alone form the attack on his face.
'What was that? I thought this kid was talented but what?!'
In the middle of Chirs's thoughts, another loud explosion happened, and the ground was shaking again. In a distance not too far away from the two of them, winged beasts could be seen flying away from the scene. It was clear something was going on.
"You want to go check it out?" Chris asked.
"Yeah, it wouldn't do any harm to check at least." Archer[Quinn] replied.
The two were soon off to explore just what was causing the strange explosion.
To be continued....
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