Outside of the inn, they found a patch of flat grass. In the distance, a cow stopped grazing to look at them, then it resumed its meal. Gareth and Harlan faced each other. The one-armed warrior slowly unbuttoned his shirt. Meanwhile, Gareth was bouncing on the balls of his feet, throwing quick punches in the air. Harlan held his shirt to Jake and smiled, "If you don't mind." The young man took the shirt and backed away a few steps. His heart was beating fast. He tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry.
Harlan looked at the sky, sucked a finger, and held it up to feel the wind. Then he yawned again and scratched his face. "You fought Chala by punching the air and waiting? No wonder you lost that badly." Gareth's eye grew hard. "I didn't lose badly, I almost killed him." Harlan blinked twice, "Tough words, show me." And it was on.
Gareth lunged forward, throwing a flurry of skillful punches. Jake gaped at the speed and power. It was clear his mentor had gone easy on him during their sparring sessions. Harlan was moving just enough to avoid the punches. One step here, one head movement there. Jake rubbed his eyes. It looked like the one-armed warrior's gaze was… frosty? The young man decided to keep his eyes on the fighting titan. Something weird was going on here; he could feel it.
Gareth relentlessly continued his assault. His footwork was perfect, and all his punches held the weight of his years of training. Harlan continued to dodge casually, never blinking. His eyes were shining a soft white glow. From time to time, he would slap Gareth's face. When he did, it hit every time. A sharp snap, like a whip, would make the touch undeniable.
Jake was not breathing anymore. He is slapping him like Gareth slaps me during our spar… no, it's even worse, the level difference is insane. He forced air in his lungs again and realized he had started to enjoy this. No beer for you, Gareth, haha.
Then he looked at Harlan. Something was bothering him, something was pulling at him. He looked closely, but he didn't see anything other than perfect body movement, trained muscles, and those eerie, slightly white eyes.
Gareth jumped back and glared at Harlan. The one-armed warrior asked, "What's the matter? You forgot how to fight? You were stronger last time." Gareth was foaming at the mouth, his face a deep shade of red, and not only from the slaps, "Maybe if you would stop cheating," he said through clenched teeth. Harlan looked all innocent, "Oh, so using abilities is cheating now?" Gareth's eyes were thin slits, and he growled, "Fine, you asked for it." He flexed his arms in front of him, calling the mist, ribbons of pink swirled around his arms and coalesced around his fists. It formed two deep colored gauntlets that covered his hands. "Here comes the pain," he promised in a croaky voice. Harlan made a show of looking around, "Where? I don't see it."
The titans collided again. Gareth's speed and power had increased again, forcing Harlan to use his only arm and hand to parry and deflect some of the hits. Jake involuntarily took two steps back under the sheer pressure of the fight. His mentor's onslaught left a bright afterimage of dozens of pink comets trailing to destroy the same planet.
Gareth felt it, the slight waver in his friend's focus, the footwork just a bit off. His mouth turned into a feral grin. I got you. He feinted toward the head, then turned it into a body blow with all his power behind it. The gauntlet connected with a loud thud, and the flesh rippled outward from the impact. Gareth didn't stop there and sent a wave of power through his fist, doubling the damage. The one-armed titan coughed and took three steps back. Then he stood straight, brushed his side, visibly undamaged, and said, "Good, you finished warming up."
As the fighters were observing each other, ready to pounce. Jake's eyes were locked on Harlan's side. There's no damage at all. How is that possible? Gareth didn't look like he held back, and Jake remembered the shattered tree. How did he do it? There's a trick and I'll find it. As the battle resumed, he felt the pull in the mist again. He opened his sensitivity. Clenching the jewel in his fist, he thought, show me. He didn't phase into the mist, but the world took a very faint pink overglow. Gareth shone bright, a supernova of power. Harlan… Harlan was different… The amount of power emanating from him was suffocating. But where was the mist? No ribbons, no swirls… then he saw something, faint, almost invisible. On Harlan's body, small veins of pink light were shimmering. Jake's eyes grew wide as realization dawned on him. The mist is inside him!
The fight was getting more intense and messy. Harlan had stopped using slaps. His knuckles had battered almost every inch of Gareth's body. Feeling his strength dwindling, Jake's mentor looked for another opening. And he saw it, the punch was perfect. It was about to land on Halran's stupid face. But a strong grip grabbed his wrist… and threw his whole arm on the side with unexpected power. The momentum of his limb swinging unbalanced Gareth, forcing a half-turn. His back was now turned toward the one-armed titan. Harlan set his boot on Gareth's butt and pushed firmly forward. The warrior fell face-first in the grass. The cow looked again, it seemed to say, "It tastes good, doesn't it?"
Gareth got up like a flailing fury. He screamed, "HARLAN!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU????" His body was shaking with rage, he took a few breaths and lowered it to an uncontrollable shivering. "In front of the boy? You could have at least knocked me out cleanly." Harlan scratched his jaw. "No way you hurt Chala with that, you didn't show me everything yet." He cracked his neck, "Back to it, and then act like you mean it."
Gareth spat some grass and dusted himself off. "You're sure you can take it? It's pretty powerful." Harlan shrugged, "Worst-case scenario, I lose an arm." Gareth took a deep breath. "Fine, I'll show you." The one-armed warrior took two steps forward and waited. Jake's mentor took a battle stance and called on the mist. Swirls of smoke covered his body and materialized into a full heavy armor. Then he called his towering shield of fog, holding it high to block Harlan's vision. The grey eyes glazed over, as if they were seeing beyond the shield.
Behind the shield, Gareth concentrated all the power in his right fist, his armor being sucked away into a giant pulsing gauntlet, sparks of barely contained power flowing to the side. The fist was armed, like a bow string ready to launch. Then the shield disappeared as a meteor of death flew forward toward the unprotected chest of Harlan.
As Gareth was charging his attack, Jake felt the mist answer Harlan's call. It crawled under the earth and entered his body through his feet, like a never-ending flow of energy. Bright pink veins pulsed, pumping power into his unnatural, bulging muscles, lighting them up. His arm pulsed with power like smoldering embers.
Then, the meteor of death flew toward his unprotected chest. Harlan moved one leg back and firmly met the attack with an open palm.
The shockwave propelled Jake a few feet away. Ears ringing, he tried to get up, but he had no idea where up and down were. He fell back on the floor several times, like he was drunk. Then he decided to sit and look back at the aftermath of the colossal collision.
Gareth and Harlan were still locked in their final position. Two extended arms, one palm wrapping around a fist. The grass around them was flattened outward. In the sky, clouds swirled around, a perfect blue circle crowning the scene. Shreds of pink mist were slowly drifting and fading away.
Time stopped. Jake slowly crawled toward the two titans. Then the arm dropped. The tension eased… a bit. Harlan had a serious, pensive expression. He had his hand over his mouth, looking far away. "And you didn't kill him with that? He's even more of a monster than I thought." Gareth looked down. "I hit him cleanly in the chest. It made a huge hole. I thought he was done for. Then those crawling shadow maggots filled it, and he somehow healed." The one-armed warrior nodded. Then he started to grin, he took a step forward and slammed Gareth on the back. "Then you just have to train to hit harder." Gareth smiled and had a low chuckle. But it didn't reach his eyes.