It was really unexpected. Xel had wanted to brief Xue on how to fight. But there was no time. Just as they returned to their seats, the referee called Xue and Rif down the stands to fight. Xue had to go now.

Xel told Xue, ‘I did not expect your turn to be up so fast and so there is no time to advise you on what to do. But be very careful. Do not hold back with that man, and use your powers if necessary.
Judging from the way he fought just now you would most probably be unable to win but it will be a good experience.’

He said all that out as if he was telling her it was time for dinner. He had not even bothered to phrase it in a nicer way that he thought Xue would lose.

Xue kicked Xel and told him, ‘I know what to do and stop worrying over little things.’

She handed him her doll and reminded him, ‘No severe injuries or death will occur.’

With that Xue walked down to the field where Rif was already waiting. As she walked down, uncontrollably her heart began to pump faster. Instincts told her this guy was not any guy she could beat up so easily. She knew Xel was most probably right.

Even so, she would try her best. She would try her best and see for herself where she actually stood, to see how much more she needed to improve. But if she could, she would want to win him. Maybe it would be hard, but it was not impossible. Maybe, she too would be the ant that challenged the human. But she would make sure that the human did not go away without any injuries. At least, sometimes ants do sting. But she forgot one thing, that although a single ant could sting, it would at most be an irritant to the human.

So Rif and Xue stood facing each other.

Rif gave her a bow and a smile and said, ‘I hope this will be a good fight. Please don’t step on my face.’

Of course he did not expect Xue to do that. He just said it for fun.

Xue, with a small smile on her face did a little curtsey as a returning gesture, ‘Why would I do that?’

Even though she gave a little smile, Xue’s face appeared to show some signs of pressure.

In her mind she was thinking: This is my first time fighting in this kind of competition and I get this guy. But I will show him he will take more than he expected to take me down. And why am I already thinking that I will lose? This guy just gives me that kind of feeling. Craps.

She closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and opened them again, to see a patiently waiting Rif. Just before the referee declared the start of the fight, Xue asked the referee to wait.

Then she confirmed with Rif, ‘When you fight you turn into a skeleton.’

‘Right.’

Then Xue asked, ‘If that is the case how will I know I don’t give you enough damage to kill you or seriously injure you? I cannot see any signs of injury you have on your body. What if I accidentally break all your bones and get disqualified?’

With that Rif simply gave a smile and told her, ‘Don’t worry. You can attack with all you have. You can even aim to break my neck or crack my skull.’

He said that, while at the same time pointing at his neck and his head. Xue almost could not believe what she had just heard. Xel frowned. That guy was going to go so far out only at this stage. Xue turned back to look at the referee for some sort of explanation.

But to her surprise, the referee also said, ‘Like what he said, you can go at him with everything you got. I don’t really care what happens to him. All you need to do is to beat him up so much till he is unable to fight. You can even aim to chop down his head.’

Xue looked at the referee in disbelief.

‘Do you know what you are saying?’

‘I believe I do.’

Xue, for a moment forgot her nervousness and looked back and forth at the referee and Rif. When both of them gave their confirmation, she concluded that it was really true. Everyone was wondering why the special circumstances. Was Rif really that powerful?

Xue in her mind thought: Now this is really bad. He is so good the referee doesn’t even need to worry about him. But why? This should be the first time the referee saw him. How did the referee know how
powerful he is?

It was not the time to think about all these pointless things now. She had to concentrate on the fight that was about to start. Xue got prepared. The fight finally started.

Neither gave each other a chance and rushed at each other. They suddenly disappeared and appeared in mid-air, each hitting the other. They had jumped up at the same time, hoping to get an advantage in height. The result of which was that both jumped at around the same height, and there was no advantage for either of them.

At that time Rif had already changed into skeleton form. That was really fast. Rif did hit Xue, but she did also manage to avoid in time to prevent herself from getting any significant damage. At the same time she was hit she managed a strike on his arm. But it did not really affect him a lot. His bone was hard. Very hard.

After landing, Xue immediately applied treatment to herself and healed up rapidly. Luckily the injury was minor. Not a big deal. After the initial clash, Rif had not attack Xue immediately. Instead, he had waited for her to finish healing herself.

Staring at Rif, who said, ‘Why don’t you quickly bring out your power?’

Xue replied, ‘I guess I have no choice.’

But after saying that she formed blue mana around her fists again and this time ran directly towards Rif.

People were asking, ‘Rushing forwards like that, is she an idiot?’

But on the audience seats, someone knew what she wanted to do.

Xel smiled and said to himself, ‘Your favorite opening move eh?’

As she was running towards him, Rif said ‘If you don’t want to use it then I will finish you off here now!’

Then he too got ready and ran forwards to meet her. He raised his fist and punched at Xue, who was by now less than a meter away. He punched, but suddenly out of nowhere appeared a blade. It was actually a very big broad sword. His fists connected with the broad sword which showed no impact, although the effects of the collision were felt by all in the stadium.

Rif really seemed like he did not hold back at all. If that punch had reached Xue, Xue would almost be flying out of the stadium. But despite the force of the impact, the broad sword did not even move a little.

At the last moment, Xue had materialized her weapon and swung it down in front of her before Rif’s fist reached her face, using the blade of her broad sword as a shield. The sword was essentially a normal handle with a very big blade below. The blade was taller than Xue, and bigger than her.

And as his punch connected there was a time lag before his body moved again. When he was still in surprise at the sudden appearance of a blade, even though for an instant, Xue suddenly swung from behind the broad sword with her left hand holding the handle, round the sides and landed a heavy punch with a hand full of blue mana at the skull of the skeleton.

This time there was a little crack on the skull. Rif laughed hard. It was not a laugh at the futility of Xue. It was like a laugh a father had when he first heard his child talk. He was kind of happy that someone in this competition discovered how to deal at least some form of injury to him. This match was not so boring afterall.

Just landing a punch on his skull and still in the air, Xue thought that was a difficult fight. She could not even finish him with that move even though he took a direct hit, on the head. And Rif looked up at Xue, who was in the air, still falling, although one of her hands was still gripping the hilt of her sword.