Blue Star Cultivator 108 The youngest Powerhouse rough draf

"Who are you?" after the dust settled the red hair man couldn't help but to ask this question with wide eyes. The kid across from him didn't look more than 20 years old. All the powerhouses he knew had long since grown a full head of white hair, this was simply unbelievable and went against all logic he had come to understand.

"I'm just a average citizen of Aidonia," Hartley answered as he flicked a few pieces of pebbles off of his black dusty robe.

"Not bad, not bad, to think a genius like you have surfaced from Aidonia is the closest thing to a miracle I have seen on the Aldora continent in my lifetime. It's a pity this is where your ending shall be. The world is a harsh place where even a genius can fall, the best anyone can do is to achieve their own potential but not many are destined to achieve even that."

"Isn't it a bit early to be speaking about endings?" Hartley replied.

From their first exchange Hartley was pushed backed five steps and the red hair man three. Even though the red hair man had an advantage in pure brute strength Hartley was feeling very optimistic about his chances in this fight.

A very exotic sheathed sword suddenly appeared in the man's hand and with a click and a shing the blade slid free from its scabbard. The black scabbard adorned with a plethora of gemstones fell to the ground and a one-handed silver blade about one and a half meter long appeared and glinted brightly even in the absence of sunlight.

Commander Genk groaned as he rolled himself in the mud trying to get back to his feet, his soaked robe saturated with mud stuck to his skin as he watched Hartley and the red hair man square off in the ruined castle. The two seem to be having a conversation which he couldn't hear but what he could hear clearly was the ambient sounds of the rain pattering against the earth, he could also hear panicked voices all around as the army surrounding the castle came to the aid of the screaming elites strewn in the mud.

As the grogginess cleared from his head, his gruff voice barked orders at the men running around frantically. "Get the injured and fall back and prepare to retreat from the area as quick as possible..." That first first exchange between Hartley and the red hair man had told him all that he needed to know. If those two started a fully blown battle it was going to be dangerous for anyone around.

A thickening crowd of Aidonia's soldiers gathered and streamed towards and beyond the walls as Anguo Chen compsed himself and went to help Commander Genk hobble along with the last of the retreating men. Then there was a humongous bang which flattened the standing half of the castle and threw the men off their feet as the earth rattled underneath them. Even the hardiest of the soldiers were scared witless as they staggered back to their feet drenched in mud and made a beeline for the main gate with shouts of panic echoing out among the ranks.

The silver sword glowed red as etched lines on the blade formed circular patterns that ran all the way along the blade, the red hair man then dashed at Hartley leaving stable life-like after images behind him as he made a quick horizontal slash in a berserk fashion.

Hartley's pair of blue elemental swords appeared and stretched out in his hands like a star wars character, with his jaw clenched he took a single step forward and met the red hair man with a inverted upward slash of his own with the long sword in his right hand.

The two weapons clashed and an almighty explosion of sparks rang out as the unstable structure was flattened around them in a millisecond. A visible wave rippled in the air as the two men disengaged and a chaotic spectrum of black energy burst out of the ripples shaking the earth before disappearing again into nothingness.

A genuine look of surprise was etched across the red hair man's face this time, in their first exchange he hadn't used his full strength but this time he did and he was even assisted by his rank 6 spirit weapon and still the youth wasn't vanquished.

"Good, good very good." the red hair man said as a bright red aura surged out of his body evaporating every single raindrop that fell in a fifteen meter radius. The man took three small steps before jumping ten meters high and slashing down at Hartley with lightning speed, his sword now resembled a molten piece of iron as it glowed a glaring red.

With concentration on his face, Hartley didn't dare to take this strike head on, ice-blue mist crawled over his body as he took a step forward and blinked out of existence. The red hair man's sword landed where Hartley was and an explosion of earth rising towards the heavens occurred, the strike could be heard and felt miles away as the earth quivered and shook violently.

The strike left a crater one hundred meters wide and ten meters deep with the red hair man stood in the middle of the destruction.

Chapter end