As they started to close in around me, I charged my blade with dark fire and created an opening in reality doors behind one of them. I was actually thinking before I attacked: do I want them dead? They seemed competent and could be useful, especially that one dark elf, as it was now obvious that these weren't normal light elves. My calculations said I liked them to the point that it might be worth leaving them alive. It would make things harder, but I already had an idea of what to do.

  As they closed up even more, until they were almost ten meters away from me, I threw my enchanted blade at the orc. As he tried to block it with his shield and ducked, I appeared behind him and struck his lightly armored hip with enough force that it would break his bone—to the point he couldn't fight or walk for the rest of his life unless he was healed by a mage. Maybe I overdid it, but I took into account the enchantments from the armor, so the strike was valid.

  When he was thrown into the air, surrounded by greenish-dark blood, the others instantly turned to me. One of the dark elves threw a ball of darkness at me. I blocked it and tried to absorb it, but it turned out that as I started to try this, they immediately jumped at me. I used a "shadow dash"—that’s how I decided to call this spell, because I become a shadow for a second, and as I get out of this form, I hit a hard surface and lightly crack it, allowing darkness to push out of the surface and give me a place to hide and maneuver.

  I moved back a little and looked from the block of shadows I had created. I localized the dark elf that had thrown the ball of darkness and spread my hand toward him. I threw fireballs at him from each of my fingers, and they intertwined themselves as they rushed toward him. I saw fear permeating his eyes as he set a dark vortex in front of him... it was no match. One of my fireballs disappeared and a second one slightly smoldered and fainted a little bit, then the vortex exploded. The remaining fireballs continued on their way; they would probably make spaghetti out of him, I thought. Too bad; he will not survive this. He could have been useful later.

  In the last second before the explosion, the orc pushed in front of him with his massive shield. As the first fireball connected, a small part of the shield came off. When the second hit, the shield blew up. The third one hit his armor, cracking it and leaving soldering parts of it around him. The armor broke and the orc fell to his knees, his body burned badly but not to the death. He was too tired to fight, and I saw him falling from his knees to his face. The fourth fireball hit the dark elf and flew him back, burning his tunic, breaking parts of his armor, and taking the breath from his lungs. He probably would have died if the fire hadn't been weakened by his vortex and the fact that his armor was enchanted too. As he got onto his feet, obviously exhausted, I created a hole in reality behind him, went through it, and punched his face, knocking him out.

  I saw one of them running toward the temple, probably to call reinforcements, but I didn't care too much about it. I pointed to my blade and recalled it back to me; as it flew, one even had to duck to not get decapitated by it.

  I called to the rest of them: "Surrender! You are not able to defeat me. You are simply going to suffer more and break valuable armor doing it."

  I honestly didn't know if it was going to get through, as they were from the old ages and probably didn't even understand my language, but it seemed they understood the message. They started talking to themselves, and from the corner of my eye, I also saw a few robed and armored figures emerging from the temple, along with one powerful warrior in dark armor with two blades. As they started approaching, the leader started screaming in an unknown language at them, and they spoke for a minute.

  As it happened, my ally was done with his enemies, and as he moved toward me, it seemed he had a few things to say. "What are you doing? They have reinforcements now and you are doing nothing to stop them?!"

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  "They might be useful," I replied. "And look—it seems I’ve got myself a fight with their leader."

  "You are not ready. I will take him on; you are weaker than me..."

  "I don't think so. And I was the one who initiated the challenge in the first place."

  "You did what?!"

  "You heard me. Also, step back. He is approaching, so it will start soon."

  As we both stood in front of each other, we both drew our weapons. No talk would happen, as none of us would understand what the other was saying either way. I looked him up and down, raised my blade to him, and charged it with fire crackling with energy. Then I charged at him.

  We exchanged a few blows. Sometimes I had to use hyper-speed to evade his second blade, as I only had one and he held his well. As he pushed toward me with his left curved blade, I stomped, pushing power into the ground. The earth shook, making him take a more defensive stance. I just smiled and conjured a second blade; one wasn't enough if I wanted to win without using magic to destroy him.

  He looked at me, calculating. When I pointed at him to show I was waiting, he slashed sideways with his right blade, blocking that side at the same time, and moved his feet to empower the thrust he pushed with his left blade. While I was blocking—which was much easier with my hyper-senses—I realized that now I was on the opposite spectrum. He had techniques, but I was just faster, stronger, and more powerful. The longer we battled, the more obvious it became that the odds were in my favor. I was happy about it; for the first time in my life, things were different, and I would not let go of that. I will become the most powerful person in all the lands one day, and I will be feared.

  I empowered my blade with power and slashed with my left blade diagonally, forcing him to back out. I pushed forward, slashing from the right to block his counter to my lower side, and as I parried it, I struck at his knee with my left blade. He stumbled slightly as he was forced out of position. I pushed forward with my right hand, getting us into a clash.

  As I got him exactly where I wanted him, I pulled out a move that would normally be impossible—or very dangerous to try, at least. I slid my blade down his and pushed the pommel of my weapon into his torso before he could properly react. He stumbled from the force of the power-enhanced sword, and with a precise move, I pushed the blade from his right hand.

  He instantly created more space between us and grabbed his remaining weapon in both hands. As he saw I wasn't pushing forward, he slid his hand along his blade and it... enlarged to a longsword?

  I looked at the blade in my left hand, looked back at him, then looked at my weapon again. I threw it back into the void, grabbing my primary weapon in both hands and smiling at him. "I guess it’s fair you have a longer sword when I have this much more speed."

  As I said it, I dashed into his range and initiated a clash. I pushed him back, but he had good technique, so it didn't move him too much. We went back and forth, clashing, slashing, and countering each other's moves. Once, I also kicked him, and although it worked, it was too close; his blade almost cut me. I conjured armor around the spot so I wouldn't be hurt anyway, but it would have hurt my ego if he hit me.

  I slashed at his legs, and he blocked it again at the last second and tried to bash his side against me. I dodged, and we started circling each other again. This time, I was the one to break the peace. I performed multiple slashes: one at his head, one at his shoulder, and one at his wrist. As we exchanged blows, I increased my speed. After a few more thrusts and counters, I got us into a clash, kicked at his knee, and as he stepped back, I slid my leg under him, tripping him.

  As he stumbled, I closed in and kicked him with my knee. As we started to wrestle, I headbutted his face—yes, I created armor around my head, I’m not dumb—and increased my power, lifting him up and throwing him onto the floor. As I pushed my blade downward with enough force to penetrate his armor, he transformed into a shadow and performed what I called a "shadow dash."

  As he dashed toward his blade, I called on my power and pushed him with so much force that he went flying. He tried to stop the momentum by turning his sword down and pushing it into the ground. It slowed his speed a little, but the sword cracked, and he continued flying toward the wall. When he hit it, the wall cracked and he fell to the floor.

  That was it. I won.