Legends Rise 39 Phoenix's Breath, Dragon's Charge

"That's right, grandpa." Kikyo said as she pulled out her phone to show him a video, "I recorded a video from when I faced him, just take a look at this."

Kikyo played the video of when she faced off against Li Ming's The Dawn in the battle royale match. Her grandpa watched the video intently, growing only more and more excited as he gripped her phone harder. When Li Ming started accelerating in his attacks, Kikyo began to fear for her phone's life as her grandpa's grip was starting to show his veins.

He handed her the phone back, his palms sweaty.

"To think that he would grow so much in just a period of two to three days..." He said as he tried to stand up. Unfortunately, he felt his knees week as he had had too much adrenaline while he was watching the video.

"I didn't expect his Dragon's Breath to be at the same level as yours," Kikyo said, "In fact, it felt fiercer than yours."

"Yes, indeed it was." He agreed as he picked up his spear, "Even I've never seen something like that."

With his spear, he threw out a stab, followed by a slash.

*Whoosh~* *BANG*

After a pause, the old man's Dragon's Breath shot out. But this time, he dropped his spear mid way through. The spear simply flew out of his grip as he tried to recreate The Dawn's movements again. Arms heavy, he went to retrieve his spear. It would seem as Li Ming had surpa.s.sed his Dragon's Breath.

"What did you say his team was?" He asked Kikyo, "The Osaka..."

"Phoenixes." She replied, "The recently resurrected team, the Osaka Phoenixes."

'A Phoenix, huh... ' he hummed while he thought of the young'un juxtaposed against a phoenix, 'Shall we call it the 'Phoenix's Breath', then?'

"He's coming over tomorrow, isn't he?" Kikyo asked in an attempt to calm the old man down, fearing that he would vomit on his sweater at this time of the night, "Can't you just ask him to show you again tomorrow?"

"Sure thing," The old man set his spear back on the rack, "Let's get some dinner, didn't your mom make spaghetti tonight?"

"Yeah, let's go!"

***

"Wait you saw a video?" Li Ming asked, incredulous, "What video?"

"The video where you fought my granddaughter of course!" the old man laughed, "I saw how you absolutely dominated that fight, especially towards the end there with your 'Phoenix's Breath', eh?"

"Phoenix Breath?"

"Your version of the Dragon's Breath, of course. Can't be using the same name on a different technique, right?"

'So it was something different entirely!' Li Ming thought of the encounter he had with Kikyo. Truly, the last attack he used was something else entirely.

"Let's see it one more time, then, shall we?" The old man aimed his spear at Li Ming, ready to charge.

Li Ming raised his spear, obviously nervous. But on the surface, he looked calm and ready.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
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Their spears clashed in the middle. Completely even.

When the old man would stab, Li Ming would parry by swiping the oldman's spear away, and then follow up with a stab or a slash of his own. The old man would do the same, but from a different angle. This exchange occurred several times, before the old man tried to break the rhythm of the exchange by attacking early.

Both of their spears met again in the center when they both striked at the same time. Both spears bounced back at the same time. Taking this opportunity, Li Ming unleashed his Dragon's Breath, which was met by the old man's own Dragon's Breath.

*BANGBANGBANG* *BANGBANG* *BANGBANGBANG*

Their spears clashed fiercely, before Li Ming started to accelerate once more. First his spears started rotating to stabilize each stab and strike, while also increasing the repelling force of his parries. As his spears started to rotate, Li Ming started attacking from more angles, aiming for more and more different targets.

The old man started to get pushed back, only barely dodging some of Li Ming's stabs and strikes that he failed to parry.

'Was this the difference in age?' the old man lamented. If he had been just 20, no 10, years younger, would he have been able to achieve the same feat? 'But... he still has much to learn!'

Instead of continuing to be forced back, the old man put all his force into parrying one of Li Ming's strike. As both spears met, the old man used the force of the impact to jump back a few meters to gain distance.

'What?' Li Ming was surprised by the sudden disengage. The three primary teachings of 'Dragon Ascends the Heavens' style was that one must use the minimum force possible to achieve the desired effect, one must remain in contact at all times, and to maintain the appropriate range. By disengaging in such a manner, one would lose contact with the enemy and possibly give more range than necessary to the opponent.

However as the old man landed, rather than preparing his spear again, the old man got into a pose which one would see normally at a track and field meet, the crouch at the start line dash. The old man held his spear behind him, which could only remind Li Ming of a certain anime character that also used a spear.

In an instant, the old man charged straight at Li Ming!

*BANG*

They collided, the old man unleashed a his own Dragon's Breath to meet Li Ming's Phoenix's Breath. But this time, it was different. Normally, while using Dragon's breath, one would be stationary, unable to move. But instead, the old man was constantly trying to circle around Li Ming, all while holding Li Ming in place.

Despite Li Ming's Phoenix's Breath having almost twice the attacks that the old man's Dragon's Breath could produce, the constantly moving old man managed to slowly gain an edge on Li Ming. Instead of simply parrying, the old man would use each impact to continue his charge, slowly pushing Li Ming back in all sorts of directions.

Li Ming, who now couldn't break free of the old man's charge, was now in danger! Who would have thought that the old man would have such an ace up his sleeve.

"What's wrong, Kiddo?" the old man jeered as he continued his rampage, "Can't keep up?"

Li Ming kept his Phoenix's Breath going in retaliation to the old man's charge, but he knew that he truly couldn't keep up. Unfortunately for him, the old man did not relent, and only continued to press on. Li Ming could only struggle to keep his attacks going.

Before long,

*CRAAACK*

Li Ming's wooden practice spear snapped at the same time as the old man's. Now with no spears left, the two could only stop their session.

"... What was that?" Li Ming asked, out of breath, "I definitely had the control there."

"That, kiddo, is Dragon's Charge, the second step up from Dragon's Breath," the old man replied as he sat down to catch his breath, "Do your best to learn it, even Kikyo couldn't!"

"Speaking of which, where is Kikyo? She didn't open the doors this morning..."

"She was strangely adamant about learning something from your video, so she's been trying to recreate what she saw in the other practice room." He replied, "Anyways, hop in the shower before you go to school, you wouldn't want to show up stinkin of sweat, would ya?"

Li Ming looked down to see that his Osaka Phoenixes jersey that he wore to practice was now covered in sweat. "Sure, I guess. Where's the shower?"

"Just take that hall down to the end, then make a right." The old man gestured to the hallway on the opposite side of the dojo's entrance, "You can use the towels from the towel cabinet, if you need it."

"Alright, thanks!" Li Ming made his way down the unreasonably large hallway towards the shower room.

As he turned the corner to the shower room, the shower room's door swung open.

"Oh Li Ming, you're here to shower too?" Kikyo asked, still drying her hair with a towel, "Go ahead, the towel cabinet is on your left as you go in. You can join us for breakfast when you're done too."

"O-oh, thanks..." Li Ming muttered. Kikyo was dressed in just a bathrobe with her towel. To Li Ming, this appearance was worlds more attractive than her Gal look she normally brought to school. He couldn't help but stare at her elegant departing figure. Only when she was fully out of sight did Li Ming enter the steamy shower room to wash off his sweat.

***

"I'm late!" Li Ming exclaimed as he burst out of the shower room. He had only checked his phone for the time after he had finished getting dressed.

He quickly left the dojo, only stopping to give his farewells to the old man.

"Eh? Li Ming?" Ken was shocked to see Li Ming standing outside of such a large residence, "Are you walking today?"

"Hey, wait for me!" Kikyo followed after him, "I'm late too!"

"Ehh? Aren't you..." Ken looked at Kikyo, with her recently showered damp hair and looked at Li Ming with his freshly showered wet hair, "Don't tell me..."