The attack of Zatiel was not one you would use in a practice, but the one you will use against someone who you wanted to kill. But this only made Heinz's blood boil as the thrill of the fight filled him.
When the sword was about to penetrate his neck, Heinz parried the attack and slashed straight to the eyes of Zatiel with great accuracy and carrying all the power of his body.
Zatiel manages to bend his neck in an impossible angle, dodging the attack, and taking the momentum of his body he reaches Heinz's side, striking his sword to where his liver would be.
Heinz rotated his body into the air, moving away from the sword path, before slashing his sword straight for Zatiel's head.
Zatiel responded to the attack with his sword, making both of them blast away. But as soon as they stabilized their body, they shot in the direction of the other and continued with their fight.
Every attack they made was meant to kill or severely harm their opponent, always aiming for a vital organ or the soft part of the body, and this just became more and more intense as the battle continued.
Both Heinz and Zatiel had a monstrous domain over their body, allowing them to dodge the attacks by hair-thin distance, and leaving in the perfect position to counterattack.
Finally, after a couple of hundred moves, they were able to deal with an attack on the other, as Zatiel's sword landed on Heinz's forehead, and the last one managed to thrust him into where Zatiel's heart would be.
Of course, they were not harmed, as the membrane stops the attacks as if they were nothing, but still, they carried so much power that made the two separate for dozens of meters.
As if this was a signal, both made their energies explode, making a golden glow appear on Zatiel's body before a golden flame covered him, as for Heinz, a red aura started to materialize engulfing him.
Once again, they start to clash against the other, this time moving through the entire room, with such a speed that if Sophia and Ezequiel didn't focus, they would only see a red and golden light impacting each other.
The more they fight, the greater the strength of the attacks becomes, generating explosions of golden and red color that illuminated the entire area.
From time to time, one of them manage to land an attack on the other, but since they were protected by the membrane unless they manage to reach a power equal to a rank 3 spell, they would not be able to harm each other, so they remain attacking at the vital parts, just like you would do in a fight to the death.
By this moment, their energy and power remained the same, as they were already releasing all the power they could bring, but their sword attacks became more and more insidious and difficult to predict, always following the most unpredictable path and managing to pierce the defenses of the other.
They were improving their domain over their weapons as they fight, in Heinz case was because, even though he had great experience with sword fighting, this was messy and without order, only being able to reach a decent level due to the control over his body, but now with an opponent that pressure him to the limit and was showing him a more systematic way of using the sword, his abilities were improving greatly.
As for Zatiel, in his past life, his mastery over the sword was legendary, but now even though he had his past memories, they were more like a movie he was seeing and not something he lived with his body and soul, but since the knowledge was there, with this fight, he was like a machine that was removing the old and learning to move again.
Both had great stamina and since they were only using their energy to enhance their speed and strength, they were able to continue their fight for a long time.
In the face of Zatiel and Heinz was a smile as they felt their ability to improve, especially in the last one as he finally approached a level of mastery in the sword that was mentioned in his cultivation technique.
As Sophia and Ezequiel saw their fight, they were once again impressed by Zatiel abilities, after all, to them, even though Heinz had limited his power to be at the same level as his, he still had his hundreds of year of experience with the sword and yet they were fighting at an equal level.
And as the fight continued, when they saw the sword in the hands of both, a strange sensation started to grow in them, as they felt like the sword and hand fuse into a single entity.
After a couple of hundred more moves, Zatiel separated from Heinz, putting his sword down and calming his energy, making the flames and golden glow disappear, before sitting down and closing his eyes.
"It is enough for now."
"But why? We have reached such great momentum!"
Heinz's desire for continuing with the battle was evident.
"Your mind may not be affected, but my consciousness is not strong enough to remain focused for such a long time, I am already at my limit and if I continue, it will be counterproductive."
In the battle, Zatiel had to split his concentration at his opponent's sword and his movements at all times, and that mental exhaustion was something that will affect anyone, even him.
Knowing that Zatiel was right, Heinz could only sigh and retract his red aura as he saved the sword into his ring.
"Ok, now sit down. I have something to tell you about your sword mastery. Sophia and Little EZ, come here, as this could be helpful for you too."
If any other Rank 1 being were to command him, Heinz would certainly punish him for his arrogance, but when he heard Zatiel speak about sword mastery, he sat down immediately followed by Ezequiel and Sophia.
After a couple of minutes and feeling the pain in his mind vanishing, Zatiel began speaking.
"From your technique, I take that you haven't reached the first Sword Realm, and although you have trained for a long time with your swords, you did not follow a systematic progression and most of your abilities come from the domain you have over your body."
Sophia and Ezequiel were already used to Zatiel wisdom, but to Heinz, it was mind-blowing, as he could get so much information about him just from the first time they fought.
"You are right brother, my cultivation technique has a course I can follow all the way to become a Being of Laws, but the part it concerned the domain over the sword is missing and it is just mentioned briefly, and since the Magi World don't focus on weapon mastery, I have not found a Path Technique that is related to the sword that can help those of my level."
"It is best if you manage to reach the first level without following the technique from someone else, and only then using a Path Technique to seek insights for the next levels, if you do it this way your path will be more stable and even if in the future you found yourself with contradictions between your understanding of the sword and the one described in the Path Technique since your base is solid enough, it will not affect you much," Zatiel stops a moment and lets the three understand what he just said.
"The first realm is known as 'Sword and body as one', the objective of this realm is not just to see the sword as an extension of your body, but more like a natural part of it, just like a leg or arm," seeing the doubt in the three, Zatiel explains in a more practical way.
"When you move your arm, do you think of moving it or you just do it, like it is something you have known how to do from the moment you were born. If you manage to achieve that with a sword, you would have reached the first Sword Realm."
