"Come on guys, let's hurry or we won't make it in time" a guy shouted in excitement.

There was five young man were headed somewhere, four of them were just walking casually while the excited one was a bit ahead of the rest.

They were students of different colleges, but they were childhood friends. They went to primary school together, completed their tenth grade by competing against each other but in a friendly manner. Even went to higher secondary school together.

Today, they were having a reunion for the first time after two years. All of them were happy about this and why wouldn't they be?

So, they made a schedule beforehand to avoid confusion. Their plans were for the whole day, starting with paying a visit to their school and meet all the teachers.

They had a long list of things to together, the most anticipated one was sparring. They used to do sword practice together since very young, they still practiced sword fighting.

But sword practice was way down the list of their plans, right now they were going for a movie, although they had many similar hobbies when it came to movies they were a world apart from each other.

The situation was clear from the look of their faces. They didn't like the genre of the movie they were going to watch. But they still agreed to go, however, there was still half an hour left before the movie started, but the enthusiastic friend named "Kyle Nelson" was forcing the others to hurry. And the reason for that was that it was his favorite genre and the actor starring was his idol in the film industry.

Among the ones behind Kyle the closest was Alex, his full name is "Alex Steele". Alex was trying to suppress Kyle by showing him how much time they had before the movie.

But Kyle wasn't listening, everyone glared at Kyle to stop it because everyone on the street looking at them, but Kyle was unfazed.

The ones following Kyle and Alex were the other three friends, "Chris Carlson", "Tom Bryan" and "Jared Stewart".

Alex had an average muscular and flexible body, anyone can tell that he practices martial arts and goes to a gymnasium and was also good in stamina.

Whereas Kyle and Chris were similar to Alex with approximately the same height but didn't look that strong. Kyle was the guy who liked to be straight forward regarding everything in his life, as for Chris he acted a bit mysterious all the time by saying proverbs, poems unrelated to the topic being discussed.

As for Tom, he was a tall and slim looking guy, his height was approximately over six and a half feet. When a comparison with Tom, everyone could only come close to his shoulders.

And there was Jared, he was the fat of the group. He liked to fight every now and then proving how strong he is.

They all silently went to the movie theater, well... except for Kyle, he was leaping like a small kid. They took their seats and watched the movie.

While watching the movie, they each noticed the reactions of everyone around including themselves and giggled silently and remembered so they can laugh over it later.

After the movie was finished, they all came out and wanted to burst out in laughter after they witnessed the reactions of the people who were watching.

The next thing on the schedule was sparring with each other using swords. They were looking forward to it in anticipation more than anything. So, they headed towards the gym they used to practice sword fighting.

They all still practiced sword fighting, but in their respective cities as they were no longer neighbors.

While walking towards the gymnasium they recalled the laughter moments from the movie theater and shared what they noticed while being in there.

"The man sitting next to me was trembling when the hero was beating down the villain, who the hell does that?", Alex told everyone and they all burst out in laughter and started commenting on the topic.

"Maybe he was imagining himself in the shoes of that villain", Kyle was the first to comment. After Alex started the reaction topic everyone started with their own observations and others commented as they felt.

And in the gist of enjoyment, they didn't even notice how much time it took them to reach the gymnasium.

The moment they entered inside, all of their expressions changed, and they looked at each other as competition. They weren't friends anymore but rivals who saw the other as their opponents.

All of them picked swords according to their liking and started slashing the wind,

"Swoosh, swoosh... "

Alex picked up dual swords indicating that he had mastered dual wielding and made a move targeting the air and slashed through it. The swords while cutting the air made an ear piercing sound which made everyone look at him in awe.

"Whoa, Alex you have improved by leaps and bounds in the past year, what happened? you met a master swordsman or what?"

Tom could not hold it in anymore and asked Alex for some explanation, but Alex just gave him a smile and told that he practiced approximately three hours every day non-stop.

And this move was one of many moves he learned during the time span of one year.

Also when they were separated Alex was a single sword wielder and now he displaying his skills in dual wielding, that's amazing.

Watching and listening to Alex, Chris leaped into the ring and challenged Alex for a match and said, "Let's see how far you have improved, last time when we sparred, I defeated you fair and square, let's fight, come on in".

"Alright", Alex jumped into the ring while accepting the challenge issued by Chris.

Chris was also good in a sword fight, he was the number one in the group when they last sparred and Alex was number two. They both wanted to fight with their own reasons. Chris wanted to fight to ensure he was on the top while Alex wanted to defeat Chris to get the top spot and also to test his strength.

The determination can be seen on both of their faces.

By seeing their faces Tom, Jared, and Kyle took a front-row seat intending to watch the fight to see who has progressed more among the two on the stage.

The crowd from the gymnasium also gathered up to watch the fight. A guy came up from the crowd to represent this match as a referee.

Everyone from the gymnasium who was present gathered around as they recognized the individuals just walked into the ring.

Since they recognized them, they were also familiar with their might and strength, and they were excited about the match because they haven't seen them since they got separated for the sake of their studies.

As the people recalled their last encounter, they remembered that none of them were willing to admit defeat to another and it caused the match to be dragged for hours which exhausted them to their limit.

"The result of their last battle went in favor of Chris. After fighting for hours none of them were able to stand properly on their two feet and when Alex stumbled out of exhaustion which created an opening which allowed Chris to strike Alex with his last bit of energy and effort which decided the outcome of the match."

"Yes, I remember it too, they suffered a lot of injuries despite using wooden swords and were exhausted to the bones, they took almost a week to recover from that battle. If they were using a real sword then both of them might have been dead within a day or two."

"That was the first time I saw a match that brutal between kids to find out who was the superior among them and here they are yet again at the same stage after two years with much more intensity and excitement in their eyes than ever before", another man nodded in agreement.

"Hmm, those two are extremely talented, in fact, their whole group is talented in sword fighting. It is quite rare to see such enthusiasts of learning sword fighting in this era of guns and missiles."

Some people from the crowd started talking facts and praises of the two young men standing in the ring facing each other and also about their group is one of the best in the way of the sword.

They were excited because they were going to witness the fight between these rivals after a long time.

As everyone's eyes set on the match in front. The two Alex and Chris moved to their respective corners and picked their swords up.

As this was a friendly match to test who was superior among them, they used wooden swords so they won't kill or give serious injuries to their opponent.

Chris picked a wooden sword in which he was well versed with and it was the two-handed long sword but it's blade's size and width was as compared to a katana.

As for Alex, he didn't became a lackey either in the last two years and mastered a katana and also mastered the twin blades. In this match, he went with the twin blades and picked up two wooden swords identical in shape and size.

The moment they picked up the swords, their eyes lit up and they turned around to look at each other. Everyone can see the fire burning in their eyes.

The moment they turned towards each other, they started analyzing their opponent and tried to derive a plan to take their opponent down as efficiently and quickly as possible with no room for error.

The people on the side were keeping a close eye on their every movement carefully without blinking. They even advised the new students who showed some interest in learning sword techniques to watch the match carefully and by doing so they might gain some insights which they can use later on to improve themselves.

By doing so the new students will benefit greatly. When does one get a chance to witness a fight between two strong sword fighters?

As for Tom, Jared, and Kyle, they were sitting in front with a faint smile on their faces.

"Let's see what you can do this time around, I wonder how much will it take this time to defeat you", Chris shouted while talking his stance.

"Sure... whatever", Alex replied calmly with a faint smile on his face and there was no trace of any kind of fear in his eyes.

Alex chose his stance for the initial strike on an instinct. He lowered his body to almost two-thirds of his hight reducing the number of striking spots for Chris.

At the same time, his legs were bent as he was sitting on an elevated chair which helps to add strength while striking.

While taking this stance, Alex only revealed his left portion of the body to his opponent, again lowering the chances of getting hit by Chris.

When one takes a stance by standing in a cross, they reduce the surface area which could be a potential target and increases their defenses.

As for the position of his swords, the sword in the left hand pointed towards the right side as the strike will slash the opponent in two horizontally, whereas the sword in the right hand pointed towards Chris as it will stab Chris in his chest the moment it got the chance.

While watching Alex taking his stance, preparing to strike, Chris began his preparations as well.

Although Chris was not as strong as Alex physically but had good speed and an attack at a good speed becomes very hard to evade or block and can cause a considerable amount of damage to an opponent.

By calculating all these factors, Chris also crossed his body towards right exposing his left side only and also crouched a bit.

He held his sword with his both hands and the sword pointing towards Alex and the hilt of the sword was held at the eye level of Chris and shoulders stretched back adding up in the stabbing and blocking strength of Chris at the same time.

Everyone around the ring was in awe and continued looking with great attention. No one dared to look sideways or else they might miss something.

In the middle of these events, a man entered the gymnasium, he had a good physique and looked intimidating, at first glance anyone would be startled by him. And he was the trainer of this gym.

As the trainer of the gymnasium walked in from the front door but he was surprised that no one noticed him and he found the reason fairly quickly as everyone's eyes and senses were fixated on the match in the ring.

The trainer was strong in the way of the sword himself, he was originally from a different country where people still did sword practice in this modern age to carry on the legacy which was passed down the generations.

As he saw that no one noticed him, he suddenly recognized the two in the ring. Also after looking around for a second found the other three as well.

They were his students, he taught them the way of the sword.

After realizing the event taking place in the gym, he didn't interrupt any of them and took a place to spectate the match from the back without alarming anyone about his presence.

The two in the ring started moving, they started circling around the ring cautiously.

Their eyes were not watching the faces of their opponent but the movements the other party made.

Their senses were at their peak. There was a pin drop silence in the gymnasium.

As they moved they also moved their body positions from left to right followed by their sword positions.

As the tension increased in the atmosphere, Chris made the first move to break the silence.

Chris moved to stab Alex in the chest with his great speed and along with the added strength from his shoulders, he moved forward.

Everyone around was stunned by the speed of the move and its strength just by looking at the sword piercing the air around it while moving forward.

If one blinked even for an instant they would miss the move and lose the fight then and there without even knowing what hit them.

As for the opponent facing the blow, Alex, who was keeping an eye of Chris's movements closely and waiting for his move, when he saw the incoming attack his pupils quickly contracted and he felt like the time stopped and everything in his surrounding slowed.

He felt like this because he was already a good fighter two years ago but he didn't stop after parting ways with his friends and kept training and he was no longer his previous self from before.

And just like that, the fight was on.