The Urban Dao Child

Yang Dao heard the young Salamander say that emotions are meant for the weak only. He felt the word weak might be aiming at him as he was the one who preached about emotions among compatriots. He did not expect this young one to be coming in so strong. He asked, "So emotions are for the week you say? I would like to ask you if you are the strongest one among your people?"

The young salamander nodded and said, "Yes, I am the strongest one in our generation." his voice was laced with a strong sense of confidence.

Yang Dao moved his gaze around the crowd and spotted the people nodding slowly. He nodded and said, "Then do you think there is no other person, stronger than you in the world?"

The young Salamander hesitated, after all, he knew that the world was big enough but then he said, "I would not know until I try. At least in my territory, no one is stronger than me."

Ryu Jinshi stepped forward but Yang Dao waved his hand to stop him and continued to ask the young Salamander, "Since you are so confident, I would like the old sir to let me fight in his place. Is that possible?"

His words set up a tremor among the people.. They did not expect this passing traveler to meddle in their works. They did not expect him to challenge their champion. The elders of the race were also surprised. The supreme elder, the one who represents the race in the spirit council, came forward and said, "Lord, you do not need to do this. If something..."

Yang Dao cut in before he finished speaking, "If something happened, none of you will be held responsible. Worry not, I have some skills to get by. Do tell me the rules."

The elder said, "Since you have made up your mind, I will tell you that you can only use the Fire element to participate in the Agni Dwand, the duel by fire. You can only use the spear as your weapon. Would you still like to battle lord?"

Yang Dao did not know the two things but he decided to go through with his decision. He said, "I agree to fight the duel."

As soon as those words were dropped, Ryu Jinshi asked, "Master, be calm."

Yang Dao nodded and walked inside the circle where the two people stood. The young salamander said, "I do not have the habit to go easy, still, I will try not to burn your face."

The Salamanders were not particularly handsome, and Yang Dao's appearance was repulsing to them. The Dao Child smiled faintly as he heard the remark. He said, "I hope you still have the scales left after I am done with you."

He glanced at the elder and said, "I do not know to harness the power of fire or to cast spells. Can I still use my source energy to fight? I will not cast any second element spells." his voice was calm and patient.

The elders exchanged a glance and then nodded. The elder inside the circle handed the spear to Yang Dao as he walked out with a solemn reaction. The young Salamander said, "Emissary of heavens, you sure are high on success, facing me with no knowledge of Fire. Are you looking down on me too much?"

Yang Dao shook his head and said, "I do not even know you, let alone looking down on you. Thinking too much is not good enough. I am still a student back at my home. I know two elements and four laws. I am quite strong you know?"

The young salamander brandished his spear and said, "Come on."

Yang Dao glanced at him and said, "Okay." he stabbed the spear down in the ground and took up a standard boxing stance.

The surrounding people were surprised, the elders of the race looked at Ryu Jinshi, who cast a barrier around the circle with a wave of his hand, with a worried face. The azure dragon said, "Do not worry, my master is not a kid, and also, he is not that easy to win. The young salamander will recognize this fact soon as well."

His words dropped and he said, "Arambha."

Arambha, means to begin.

The two participants moved, while the young Salamander stabbed ahead with his spear, aiming at Yang Dao's heart, the latter moved forward and suddenly dodged to the side as he kept moving closer. The young Salamander sneered and with a blowing gesture, he let out a stream of fire to attack Yang Dao.

The Dao child was in a bind as soon as the match began. However, was he such an easy person to deal with? Yang Dao swiped his leg on the ground and a lot of coarse sand flew up to become his shield.

The fire was weak against the earth. The young salamander did not understand what happened, just when he was in a daze to see his attack fail, Yang Dao had closed the gap between them, and his leg kicked at the opponent's waist augmented by the earth source energy.

The kick connected and the young salamander flew back slightly. This spirit race had scaled on their torso to help them deal with the incoming damage. However, the aftershock was strong and thus he flew back from the kick. A normal salamander was two feet taller than normal humans. Yang Dao was six feet tall, and the young opponent against him was eight feet and some inches tall.

The Dao Child did not want his opponent to have any time to think of a counter-strategy and moved forward. Suddenly the salamander started to swing his spear in circles and soon a circle of fire began to rise around him. However, before he could complete the spell. Yang Dao used his old trick again.

He kicked back and rushed forward. Before the young guy could do anything, his eye caught the glimpse of Yang Dao's eyes. Those eyes were hypnotizing, it was like an abyss of black and white, spinning like the world they live on. Dao Eyes came out when Yang Dao wished for it and the salamander in front of him turned into a crossover of black and white.

The next moment his fists started to rain on the opponent. The knuckles were augmented and they brought the salamander a lot of pain. Yang Dao was not hitting his abdomen blindly, but all the places where the light was weaker.

Yes, the light lines were a representation of the salamander's body and these lines were what he exploited. The weak light was a representation of the injuries he had suffered in the past. These weak tints were like time bombs waiting to be played with so that they can explode.

The pain made the salamander very angry, he gave up his spear and grappled Yang Dao in his strong grip. Holding the boy in a place he tried to hit his chest with his knees. The Dao Child had his head being held in a strong grip. Then he was being kicked by strong knees. So what he did was to turn the tables.

All of a sudden he gave up the struggle to free from the grip and let his body fall down like weak. The drastic change in his weight made the salamander stumble and loosen his grip. As soon as that happened. Yang Dao delivered his strongest punch to the guy's gut. The salamander could not help but let out a groan.

The impact made the people gawk. They did not expect this sort of reaction from their champion. Before the salamander fighter could even cast a spell of fire, Yang Dao had taken hold of his extended arm and threw him over his shoulder.

BANG.

The salamander fell on the ground and his head buzzed a little. The Dao Child was so pissed that while he held the hand in his hand, he kicked the salamander in the chest. He did not hold back a little bit. This guy dared to look down on him and he also dared to look down on the things that made them better than other creatures.

After a few kicks, the young salamander was knocked out. Ryu Jinshi saw this and said, "Master, the duel is finished. The opponent has fainted."

Only then did the guy stop with his kicks. Yang Dao was also panting. He was not unscathed. He had two red marks visible around his neck, they were formed from the Salamander's hold. Not only that a few sparks from the unfinished spell had hurt him, and left a few burn marks on his face.

Ryu Jinshi stood outside the circle and nodded in satisfaction. Yang Dao had never fought such a brutal fight, he had dealt with humans, killed with guns but never a brawl with an elemental. Today, he had finally gotten a glimpse of how strong an elemental could be. If not for the laws of light and dark, the situation could have been worse.