Obediently, lieutenant Lanka moved back giving the fighters a good wide breath of space, while still staying in the periphery where he could still just barely see the conflict about to unfold.

  “Ready” captain Altan Niraj shouted

  “Sure” came the reply

  “Begin”

  Captain Altan Niraj waited for a while after he had shouted go to see if Zhao would make the first move but no. Zhao looked like he would be content to wait out the fight so captain Altan Niraj started.

  He brought up his gun and fired, like waking up a beast, Captain Altan Niraj spun his cores releasing aether from his body. He saw Zhao Bing dodge his lighting round, but he did not falter, he kept firing more shots down at Zhao. Zhao began to run toward him eating up paces at a fast rate. Captain Altan Niraj did not falter, he kept up the pressure, it slowed Zhao down, barely but enough.

  They continued in that state of affairs, captain Altan Niraj shooting at Zhao Bing while Zhao Bing tried to shorten the distance between them. A hundred paces, two hundred paces, three hundred paces, Zhao Bing was eating up the paces in a full on aether powered sprint. By the time Zhao Bing reached the fourth hundred pace, he smirked and ran straight into the trap. The sky rumbled once, that was his only warning before a bolt of thunder struck him.

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  Captain Altan Niraj saw the first bolt strike him and like blowing the lid from a boiling pot, steam burst about Zhao Bing like a geyser. Two more bolts of lighting dropped in quick succession on his position and the cloud of steam grew larger still. Captain Altan Niraj quickly discarded his gun and formed two lighting rods with aether and charged like lightning itself -quick and decisive- into the cloud. It was so thick that he couldn’t see his opponent with his eyes but there was no hesitation in his step, as he could feel the source of the steam that was Zhao Bing with his aether senses and he wasn’t moving, the lighting should have destabilized him as he had planned, this was his chance.

  Without hesitation, captain Altan Niraj brought his lighting rod down on the general direction of Zhao Bing’s aether and a hand caught it, the force of the collision cleared the air.

  “I yield.” Said Zhao Bing, steam sizzling out of him still, especially from the hand that held the rod of lighting.

  “It is a solid plan, distract the enemy, leading him into a false sense of a stalemate then find a way to heavily injure him after that it is a mater of coming in for the finishing blow, fast and efficient, very solider like.”

  “But?” Asked captain Altan Niraj as he dissolved the lighting rods

  “What happens if, like today, the enemy survives your crippling move?” Zhao Bing asked back

  “I don’t have to be the one to kill the enemy.” The captain shrugged.

  Zhao Bing, nodded, he understood the point captain Altan Niraj made, a soldier’s battlefield was not a one man playing field but that was a mentality that got many talented soldiers killed.