The Laughing Swordsman

The man was forced a step backward from all the attacks Apollo rained down. However, the man was also at the edge of the stage. As such, when he took a step back, half of his foot hung off the ledge.

The man wasn't prepared for this, thus attempted to push down on the stage with the heel of his foot. Unfortunately, there was nothing to push on.

Apollo stopped attacking at this point. He only stared at the man who was desperately trying to stop himself from losing balance. His body teetered as he flailed his limbs around wildly.

For a good few seconds, the man put up a good fight, staying on the stage. Though his display did look rather... strange. However, the man was unable to recover himself and fell off the wooden stage, landing with a clear thump.

The wind was knocked out of his lungs, accompanied by more embarrassment.

As for the crowd, a few of them were clapping, while the others seemed disappointed.

"That... that was a longer fight."

"But the dojo master didn't even attack once!"

"Is the dojo master sick? He must be, right? Maybe we can reorganize this fight for when he's better!"

Unfortunately, the man, who was the dojo master, was not sick. The dojo master coughed a little, trying to play it off. He still did not feel resigned to his fate, however.

From the dojo master's perspective, he just lost because he lost the initial momentum. Because he didn't expect Apollo to move, he was pushed to one side, then that little bit of disruption was enough to be barely maintained between the two of them.

As far as the dojo master was concerned, he put up quite the fight because he 'blocked' every strike. They were basically at the same level of skill and strength in the dojo master's eyes. It was just that small advantage at the start.

Apollo once began to step off the stage once more, but before that happened, the dojo master called out.

"Wait!"

Apollo's eyelid twitched. He was getting a little bothered.

"What."

The dojo master cleared his throat.

"To be the most realistic, there shouldn't be any restraint for where we fight. It should only end when one person admits defeat, or is knocked unconscious!"

This made even less sense than the rules of the last spar, but he decided to go with it anyway.

Because desperation.

Apollo pressed his lips together.

"But I don't want to!"

Several unsatisfied people from the crowd called out.

"Just one more spar!"

"Surely, this one will be amazing!"

"The rules will make it a true battle between masters!"

Though they said that, the tone of the voices wasn't exactly the most confident. In all honesty, most of them lost faith in the dojo master entirely. They were only clinging onto their last hope that maybe the dojo master would be able to finally pull through.

Apollo rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger, pondering over it for a moment.  Suddenly, his eyes lit up as though he came to a realization.

"Ok! One more."

It wasn't that Apollo thought this battle was going to be worthwhile. However, he did want to try something out.

The dojo master smiled with a twitching eyebrow.

"Thank you, thank you."

They got into position once more. In the back of the dojo master's head, he said a few encouraging thoughts.

He was going to beat Apollo so bad, he would run circles around the stage crying for his mother!

After psyching himself up, the dojo master took a deep breath.

"Go!"

He immediately charged forwards, as did Apollo. The two of them met in the middle of the stage. The dojo winded up a strike as he moved, straight towards Apollo.

...But it just barely missed.

The dojo master hurriedly tried to pull his wooden sword back, which was pretty easy since he didn't put too much power into the strike. Unfortunately, that short amount of time was more than enough for Apollo to take advantage of.

The dojo master's eyes widened in shock.

Countless after images appeared. To him, it appeared like Apollo had one hundred translucent arms, each holding a bokken.

The dojo master immediately felt numerous merciless stabs on his body. It was painful, but not lethal. It wasn't as though he had never suffered injuries. After all, as a person that manages the dojo, there were a lot of spars to be had, which means getting hit was something normal.

However, they were never as painful as this. The dojo master was sure he could survive, as each time he was hit, Apollo would pull back his bokken before pushing too far. However, it still heavily damaged the surface of his skin.

As the dojo master was being battered, he swung his wooden sword within the storm of bokkens. His wooden sword miraculously traveled through the countless swords, almost like it was a shooting star.

Then, it missed Apollo.

The dojo master took countless hits. His skin began bruising heavily. In an attempt to fight Apollo off, he flailed his wooden sword around, hoping to stop at least one strike or hit Apollo.

Unfortunately, Apollo's bokken snaked past every single strike, while he himself was unscathed.

The dojo master completely lost faith. He finally realized he was no match for Apollo.

"I- Ow!"

He held his arms in front of him, but that didn't prevent any of Apollo's attacks from hitting his body.

"I give up!"

The dojo master waited for Apollo to stop.

...But he didn't.

In reality, Apollo had forgotten about the spar rules. His only goal was to try and hit every single spot on the dojo master's body with the tip of his bokken.

With how many stabs he launched out, it was as though Apollo was actually using a spear.

The dojo master didn't want to go through so much pain. His skin was turning purple and blue.

And so, he ran away.

"Mommy!"

Tears formed in his face as he called out for his mother.