"So this is just going to be a spar or what?" Kaida asked, now with chakra coating his body.
Byakko let out a low rumbling laugh. "Spar? Hahaha, we beasts don't have concept of spars. Here each fight is a test of survival. You still have a chance to back down if you want."
"We are not talking about fight to death, right?" Kaida asked, not wanting to go that far when there is no benefit even after winning.
"Of course not, but it could be an outcome of the fight. I am not going to hold back, and don't expect you to either," Byakko explained.
"Then how will we decide who wins?"
"Simple. If one party is unable to fight or is in obvious position where death is certain, he will lose."
With all of the rules clear in front of him, the decision was almost clear for Kaida.
"Why would I back down then," he said, taking out the kunai and getting ready for the fight.
"I like your guts, boy. All of the humans I met till now either run away or start to attack me directly. You are among the few I had the chance to have a conversation with. Try not to die during this 'spar,'" Byakko said. As soon as his sentence was finished, he vanished from his position altogether.
Appearing behind Kaida, with his massive claw ready to shred the Uchiha to pieces, though before his attack could land, Kaida flickered away from his position.
Bang The claw struck the ground with a force of a fireball, creating a massive crater in the ground, big enough to bury Kaida in it.
'He could have easily stopped the attack, but this was the show of his strength and a warning of what he is capable of,' Kaida concluded, looking Byakko in his eyes.
The golden eyes, which were filled with calm confidence till now, were now showing a fierce thirst for violence. After a small stare down with Kaida, Byakko's muscles tensed up once again, though this time, he also used chakra to increase his speed, and not just any chakra, but wind chakra to be exact.
Leaving behind a gale, he almost teleported in front of Kaida, who was ready with his kunai filled with fire chakra. Because of the speed Byakko showed, the chances of dodging the attack were miniscule, so Kaida had to go for direct confrontation in a split second.
And which he soon found out was not a great idea. Just a single claw collided with the kunai Kaida was holding—the claw which didn't even have any chakra flowing in it—not only deflected the kunai filled with fire chakra but also pushed Kaida far enough to leave a trail in the ground.
Since Kaida was not actually prepared for being hit by such a massive force, his body suffered heavily from the attack. Without even looking, Kaida could tell that muscles in his legs were torn. His bones were still intact, but some of the veins were ruptured.
He had given his all in not falling from the attack, but that had cost him his mobility.
'I underestimated him,' Kaida thought, understanding how big of a mistake it was to underestimate a fucking carriage-sized tiger whose single leg had more muscles than his whole body.
"I'm sorry for this display," Kaida said, activating both the mitotic regeneration seal on his forehead along with the extra feature to use the chakra in the seal for strength enhancement, while also activating his MS, with three tomoe rotating and merging together to bloom into a beautiful flower.
The whole demeanor of Kaida changed in that move. With his hands moving in a blur, a shadow clone popped next to him, having 10 percent of his chakra reserves. The clone took the sword Kaida had and filled it with fire chakra.
"Interesting," Byakko said. Till now he was just standing there waiting for Kaida to finish his preparation, even though all the said preparation only took a couple of seconds. With just Byakko's base speed, he could have easily landed tens of attacks on Kaida in that time.
But just winning the fight was not his intention. It was to check whether the person in front of him had strength to back his confidence, something he was really curious about.
And all of a sudden seeing that person making an exact copy of himself was good enough reason for Byakko to justify his wait.
"Go on, boy. Show me what you are capable of," he said, giving Kaida the chance to attack.
The clone looked toward Kaida before jumping into action. With his sword pumped with enough chakra to drain a chunin dry, the shadow clone released a barrage of attacks at Byakko. Even without sharingan, Kaida's clones had trained extensively in kenjutsu. With a combination of training from Yukihiro and Uchiha style kenjutsu he had learned later to better utilize his sharingan, his clones were more than capable of showing kenjutsu of upper high jonin level strength.
Though that was not enough to intimidate the foe he was facing against.
After dodging the various strikes the clone was releasing toward him, while redirecting some of them with its claw, Byakko got bored.
"I was expecting something more from you after all that confidence you showed in the starting," Byakko said, with a hint of regret in his voice. In the next second, the claw which he was using till now as nothing but an ultra-durable blade gained a red tinge. Soon a layer of highly volatile fire, or something that looked like fire but not at the same time, covered it.
The air around the claw started to behave erratically, like it was burning from just being in the mere presence of the attack. With a casual motion, Byakko brought down his claw.
For Kaida, it looked extremely slow as he was using his MS to its full capacity, but for the clone, that attack was too fast to dodge, leaving it with no other choice than confronting it head on.
With its Iron Skin Jutsu active and sword overflowing with fire chakra, it was confident enough to tank the attack, but that confidence vanished in thin air when the claw coated in the strange fire didn't even stop for a second when it collided with the sword. It was like a hot and sharp knife was passing through butter—too smooth—and similarly, it passed through the Iron Skin Jutsu the clone was using.
Poof, poof Both sword and the clone vanished in the thin air, while Kaida got his chakra back.
"That was quite an attack. I'm not even sure about my victory anymore," Kaida said, flexing his legs which were healed by now.
"That was just a sign for you to stop playing and take this seriously before I get bored of waiting," Byakko said, looking more fierce by the second.
"Don't worry, I was planning on doing the same," Kaida said, his eyes locked with Byakko with his MS rotating in a beautiful and deadly pattern. The spar was just starting.