X-Rank Hunter - Chapter 88: Jasper Versus Jim

“Wait!”

As they were preparing for a duel, Jade from the side suddenly spoke up.

“What do you mean Kuya Jasper, Kuya Jim already have a tamed beast?” Jade finally found an opportunity to speak. She was really surprised to learn about her big brother having a tamed beast.

“Yes,” Jasper replied. “Little Jade can you go there with mom and watch your two Kuyas play with each other instead?”

“But…” Jade didn’t want to go. Learning about her big brother Jim having a tamed beast made her want to play as well.

“Yes, just watch us for now, we can play later on,” Jim responded this time. He then shifted his gaze to a certain direction and found his wolf waiting patiently from the distance. “Look there, that is my tamed beast, if you want to, you can play with it.”

The Evolving White Wolf, after recovering its full health, was just planning to run away for a good escape. But when it caught sight of its master, it immediately gave up that thought as it waited patiently for its master instead.

Besides, it just confirmed that the person it was fighting before was actually someone close to its master. Learning about it could make it feel at ease.

“That is your tamed beast?” When Jade shifted her gaze to where his big brother was pointing, she saw a wolf not too far away. And Jade really was astonished from the sight.

It was beautiful! She took a liking to the wolf at first sight. Jade immediately rushed towards the wolf as she said while leaving, “I will play with doggy.”

Jim saw his little sister who was happy seeing his tamed beast. He then informed the wolf through telepathy that she was his little sister. With that, the wolf should know what to do and what was not.

The wolf nodded its head slowly as it saw Jade coming towards its way. It was now sitting, but upon seeing the little girl, it lay down on the ground and closed its eyes as if waiting for its head to be patted.

When Jade arrived, she immediately gave the wolf a warm hug. She was even blushing while doing that. It was noticeable that she really liked the wolf very much.

“Now then…” Seeing their sister already faraway, Jasper prepared himself for a real fight. Knowing that his big brother was now not an ordinary individual, he couldn’t be so careless.

Jim just stood there stupidly, waiting for Jasper to do the first move. The wind then blew as silence followed. And then with a swoosh, Jasper finally made the first move as he rushed towards Jim swiftly.

It might seem very slow from the eyes of Chad, Charley, and Laude who were watching from the side but in the eyes of normal humans, they would definitely need to focus all of their attention just to follow Jasper’s movements with their eyes. How much more if they needed to react and avoid that kind of speed? They would surely fail to do so!

But for Jim however, he didn’t need so much effort in order to do so. After seeing his younger brother swiftly coming onto him, Jim just made a side step leisurely and his younger brother passed through him. With the help of his incredible hearing ability, Jim could predict the movements of Jasper and determine what to do in order to counter it.

On the other hand, Jasper was slightly shocked upon seeing that his attack failed. After all, that was his punch enchanted by the power of the wind. That was really fast enough to accurately hit any E-rank Hunter or even so, D-ranks. So how could the other party easily dodge something like that?

Jasper could control the four elements. But without the help of his Spirits, his potential decreased greatly. That being said, although Jasper used his everything to attack Jim, he just realized that it was still not enough.

Jim also saw through this. Without his Spirits, Jasper was just average. Jim was even reluctant to dodge the other party’s attack because he could feel that even if it hit him, it wouldn’t do any serious damage at all.

Jim shook his head slowly as he turned around to see his younger brother only to find the other party already greeting him with a punch.

This time, it was not that fast as before. His hand was burning as well and looked sturdy. Jim could tell different kinds of elements coming from it.

Wind, Fire, Earth… Jim guessed the elements enchanting the attack of his younger brother. Though the speed decreased slightly, Jim could tell that its offensive prowess increased greatly.

But still, it wasn’t enough…

Jim bent backward and the attack was immediately avoided.

However, it seemed like Jasper had already expected this to happen. So as Jim was still bending backward, he retracted the power of Earth and only the power of Wind and Fire was left to enchant his fist.

As if a heavy weight was loosened, Jasper rotated his body swiftly, as he gave another punch against Jim who was still bending backward. With the wind and fire enchanting his fist, the speed and attack of his punch increased greatly.

But who would have thought that Jim would only smile towards him as he didn’t even bother to dodge. Jasper’s fist then finally landed on Jim’s chest as the other party collided on the ground heavily with a little explosion.

Jasper then immediately backed away upon finishing his attack. Seeing the smile of his big brother, he was afraid that the other party was up to something.

Jasper fixed his gaze to his big brother as he only saw the other party lying on the ground. Smoke was rising from his chest but even so, Jasper could still tell that the other party was completely fine.

“Your attack is not bad.”

While Jasper was watching Jim warily, he heard the other party speaking. He didn’t reply anything as he checked his own condition instead.

After using a bunch of attacks without holding back, he already had used up a fifth of his World Energy. And he could tell that if this went on without causing any damage to his big brother, he would lose the battle without the other party making a move.

After a few moments, Jim then got up from the ground. He stood up and turned his body to Jasper.

Jasper saw his chest with his clothes having a hole. But the other party’s chest itself was completely fine as there was nothing even a scratch. Jasper could only narrow his eyes warily as he finally could tell how capable his big brother really was.

“This…” Jim scratched the back of his head before he asked, “Do you want to use your Spirits?”

Jim could just say, “Little twerp, why not use your Spirits already, you can’t even scratch me with just that!” to heat the battle. But Jim wouldn’t go so far just to show his dominance to his younger brother. He wouldn’t be so arrogant enough just to say that he was already powerful.

“You want me to use my Spirit?” Jasper narrowed his eyes as he asked.

“Yes. I can see that you are having a hard time showing your true potential without your Spirit.” Jim responded. And to not hurt the other party’s pride he added, “And also, even if you have your Spirits with you, I am still in the advantage.”

Jim didn’t want to make his younger brother think that he was belittling him. And since the other party had already known about his strength and the blessing he received from the Four Greatest Hunters, the other party would definitely know as well about his greatest advantage.

With that said, Jasper nodded in response. Indeed, his big brother had received a great blessing so how could he, the one who was specialized in using Spirits, could fight him without any Spirit with him?

He must be joking if he wanted to fight his big brother with just his pitiful strength alone.

But the problem was, all of his Spirits were currently recovering. Gnome who was chewed by the Evolving White Wolf, though he was healed by Jasper earlier using Nymph’s power, still needed some time to recover his lost World Energy as well as to stabilize his mental state. After all, it was a kind of traumatic being chewed upon by a beast.

On the other hand, Nymph, Sylph, and Salamander were in much worse condition. After they were forced to stop the skill: Possession, they suffered a backlash and gave them serious injuries.

Even if Jasper summoned all of them, he would only find them in a weak state and would just barely increase his fighting prowess.

This was also the reason why he only dared to fight his big brother without asking any help from any summoned Spirit or tamed beast. It was still fine for Jasper to fight his big brother without the other party using the gorilla or any S-rank or A-rank beast. For as long as he had his Spirits with him, he could still stand his ground from any B-ranks and below.

But he had no Spirit to summon right now. And Jasper was lamenting this fact.

Seeing the reluctance from his younger brother, Jim sighed deeply for he realized as well why the other party was like that. He then stared at him more intently as he asked, “Summon your Spirits and let’s see if I can do anything for them so that you can use them perfectly.”