Captain Mobux eyed Big Bear, not with fury for killing his men, but anticipation. Fiends didn't mind other Fiends dying. It was part of the cycle. A dead Fiend wasn't really dead. They would be reborn into Fiend Stones.
Aside from this, Captain Mobux just felt his men were useless. How could they call themselves elite fighters of the Fiend army while falling almost instantly before one cultivator? Captain Mobux watched all five battles, he even observed Big Bear tossing armor and weapons out to the elites of the Dragon army. None of this bothered him. The conquest of the Dragon Empire by the Fiendish Forces was a given in his mind.
Although he understood why his men lost to this Bear Man, he didn't feel he observed anything overly remarkable. At the very least, he didn't feel threatened. Besides, when was the last time he had a good fight?
Captain Mobux was a silver level Fiend Stone when he was found. When the Great Fiend freed him, Mobux began at the Void King level. Quickly, Captain Mobux worked his way up through the ranks over the last few months until no one except for the Great Fiend was a match for him. He did all of this by cultivating and fighting. He didn't need to consume other Fiends to grow stronger.
It was his belief the shortcut of consuming other Fiends was of use at the Fiend's beginning. However, later, Fiends found their potential cut short. It was better to rely on yourself. Consuming a soul was like devouring all the impurities of the soul. This polluted your own soul and in order to advance enough to ascend; it was necessary to purify your soul first. The purification process took far more time than building your strength step by step.
He wasn't as powerful as the Great Fiend but that was because the Great Fiend was a descender, a being of higher cultivation who descended to a lower realm. Descenders were at the absolute peak of the lower realm, but their cultivation would always be constrained to the maximum allowed in the lower plane.
The reason for this was simply if more power were used a disastrous event could occur where the power of the lower realm reached a point the entire realm might try to ascend. Realms could not ascend. It was impossible. The result of such a forced ascension would be nothing less than the utter destruction of that realm. Therefore, descenders were naturally constrained. If they exceeded their constraints, they would be violently expelled from the realm.
Looking at Big Bear, Captain Mobux smiled savagely.
"I guess you're strong enough to fight me. Although, I don't think you'll last long," said the Fiend.
"We should fight," said Big Bear. When he was fighting he wasn't one for talking. He didn't think life and death battles should be conducted with anything other than the most serious demeanor. The reason he felt this way was simple. If he got killed as a result of not taking his battle seriously, who could he blame?
Captain Mobux smiled and immediately launched himself at Big Bear. As soon as he drew close enough to Big Bear, Captain Mobux threw a right cross. Big Bear dodged back, drawing his massive sword from the ground as he traveled back. Captain Mobux accelerated beyond Big Bear's speed arriving behind him.
Captain Mobux was bigger than Tillo but smaller than Big Bear. His blue gold and silver armor wrapped around his chest. There were six broken life crystals decorating his chest armor. The Captain's shoulders had no armor as the Captain felt constrained when fighting with shoulder armor. He wore bracers on each arm, black pants and armored boots. That was it for his outfit.
Waiting for Big Bear to arrive, Captain Mobux sneered as he shot out several devastating punches towards Big Bear. Big Bear used his sword to block the punches coming from in front of him. It was amazing how quickly Big Bear moved his sword. The sword was huge, almost as big as Big Bear himself, yet he swung it around like it was a piece of bamboo.
Captain Mobux didn't use a weapon himself as he kept punching with his fists. Every time Big Bear blocked, Captain Mobux grinned and laughed. It was like he was going crazy. It turned out this Captain Mobux was battle crazy. His life had no meaning if he weren't reaping the lives of other strong opponents.
As Big Bear fought, he wondered how such a person could ever serve under anyone else. As a battle maniac wouldn't he just challenge his boss over and over? It didn't matter, and Big Bear was too focused on the battle at hand to worry about it too much.
Big Bear did something unusual in his battle against Captain Mobux, he put away his sword. Next, he took out weapons from the kamikaze series of weapons. Big Bear would take out a weapon and it was blocked or hit by Captain Mobux. After hitting Captain Mobux with his weapon, Big Bear dropped it and took out another weapon and attacked with it.
Very quickly, the entire battlefield was filled with Big Bear's discarded weapons. Captain Mobux was confused by Big Bear's wasteful actions, but maybe a blacksmith as accomplished as Big Bear didn't mind being wasteful? He did throw out all those weapons to the Dragon elite forces earlier.
Just as Captain Mobux was finishing his thoughts, Big Bear suddenly accelerated away from him. Making a few hand signs, Big Bear clapped his palms together. After clapping his palms, all the discarded weapons on the battlefield rose through the air and flew towards Captain Mobux.
At first, Captain Mobux swatted the weapons away, but after being knocked away the weapons flew back at Captain Mobux. Realizing these weapons were somehow able to track him, Captain Mobux sped off with the weapons chasing him.
During this chase, Big Bear took out a sniper rifle and took shots at Captain Mobux. The bullets of the rifle were compressed energy pellets with different effects. Some were made for penetration and others were to confuse the enemy.
Captain Mobux happily fended off all of the attacks. Seeing this, Big Bear frowned and removed his super beam bazooka. Firing the bazooka, Big Bear was sure it would land on Mobux. Seeing the large beam coming at him, Captain Mobux stopped. Laughing wildly, he waited for all of the weapons and the energy beam to attack him.
A huge explosion took place. At first, Big Bear thought he killed Captain Mobux, but after a few moments, the air around the exploded region cleared. Captain Mobux hovered in place with a mocking smile, surrounded by an energy bubble. All the of the weapons were destroyed and the bazooka's energy beam didn't even touch him.
Big Bear wasn't too surprised, even if he was frustrated. From the very beginning, he knew this guy would be his toughest opponent. Big Bear wasn't out of options, but he had hoped to finish this Fiend off so he could continue lending his support to the Grand Dragon Army.
Big Bear let out a frustrated blast from his nostrils. This guy liked fighting barehanded, Big Bear didn't mind fighting that way either. Big Bear dashed once more towards Captain Mobux who calmly waited for Big Bear.
The two warriors engaged in melee combat. Both warriors threw numerous punches. Their blows and kicks were moving so fast at times it looked like their limbs disappeared. The two increased their speed and clashed at speeds making them invisible to others. Even fighters like the Dragon Emperor and Kal who were at the Ascended Immortal level had trouble following their battle. They were too fast. Who knew a man of Big Bear's size could move so swiftly?
Booms were heard over and over again as Captain Mobux and Big Bear traded blows. After several minutes of intense fighting, a form suddenly appeared and crashed into the ground. After the dust cleared everyone could see the one who lost the fight was Big Bear! He laid on the ground with blood all over his body. The remains of his armor hung broken on parts of his body. Some of his armor was completely gone.
Big Bear got up, wiped the blood off of his face and dusted himself off. Big Bear had a very serious look on his face.
Captain Mobux slowly landed while smiling.
"Not bad, you've lasted longer than I thought you would. You really are well trained. Given more time I'm sure you would become a formidable threat." Captain Mobux said with a laugh.
"Tell me, how does a battle maniac like you let himself get ordered around by someone else?" asked Big Bear in a bid to buy a little time.
"Take orders? What's the big deal if I take orders? If I fought the Great Fiend at my level it would be an instant defeat. What's interesting about me getting immediately defeated? What could I learn from that? Besides, among Fiends, if you challenge another you are putting your life up as a stake. I can't get stronger if I'm dead.
I prefer fighting challenging warriors on par with me if not a little stronger. You're a bit weaker than me but you're still pretty strong. I estimate you're probably the second strongest in this realm if you ignore the descenders like the Great Fiend and the guy in the hidden universe." Captain Mobux said.
"Second strongest? That's true, but the strongest isn't you. I think you're more like the third strongest," said Big Bear.
"Third? You think you're stronger than me?" Captain Mobux asked surprised. Who was bloodied and barely holding on? It wasn't him. How could this guy think he was stronger than Captain Mobux?
"I'm not stronger than you at this moment, but there's a trick I can do to make myself stronger than you," said Big Bear.
After speaking an immense power began to rise within Big Bear. The energy became so intense the light energy it produced was almost blinding. Everyone, even Captain Mobux had to shut their eyes. The light exploded until a glowing form was revealed.
"Still think you're stronger than me?"