A 2% success rate of combining inner and outer energy. It was small, but it was better than nothing. This was the reason why Mane was so much stronger what the Possessed expected. Immediately the fight started, Mane tried to mix the two energies together. After he entered the above-mortal realm in body wielding, his control shot through the roof. Now it was just a matter of training harder and increasing his body's tolerance for outer energy. Mane was very lucky. He succeeded in combining the two energies only after his first try. For something with a 2% success rate, this was extremely lucky. But he couldn't sustain this state for long. He could only use it for 5 minutes at most.
Mane dashed towards the retreating Possessed and swiped powerfully with his sword. The Possessed had calmed down greatly. It calmly deflected the sword with the rod.
*Clink*
The force of Mane's strike forced it backwards by a few feet. But this time the Possessed was prepared to retreat. Upon moving back, it flipped and jumped to the right to avoid Mane's subsequent blade attack.
*chi*
The blade light traveled quite far and cut through a large tree like a pair of scissors cutting through a sheet of paper. The tree fell with a mighty thud, causing Dominic to turn and look at it.
"Interesting" with his face covered up it was difficult to tell what he was thinking, but his exposed eyes displayed his surprise. "Only at the 1st stage of the earth realm yet he has such terrifying battle power. I wonder which old coot this is" Dominic thought to himself.
He assumed that Mane and his friends were very old characters who chanced upon the secret of wielding ages ago and practiced to this level. He believed his assumption was right because all members of the Silver Wolves were shorter than average. But Dominic didn't think this was because they were teenagers, but rather assumed they were old freaks who had gradually grown shorter as they grew older. He assumed wrongly, but he couldn't really be blamed since no Zandorian in their right minds would assume Mane and the others (with the exception of Selina and Frederick) were kids. Also the fact that there was a Master Artificer amongst them made him feel his assumption was correct. This was because to become a Master Artificer required a ton of experience – experience that children didn't usually have.
Mane observed the retreating Possessed and activated some of his strongest techniques after it moved several meters away
"Prideful Sword: Dance of the Half-Moon"
"Bloodied Blade: Crazed Cut of the Blade King"
The Possessed also sent forth one of its strongest moves
"Rod Arts: Flying Rod"
It threw the rod towards Mane after it announced the name of its technique and Mane watched dumfounded as the rod grew larger and larger.
"It can already use techniques? You must kill it here and now. It cannot be allowed to grow any further" 1st told Mane. If Abe saw what was going on, he would have been very surprised. After all, the technique the Possessed used was the same one he faced before his opponent became a Possessed.
Sword lights and blade lights clashed with the huge rod and produced a deafening sound.
*Boom*
Seeing that the rod was still right on course, Mane used another technique. "4 Way Cut: Perfect Square"
The rod was large, so this technique was just right.
*Boom*
The rod had four more cracks on it from the attack. Although it had slowed down considerably and had several large cracks on it, it was still moving towards him. Mane put away his weapons and donned a pair of black gloves. Recently he had reached a bottleneck in his sword and blade arts. Most of the strong attacks required much more inner energy than he could currently muster, so he couldn't use them. His fists were better for such a fight than his swords. After all, no matter how many times he could slice this particular opponent apart, it would still stand up. The heavy rod brought a huge gust of wind along with it and blew Mane's cloak back, revealing his hair. His hair and eyes turned crimson and a black aura engulfed his entire being. He had activated Takeover. He would have loved to use Absolute Darkness because with it he could just walk through the attack without any trouble; but, Abe and the others (Selina and Frederick) were behind him. He had to protect them.
"Celeritas"
"Viribus"
"Vitae"
"Brimstone"
Mane casted a speed lease, a strength lease, and a vitality lease. Finally, he also activated Brimstone.
"It has gotten smarter" 3rd remarked and Mane agreed. It used such a careless technique and deprived itself of its weapon because it was confident that Mane would have to meet it head-on to protect his friends.
"But not smart enough" Mane smirked. Throwing away its weapon and using such a technique would be costly even for a Possessed. And Mane planned to take advantage of it – with the help of the twins.
*Boom*
A deafening sound was heard from across the battlefield and a smirk graced Mane's lips. He knew what that was.
"Huu (Who)?" the Possessed angrily grit its teeth as it looked around vigilantly for the one who attacked it. There was a small burn on the side of its face and its jaw was broken. This was why it couldn't speak properly. It couldn't see anyone and didn't know where the attack came from. But before it could even heal completely it was struck again. The first time he was struck by a fire arrow. This time it was a water arrow. The attacks were only a second apart.
*BAM*
The water arrow hit the same spot as the fire arrow and caused the healing jaw to break once again. The strange thing was that the Possessed saw the arrow coming at the last minute; it couldn't tell where it came from. It scanned its surroundings and realised that the twins weren't there any longer. "It can't be" it thought. "Those two are weak". It had easily dealt with their attacks before this. So how did their power suddenly become much greater?
"Those two are archers? They are good. And when did they disappear. Even I didn't see when they left" Dominic was impressed. But he was more impressed by Mane. He witnessed the process whereby Mane just kept activating techniques.
"How can someone possess so much power" Dominic watched gob smacked as Mane activated technique after technique. Greed surfaced in his eyes as he witnessed this. "If I could capture him and interrogate him, he would pass them all to me" he didn't believe that Mane was using glows. He was in the Heaven Realm and had only 3 glows. How could an earth realmer have more? He assumed that Mane had several techniques that allowed him to boost his strength and planned to get them for himself. Unfortunately, he was wrong again.
Although this was a long narrative, it took only a couple of seconds and the rod hadn't struck Mane yet. Mane snickered as the Possessed was bruised and distracted by the twins and activated Star Flicker. He dashed towards the rod and bellowed.
"Splintering Fist!" Mane had finally grasped the concept of his father's technique. He wasn't at his father's level yet, but it was enough.
*Booom*
Mane's fist met the rod in a comical fashion, for the young boy looked so tiny in the presence of the much larger rod. But his size mattered little because the imposing rod was sent flying back to its master.
The Possessed watched wide-eyed as the rod flew back to it at a much greater pace. Not only was the returning rod faster, it was also engulfed in flames. The Possessed felt it had experienced something like this before, but it couldn't remember when. And how would it? After all, it died to this very same attack when it was still a man.
It decided to duck out of the way but was stopped by two arrows – a fire and water arrow. They struck both of its knees and exploded upon impact, tearing a large portion of its flesh and almost breaking its legs into two.
"Ahh" It groaned in pain. Although it had great regeneration abilities, the rod would definitely get here before it was healed. It wouldn't die, but the pain would linger within its body and mind for a long time. It grit its teeth and prepared for impact.
*BOOM*
The rod crashed into it and sent it flying for several meters. The rod crashed into several trees with the Possessed at its end, before it finally came to a stop.
"Strong" Dominic praised; but he wasn't concerned. The Possessed was immortal as long as its core wasn't destroyed.
After almost half a minute, the voice of the Possessed could be heard again. "Return" the huge rod returned to its normal size and was grasped by the furious Possessed. Its eerie eyes looked more terrifying than before and it gnashed its teeth loudly. It was mostly healed except for its abdomen which was still flattened. Gradually the abdomen filled up and regained its former size.
"Why does it look so furious?" a voice asked Mane. "Hehe. It wanted revenge yet we beat it up so badly. Of course it is mad" Mane replied.
"Looks like I missed something impressive" the voice sounded again.
"It's not like it is over Abe. It would be much harder now. Did you find it?" that voice belonged to Abe. The young prince was done with his investigation.
"Yep" Abe replied. "And I marked it so I can monitor it. Even if it moves we would still find it" he continued.
"I had no idea you could do that" Mane was surprised.
"Master taught me after we returned the first time" Alexis taught Abe this method when she heard about their tryst with a Possessed. Hearing that Mane was the main fighting force, she taught Abe the skill. It was a skill that allowed Abe to mark the core and monitor it. It was a difficult skill to grasp yet Abe had done so after only a few weeks.
"You have to teach me later" Mane requested. He could ask his mom, but he had no idea when she would return to Neces.
"Sure" Abe shrugged
"Let's go" Mane said and dashed towards the Possessed. He still had 3 minutes left before the energy merging ended. Abe nodded and did same. The true fight was just beginning, and with talented archers hidden in the shadows assisting them, Abe and Mane were more assured.