Seeing the approaching palm, Vital Orange grew much focused. He ignored the sweat threatening to enter his eyes and tilted his head to avoid the palm. He could feel the power of the palm even when it had bypassed him. The sheer force behind the attack had crashed into the ground behind him and flattened the earth there by a few inches. Mane smiled in appreciation seeing his palm strike avoided. He stopped his forceful strike and slapped downwards. Although Vital Orange had avoided the blow, he was only able to move his head out of the way and his body was still very much in range. So Mane slapped towards the exposed shoulder of Vital Orange.
Vital Orange smiled bitterly seeing Mane's move. There was no way he would be able to avoid this blow. But he didn't need to. Mane halted his attack voluntarily and struck his palms towards his back whilst kicking Vital Orange in the stomach and turning to confront the sneak attack.
*Bang*
Vital Orange was flung several meters away, but the blow wasn't filled with power and he remained fit and prime for battle. Mane held the dagger that was aimed at his shoulder in his hands. His lips were stretched into a smile filled with appreciation. The blade was coated with poison. Although the poison wasn't deadly, it could temporarily paralyze an opponent. It was perfect for friendly duels like this one. Once a person was cut and the poison entered their bloodstream, they could only wait for the state of paralyses to take effect. Fortunately, Mane was uncut and hence safe. The dagger was thrown with a lot of force, the kind of force beyond the abilities of a Thrasher. This was the work of Black Hand
"There!" Mane smiled and dashed towards the place the blade came from. The nature of the field was detrimental to assassins since there was very little space to hide. Ideally, Black Hand would have quickly changed his position after his sneak attack failed, but the lack of hiding places meant that he had to be successful or he would be found out.
Mane quickly reached the spot and saw the outline of a figure crouched into the ground. Without wasting any time, he struck his palm towards the figure.
*Boom*
"A dummy? Interesting" Mane smiled. The figure he saw was nothing but a dummy. Black Hand had already retreated.
*poof*
Smoke started to come out of the broken figure of the dummy, and Mane smiled again in appreciation. This was a smoke bomb triggered dummy. The dummy was filled with sleeping gas that clouded the senses and disoriented a person once it was breathed in.
"If he caught my blade he must have cut himself. It was coated in paralyzing poison. Added to the Sense Disorienting Gas, he must be incapable of telling right from left right now. Use everything you've got and dal with him. Now!" Mane could hear Black Hand's voice. It was only a few meters away. Holding his breath, Mane dropped to his knees, and the figure of Mane on his knees could be seen by those outside the range of the smoke bomb.
Vital Orange quickly wore the smoke mask he had been given. It was a crudely made cloth that covered the mouth and nose. It didn't block the smoke completely, but it did the job and blocked over 70% of it. And that was enough since Mane had fallen. Or so they thought.
Vital Orange summoned every bit of strength in his body and screamed in rage. The power of his roar shook the ears of those who were watching, and even they marveled at the strong aura that swirled around the angry Tiger. Once his aura of power had taken form, Vital Orange rushed into the smoke and smashed down with his axe. The furious power of a Tiger was fully unleashed as his axe howled in excitement of the victory that was to come. The large man's power was ferocious, and it wasn't easy to handle. His aura took form, creating a large tiger and cloaking him within it. Yet no one could see this. At least, no ordinary person could see this. Luckily, there were a few unordinary folks around. Mane was one of them. He could sense the change in Vital Orange's aura even without seeing him. It was the benefit of being a Scholar. Ivor could also feel it.
"That's why they call them Tigers," Ivor smirked and mumbled. Sadly, those around him – Lam, Lily, and Tucker – didn't understand what he meant for they couldn't feel anything. They could tell that Vital Orange's aura had gotten far more ferocious, but they couldn't see past that.
"If he's able to control the power of a Tiger fully, he would grow much stronger," Ivor smiled and said to himself. The names that Oracles gave to fighters weren't baseless. The fighting style one grew accustomed to, was the seed that would grow into one's aura. Cheetahs were called Cheetahs because their auras were shaped into the aura of a Cheetah once they reached the peak of their power. The same went for Snakes, Mongooses, Tigers, and the rarer fighters like Lions, Falcons and Eagles. The only predators who didn't have their auras shaped like that of an animal were Predators with uncommon titles. Such people had their own paths and even Oracles could not see the shape of their auras distinctly.
The last special person on the field was Hildegarde. She had a serious expression on her face as she watched the battle unfold. She wasn't really worried about Black Hand and Orange Ivy. They used hidden weapons and were masters of poison and concealment, especially Black Hand who was a Snake. But because it was just a friendly spar, they couldn't use their deadly poisons and traps and had to resort to using mildly paralyzing agents. Even with these agents, only poison gases contained in smoke bombs would be effective since Mane's body was near impenetrable. When Mane broke into the Earth Realm, he learned how to cloak his body with Inner Energy to protect his body from attacks. Although the Earth Realm Cloak was like a baby's shield when compared to the Heaven Realm Cloak, it was pretty effective in fending off attacks from weaker opponents. But Mane hadn't recovered his powers fully, and couldn't use an inner energy cloak. He was still only at the 3rd Stage of the Profound Realm, and it was going to take some time for him to break into the Earth Realm once again. This was going to be especially difficult since this world seemed to have a restriction on the Earth Realm and made it almost impossible to enter the realm of Earth Wielders.
So one may wonder how Mane was able to grab the blade Black Hand threw at him without injuring himself. After all, that was a blade thrown with the full force of a Predator who was in the higher stages of the Profound Realm. Mane couldn't accurately tell Black Hand's power level without True Eyes, and even the Status function would only provide physical attributes of targets and not their wielding level. But Mane reckoned from past experiences that Black Hand was around the 7th or 8th level of the Profound Realm. Yet Mane had been able to stop his dagger without cutting himself.
While it was true that Mane's battle prowess was beyond his Edict level, his skin was not impervious to blades and weapons. And without the inner energy cloaking ability at his disposal, it was only logical that he would have been cut by Black Hand's blade and the paralyzing poison would have entered his bloodstream. Yet it didn't. This was benefit of Enlightenment. Mane's Enlightenment merged his inner and outer energy together, and made him much stronger. Although inner energy was stored inside the body, outer energy focused on protecting the body from the outside. When the two merged, Mane had gotten stronger. So now whenever he moved Edict through his body, his skin, bones and muscles all got several times stronger! So right now the only way to breach his defense was by having someone vastly stronger than him like Dan or Ivor do so. Or one could also attack so swiftly that Mane wouldn't have the time to mobilize the Edict in his body to defend himself. But that itself was a tall task.
"Although he's only at the 9th Stage of the Profound Realm, his battle prowess is similar to someone at the 3rd Stage of the Earth Realm. And that was just when he was using the axe. But now it's different. With that ferocious Tiger aura covering him, I feel that even 4th Stage Earth Realmers would be helpless against him. The people of this world are really not simple. Truly a world worthy of being the testing ground for a tested hoping to succeed at the Chaos difficulty level"
Hildegarde furrowed her brows as she watched the Tiger clad Vital Orange rushing towards the kneeling Mane. It seemed that this world was far from ordinary, and understanding it was going to be a difficult task.
"However, it is unfortunate that your opponent is Mane. He who has walked countless battlefields and left many orphaned, widowed, and childless. You face one who is regarded as a Death God by many. And even if he's controlling himself, he still is a dangerous weapon. For even a dull blade can cut if used with enough force."
*Bang*