The power accumulated inside King would make turns in a cycle and then go out. He was capable of doing so thanks to years of training in his martial arts style and a level of control over his body and mainly his Astral Energy that Mares lacked. But the silver-eyed had something else that King lacked.
After all the air rings were rings and could represent a cycle. Modifications would be necessary but Mares could use them as a reference to do a similar motion in his interior energy, like King.
'That will be too hard with your poor control. I will do it.'
'Figured. Your help will be very much appreciated little bunny.'
While taking King's attacks, the two worked together and were just as flawless as ever.
What they were trying to do was simple in theory and practice. The very base of the air ring technique is to circulate Astral Energy before making it run fast enough to create enough air pressure to cut. All they needed to make use of was the first part.
To create the ring of energy inside oneself using that technique was actually quite simple, the complications would come when adapting to allow to replicate King's martial arts. However, Mares' abysmal lack of control over his Astral Energy would become a nuisance, so Esen would take over the process while Mares focused on what he could do.
If control over Astral Energy were compared to water, Mares would be a desert with a few oases and Esen be a calm ocean. She had a precision, finesse, and a talent to control it that belonged to very few.
With a just thought, a cycle formed in Mares' interior energy, and Esen was prepared to modify it and would be able to do so with ease.
King's attacks stopped as he felt a change in Mares. His frown grew as his honed instincts felt the danger increasing.
"What did you do?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
For the first time since they started, he could feel Mares mocking him.
The two took back their stances with the silver-eyed acting like King's mirror. The feeling that something was off never left King so he waited, seeing what Mares had planned, however, the silver-eyed never moved, just kept waiting keeping the same stance.
They stayed like that until King ran out of patience thinking that he had become unnecessarily paranoid. He moved his body around in a huge circular motion and punched.
Mares reacted meeting that attack with his punch, once more succeeding to absorb it. In his internal energy, from his right hand, the one he received the attack with, through his arm, chest, left arm, and hand, there were various cycles connected and in circulation, all under Esen's control.
The energy of King's strike went through one cycle to the other and so on until it went through all of them, getting stronger through every single one. And as Mares repeated King's strike, punching with his left arm, he also added repulsion to it. With all of that, the attack was ten or more times stronger.
If King's punch was a bullet, Mares' was a canon. The pure pressure of the strike made a loud explosive noise that traveled through the Colosseum, made dust rise, and traveled too fast for King to properly react.
The man who belonged to the rank of six thousand only understood something had gone wrong when he no longer could see with his left eye and felt blood dripping from it. Slowly he raised his remaining arm to it, feeling the cracks that had formed in his scales and that his sight had been definitely lost.
"How?"
But none of that was of his concern.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
Mares replied, and this time King was sure the silver-eyed had a smug smile behind his mask.
"Impossible!"
The shock King felt was shared by everyone witnessing that fight. Those who knew his abilities came from Martial Arts were just as shocked and confused, not managing to wrap their heads around understanding how Mares just copied him. And even those who didn't know about his martial arts were still shocked that suddenly Mares seemed to have copied what his opponent was doing before.
The two women in the top thirty and top three were no exception.
"How is that possible? He couldn't do that from the start, right? Did he just learn it?"
She looked at her boss looking for some guidance, hoping she would be able to figure something out.
"I am as clueless as you. Maybe an ocular technique is into play, but even so, it shouldn't allow him to copy how King uses his internal energy to release his attacks. Besides, King's counterattacks are an addition of his adversary's strength plus his, while Silver seems to have multiplied the power various times."
The woman on the top three said in deep thought. She just couldn't understand how out of nowhere Mares not only copied but also surpassed King's power.
"As soon as the opportunity arrives, you must contact him."
"Understood."
They wished to meet him to see what type of person he was even more now.
"He is too much of a threat."
"Hopefully King will deal with him soon."
"If not, the matter will fall in my hands."
At the same time, some would be impressed, some would also be wary of that strength. Any feeling that Mares would upset the balance established and threaten their positions and privileges was cemented in stone now.
"Holy fuck!"
"Elaso… when we met the boy you mentioned something. At the time we all scoffed at the idea, but now."
"Yeah. The only way I can make sense of this is from him being of the Ancient Races."
Those in his room were perhaps even more shocked than anyone else. Not about him holding his ground, since they expected that, but because even now Mares showed his capabilities to do something completely shocking.
"How very interesting…"
Even Talho
"This is… amazing."
And yet, all of their shock was just a fraction of what King himself was feeling. No one knew the time and effort he had put into his martial art, how much he trained and fought to perfect it. And now, in a battle that had barely made it through five cycles, his art had been copied and to a seemingly stronger state than he ever achieved.
"Hahahaha!"
He raised his head to the skies and started laughing loudly.
'I broke him?'
Raising an eyebrow, Mares watched intrigued.
"Huh… I dedicated my life to fighting. This place was always perfect for me. I honed everything I had here and you surpassed everything in a few moments." King started talking and Mares felt a new feeling coming from him, a sense of peace he had not shown before. "I always thought this place was perfect because I could fight and live in comfort, but now I know is perfect because it allowed me to fight you. Show me what you achieved with these arts you got from me!"
King demanded with a wild smile and stance ready for battle.
"As you wish."
King's movements now seemed more exaggerated however he was now faster and carried enough strength to move the air around him.
A punch came and Mares received it without an issue, passing it through the various cycles once more before using repulsion to counter-attack, causing the same effect as it had before.
In response, King caught the attack back, turned his body around, and punched back. However, his shortcomings were coming into play. His body could not handle the power that Mares added to the strikes, resulting in small and thin cracks forming in his scales. It was especially worse because of his lost arm and eyes. Even if he tried his injured arm to balance, the excessive power would only cause the arm to explode.
At first, they could be ignored, but as their attacks would add and multiply in strength, they would become exponentially worse.
Those thoughts didn't even cross King's head, too focused on the feeling of facing someone equally, in the literal sense, in power to him. He never felt more euphoric in his whole life.
'I wonder, is this what every martial artist seeks for? Even without knowing?'
At each strike Mares' movements would improve, get faster, and more precise, with fewer unnecessary details. The rings would also move faster every time a strike passed through them, so the next strike would have an even bigger increase in power.
It got to the point where their attacks had enough strength the pressure could be seen with the naked eye. And each time it passed through one of them it would increase in size.
The audience had once more fallen in silence, just watching in awe as the two gladiators struck at each other, using the same movements. It was a unique fight, the type of which they knew one would be able to witness something like it again during their lifetime, so no one dared to even blink or make a noise.
And then it happened.
Mares punched once more, the pressure forming the size of a small comet and moving at a speed that felt like one. King gritted his teeth and received the attack, coughing blood as soon as he did so. His arm started to break down, the cracks going to his chest and soon covering his whole body, breaking it apart like dust.
The ground below him broke apart in a huge crater, also not being able to handle the strength of that attack.
Mares' arms were numb, his muscles at muscles on the breaking of tearing. Even for him, that power took a huge toll.
"Huh… very well Silver."
Those were his last words, and with a satisfied smile, his head fell before also breaking apart like dust.
Silence filled the whole Colosseum.
The silver-eyed moved, step by step, until he reached his multi-weapon, and then, in its sword form, he pierced it through the ground.
The Colosseum loudly cheered with all they had.