Golden Row's face sank.
In an elementary battle, Qi essence acts as fuel and catalyst for elemental Qi.
Therefore, someone with low elemental mastery can't overpower someone with medium elemental mastery, at least if they both are within the same great realm.
Now, facing Noire, he doesn't have the enthusiasm to call himself the top fighter on the Ether floor.
'Why would I worry about that now?! First I should come out alive!'
Golden Row thought with a bitter expression.
He knew using elemental skills belonging to low mastery is a waste of Qi essence at this point so he must change his plans.
Slowly retracing the violent torrents of winds back into his blade, he began to reverse the channeling to re-supply whatever possible from wind Qi back into Qi essence into the dantian.
On the other side, Noire abruptly opened his eyes with a glimmer of enlightenment.
It appeared to be slow-motion, but it was hard to tell as the cocoon began converting into a deep crimson glow, the space itself around Noire began to distort and appear illusory as waves of heat began to radiate outwards.
By his feet, chaotic flickers of flames began to seep through the concrete.
BOOM!
With a deafening roar, a pillar of flames began to spiral outwards with Noire at its center.
However, the Phoenix didn't see a pillar, but it saw a raging dragon with an explosive might leaping along the pillar that smashed into the transparent barrier from within.
The entire colosseum buzzed as the pillar turned into fluorescent, revealing Noire.
He stood there like an Emperor Of Flames.
Wisps of crimson flames began to flicker within his translucent aura, and it then began to seep and entangle the spear which appeared in his right grasp god knows when.
The Phoenix watching couldn't help but screech in excitement and flap its wings.
The elders and the representatives of higher forces had solemn expressions as they scrutinized Noire's stalwart figure, all of them had a somewhat similar line of thought.
'A spear as a weapon?'
"Hmm... Why would he settle on spearmanship? Obviously, swordsmanship is better."
The art of the spear is often frowned upon because handling a spear requires higher accuracy and percussion than the sword.
Unlike the sword, a spear has a single lethal point of concentration, the shaft.
In a life or death battle, one wants to be as affirmative of victory as possible.
The sword is the perfect embodiment of that.
So when someone chooses the path of spearmanship, they seldom find suitable masters that had reached the pinnacle of this dao.
What they didn't know is, during his life in the 6th dimension, Noire studied The Way of Spear under the guidance of the Silver Eclipse Tribe.
One of the pinnacle forces other than the Grand Celestial Palace.
Now, although both his body tempering and cultivation base are insufficient to display their skills, he at least has what it takes to tame a spear.
'If I can progress my Fire Qi to the point where I can assimilate it with my other skills... Or perhaps use the fire to form an Ethereal embodiment of my real dragon body...'
The thought itself gave Noire wet dreams. No wonder Dragons are forbidden from cultivation in the 6th dimension, the Dragon race won't be far from omnipotence like that.
With a resolute determination, Noire turned back towards Golden Row who finished the gathering of his Qi essence.
Golden Row doesn't know why, but he can imagine a sadistic grin behind Noire's mask. His face instantly paled.
Step~
Step~
Step~
Noire began taking gentle, casual steps towards Golden Row.
With each step, the flames around his frame would further submerge with the Qi essence and consolidate from an ethereal-like substance to a translucent hue, even from the distance of dozen meters, Golden Row could feel the oxygen in his lungs combusting.
His throat was so dry he couldn't even beg for mercy. Even if he could, he knew it's futile.
"Che... HUAAAAA!"
Resisting his urges, Golden Row exploded his cultivation base to the brim, Qi essence surging like a tide from his body as he withdrew his broad sword from the concrete and dashed forward to strike Noire.
With a broad diagonal swing, Golden Row aimed the sword with a devastating might to cleave Noire from his left shoulder blade downwards.
CLANG!
His swing collided against Noire's spear which was postured in a vertical arc, allowing the force to distribute along with the weapon and the aura which encased it.
Noire wasn't in the mood to toy around as he needed to explore the mystery of cultivation, his interest and expectations soaring through new heights.
Thus, without letting go of the spear which seemed to cling onto Golden Row's blade for a brief moment, Noire depleted his entire cultivation base, Qi essence, and Fire Qi into his right heel before launching a devastating kick at Golden Row's center of gravity.
Bang!
Swooosh!
Golden Row was launched like a meteor with his body convulsing and back arching outwards.
Slam!
He found himself blasting against the concrete walls of the colosseum with darkened vision due to the excessive abuse of Qi essence over two moves.
Once his eyesight brightened, he noticed the tip of a spear zooming into his field of vision.
!!!
BOOM!
The spear's shaft nestled between his eyebrows, a scorching flare erupted to flood his windpipe towards whatever oxygen he had in his lungs after his head exploded into a paste.
Then, like a chain reaction, his entire body exploded like fireworks.
"..."
"Am I dreaming?... SOMEONE TELL ME I AM DREAMING! FUCK! SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT JUST HAPPENED!"
The entire colosseum was dead silent.
The commentator had to look around him frantically to remember he wasn't alone.
Alas, the eerie silence was too good to be true.
Everyone had complicated expressions and chaotic thoughts, they seemed to forget about Lady Feng's pride whatsoever.
Only one word echoed through their minds.
'Monster.'
'Absolute Monster.'
In the dorm, silence descended onto the room as well.
Only the phoenix continued to flap her wings in excitement. Of course, she is a baby phoenix, after all, it's to be expected.
Feng's friends felt embarrassed at their remarks and they each eyed each other to make a silent promise to not let anyone know of their vulgar behavior.
In another dorm room, a building that hosted the core members of the Four Seasons Flaming Paradox faction, a muscular woman with wolven features like pointy ears and a thick gray tail.
She sat crossed legs as she eyed the projection from the screen.
Her enthusiasm sky-rocketed the moment she saw Noire's breakthrough. When her junior brothers and sisters made the call for her, she didn't believe it at first.
Now...
Her peculiar pupils that resembled a slit expanded, her muscular physique seemed to bump with adrenaline as clusters of fire began to erupt from tan skin.
With a wide grin that revealed her set of fangs, she clutched her digits onto her black high heel boots as she spoke in a domineering tone.
"We must obtain him, at any cost!"